All: Favorite/Least Favorite Triangles/Quadrangles?

[Faulkner]

Worst:

 

GH: The Michael/Willow/Chase Sasha couple swap is about bland and tasteless as skim milk. Hilariously, the same sex pairings would be far more compelling, but not happening.

[beebs]

Honestly, all it served to do was make Kayla super defensive at all times, Shane look gross, and make Kim look pathetic. I normally am okay with these kinds of triangles, but they rushed putting them together, and they made everyone extremely unsympathetic. Then when it was all over, the only lesson the show learned was that fans "wouldn't accept the supercouples being broken up", which I don't really think was the case so much as the fans didn't want to dislike characters they've spent years rooting for.

[DRW50]

Least:

 

Faith/Jill/Frank (RH) - A mistake from the start as Karen Morris Gowdy had no chemistry with Daniel Hugh Kelly (a recurring problem for Gowdy - she had more chemistry with the Coleridge wine cabinet than she did with any man they paired Faith with) and the story was simply lazy. Of course Frank would be drawn to Jill. Of course Faith would whine, cry, and let everyone know what a victim she was. They even rewrote Coleridge family history to try to make viewers feel sorry for her, suddenly claiming that Jill had been the darling of the family, when viewers had been told that due to the hostility of the Coleridge mother at Jill being brought into the house after her parents' death, Jill had always felt unloved. The nadir for me was when Faith lashed out at Jill as a "thing" that had come into their home. If Delia had ever said anything like that, all of Riverside would have lined up to slap her, Airplane! style. Faith, of course, got little more than a hurt reaction from Jill and nothing else. 

 

Kathleen/Cass/Frankie (AW) - Frankie was Donna Swajeski's baby, and she struggled very hard to hide that preference. Very hard. A story that, on paper, should have been compelling (Kathleen being in witness protection for 4 years and trying to struggle with life passing her by) was undercut by the heavy focus on Frankie's suffering, how noble Frankie was, and, in a true peon to martyrdom, Frankie concealing a pregnancy and miscarriage. There were a handful of scenes that allowed viewers to see the chemistry that Julie Osburn and Stephen Schnetzer still shared (and that he did not share to that level with Alice Barrett), with Kathleen mostly written as brittle and desperate. Viewers spent months waiting for the obvious, rather than feeling torn. The best I can say about this storyline is that Swajeski did not go the easiest route of having Kathleen become a psycho who tried to kill Frankie or rape Cass, or other horrors that soaps would begin to inflict on fans around this time. 

 

Shannon/Duncan/Jessica (ATWT) - It takes a hell of a lot of effort to write a triangle where two popular couples are both tanked so badly that viewers are left disinterested in everything, but ATWT's writing team of 1994 managed it. A depressing, sour storyline, one that was a bad fit for Shannon (to say the least) and was one moment of misery after another. Not just broken marriages, but traumatic flashbacks about a stillborn baby during a time spent in chains. Who the hell came up with this???

 

Best:

 

Ellie/Craig/Sierra (ATWT) - The opposite of Kathleen/Cass/Frankie in that even though the outcome was obvious, you still felt torn, and you felt that the characters were torn as well. There were no bad guys here, and Scott Bryce, as much as I sometimes make fun of his constant crying in this era of the show, believably played a man who loved two women and didn't want to choose. Something that, with less skilled writing, could have made him look like a selfish pig, but instead made him seem vulnerable. Renee Props did some of her best work as Ellie channeled '40s movie heroines in a way Nola Reardon could only dream of, letting her man go. Finn Carter, who had the worst hand writing-wise, was graceful, subtle, and poignant, as always.

 

Siobhan/Jack/Mary (RH) - I know Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer did not want to have a real pairing of Jack and Siobhan because of the idea that Jack would never betray his wife, but a combination of the knee-buckling chemistry between Sarah Felder and Michael Levin and the decided LACK of chemistry between Levin and the last two Mary recasts meant that the triangle wrote itself. Jack slowly falling in love with Siobhan as he became more and more distant from Mary's world was a story that wrote itself, leading to a number of exquisite set pieces - my favorite always being the knockdown dragout argument the night of Siobhan's engagement party, as a bewildered Mary senses, correctly, that Jack feels for Siobhan something that he no longer can for her. The loss of this pairing, and the firing of Sarah Felder, will always be one of the show's bigger mistakes. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by DRW50

[Melroser]

Bitchy Bangs...haha. The only time I liked Adriana.

 

I remember heavily disliking the AW triangle of Lisa/Jamie/Vicky. Seemed like it went on forever and I found Lisa so damn dull. I could never figure out why Jamie was interested in her to begin with. Of course, I'm probably biased to Vicky because Anne Heche just rocked that role and is one of my all-time faves of the show. 

 

[carolineg]

 

I disliked Kim's actions the most.  She's so clingy with Shane and I think it's a bad look.  Kayla and Shane looked bad too, but Kim was unbearable as well.  I don't hate the idea of mixing supercouples but Days always picks bad choices like Kayla/Shane or John/Hope/Gina.  They don't have any chemistry with one another and Kayla just wouldn't ever do that to Kim.  And obviously John/Gina was just a weird mess that Days kept going back to over and over.  I am blanking on mixing supercouples ever swapping and it working, but I am sure it has worked before.  

[DRW50]

 

I liked Lisa, but that's mostly due to Joanna Going's sweetness and appeal. I never cared about the Jamie triangle as I never understood why either lady cared about Jamie. Larry Lau was so bloated at the time (Charles Grant also had that problem at AW - they must have had good eats there...or the actors were having personal problems) and felt miscast in the role. 

[Gray Bunny]

Favorites: 

GL's Josh/Reva/Annie

GL's Dinah/Hart/Cassie 

DAYS' Marlena/John/Kristen

DAYS' Carrie/Austin/Sami

[Taoboi]

Same. Other than the Blair X-mas slayfest.

[Planet Soap]

Favorite

GH: Alan/Monica/Rick/Leslie, Carly/Jason/Tony/Robin/AJ (crazy how many players were caught in that mix)

 

ATWT: Bob/Kim/Susan (if that counts), Carly/Jack/Julia (love that they thew John, Brad & Hal into the earlier mix)

 

Y&R: Victor/Nikki/Diane

 

GL: Reeva/Josh/Annie

 

Least favorite:

B&B: Liam/Hope/Steffy (horrendously overdone)

 

Y&R: Kyle/Lola/Summer, I don't hate Nina/Cole/Ryan/Victoria but it dragged. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by ironlion

[NiqueAlexis2020]

Worst

GH

Mikey/Willow/Sasha/Chase

1. It's Michael he can't light a match if his life depended on it. 2. Everyone but Chase is lifeless, boring & annoying as [!@#$%^&*] in this quad. Chase has sparked with other females Maxie, Both Brooklyn's, Krissy, Alexis so it ani't him 3. No wants to see this [!@#$%^&*]

 

2. Philip/Belle/Shawn Days

You would think this would work since the very foundation, history & idea goes straight back to Shililp beginning in 99 but it never has. Chemistry, Writing, Characterisation & wrong actor's. First off both pairings have to have chem the 1st go around with Faux Phil(KB)he never had chem with anyone other than Alexis Thorpe. Also Martha didn't have chem with JC either. There's the writing nothing legitimate keeping Belle with Phil & away from Shawn. Presumably his baby? Stupid Sexist as hell as it was 2006 & woman didn't need to stay with a man they didn't luv just cause they have their baby. Insulting + as soon as Shawn moved on to Mimi, Belle was real quick to want to get away from Phil & get back with Shawn.

 

Enter BB as Shawn & JKJ the Real Phil back Martha finally has chem with a love interest. Problem still exists only one pairing/actors has actually chem & that's JKJ/MM

Please register in order to view this content

MM/BB don't & still don't have sexual or romantic chem. You can't play, create a triangle where the chemistry only exist on one side. Days knows it too cause they have leaned heavily towards dabbling Phelle since the Affair. Lord knows they mention it enough. Never mind the lack of rootabilitly factor. I liked The Affair it was entertaining but that's all it was. The lack of build up to the actual affair based on what transpired before it(Claire Kidnapping)didn't help.

 

Brady/Chloe/Philip Days

 

I'm one of the few days fan that has never liked this. I felt Phil/Phloe were thrown under the bus for to redeem Brady wretched ass. I also hate how he talked to Chloe diminished her feelings because she was young & teenager so she couldn't possibly know her own feelings. He did the same [!@#$%^&*] with Belle irked the [!@#$%^&*] out of me

 

Sam/Jason/Liz GH

 

I don't know if this was ever a real triangle but 2 women fighting over a piece of [!@#$%^&*] who would never put either one of them 1st, who isn't a man, is still Carson Bitch & they can do 100% better wth more chem with each other then him

 

Liam's Dick/Steffy/Hope

 

Don't watch but I know About it & still don't know how this became a thing & for the love of Jesus why in the hell is this still a thing

 

[AmandainNC28655]

One of the triangles I disliked was the Kim/Shane/Kayla triangle on Days after Steve died. It was so out of character and in my opinion ruined the characters of Shane and Kayla somewhat.  

[DramatistDreamer]

It was just this weekend that I thought about this topic (having no idea that this thread existed) while watching some classic episodes of ATWT. 

Honestly, I think that Melanie Smith's Emily Stewart owns this category, at least where a good triangle is concerned.

 

James/Paul/Emily gave the show one of its most intensely dramatic sequence that culminated with a bullet in the bedroom for the show's episode leading into Labor Day weekend.

 

Meg/Tonio/Emily is fresh on my mind because I just watched an episode over the weekend that gave me a new appreciation for just how good this storyline played out, the twists, turns--including a well-played reversal that Smith dramatized in true 'bawse bitch' fashion.

 

Dusty/Lily/Holden/Emily.

It was revealed pretty early that deep down Holden and Emily were using each other, each for their own reasons but the characters had a history and the actors themselves had really obvious chemistry that even added interest to what could have otherwise been just another run of the mill soap trope of the road of star-crossed lovers on their way back to one another. Melanie pretty much had chemistry with all her pairings, so it worked very well. Sorry to the ardent Lily/Holden fans but those scenes between Dusty and Lily (which inspired many puns regarding Dusty's "deflowering" of Lily) were pure

Please register in order to view this content

. Brian Bloom just, well... bloomed into a cute guy into sexiness.

 

 Emily/Brock/Ellie

I have heard the rumors that two of the actors allegedly didn't get along IRL but you sure couldn't tell by looking onscreen. Anyone who knows about this storyline will realize that, given Brock's "profession" in life, the story met its logical end, yet I can't help but think that this triangle had enough interesting aspects to last a bit longer, had the resolution turned out differently.

 

I greatly appreciate triangles where no one is demonized but I also appreciate triangles where no one necessarily comes out looking like the 'good guy' either, which is how most of Emily's triangles played out, the exception being Dusty who was really the only character (you might be able to make a case for Paul but since he knew the relationship was forbidden and made the decision to hide it, the reasoning gets cloudy) who was without guile or pretense, laying all his cards on the table, where his feelings were concerned.

Edited December 15, 2020 by DramatistDreamer

[Soapsuds]

Favorite:

 

Barbara/Tom(Gregg Marx)/Margo(HBS)-ATWT

 

Hal/Margo(HBS)/Tom(Scott Holmes)-ATWT

[Wendy]

Two more for the "least favorite" category:

 

GH:

 

Zander/Emily/Nikolas: Because this basically WASN'T a triangle, just Emily being a martyr because she thought she was going to croak, so instead of being honest with Zander, she marries him while having pretty princess dreams of Nik. My only consolation was Emily's heretofore unknown twin Rebecca leaving town on the same flight as Zander lookalike, Aaron. But anyway...

 

Days:

 

Billie/Bo/Hope: James E. Reilly did EVERYTHING he could to sabotage Bo/Hope. Granted, Kristian Alfonso did not have the chemistry with Robert Kelker-Kelly that she shared with Peter Reckell. But once Peter returned, having "inconclusive" DNA tests and making Billie into the poor wrong victim (she was a JER creation!) didn't make me feel for her. And since Lisa Rinna had the chemistry with RKK and not Peter Reckell, the writing was on the wall, much as James Reilly kept wanting to deny it. Too bad for him.