ATWT is awesome right now. I mean, we know me, right? I’m the channel-flipping, two-timing soap tramp. But for almost three weeks straight, I have not cheated with DAYS or OLTL! And it’s more than me being a veritable paragon of monogamy (GH’s Liz should take note!): WORLD TURNS is finding its groove and returning to the classic soap so many of us have loved for years.

Jack’s “Never Surrender” tour not only brought him back home to the family who loves him, it brought home for viewers some of the most wonderful things about life in Oakdale. He visited Ben, he checked in with Mike (who finally has a wife and baby of his very own! Aw!), he ran into Molly…and there, my friends, was the turning point for me. The tongue-in-cheek meta of Molly working for CBS 2 in New York was brilliant, but it was Lesli Kay and her joie de vie that really hammered in ATWT saying, “Hey, viewers, we are BACK, baby!” Molly mixing it up with Jack, reuniting with cousin Carly, and then flirtatiously dropping her robe for first love Holden took us back years. It was like she’d never left! And her chemistry with Holden continues to simmer now. I’m so glad she’s back in Oakdale. I really love Lesli Kay and Jon Hensley Jtogether…it’s like he can’t stop smiling!

And I can’t stop smiling every time Carly and Jack and Simon and Katie are on! Soaps are all about the heartfelt connections couples make…even when they’re not together, and that’s something Carly and Jack often forget, what with all their fighting. But since Maura West has been back from maternity leave, the show is really repairing a lot of the damage done to Carly and Jack. I love Maura and Michael Park‘s easy chemistry and the genuine fondness that has been permeating their scenes of late. They feel like friends again…which is a relief after the years of them being at odds. And Simon and Katie? God, they’re hilarious, even in the wake of all the tragedy Katie has suffered. Is it just me or is a little bit of Paul Leyden and Terri Colombino coming through? The twinkling and the grins and the nods back to the past…just like with Molly, it’s like Simon left to get the milk and came back with party favors for all!

originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com