Thread by @AlanSarapa

This is the 2021 Best and Worst of Soaps thread. Now here's a picture of Lamon Archey knowing exactly what he's doing:

Best Actress in a Shitty Story: Camryn Grimes. She wins this over Stacy Haiduk because Kristen was the focal point of the shitty story she carried. Camryn had to carry "We Are The World" Baby which was really about Abby. And she made that story watchable which is a miracle. #YR

Worst Overacting: Wes Ramsey. I saw Latter Days, so I know the man can act which means he made the deliberate choice to be very hammy and not in an enjoyable way. This is #GH, sir. Not an acting challenge on RuPaul's Drag Race.

The Ingo Rademacher Award for Stupidest Tweet of the Year: It hands down has to be Aaron D. Spears for this astoundingly stupid tweet. He really thought that up, typed it out & hit send. And he hasn't deleted it! This makes me appreciate smart soap actors more. #BoldandBeautiful

Most Unexpectedly Beautiful Drag Queen: Billy Flynn as Chad as Belinda China Shop. Looking at Billy you wouldn't expect he'd be a pretty drag queen, but he is. I loved how game he was for the Arizona story on #BeyondSalem. He was one of the best things about it. #Days

Worst #BoldandBeautiful Story: Outsourced Cock. It is bad enough that I had to hear about an old man's dick for days on end, but it turned a hot affair into a Cuckold Sessions scene like Carter was Prince Yahshua. Did no one at B&B think of the racial implications of the story?

Worst #Days Story: Too Many Masks. Ron is lucky that Stacy Haiduk is very talented because she really saved his ass with this story. If she were less talented than she is than it would have been completely unwatchable. He should send her a muffin basket.

Worst #GH Story: Peter The Unkillable. 4. Fucking. Years! That's how long we've had to deal with this character who never should have existed. It feels like we're being punished. I know soap fans are bitches, but we don't deserve this. Not even the Jasam fans deserve it!

Worst #YR Story: "We Are The World" Baby. I get the intent with this story. "Hey, let's create as much story with as many characters as possible!" Fans just really hated Devon and Mariah being used as handmaidens to give rich white straight Abby a baby. Just a chore to watch.

Which of these stories do you think was the worst soap story of 2021? #BoldandBeautiful #Days #GH #YR

Most Blowable Newcomer: Rory Gibson. There was stiff competition between him and the other sexy new hires on soaps, but I think Rory edges them out. Now let Noah nut in someone. Not Tessa the lesbian though. Someone else please. #YR

Worst Twist: Vinny killed himself to get Thomas laid. What the hell was Brad Bell thinking? Did he think people would applaud him for having subtext that Vinny was in love with Thomas and sacrificing his life to get Thomas cooter? It was gross. #BoldandBeautiful

Best Twist: Doug is possessed. It was a great bait and switch. Make people think they are giving Bill Hayes an Emmy bait story in his twilight years, but surprise! It is Satan grabbing Paulina's ass! Well done, Ron. #Days

Worst Prop: Duke the bear. I don't have any personal animus towards teddy bears dressed as cowboys. I just hate middle-aged people sharing custody of a bear. I also dislike men imagining a bear talking about boobs. Duke has to be destroyed. #Days

Most Unbelievable #GH Story Point: Michael being good at sex per Willow. I can believe he has a decent dick even if it is cursed to kill women. I just imagine him flopping around top of her like a fish out of water for 30 seconds and then he collapses like he ran a marathon.

Most Unbelievable #Days Story Point: That the citizens of Salem don't want bulk shopping and would rather honor this dead couple. People care more about getting a 24 pack of Diet Snapple than the feelings of one family in town. #FuckTheHortons #PaulinaDidNothingWrong

Most Unbelievable #BoldandBeautiful Story Point: That someone would choose Eric over Carter. One is a virile man that is closer to her age who has a working dick who loves her. The other is an old slut with a rude dick and a family that he allows to disrespect her. Unrealistic...

Most Unbelievable #YR Story Point: That Sharon and Rey still want to be married. They don't even like each other anymore! They are only still married because Josh Griffith doesn't want to do Shadam or Shick so we are stuck with this loveless marriage.

Best Line of 2021: "White people are crazy."- Chanel. Kudos to Ron who finally got to use this great line after wanting to use it on One Life To Live and Raven Bowens for her delivery. White people are indeed crazy. Source: I'm the color of a corpse, so I know. #Days

Best Wedding: Victoria and Ashland. I don't care if you don't give a fuck about them as a pairing. It was hands down the best soap wedding this year. Could have it been more dramatic? Yeah, but the production values were great. You could tell #YR spent money on this.

Worst Wedding: Carly and Jason. What was the point? It wasn't dramatic. It wasn't particularly romantic. The marriage was invalid. This makes it worse than the living room weddings on other soaps. At least everyone looked nice. I'll give them that.

Most Hostile Work Environment: Forrester Creations. That place is a lawsuit waiting to happen. You have a boss asking an employee to bang out his wife. A receptionist gave that boss a honey induced boner and then he asked for a hug. Then she gets fired for it. #BoldandBeautiful

Worst Triangle: Phillip/Chloe/Brady. 1. Ron is writing Philip like he's a Lifetime movie version of AJ on GH which has damaged the character. 2. It is obvious Philip is the Raisin Bran in the triangle which is shitty because Chloe doesn't have chemistry with Brady. At all. #Days

Worst Secret: Ashland stole from cats. They hyped up Ashland as this ruthless businessman, but what did we get? A pushover with a dumb secret. The only way this would have been worth it is if the Newman/Locke merger ended up with the cat sanctuary owning half the company. #YR

Best Secret: Paulina is Lani's mother and not her aunt. As far as retcons go, it made sense. Abe never had a DNA test done in 2015 when Lani showed up. Ron had an out and he took it. Hopefully this creates drama for months on end. #Days

The Chandler Massey Award For Phoning It In: Scott Clifton. That man makes DMV workers seem lively in comparison. I get that he's playing the worst character ever created, but damn Scott. Don't make it so obvious you don't care anymore! #BoldandBeautiful

Best New Couple: #Sprina. They technically aren't a couple yet, but the writing is on the wall. The good girl who isn't afraid to tell someone off paired with the spoiled bad boy who has a crazy girlfriend is a great soap setup. #GH Soap Twitter loves Nicholas & Sydney's chem.

Best #BoldandBeautiful Writing Choice: Writing Hope with a backbone. It took over a decade, but it finally happened. Hope stood up for herself and didn't let these people say who she could see or not.

Best #GH Writing Choice: Pairing Sonny with Nina. Carson was so tired and Mo and Laura's chemistry feels like passive aggressive neighbors who are in a trashcan dispute. He sparkles with Cynthia to the point that I'm saying nice things about him on my Best & Worst thread!

Best #YR Writing Choice: Normalizing Adam's presence on the canvas. A year ago, this man almost blew up his family. Now he's going to family weddings and plotting with Victor. It is a refreshing change from the tired dynamic that multiple actors had to play.

Best #Days Writing Choice: Bringing MarDevil back. Such a good decision on Ron's part. You can tell Deidre Hall and the rest of the cast are having a blast with Satan back in Salem. Like this has people who haven't watched in years talking about Days.

Worst New Character: Napkin. A failure in casting and writing. We are supposed to believe Kyle rawdogged this boring woman? Her? It's just not realistic. He probably would have had more fun just fapping in the Hamptons. #YR

Best New Characters: Paulina & Chanel. Before 2021, Ron's new characters were all flops except for Leo. He finally struck gold this year with hiring Jackée Harry and extending Lani's family. Paulina and Chanel are just delightful additions to #Days.

Best Dressed: Sharon. It doesn't matter if she's slinging coffee or if her daughter has been abducted by a doctor in a bizarre hero fantasy scheme, Sharon is always dressed up. Even in an ex's chess dream, she looks great. #YR

Worst Climax To a Story: Sonny's return to Port Charles. They couldn't even give us him interrupting the wedding or walking in on Jason's pelvic bone meeting Carly's ass. He just strolled in there like he ran out to get Funyuns. Really anticlimactic. #GH

Best Friendship: Josslyn and Trina. I know there are some that would prefer them as rivals, but I love Joss and Trina's friendship. Soaps are a genre centered around women, so it is nice to see young women supporting each other. Besides, they have Esme as a rival. #GH

Worst Friendship: Mariah and Abby. This friendship makes no damn sense. Mariah once stalked Abby and Tyler and locked Abby in a room! And it came out of nowhere just to service the "We Are The World" Baby story. I dread seeing them in scenes together. #YR

Best Prop: "We Are The World" Baby blanket. I know y'all want to see an actual baby, but I'm just so amused by that blanket baby. Plus, the role of WATW Baby being played by a blanket and I presume a large breakfast burrito is better than an actual baby during Covid. #YR

I'm not calling that baby Dominic. His name is "We Are The World" Baby Chancellor-Abbott-Newman. #YR

#Days Character Who Deserves Better: Theo. He's the son of Abe and Lexie. He should not be used as just some minor drama for Cin and to just be popping in for weddings. Y'all have some useless characters you could get rid of to make room for Theo and write him an actual story.

#YR Character Who Deserves Better: Nikki. It is very clear that Josh Griffith doesn't give a shit about Nikki. Like he doesn't even properly utilize her even in a supporting capacity and she's one of the most popular characters on this show.

#GH Character Who Deserves Better: Liz. Her husband died. Is she allowed to grieve onscreen? Not really. Is the story about her? As always on this show, no. They've been teasing Jeff Webber, but even if he comes to town it will probably end up serving another character's story.

#BoldandBeautiful Character Who Deserves Better: Brooke. I miss the Brooke I used to love to hate. This version that just fusses over other people's drama like who gets Eric hard or not is just pathetic. Where did the real Slut From The Valley go? Can we have her back?

Most Overly Propped #BoldandBeautiful Character: Paris. On one hand, it is refreshing to see a Black woman being praised by pretty much the whole cast since they usually reserve that for white propped characters. On the other, it has gotten to be a bit too much.

Most Overly Propped #GH Character: Carly. I'm not one of those people who hate Laura Wright for breathing, but Carly is on too damn much. Like even some Carly stans have admitted she's on too much and inserted into stories she shouldn't be involved in. It is ridiculous.

Most Overly Propped #Days Character: Ben. I'm a Ben fan and I've been a Rob Scott Wilson stan since his AMC Days, but I'm not going to pretend like that character isn't overly propped with characters like Theo getting thrown under the bus for him. Ron needs to tone it down.

Most Overly Propped #YR Character: Abby. They had to rope in several popular characters to try to make people care about that struggle baby and fans still hated it. And now they subjected us to weeks of her crying for a character who isn't dead. Please make it stop.

Best New Set: The new DiMera mansion. Lots of us have made jokes about #Days being the poor soap. Even Ron has made jokes about it. That's why we were so surprised at how good the new version of that mansion looks now.

Best Kiss: Nick & MarDevil. It was so unexpected and twisted. You can tell Blake Berris and Deidre Hall were having a blast in that Satan kissing a zombie scene. I wouldn't mind reading a Nick/MarDevil fanfic. #GetBehindMeSatanWithTheStrapOn #Days

Best Soap Actor for Gifs: Michelle Stafford. There are some soap actors that are just great material for gifs and Michelle Stafford is one of the best. Sometimes I'm watching her and thinking "Yeah, there's a 100% chance that's going to be made into a gif." #YR

Best Dilf: Joshua Morrow. The embodiment of that "Daddy? Sorry. Daddy? Sorry." meme. It is witchcraft to be hotter in your 40's than you were in your 20's. #YR

If you are wondering why Josh Swickard didn't win Best Dilf, he's a new dilf. His dilf powers will only grow stronger as he ages. #GH

Ron Carlivati's Worst Habit: Swinging from extremes. He made Kristen too nice and fans complained, so then he made her cartoonishly evil. Ron doesn't really deal in middle grounds. He has a similar problem with making Ava Rafe's bang maid when that isn't interesting at all. #Days

Josh Griffith's Worst Habit: Too many backstories. Since he returned to #YR in 2019, Josh has written multiple stories about people we've never met who died decades ago. Whether it is A.J. Moltavo, Amanda's dad or Ashland's cat lady, I don't give a shit. It needs to stop now.

Legacy Character Most In Need Of a Rest: Billy. I love Jason Thompson, but Billy needs a good six month break from the canvas. I'm tired of the man pain and him basically being the dog chasing after cars of the show. Send Billy to Hong Kong for a bit. #YR

Worst Dressed: Brook Lynn. Amanda Setton is beautiful. You don't need to put her in Dr. Marlena Evans cosplay. Let's get rid of all the damn blazers and pick out some cuter stuff. #GH

Best Recast: Dan Feuerriegel. It took a bit, but he won me over. He's found his stride as EJ and really helps the DiMera family feel whole. I'm enjoying this EJ who is a petty bitch who lives for drama. It also helps that Dan has chemistry with almost everyone. #Days

Frank Valentini's Worst Habit: Hoarding Middle-Aged Men. Frank is just obsessed with hiring men who are old enough to get the shingles vaccine. I get Frank himself is in that age range, but not almost every guy on #GH should be able to remember the Challenger explosion.

Worst Retcon: Ignoring a bunch of white women knew Nikolas had Hayden shot. I get that Chris & Dan inherited this story from Ron, but pretending these women didn't know Shawn was innocent and just let him rot in prison for 6 years doesn't make it better. #GH

#BoldandBeautiful Character Who Needs To Die The Most: Eric. I'm sorry, but if I have to hear about how an 80 year old man can't get it up to put it in his wife for many episodes, the only hole that dick needs to go in is the ground.

Biggest Idiot: Steve Burton. What kind of moron losses his six figure job just because he doesn't want to get vaccinated? We all know that man loves money, so the stupidity is strong. As Jason once said to Michael: "You're being a little bitch!" #GH

#YR Character Who Needs To Die The Most: Rey. I've liked Jordi since his Guiding Light days, but it is time for Rey to die. His siblings are gone and is only connection to the show is his miserable marriage to Sharon. I would also accept Rey just moving back to Miami.

Most Pleasantly Surprising Recast: Cameron Mathison as Drew. When I heard Cameron was going to #GH, I wasn't super thrilled. I had visions of all the whisper yelling on All My Children. So I was pleasantly surprised to like him as Drew. Hopefully the show develops the character.

Couple With The Most Excessive Recaps: #Cin. I love them, but every time one of them so much as farts we get a recap of their love story. We get it. They are an epic love story. You don't need to do this so much for any couple let alone one that has only existed since 2018. #Days

Dumbest Scene of the Year: Zoe giving Paris laxatives. There was plenty of competition for this category, but I have to give it Zoe making Paris shit her brains out during her date with Zende. A few years ago, #BoldandBeautiful gave Black characters real stories and now this...

Worst Heel Turn: Justin turning on Bill and locking Thomas in a cage. It was out of nowhere and the only impact was turning Justin from Bill's bitch to Ridge's bitch. His punishment for kidnapping was monitoring Quinn's cooter and what goes in it. #BoldandBeautiful

#Days Character Who Needs To Die The Most: Rafe. Why is he here? He lifted right out of the show, but Corday had to go and un-fire Galen. Now we've been subjected to him talking to a bear and jizzing everywhere in the Basic Black office. People work there, Rafe!

#GH Character Who Needs To Die The Most: Austin. Saying Peter needs to die is liking saying you need water to live, so let's talk about Austin. Roger plays him like Franco Lite and he only has chemistry with
his cousin Brook Lynn and Gladys the meddler.

Worst Head Writer: Josh Griffith. I know CBS and Sony like to meddle, but I seriously doubt we can blame them for 100% of this shit show. I would take literally any former soap head writer than Josh now. Dena freaking Higley could do better. It hurt to type that. #YR

Best Head Writer: Ron Carlivati. Sure, he swings from extremes and steps on rakes like he's Sideshow Bob, but he does write the most consistently entertaining show. MarDevil, Paulina & Chanel really clinched this category for him. And the other HWs being terrible I guess. #Days

Best Triangle: Johnny/Chanel/Allie. A woman liking a brother and a sister is the stuff soap story dreams are made of. Raven has chemistry with both Carson & Lindsay & there's rooting value on both sides of the triangle. The only Raisin Bran person in the mix is Tripp. #Days

If you weren't following me when I first did my cereal analogy a few months ago, the Raisin Bran in a triangle is the less desirable character who is going to lose. The Captain Crunch is the more desirable character. Soaps tend to make it pretty obvious.