Performer of the Week: Courtney Hope (Sally, Y&R)
When Sally found out her baby didn’t survive an emergency C-section, portrayer Courtney Hope brought her anguish to life with heartbreaking realism.
When Sally woke up post-op, she assumed that all was well, but Adam’s heaviness and evasiveness dimmed her brightness, and alarm flooded her body. Pressing Adam for info, Hope played Sally as caught between wanting to know — needing to know — what had happened to her baby, and equally terrified of what he might say. Her eyes haunted, her words came out in a tumble of denial as she clung to what, on some level, she knew were her final moments of hope. As his failure to offer her reassurance hung over the room, she went into panic mode, tears falling even before she screwed up the courage to whisper, “Are you telling me that our little girl … She’s not here?”
Sally’s pain was visceral as she lashed out at Adam and begged Elena for answers. Hope seemed at once intellectually aware of the psychology and physiology coursing through the situation — meaning, that her character was not only grieving but also on a hormonal roller coaster that affected her ability to regulate her emotions — but also to be working from a place of instinct, trusting in her own emotional connection to Sally to give herself over to the character’s suffering, disbelief and self-recrimination. Her tortured wails will ring in fans’ ears for a long time, but so, too, will the heartbreaking way she caressed tiny knitted items her baby would never get to wear and whimpered, “I’m so sorry that we don’t get the life that I promised you.”
What was perhaps most impressive about Hope’s raw, deeply felt work was how she sustained it over multiple episodes, building in peaks and valleys of sorrow, resignation, fury and sadness, turning Sally’s tragedy into an artistic triumph.
Thumbs Up!
DAYS OF OUR LIVES – Mayor Necessities
If anyone deserves a front-burner story on DAYS, it’s longtime vet James Reynolds (Abe). And a nifty one kicked off when Abe was clobbered over the head, woke up with amnesia and was abducted by his nutso nurse, Whitley, who persuaded him that she was his wife, Paulina. The plot has been packed with both comedic zaniness and heartfelt drama. Reynolds has been spot-on as an Abe trapped in Whitley’s strangely appointed apartment, eating fish sticks and watching old tapes of BODY & SOUL, unable to shake the feeling that something is off with Whitley’s story and trying to make sense of memory flashes of his real life, and Kim Coles was perfectly cast as oddball Whitley. Another high point has been the visits of fan favorites in Abe’s family — Lamon Archey’s Eli, Cameron Johnson’s Theo, Sal Stowers’s Lani; even Terrell Ransom, Jr. (ex-Theo) popped in as Jerry, the actor Whitley hired to impersonate Theo. They’ve all played a part in complicating or facilitating Abe’s ultimate rescue, and we look forward to the heartwarming moment when they, and Abe, get the miracle they’ve been praying for in the form of his safe return.
Thumbs Up!
BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL – Arrivederci, Roma
B&B certainly made the most of its trip to “the eternal city”, providing fireworks aplenty that changed the course of front-burner stories. Beyond the breathtaking views and spotlight on Rome’s immortal landmarks, the real takeaways were the surprise smooches between Thomas and Hope, and Liam and Steffy. The stage was perfectly set: As Hope’s secret fantasies about Thomas reached a fever pitch, Liam spontaneously boarded the Spencer jet to surprise her abroad. Liam tracked down his wife at the Colosseum just in time to see her gently take his nemesis’s face in her hands and plant one on him. A reeling, emotional Liam turned to Steffy, and revealed that his worst nightmare had come true, and as she took him in a comforting embrace, B&B had another surprise in store: Liam kissed Steffy, and her shocked expression mirrored our own. Liam then hightailed it back to the States and immediately confronted Hope upon her return, while Steffy played it cool with Finn, only blabbing to him about Hope and Thomas. What happened in Rome didn’t stay in Rome, and we couldn’t be more on board for the explosive fallout.
Thumbs Down!
GENERAL HOSPITAL – Heat Waive
After their epic adventure in Greenland, Spencer and Trina came home to a tragically stalled storyline. Fans waited a long time for them to finally be a couple and looked forward to a summer filled with romantic dates, flourishing intimacy and a generous dash of fun. Instead, Trina and Spencer’s courtship has been hijacked by third and fourth wheels: Esme and Ace. There’s a reason viewers often don’t want characters, especially young ones, “saddled” with kids: because parenting babies, while immensely rewarding in real life, does not make for particularly entertaining TV. Here, the show has made the odd choice to saddle Spencer with the rearing of a baby that isn’t even his. Ace is cute as a button, but episode after episode of Spencer and Esme tending to the tot and, it appears, growing closer in the process, feels forced. Simply put, Esme did Trina dirty in such a despicable way that her ongoing presence in “Sprina’s” storyline will never sit well with fans — amnesia be damned — leaving the duo’s devotees feeling let down
Applause, Applause – Lisa LoCicero (Olivia, GH) is nailing her character’s angst, hurt and frustration in the wake of Ned’s memory/identity loss; Mark Grossman (Adam, Y&R) also deserves kudos for his terrific performance during the loss of his character’s baby with Sally…. Loved the Abbott-centric episode on Y&R featuring Traci’s efforts to broker peace between Jack and Ashley and vintage flashbacks of the late Jerry Douglas (ex-John), and the intimate Andrea Bocelli concert B&B treated fans to…. Good on DAYS for its mention of Abe’s other son, Brandon, as the story of Abe’s “death” unfolds.
Picky, Picky – So, DAYS’s Talia was let off the hook for trashing Paulina’s office and poisoning the town via the biscuits because Melinda … was also a victim of emotional abuse? … “Mason is a very impatient man, and if he feels like we’re dragging our feet on this, he’s going to come up with some very creative ways to motivate us,” Austin warned Ava on GH. Are we supposed to believe that the same Mason who spent an entire year issuing vague threats without making good on them is now an urgent menace? … After that shocking Hope/Thomas kiss on B&B, it seemed odd that neither one of them acknowledged the gravity of what happened and instead, they went for an espresso.
SOD
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