DRW50

An article about hookworm making a comeback in Alabama, due to extreme poverty. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/05/hookworm-lowndes-county-alabama-water-waste-treatment-poverty Limbaugh was one of the main people who first made it mainstream, so it's full circle. As Khan says, I have no pity for anyone who listens to him. These are desperate acts of an increasing irrelevance.

This article sort of goes into the issue of hiring American workers vs visa workers for cheap jobs, and the idea that Americans won't take some jobs, etc. While also pointing out the usual Trump hypocrisy. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/04/summer-employers-trump-guest-worker-visas-immigration-242271?lo=ap_b1

Clear to who? To ITV? As long as the ratings stay decent, they don't really care about the rest. The show has been worse than this and nothing was done. To fans? Fans have always said the show is terrible, when it is or isn't, for as long as I've been reading UK soap forums. A lot of their votes are coming from fans of "Robron" - so once that tapers off, as I imagine it will soon enough (probably by the next awards), other soaps will win - likely Corrie, which is poor, but currently has the hype. The problem is all the other soaps are just as bad, so it's difficult to see a soap win as anything based on merit these days.

Joe Breen was such a nuanced actor who could do so much with one glance. He seems more suited to this role than he was to Scott on ATWT. Some unflattering shots of Carly...

I think the performances would have made Faith more sympathetic, but Catherine Hicks was playing a very different character. I can't see her Faith ever going there. For me Faith never worked as a character. Hicks was very popular but that was mostly on the strength of her performances and charisma.

I'd think Jill going on trial for murder was some form of punishment, although maybe not in Faith's eyes. The Ken George Jones story was contrived, but I liked it because I thought it spoke the basic truth of Jill mostly only wanting Frank when he was unavailable and having a difficult time actually wanting to be with him when there were no obstacles. That made more sense to me than the whole "Jill and Frank are so in love because she was his mistress for a decade even though he couldn't leave sad sad Delia" narrative. I think this was even more true after she did try marrying and settling down, to Seneca, and it was a living nightmare. The Faith/Frank/Jill story may have made sense as well but I just hated the setup too much to be able to judge it fairly. It didn't help that I thought KMG was an unsympathetic and cold actress so only ever saw her as suited to the self-righteous and angry parts, but not the parts where we were supposed to feel sorry for Faith. It seemed we were always supposed to feel sorry for Faith without being told why. It was mostly just that she suffered or that she was a good person - when someone makes foolish decisions and goes around saying and doing nasty things, that doesn't really work for me anymore. If they'd actually addressed a real conflict and allowed Jill, or anyone besides Delia, to give some home truths about Faith, it would have gone a long way.

Not to me, as Jill never returned Frank's affection, but it still mostly seemed to be sold as one. I hated the story and it also made me absolutely despise Faith. As I'd grown to despise Roger by this point as well it meant that wide swathes of the show were becoming unwatchable to me by 1981.

Rauch seemed to use Niki to do things Viki couldn't do psychologically. It's an interesting idea but one which increasingly felt garish and forced onscreen. I think Malone's decision to make Niki nothing more than a sex-addled bimbo was short-sighted and led to some hideous, unforgivable writing choices by Dena Higley down the line.

Thanks for finding all these. Seeing Madchen and so many others at the party is nice. Don Murray sure gets around for his age. Enviable. Of everything this season it's still the Darya/Mr. C stuff that disturbs me most. That actress did a wonderful job.

Thanks. They brought Niki back way too many times and even they seemed to see it by this point as we instead got Viki pretending to be Niki and so on, but they'd just gone to the well long past the point of saturation. I still tend to prefer any Niki pre-1995 though.

Yes.

Jack was there (Christopher Cass was in the second row, with no lines).

Thanks for finding that. Wow - that's a big episode. Never thought I'd see it. I'd seen photos of the Ava Wizard of Oz fantasy and always wanted to see it. I had no idea it was in the same episode as Cabot's funeral. Kind of disrespectful isn't it? I didn't realize Chip Albers and the Alex recast were both still around at this time. Isabelle really rocks the widow's weeds.

Thank you for finding that. I wish @amybrickwallace still posted here as she would love to see more of Sherry.

Oh. I'm sorry. Maybe Foster played another judge.

A different timeline probably. I assume that this may happen over and over and she disappears each time. I also wonder if that's why the timeline was wonky all season - if things kept changing for that reason.

Thank you for finding all those actor tweets. It's a nice way to close out the season. And I love the note from 1991.

That's so sad. I remember her as Vera, Alex's maid on GL.

If 227 had gotten another season and they'd needed a white friend of Regina King's to try to sing rap, Taylor would have fit right in. I guess Taylor can do anything she wants and people will buy it, which must be very freeing, but...it's not for me. It's a nice beat though.

I think that Trump's big mouth and pointless threats give them a cover - they can say that he's provoking them. Beyond that I think this is something that was going to happen no matter what, because they know that there's nothing we can do. They knew it with Obama as well. We're too boxed in as we don't want them to blow up Japan and South Korea, and the military was scaled back for years because of a belief that this era of superpowers was on the wane. And all the time and money wasted in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I enjoyed him with Abby, even though their relationship was about 10% sex 90% berating her for being an awful person. I think it's because I enjoyed the chemistry between Ted and Donna.

I always thought their relationship was mostly about high-living (or so he wanted, anyway) Kenny and more down-to-earth, vulnerable Ginger. And the cheating. They did give a lot of that to Val and Gary. I also thought both couples were a poor match (indeed it's a credit to so much else on Knots that I watched 14 seasons in spite of never believing Val and Gary were a good couple). I did like Ginger, and I thought that Kim Lankford was a unique presence. The episode in season 1 where she was harassed over her abortion was such a bizarre thing but also very touching thanks to her work. Priscilla Pointer also did a good job.

He still seems to think that China is going to fall prey to his calling them out. And now he's also calling out South Korea in the process, because I guess they aren't devoted enough to essentially seeing their nation slaughtered. I also read that he's trying to strongarm South Korea about a trade deal at what is the worst possible time. I imagine we'd be in this situation no matter who was President but at least there might be a coherent response from some. And honestly deep down I don't even really think he cares, as long as he isn't personally affected. The only thing he might care about is losing face. It just feels like something terrible is going to happen soon and nothing can prevent it.

I miss the old Val. The Val of her last few years I found much tougher to take - she was just a bit "too much." I miss community stalwarts like Edna or Alan. You don't have anything like that on the show anymore. The older characters are mostly isolated or comic figures. Maybe that's a reflection of society in general, as there aren't any on the other UK soaps either. I still miss them. I think there are more efforts at community now than there was under Oates, but it often feels very sloppy.

@SFK