All My Shadows

Eh, it'll give Eileen something to do, so I'm good. I always hoped that it would stick around as a reminder of the Duckworths, though.

I really, really don't like her. At all. If I have to hear Helen W.'s little doll voice say "We.....were bayking biscuits..." once more, I might toss a brick through Ken and Deirdre's window. I loved that scene. David and Peter are two of my favorite characters on the show, and having them there together pretty much made Graeme invisible to me. She is! I'm guessing we're supposed to think he's a "good man" for dropping Rosie, who he's been perving after for months now, in favor of Tina, who he, basically, is perving after now. Ugh. And to make it worst, I'm sure we were also supposed to feel that Rosie got what was coming to her after dismissing Graeme for so long only to be dismissed by him the only time she gives him a chance. Ugh. Too much of that got damn Graeme. It's gotten to the point where they are pretty much yelling at us, LAUGH! LAUGH AT GRAEME! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HE IS SO BLOODY FUNNY! LAUGH AT HIM! IT'S CLASSIC CORRIE HUMOR! GRAEME! LAUGH AT HIM!! COMEDY!!! The breakfast scene with him and Natasha and him trying to kiss David. All of the Oy!'s that are getting on my nerves. Him popping up in almost every flipping scene. It's too much! A lot of characters have been overused, and others have been terribly underused. Eileen and Jason, two of my faves, constantly get nothing and they do get something, they're playing supporting to others. I wish they'd try to get Bruno back. Mary is I've waxed poetic enough about them, I know, but I can watch her and Norris with their shenanigans all day long.

The thing with Degrassi here, though, is that The N, especially in its earlier years when it was splitting time with Noggin, is pretty much a digital cable only channel. Many people had digital, but most did not, so it's not like we watched Degrassi and then ran to school and everybody was talking about it on Monday morning. I remember there were like four or five other kids that I used to talk about the show with. Everyone else was completely clueless. More people started to get digital, and I think that helped, and then it was syndicated to local stations and MTV was airing it for a couple of months too, so now most people in the 18-22 age range are at least familiar with the characters and what it's about, etc. It's not really looked down on, just treated the same way as your OCs and OTHs and Gossip Girls, so on and so forth. I will say this, though. Now that.....ahem..........(lowers self) Drake.........is famous, I'm surprised at how many people look at him and say, "Uh...yeah, his name is Jimmy and he needs to sit down because he's paralyzed." Nerd girl is Clare, and she's usually boring as hell. She gets a little fire in her sometimes, like in a recent episode where Bieber haircut (KC) asked her to help him cheat on a test, even though he basically dumped her for a skank named Jenna. Lame kids. The kid who wants to be de-gayed is Riley, but he's more or less embraced his sexuality now. In the same episode as above, he got the balls to ask out a guy from his yoga class that he has a little crush on. Emma and Manny are technically still "regulars" because they're credited in the opening, but nah, they're just glorified "special guest stars" now. They tried to follow those characters to college last season (including Liberty), but they've ditched them this season. Actually, I'm pretty positive that Emma's only appeared in one episode throughout all of season nine, and I don't think Manny's appeared at all. Emma's boyfriend from college, Kelly, appeared once too. Really, I was once against the changing of the guard, but now it's kinda ridiculous. There's absolutely no point in them still having Cassie and Miriam come in to shoot opening credits stuff if they're not even gonna be on the show anymore. It feels like TPTB are trying to say "Hey, it's still the same show, see, we still have Manny and Emma. And Spinner on the drums!" As popular as those characters are/were, the show was always based squarely around the school, to the point where major characters' parents were only guest stars once or twice a season, if that. They've developed most of their major players now (Holly J and co.) that they really don't need to cling to the old days anymore.

Much is basically MTV, Eh? I think TPTB of DTNG swapped their concerns in regards to Canada and the US a long time ago when they realized how wildly popular the show is/was here among tweens and teens. Back when The N would air all kinds of specials based on the show. Countdowns, documentaries, retrospectives, etc. And the occasional "every episode ever" marathon. Doing "every episode ever" now would take nearly four days 24/7, yet back in those days, like twelve hours a night for three nights in a row.

That show aired on Disney for such a short time. I think they picked up at the same they started airing Life with Derek, which I flove and will watch any time it's on because I just love it so much. Speaking of LWD, .

That 'cut was shitrocious. I guess it was supposed to be his "I'm in mourning because I have no friends" hairstyle like Ashley had hers in season two, but damn. That was just bad. But Spinner/Shane looks so great now. Very, very attractive. The Spanny pairing was just lame, IMO. After making her a "hawt girl," they just went head first into her trying to make her the school slut, and I never believed for a second that Spinner would leave Paige for Manny. But again, that whole thing brought me one of my favorite Manny moments, when she and Paige started going at it in the hallway and Manny revealed Paige's relationship with Mr. Oleander. One of my top five Degrassi moments of all time.

Get out! You really know someone who knows her? Is she cool? Like I said, I tried my damnedest not to like her AT ALL, and I still get that feeling of "Look, you is not Paige" when I see her, but I started to enjoy her after the shooting at The Dot. I love her and Spinner's co-worker relationship at The Dot a lot, actually. Speaking of The Dot, major eyeroll at Peter's Above the Dot nonsense. David Silver did this fifteen years ago in Beverly Hills. LOL! I remember being excited/shocked/intrigued when the most risque thing they did was have JT and Toby look at porn. The shooting and the aftermath of it solidified my Sean love. He presents himself as a thug, gangsta, whatever, but he's so soft and sensitive on the inside while still being masculine, and *swoon*. He's one of my favorites and Daniel Clark's one of the best actors the show has had. Terri came out of her coma shortly after it all went down, but her parents transferred her to a private school because of all the drama. They've rarely, if ever, mentioned her since then. In a way, I kinda like and I think it makes sense. I loved her, but it's pretty realistic for a character to move away and be completely forgotten. It's harder to believe in this situation, though, where it's high school, the kids are older and more likely to stay in touch, and the girl was the center of all this drama. I doubt we'll hear anything about her ever again. He is, but it works. He graduated and works at The Dot, so he mostly appears in scenes there. What I love, love, love about Spinner still being on the show is how we've been able to watch him grow up and come so far from the chunky bully !@#$%^&*] he was in season one. He's mature, he makes responsible decisions most of the time, he's well-adjusted. I came to a new appreciation of the character in the episode where Peter opens Above the Dot. Terribly sad! I loved JT throughout most of his run. A JT-like character is what's missing the most right now, and this Dave kid isn't cutting it at all. It's such a sad thing that these three and a half short years have been so unkind to Ryan Cooley's looks:

Most of the main characters from the first five or so seasons were favorites of mine. Especially Manny, Craig, Jimmy, Paige, Spinner, JT, and Sean. The only character I absolutely could not stand from those days was Ashley fricken Kerwin. I actually liked her in the first season, but after she had that falling out with Paige and went all emo and depressing and "deep," I was done with her. I hated the Ashley/Craig pairing, and I hate that the show always pushed that as Craig's definitive coupling. Craig was one of my favorites, but Ashley just brought him dowwwwwn like she brought everything else down. Just a verry dull, depressing character, and I got sick of her and her "music." I liked Craig much better with Manny. Storylines...so many faves. Marco's initial coming out drama, the Rick drama, the Manny/Craig/Ashley triangle, Sean/Ellie, JT/Liberty and Liberty's pregnancy, Paige's rape, Craig's daddy problems and later on his bipolar issues, Paige/Alex, some others. I watched religiously from the first season up until the fifth, then I was without The-N throughout seasons six and seven, but I've seen most of six and a good bit of seven since then. I started watching again with eight and nine. One of the main things I hate about S6-S9 is the one season = one semester thing. That bugs me to no end and always has, and I have no clue why they decided to do it, especially considering they ended up dumping the old characters anyway. They should have just phased them out naturally when they were supposed to.

I mostly enjoyed the second half of S9. I'm not an Alli fan at all, so the first half was a big snooze for me. I'm actually not big on any of the freshman characters. Clare makes for an extremely boring lead, KC's a douche, Connor is a non-entity, and Alli is annoying as hell. The older characters have all more or less grown on me, particularly Holly J. (I fought liking her long and hard because there is only ONE Paige in my heart), Sav, Riley, Anya, and Jane (who I've always liked). Whatever the heck they're doing for S10, I'm interested in seeing how this works. Yeah, it's gonna be 48 episodes, but it's really 24 two-part episodes. So basically, the show is expanding from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Finish S2, but know that S3-S5 is where it's at! Any episode where the main title is on the back of Marco's jacket.

I'm just popping in to say that I'm still loving the show. I'm moving a little slow (very busy with other things and also watching other shows), so I'm only at Rod and Betty's car accident. I can't wait to get to the next episode. I do have to say...Betty dancing at the Shoreline was EXTREMELY sexy.

I just watched the "Goodbye, Blanche" special. Very well-done and entertaining! Love my Blanche, and will miss her dearly. I have to say, the more I see older clips of her from the 70s and 80s, the more that person starts to look like the Blanche of the last ten years. She lost a lot of weight and got a lot of wrinkles, but she didn't look too different. The Ken/Blanche segment was my favorite. I had no idea Roache could be so hilarious, especially in the drunk Ken scenes. Too funny. Also saw the Betty tribute at the BSAs, and that was well put-together. The 50th anniversary montage, I wasn't a fan of. They got all of the simpler, gentler stuff out of the way pretty quick and turned it into a trailer for Mission Impossible IV: The Rovers Return from the Depths of a Fiery Hell.

And that's exactly why I can't watch this sh!t. I feel like the Grinch and Scrooge rolled into one when it's on and my Facebook homepage is filled with "OMG! GLEEEEE!!!!!" statuses. It's like, damn, just be honest, you only watch it to see them sing. The comments are never about the characters or the storyline or anything, it's always about "OH, they sounded SO good!" and "OH, they sung my favorite Madonna song!" Whatevs. Maybe being a soap fan for this long has made immune to the shiny, sparkly singing and dancing. And I'm perfectly fine with the fact that people only really watch for the singing, dancing, Sue, and maybe one or two other characters, but good god, PLEASE stop acting like this is such great television. If you watch it for the total package, the singing, the dancing, the characters, the storylines, etc, and you honestly think it's great television, okay, that's cool. But don't give me that sh!t if you can't even tell me what's going on. ETA: I really don't see it lasting long anyway. Tweens are loyal until the next big thing comes, so however long Glee has for its time in the sun is really out of its own hands.

It's been a while since I've submerged myself in TVD (because I'm not opening myself up to that joke!), but I think it goes like this: person dies, vampire blood enters his/her system and he/she comes back to life, person dies again, person is a vampire.

Aw, he's not famous/important enough for them to mention. End of last week-- The Zainab stuff is getting out of hand, really. Burning [!@#$%^&*]? Really? Over-the-top. I did enjoy her and Christian's little bitchfight in the middle of the square, though. Of course Christian had to be dramatic ("Ahve suffered ENOUGH vahlence at the hahnds of your fahmily!"). Billy seems like an all-around loser, really. I don't mean "loser" as in jerk or lowlife but as in someone who just can't get a break. I feel bad for the guy. I really don't have much to say about the rest, oddly. The Ben/Jordan stuff was kinda random, especially considering Louise didn't tell Phil.

The Lloyd/Teresa stuff annoyed me and made me want to beat the crap out of Lloyd. No, Teresa wasn't always easy to get along with, but whatever, man. Cheryl's only humoring an old man's ego, and when it all ends, I'll get a good laugh out of it. I'm just gonna say it. Steve has to be THE cutest, cuddliest, most adorable thing I've ever seen. I just want to lie under warm covers with him and eat ice cream and listen to him tell me jokes. OK. The thing about everyone talking about the mayor. Is that supposed to be some kind of inside joke? Rita mentioned it, Claire, Graeme, even Norris started talking about it when he didn't want Mary to know that he was in Blanche's will. I still don't care for Tracy at all. Too obnoxious for me. I enjoyed seeing Gail be miserable, but I felt bad for her, too. The Graeme/Tina stuff is gross, to be honest. I get the feeling that when it all comes out that he's been spending time with her, he'll get all high and mighty with Jason and tell him that he didn't deserve to help her grieve or whatever. Shut up, Graeme. It's creepy and right frightening. The will reading. I'm not clear on who all got what. Simon got some old watch, Amy got a music box. Ken got some books. What did Deirdre, Steve, and Peter get?

Aaaah Kirby is annoying as f!ck. I don't quite understand why, as the daughter of the help, she's treated like a member of the family. Even before she married Jeff, they acted as if Kirby was a Carrington cousin or something.

The remake as in the supposed upcoming remake or the 1991 series? The entire revival series is (legally) posted on YouTube if you want to check it out.

I LOVE the little leitmotifs that they use on this show. Every time they show an establishing shot of Alexis's penthouse, there's that little piece that they use that I think is so hilarious because it fits the tone of the character so well. And the Oriental-sounding La Mirage theme haha

It's funny how sometimes you're caught off guard by who's on Dynasty. I'm at the end of season three and it took me about 3/4 of an episode to realize that Steven's new lawyer/future lover is the oldest son from Eight is Enough.

So yesterday's episodes are probably a good place to start?

Thursday's episode was pretty boring, if I should say so myself. I really, really don't care for Tracy at all, and I know it's bad when I sympathize with Gail for having to bunk with her now. The Graeme/Tina stuff is starting to reek of grossness. I appreciate him showing an interest in her well-being (and it sounds like I've said the exact same thing already in this thread haha), but I'm really starting to question why he's so concerned. And why doesn't he tell Jason or David or anyone else? Knowing where this is going, I think it's all a bit selfish and creepy. But ah, such is the way with Graeme. Looks like they'll be doing a new titles sequence for the HD switch in two weeks. What else can really be done with the formula of dreary still shots of the Street and surrounding areas? And the shots aren't even that dreary anymore.

Pam St. Clement: Sounds good to me! Can Peggy join us? I hate what they've done to Masood in just two episodes. The whole "Let me come with you to Florida!" thing with Jane is so out-of-the-blue and really has no place. So, what, he's gonna go to Florida, she's gonna introduce him to her mother as her new Muslim boyfriend, and Mom's gonna have a heart attack. Or is he just gonna stay up in a hotel and only come out when Jane says it's okay for him too. Or is he gonna meet yet another woman while he's there. Glad that nonsense was put to rest. To top it all off, Masood can go on and on about family honor, yet he's perfectly willing to cheat on his wife with a married woman. Riiiight. And Masood can go on and on about how important their friendship/partnership with the Beales are, but he's more than willing to try to strike up a romantic overture with Ian's wife, and THEN chat it up with Ian at the hospital as if he had not been trying to get with his wife on the same damn day. smh. They really are doing a number on poor Zainab. Maybe it's because I'm still new and I don't "know" the character enough to know when she's not being written like herself, but I've been feeling rather cold towards her for weeks now, but jeez, come on, telling Sy that he'd be better off dead? It's all extremely over-the-top. Tamwar's suffering too because now all he ever does is react to the over-the-topness, and now they've added whining about Mom and Dad's disintegrating marriage to his list of functions. I wish Christian would have taken Roxy up on her offer, really. Because him being a weepy gay with the bruises to prove it all the time does no one any favor, least so the audience.

I echo Carl's sentiments. Anything you can share about the show, please do! And any other long-forgotten soaps you may have watched then.

Lee Grant was fabulous as Ava, from the very beginning when she blamed her husband for dying before their son was ready to take over the family business. It's been a while since I've seen the whole mini...definitely gotta give it a watch one of these days. The music in the German opening is so big and over-the-top...and absolutely amazing!

That picture is all kinds of wrong. Graeme said it best himself when he said that he looks weird (or was it pathetic, I can't remember) from all possible angles.