Soaplovers

I will criticize if the protesting veers into bullying...which I noticed some of the juvenile antics of some of the SAG toward Drew Barrymore and other people.

20 hours ago, Taoboi said:

SLC

 

A whole A$$ mess. BUT...a FUN mess.

 

Lord, I can't believe that the SLC ladies are going three-for-three on good episodes. The animosity toward Angie K is really fueling this first set of episodes and Production has been on point with the funny.

 

And speaking of funny...MARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I've hollered so many times during this episode. And most of it was because of her. Her comments. Her facial reactions (like when Monica interrupted the 'boring' game to spill her affair tea). And she was keeping everyone straight...INCLUDING her friend Meredith. And we all know good and well I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE for ANY moment that Mary drags Little Girl. And I fell out when Heather gave the sh*t-faced drunk assist a la 'Is Jamal coming' style. Thank God, she's back. Honorable mention: 'I'm not talking to you.' and Mary/Monica shopping...more of that dynamic please. 

 

As for the rest...

 

MEREDITH. Wooooow. Well, I keep saying that an engaged Meredith is a DANGEROUS Meredith. And she continues to prove me right!!! Even Fabulous Ice looked scared when Meredith started dropping tea on Angie K's husband. Uh oh now. But see? The rivalry between Meredith and Angie K continues to give more and more. Moreso than a rivalry between Meredith and Fabulous Ice actually. I want to see where it will go. 

 

LISA. Speaking of seeing where a rivalry goes, YES to Fabulous Ice vs Monica. Just the brief moment of it at the dinner...THAT'S how it's done. Monica was coming from a good place, but it was clear that Lisa was getting offended and defensive about it. And you just know that it might continue to stay left because as Monica said in the first episode...Fabulous Ice is all about Fabulous Ice. That said...thank you, Production, for the rollback on the multiple times Fabulous Ice mentioned that ring.

 

HEATHER. I had mixed feelings on her this week. She is just soooo jealous over clear high school/college kid trauma. First with Fabulous Ice. Even with Little Girl at times. And now with Angie K. I was just rme at her for her clear jealousy. On the other hand, Heather was actual a fun hot mess this week and I was loving it. Her giggle during Meredith vs Angie K....GUUURL ME!!! Her commentary was just as funny as Mary (her 'oh, s^it' at the beginning of the episode was ALSO ME). And her assist in Mary's dragging of Little Girl was Chef's kiss. God, she was fun. Except for the vomit, of course. 

 

ANGIE K. Over her being victim this week. You can't sit there and throw out quips over the host ignoring you when you WERE NOT INVITED IN THE FIRST PLACE, TRICK!!!! And then she KEPT throwing potshots. And THEN she started mess with Meredith at dinner and wondered why Meredith got into it with her after spending the day paying her dust for the most part. Whatever, girl. At least she gave good Confessional looks, I guess.

 

MONICA. Looooooooooove her. She continues to be a fun addition. From her commentary to her standing up for herself with Angie K (who WAS talking behind her back...some friend) to her dynamic with Mary (more please!!!) to her vs Fabulous Ice. Monica just keeps giving. And her totally derailing the 'boring' game with her affair tea was great. 

 

LITTLE GIRL.

DRAG HER AGAIN, MARY!!! DRAG HER FOR ME!!! AH!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Little Girl has gotten away for too long without anyone holding her accountable. And you know who used to do that...MARY. So to see Mary drag her transparent a$$ again was a thing of beauty. And still hollering over S&it Faced Heather with the assist. It is so clear what WHitLittle Girl is doing that it's shocking no one sees it. But I guess I can give her soooome credit...she's slowly turning into the Ashley Darby of this branch of Housewives. But how much is she an Ashley? I guess we will find out next week when she does the unthinkable...comes for MARY.

 

Overall...that was a great episode and I cannot believe how good this show has been after that lackluster last season. See what happens when Production doesn't play favorites?

Not at all. They need to do something different. 

I would have preferred Angie H coming back... since she was the cause of alot of season 3 drama.. especially against Lisa (Fab Ice).

However, I will say Angie K did throw out some reality to Meredith almost like she was a mirror in front of Meredith's face.  Everything Meredith was saying to Angie actually applied to Meredith.  She is caught in a world of delusion in her mood and Angie K showed her the truth and she went haywire.

Monica needs to know when to get involved and when not to...but she's new and she'll learn.  I don't get why she's bragging about sleeping with her brother in law because that just shows how vile and trashy she is... and she came in with guns blazing for Lisa... she's very calculating.

Mary needs to be a permanent friend of... it's the role she was born to play... and Little girl was right that she is a predator.. or her church is.

Little girl obviously has gotten coaching from Candiace.. but she's too rehearsed and her 'reads' don't flow as well because they don't come from the heart.

Heather has the best facial expressions and the best talking heads.

Lisa (Fab Ice) is all about Lisa... but she knows it and viewers know it.. and somehow viewers still like her because of that.  Monica will learn that in time.

Bold and the beautiful:

When Ridge/Taylor/Brooke was basically the only focus starting in the late 90s/early 00s.  And also in the early 2000s, the show seemed to settle into a hamster wheel type of situation (big.events would happen..but no long term fall out.  It was as if the show became like the movie Groundhog Day).

With Days shooting schedule, it makes sense that there would be weeks of scripts pre written.  I think in June, Ron had said almost all his scripts were filmed..and that the day the strike started..he was immediately replaced by whoever is headwriting during the strike.  

So I do think we will have 4 months or so have scripts written

RHOSLC

Now we know why Meredith didn't engage in season 1... because she goes from 0 to 100 in a second... and she holds a grudge.  I'm surprised she's willing to move on with Lisa (probably because Lisa will push back as we saw in the season 3 reunion)

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

I would had Reva on a fictional Florida key, in a mouldering mansion with a Gothic family(though Reva and gothic don't mix, she has a history with Kyle and CB's Alan who were both of that type.) Still could have the same storyline, I would keep DAM, but loose Cole, who is incredibly weak as an actor, and replace him with one of they guys they originally thought for the role, he played Cass on AW.) The storyline would go as originally planned with Eddie dying. Then instead of hooking "Richie" up with Malibu Barbie..it would be he and Holly, which would be hot. They would not be royalty but heavily invested in Spaulding which would bring them to SF. 

I would go with the mob. but Carmen would be trying to get out of it, and using Danny's marriage to Chele to get into legitimate SF society, and Mike, the head of the good ole crime commission would come back to investigate them. 

Oh what might have been.

Reva wouldn't fit in the gothic stories...but maybe Reva with amnesia would have fit in....maybe in flashbacks.

Stephen Schnetzer would have been perfect in it...because he did play in a gothic mini story on AW during the 1988 strike..did do a orient Express esque arc in the early 90s..and did do a 40s esque fantasy episode. 

Guiding Light:

San Cristobel... a stupid 80's story idea that I believe was a Paul Rauch idea.. it just screamed something he would do.   I found it worse than the clone story because at least with that.. we got to really see into the obsession/sickness that Josh had toward Reva.

All My Children:

When Kendall/Ryan/Greenlee/Zach ate up the show.

Days of our Lives:

After Kristen left in 2012.. the show never really recovered because she was the focus of the show for a whole year.. and once she left, the show couldn't restructure... except toward Daniel Jonas.

25 minutes ago, Cat said:

I get why Ubah was miffed. It's not that she's addicted to her phone (a problem many in the world share). It's the fact that people have EVERYTHING on their phones. Credit card, bank details, personal info. If they lose it, they panic, thinking how the hell am I going to restore that information? Who has access to my stuff? So I can understand why Ubah didn't find it funny.

Erin is... one of those people who thinks she's hilarious and brays at you "IT'S FUNNY, HA-HA?, DO YOU NOT, LIKE, GET IT?" She's constantly demanding that the other women justify themselves to her and calls them liars if they don't conform to what she believes to be true. It's been an effective technique throughout the season, but now Ubah (flicking away Erin's Dior sunglasses) has essentially stood up to her. Erin was trying to pull the whole "Ubah is making me feel intimidated" spiel but Ubah cut that short. In next week's preview, I don't like the way Erin keeps telling Ubah to shut up. Erin is lowkey scared of Sai and would never talk to her the way she did Ubah or Brynn on this trip.

Brynn and Jenna are hilarious. Brynn is definitely leaning into that sugar-baby persona.

Thought Sai was out of line with Jessel (but not out of line with the pool-push, which was funny). Erin and Sai want everything complex explained in 120 characters or less -- in broad, simple, snappy strokes. If Sai cannot comprehend why Jessel was talking about her parents' experience and why that's imprinted on her, that's not Jessel's problem, that's Sai's. Sai was looking for a moment.

One thing I will say -- I've been looking forward to watching the show every week. I feel like Reunion is now around the corner.

Jessel stands up for herself..which I like...wish that could rub off on Jenna.

Jenna/Bynn thing is creepy.

Ubah should have kept her hands to herself...but Erin would have been furious if that had happened to her...and quite frankly Ubah was wrong to push Erin into the pool and also pressuring Jenna to get in the water.  Ubah has trouble with boundaries and Erin needs to leave the quirky humor to Jessel/Brynn

RHONY:

I'll give it to Jessel.. she at least stands up for herself and was right on the money calling Erin 'Queen of Assumptions' and not backing down... unlike Jenna who acts like a victim and doesn't stand up for herself.

2 hours ago, Cat said:

Yikes -- Shannon booked for a DUI.

(And Archie was apparently in the car with her).

 

Uber and Lyft are around for a reason.

Shock is an understatement 

12 minutes ago, Cat said:

IA Jessel has featured family and is enough of an odd bunny to be watchable. The insert-foot aspect is real, and her competing with Sai, Brynn and Jenna in the Victim Olympics (and failing) was actually pretty funny. She is not the person I would have picked to have been the most entertaining of the pack when this show first started, but im glad an unlikely audience fave has nabbed that spot. (I tend to chafe against the official Bravo picks like Jen Shah and Gizelle).

Erin is probably the strongest personality in this whole group who always thinks she is right and won't try to sidestep a confrontation. I can see why she's seated where she is.

Disagree on Jenna! Her special privileges and Bravo favoritism rile the other women up, and that's a good thing.

Same re: Jenna. There's something endearing about her, but she also uses that endearment to curry favor and get her way. As a viewer, I can appreciate watching both contradictions in this woman.

The show has been an entertaining watch, and I pretty much like all the cast. I haven't warmed to Sai and have this knee-jerk bias against all things influencer. I just don't think clothes should be a filler for personality (see Erika Jayne). However, this last episode, Sai was winning me over with her talking about her mom, and her generally confidently running this trip like it's her show.

I like Ubah too and hope we get more of her before the season wraps up. She is gorgeous and brings energy to a table which often leans into petty complaints and competitive personal stories.

Brynn is a classic teller of tales and over-exaggerater, and is bound to come up against Erin who parses every detail you say and uses them to come back at you.

Jessel isn't a good storyteller... but from reading history books and also the fact that my mom's college friend went through something similiar, I understand what she was trying to say.

Up till the 60s or 70s, a lot of Indians lived in Africa and had a high degree of wealth.  However, due to coups, the new government kicked out all of the Indians living there and basically they all left with none of the money/possession they had while living in Africa.

And I think when she was talking about her relatives, she was talking about how a few relatives had left Africa with some of the money in order to start lives in new countries.. and I think when Jessel's family was kicked out of Africa, they were able to resettle in those places.  

It seemed like Irna, and to a lesser extent Bill Bell, were attempting to take all of the tropes used in soaps and add more controversial elements (or for 1964 standards).

Problem was that the 1964 characters were too trope..or copies of previous Irna characters without anything new.

Mary Matthews was a warmer Nancy Hughes.

Granny Matthew's was a female version of Papa Bauer and Hughes.

Janet Matthews was a less developed Edith Hughes.

Susan and Pat Matthew's were variations of Penny Hughes  and Ellen Stewart.

Liz Matthews was a colder Nancy Hughes/Claire Lowell combination.

Alice Matthew and Russ Matthews seemed like a young siblings that were the greek chorus.

I think had the bible been followed more..it would have been an interesting show..but Irna's neurosis and P & G being so conservative hurt the show in the early months as it struggled to find its footing.

Nixon helped focus the show by using some of her AMC bible..and also bringing out the psychological elements Irna was intending.  She created Lahoma, Rachel, Sam, Ada, and helped develop Missy...which was the have not section of the show to play off the Matthews/Randolphs/Curtains as the haves.

And not only did start Alice/Steve/Rachel...she made Bill/Missy popular... and depend Lee's character into a tragic anti heroine in the Sam/Lahoma/Lee triangle.

2 hours ago, Cat said:

Nu-RHONY Reunion seating chart!

I'd say this is fair. Would have possibly swapped Erin for Jenna. Erin tries to make the drama, but Jenna kind of *is* the drama.

Jessel is where she should be. Brynn and Sai must be seething.

 

Not just thirsty. She's one of those people who thinks she is inherently fascinating and 'in the know.' I can't bear the podcast where she's all "Here's the thing, guys" and bragging about her WhatsApp group with The Coven.

I think Jessel has first seat because she's actually provided a lot of content in her individual vignettes (hubby, kids, mom, had fashion magazine big wigs at her event, and tends to insert foot in mouth)...she's a Ramona/Alex combo.

Erin has taken everything so personally that everyone jokes about her starving her guests, being offended by everything and caused some issues with some of the ladies.

According to Sai..she and Brynn fall out and it's due to Ubah.

And Jenna should be 1 and done...people are clutching their Pearl's over her going through typical housewife tropes.  She's an adult and she knew what she was getting into.

RHOSLC:

Heather is the last person to judge anyone on parenting.. and how Lisa is handling her son's future mission trip.  Isn't Heather the one who bragged that she told her daughters to get drunk, hook up, etc at college?  She can take a seat.

Heather is the girl that was ignored by the popular in high school (Angie K) and college (Lisa) and thinks with her popularity as an adult that she can use that to get even with her past rivals.

I hope Lisa/Meredith can truly make up.. they're so much better as friends then rivals.

Oh well...

8 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

I would have preferred Denise being cast as Missy Matthews, Liz's daughter in law.  Missy was AW's first ingenue and a part of AW's first popular romance (Missy/Bill).  Plus in my opinion, Missy had more star-power and a stronger back-story than Susan Matthews.  The historical conflict between Liz and Missy (along with Missy's son Ricky Matthews) could have driven interesting material for years.   

I can see your thought process...and maybe Scott should have been Ricky.  And you know Liz would have so interfered with Missy and Ricky's lives...especially given she had lost Julia and Sally.

RHONY

What is the obsession with wanting to get women drunk on these housewife shows (Jessel)?  Maybe this truly is like a job and you have to drink to get through the day.

Jenna/Jessel seem to be the targets this season..yet both were gleeful to direct the target on the other this season.

Erin seems to be the bully of the group.

Sai should just bring snacks with her at all gatherings.

Ubah looks to finally get some focus next week..but I wish it was an individual vignette instead of a conflict.

Too much group therapy/trauma dumping...not enough fun

@Neil Johnson @DRW50

So I finally finished the 1988 write strike episodes I came upon (up till the end of July 1988).

From a character building perspective..these were well written episodes apart from Sharlene/Jason talking as if they lived in Bay City as kids (and in my mind Jason is Willis..or should have been even if the actor didn't want to play a recast...and his murder could have been justification for Gwen's flip outs at the anniversary episodes).

I liked the Liz/Sharlene reunion scene..but found it interesting Sharlene instantly dismissed Russ being Josie's dad.  Wonder if that was a red herring or if the idea got revived once the strike was over. 

Also..lots of progressive conversations about male and female dynamics.  These episodes seem more modern to me.

Lastly, I noticed Ronnie was introduced during the strike and she was given so much focus and development.  Sad that she gets less focus once the strike episodes are done.

And the ghost story could have worked if there wasn't a ghost and it was all in Cass' head because of his grief over Kathleen's death.  Interested that this was revived in early 1991 when Kathleen did truly turn out to be alive.  

Also...I like Mary...but I often feel she would have been better served playing  Liz's daughter Susan Matthew's instead.  Susan was a therapist with ties to Jamie, Liz, etc...and could have filled the same function with a tie to the Matthews.

Days of our lives:

Diane Colville apparently was supposed to be a few episode red herring character..but once Genie Francis was signed to the show..her character got expanded into a larger role..though GF said 'I had no character...she was a work in progress her whole time on the show'.

Salt lake city:

Too much group, not enough individual vignettes except Lisa Barlow.

Does this mean the women have such empty lives it isn't worth showing them in their day to day life?

I would have preferred newbie Monica be introduced on her own..seeing her life before introducing her to the group.  Right now..I don't care nothing about her.

Whitney (little girl) has been coached by Candiace... her shade game has improved a bit.

Meredith holds grudges so this bathtub thing will drag out sadly.

Grey's anatomy (kind of a soap).

Dr Addison was meant for a multi episode arc..and she ended up headlining a spinoff.

Another world

Alicia Coppola (Lorna) was recurring as Carl's hench woman and it was announced in late 1991 that she was leaving AW due to having no contract...and within weeks got a contract and the rest is history.

Some people figured it would go on through September..sounds like they were right.

I'm curious what was in the counter offer provided by the union.

RHOA:

I didn't like the cast lineup in season 14.. and will not watch until there is a reboot of sorts.  Not a NYC style reboot.. but time to clean house.

RHONY:

I watched the episode.. and I have some thoughts...

1) This show is called Real Housewives of New York City not the vacationing Real Housewives.  I wish more of the city was seen and there was maybe just one vacation near the end of the season like in the old days of the franchise.

2) I was hearing about a pile up in past posts.. and what I saw wasn't a pile up at all.  Shannon Beador, Lisa Vanderpump, Denise Richards etc.. they were ganged up on... but Jenna was not in this episode in my opinion.

3) I like the Jenna solo scene with her brother... as well as Brynn's solo scene with her brother... plus the brief vignettes of Jessel and hubby and Erin and hubby.   More of this please (and I seem to prefer watching the flashback scenes that are shown that we haven't seen vs the actual scene we're seeing in person.

4) Erin repeated the coach comment to the group... no different then Jenna repeating Jessel's comment to Erin or repeating Erin's comment to Sai.  This is housewife 101.

5) Brynn is 100 % on the money about Jenna in terms of the baby voice, using her condition for sympathy, etc... probably because Brynn does the same thing... and Jenna does come off as elitist.. just as much as Jessel does yet she gets a pass by viewers.  Double standard at work..imho.

I like Jenna.. but I'm not drinking the kool aid and will call out her shady behavior just as much as the other women.

Lastly, we were deprived of Ubah for 2 episodes due to her having Covid.. can we please get another solo scene of Ubah without the other women because I feel we've not gotten as much time with her and she seems fun.

26 minutes ago, GLATWT88 said:

Yes. Do you feel like Marie Wilson's take on Meg was also very different from Jennifer's? I remember thinking McCouch was so hot at the time, but now in retrospect I may prefer Bloom's looks...lol. Probably off topic but anyway 

Marie Wilson would have been better as an Ellie recast... she had the look and essence of the characte..imho