Time After Time/Soap World

Although Bo and Hope are divorced and she just lost her beloved grandmother, Alice Horton, her portrayer Kristian Alfonso has inked a new deal with "Days Of Our Lives" to continue her run as Hope Brady.  While I am happy for her, some industry insiders and fans say she cannot act.  Kristian has always been viewed by the soap opera magazines as one of the most beautiful soap opera actresses or just plain "eye candy" since her debut on "Days Of Our Lives" in 1983.  Some say her looks are fading to the point she's looking like a witch.  She is reminiscent of actress Victoria Wyndham, who is best known as soap royalty for her role as Rachel Davis Matthews Frame Cory Hutchins on "Another World" and Charlotte Waring Bauer/Tracy Delmar on "The Guiding Light".  My late grandmother, Sally C. Peebles, used to remark how Victoria looked like a witch when I showed her a picture of her during the 1990s.  Kristian better do something like use one of Susan Lucci's youthful creams she advertises on QVC or those Fountain of Youth informercials for middle-aged women which air during the wee-hours or early morning.

Kristian is in a storyline now in which Hope developed a nighttime personality, Nighttime Hope, and she was acting strange.  Daytime Hope is a cop and is dating Justin Kiriakis (Wally Kurth), the cousin of ex-husband Bo Brady (Peter Reckell).  Nighttime Hope committed crimes with the crooked quack Dr. Baker (John Callahan) and getting innocent people like Brady Black (Eric Martsoff) hurt and Adrianna Hernandez (Lindsay Hartley) framed for muggings she didn't commit.  She tried to burn down Bo's home and even attempted to kill him by pouring lighting fluid and burning him. 

While it is great to see Kristian to be getting all of this week, her storyline should be a tad bit familiar to longtime DAYS fans, viewers, and watchers.  If yall were watching thirty years ago in 1980, Hope's cousin, Jessica Blake (Jean Bruce Scott), was a candy striper at Salem University Hospital.  Jessica was revealed to have been the daughter of Marie Horton (Lanna Saunders) and Alex Marshall (Quinn Redeker).  When Jessica found this out, she split into three nighttime alter-egos: Angel, Angelique, and Angelica.  She was dating Jake Kositchek (Jack Coleman), who nearly married "Angel" and later became a serial killer known as the Salem Strangler.  Hope even dated Jake when she was played by Tammy Taylor in 1981.  Jessica met and married Dr. Joshua Fallon (Steven Brooks, Steve Palmer).  They left Salem and had a son, Nick (Blake Berris).  It would be nice for Jean Bruce Scott to reprise her role as Jessica, who can return to Salem to help Hope out.  DAYS fans can also see Jessica have scenes with Melanie Layton Kiriakis (Molly Burnett), who dated Nick.  Jessica would just stay in Salem for a short period of time and return home to Joshua. 

My pet peeve is soaps retooling stories which happened decades ago and applying them to whomever they choose.  Hope's personality change looks so farfetched now in 2010.  Head Writer Dena Higley needs to read up on DAYS history and research about Jessica Blake Fallon (aka Angel, Angelique, and Angelica) and do something to Hope's story before it blows up to smithereens.