"No, really, they're better than you think!"

[Khan]

Don't get me wrong: I wasn't a fan of their relationship either. To me, pairing Babs w/ Casey, the hunky son of her oft-nemesis (Margo) who would have "blossomed" under her sophisticated wing, made more sense. I just feel like Jean Passanante and Chris Goutman built up her and Henry's romance in the laziest possible way. (It's like what I always say: I'll go along with just about anything you try and sell me, writers, but you have to take the time to get me there.)

[Khan]

IMO, that's indicative of Jean Passanante's biggest problem as a writer. She doesn't know how to evolve couples out of a relationship w/o suddenly showing one of them in the worst possible light. I still shudder over how AMC's Leo/Laura/Greenlee triangle ended.

[Khan]

Frankly, I don't think Trent Dawson had much romantic or sexual chemistry with anyone. Henry was just so asexual.

[Khan]

Off-topic, schmoff-topic. I say, as long as no one's feelings get hurt, who cares?

Cosgrove has the same problem as Cameron Mathison (Ryan, AMC): he's acting too much. Seriously.

I've heard Cosgrove is incredibly funny and charming off-camera; yet, whenever the little red light goes on, so to speak, all that charm and rich humor just drains away. And I think that would stop if he would just stop "acting," and just be himself. But that's just me.

[All My Shadows]

I think TD showed himself to play romance well once they got him out of just being Katie and Emily's go-to henchman. Him and Vienna, as reluctant as I was to like Vienna, were cute together and I was able to buy them as a couple. As far as Henry/Mike, my read-between-the-lines conclusion for them was that Mike knew damn well Henry was into him, and he got off on flirting with him and being a tease.

DC just plays such sexless characters, always the non-threatening type. The reason why I was able to eat crow on his return to AMC was because Scott wasn't the white knight he was under AM anymore, so he had an edge. DC's Chris was too earnest to be sexy, and with Katie? Fuhgeddaboudit. ESS as Reid had tons more sex appeal.

[AlexElizabeth]

He sure did. I loved him. He breathed new life into ATWT. He and Luke were hot together. I'm still mad that they killed him off.

[Marley]

I think Cosgrove's problem is that he is too much like himself and that there's not enough acting involved.

He relies on his humor and dimples a bit too much which really makes all his characters one and the same.

DC was great (and sexy) when he returned as Bill Lewis in 2007 because he still had the charm but they also darkened him up a whole lot and most importantly, he acted.

[quartermainefan]

This is why soap opera actors are not always real actors. Being yourself is not acting and that's what almost all the soap actors do, just play themselves. He might be the life of every party, but that doesn't make him a good actor.

[DRW50]

That's what most actors do now, period. Either play themselves or a false image of themselves. Smarmbuckets like Bradley Cooper and Ryan Reynolds or bores like Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston aren't getting by on talent.

[dragonflies]

She acts?

See though any GOOD ACTOR can overcome bad or dull writing and she can't and hasn't

[All My Shadows]

Totally unfair to single out soap actors for this when we've got Jennifer "I wish it was still the 90s" Aniston running around.

[quartermainefan]

Thats why I think Bradford Anderson on GH is so good. I know people hate his character, but he comes to work every day and does real character work, whereas everybody else shows up and talks normal, walks normal and just plays themselves for the most part.

[All My Shadows]

I'm not understanding this at all...so real acting is walking and talking differently?

[quartermainefan]

I don't really think about her and her clinging to ten year old divorces to get press. Jennifer Aniston I think the jury is in, and she has failed to become a real star. Now she is just a personality who stars in one bad movie after another strictly because she was once Mrs Brad Pitt. If she wasn't Mrs Pitt, no magazine would give her the time of day, let alone magazine covers.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Jennifer Aniston has never played any character but Rachel in everything she's appeared in. She's definitely an example of someone only playing herself and not knowing how to do anything else.