This was the only soap scene I have ever turned off because I was uncomfortable/disgusted by it. It was not handled with an iota of sensitivity and it did not fit with the happy Jessica childhood that we saw play out where she was constantly surrounded by Clint, her brothers, Cord, Tina, Asa, Renee etc- there way no way she was hanging out in bars with Niki. If they wanted to give her DID, they should have played up that she started showing signs of having emotional issues when her baby died. The whole sexual abuse angle was absolutely offensive and unnecessary.

Having Clint and Vikki watching that tape was some of the grittiest scenes I have ever watched. It was painful. Not because the scenes were bad but because it was heartbreaking.

I wasn't surprised at the "retcon" of Jessica's childhood. They had already stripped her of her identity to give it to Natalie Balsom anyway...

I have pretty much hated Nick & Sharon and their storylines on Y&R from day 1 and use to scream and throw stuff at the TV when they are on. Joshua Morrow is a sucky actor and can't act his way out of a paper bag. Sharon Case drives me up the wall with her bawling. The writers insist on keeping them front burner and has for decades. I wish these two would just go.

Me too...always hated them together. I don't necessarily want them to leave the show. And for the past few years I have come to appreciate them more as a couple because of Phyllis and Nick..anything is better than them.

B&B

Any story where another female character (Taylor, Katie, Bridget, Ashley, Macy) is thrown under the bus to prop Brooke.

Hope/Liam/Steffy, and any similarly infuriating triangle.

Y&R

Pretty much everything written by Maria Arena Bell.

Edited June 18, 201312 yr by y&r_fan

Lori Jensen was a Spaulding intern who had been sleeping with Brad Green, an executive at the company. I believe Linda Cook popped up as Mama Jensen who hired Harley's Angels to find her missing daughter. This was a couple of years after the Chandra Levy story. Anyway, it looked like Brad had killed Lori, and I think Harley was convinced this was the case, but eventually Lori popped up and revealed she had set Brad up. This played out around mid-September until late October or early November. It wasn't a very long arc. Once Lori revealed she was alive, Lori disappeared again.

Brad stayed on during the investigation into Spaulding Pharmaceuticals, which I enjoyed but a lot of people hated. Springfield had a developed a drug scene and the Springfield PD believed there was a link between the street drug 'D'- delirium, a less than clever wordplay on ecstasy. Anyway, there was a mini mystery regarding who was supplying the street dealers with the high end Spaulding product. This all led into the revelation that Brad had once had an affair with Alexandra Spaulding and how he had blackmailed her into signing off on the transfer. This was the infamous 'Alexandra is a drug dealer' storyline even though she was really just blackmailed into signing some documents.

Antimonium may or may not have been connected to Delerium, but they definitely were playing out at the same time. Antimonium was Carrie Carrouthers drug of choice. I believe she provided some to Marah when she ended up shooting and 'killing' Carrie. Around the same time, Nico, Manny's ward, took a hit of D at the Conboy produced rave which ended with Danny scolding Lizzie for getting Nico high. Conboy was fired around this time and then the ratings really started to slide.

Thank you, dc. I had forgotten Lori was actually still alive, lol.

The un-abortion was so massively offensive to me as a pro-choice woman, and it was such an enormous violation of Erica's bodily integrity, which upset me even further because she was a rape survivor. If they wanted to bring Jeff Martin back to town, they could have brought him back and had him fall for Erica without the absurdity of an unabortion. Heck, they could have had Jeff and Erica talk about how she'd been raped at 14 and been forced to bear that child against her will, and retcon a bit and have her talk about how that affected her decision to terminate the pregnancy conceived with Jeff. Jeff still could have worked as a vehicle to break up Jack and Erica, but without the awfulness of the unabortion. There were so many better ways to give Erica a son.

Someone on this board -- forget who -- suggested awhile ago that Megan McTavish could have revealed Josh as Kendall's fraternal twin brother, and that neither Erica nor Mona knew about Josh's existence because he was born after Mona had already informed the doctor(s) of their decision not to keep Kendall. Given what actually played out on-screen, I think I would have accepted THIS explanation much more easily (and this is coming from someone who liked neither the Un-abortion NOR the initial Kendall ret-con).

Edited June 18, 201312 yr by Khan

One story comes to mind above all others for me: GH's Laurelton, perhaps the worst story I have ever seen on a soap. And then to compound the pain it lasted for what seemed like ten years. It just made no sense: A murder mystery set in the past, in another town, featuring characters who were not part of the cast. This is what Bobbie and Anna had to learn the secret about. Guza had seriously clunkers but Laurelton made no sense even at the concept stage, so it could not be saved by the execution.

I loved your description (at least, I THINK it was your description, qf, unless I'm mistaken?) of this story from way back: Terry Brock having flashbacks and crying fits, Bobbie yelling, "What IS it, Terry?", and Terry being afraid and unwilling to say. Over and over again. LOL.

Having Clint and Vikki watching that tape was some of the grittiest scenes I have ever watched. It was painful. Not because the scenes were bad but because it was heartbreaking.

I wasn't surprised at the "retcon" of Jessica's childhood. They had already stripped her of her identity to give it to Natalie Balsom anyway...

I've always wondered whether Clint and Viki watched those tapes of Jessica's sexual abuse without the Llanview PD's knowledge. Would the authorities have allowed the parents to endure that kind of torture?

Days-

Santo/Colleen. It was a bad story, for sure, but this story annoyed me so much I tuned out for the first time in my life. Ej and Sami as Santo and Colleen was terrible. half the canvas sitting around reading letters was a total bore. It really was just nother insane, dumb backplot to the dimera vs brady fued (that is really quite simple to explain) but hated it so, so much and looking back im just like eh.

Count me among those who didn't need a convoluted backstory to explain Stefano's vendetta against the Brady family. Roman, and later Bo, thwarted his initial attempts to control all of Salem. IMO, that's more than enough.

Moreover, to this day, I don't know why DAYS keeps avoiding the obvious -- that, in fact, John is most likely Stefano's son -- but this IS the show that refused to acknowledge Chill and their sizable fan-base, so....

Count me among those who didn't need a convoluted backstory to explain Stefano's vendetta against the Brady family. Roman, and later Bo, thwarted his initial attempts to control all of Salem. IMO, that's more than enough.

thats all the explanation needed. thats how it started, and everything done from that point on has kept it going.

I've always wondered whether Clint and Viki watched those tapes of Jessica's sexual abuse without the Llanview PD's knowledge. Would the authorities have allowed the parents to endure that kind of torture?

I don't see how authorities can stop a person from watching something they want to watch unless is illegal. But since that was technically "child porn", it was illegal to watch. But the authorities stopping them from watching it because it is torturous. I don't see why they would care.

Pretty much every story with EJ Dimera since December 2006. I hate EVERYTHING about that character and how he has taken over the canvas, and I really can't get past it.

This, only I don't think that it annoyed me more than it should have. My annoyance with it is justified. They took the child of my actual overannoyance, ED's Susan, and supersorased him. I vividly remember the scene where Susan suggested an Elvis/Will playdate and WILL WAS THE OLDER ONE!! Elvis' arrival in Salem in 2006 was designed to infuriate longtime fans and it succeeded.

Someone on this board -- forget who -- suggested awhile ago that Megan McTavish could have revealed Josh as Kendall's fraternal twin brother, and that neither Erica nor Mona knew about Josh's existence because he was born after Mona had already informed the doctor(s) of their decision not to keep Kendall. Given what actually played out on-screen, I think I would have accepted THIS explanation much more easily (and this is coming from someone who liked neither the Un-abortion NOR the initial Kendall ret-con).

I disliked the possibility of him being Kendall's twin, but I could have bought that because ultrasounds weren't done in the 60s (when Kendall was born before she was de-SORAS'ed) and because Erica was likely hysterical enough during labor that they knocked her out entirely. Plus, sad but true, it was not uncommon for twins to be split in an adoption back in the day.

Erica was off camera a few months for both of Susan's maternity leaves, and I could have accepted that she was pregnant with Tom's baby when she left town and gave it up in secret (although that would have made no sense because she would have used the baby to get him back). I could have accepted that her eggs were stolen when by Greg Madden when she was a patient at Oak Haven in 1975 after losing Phil's baby. Any of those options would have been preferable to the unabortion. And yes, I'm still annoyed by it all years later.

Honestly, as much as I loved Josh as Erica's son, my ideal story for him simply would have been to make him a maternal cousin. For a long time, I liked the idea of him as the long-lost Kane-Cudahy baby, but I vehemently dislike "forgot I was pregnant/hid my child for 25 years" storylines, so to have him as a cousin who arrives in Pine Valley as a shady figure that Erica learns to trust would have been perfect for me. Then they could have finally opened up Mona's side of the family for once.

Then they could have finally opened up Mona's side of the family for once.

That Mona and Eric both were apparently only children with no parents or relatives beyond their children and grandchildren always bothered me.