titan1978

It wasn’t as egregious as Valentini to me, but it was noticeable and not fully successful. MBE did her best, she didn’t seem like Kayla (neither did her Sierra). Nichols was fantastic. But MA and Billy Warlock did nothing to shore up either character, and the right actor might have made a huge difference.

I freely admit I always found him incredibly attractive and thought he had enough going on to at least be a soap hunk if he had the right pairing or character. But probably not strong enough to make AJ into an actual character. This is exactly part of the problem I think Shelley Curtis was responsible for during that time on GH. I don’t see this coming from anybody but her. It did give us the fantastic scenes with Laura and Katherine at the Ball though. Much like Michael’s conception, it was an inherited thing Guza spun into gold when he came back in late 1997! BTW, I also want to make clear that I love Shelley Curtis and think she should be working on soaps, either DAYS or GH right now, and both shows would be better for it. I just think it was kind of a rough patch at GH and the beginning for me as a viewer tuning into a soap and seeing it fully populated by huge actors from other shows consistently. I can imagine how OLTL fans felt when JC and GR invaded after Rauch pushed them out at Another World!

I don’t know. I agree with @DRW50 that Leigh fit the part, although Damian was kind of underwritten compared to the other characters of the era anyway. Ashford is a good actor, and some mitigating factors hurt that story, including John Beradino’s health and death. I cannot imagine Matt Ashford being a good fit in the seduction bet story with Lucy about Bobbie/Tony though. If anything, maybe Reilly should have kept Matt and GH got Mark Valley as Tom instead? I also feel like while I liked Felecia Bell as Simone, she was never going to rise above supporting player. Both Laura Carrington and Stephanie Williams had more going for them as Simone and had more capability to rise up from the strictly supporting level. The right Tom and right Simone could have made something of what they wanted to do there with the whole story, Justus and Felicia Jones included.

This entire thing is driving me crazy right now. I take some comfort in the larger audience clearly still doesn't want this because the Nielsen ratings have dropped as they went back to forcing Britt into everything again and forcing the Rocco angle again. I am sure the slow erosion will be blamed on the story featuring the Black folks, but I think they continue to misunderstand the audience that isn’t on Facebook.

It’s ridiculous. Even if I buy the conceit he isn’t acting to protect himself, Jason, and Laura from the dead professor being blamed on them (the cover up certainly should be), show that to us! We had an opportunity to tie the body coverup to Jason’s disappearance. To tell a story within the larger plot about Laura’s history of witnessing/experiencing trauma and disassociating. A story within the story about Sonny actually losing power and maybe even reflecting on knowing when to give it up, or is the power so important he is running the risk of becoming Frank Smith, Rivera, Joe Scully, etc. As in the old men he took power from on his way up that didn’t know it was their time to go and all got killed. But that would involve telling a story, with enough meat on it to cover several people in major ways. Sidwell doesn’t even turn the screws on Laura himself! He sends Ezra to do it. My complaints remind the same as they have been for years with GH. Is it overall better than it was just before and after COVID? Yes. I don’t know how you bring back a fan favorite serial killer in Ryan Chamberlain and somehow make it boring, but GH did it! Right now the show is even entertaining and exciting sometimes! But the ingredients are there for it to be actually good, with just a few tweaks here and there and a little more detail in the writing.

Sometimes it wasn’t even inspired by an actual story/book/play, but it was a feeling that they took inspiration from. Gloria Monty said her ideal was a mix of Hitchcock and Capra, and that showed up on the show. Y&R was clearly inspired by old Hollywood glamour and staging, and it created a style that Bell filtered the stories through. AMC, at least up to the breakdown of the ABC soaps started, maintained that small town feel. I read an interview once with Claire Labine and she said her inspirations were Greek tragedies and psychology, and that shows in her work and in the way the characters were explored. Now they are inspired by their own stories. They retell stories already told better on their own shows, or borrow those winks and nods that can be fun, but shouldn’t be the whole depth of the story. They want another baby switch, another posession, another back from the dead person, another big bad villain umbrella storyline that lasts one to two years and then wraps up as the next big bad hits town.

Hearing that full theme is such a nostalgia hit!

This just makes me sad for her and her family.

These were my thoughts as well. I know Kin has been dealing with medical stuff, but the fans that keep bringing that up seem to either not know or forgot that when he made his last exit he flat out said something along the lines of Valentini told him humor was not wanted on the show at that time, and he didn’t expect to return. Now he is classically the boy who cried wolf, but still. This made me laugh! I wish it was Carly too. She was a great casting decision and it was nice to see her as an adult acting with Kin and Lynn again for Lee’s death. I don’t think this is like JJ and Lucky. It’s not legacy casting so I doubt Frank is being forced to bring Serena back. The Maxie angle makes sense to me, and it’s not like they have a dearth of women in this age range right now, so I assume there is a purpose. But are we going to get basically a blank slate disguised as history and nostalgia bait? Most def! My dream and my wish- Serena running Deception and Kruger turning out good in the role.

Interesting. The character should have been integrated a long time ago, and hopefully we will see Scotty again. I will always be sad we didn’t get to see Carly Schroeder as a contract cast member with Serena on GH. I know she was probably still unavailable anyway, and I bet that Tik Tok shop and follower count/engagement was enticing for FV with KK. I barely remember her on Y&R. That period of the show always makes me sad, because Kay Alden set up a new generation beautifully, they were all cast well, and it just slowly got dismantled by bad recasts, Alden losing control, etc.

Tom Cudahy wins for me on cuteness alone!

Again, the entire situation with Storms is very sad to me. I see the comments from her fans and while I think it’s lovely many of them are sending well wishes, the ones rabidly defending her and attacking Brandon and his wife are really not helping her. She’s clearly in crisis, even before the original TMZ story many of us here were aware something was off for years just watching the show.

I think AJ might have had some legs, and I think Ric would have lasted a couple of arcs and been killed by Sonny. Ric lasting past marriage to Alexis was 1000% due to JFP. I wonder what Michael Lowry could have done with AJ. Kanan played the spoiled privileged jackass well, but he also had a sweet side with Monica and vulnerability/guilt with his alcoholism. AJ should have been what JR was like on AMC!

A stop in Corinth on the way to Puerto Rico lol! I know this is part sarcasm, but the truth is I don’t think anything could save Loving. My local ABC affiliate didn’t carry it, and they didn’t want The City either! Even in the slot that was formerly Ryan’s Hope they didn’t pick up Loving. We did get PC though! Not a high point!

I sometimes feel like I am the only person who doesn’t get Jackson/Erica and also didn’t care for him. Part of it was starting the show right after Dimitri/Erica started, and it just seemed to me like that pairing was broken apart sooner than it should have been, if at all. I know there were bts issues with Nader, but still.