DRW50

It will be nice to see her again. I wonder how she will play off Cady. Considering how rarely Laura has appeared in the last 12 years it's crazy to think she has been able to play off all 3 adult Jennifers.

I think when they gave Heather more personal stories and not just business, she did alright - the miscarriage story with Holden, for instance. I also thought her work in the scenes where Lily learned The Truth About Aaron was very strong. I can't judge fairly because she was my first Lily. I did not see Martha until she returned. I never really got the hype. I did think she had chemistry with Paolo Seganti, but otherwise I enjoyed her more as Rose. I think it's something where if you were not watching when she first came on as a young girl, then you didn't have a connection. She is actually my least favorite of the three Lilys.

Men like this tend to see black or Hispanic women as a fetish. Regarding how this clip seems like bad acting - there is a fine line between performance art and fascism with these types of men. Some on leftist Twitter that I don't care for but sometimes make valid points have been documenting the failed comedians who moved into podcasting and then melded fully into extremist, white supremacist behavior. Joe Rogan is the most obvious example, but there are many others further down the list who platformed the Proud Boys and other hate groups. There is also a push to deify these men as "real" men, even though they are greasy and grimy and toxic beyond belief. It's the most toxic version possible of the old cartoons about the scrawny guy kicking sand in the face of the bully.

That whole period mostly ended up disappointing me - I remember them wasting Carly on that always-tedious feud with Liz (which never worked because the show was so biased in Liz's favor) and that bizarre feud with Carly and Laura that was another example of how they never really knew what to do with Laura in those years.

There was a series of tweets by Nate Silver, who is very much establishment and I don't remember going into those weeds very often. So that's one of the reasons I wonder just what is going on with Manchin.

Same old games. The Democrats are asked to unite the country. Republicans can tear it apart in the name of "freedom." And many will lap it up, both in the press and the public. But Pelosi has little choice here...they have to make some kind of statement. Speaking of something you can expect many in the press and public to make a meal of:

Antonio Sabato Sr. passed away. https://variety.com/2021/film/news/antonio-sabato-sr-dead-1234881971/

So maybe she did like the stuff with Alan. I guess working with Chris Bernau must have been a plus. I think the problem with Vanessa for most of these years was she couldn't go back to being a vixen, but they wouldn't let her be an equal to Billy because the Lewis stories were all about machismo and only Reva was allowed to be her own person in their orbit. Vanessa was treated like a more muted Sue Ellen. She did have the Dinah story, but it doesn't entirely feel like it's about her. And there were other women on the show like India who were filling a complicated antiheroine role. She was boxed in. In the early '90s, Vanessa managed to get some fire back while still being respectable, but then that faded with Matessa. I think your ideas would have worked well for her - and Matt could have felt like he was still her toyboy, not really part of her world, etc.

Once they started moving Blake more away from the corporate life I thought they let Sherry become younger, but yes, she was often matronly and very ill-paired with Alan-Michael. I guess this isn't long before Jordan Clarke left the show for a few years. I know they have Alan planning to marry Vanessa for her shares while being in love with Reva - it's really just Vanessa as a plot device. I wonder if this is why Maeve chose to leave for about a year. The scene with Calla is interesting as she seems to be fishing for info and trying to manipulate, but it feels more like Maeve trying to add life to the scene than coherent writing. Looking at the credits it seemed to be Ellen Barrett and Mary Ryan Munisteri. I didn't think Ryder was gone by this point but I guess he was. (Barrett was, what, from SFT...?) Poor Lucy always fell for bland men - or gay ones. Apparently it was, yes, with Claire. I remember even at the time some fans being confused about the retcon and finding the whole thing absurd and pointless. The only highlight was when Abby walked in on Claire and Rick "in bed," blasted Claire for her obvious lies, and then told Rick she was leaving him for other reasons anyway. Rebecca Staab is a good actress, but Jessie is just a non-role. GL never really had much luck with the ingenues. Sierra and Craig should have put a DMCA on them for Billy Ocean songs. Simon is an interesting character, at times, but, even though I know the actor was straight, the character always reads as gay to me. That Simon/India pairing must have been like the Randee Heller/Billy Crystal conversion pairing on Soap.

She's sick in the head. I used to enjoy her work up to the early '90s...kind of sad when Madhouse is your last entertaining performance, and when you were only of value when you were coked out of your mind. People should just ignore her, the way all television and film audiences have for 25 years.

Ted Cruz has no soul to sell. He has always been a craven, disgusting figure, loathed by all around him. He spent his first years in the Senate trying to destroy the government for his Presidential aspirations. He coddled and enabled Trump in 2015 and 2016 assuming that Trump's voters would flock to him, not realizing that many people simply do not like him. He still doesn't understand that no one ever will. I'm still wary about Manchin already pulling Lieberman stunts, as this didn't really feel like someone talking because they already knew the votes were there (it also caused a market drop which he had to hurriedly half-ass a response to while not actually changing what he said). There is also a lot of sudden push to get Lisa Murkowski to change parties, which doesn't suggest much confidence in him. I guess we will see. I just hope if he has stopped the checks he and his daughter can give us some of their money instead. It's the latest version of the "I didn't support this man...wait I did...but I didn't really support him" game.

Thanks. Oh I think I remember hearing about the herpes, I wondered if this was more. I guess not. Who comes up with that as a major storyline? They used to parody this in the educational shorts on MST3K. Your description sounds hilarious. Why was Jessie running out on the street? Did she think she had herpes too? I agree with you about Hope, and those extra characters. Jackson or whatever his name is - always just there, and in this episode, with the same frightening mullet Valene had on Knots Landing around this time. Liz Taylor raised a child to be more stylish than that. I think even SOD asked why he was always there doing nothing.

Yes. The climax and aftermath of that story is on Youtube now, on the Patrick Clohessy channel. To be honest I kind of hate that whole plot...they really did so much damage to Rachel they must have felt there was no going back.

No dates on these, but the second episode seems to be older as they mention Labor Day coming up. The first short clip carries on immediately from the 9/2/86 episode Soaps Past put up last month. You can always see the resemblance between John Bolger and Jerry ver Dorn. And both so stunning. I just find Calla completely draining as a character. I wonder if that's why she didn't stay around. I can't remember what secret she is hiding about Jessie's birth (weren't there rumors the show was going to reveal Lillian was Jessie's mother?). The show seems so unfocused at this point. You have some strong individual scenes, like the one where Roxy talks to Johnny about the difference between loving someone and being in love with them, yet so many confusing and difficult to care about storylines. The show seemed to be attempting a couple-oriented focus at this point, but I don't have much investment in those couples. Fletcher and Maeve are alright...and Peter Simon and Ellen Parker already have an easy chemistry, even though they'd just started working together. I always thought they worked together well, which meant the show having Ed repeatedly cheat on her made him look even worse.

The original Phoenix story had some very powerful moments, and Diana Millay gave the role of Laura the proper enigmatic qualities - the stories she would tell of the Phoenix, or the way she would sit at the fire to work her magic. The return didn't really work, but I did enjoy her faceoffs with Angelique. All Dark Shadows fans owe her a debt of gratitude, as it was the Laura story that kept the show on the air.

Kathy was also frenemies with Eric (mostly dislike, but he did help save her life from a psycho she was dating). I'd definitely be happy to see her again.

The actor who played Albert is dead, and was well-regarded, so probably not that one. I keep wondering if it will be Kelly Windsor.

Kelli Ward, the lunatic who runs the Arizona Republican Party (and was best known for a crazed primary against John McCain that involved chemtrail conspiracies), tweeted on their account recently asking people whether they should stay with the GOP or start the "MAGA Party." So, that tells you where some of these people are heading. More on this phenomenon here:

I agree @JaneAusten. In other news:

2016 was supposed to be favorable as well. Things tend to end up going haywire. They got a huge gift this year. I just hope they aren't going to blow it.

He's the 50th vote. If he votes no, they will have to rely on Republican votes. I don't remember how it works exactly, but I think they may even need 60 votes if he doesn't go along. They will be lucky to get 1 or 2 Republican votes at most - and that's generous. His people are now trying to twist those knots, right on time: "Relief targeted to those who've lost their job" is also pushed by old hacks like Larry Summers who helped Democrats lose the House by a wide margin in 2010. It's punishing to the millions of people who have not been fired, but are struggling badly to get by on what they have. I just hope they do not go along with this, because it doesn't matter how many sensible editorials they get from NYT or New Republic - they will lose in 2022, people will not forget.

Another piece of [!@#$%^&*].

Here we go already with this [!@#$%^&*]. And dumbasses in the replies are saying oh well Hawley will do it, the Republicans will support it, blah blah blah. No, they won't. Either Biden will have to twist any aid into knots for Manchin or it won't go through.