By 
In this week’s Gays of Our Lives….
- Fans of Emmerdale’s Robert and Aaron had something to shout about when Robert cheated on jailed Aaron with Rebecca. Did the show make the right story choice?
- The Haves and The Haves Nots had their spring finale as Jeffery made a horrifying discovery that will change his life forever.
- EastEnders’ has been teasing a Ben/Johnny romance for months. When forced to deal with their feelings, will these two take the next step?
- Aaron helps David find out who his biological father is on Neighbours but David may not like what he discovers.
- Are Days of Our Lives’ gays Paul and Sonny dating or something? Because judging by their scenes, it’s hard to tell.
All this and more!
PICKS AND PANS
Days of Our Lives (U.S.)
Are Paul and Sonny dating or something? Because judging by these scenes it’s hard to tell. There is not a glimmer, a hint of anything romantic between them. And it’s been like that for a while now. When Sonny is ranting about taking over Paul from Demois and how it’s the most important thing in his life, shouldn’t Paul, as his supposed love interest ask what this means for them as a couple or talk about how it affects their relationship? You’d think so.
If this were a scene between Chad and Gabi or Chad and Abigail or Nicole and Brady or any other straight couple, they’d talk about their relationship. Their romantic relationship would be the key point in the scene, not a undertone not even addressed. In fact, if you tuned into this or any recent scene between Paul and Sonny, you’d never guess they were lovers at one time and were in a so-called relationship now. It’s like Paul and Derrick were having a relationship and sleeping together — off screen — and it was only vaguely referred to once.
This show clearly does not want to write a gay storyline or show gays in a romantic sense. I still wonder why Sonny was brought back or why Paul stuck around for a year for Sonny’s return. I do hope this changes with the new writing regime. If it doesn’t then it’s a decision made by the show and it’s producers and not the writers at the moment. And that’s a much more serious concern than it already is.
I thought the battle of over the business might be interesting, but it’s actually really boring. And it’s hard to take 20-something Chad and Sonny seriously when they talk about running multi-national conglomerates.
Emmerdale (U.K.)
It didn’t take much for Rebecca to jump into bed with Robert. Did she really think that after everything that happened, a drunk Robert wants to get back with her?
I get that Chas is mad at Robert, but she’s cheated on nearly every man she’s ever been with so she knows how stuff like that happens. Yet, she should have never trusted Robert to begin with. I never found that plot point to be believable. But it’s not Chas’ place to tell Aaron. Let Robert do it. Of course, I believe that people don’t always need to know everything. And now is the worst possible time to do it given the circumstances.
But I don’t think Chas or Robert will say anything. It’ll stay a secret. Aaron will get out of jail. And then Rebecca will find out she’s pregnant. Then the real drama will begin. If these writers don’t have Rebecca get pregnant, then they need to have their soap opera writer’s cards taken away. I know fans don’t like it, but there’s so much interesting drama to be mined from it. They’d be fools to pass it up.
Personally, I’m fine with the story twist. There was no way Robert would remain faithful while Aaron was in jail. It’s not who he and this is a soap. And a ‘surprise’ pregnancy is Soap Opera 101.
This stuff with Liv continues to be ridiculous. Robert playing ‘daddy’ is so contrived and forced. Like him going to the school to talk about Liv. Umm, Robert is not her legal guardian. Neither is Aaron, who’s in jail. The school would want to speak to her legal guardian, which is her mother. And now more than ever, it makes no sense and is not plausible that Liv stays at the village. The show writes it that Saundra doesn’t care, but that’s not the character we met when Liv was introduced. Oh and Liv says this was the first school she likes, but she never went to class. Which is it? This is just lazy and sloppy storytelling.
Aaron said he never killed anyone? I guess he forgot killing Jackson or that he was charged with murder and went to trial over that case.
Isaac is the classic abuser. Everything that happens, even when Isaac does awful things, is Dom’s fault. Dom made him behave badly is Isaac’s response to his lies and deceits being exposed. And Dom, clearly suffering from low self-esteem, just meekly takes it and stays with a man who is cruel to him. I mean, Isaac knew Dom would never tell what really happened with that guy once he guilted and manipulated Dom into staying quiet, even though Dom was hurting his own career. Sadly, Dom believes he is to blame for what happened so he deserves the fallout.
Isaac would stand by and let Dom’s career be ruined to protect himself. That much is obvious. This storyline is getting more uncomfortable to watch because it’s all too realistic. We’ve all seen or known people in relationships like this. Maybe ourselves.
And I have a feeling Dom won’t get out until it’s too late. I also think that Zosia interfering in Dom and Isaac’s relationship is going to lead to her losing her baby. I just can see that coming. I hope not. But his threatening her seemed to foreshadow that.
CLICK THE NEXT PAGE FOR MORE PICKS AND PANS!
Yeah, I mean Robert’s first major storyline back in the day was getting his brother’s wife to have an affair with him, and then he cheated on her with a cougar (the awesome Sadie King). This is not something new to the character.
I’m definitely one of those not thrilled with the Robron storyline. And it has nothing to do with bi-erasure (though, honestly, it seems like bisexual is really just a cool way of having Robert cheat with and on Aaron, because we really never see him interested in other men).
I agree that a pregnancy storyline is classic soap. But if we are praising classic soap, then a bad boy who can commit and love only one special person is also very classic soap. And something they really did set up with Robron. Not to mention the showrunner constantly confirming they are going to stay together, they are soul mates etc etc. I get that you think Robert is a more interesting character as a cheater constantly pursuing new relationships, but it is clear that is not what they are trying to write here. They are just trying to throw bumps into the never-ending road of Robron. And doing so poorly.
If their goal is for Robert and Aaron to remain this big love story (and we know it is, they have confirmed it), then they should have written Robert as HORRIFIED the next day. Guilt ridden and disgusted. Instead, he was just really sorry for hurting Rebecca’s feelings. (And let’s note – this is clearly not the return of bad boy Robert, because bad boy Robert is not playing nice with his conquest the next day.)
I sometimes wonder if the problem is the writing or Ryan Hawley. Like, we always KNOW how Aaron feels. But we never know with Robert. Which sure, is part of his character to not be as heart on the sleeve as Aaron. But what were the writers showing with Robert at the end of the last episode? Was he jealous about Rebecca/Ross, or just wanted to get away from her? Was it the writing not telling us, which is shitty, given that they aren’t setting up a Aaron/Robert/Rebecca love triangle, so there is no reason to make us wonder if Robert is jealous. Or is it Ryan failing to show what Robert is feeling properly. Like is the writing so all over the place that I am now blaming the actor, or is it somewhat the actor? I have no idea. And that is a problem.
Anyway, I hate it, I think a cheating storyline could have been done much better, and I think that Robert sure as hell better finally get some comeuppance for this one.
This one the heels of the end of the JP/James totally wasted potential is just too damn much soap disappointment!
Scott needs help getting over JP? JP hasn’t been with him for months, and when they were together, JP treated him with the same respect he would a hot water bottle warming his bed. Scott needs some self-respect.
It will be nice ifb Johnny starts doing something more than studying and picking up shifts at the pub.
Robert had less character development than people think. It was only a few months ago that he was sabotaging the ropes course in a way that could have killed Chrissie for no better reason than the spiteful desire to humiliate her. This was after the abuse revelation that is his supposed turning point. Rather than Robert changing, it was his circumstances. Things were going relatively well, and he was with someone he liked rather than someone he was using for their money. However, he has a long history of cheating, and they did nothing to figure out why he did it before and make the changes to avoid repeating his history. Without an underlying change, it was inevitable that he would cheat when he was sexually frustrated, angry at Aaron, and generally stressed out.
I was really suspicious of the bisexual representation arguments. Robert has a long history of cheating, so it’s far too late to avoid the cheating bisexual trope. That makes me suspect they only are mad that it threatened their ship.
Scott is Paul’s younger brother in neighbours.
Honestly, I feel like the main problem was just the pacing of it all. Putting all the “Bisexual representation” blah blah aside, any character development Robert had over the past year or so was just thrown out. And over what: Cause Aaron said something SLIGHTLY mean to him, once, while he was high off his head. If you wanna write a cheating storyline, great: fucking milk it though. Don’t, all of a sudden be like “He was sad, soooo he slept with this girl” after you just spent the entire year talking about how Robert’s “changed” and how he’s ALREADY turned down Rebecca’s advances multiple times. I think it’s less of an issue of THAT it happened, and more of how it was written.
The outrage over the Aaron/Robert story last week was so OTT. I mean, in one sense I get it, ship fans are passionate and the cheating coming so quickly after the wedding would be hard to swallow (I’m sure I would have ranted up a storm had this been Kyle/Fish back in the day), but…it’s soaps, this is what happens on soaps, this is the genre, there aren’t lasting happy endings where they buy a house and adopt a dog and smile and hold hands all day, and it shouldn’t not happen with Aaron and Robert because they’re gay/bisexual. And funny how there was no worry about the show’s portrayals of bisexuals as cheaters when Robert was cheating on Chrissie left and right. To be honest, the entitlement of this fan base – and the catering to it both by the show and web sites like Digital Spy do – has put me off them.