All My Shadows

The polar extreme is not any better, IMO. I think if people didn’t have the other current soaps for comparison, BTG would get less of a pass. He reads his lines as if he’s an anchor on “Access Hollywood.”

I cannot believe Smitty is continuing to let this funky btch sit on his furniture and disturb his children this way. The only only ONLY thing that made sense in this sht today was Tyrell going in on her useless ass. Naomi is going straight to hell. Why did this meeting even happen at their house? So what if the kids decide (rightfully) that they don’t care about June and don’t ever want to see her or smell her ever again. Now she knows exactly where they live, and so if/when she goes off the deep end again, who’s to say she won’t try to break in? It’s not like these people are afraid to use Orphey Gene’s for everything else, they could have met there.

Or worse, they think the audience is that stupid.

I am so tired of hearing June sound like she’s reciting passages from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” I hate her so much.

And in 1-2 years, they'll be legal adults, and all of it would have been for nothing. For that reason alone, I hope this has nothing to do with a custody battle. I have to believe that they can't botch this up even more. I agree. I have no problem with asexuality portrayed in a soap, but from the very beginning, Kat has had a fire in her that, IMO, still hasn't realized its potential. I think she's already suffered from having to play the self-righteous role in the Leslie/Eva story (not that she's wrong to look down her nose at them, even though I hate it). I wish the Duprees had a black sheep. Not necessarily an estranged relative but someone on the inside who can look at everything from an outside perspective and doesn't automatically share the loyalty to a fault mindset the rest of the family has. Someone who can say, "Honestly, the Articulettes' music has never done anything for me," but still have a seat at the country club table.

I am all for whatever they have to do to keep TMG on board (and I do mean TMG bc she is more valuable than the character at this point), but Eva really ran around town for half the episode agonizing over a letter that easily could have been junk mail? It’s the little things. This leg in their story could have started with the phone call. And now Leslie, rightfully, is frustrated bc these people are asking for her SSN and other info over the phone, and Eva is still rolling her eyes and stomping her feet and how have we made it 100+ episodes in without her uttering a Kim Parker “Daaaang, Mama!” Oop, there’s a “But, Mama!” Leslie, please slap ts outta this girl, she is an IDIOT. First, she wants her Leslie to open a letter that, on the surface, is junk mail. Then, she wants her to give these strangers her SSN over the phone. Now, she's mad because Leslie won't answer an unknown caller? MY GOD. It's extremely obvious where this is going. Over the course of two episodes, we went from no one at all knowing that Samantha and Tyrell are June's kids to Samantha and Tyrell having to weight the pros and cons of meeting her? In LESS than two episodes, really! Naomi and Martin are such close cousins, and Naomi knows how much time, money, and energy went into Martin and Smitty securing a closed adoption, but now she wants them to throw all of that away bc the kids' mom just so happens to be her current rich girl project? Naomi really sucks!! She is only thinking about herself and her ego, absolutely no regard to how anyone else might feel. Martin. "I'm not completely against the idea." Please STFU!!!! Now all of a sudden, Martin is self-conscious about being "just the other dad." THEY WANT TO SEE THEIR MOTHER!?!!?!? THEY'VE DECIDED THIS ALREADY!?!?!!?? PLEASE call me negative, a complainer, "can't please some people." I don't care - the way this "story" played out over two episodes is utter shyte.

There's also a Coronation Street Rewind channel that right now is mainly uploading episodes from 1997 (I think starting with the Battersbys' arrival lol). I hope that this doesn't affect the hard work that so many of done to upload most of the 70s-90s (and a good bit of the 60s). Unless, of course, they're planning to upload all of that themselves. I've watched a few, and just hearing the proper mix of the theme tune gets you in a different type of mood vs. the awful version they've been using for so long now.

Nail on head. The Mosley character is surrounded by people who support and enable her, people that (to her credit) she doesn’t really manipulate or use. Her family is supposedly the most influential family in town, and she has gotten away with legitimate crimes because of it. Erica had Mona, and she used her to her benefit whenever necessary. Mark came along, and he was decidedly hands off when it came to how she conducted her personal life (not really condoning or condemning her actions). Until she had young adult daughters, that was the extent of her family and long-term support system. Hayley, with her attraction to Bill, who was probably a paternal presence in her life from the very beginning, is cut right from the Erica cloth. The fake pregnancy is kinda without a real motive, but it tracks as an Erica-like move. Flaunting her marriage in front of everyone tracks, too. The main thing that sticks out, IMO, is her being such close friends with Naomi and the rest of the Hamilton branch of the family, and that’s okay bc in the end she is her own character with her own story. I think delving into her family is at the top of my BTG wish list.

I never realized it before, but this is exactly correct. She needs the put-upon mother figure to be her anchor and occasional conscience. I know people like to believe that BTG is above a lot of classic soap tropes (and it’s a hard disagree on that for me), but there’s a reason why some of those tropes have lasted through the ages. Dani is the younger sibling in a very wealthy family. Those people are almost always narcissists, and she is the textbook example rather than the exception to the rule. Any time she gives a damn about anyone else, it’s “Nice to see Dani with…” and “Nice to see Dani show concern for…” That’s bc all we ever see the spoiled btch do is get drunk and cry about her own disaster of a life! I couldn’t really hear during the preview for next week, but did we get confirmation that June is Sam and Tyrell’s birth mother?

The only, and I mean only, reason we had to see an hour of Dani the Introspective Girl with "Feelings" is to set it up so that she actually has a reason to be upset about Hayley's pregnancy lies (whatever they may be). She hasn't given a sht about Hayley's well-being at all since Day 1, but suddenly she's wringing her hands and pacing back and forth, claiming she's the most awful human being alive. Without that, whether Hayley's pregnancy is fake or not is really none of her business and has no bearing on her life. What a transparent turn of events.

I'm sorry, but am I putting two and two together correctly? Were they trying to imply that Andre 8 Dani's A???? She commented on what he did with his tongue, and he said she inspires him to do new things. Girl!!! I want to like Ashley simply because I hate Dani so much, but it's not happening for me, and I feel like Andre is an idiot for being involved with either one of them. Ashley is bored with Derek because he wants the both of them to continue to be successful in their careers and build a life together? Just tell ya mama that you wanna be a heaux for a while, Ash. Yesterday really set me in as a Martin/Smitty supporter. MM has really come into his own on this show, and I think he brings the best out of BC. I don't think Martin's offenses are grounds for a permanent split, but I think Smitty has the right to take all the time he needs. If they get back together, I look forward to seeing them in other modes. Re: BTG other soaps. My only experience with the other soaps as of late is when I'm not quick to turn off Paramount Plus after BTG and it autoplays B&B or Y&R. Not gonna lie, I've been pulled in by both, but it's almost like they are crushed under the weight of thousands and thousands of episodes and decades of stories. In the big picture, I would say BTG is on par with soaps in the first decade of the 2000s.

I've always been of the belief that, per Agnes's request, ABC starting saving AMC just ahead of its April 1977 expansion to the hour, so in my mind, the wishful thought is that it starts in fall 1976. Phoebe's funeral had those great clips of Phoebe with early Brooke (post-Elissa Leeds, so not too too early) and with early Myrtle, and those had to have been from the last few months of the 30-minute show. Literally no video footage of the show from 1971-1977 has popped up anywhere, and that drives me absolutely nuts. I thought we would have gotten at least a clip or two of AMC from that era before we would have ever gotten a full Secret Storm - in color - from the same era.

Loni is a shock! When anyone from that generation of TV stars passes, it hurts so much. These are the people I watched in reruns through my whole childhood. They never lost that youthfulness, even as the years go on, and so when news like this hits, it just sucks.

I never go back and rewatch anything from this time, but I think I will because this is the era that really made me fall in love with and appreciate OLTL! I think your analysis of the show as always being about the outsiders of society is great, and it does perfectly describe that era. In fact, I gave the show up for good in 2010 when so many characters that fit into that vision were ruined and/or axed, many of them minorities in some way. Gone were Markko, Layla, Rachel, Greg, Kyle, and Fish. And in came the Fords.

I’m not one to rag on Alan Locher just because, but I’m really pissed right now bc he posted on FB that “a copy of Erika’s very first taped episode” was added to her official website “to view,” and all I see is the call sheet and a small snippet of a scene from the script.

Performing 90s New Jack Swing while dressed in 60s Motown is a choice. Anita’s “jazz” song was def just early 90s grandma R&B.

Dude, TMG is utterly hilarious.

Yesterday’s Nicole/Smitty scenes were classic soap and also very necessary. DD and MM play well off of each other. The Articulettes timeline is bonkers. Did MVJ not write a show bible that firmly established the chronology of everything? On the DAY OF THE CONCERT, Vernon refers to Tracy and Sharon as Anita’s “sisters in music.” AT THE CONCERT, Vernon says he called them that “the other night.”

Wasn't Tempo originally a trashy gossip rag? In 1981, they did a cover story on Erica that included lengthy speculation on her triangle with Brandon and Sarah Kingsley. I feel like it was mentioned at various points in the 70s, too, but not sure about that.

Martin “talking to Nicole” is not Martin getting the help he needs at oillllll, and it’s crazy that Nicole is going with this rather than referring him to someone. ***The Dani person popping in with her usually erratic bullsht while Nicole is in the middle of showing Martin breathing exercises in the family living room is exactly what I mean when I say that this isn’t Martin getting help. Sharon has been “following Chelsea’s social media for years” LOLOLOL I’m sorry, yall, I know yall hate my negativity, but come on

Right. It really doesn't matter who her kids end up being because they are 100% better off without her. And if they really are Samantha and Tyrell? Even with all of the fckery going on with their family, there is absolutely no value in them having any kind of contact with June. Have there been any instances of either kid commenting about wanting to know who their bio parents are? It just feels like June is supposed to be one of those hard-living, always-hustling, quirky, Women of Brewster Place, Color Purple-type waifs that should be endearing but she ain't Celie.

I wish they put June back where they found her.

Brandon Claybon is a better actor than Alex Alegria, but so is Ronn Moss lol when it comes to who is the RM of the show, it has to be Claybon. RM was never just a line-reader like AA. He made some peculiar choices, and BC has made some, too.

B. Claybon

Super unpopular opinion, but I’ve never gotten the hype around Ambyr Michelle. Eva comes across very flat.