All My Shadows

Martin being in Congress is ridiculous enough but running for President? He has the charisma of a jar of mayonnaise.

Yes, it’s utterly ridiculous that Mike Manning is playing a character who is talking about becoming an empty nester soon.

So thankful to have a Dani-free episode, finally.

Kat: “My reads on people are usually spot-on.” You said it, sis. Idk how I feel about Nicole anymore. She’s starting to come off like a ditzy doormat.

Kat really is that girl.

I agree. If people care enough about her pulling the gun, wouldn’t they already know the story of how Bill and Haley got together? How tall is Bill? Bc damn, he makes Haley look like a member of the Lollipop Guild. Andre is so ridiculously sexy, Jesus Christ.

I love that Bill called Vernon out on the Duprees’ bullshit. He’s easily becoming one of the characters I’m rooting for, which I would have never thought. I might take some flak for this, but I wonder what Dani did to drive him away.

The Duprees suck. Vernon and Anita, yall some heauxs. No wonder your daughter is crazy af.

Same. Another random thought: I know everyone is mostly Vanessa fans, but she just feels like an Amy Poehler character to me.

I never shared my general assessment after the first week, and I don’t think it’s worth dropping into this thread, but I will def express that I think there are too many Duprees on the canvas right now. I don’t think any other soap has ever had so much of its central family on at once, and it really came through like a ton of bricks when the entire family was at the wedding and then at Gran Casa Dupree and we could only go off to two other locations because that’s just how many non-Duprees we have at the moment. I’m not 100% sure how I would reconfigure things, but I think Ted’s family having more of a place in the cast would add something to the Leslie/Eva and Andre stories. Also, I need the opening for every episode to end with Colby Muhammad’s party girl smile. I neeeeed to see more of a Kat, especially with her grandparents. I think that’s one of the things I mean when I say I’m tired of Dani. As big as the Dupree family is, we’ve only gotten a glimpse of a few of the family connections. I need the characters to be developed outside of just this storyline.

I don’t mind any of the above, to be honest, and I think my hate towards the character is still mostly diegetic. From a viewer’s POV, I recognize KM’s growing talent in the role and the layers she’s adding. I’m just ready to see her disappear for an episode or two. We’ve now had three “Dani is a crazy btch!” cliffhangers across six shows. I almost expected to fade out on an empty pill bottle next to her unconscious body today. I think part of why I feel disconnected from some of the other characters is that we’ve spent so much time on Dani and this storyline and we haven’t seen enough of the family existing outside of reacting to her latest antics.

According to me. Mona was way more often Erica’s enabler than she was the person stepping in to tell her like it is. She spent years wringing her hands and staring in disbelief as Erica did Erica sht, and part of her always felt like there was more good than bad in her daughter, so she always attempted to get her to see things rationally. Then Erica would still end up doing Erica sht. Even in the very few cases where Mona would get aggressive with her, Erica never shrank down the way Dani did in response to Anita today. Everyone is indeed free to have their own interpretation, and you don’t have to be a soap opera expert to have one, but I figure if you’ve only see a year of a show, you’d be interested in the interpretations of those who’ve seen much more of it.

It was MVJ/Guza and then RC and another name with Susan Dansby credited as script editor.

That really wasn’t Mona and Erica’s relationship though lol

I did love how decided she was in not apologizing to Dani. I think it’s fair to conclude that there’s sense of favoritism with Vernon/Dani and Anita/Nicole that betrays any idea that the Duprees are always a united front.

Vernon: “Thank God no one called 911.” The Duprees are very quickly becoming like most big soap families lol I want to groan but I also want to smile bc who said black ppl can’t be sanctimonious assholes, too?

How in tf is Dani not in jail? I hate Dani but Anita reading her for filth after she demanded Dani go to the wedding is crazy. Naomi is also a dummy. And look at that - Bill and Hayley are still married. After all that nonsense, they are still married.

I hope she shot herself. The big bug eyes would be a clue if that wasn’t how she looked 92% of the time. Leslie, meanwhile, continues to be my favorite.

I am so beyond over Dani and her BS. She’s just making an enormous fool out of herself.

I agree so strongly with everything in both of these paragraphs. I envision Leslie and Eva being somewhat like Angela and Lance on Falcon Crest, with Leslie constantly having to whip Eva into shape and keep her eyes on the prize. Kat is a stand out in the sea of younger female characters. Really, she’s the only one (besides maybe Eva now) that has made me pay attention when she’s on screen. She just has a plucky, girls’ girl vibe about her. The comment she made about how it’s unusual for her to be the one to call it a night early was intriguing and now I def want to see some club night shenanigans with Kat and her friends. Nicole’s family would be 100% solid if the Martin actor gets it together or they recast him. I feel like MM is good in his role, but it seems like he needs to play against better performers who can help elevate his own. Martin ain’t it.

Currently watching todsy’s ep, and Dani is dangerously close to being annoying af now. Groveling for Bill was embarrassing and it just makes all of her snappy comebacks and btchy attitude all week look ridiculous and pitiful. She is not the bad btch she wants everyone to think she is, and now a gun? Girl please go find you something to do. And not your sister’s nephew. We need an episode or two without her just so other characters’ POVs are developed more. Idk if it’s because it’s Friday, but I see her and I want someone to smack her. ”I hope my forced presence is a dark cloud that has a negative impact on the rest of your miserable lives.” Girl, please get a damn life. They should’ve just let her go to Paris. And stay there. I feel for Nicole because you know she’s spent most of her life dealing with her sister’s histrionic nonsense.

As much as I'd love to see our old soaps revived in one way or another, I honestly think that daytime needs to look at new material. BTG has gotten all the buzz it's gotten because it's new. A revival of a classic soap might get some buzz, but ultimately, I can't imagine it would have lasting interest outside of its original fans. IMO, any soap sequels would work best as semi-regular movies/specials, and any attempt at starting over or riffing on a classic soap premise would work best as a primetime series. EON is literally perfect for today's world of 10-15 episode seasons that are released once every year or two. Just don't put Ryan Murphy's hands on it.

I'm going round up all of my thoughts on the first week after watching Friday's episode, but I just needed to come say that Leslie is insane and I am obsessed. I love how she carries herself like a rich bitch but her house is extremely middle/working class with what looks like furniture from Big Lots. As soon as she took that helmet off, I knew I found my favorite character.

GOD, I wish I was at home watching live, but thank god for Mardi Gras break all next week #louisianababy I'm already looking forward to watching when I get home, but reading all the comments is a tease. Dani looking into that mirror...okay, Danit from Another Planit, I see you. I didn't realize Martin and Smitty's kids would be teenagers. Unless they serve a very important purpose in a story relatively soon, they easily could have just been children, which the show is eerily lacking. But there have been enough soaps that have gone kid crazy over the last 20 years that one having none is definitely a welcome change, however strange. I just don't like how it ages our main characters. Also, why on god's green Earth are we calling this fine ssa man "Smitty." Legit haven't felt this excited to get home and watch a soap in about 15 years.

In continuing to unpack the first episode and looking forward to the future (easier to do now that #1 passed inspection with flying colors), I have a few “checkpoints” in my head that I’m hoping to see met onscreen. One is some mixing up of characters. I want to see a Hayley/Anita scene that isn’t just a shade fest. I feel like someone like Hayley can learn a lot from someone like Anita, even if it’s only in small doses at a time. That’s one of those hallmarks of classic soap that faded out by the 2000s, characters reaching out across the canvas to build unique and interesting relationships outside of their main circle. I’m looking forward to seeing Mike Manning. Never watched a single second of him on that other soap, but I loved him on Real World way back in the day. Super proud of the journey he’s been on since then. Incidentally, he was on the DC season of RW.