Culture Representation: Taking place in California, mostly in the mid-2010s, the dramatic film “Like Father Like Son” features a predominantly white group of people (with a African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: An adult son of a convicted serial killer, who is awaiting death-row execution, tries to fight off the feeling that he has inherited his father’s murderous tendencies.
Culture Audience: “Like Father Like Son” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and terribly made crime dramas with gratuitous violence.
Dermot Mulroney in “Like Father Like Son” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)
“Like Father Like Son” is an utterly trashy drama about a convicted serial killer’s son who uses his father’s criminal history as an excuse to also become a serial killer. The screenplay, direction, film editing, and most of the acting are horrendous. This is the type of movie that has no redeeming qualities and is actually quite soulless and empty.
Written and directed by Barry Jay, “Like Father Like Son” takes place in California, mostly in the mid-2010s. However, the movie begins in the summer of 1990, in Richmond, California. It’s a flashback scene that shows Gabriel “Gabe” McKinnon (played by Dermot Mulroney) at his job as a park sanitation worker. One day, Gabe is outside in the park when he sees a teenage bully named Lonnie (played by Pappy Faulkner) beating up a smaller teen named Gary (played by Jonathan Tysor), who is no match for muscular Lonnie. Gary had a comic book that Lonnie tore up before this physical assault.
Gabe is offended by what he sees. Gary manages to run away. And what does Gabe do? He murders Lonnie by stabbing Lonnie in the neck and then viciously bludgeoning Lonnie. There’s a witness to this murder: Gabe’s son Eli, who is 7 or 8 years old. Gabe orders Eli to go home. Gabe gets arrested and convicted of first-degree murder and is given the death penalty as his sentence.
The movie then fast-forwards about 25 years later, when Eli (played by Dylan Flashner) is in his early 30s. Eli is a bachelor who works as a low-level telephone sales operator for a company called Holder Last Insurance. Eli is terrible at getting sales for this job, where he is openly disrespected by his boss Jake (played by Jim Klock, who is one of the producers of this awful movie). It’s only a matter of time before Eli will get fired.
Making matters worse for Eli, he’s having financial problems that have led to having his truck repossessed. He’s also gotten behind on the rent at the house where he lives. His landlord Tzipora (played by Prima Apollinaare), who lives with her elderly rabbi father (played by Daniel Lench), is so generous and understanding, not only does she give Eli more time to pay the rent that he owes, but she also gives him some free groceries. Eli promises he’ll pay back what he owes when he has the money.
Meanwhile, Eli is in therapy that is paid for by the government because Eli is the child of a death-row inmate. Eli’s mother abandoned him “a long time ago,” so Eli grew up in foster care after his father Gabe was sent to prison. Eli’s therapist Anabelle Weiss (played by Mayim Bialik) is professional and compassionate.
Eli confides in Anabelle that he’s had uncontrollable rage and thoughts of harming people. Eli believes he might have inherited a gene from his father that would make Eli a serial killer, even though there’s no scientific proof that being a serial killer is a biologically inherited trait. Annabelle tells Eli, “This isn’t about your father. You have to control your rage, how it will affect your life.”
Annabelle suggests to Eli that he should visit Gabe in prison before Gabe is executed, so that Eli can better understand Gabe. It seems like terrible advice because Eli doesn’t seem interested or ready to establish a relationship with Gabe. Eli has his own problems to deal with, but he takes Annabelle’s advice and eventually visits Gabe in prison.
Before this prison visit happens, Eli is so desperate for money, he sells one of the last valuables that he has: an inherited watch. He goes to a sleazy lowlife named Sam (played by Eric Michael Cole), who offers to buy the watch for well below the market value. Eli does some haggling but eventually agrees to sell the watch for only $50. Later, Eli buys a gun from Sam.
Feeling lonely and depressed, Eli goes to a bar and picks up a sassy woman named Hayley Moretti (played by Ariel Winter), a sex worker and a thief. Hayley has a one-night stand with Eli, who wakes up the next morning to find his wallet is missing. He accuses Hayley of stealing his wallet.
Hayley denies it, but he strangles her unconscious so he can look through her purse. And sure enough, Eli finds his wallet in Hayley’s purse. When Hayley regains consciousness, she calls Eli a “psycho” and leaves in a huff. It won’t be the last time that Hayley and Eli see each other.
Eli gets fired from his job. He decides to take his therapist’s advice about visiting Gabe. At the prison, Gabe is unapologetic for his crimes. Gabe can see that Eli is very troubled when Eli admits that he has uncontrollable rages.
Gabe tells Eli, “Maybe we’re a little more alike than you think.” Eli denies it and says he could never murder anyone. And in this atrocious movie that has the subtlety of a bulldozer, that’s exactly when you know it won’t be long before Eli murders someone.
That moment happens when he sees Hayley being attacked by a man in the dark shadows outside of a building at night. Without hesitation, Eli takes a rock and bashes it repeatedly over the man’s head. Hayley doesn’t seem to have any qualms about this gruesome and unnecessary murder. She thanks Eli and asks him if she could temporarily move in with Eli because she needs a place to stay.
A reminder: The last time Hayley saw Eli, he strangled her until she was unconscious. She has now witnessed Eli as a cold-blooded murderer. And now, she wants to live with him. The movie tries to make it look romantic, but it all looks so repulsive.
You know how this movie is going to go as soon as Eli and Hayley start living together. They fall “in love,” while he continues his serial killing. He keeps it a secret from Hayley, even though she already knows he’s a murderer. Apparently, Hayley thinks that murder she saw Eli commit was okay with her because the person who was killed was attacking her.
“Like Father, Like Son” tries to make Eli’s killings look justified because he goes after people who hurt others. In one scene, he murders a thief who robs a homeless man. Eli gets a new job as a newspaper delivery driver. He is hired by a no-nonsense boss named Louise (played by Vivica A. Fox), who is one of many characters in “Like Father Like Son” who just show up to say some lines of dialogue but didn’t need to be in the story at all.
At one point in the movie, Eli and Hayley move to San Diego to start a new life when Hayley finds out that she’s pregnant. Eli’s murder spree doesn’t stop. And you know exactly what’s going to happen when Hayley confides in Eli that her stepfather sexually molested her when she was a child, and her mother knew but did nothing about it. Eli’s murders become less and less justifiable until he starts killing anyone who makes him angry.
“Like Father Like Son” has some very tacky editing, where Eli’s murders are often shown in a montage of freeze frames. The movie rambles along with no purpose and is just a series of scenes of Eli becoming more mentally unstable and murdering people in the process. The music score is bombastic, while the movie’s pacing is erratic.
Perhaps the only person in the cast who doesn’t give a bland or terrible performance is Bialik, but that’s not saying much because she’s only in the movie for about five minutes. “Like Father Like Son” seems to be an endorsement of the idea that serial killers can at least partially blame their crimes on having an inherited gene that makes them murderers, instead of the murderers full responsibility for their actions. Even if the movie’s filmmaking had been better, it’s still a heinous concept for a movie that isn’t worth anyone’s time.
Lionsgate released “Like Father Like Son” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on January 31, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Savannah, Georgia, the comedy film “Not Another Church Movie” features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Jack-of-all-trades Taylor Pherry (a parody of Tyler Perry) tries to launch a career as a screenwriter.
Culture Audience: “Not Another Church Movie” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Tyler Perry, but even his fans will be turned off by this pointless and obnoxious movie.
Jamie Foxx in “Not Another Church Movie” (Photo courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment)
If you think most of Tyler Perry’s movies are bad, they look like masterpieces compared to “Not Another Church Movie,” which is a painfully unfunny and trashy parody of Tyler Perry and his movies. Any money spent on this horrid junk is money that is wasted.
Written and directed by Johnny Mack, “Not Another Church Movie” is nothing but abysmally written skits thrown together, in a feeble attempt to look like real movie plot. Mack makes his feature-film directorial debut with “Not Another Church Movie.” His previous experience has been in television, as a writer for BET’s “Real Husbands of Hollywood” and several BET Awards ceremonies.
That might explain why “Not Another Church Movie” looks like a rejected sitcom idea or a vapid joke at a third-rate awards show. It might explain the movie’s low quality, but it doesn’t excuse it. There are many children who are amateur comedians on social media who are a lot funnier and smarter than “Not Another Church Movie,” which is nothing but bottom-of-the-barrel dreck.
Don’t let some of the celebrity names in the cast fool you into thinking “Not Another Church Movie” is worth watching. This isn’t the first bad movie for any of these celebrities, but it’s one of their worst. “Not Another Church Movie” is also a “bait and switch” fraud because the biggest stars in the movie—Jamie Foxx, Mickey Rourke and Vivica A. Fox—are in the film for less than five minutes each. “Not Another Church Movie” is terrible on every single level and is a humiliating failure for everyone involved.
The movie’s so-called “plot” is that a “jack of all trades” character named Taylor Pherry (played by Kevin Daniels), who lives in the Georgia city of Savannah, decides to become a screenwriter, while various mishaps and annoyances happen to him and to people who know him. (“Not Another Church Movie” was filmed on location in Savannah and other parts of Georgia.) A running joke that quickly gets tiresome is that the “p” in Pherry is silent, so Taylor constantly has to tell people how to correctly pronounce his last name.
“Not Another Church Movie” opens with a scene showing Taylor as a successful filmmaker, while the rest of the movie shows how he got to where he is. Taylor proudly tells viewers that before he became a filmmaker, he held several day jobs at the same time, including being a public defender, a surgeon and a pizza delivery person. It’s a dull parody of how the real Perry struggled for years in various jobs before he became a hit filmmaker.
Meanwhile, a rich and famous TV talk show host named Hoprah Windfall (played by Luc Ashley), who’s a parody of Oprah Winfrey, announces to her studio audience that even though her latest movie was a flop, she still has her wealth. Hoprah says she’s ready to retire from her talk show. She’s gotten a little tired of her protégés Dr. Bill and Dr. Loz (in other words, Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz), so she’s looking for a new protégé to be her next “pet project” and possibly her successor.
And that’s where Taylor supposedly will conveniently fit into the story, except Hoprah disappears for most of the movie. Instead, “Not Another Church Movie” becomes an annoying hodgepodge of messy ideas thrown together. And the results are not funny at all.
“Not Another Church Movie” is a low point in the career of Oscar-winning actor Foxx, who portrays a buffoonish, motorcycle-riding character named God, who is supposed to help Hoprah search for her successor. God is the one who tells Taylor to become a writer. The only other things that this God character does is ride his motorycle and has boardroom meetings in the clouds with 10 sycophant angels. During these meetings, God (wearing a very cheap-looking wig) tells horrible racial jokes.
At least Foxx has scenes where he’s actually in the same room as some cast members. Rourke plays the Devil like someone in a stupor reading wall graffiti. It’s obvious that Rourke did all of his acting for the movie without any other cast members there. He’s just “dropped” into the movie with some very sloppy visual effects that try to make the Devil look like he can suddenly appear wherever he wants. This Devil character should have been one of the funniest characters in the movie, but he just utters a bunch of forgettable lines, like an incoherent drunk person who’s not capable of saying more than six sentences in a row.
Taylor’s aunt is MaDude (also played by Daniels), who is a parody of Perry’s sassy and elderly Madea character. MaDude’s brother is a grouch named Moe Himms (played by Wayne Stamps), a parody of Perry’s Joe Simmons character in the “Madea” movies. Mo Himms’ only purpose in “Not Another Church Movie” is to insult MaDude and pass gas for idiotic fart jokes. MaDude and Moe Himms bicker a lot in several unfunny scenes throughout the film.
Some of the worst scenes in the movie take place at the courthouse where rude and incompetent Judge Loreal (played by Fox)—who hates men and white people—presides over family law cases and criminal cases. A truly atrocious sequence takes place during a divorce trial where a man named Darnell (played by T’Shaun Barrett) brings three blonde women named Karen to the courtroom. Darnell announces that they are his mistresses, and they gave him money for his legal fees “because that’s what white women do.” Darnell also collectively calls these Karens the “KKK.”
Darnell’s estranged wife Ellen (played by Brittney Jefferson) is Taylor’s cousin. Ellen and Darnell are going through a bitter divorce. Taylor is Ellen’s divorce attorney. Even though Darnell treats Ellen badly and wants the divorce, Ellen pathetically wants Darnell to get back together with her. The judge awards half of Darnell’s assets to Ellen, which leads to a deplorable scene of MaDude showing up to the former couple’s home with a chainsaw. You can easily predict what happens next.
Several of Perry’s movies are spoofed and/or namechecked in “Not Another Church Movie.” The 2007 film “Daddy’s Little Girls” is parodied with several moronic scenes featuring a single father named Monte Carlo (played by Lamorne Morris), who is raising three underage girls: Not Precious (played by Zaleigh Jackson), Less Precious (played by Kennedy Weston) and Least Precious (played by Zoë Parks), who don’t talk much in their scenes.
Many of Perry’s movies (take your pick) are about single women struggling to find true love and getting involved with the wrong men. Those movies are parodied too. A newly divorced Ellen gets back into the dating scene and meets a vain loser named Tallahassee (also played by Barrett), a one-joke character who is obsessed with how he looks, especially his painted-on, rock-hard abdomen. Tallahassee drives a truck for his small business called Tally Hoes Moving and Storage. That’s all you need to know about what type of obnoxious character Tallahassee is.
Taylor has a colleague who is a successful district attorney named Julie (played by Kearia Schroeder), who needs a car driver. Taylor recommends Monte for the job, and Monte is quickly hired. Monte is rude to Julie on the job, by calling her names like “sugar tits,” “stupid” and “bitch.” In this loathsome and misogynistic movie, Julie doesn’t fire Monte and does nothing about these insults. The filmmakers of “Not Another Church Movie” want the audience to think all of this is hilarious.
Taylor has a family member named Beverly (played by Kyla Pratt), a middle-aged single mother who is financially struggling. Her teenage son Michael (played by Jaden L. Miller) has grown up not knowing who his father is, but he finds out in the movie. Beverly is so broke, she flashes her breasts at a bus driver named Tyrone (played by Pierre Edwards) so that she can get a free ride on the bus. (There is no nudity in “Not Another Church Movie,” but the movie uses the “joke” of a woman flashing naked body parts more than once.)
Perry’s 2009 film “Madea Goes to Jail” is imitated with a sequence where MaDude gets in a car chase with police and ends up getting arrested. Guess who’s the judge in her courtroom appearance. There are also a few silly scenes parodying 2016’s “Boo! A Madea Halloween” and the even-worse 2017 sequel “Boo 2! A Madea Halloween.”
Perry’s 2008 film “Meet the Browns” (which spawned a TV series of the same name) is spoofed with the married characters Flora Black (played by Tisha Campbell) and Mr. Black (played by Yves B. Claude), who are mindless stereotypes. Flora has an artificially large behind that is literally the butt of some of the movie’s awful jokes. Mr. Black is supposed to be so stupid, he accidentally sets himself on fire at a family cookout. Jasmine Guy has a weird and out-of-place cameo in the movie as a cleaning lady named Miss Mildew.
“Not Another Church Movie” is so unfocused, it also spoofs the Oscar-nominated 1991 drama “Boyz n the Hood,” which is about three teenage friends affected by gang violence in South Central Los Angeles. Needless to say, the only awards that are suitable for “Not Another Church Movie” are Razzie Awards because it’s by far one of the worst films of the year. And for a movie called “Not Another Church Movie,” hardly any of it takes place in a church. The only real church scene is at the end. The end of “Not Another Church Movie” can’t come soon enough for any viewer who endures this onslaught of foul filmmaking.
Briarcliff Entertainment released “Not Another Church Movie” in U.S. cinemas on May 10, 2024.
Culture Representation: The documentary “The Story of Soaps” takes a historical look at American TV soap operas and their impact on pop culture, by interviewing a racially diverse (white, African American and Latino) group of actors, screenwriters, TV producers and other people connected to the business of soap operas.
Culture Clash: Many of the people say in the documentary that soap operas are often misunderstood or underrated and that reality TV shows have brought on the decline of soap operas with professional actors.
Culture Audience: “The Story of Soaps” will appeal primarily to people who want to learn more about this type of this “guilty pleasure” TV genre and also take a breezy nostalgia trip for American soap operas’ most notable moments.
The stars of “Generations” in “The Story of Soaps” (Photo courtesy of ABC)
The comprehensive and thoroughly entertaining “The Story of Soaps” skillfully manages to make this documentary go beyond the expected compilation of TV clips and commentaries from talking heads about the history of American TV soap operas. The documentary also puts all of this sudsy entertainment into a cultural context that shows how soap operas have had much more influence than they’re typically given credit for when it comes to our entertainment choices and how we see the world.
Directed by Robin Pelleck and Rebecca Gitlitz (who are also executive producers of the documentary), “The Story of Soaps” packs in interviews with numerous people (mostly actors, screenwriters and producers) who are connected to the world of TV soap operas in some way. The long list of actors includes Kristian Alfonso, John Aniston, Alec Baldwin, Maurice Benard, Carol Burnett, Bryan Cranston, Mary Crosby, Eileen Davidson, Vivica A. Fox, Genie Francis, Diedre Hall, Jon Hamm, Drake Hogestyn, Finola Hughes, Susan Lucci, John McCook, Eddie Mills, Denise Richards, Marc Samuel, Melody Thomas Scott, Erika Slezak, John Stamos, Susan Sullivan, Greg Vaughan, Chandra Wilson and Laura Wright.
Screenwriters and producers interviewed in “The Story of Soaps” include Shelly Altman (“General Hospital,” “The Young and the Restless”); Brad Bell (“Husbands”); Lorraine Broderick (“All My Children,” “Days of Our Lives”); James H. Brown (“All My Children,” “The Young and the Restless”); Andy Cohen (“The Real Housewives” franchise); Marc Cherry (“Desperate Housewives”); David Jacobs (“Dallas,” “Knots Landing”); Agnes Nixon (the “All My Children” creator who passed away in 2016); Jonathan Murray (“The Real World”); Ken Olin (“This Is Us”); Jill Farren Phelps (“General Hospital”); Angela Shapiro-Mathes (“All My Children: Daytime’s Greatest Weddings”); Yhane Smith (“Harlem Queen”) and Chris Van Etten (“General Hospital”).
Other people interviewed are People magazine editorial director of entertainment Kate Coyne, “The Survival of Soap Opera” co-author Abigail De Kosnik, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” co-star Erika Jayne, Netflix consultant Krista Smith, casting director Mark Teschner and Soap Opera Festivals Inc. co-founders Joyce Becker and Allan Sugarman.
Brad Pitt, Julianne Moore, Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones are named in the documentary as some of the Oscar-winning actors whose early careers on screen included roles in soap operas. Leonardo DiCaprio, Melissa Leo, Marisa Tomei and Kathy Bates are other Oscar-winning actors who were in soap operas before they became famous. Other alumni of daytime soap operas include William H. Macy, Demi Moore and Meg Ryan.
The documentary begins with testimonials from several actors who were in soap operas in the early years of careers, such as Cranston (“Loving”), Baldwin (“The Doctors,” “Knots Landing”), Stamos (“General Hospital”) and Fox (“Days of Our Lives”). Cranston’s first TV job was a guest role in “One Life to Live” in 1968. And when he was in his 20s, he landed a recurring role as Douglas Donavan in “Loving” in 1983.
Cranston says, “I think there are these derisive comments made about soap operas and it’s not fair and it’s not accurate. You’re there to learn. You’re there to bring as much honesty and reality as you can to the moment—and it’s difficult.”
“This genre [soap operas], this job invited me in and put me to work like nobody’s business,” Cranston continues. “It made me feel accomplished, like I broke through a barrier.” Cranston went on to become an Emmy-winning actor several years later, for his role as methamphetamine manufacturer/dealer Walter White in “Breaking Bad,” which he says was a show that was really a soap opera.
Baldwin also says that working in soap operas was extremely valuable to him. He describes “Knots Landing” (where he played the role of Joshua Rush from 1983 to 1985) this way: “It was probably one of the five most important times of my life. They had a very good cast. They had a very talented cast. And that changes everything when you go to work. You don’t care if it’s a soap if you’re working with somebody who’s great. I loved it.”
The grueling hours of working on a soap opera, especially a daytime soap opera that airs five times a week, results in a “sink or swim” atmosphere for a lot of actors who are new to the business. Stamos, who’s best known for starring in the long-running sitcom “Full House,” comments on his 1982-1984 stint as Blackie Parrish in “General Hospital,” which made him a star: “It was great training.”
Fox (who co-starred with Will Smith in the 1996 film “Independence Day”) says of her time on “The Young and the Restless,” where she played the character of Stephanie Simmons from 1994 to 1995: “I learned so much. I learned to hit my cue, how to memorize, how to cry, how to flip my hair.”
“General Hospital” casting director Teschner comments: “There was this stigma to daytime [soap operas] and people misperceiving the acting style as being over-the-top and ‘soapy.’ But I always say that if you can do daytime, you can do any time.” Teschner also mentions that it’s not unusual for a daytime soap opera to film up to 120 pages of dialogue a day, which is the amount of pages that’s typical for a feature-length movie.
“General Hospital” star Francis, who’s been playing Laura on the show since 1977, says in the documentary about her dedication to staying on a soap opera: “Why do I do it? Why do I put myself through this? Because I love to tell stories.”
“General Hospital” co-star Wright, who’s played the role of Carly on the show since 2005, offers a more business-minded perspective to what actors bring to the escapism appeal of soap operas: “It’s our job to sell it to you.” Many of the actors in “The Story of Soaps,” including Melody Thomas Scott (who’s played the character of Nikki on “The Young and the Restless” since 1979), say that because TV brings repeated familiarity in people’s homes, many soap opera fans confuse the actors with the characters that they play on TV.
“The Story of Soaps” has various themed segments which give excellent analysis and commentary on important aspects of soap-opera history. The segment titled “By Women, For Women” details how daytime soap operas have provided many of the best opportunities for women working in television behind the scenes. While male executives dominated prime-time programming, female executives were allowed to shine in daytime television, since the early years of television.
Irna Phillips, who’s often referred to as the “Queen of the Soaps,” could be considered the godmother of daytime TV soap operas, which took the concept of radio soap operas and transferred them to a visual medium. Phillips created the TV soaps “Guiding Light,” “As the World Turns” and “Another World.” She also mentored “All My Children” creator Nixon (who also created “One Life to Live” and “Loving”) and William J. Bell, who created “Another World” (with Phillips), “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
In the 1950s, when it was more common for the majority of women to be homemakers, daytime soap operas provided an ideal captive audience for advertisers. The term “soap opera” comes from the fact that during the radio era (before television was invented), soap companies would be frequent advertisers on these drama series.
“The Survival of Soap Opera” co-author De Kosnik notes that when soap operas began on TV, they pioneered the lingering close-ups of actors’ faces to show their emotions, thus adding to the melodramatic appeal. She also mentions that loyalty to certain soap operas would be handed down from generation to generation of women, much like loyalty to certain sports teams would be a generational tradition for men. Although soap operas tend to have a female-majority audience, there’s been a steady increase of male fans of soap operas over the years, especially for primetime soaps.
The documentary’s “Fan-Addicts” segment examines the culture of soap opera fans. Benard (who’s played Sonny Corinthos on “General Hospital” since 1993) calls soap-opera enthusiasts: “The most loyal fans in the world.” The documentary includes a lot of archival footage of fans giving adulation to some of the most famous soap stars over the years, including Stamos and Lucci.
Lucci says of her iconic Erica Kane character, which she played during the entire run of “All My Children” from 1970 to 2011: “I loved playing her. There was such range with her. She was a capable of doing and saying just about anything. And the audience saw humanity in her stories.” And yes, the documentary includes footage of Lucci finally winning her first Daytime Emmy in 1999, after she had a long losing streak of being nominated 18 times and never winning before.
Soap Opera Festivals Inc. co-founder Becker reminisces about the company’s first fan event in 1977, which she says drew “hundreds of thousands of people”—a crowd turnout that probably wouldn’t be possible today, considering how much the popularity of daytime TV soap operas has declined. Becker also describes why soap opera fans are devoted to soap opera cast members: “It’s almost like your own family.”
Legendary comedian Burnett is famously an “All My Children” superfan—so much so that she had a guest-starring role on the show as Verla Grubbs in 1983, 1995, 2005 and 2011. In “The Story of Soaps,” she repeats a story she told in her memoir: When she and her husband spent a month-long vacation in Europe many years ago (before VCRs and the Internet), Burnett asked a friend of hers to send a telegram every Friday with a summary of everything that happened on “All My Children” that week.
One time in the early-morning hours, Burnett was awakened by a hotel employee who was trembling with the telegram, because the visibly shaken employee thought that all the tragic bad news in the telegram was real. Burnett said she started laughing so hard that she began to cry, and the hotel employee thought that she was crying hysterical tears of sorrow, until she explained that what was in the telegram was really an “All My Children” plot summary. Burnett says later in the documentary about “All My Children” being cancelled in 2011: “I’m still angry that they took it off the air.”
A documentary segment called “Love, Lust, Luke & Laura” explores how TV soaps often pushed the boundaries of raunchiness with sex scenes and outrageous love stories, beginning in the 1970s and ramping up even more in the 1980s. Stories about infidelities are very common in soap operas, but the sexual revolution also opened up wilder storylines on soap operas, such as falling in love with a space alien, taboo stepsibling romances and as much nudity as possible.
“General Hospital” characters Luke Spencer (played by Anthony Geary) and Laura were undoubtedly the most famous couple on daytime TV soap operas. Luke and Laura’s 1981 wedding on the show was a major media event, and it remains the highest-rated daytime TV soap opera event, with an estimated 30 million U.S. viewers. However, their relationship was controversial because Luke raped Laura when they first began dating.
De Kosnik says that the 1979 rape storyline was concocted by “General Hospital’s” then-executive producer Gloria Monty (who died in 2006), in a desperate ploy to boost the show’s ratings, because “General Hospital” was on the verge of being cancelled at the time. The show’s producers explained that the rape was “rape seduction” and justified it by saying that Luke really loved Laura. However, that kind of storyline would not have gotten such an easy pass if it had been suggested in later decades.
In “The Story of Soaps,” Francis says about that controversial rape storyline: “I had to justify it for so many years. And I have to say that it feels good to sit here and say it’s awful. They shouldn’t have done it.” In 1998, “General Hospital” made an attempt to remedy this wrong by having Laura angrily confront Luke (they were still married at this point) about the rape.
The documentary segment “It’s a Revolution” is one of the best that demonstrates how soap operas are both a reflection of and influence on culture. Just as soap operas were often the first TV series to have groundbreaking stories about sex, soaps were also among the first scripted TV drama series to address serious social issues. The Vietnam War controversy, abortion, interracial romances, gay teens, transgender relationships, AIDS, mental illness and eating disorders were among the many topics that were considered too taboo for scripted TV series until they were presented on TV soap operas.
“Days of Our Lives” star Diedre Hall, who has played Marlena Evans on the show since 1976, says: “The most compelling thing about daytime drama is that we follow the pulse of what’s goin on.” “General Hospital” writer Van Etten says that he used to be a “deeply closeted” gay man, but he was influenced to come to terms with his own sexuality after seeing Ryan Phillippe portray gay teen Billy Douglas in a 1992 “One Life to Live” storyline.
Emmy-winning “General Hospital” star Benard’s Sonny character is bipolar, and so is Benard in real life. Benard says of the “General Hospital” executives’ decision to make Sonny a biploar character: “I can’t thank them enough.” He says that authentic representation matters in destigmatizing mental illness.
The soap opera “Generations” also led the way in representation for African Americans, since it was one of the first scripted TV dramas to feature a white family and an African American family as equal stars of the show. Although the show didn’t last long (it was on the air from 1989 to 1991), “Generations” co-star Fox comments that the show “changed perceptions” of black people on soap operas, since the black characters on “Generations” weren’t just playing servants, sidekicks or other supporting characters.
But daytime soap operas began to have more competition in popularity with the resurgence of primetime soap operas. The documentary mentions two major social changes that began in the late 1970s and affected the rise of American primetime soaps, such as “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Knots Landing” and “Falcon Crest.” First, more women began working outside the home and didn’t have time to watch TV during the day, but they wanted to get their soap-opera fix at night. Second, the VCR became available as a home product, thereby revolutionizing the way people watched TV, by giving people the freedom to record and watch programs whenever they wanted.
“The Story of Soaps” also points out that the most popular primetime soaps in the 1980s were about rich families because it was a reflection of the decade’s fascination with excess and wealth. Former “Dallas” writer Jacob says it all came down to this concept: “People like to see people that rich [can be] that miserable.” And, of course, the documentary includes a look at the “Who Shot J.R.?” cliffhanger phenomenon of “Dallas” in 1980, when lead character/villain J.R. Ewing got shot in the show’s third-season finale in March of that year, leaving viewers to wonder (until it was revealed in November 1980) who shot him and whether or not he was going to live. An estimated 83 million U.S. viewers watched the fourth-season premiere “Dallas” episode that solved the mystery.
And each popular TV soap opera of a decade is a reflection of what was going on society at the time. “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place” were about people from Generation X establishing their identities and careers in the beginning of the Internet age. “Desperate Housewives” was a commentary on middle-aged, middle-class women in the suburbs during the end of the George W. Bush era and the beginning of the Barack Obama era. And awareness in the mid-to-late 2010s of more inclusivity on TV has been reflected in primetime soaps such as “Empire” (a show about an African American family dynasty) and “This Is Us,” which centers on an interracial family with diversity in body sizes.
The documentary’s “Stranger Than Fiction” segment takes an unflinching look at how reality TV has eroded the popularity of traditional soap operas. Reality TV programs have proliferated and thrived because they’re almost always cheaper to produce than scripted shows with professional actors. Several people interviewed say that the O.J. Simpson trial of 1995 was a TV game changer, since live coverage of the trial pre-empted many daytime soap operas, and many TV networks saw that the trial coverage got higher ratings than the soaps. The trial is often called “a real-life soap opera.”
“The Real World” executive producer Murray (who credits the show’s late co-creator Mary-Ellis Bunim for being a TV pioneer for TV soaps) says that they pitched MTV on the concept of “The Real World” as being a “docu-soap.” The late Pedro Zamora, who was on “The Real World: San Francisco” in 1994, is credited with helping bring more awareness to TV viewers about AIDS, since he was the first openly HIV-positive person to be on a reality TV series.
And most reality shows about people’s lives are basically just soap operas with people who usually aren’t professional actors. “The Real Housewives” franchise (which was inspired by “Desperate Housewives”) and the Kardashian/Jenner family are predictably mentioned. Many former reality TV stars have admitted (but not in this documentary) that much of what’s on these reality TV shows is already pre-planned by the show’s producers. Curiously, this documentary didn’t include any footage from “The Bachelor” franchise, which has been described as being among the most “soap opera-ish” reality shows of all time.
The documentary’s “Death of Daytime” segment gives an overview of the cancellations of numerous daytime TV soap operas in the 2000s and 2010s. “Guiding Light,” “As the World Turns,” “Passions,” “All My Children,” “One Life to Live” and “Port Charles” were the long-running American soap operas that were cancelled in these decades. “All My Children” was the cancellation that caused the most viewer outrage, according the documentary. The rise of social media, streaming services, interactive websites, apps and podcasts have further fragmented audiences, who now have millions of more options than the days when there were only a handful of national TV networks in the United States.
Although soap operas seem to be a dying genre, several people interviewed in the documentary point out that many Emmy-winning prestigious shows of the 2000s and 2010s were really soap operas, including “Game of Thrones,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Sopranos” and “Orange Is the New Black.” On the other end of the spectrum, trashy talk shows hosted by the likes of Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Morton Downey Jr., Sally Jessy Raphael and Jenny Jones also took their cues from soap operas, since these shows thrived on creating nasty fights with guests while the cameras were rolling.
TV news has also absorbed the influence soap operas, as many news programs (especially on cable TV) have taken big stories and presented them as soap operas, with TV hosts and commentators being sort of like a Greek chorus weighing in with their opinions. The overall message of “The Story of Soaps” seems to be that if people have a snobbish attitude toward soap operas, then they should take a look at their favorite entertainment and media and see how much soap operas have had an influence. They might be surprised to see how much soap operas have impacted our culture.
ABC premiered “The Story of Soaps” on May 19, 2020.
Culture Representation: Set in Atlanta, Dallas and various other U.S. cities, the sex comedy “Hooking Up” has a diverse cast of characters (white, African American and Asian) who represent the middle-class.
Culture Clash: A man and a woman who are almost complete opposites find themselves going on a personal and sexual journey with each other.
Culture Audience: “Hooking Up” will appeal primarily to viewers who like low-concept, slightly off-kilter raunchy comedies with questionable humor.
Sam Richardson and Anna Akana in “Hooking Up “(Photo courtesy of Saban Films)
In an attempt to set itself apart from other sex comedies, “Hooking Up” has some bizarre plot elements that actually lower the quality of this already lowbrow movie. It isn’t until the last third of the film that the movie gets better. But by then, it’s too little too late.
“Hooking Up” is the feature-film debut of Nico Raineau, who co-wrote the movie’s uneven screenplay with Lauren Schacher. It begins, as many sex comedies do, with people having sex. In this case, the sex scene is with a nymphomaniac in her 30s named Darla Beane (played by Brittany Snow), who’s doing the deed very loudly with an older guy named Charlie (played by Rob Moran). The two of them are in Atlanta and are going at it in an empty elementary school classroom, of all places. And it’s clear from their encounter that Darla is a very bossy and selfish lover.
As Darla abruptly gets up and leaves the classroom, she accidentally bumps into 30-year-old nice guy Bailey Brighton (played by Sam Richardson) in the hallway. He asks her what she was doing in the classroom, and she sarcastically replies that she was there for a parent-teacher conference. Is Darla a parent or a teacher? Neither. She’s a sex addict and she’s at the school for an after-hours group therapy meeting with Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA).
It’s her first SLAA meeting, and Darla isn’t thrilled to be there at all, because she’s only there under a court order. What did she do to get in trouble? It’s not really made clear, but it’s hinted at later in the movie. As Darla angrily tells a member of the group, she doesn’t belong there because she’s not an addict.
Just when Darla has made it abundantly clear that she’s not interested in making friends in the group, in walks the group leader: It’s Charlie, the guy she had sex with moments before. Darla and Charlie both look surprised to see each other, but viewers shouldn’t be. After all, how many group therapy sessions are taking place after hours at the same time in this school?
As it turns out, there’s another group-therapy session taking place in another area of the school. It’s for a group of cancer survivors. And Bailey is one of them. He has testicular cancer, and it’s resulted in the removal of his left testicle. Bailey’s group already knows that he’s had this procedure.
And unfortunately, viewers know about it too because Bailey’s genital area is constantly used for ongoing crude jokes in the movie. This type of humor (especially for people who’ve had body parts removed because of cancer) is bound to make some people uncomfortable and possibly offended because the jokes really aren’t that clever or funny.
Soon after viewers see Darla and Bailey in their respective group therapy sessions, we see what Darla and Bailey do for a living. Darla works as a sex columnist for a local women’s lifestyle magazine called ATL Style. And viewers see that Darla isn’t just rude and abrasive at therapy sessions she doesn’t want to go to—she’s rude and abrasive all the time.
Bailey works in a lowly position at a gym. In a FaceTime chat that Bailey has with his loving but overbearing parents—Ron Brighton (played by Bryan Pitts) and Cindy Brighton (played by Vivica A. Fox)—viewers see that Bailey’s father is a successful gym owner who is expanding his business in their hometown of Dallas.
The movie goes to great lengths to show how opposite Darla and Bailey are. While Darla openly watches porn on her work computer, Bailey is moping around at his job because he’s nursing a broken heart over his recent breakup with his high-school sweetheart Elizabeth “Liz” Cartwright (played by Anna Akana), whom he still stalks on Instagram. Later in the movie, Bailey reveals that he moved to Atlanta because Liz moved there too.
Bailey is so stuck on Liz that he calls her and asks her out on a date, even though they’ve broken up. It’s in this scene that viewers find out that Liz was the one who dumped Bailey. She tells him that their breakup is for the best and that he should move on and meet new people, because that’s what she’s doing. Later, she stops by the gym to give Bailey a box of his belongings that he hadn’t bothered to pick up after their breakup. It’s clear from their interactions that Bailey’s life revolved around Liz, and now he feels lost without her.
And then, Darla and Bailey each gets bad news. Darla gets fired because her boss Tanya (played by Jordana Brewster) thinks that the quality of Darla’s work has gone downhill. Tanya is also tired of putting up with Darla’s shenanigans, which included Tanya having to settle a sexual-harassment lawsuit that was brought against Darla, who has a habit of hooking up with co-workers.
Darla also had sex with a male intern in an empty conference room and recorded the encounter on video. Bizarrely, the video is played on the TV screen in Tanya’s office while Darla gets fired. It’s meant to be a funny part of the movie, but it’s downright creepy to have a boss watch a sex video of an employee while the employee is sitting right in front of the boss. Darla begs Tanya not to fire her (Darla shouts, “I’m the Oprah of orgasms!”), but Tanya is unmoved.
Meanwhile, during a visit to his doctor, Bailey finds out that the testicular cancer that he thought was in remission has now returned with a vengeance. A lump in his right testicle shows that his right testicle will have to be removed too. Feeling anxious and depressed, Bailey shows up unannounced at a restaurant where Liz is (he knows she’s there at that moment because she did an Instagram Story about it) and finds her at a table that’s set for two people. Viewers can see from the items that are on the table that she’s there with a date (who stepped away for a few moments), but a distressed Bailey doesn’t see these visual clues and plops down at the seat opposite from Liz, drinks from a nearby wine glass, and says he needs to tell her something important.
Liz is visibly annoyed and starts to lecture Bailey about how he needs to move on with his life. She also lets it slip that she’s going back to their hometown of Dallas for her mother’s retirement party. Before Bailey can tell her about the bad news about his medical condition, Liz’s date shows up and that’s the end of the conversation.
At another SLAA meeting with Darla and the rest of the group, they’re each given a map of the U.S. where, as a therapy exercise, they have to mark places on the map where they’ve had sex. It’s another weird element to this movie that doesn’t make sense, but it’s used as a basis for the plot. At this SLAA meeting, Bailey suddenly shows up very drunk and blurts out to the entire group that his right testicle is going to be removed because of the cancer. Eventually, Bailey makes his way to his cancer therapy session. The only purpose of this “drunken outburst” scene is to set up the “coincidence” that happens when Bailey and Darla see each other later and she already knows about his testicular cancer.
The map gives Darla the idea to take a road trip, relive her sexual encounters at as many places where she’s had sex before, and write about it. She contacts her ex-boss Tanya to pitch the idea for the story. After some persistent begging, Tanya reluctantly agrees that Darla can blog about her experiences for the magazine’s website, but she won’t be paid for it. Darla eagerly agrees, which shows you how desperate she is.
While at a bar, Darla and Bailey see each other and strike up a conversation. Darla already knows about Bailey’s recent troubles, but she doesn’t tell Bailey what’s going on in her life. All she’ll say is that she’s a writer, but she doesn’t mention that she writes about sex and that she’s recently been fired from her job. Even though Bailey works at a gym, his dream job is to be an illustrator artist, but he tells Darla that his parents discouraged him from having this dream because it’s very difficult for artists to make a solid income. (Bailey’s artwork in the movie is very much like what one would see in a comic strip.)
When Bailey sees Darla’s map, he asks her what it’s for, and she tells him. She also mentions that she wants to recreate her sexual experiences on a road trip and invites Bailey to go with her on the trip. Bailey is very reluctant at first, but then says he’ll go on the trip with Darla, on the condition that they make a stop in Dallas at some point during the trip. And so begins the road trip that takes up about 60% of the movie.
Even though Darla and Bailey had a “meet cute” moment when they first met in the school hallway, it’s important for viewers to know in advance that “Hooking Up” isn’t much of a romantic comedy because there’s very little romance in the movie. Darla and Bailey, who end up being “no strings attached” sex partners on the trip, aren’t really friends for most of the story, and they’re definitely not falling in love with each other.
In fact, Bailey is still hung up on Liz and is posting photos of himself and Darla together on his social media, in the hope that Liz will see the pictures and get jealous. He wants to go to Dallas to show off Darla to Liz. Meanwhile, Darla is using Bailey by blogging about their sexcapades, including details about what it’s like having a one-testicled man as a sex partner. The movie wants viewers to believe that for most of the trip, Bailey and Darla don’t know about each other’s online/Internet activities.
On the trip, Bailey finds out that Darla has a thing for having sex in places (public and private) where she might get caught. (It probably also explains why she ended up being in court-ordered sex-addiction therapy.) But the movie takes Darla’s sex re-enactment quest to a weird tangent when more than once in the story, Darla and Bailey break into someone’s private home to have sex.
Up until this point, Bailey is so straight-laced that when Darla asks him how many sex partners he’s had in his life, he confesses to Darla that he’s only had sex with two people: his ex-girlfriend Liz and Darla. Meanwhile, Darla (who says she’s had sex with 169 people and counting) responds when she finds out that Bailey has had sex with only two people in his life: “That’s the most terrifying thing I ever heard, other than ‘Smell this rag’ and ‘I think I love you.'” That’s what passes for a joke in this movie.
But once Darla and Bailey start breaking into people’s houses, it’s when the movie will probably start to alienate viewers because the break-ins are just so bizarre and unrelatable. Even if the house is empty, what if someone who lives there comes home? What if a neighbor sees them and calls the police? Darla is not that much of a prize (she’s a very troubled and angry woman) and there’s nothing for Bailey to gain by risking a possible arrest for breaking-and-entering or trespassing.
Even though it’s believable that Bailey would start to loosen up around Darla, it’s a bit of an unrealistic stretch that he would gleefully start sneaking into people’s houses just to have sex with her. But that’s what happens, and it doesn’t ring true that he would go through such an extreme transformation in such a short period of time. (And he’s not intoxicated when he makes these decisions.)
It’s during one of these break-ins that the movie takes a very dark turn when Darla confesses a secret about the previous sexual encounter she had in the house. It’s the first time that viewers see that Darla has a heart, because she actually cries with guilt over a tragedy that happened because of what she thought was a meaningless escapade. But then, after that emotionally raw scene, the movie goes back to its silly, slapstick-ish tone. It’s like trying to throw in a scene that wants to be Meryl Streep in an Adam Sandler comedy.
As the two main characters, Snow and Richardson don’t have much chemistry together, although Richardson has better comedic timing than Snow. But then again, they’re playing two mismatched people who start off in a very awkward situation, which continues for the vast majority of the movie. Some of the best acting in the movie is not from the two lead actors but from supporting actors Akana (as Bailey’s ex-girlfriend Liz) and Amy Pietz, who plays Darla’s mother Betty in scenes that somewhat explain why Darla turned out to be such a hard-edged nympho. The screenplay is what’s most problematic about this movie, because some of the dialogue and situations in “Hooking Up” are just plain dumb and cringeworthy.
“Hooking Up” has a somewhat predictable ending, but it’s not as predictable as people might think it is. The first two-thirds of the film are pretty awful, and the last third is actually watchable, but it can’t quite make up for the movie’s beginning and middle. It’s like trying to use air refreshener to cover up the stink that comes from something rotting in the room.
Saban Films released “Hooking Up” on digital and VOD on March 20, 2020.
