DRW50

I just watched this. Thanks for not giving any spoilers. There's not much storywise to spoil, anyway, but I was genuinely shocked by the "new look," as I hadn't seen any promo about this change. I wonder if it's just for the first week back, or a permanent shift. If it is permanent I wonder if Waverly's return last year was to say goodbye to the old Shortland Street for good. The 5 week jump was a smart choice, and the decision to put the characters in various hospitals, some very rich, others barely managing to get by, helped add a certain hint of reality and class divide that stories set in the regular hospital can't provide as well. I agree it was a very good episode, and I'm glad they are recentering the show on Chris (along with a few surprise appearances). Michael Galvin is a very underrated actor and he proved that again here. Loved the shot of him back at the gates. I'm relieved to know this new character in Esther's life is her cousin, so at least we are spared love of her life #5 for a bit longer. I read a "next on" which contained Desi's name and I winced. Fortunately that seemed to be for 2022...those types of horrors I want to leave behind me.

I'm curious as to how Adair played that scene, as her Jill seemed much less emotionally overwrought.

Random beyond belief cameo from Sharon Stone tonight, but I'm glad for her (and it helps make up for how sleazy her 1992 host episode was).

@DramatistDreamer It's very interesting seeing that as !@#$%^&*] Carlson recently had a piece on berating big government/the left/what have you for making people feel bad about using nicotine and encouraging them to smoke pot. A reminder of just how much power these lobbies and shadow companies have.

Storywise the show is still not working for me, but the character moments and relationships have come a long way. This past episode was one of the few in the last decade where Sharon felt like her old self and not Letitia vamping or struggling to find the heart of the character.

I see bits and pieces of GH, but you guys give such gruesome descriptions that remind me of how nothing ever changes (especially Cam likely going under the hearse just as Zander did to prop the pets of the moment). It's just plain sad.

I believe so, yes.

Laura is definitely in season 8 but isn't an especially important part - there is one very interesting conflict (if one that never gets to be as developed as it could have been) though. Always enjoy reading these writeups as I remember or vaguely recall pieces I forgot (especially involving characters like Joshua). As for Val, the character stabilizes for the next few seasons, even if she isn't at her heyday. It's more around season 9 that the main problems JVA had with the character become the norm.

Oh that's right. Thanks.

She did, yes, I just end up seeing that as a different person. Once she started getting stories she had no personality.

I think the stories themselves are effective, but I feel like there's much less interest in the characters themselves. Liz, Roger, Carolyn lose any real personality (Maggie, bless her heart, never really had one, but it just gets worse). By the time of the 1970 story I feel like Carolyn just goes around saying "Oh Jeb."

Don Briscoe did stay on for a little while after that, but it did feel like the story as a whole have shifted away from him. I think they extended the story because the ratings had increased. The later months of the story had many riveting moments, but the downside was trying to clear all that up and figuring out where to go next. And that was a mess, even if the Leviathan story is better than given credit for. @Vee or someone else, not sure if I'm just hallucinating this, but wasn't there a claim that Dan Curtis and company were thinking of never really returning to present day? A part of me wishes they hadn't. You could see the lack of interest in the present day characters and stories and it just got worse and worse - I think the Quentin haunting story was the last hurrah.

Yes. I think Terry Crawford said that when Beth went off, she actually bounced on the mattress below, hilariously, although you can't see it oncamera. I can't remember which Gabriel went off (1841 PT maybe?) I had forgotten about that last bit with Joanna. Odd. I do remember finding Lee Berry interesting to watch, and similar to the last Victoria (Joanna Groves...I can't remember her name, sorry), I wish we'd seen a bit more of her. I know Virginia couldn't have stayed on DS anyway due to being in 1776, but her absence as 1840 goes along is a shame. I think she may have been David Selby's best female partner on the show, in terms of chemistry.

The story, IIRC, was that Samantha had let her die. There was a tease over whether or not she was actually dead. She then was revealed as a ghost and caused Samantha's death. The whole story came out of nowhere and similar to other rushed decisions at that point like Gabriel killing his wife Edith (which would have wiped out the Collins timeline and led Barnabas and Julia to return to a whole different world), seemed to just be panic mode to try to wrap up a plot (similar things happened with the end of 1897 and the really really lousy "return to 1795 96 97" mini-story)

Eh. It's the type of thing I've already seen too many times, often much better.

If I ever find my scans (if someone else doesn't post it first) I'll share it. She basically just describes it as a low period for her because she was sitting in makeup and they were telling her how they needed her to look old. She was like fine, whatever, as they put grey streaks into her hair.

The years of Reva's "death" became even more of a mess later due to the San Cristobel story, but at the time I think the line was that she had been in a coma for some time. She woke up and lived as an Amish woman (wasn't she called Sarah?) in Goshen, until Alan ended up finding her there when his car broke down or he was hiding away from his family. Annie didn't start going crazy until after McTavish was out. The interim writers had Josh and Reva nearly reunite at Cross Creek. Annie cut up her diaphragm and went nuts. Reva was married to Buzz at the time, and he somewhat graciously broke up with her, over her objections, as he realized he was never going to be able to compete with Josh. (the show was bringing Jenna back in this same period) Kim Zimmer had a fascinating interview around late 1995 or so with Soap Opera Weekly where she addressed never becoming a "star" after leaving GL, a demoralizing guest stint on Models Inc, her extremely tense relationship with Pam Long at the time she left GL (she said that at a lunch to try to get the two of them on common ground, a P&G executive left the table to be sick because the two of them were so hostile toward each other), and her initial attempts to meet with JFP about returning to GL, only to be told by her that the show had moved on from Reva.

That's wonderful news. Anita is one of those people I'm surprised was never on DW until now.

Thanks @victoria foxton

Which scenes have had him as homophobic recently? All of the '80s content I've seen doesn't seem far off what you could watch on television today (just more thoughtful and better written and acted). I think only some of the '70s episodes have that marked difference.

I think the strike material starts around April 1988, or a little earlier (a partial May episode popped up on the same channel, one right before Philip humiliates and destroys Alan, and I figure it it is strike material because of the unnecessary flashbacks to pad out the episode). There are also some excellent scenes with Alex and Alan in the March episode. It's near the bottom of page 738.

That's it exactly, and is why stories like that feel so inauthentic. In later years, Josh was always meant to be good and right with zero layers.