titan1978

The show is in such a weird hybrid state. It’s not quite as generic as it was before Mulcahey. The scripts could be better, but there is clearly more care in them than there used to be. Dex and Molly, Molly and Alexis, and Tracy/Dante all had real emotions and character in the script. Ric and Alexis was a highlight too, they play so well off each other. It took Hearst sharing this scene with NLG to show some of what he does best. For being away from acting for so long he hasn’t really lost a step in sparring and the smug side of Ric. I think Huss did a great job having an emotional core for a character he has barely played, except in pivotal times. The guy deserves a shot.

We are all intimately aware of Frank and his budget. This feels like more than just the budget to me. Maybe that is conspiratorial, but it’s my impression. Killing her off on short notice is a statement. Let’s not forget GH cut Sean and Tiffany in the 90’s due to budget and lack of featured story. And DAYS has fired many people for budget reasons, most famously Deidre and Drake. And what happened to Genie a few years ago.

My favorite stuff with her was the abortion, and then the story with trying to figure out who really killed Rick/Scott going after her for killing Logan. And her initial love story with Dante. I can’t fault her for the other stuff too much because every woman was like that on GH at that point. The slaps and long hair flying was all over the place. Only Robin escaped constantly screaming at other women and was allowed to actually have female friends. And she was only spared really to be a foil for Carly. But I totally get why Lulu is an acquired taste. The only time I saw a spark of JMB’s Lulu with Emme was when they were gearing up for a fight about the kids in school with Willow as the teacher and Stafford’s Nina, and Liz.

Season 10 still has Abby, so that will be a winner for me. 12 would be next in line.

Would LH even want a full time gig? Isn’t she really successful outside of acting now?

She actively tanked her Jason reunion story because she wanted to act with her boyfriend. That pretty much sealed the deal, she never was used heavily again after that happened. And then publicly shamed the show when Miller wasn’t offered a new contract. Valentini is not going to forget that. I do feel sympathy for her. She has clearly been through it in the last couple of years in her personal life. Miller’s death was a tragedy.

I know. Sometimes I just can’t keep my figurative mouth shut.

EIGHT MONTHS?!? It feels like years! I can’t imagine this is to pay for Lucky, that decision was made way before this. Was she just informed?

I remember that JvD rumor going around. And didn’t Zimmer allude to it in her book? I know she said Wheeler tried to guilt her into it by saying that very thing- if they don’t get cuts people will be going. I am not a fan of Kim’s, but I 100% agree with her. First of all, they have a union to protect them. Second the networks have treated many actors like dogshit for decades, working these daytime actors into the ground for mostly their benefit. Third it is bad faith to even ask. I don’t care how much we love these shows, the people that work there deserve their negotiated job protections and money, no matter how much the ratings drop. Wheeler didn’t just fire her because she probably had contract provisions about paying her out. Back then the bigger stars had terms to protect them from the generic 13 week cycle. Some of the top dogs had to be paid out no matter what the cycle of the show wished to let them go.

Whoa. She really pissed someone off. That is wild!

Yeah there is a round of rumors on Twitter that several cast members, all women, were asked to take pay cuts. Most of the top earners are apparently the top line women on the cast. Not sure if I believe any of that, I’m sure Steve and MB are well compensated. This kind of stuff reminds me immediately of Guiding Light under Ellen Wheeler. Zimmer stood her ground about renegotiating her contract before it was due.

She has been phoning in her scenes for years. That first month of uncredited Mulcahey, Sam was the best she had been in almost a decade. Frank has also been marginalizing her since the Jason/Drew story. I am shocked she lasted this long. I have some empathy for her, she’s had a rough couple of years in her personal life. But she seemed miserable on GH for as long as I can remember. I wonder what was the final nail in the coffin? That temp recast is really interesting now. She is expensive, I wonder if more returns are coming or if Lulu is it for a while.

I do too, and it sucks. I have a lot of empathy for Maurice. I truly do think the show needs to step in for his health and have the conversations that he maybe doesn’t want to have. Which is Sonny needs to evolve, and that means different kinds of stories. Even if he resists them. I know that Valentini forces him to keep dying his hair and MB would prefer to not do that anymore. Stuff like that is ridiculous. Let the man go grey.

I still don't understand these "But he's not a prince" arguments I don’t either.I have enjoyed him way more in essentially a handful of episodes than I did MC after his first 6 months or so. I felt he was very overrated and got lazy real quick.

While the back half may not have been as strong as the first half of the show, there are so many things that did work incredibly well. Paige- they figured out the best use for her and for NS. She is allowed to have an edge, but they made the correct decision moving her away from Abby-lite. Anne- again, another example of finding the correct lane for the character and actor. I think she worked best as a sort of Lucy Coe character, with one scheme after another blowing up in her face. Linda- she does work well treading that line Abby did for so long, until the danger catches up to her. She has the desire but not the canny intelligence Abby relied on. But Linda was younger and pays the price. Frank, Pat, and Julie- I really liked these characters, and I am just as sad they all ended up gone by the end as I was the first time I watched. The show allowing Larry Riley to keep appearing until he couldn’t anymore was a class act in those days. People clearly dying from AIDS complications were not treated well even then. I also liked Jason and how that allowed Mack to revisit his background. Main thing I didn’t like- Gary and Val deserved a better final catalyst than Danny to reunite. The whole thing should have been treated as the important story turn that it was after all those years. The return to the Cul-de-Sac and more down to earth stories was the right direction to go. They did rely a little too much on twists and violence but the overall show never really stops being entertaining.

Yeah, I saw Ava as this show’s Roger Thorpe. Even after being shot, he still operated outside the lines and never really got caught. Punished? Yes. His relationship with Hart, losing out in business, broken heart, etc. but never sent to prison for real. I don’t think they were going to get rid of her. My concerns for Maurice stand. He feels he can only act if he uses method acting. He cannot handle drawn out emotional material anymore. He has said this many times in the last few years on his YouTube show. He also claims he is close to retirement, and yet when he has too much time off or backburnered he has mental health episodes. This started with COVID and has continued. I do personally think the show has a responsibility to acquiesce to his health needs. But so does he. So that leaves the show in limbo. He resists trying anything new, and also resists being moved away from the central figure of the show. Even Tony Soprano got great mileage out of therapy, and they just dropped that potential with Kevin (so far). Something needs to happen for both him and the show to be at their best.

They only recast Heather because PFS came up with that storyline to facilitate Jeff’s departure and wrap up the Stephen Lars story. She tried to get Mary to return for the wrap up and she declined. RM was supposed to be a temp. Instead, Robin was a hit with Monty and the audience. They altered Diana’s murder storyline and that was that. I have never seen an official account that Heather was the original killer. But I have read that it was altered. It just makes sense that it was Heather originally. IIRC Monty apparently disliked the practice of recasts, especially for featured players. So she didn’t use them at all after Heather.

Could not disagree more. I think the faster opening theme gives the show more energy right from the start. That season 14 opening was one of the things that hooked me in the 90’s when I watched for the first time. I saw the last season before anything else back then. It is very sad to see his final episodes.

Sisters was a Lorimar/Warner Brothers show. Makes sense to me that it would air on this channel. Hopefully others eventually will too.

In my post I also said her choice is fine to not show vulnerability. It’s the show that has chosen to show almost every beat of the story from Kristina’s angle. The writing until now hasn’t featured much of Molly and TJ, except to create conflict for Kristina. The show is demonstrating they want us to feel something for and about Kristina that Mansi is not bringing out. She projected plenty of it when she watched Sonny beat Dex down. Even though the history of Kristina knowing who her father is has been presented for years, I bought that because of Mansi. I compare her to those others because often the talent, especially now, has to bring something to the stage that the scripts and story do not have. Her work around the baby storyline has really been one note.

There is a way to play selfish or even heinous and still win over an audience, or get their sympathy. Judith Light was the gold standard from what I have seen of her as Karen Wolek on OLTL. Maura West pulls it off quite often. Sarah Joy Brown was superb at doing it as Carly. Certainly they all had more time to craft those performances than they have on daytime now, and much stronger writing. I think Mansi has been great as Kristina. I just don’t think she is doing anything to make Kristina rootable. Which is fine, she doesn’t have to. Kristina is spoiled, she is impulsive, and she can be reckless. That has all been there no matter who plays her. But from the time she decided the baby was her baby, before the accident, they didn’t do her any favors by making it seem she was truly conflicted about what she is doing to Molly and TJ. It wasn’t written well at all. I am relieved that at least this late in the game someone is calling her out, and that Molly is also calling out Alexis.

I wonder what the issue is with Kelly Monaco? She’s barely used at all anymore, and then misses one of her few appearances, in a pivotal set of scenes. I will just continue to harp on this until Valentini is gone or the show ends. The way they use contract performers is baffling. I think I am supposed to feel sympathy for Kristina, but it’s just not there. And a lot of it is how Mansi is playing it.

It was apparently not shown, these are the syndicated shows. But it was posted on Twitter. https://x.com/cbsKnotsLanding/status/1827518100566118894/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1827518100566118894&currentTweetUser=cbsKnotsLanding

My update is a hybrid. Karen is the anchor between the old and the new. Mack has recently died, Karen is really suffering, and Diana and her two children are staying with her. She and Meg are having a rough time because before Mack died Meg had accepted a job offer from Greg at Sumner, who is nearing retirement. Two new families on the Cul-de-Sac and new characters at Sumner fill out the rest. Karen’s neighbors are an ultra conservative young family, and the husband is a little too interested in Diana’s son, who is gay. He is ultimately more like Karen was, community minded and emotional. And his sister is like Diana’s aunt- Abby, willing to do whatever it takes to meet her goals. They also favor their father, who was a Black artist Diana couldn’t make things work with. By the end of the two-hour premier, Karen’s grandchildren decide to stay to help her and to experience new opportunity in California, Val has stopped by and she and Karen walk on the beach, talking about how often their lives have involved starting over. And that second focus family is moving into Val’s old house. The episode ends on Meg finding Greg dead, having been shot. Karen and eventually Abby would be the only original cast that regularly appear. Val’s twins could someday play a part, but I think it’s important to set up new characters living and working there before more returning characters as regulars. Karen just feels like the natural anchor to me. Michele Lee was in every episode, and she has natural ties between the neighborhood and Sumner.

It has been kind of jarring to watch the show in fits and starts. Especially once I got to season’s 10-12. The style of the show was much more about twists and quick cut editing between sets of characters. Those earlier episodes where people literally had no lines but filled the scenes with information and depth through their acting are long gone. Nobody has time to think on this version of Knots. Danny is when Val’s brain was stolen by the showrunnners. The show also feels more disjointed. I watched three episodes in a row with Karen being stalked and Michael was in the episodes but had nothing to do with her story. Also, Karen, in the midst of hallucinating being killed left and right just picks up a wrapped package and opens it without any hesitation. Several times, culminating in the box full of snakes. Val isn’t the only one that doesn’t have a brain anymore. Frank, Julie, and especially Pat deserved better.