DRW50

Thanks @depboy

They seem to have chosen to leave the drama to the season premiere. I wonder why. The drama doesn't look fantastic anyway, but still, it would have been more of a finale. Anyway, Back to the Bay put out their fan poll for all time favorite characters. This was the first year they opened up voting to people who were not forum members, which apparently led to some real shifts. https://www.backtothebay.net/news/2022/12/23/home-and-aways-most-popular-character-2022-revealed/

It was saddening to see so many try to interpret this as glorious camp, or just say they didn't care because the actress was so bad anyway. The idea that Janine would be so neglectful and abusive toward her child goes against so much of what the character should have been. But she was a meme to the current EE, not a character, as shown in the incredibly poor scenes today where Martin was talking like a stan account about how she would be back and they would film a documentary on her.

Sad to say, I have hit my endpoint with Janine, I think. Charlie just doesn't seem to know the character anymore. You could feel it in that Christmas episode. She has moved on, and likely never would have returned if not for the pandemic. The last episode was fine, very strong even, up to the point she went back to the house. Janine would have just left Walford when Linda gave her the out. They wanted to overload the whole Janine/Scarlett dynamic one last time, which didn't even work, because the girl who plays Scarlett can't act. Ricky lashing out at her also felt unearned because we have barely seen their relationship in his return. The whole Mick/Janine story really hollowed her out, and they also made her relationship with Frank into a bad joke, which is something it's going to take me a long time to forgive as a fan.

Disgusting.

Yes. The main problem with EE of recent years is they so often go with what sounds iconic on paper, but poorly translates onscreen. Everything with Mick and Janine was exactly that. Not helped by the actors taking many, many breaks and the show accommodating this because everything has to be stalled out for Christmas.

Our first Christmas without Jerry ver Dorn. I can hear him saying, "From our family to yours..." right now. One last smile before we close out the day. We miss you, Jerry.

It's not really the same now for Christmas greetings without the status updates, but I still wanted to say it while I have a chance.

They did, yes. Much too rushed.

Another example of EW going far down the crapper.

Thanks for all the updates! The new costume is fine, although I think it's going to look better in motion, and maybe with different shoes.

Thanks. That's surprising. I wonder why they changed their mind. I wonder if Lydia (was she originally a temp recast?) and her wonderful chemistry with Jim Pritchett changed their mind.

I'd be surprised if Bethel was let go. I thought she left partly due to wanting to focus more on her writing career.

Knowing he was the writing partner of Linda Creed, who also got so little praise and died so young, makes it worse.

After an election where NY Dems got roasted due to complacency and poor choices and a right wing state court, Kathy Hochul decides to just make all of that even worse. Shameful. This still has to be confirmed by the state senate.

Agree. She and Beverlee worked well together too - that same dignity with some fire underneath. Weird seeing people and pairing in the credits already gone by this point (Grant's Philip - Rick/Mindy...the latter putting Rick/Roxy to shame in that glimpse). Does it make me a sap to say this theme gets me a little emotional even as I don't care for most of the material in the eras it ran for.

Thanks for finding this @jam6242 . I hope the success of the new Elvis movie might lead more people to find and respect the various ladies of his films, who often shone in thankless parts. I have that article scanned somewhere (I guess it's probably on the SOD tumblrs too if those are still around) where she talked to SOD about her attack. Just awful. I haven't really seen her DAYS work but I remember that.