Calling Leslie/Dana or even Hayley irredeemable was a poor choice of words on my part, especially because I didn't mean it from a moral standpoint. I'm certainly not saying the characters need to die or go to prison in order for their stories to reach a conclusion that would satisfy me. What I meant was that anyone who is capable of doing what they've already done, especially in such cold and calculating ways, is not going to stop. If anything, they would further escalate, and they're both so self-destructive in different ways that they eventually they would trip up. My issue is that the show seems to be trying to delay and/or prevent that by reducing them to this broad/bumbling "comic relief" material, but in the process we're being deprived of actual story payoff.
It sounds like we're in agreement about Hayley, so I'll limit this to Leslie/Dana. I think there is more pathos there, and certainly more emotional reasons for why she does what she does that we could explore for at least a year or two (certainly for however long soap contracts are now). I'm not sure of the logistics but I could also see her coming and going on a recurring basis like a James Stenbeck or Carl Hutchins, especially now that she has the resources to fake her death, etc.
To play devil's advocate, I could even argue that maybe there is an aspect to her character where she would draw the line at going after someone like Laura, whom she looks down upon, while she might tread more lightly with someone like Nicole or Anita out of self-preservation. And that could realistically extend her shelf life as a main cast member. But I'm not seeing that in how the character is written now - from my perspective, she's gone from dangerous to annoying for no reason other than so we can avoid dealing with the amazing drama the stage was all set for.
I wonder if TPTB's valid concern that you lifted about how Black characters are presented may also be related to to this. I meant what I said about crediting BTG with creating breakout roles for both these actresses. BITD the (almost exclusively white) up and coming performers who burst onto the soap scene as memorable villains could go out in an on-screen blaze of glory and try their luck at primetime or movies, and worst case probably resurface on one of the 10-15 other soaps. I'm not saying either MG or TMG could not go on to even greater success, or that anyone at the show thinks that. Far from it. I'm just recognizing that, especially because of what BTG represents, if a beloved cast member whose career the show helped launch/rejuvenate was written out for story reasons and subsequently got treated badly by the industry, that would really suck. There is no easy way around that, and I also hope this didn't come out wrong...
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DeliaIrisFan ·
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