DRW50

Shockingly, the pundits who wrote about how moderate and sensible this court was have nothing to say today.

Christie also hugged Obama, and Christie was distrusted by the extreme right in a way DeSantis isn't, but I think DeSantis is mostly coasting on an anemic field and not being Trump. Meanwhile...I don't think these poll results are entirely accurate, but I do think the complete lack of momentum from Senate Democrats is allowing various narratives about Biden and the party not caring to take hold, which will be difficult to shake:

There was too much telling us how wonderful Frankie was and how Frankie and Cass should be together for me to care about them, especially during the triangle with Kathleen, where they even gave her a miscarriage to manipulate viewers. There was a real insecurity in the writing about viewers not supporting her. I think Alice Barrett and Steven Schnetzer worked well enough together, but I just don't feel like the pairing represented all sides of Cass.

I think Considine was a good actor but everything about Reginald felt so one-note to me, and his family dynamics were never written well because they were all under his thumb. The whole story seemed like another attempt at making AW similar to DAYS, like a Stefano type portrayal. I also loved Cass and Kathleen. I don't think Cass ever had such a good and rounded pairing again, even though I did like Cass and Lila.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/the-internet-is-a-collective-hallucination/619320/

The most frightening part is she is an incoming dean at Howard University.

I was part of that distraction myself - sorry. I do think there are huge problems with how New York decides elections, and sadly, the statements from Cuomo or the legislature don't suggest anything will change.

I don't buy the idea of the endless NYC screwups being justification of the Georgia voter law that is there to make sure Republicans can overturn any election result they don't like, and has already led to a number of black election officials being fired without reason. That tweet reminds me of the recent tweets I've seen on Critical Race Theory and how those who claim to be on the left love to take right wing positions and adopt them in order to show how fair and just they are as individuals, even though this does nothing but aid further fascism and censorship.

I knew he'd been ill for a long time, but it's still a heartbreaker. Alan was pretty much rendered one-dimensional a decade before his death, but Stuart always tried his best with whatever he was given. His firing was the final example of just how little respect ABC, Frons, Guza and co had for the legacies that had made GH what it was in the '80s and '90s and kept the show going even through tough times. The way the whole thing was handled felt sick and wrong. Of course Stuart had a long, successful career outside of GH - I've seen many today remembering him as Prince Charming or The Champions - but I'll always think of Alan and Monica, or Alan sparring with Edward, drink in hand.

Joe, and the Martins in general, were so poorly-written in AMC's last decade, but Ray's natural presence always shone through. It was a delight when he popped up on the revival, remarkably poised and on the mark.

Shameful, and not surprising.

In our latest look at the WHAT HAPPENED TO BELIEVE ALL WOMEN??? crowd, let's check in on failed press secretary Brie Brie's very delayed thoughts on accusations against her griftcaster co-host, Virgil Texas (no idea on the thoughts of his former employers, the increasingly irrelevant Chapo). Naturally, this statement was broadcast by one of their big fans.

Emotional connection is the main reason, yes. People see these characters day after day for years and go through all sorts of highs and lows with them. We could say fans are irrational for thinking about the responses of the actors, but then, I'm sure someone would say we're all irrational for talking about a TV show that ended a decade ago and was last good about 10-15 years before it ended. I do think that sometimes fans can be too hard on actors who sneer at their past soap work. I've been guilty of that myself. In some cases like Meg Ryan, where I'd say she mostly just managed to do decent work for about 5 years of her career at most, the snobbery baffled me, but I suppose beyond the workload she may have had other bad experiences as I think the show was hellish backstage in those years.

Thanks @DramatistDreamer sounds worth checking out.

And now they are trying to bring Gawker back... Yes, "men with balls," or whatever the hell the quote was, when that was the last of the problems with Tom as a character by that point. The end result of this was storylines like Marshall Travers raping Jessica and being hurriedly killed off because of fan confusion and anger (noticeably the same 'journalists' who loved Hunt Block's Craig had little to say here). And Jessica and Margo fighting over that Doc sleaze soon after. The likes of Hogan, Guza, JFP, Logan, Hinsey, etc. could never get past their inherent disdain for and shame for soaps, shame that they had to cover or work in the genre. And this shame and self-hatred helped to kill the work of generations of artists.

It's about personality cults. A lot of people are suckers for people who have funny quips in interviews. Many journalists, like Carolyn Hinsey and Michael Logan (he of the leather jacket headshot) also saw themselves as above soaps and as cool, and he played into that because he clearly hated soaps. These same cultists followed him around from soap to soap, to diminishing returns. The last being Y&R, where his groupies worked with the fawning groupies like Branco and the Daytime Confidential hacks, and a few bloggers and others who were also trying to push more legacy hypes like Tom "cut the crap" Casiello, who was supposed to be a tie to Marland because he had an old ATWT story outline, or something (I can't remember anymore). I still have bad memories of how the Sheffer personality cult infested soap magazines and to a lesser degree some of the boards then (as so many fans loved Hunt Block's Craig). Magazines that I used to have some semblance of respect for, like SOD (I had given up SPW by then, mostly), praising the "comedy" of Jack being raped by Julia. There was a real toxicity and cruelty in the soap genre and the journalists and wannabe journalist fan sites that covered it in the '00s. In some ways it prefaces what we would see in politics and online with things like Gamergate. I miss the soap genre with all my heart, but as I type this out I realize for the first time what a bullet we dodged by not having to see just how incredibly vile and terrifying everything would have gotten if more than 4 bare bones soaps had managed to make it through the '10s.

Mike Gravel, Democratic senator of Alaska from 1968-1980, has passed away. He is likely best remembered for his efforts to get the Pentagon Papers put into the Congressional record. https://www.npr.org/2021/06/27/1010702706/mike-gravel-former-alaska-senator-and-anti-war-advocate-dies-at-age-91 Unfortunately much of his legacy ended up being exploited by a lot of the dead end/nihlist/grifter left - I believe there was even an instance last year where the edgelord youths who ran an account for him ended up having to do cleanup duty because in an interview he did it was obvious he did not entirely share their views. Anyway, I won't be posting any Twitter links that they made all about themselves, so just remember the man and not the narratives.

I don't get the feeling Marisa Tomei enjoyed her soap work much either, but she mostly just doesn't talk about it.

It's sad if anyone out there gets into Corrie through 2010, the year that killed the last of the show's heart.