Chris B

I see chemistry with Ashley and Andre so I'm not completely against this but the way it's been written is absolutely terrible. It definitely reminds me of one of those early soap failed plots. Ashley has so many connections but none have been properly utilized to develop her, instead we get this silly Mary Sue storytelling with everybody talking about how wonderful she is. I don't know how Derek made it from the page to the screen. There seems to be absolutely no plan for him. He has no personality, no friends or family and he was given a job that isolates him from the entire cast. They could've just made him a cop so he'd at least have Jacob to interact with but a firefighter? On a soap? Seems pointless.

I hate to say it but that podcast was rough to listen to. I don't understand why it wasn't edited and why there was no preparation. There was a man setting everything up so I'm putting the blame on him, assuming he was the producer. You literally have Michele Lee doing the intro twice, then them discussing the format of the show and what type of topics they'll cover and you included all of that? This should've either been heavily edited or a test podcast. They need to go into it knowing what the topics will be. I do think it got better as time went on but the lack of structure made it difficult to watch. At first I didn't understand why Michele kept saying "Lets talk about your first sexual experience." When she elaborating that she meant "lets talk about something other than Knots," I completely understood. She's right. They should have specific Knots-related topics but still have an open section where they can talk about their career or whats going on in their lives. I hope episode two is better put together than what we got.

Sheila Ducksworth said that the stuff they were filming for the final week of April is must see and Karla Mosley has mentioned Anita has a big story coming up so I believe this month will be the month we start seeing change, heading into May sweeps. I haven't found the show to be boring but they've definitely slowed things down from the big opening weeks. I think that was necessary to give viewers a chance to get to know the characters but there are definitely kinks they need to work out. From a writing standpoint, I definitely feel like the script editor and continuity person needs to do a better job. There have been silly mistake like forgetting if its day or night, calling Martin by the incorrect title, Naomi holding business meetings in inappropriate places, etc. They should be catching that. I'd also like them to figure out the Richardson family unit. Martin 100% should've been Anita and Vernon's son and he's written as such. We never see Martin or Smitty with Kat, Ted or Nicole. Throw in the fact that it makes Nicole a grandmother and it makes no sense. Perhaps they could reveal Martin is from an affair Anita or Vernon had and they gave him to Nicole to avoid scandal. Not a big deal but I do wish they'd implement more location shooting like the first week. It doesn't have to be anything major but that scene with Naomi and Bill (the first scene they ever shot!) was one of the strongest they've had and I do think letting them get outside of the studio opens things up and modernizes the show As we go into the summer Im curious if they will make any changes. Will there be a summer set, whether indoors or outdoors? I'm thinking of how GH has the summer pool set when I mention this btw. I do think it would be nice to have a set where the majority of characters can mix and let their hair down. I love the clothes but it would be nice to see everybody more casual at time, plus it doesn't hurt to show a little skin on a soap.

It could also be that Y&R hired him without a plan and this is giving them time to think of something. That would be classic JG.

This was a good listen. I loved her tease about Anita having a story coming up. She said it was important to Tamara to be able to have her own meaty storyline and not just be the elder dishing out advice. I agree 100% and I can't wait to see what they give her to sink her teeth into. She really hit the ground running from day one and I know she's going to devour whatever they give her. I'm ready for it!

I'm with you. I had hoped they'd at least manage 2 million live viewers considering Bold is around 2.5. Hopefully as they evolve they can find a bigger audience as they find their footing and make changes. I wish we had an idea of what their streaming and Live+3/7 numbers look like. I have a feeling with it being a new soap with a lot of viewers who don't traditionally watch soaps, it's possible they have a bigger audience than we realize because people are streaming or DVRing the show.

For me personally, Jazmen Darnell Brown is absolutely the best. His dialogue feels modern and fresh and I also love Danielle Paige who reminds me of the old P&G soaps with her dialogue which feels very soapy but character driven.

I think it's just to make it easier to read since it's so much data.

I don't love the documentary idea for Andre and Ashley. I do like the idea of a documentary (a great way to catch a secret on camera for a reveal) but not for this story. I feel like they should've made Andre a doctor so they could naturally be in each others element. Either that or make Andre and Jacob friends to justify why they're around each other so much. Using the hospital as a meeting place for a nurse and a photographer is completely unnatural.

This is disappointing to hear because Ridge and Brooke don't seem anywhere close to a wedding where I'm at lol.

This is one of my favorite stories of all the soaps. All of the Logan's did such a great job with this story. The episode where Storm decided he needed to kill himself was so well done and absolutely heartbreaking. Then when Katie woke up and revealed to everybody she'd accidently shot herself and wanted to apologize to Storm it was so rough because Brooke had been screaming at Storm and blaming him for what happened to Katie, not knowing the truth. Heather Tom also gave a stunning performance at Storm's memorial. Now like everything else on B&B it was forgotten but they did a great job with the story in the first few months. BTW, in my rewatch I'm finally towards the end of season 7. This has been the most difficult season for me to watch. I hope season 8 is better. I couldn't understand just why I was so bored and then I realized for months I've hardly seen Sheila, Eric, Stephanie and even Thorne. Every storyline they're currently running is a total snoozefest for me. Sally/Anthony/Macy, Connor/Karen and this dreadfully dull Ridge/Taylor/Brooke/James story.

I do think when keeping the US soaps in mind that the show is definitely being designed for binging. A big reason they created BTG is that The Talk wasn't successful on streaming. I love the lack of endless recapping which should've been a thing across the board a long time ago. Of course the overseas soaps have been doing this for years, along with many other things I wish the US soaps would adopt. This is the weakest part of the writing. They have a continuity person and a script editor but these errors continue to appear in episodes. I can appreciate scenes without music but I must admit I do love the background music here. I don't think they overdo it and the show has it's own style and the music doesn't sound cheap or cheesy (think DAYS). I feel like the weirdest thing is the design of the set and how much Andre, a photographer is there. A hospital set on a soap is common but I wish it was designed more like what GH has so you could easily see Ted and Nicole's offices which would give people more reason to be there.

I came in expecting to hate this story but I actually have found myself enjoying it. Even the set doesn't bother me because I assume it's meant to be a private back room sort of thing. Part of what is selling it for me are the actors. Vanessa was an early standout but Doug and Joey are coming pretty close. Casting Jon Lindstrom was a brilliant idea and he has amazing chemistry with Vanessa. I just finished binging this week and I loved it. I noticed we didn't get Ashley or Derek this week and I can't say I missed them at all. What I love about the show is that they aren't allowing one storyline to dominate. They spread it out pretty evenly and as the weeks go by we're getting more development for the secondary stories like Martin/Smitty and Vanessa/Doug. It keeps me from getting sick of anything or anyone. Even though you have certain characters (like Nicole) who appear in almost every episode, they use them in different ways so it doesn't feel like they're there to just cram one story down our throat. We get to see them in their own story but also supporting various family members and friends. I don't know if casting is considered a spoiler so I'll put my other thoughts under a spoiler tag just to prevent upsetting anyone.

What surprises me is how many of my favorites came out of nowhere. Characters like Kat, Eva, Leslie and Ted didn't really make an impression on be going into the show and all have become favorites of mine. I think since they focused the promo so much around the Duprees I was expecting Dani's story and the core four to be my main favorites. Now don't get me wrong, I love all of them, but that Ted/Leslie story has stolen my heart.

Monday's episode was wonderful! Another great script from Jazmen who is quickly establishing himself as their key scriptwriter. I was happy that we got an episode without many of the primary characters which gave them time to further develop some of the smaller storylines. It was nice to see them connect Vanessa into the Joey plot with her husband. I will also say, Joey and Vanessa had very noticeable chemistry. The actress is great and ready for something to sink her teeth into beyond just sleeping around. I hope this story picks up steam soon. The other big highlight for me were the Elon/Anita scenes and Naomi/Anita.

One important thing about all of the buzz this has caused is that it's shown the show has a passionate fanbase. For a new soap I do think all of this attention is impressive and a good sign that they have a diverse and unique fanbase for a soap. The amount of people I've seen ask what a recast means has been kinda funny but also nice because it means they're bringing a new audience to soaps.

I've seen a lot of people speculate that he won't be in it for the long haul but he is one of the 20 characters on contract which suggests to me they want him to stick around. I will say, despite his heavy screentime, he doesn't seem as developed as the other contract characters. He's the only person on contract with no friends or family. All he has is Ashley and even she has the friendship with Naomi and a mother on canvas. He definitely feels like he should've been recurring. This is the one character I wish I had some insight on what the show has planned because I just don't understand.

Seeing how some actors have announced their exits from a show, this would have potential to cause major crash outs if they forced them to tweet about the show lol.

A day later, this is still the #5 trending story on Deadline. I definitely think this got more attention than the show anticipated.

I feel for Jen Jacob because she's an undeniably good actress who has multiple examples of her doing good work. I feel like she's trying as hard as she can and is successful with anybody except Derek but because the majority of her scenes are with Derek she's being dragged down by him. In order to make Derek work you'd have to have someone like a younger Heather Tom or Sarah Brown who can pull something out of you be the sheer force of their talent. I don't think she's in a fair situation as long as she has to work with him.

I wanna say as recent as a couple days ago, the actress playing Ashley has posted on instagram on set. She did post last week a post talking about reading negative things about herself online. The cast rallied in response to it. Today she posted something similar but I still don't think she's been let go but she may be concerned with how her story is being received. He's back on Twitter today re-tweeting people asking for the show to bring him back. I guess now we know for sure he didn't leave on his own accord and this was a show-dictated move.

I'm still upset by this. I am going to assume this was the show wanting a different take on the character. I wonder what the feelings are when his storyline ended up being such a breakout for the show and him being one of the most popular characters. I don't think they anticipated this when he was originally let go.

At the Paley Center event Sheila Ducksworth said they had just filmed the last week of April, so Ted must've been recast before the show premiered. The character of Santana never recovered from being recast. All the actresses in the role were good but the original was perfect for the role and the only one who was interesting. I was very disappointed to see her go when I watched the show in recent years. I've recently begun Sunset Beach and I actually just got to Tiffany's recasts exit. It's very bizarre because they didn't even try to make her work. I don't understand why they didn't just let Adrienne Frantz play out what we left for that character. She was great on the show but it was a blessing in disguise because she got 15 years of work from the Bell's once she got fired.

I saved this weeks episode and watched Monday and Tuesday last night with my mom and sister. For a mellow week, it was the perfect week to draw them in. They were completely confused about Dani and why she broke into Bill and Haley's house. Once I explained it to them they immediately went back to watch from the beginning. Her affair with Andre also helped seal the deal. I just finished Wednesday's episode by myself and all in all I found it to be another strong week. I'm devasted by the fact that we only got 3 episodes but I'm enjoying the more calm pace the show has picked up. It doesn't feel slow but more relaxed to let you get a better feel for the characters. I find myself becoming invested in more characters as the weeks go by. Of course Eva/Kat is a rivalry that they could play for years and both actors are breakout stars. I'm fully invested in Martin and Smitty's household and the secrets both Martin and Tyrell hold. The scenes between Andre and Nicole this week went a long way to deepening his character beyond just his playboy ways. That actor is a great find for them. For their first full month they've done a good job of holding my interest the entire month. I can't recall the last time an American soap had me in a chokehold like this.

Although I didn't want this role recast, I do think 13 weeks is enough to know if someone is working in a role or not and considering the choice is 13 weeks or 26 (unless you wanna pay them not to work), I say go for it. But Ted? I'm still shocked by this. This is interesting! He's older but at least in that Deadline photo he looks younger. When it comes to Black actors I just wait and see what is portrayed on screen. You can never tell how old we are anyway.