The Curse of the Selected Lobotomies
Okay, the biggest sin of a soap writer is contrived writing. Well, all soap stories are contrived in some way. But I'm talking really stupid coincidences, character 180s, and the like. It's just poor, lazy writing to constantly have a story moved with contrived moments. Soap writers seem to have a plot in mind and then try to change characters to fit their egomaniacal stories. Some headwriters are guiltier of this than others, Tom Langan, Megan McTavish, Hogan Sheffer, etc. One of the most used devices is the bimbo woman. Self-secure women like GH's Alexis becoming downright slutty to Sonny's "charm" or ATWT's vengeful and guarded Rosanna becoming Craig insecure concubine. But worse still is the most commonplace contrivance, selective intelligence.
It's like a virus that has infected every single soap town. It doesn't matter if they are lawyers, cops, former FBI agents, reporters, or reformed compulsive liars, now it seems writers make it easy on themselves when they writer a story of deception; they make the target an idiot. The most obvious example is on One Life to Live where Niki Smith is in control of Viki and yet, Gabrielle, Bo, Larry, Asa, and Jessica, all people who have experienced Viki's multiple personalities more then once, have NO idea this is Niki. Making it stupider, Niki's doing a horribly transparent job at pretending to be Viki. The whole town at the very least should be scratching their heads, wondering what the heck has happened to the woman. Instead Bo (who granted, lost his brain about three years ago), Asa, Gabrielle, and Jessica all seem absolutely clueless. To make it even sillier, Allison, who is conveniently locked up, figured out in five seconds that Viki, was Niki. So what, Allison, who only impersonated the woman with a wig, figured it out in five seconds, but Larry, who was her brother in law has no bloody idea? Yeah, whatever.
Or what about the angelic Rafe on Port Charles? Being mortal apparently also means being an absolute dufus to quote Alison. I mean let's be serious, Livvie has been a better liar before and Jack came into the show stupid. But I believe since Rafe practically saved the entire stinking town in "Miracles Happen", he was supposed to be brighter then Jack. Now, no memory, a bet between evil and good forces, and Rafe just becomes moron. If you ask me, his instinctual attraction to Alison aside, Livvie kept him prisoner for all intents and purposes. Okay, on the off chance he's so good and moral he wants to give his "wife" the benefit of the doubt, you can do that without staying in the house and making out with her, right? Hey, here's a thought, he should have gone to London with Lucy and Kevin (the only smart people on this show) to get his head on head straight.
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