Chris B

I like her mom! Cassandra Creech is great. I wouldn't mind her getting her own storyline. I hope they find something better for Paris to do. Diamond White is great, but what is with these storylines? Is it really that hard to give her a love interest? Thomas is single, RJ exists, Dino exists. I just don't understand the vision for her. Brad seems to like her and he wants to write for her, but he can't seem to find a good story for her.

Omg you’re right! I was reading too fast! I meant to tag @carolineg!

This is very true. I think Eva was a decent housewife. Her problem is that she was always pregnant which would put a stop to how much she could participate. I mean look at her now, pregnant again so she isn’t doing any promo for the show. @CatI do agree Vicki and Tamra wanted a problem with Brandi, but she lost me with how she did my girl Shauna. She was wrong for that, but Shauna gathered her ass right up.

I must say, the funniest part of Girls Trip was when Vicki revealed she was an anti-vaxxer and you immediately see the concern from Phaedra, who was laid back thinking everybody was vaccinated. Then all the flashbacks of Vicki coughing around her had me SCREAMING! That was pure comedy! I really enjoyed the first two episodes. It’s an odd cast, but they have good chemistry. I thought Taylor and Eva would be weak links but they were both standouts. It’s nice to see Kennedy as a teen and to see Taylor happy! I’ll always have a soft spot for Taylor and Kim because without them, BH wouldn’t be what it was, but they didn’t get to benefit as much as the others because it’s the early seasons. Tamra was surprisingly laid back in the first two episodes, but she’s good as Vicki’s sidekick. Vicki is still great tv (and insane) and Brandi is still an absolute trash bag. Eva fit in so much better than Monique would’ve. It was also nice to see Dorinda again and Jill. You could feel the tension between the two. I wonder if they’ll bring up Dorinda blocking Jill from being a Friend Of in season 11.

I enjoyed early Texas once I could figure out what was going on. It's a shame it didn't work out, which I blame on them starting the show on AW. If you didn't watch AW (like me), it was incredibly confusing trying to figure out what was going on since all the storylines were in progress. The 90 minute experiment with AW was pretty insane. As many have said, expanding The Doctors could've been smart or just creating a new half hour soap. NBC was a nightmare when it came to their soaps. I do think Return To Peyton Place could've become a hit had it been given another year. Ratings were stable and from what I've read, the stories really seemed to improve towards the end.

Bravo was fine with the podcast until Heather went to Andy privately to bash it. Two Ts has made it clear they follow the Bravo guidelines and the only Bravo-related guests they have are approved by Bravo's publicity team, which is how they're able to get so many current HWs on the show. I think that is just another way Heather could try to block Tamra.

@Cat, there is a lot of juicy gossip about what's going on with RHOC. This is why filming hasn't started. So to begin with, the main issue is Heather and the level of power she has and her demands. It was always obvious she pushed that producer and threatened Nicole to quit (which Heather McDonald has now confirmed btw). It's crazy because even big HWs didn't seem to have that luxury to exclude such dramatic things that would've boosted the ratings. Right now they're testing out 5 girls: two friends of Noella, two friends of Heather and one friend of Emily. Heather is refusing to film if they hire either of Noella's friends or bring back Nicole. This also puts Noella's job up in the air. Shannon is pulling for Noella and for her to get a friend on the cast. Nobody knows the true reason Heather doesn't want Tamra back, but my guess is that she knows her return was a flop and doesn't want Tamra to come back and get praised for saving the show. She keeps doing things to piss Tamra off, but we're not getting the normal Tamra blow ups, which tells me she knows she needs to play nice with Heather so Heather doesn't keep blocking her return. Until filming actually starts we won't see how successful Heather is, but it's not looking good for Tamra or Noella I'd say.

@TaoboiLove your David Foster story! I am not surprised he is like that. I had a similar situation with Gretchen from OC, but I must say she was VERY nice. She didn't have a reservation, but was in desperate need and the city was sold out. I wanted to bump someone for her, but my boss said she wasn't famous enough lol. But she was a sweetheart the entire time.

I listened to a podcast with Stanbury and she said she was desperate to be back on Bravo and they discussed her moving to NYC or Beverly Hills to appear on one of the shows. They basically created Dubai for her and she’s wasting the opportunity. Already skipping events and refusing one on one meetings. The show is going to end up carrying on without her. In other news, looks like word is finally out that Noella was telling the truth and Heather Dubrow really did attack a producer. It was obvious, but I’m glad we now know. It’s a shame the guy has to lose a job he had for years to protect her.

This show was all over the place, but I enjoyed it. I feel like it had almost a self-contained feel episode-to-episode as the focus shifted between characters so the moments didn't feel earned. I enjoyed some of the characters more than I enjoyed the dialogue and storylines. My favorite characters were Judy, Brenda, Julian (my favorite) and Shar. They were the most fully-realised and fun to watch in a sea of trauma.

He is VERY good looking and can act, but is he needed? No. I feel like Alexis has options on the canvas if they wanted to give her a love interest. GH's cast is becoming so bloated that the stories are dragging and so much of the cast is wasted.

This looks like yet another flawless season for the ladies! I can't wait for Bravo's best show to return.

I hate this. I'm glad she got a nice exit, but seeing her as the head of the household was interesting and the icing on the cake would've been her remaining and being there when Angela came out of her coma. I think she would've been proud of Emma for keeping the family together. I also find that for once I love most of the new characters. I like that they tied everybody to someone existing. Genele was was very complex femme fatale, Lauren is more interesting than I expected considering she is the good girl and I loved Michael. I think they definitely has reshaped the canvas in a way that they could've gotten another couple seasons out of it. The show needed a new villain and a shift in focus, so I appreciated what Michael brought to the show. It was nice to see Richard with a strong protagonist. I hated the stuff with him fighting with Angela and was glad they allowed him to evolve.

I just started watching Durban on Tubi and this show is a hidden gem! Very strong first season cast! I was stunned to see Nonku had a baby with Ayanda's husband! Granted they claim they were separated at the time, but that is so salacious and soapy! I find Nonku seems jealous of Ayanda and wants to create issues with her. I wonder if my opinion will change, but so far I'm loving Ayanda and how open she is to embracing Nonku's daughter as a part of the family. In episode 4 LaConco debuted and my god, WHAT A STAR! Literally I've only watched her first episode and I am hooked on her. The show had a good central storyline with the baby drama, but she amped it up. I hope Tubi adds season two soon and I also want them to add Lagos.

If your country has access to Amazon Prime you should have FreeVee. Originally it was inside of the prime Video app. They only recently launched the separate app so your country might have it still embedded in Prime.

So much is going on! RHOA Reunion I’m loving Carlos’ new show but I wish he’d held off on this without Nene. Such an iconic group to reunite and it just will feel like it’s missing something without her. Still, it’s exciting and I do look forward to it. RHOBH Im not overly impressed with the new season, but I enjoy it. I find the Dorit storyline to be unwatchable. I don’t find her endearing and it doesn’t help I don’t fully buy the story. I also find it odd Kyle has taken such a lead role in producing this story. Crystal and Sutton are giving us the most entertainment with Kyle and Garcelle taking the Co-EP role and making sure these ladies work. I feel it’ll improve over time so I’m being patient. Also, can we all agree that Diana is a horrible addition and needs to be a one and done? I cannot take her! I wasn’t fond due to the rumors, but her personal scenes are boring, her group scenes are boring she is vapid and low energy and needs to be a one and done. She doesn’t even have good fashions. RHODubai I loved this! Much like Miami, it was well produced and felt fresh for Housewives. I love how diverse the cast is and feel like due to the setting, their differences will be more accepted than they would if this show were set somewhere else. I liked the entire cast and I liked that they were honest about how the women knew each other instead of acting like all were besties. I hope the new RHONY takes a similar approach by finding multiple groups of friends and trying to meld them together. There was lots of fun shade but nothing that felt too dark. The Brooks/Ayan fight and even Stanbury/Ayan reminds me of the pettiness of a Nene/Sheree feud which can be fun to watch and laugh at without having to pick sides. As long as they don’t get too dark and crash and burn like SLC, Bravo may have another hit on their hands.

Damn. There’s so many characters, it’s hard to know which spoilers to really take seriously and which ones will be a minor 1-2 episode thing. I got invested in the Chet/Terry stuff, so I’m curious if they’ll try someone else with her or push her back into the background. Also as someone who loved Spinelli, I’m curious what they’ll do with him.

It’s available for free on Amazon Prime’s Freevee app! You don’t even need an Amazon account if you download the Freevee app. https://www.amazon.com/Falcon-Crest-Complete-First-Season/dp/B006VA4JRS/ref=nodl_

@VeeIve been loving your recaps and I’m happy to see you’re enjoying the early seasons! There are some clunkers in the first three seasons, but for the most part they really hit the mark in developing those characters. The foundation they laid not only with the various characters, but the entanglements fueling so much story in what was considered the glory days. I feel like the self-contained days on Dallas didn’t really do much for those characters, so I always appreciated that Knots took a more grounded approach with them. I cannot wait for you to get to season four! I’m also curious how you’ll feel about Claudia Lonow when she transitions to a main character in the same season. I grew the love her although I’ll admit she was incredibly unlikable, but I loved what that meant for Karen and her dynamic with Abby was interesting as well. I hope you don’t mind me spoiling it, but I loved that they brought her back in the final season (and the reunion) which allowed her character to come full circle. It was unexpected but a nice call back to the early years.

@JosephI'm going to skip that clip because I'm only four episodes in. Season 9 so far is chilling and I find that I'm loving it. It's probably been 15 years since I last saw this season! One thing I like is that they seem to have a strong handle on the main cast and the new characters are working for me as well. Michael Sharpe and his sister Lauren seem interesting and it's nice to have a new rival for Richard. It's something fresh at least. I love that my girl Emma has a central storyline that affects everybody, instead of a B or C story as usual. It's sad to see her last relationship didn't work out, but I like where this is going. I don't think they've messed Emma up and from memory, the story has a strong pay off for her. Lance the past two seasons has been a revelation. I about died when he told Charley it was disrespectful to walk around the house in his undies, when Lance used to do that all the time. I feel like Pilar is the perfect match for him and they've done a good job of maturing him. I know many hate Pilar because they view her as a Melissa replacement, but the two characters are quite different. Melissa was never the love of Lance's life either, so I don't mind that he's found happiness with Pilar. Maggie's death remains one of the greatest and most shocking exits in soap history IMO. I also feel like after watching their relationship develop, it could've only ended in doom. From the moment Maggie got with Richard she fought every sign and instinct that told her to run away from him. I'm enjoying seeing Richard on the bottom and lose everything--his business, his money, his kids and his wife. The only thing that truly saddens me is that Jane Wyman couldn't film this full season. I just know if she was in better health they would've taken Angie to new heights. I'm glad they gave her a strong exit though. Especially with her age I could see other writers simply sending her to Europe as planned or an off screen accident, but for someone as formidable as Angela, I was glad we got to see her interactions with Charley and her fight. It's added to the terror that character brings and any second Emma is around him I'm worried for her safety. I'm going to be sad when this binge ends, but I'm glad they went out trying, whether people like the season or not. It's sad that Dallas started the primetime soap boom and it's the one of the big four that just gave up in the end. Say what you will about the final seasons of FC, Dynasty and Knots, but they at least tried to do something with the time they had left.

I just finished season 8 and this has been one of my favorite seasons. It's like a love letter to the early years. The stories were more grounded and rural and I think they did a good job of refocusing the show on the Channing and revamped Aggreti families. For the first time in years we have younger characters that work as well, with Ben, Gabriel and Tommy. Richard and Maggie had a GREAT story arc that perfectly sets up the darkness of her season 9 exit. I loved the way they built up Angela and Richard's relationship only for him to turn on her in the end. The entire kidnapping arc was fantastic. I also enjoyed Ana-Alicia's return as Samantha. She could've been a useful character to keep. And of course this season did a good job of repairing the damage done to my favorite character, Miss Emma. Now I'm looking forward to diving into the very controversial final season, then I will give my rankings for the entire series.

Apparently, his return should've been friday, but preemptions means it airs today.

@VeeTo answer your question on the previous page about Gary and Val on Dallas 2.0, they did reconcile in the end, but it was poorly done. Gary was one of the few returning characters they got right and they did give him a bit to do, but that show was so plot driven that there wasn't much room to develop stuff. With Lucy, she appeared semi-regularly, but we never learned a thing about where she was in life now and when her parents returned, they cut one scene with Gary and Val (and didn't even include it on DVD). If the show was better written, they should've done more with the potential Sue Ellen/Gary/Val triangle. It felt so incomplete because Sue Ellen and Val literally only had that one scene and nothing else. As well as Gary fit in, I would've kept him and at least have Val make regular guest appearances here and there.

Vee, I'm loving your thoughts on the early years! I'm glad you see the appeal of the Avery's. Laura's life is so damn miserable, but I love that she doesn't give up and tries to change things for herself. Richard is such a slimey weasel, but I loved him and I sympathize with him for some reason. I loved his relationship with Abby, which highlighted how pathetic he is. You mentioned the Gary/JR scene when JR crossed over, but the real gold for me is whenever Val and Gary had a scene together. I don't think Larry Hagman had better chemistry with anyone than Joan Van Ark. I love that Joan always played the backstory and the hurt over what he did to her. She could tell so much with just a look. Val really starts coming into her own in season four. Season three I feel belongs to Karen, but lord does JVA give some amazing Emmy worthy performances in season four. That season is also the only season where Kenny and Ginger are fully integrated in the cast and actually interesting. I'm curious how you'll react to them at that point.

I'm 10 episodes into season 8 and I'm still loving it. I find that I don't miss Melissa at all. In a way, she's been out of my mind for a while now because she was so unwatchable the past two years. Had they kept her, I think they would've had to bring Cole and Joseph back and I could see the writers doing a good job bringing her back to her roots. In my previous viewings I never cared for Pilar, but Kristin Alfonso's performances are better than I remembered. She has good chemistry with Richard and Lance and I like the idea of her coming from a poor family, getting an education and coming back to spread the wealth amongst her people. Another bright light this season is Emma. The previous writer wrote her as a joke, but she's been humanized again. She's still eccentric, but she isn't the butt of everyone's joke and I like seeing the family actually care about what's going on in her life again. This season feels very similar to the first three seasons, but I will admit it isn't packed with the more plot driven stories from Falcon Crest's glory years. It feels almost like Knots Landing meets Falcon Crest.