Chris B

Oh I 100% agree on both of those! Rebecca Elmaloglou is amazing even in the smallest throwaway scene. She is one of the main reasons I got hooked on Neighbours.

I'll admit, I'm not worried either. On the subject of Emmy nominations, I do hope they really go for it this year. I recall an interview with someone involved in the show (I'm guessing the EP or Headwriter) and they said they didn't find out until the last minute that they were even eligible so they didn't submit in many categories. I'd love to see them get nominations across the various categories. Things like Writing and Directing seem like no brainers and with the right reel I could see multiple actors getting nominations. I feel like Georgie Stone and Majella Davis would be the two women I'd really push and Ryan Moloney and Stefan Dennis for the men.

I absolutely crashed out when I saw the end of the Christmas episode with Cindy appearing dead. While I'm thankful she is alive, that is such a ridiculous way to handle the character. I've disliked a lot of the writing for her since she returned, particularly surrounding the fact that she wasn't around for her kids. As I recall it, this was some sort of witness protection thing so what do they expect? The Junior affair reveal was strong enough on it's own. Why did they have to throw in an attempted murder? She is a soap vixen, hardly someone worthy of being beat over the head with a shovel. I feel like Eastenders had a strong 2023 but 2024 has felt very disjointed like they're just throwing anything to the wall and seeing what sticks. There is too much going on and it doesn't feel like it's that well thought out. We have some fantastic episodes here and there, but overall I have been disappointed. I'm at a place now where I'm excited for the anniversary only because it means the new writers will be starting shortly. The show isn't in a terrible place but it definitely has room for improvement.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Brittany Allen from AMC on the new Dexter prequel as his mother. I know she wasn't the most popular on AMC, but I enjoyed her on that show and have enjoyed watching her in projects since then. I love horror films and she's taken a focus on that area and has done some great work.

I'm towards the end of Jill Bennett's reign of terror and if Peter Dunne were writing this, this would've gone the entire season. I must say, the early scenes with Jill tormenting Val post attack were hysterical, but they gave up on it too soon. I would've made Gary and Jill stronger than ever, even let her get pregnant. I would've let Val continue to spiral and let Jill think she won before just jumping into the reveal like they did. Gary quickly lost interest in Jill which knocked the wind out of the story. At that point who cares if she did it or not? She's now an isolated character with nobody to interact with.

That is definitely interesting! From watching Still the Place, they mention that the show was relatively drama free and it's clear they all got along. I guess once they started shaking up the cast things changed. This isn't that far off from Hunter Tylo being fired. My guess is that whoever was responsible for that probably had a hand in glossing over this.

What?! Who was he accused of harassing? I somehow missed this nugget.

Latham and Lechowick didn't seem to understand the complexities of Abby. They got her relationship with Olivia mostly right, but completely failed at all other aspects of the character. I also think they failed when it came to writing Olivia post-Abby. I never understood why they'd go with a broke storyline for her when there is no way that Karen or Val (who was alone) wouldn't have taken her in. It would've made the most sense to put her with Val to help with the twins and that would put her in close proximity to Kate and they could've involved them in a story together.

Peter Reckell was doomed with a terrible character. He did have strong chemistry with Nicollette Sheridan but there was nothing he could do to make that role work. Maybe if the Sumner Group was around they could've made it work but there was no long term potential for a conman when he joined.

The crazy thing about this is that it was also meant to launch a summer spin off and it was just an awful story. I don't understand how they thought it was strong enough to try and develop a spin off around. It's no surprise that it didn't go anywhere.

I'm almost done with season 9 and this is the first season I feel didn't work as a whole. It has some series best highlights but overall a lot of clunkiness. Highlights: - Lilimae's exit - If she had to go, finding love with Red Buttons was the right way to do it. Looking back I'm very satisfied with her arc although I wish she had returned at some point. - Noises Everywhere - While I didn't enjoy Laura's exit, I did love these episodes. The first episode narrowing it down to the core cast and then the second episode bringing the broader cast in was a nice touch. John Pleshette was wonderful as always and Teri Austin stole the show as Drunk Jill. - The Williams family - It's a shame what happened, but this was a 10/10 introduction. I loved the mystery surrounding it and once the mystery was resolved we discovered that Pat had really nice chemistry with Karen and Val. I wish racism hadn't gotten in the way and these characters, particularly Pat, were able to live up to their full potential. - The finale - I haven't reached this in my re-watch yet, but those final two episodes of the season are among the finest tv I've ever witnessed. The Bad: - Laura's exit - While I find it believable that Laura would leave the way she did, I think they did a disservice to Constance McCashin by not giving us enough on-screen build up before she was written off. She deserved a major storyline that lasted at least half the season before sending her off to die. - The Mexico mess/Manny Vasquez - Nothing in this story worked. Not Manny, not Harold and Olivia, not the kids in Mexico looking for treasure. In order for this to have worked they would've needed to develop Manny as a more complete character so we could even care. Maybe they could've skipped the Charles foolishness and made Manny the new love interest for Abby. - Charles Scott - Michael York is a wonderful actor but casting him as the man who made Abby how she is made no sense. I would've presented the character more as a womanizer with power like a JR. I just couldn't believe this milquetoast man stole her heart like that. Not to mention, it went nowhere. Today my goal is to get through everything except the final two episodes so I can enjoy those by themselves. Then I'm looking forward to season 10 and saying goodbye to Abby!

Hopefully they use this to announce something about the Lifetime movies.

@NothinButAttitudeThank you for tagging me! That is not surprising, but disappointing to read. Sounds like an absolute disaster which we could all suspect from watching around that time.

When they first announced it, they said the pre RetroTV episodes would be online only exclusives, but then Covid hit and that never happened. Considering they didn't revisit that after discovering the final episodes were missing probably tells us everything we need to know unfortunately.

The Generations music is nice, it's the visuals that were all wrong. Something like the later years of Ryan's Hope paired with the music would've worked better. Or even something like Love of Life's later opening which was similar to Y&R's with the cast photos.

Girls5eva, which stars Renée Elise Goldsberry (ex-Evangeline Williamson, OLTL) has been canceled by Netflix. This was a hidden gem. We were lucky to get 3 seasons of it. I expected this so I'm not sad, but just happy for what we got.

The company that owns The Doctors is I believe called SFM Entertainment. Unless they outright sold the series to Retro I believe they'd be the ones who have to request the additional tapes from NBC. I personally don't think they reached out to anybody. It doesn't make sense to me that NBC would've wiped those tapes when that wasn't a practice at the time. I do believe that they have the early episodes of The Doctors because they've streamed a few of them. I do wonder what the hold up is on uploading what early episodes they have. That would've been a nice treat to make up for what we lost.

In terms of intro, looking at how high energy the show appears, I wouldn't mind something similar to what Footballers Wives had. It was a quick and punchy theme, but set the tone for the show well. Personally I'm hoping they avoid an opening with the actors included because the US soaps have always struggled with keeping them updated. If they were to do an opening with the actors, I'd do something like Hollyoaks or Neighbours which I feel is easier to update because they can film the shots between scenes on the already existing sets/locations. They could easily recreate this at the country club set:

Those two I would be so excited about! My one dream soap to see is Return To Peyton Place. I feel like with it being produced by FOX, it's probably in a vault somewhere. I've read that Bing Crosby Productions saved Bright Promise as well. I wonder just how many short lived soaps are out there waiting to be discovered.

Glad they started running it on TV! I guess my prediction of something dropping the week The Talk ended was correct. Now that we have something, I'm really excited for January and February and seeing how they amp up the promo. I hope they hit up mainstream outlets as well as interviews with Black outlets.

I'm glad they haven't given up and are doing something with the show. I feel like the expense of doing their own streaming platform may have been too much for them, but putting it on an existing platform is a smart way to utilize all the work they did getting the show ready for streaming. Hopefully an Amazon/Tubi deal is next so they can do more traditional streaming. Dark Shadows has become a streaming staple and to also have The Doctors easily available would be nice. I just hope these moves continue to inspire others to utilize their soap catalog. You can't convince me that AMC wouldn't do well in streaming, among others. Just takes someone willing to do the work.

They also had Behind the Screen with Debbi Morgan, Janine Turner and Michael Sabatino. That reminds me, there are three short lived David Jacobs series I'd LOVE to see. Behind the Screen, Married: The First Year (with a pre-Knots Landing Constance McCashin) and his 90s extremely short lived soap Four Corners with Ann Margaret.

I was so upset when Mackenzie and that hunk of a toad were written off but I must admit I'm loving the show right now. I feel like they've navigated those exits well and the show feels like it's in a good place. I'm glad they didn't kill Toadie off so he has room to appear here and there as needed. Having Nell move in with Terese was a smart idea and I'm happy she's not in that house alone. I wasn't thrilled with Terese and Paul getting back together but they do have good chemistry so I'm not mad about it. I'm glad that Cara and Remi have a storyline that is about them and not JJ for once. It's highlighted how strong both actresses are and I hope they continue to give them substantial stuff to do. Another highlight for me is Max Ramsey. He has good chemistry with Byron and Sadie and it's nice to see them in a new storyline. I also think they're doing a much better job with Chrishell Strause than they did with Mischa Barton. For one, she's a better actress and she seems like she wants to be there. I'm enjoying her chemistry with Holly and Nicollette and I love the bits and pieces they give us of her backstory. I'm not sure how long she'll be around but they appear to be using her time wisely. The only low point for me is Leo and Krista who are as dull as dishwater and the lack of Karl and Susan. I imagine Leo and Krista must have their fans so I don't expect much from them, but I do hope we get to the point that Karl and Susan get something to do. I feel like more than anybody, the reboot has not been favorable to them.

Ed Scott has definitely improved the lighting and the directing has improved to give the sets more dimension/make them look larger, but nobody is doing it like GH these days. Not just the size of the sets, but the amount of them is really impressive in this day and age.

That promo looks amazing and it looks like from a production standpoint, Atlanta was a smart choice. Compared to how Y&R and B&B look these days, it's nice to see a soap with such expansive sets. I hope they're able to weave location shooting in throughout and not just at the beginning. Happy they're starting to promote it.