Langford on Soaps: Things Are Getting "Sonny" For Will On "Days Of Our Lives!"

Editor's note: After several years of covering the soap world for us, we thought it was about time Anthony Langford got the recognition he deserves. So his monthly "Gays of Our Lives" column is getting a new name: Langford on Soaps!

In this edition….

In THEATER, Sean and Marcus just got together, but can their relationship withstand sudden fatherhood? Find out on Coronation Street. Elsewhere, on People of the Valley, Iolo is determined to find out what happened to his brother. But is Macs ready to admit he was raped?

In SCOOPS AND SPOILERS, Deniz runs afoul of a deadly gang of car thieves on All That Matters, and Dan’s inability to deal with his sexuality puts a patient’s life at risk on Holby City. Plus, Christian and Syed have a wedding disaster on EastEnders.

And in NEWSBEAT, gay kissing has people complaining and broadcasters on the defense, Aussie soap Neighbours casts a boyfriend for gay Chris, and Freddie Smith teases his storyline Days of Our Lives.

All this – and more!

THEATER

Hollyoaks

Blinking contests? Are you kidding? This soap has had some silly plot arcs over the years, but I think this might be one of the dumbest. In fact, save a couple of scenes here and there, which I’ll get to, this entire week was pretty much a waste. I really wonder if this show knows where they are going and what to do with Ste, Brendan and Noah. For much of the past year, Ste and Brendan’s relationship and Brendan specifically seemed to be written with an idea in mind, a goal and some sort of recognizable plot arc.

But now there’s a pattern that has developed with this group of characters. They vanish for a number of weeks for no particular reason and then make a one week appearance where they have some silly plot arc that goes nowhere and comes to nothing in terms of long term story.

I thought that the last one, with Noah developing a thing for Brendan was ridiculous, but this one isn’t much better, mostly because the writers keep throwing Ste, Brendan and Noah together for reasons that don’t make sense.

Why in the world would Brendan seek cooking lessons from the ex-lover he abused and his ex's new boyfriend who he recently tried to seduce? WTF? But worse is that they would agree to help him! They should have shown him the door. And don't get me started on Ste and Noah participating in the "games" at Chez Chez. They really don’t have anything better to do? The writers need to come up with better and more plausible reasons to have these three in contact.

The only good thing this past week were the scenes that Cheryl and Brendan had over dinner where they finally made up. The writing was a little weak, but the acting was sharp, especially on Emmett Scanlan’s part. We still see that Brendan can’t accept that he is gay, even though the entire town knows it and doesn’t care. And on that note, Brendan needs to deal with his issues - and the sooner the better. Much of the past year's calamities came from his inability to accept his sexuality. It’s time the show worked through that, otherwise the character risks becoming stale and one note. And for an intriguing, compelling character like Brendan, that would be a terrible shame.

Holby City

I’m really enjoying this storyline, mostly because of the fantastic performance of Jimmy Akingbola as Antoine Malick. He’s bold, hard nosed, egotistical and quite sexy, all of which were on full display in the scene where he confronted Dan about their kiss. I loved how he bragged to Dan that he could understand why the supposedly straight doctor would put the moves on him, given what an incredibly sexy black man he was. And while Dan denied how he felt or what he wanted, there was no doubt of Dan’s true desires. The acting was strong and the chemistry between Dan and Malick was blistering.

I also really liked the plot device the show used to cause this new conflict between Dan and Malick: the elderly gay man struggling to deal with his lover leaving him for someone younger. It was a compelling and real storyline and I liked how they resolved it with him realizing he had to get on with his life. There were two particularly nice scenes, the first being when Dan looked outside of himself for a change and gave the old man some solid advice.

It wasn’t so much for the advice itself, but we got some insight on Dan that he has gone through several serious relationships, came close to marrying a woman twice, and yet never quite got there.