Soaplovers

I was disappointed that the Caroline/Hayley connection appeared to have been dropped after the first few weeks... so I'm glad to see that on Caroline's side.. the connection is still there. I'm sure Shanice was sick and tired of Ashley's tantrums.. and since she couldn't fire her... she figured peace of mind at work trumps sexy time with the fireman. And Lynn Martin was one the writers that left the writing team (I assume she'll be credited until the end of season 1).

It really highlights how insecure Dani is

The show needs to cast a younger straight guy to write dialogue because when the show writers conversations between straight men, it tends to be off the mark. Case in point, the conversation between Jacob and Derek... no straight guy talks like they did.. and there is no way that Jacob wouldn't at least be on Derek's side somewhat instead of acting as if Naomi has his balls stored in their bedroom drawer. I like Jazmen's scripts.. but sometimes they do tend to be more theatrical based vs being written for tv.

I thought that the Dani/Andre conversation in regards to Ashley was mature and also a peek into Dani's motives. Dani had multiple motives when advising Andre not to pursue Ashley. Partly due to jealousy, and partly because she sees a bit of her much younger self in Ashley (i.e. the young model on the rise falling head over heels for Bill and giving up her modeling career for love.)... she knows that Ashley would do that for Andre if he snapped his fingers. Which brings me to Jan/Ashley's conversation... conversations we should have seen a few times before today's episode. We saw both of their POV's and I'm wondering if Jan's admission about a past man is foreshadowing something (ala Joey Armstrong possibly being that past love and Ashley's dad). I'm curious about Hayley's motivations for the fake pregnancy.. and how she'll use this fall to her advantage (will she pull an Annie Dutton)? Doug is totally reserving his grave for move in soon with the way he's acting today (which I think stems from his addictive personality). There was talk about what influence Guza had on the show as co-head writer... and I think Vanessa is totally a Guza character... and I wonder how she'll change/be adjusted once his name stops appearing in the credits.

I think now that it's been a little over three months since Ford/Cwikely have taken over that what we're seeing is more and more what they're doing and planning. My guess was that the first few weeks of their work did sort of follow outlines and/or where Ron C was wanting to take stories while making sure the day to day scripts were beefed up... but as time went on, I do agree that there did seem to be a shift/direction changes (i.e. Shawn/Jada, Cat's backstory being explored, and Doug III's story being resolved).

I was posting about Jan a few days ago wondering what her take was on Derek/Ashley.. and I guess she appeared

Team Smitty.. .Martin can kick rocks for all I care

At least she isn't infecting Days or BTG so that's the silver lining.

I think having Joey Thrower playing Kevin was effective because he was basically 18/19 and in love with an older woman Lee Ann.. who was using him unintentionally due to relationship issues she was having with Max. I don't recall if the writers understood that Lee Ann was doing to Kevin what Max had done to her (i.e. an older person taking advantage of the naivete of a younger person)... but looking back at that era, the similarities are striking. I think once Lee Ann is revealed to not love Kevin and still married him, then Kevin is recast with Greiger to show a more bitter/cynical Kevin.

$300 is sadly a good deal for ticket prices nowadays, and reunion acts do commend a lot of attention/buzz. It would have been more logical if the peak of their time together was during the 70s when disco and funk were popular.. and she went off for a solo career in the 80s when she felt creatively boxed in by the group trying to chase trends they had outgrown. In regards to the breakdown/script writer discussion, I think a combination of younger and mature individuals would benefit the show.. and I do think at least one or two script writer needs to be white. Only because the script writer in place couldn't write younger white people to save their life (Derek/Ashley scenes in particular were cringe). Oddly, the Vanessa/Joey scenes were well written and realistic so the script writers do know how to write for older white people

We all have to remember that MVJ spent a long time at B & B so Brad Bell's horrible story choices probably had an effect on her.. hence the whole Dana/Leslie situation where she caused irredeemable acts so early in the run of the show. While I love the actress, I do think perhaps Dana/Leslie needs to be laying low and leaving the canvas for the time being so that Nicole/Ted/Eva can move forward... and then once the next stage of the plot occurs... Dana/Leslie can pop up. The show is pretty good with their Point A, Point B's, etc.... the weakness for me is the journey/process of getting from Point A to Point B and so on.

If I recall, any mentions of Hope by the 90s was her trying to battle staying sober so I could see Mattson playing that type of Hope... and a possible distant/cold relationship between her and Alan Michael due to her alcoholism with her uncle Ed trying to help Hope. Plus, it would have given Alan Michael more of a reason to come over to the Bauers.

I thought Julie Grey was nicely set up as the tortured secetary that was in love with JR and waited for him to come to his senses and divorce Sue Ellen.. but never does. Episode 3 of the mini series had Pam basically throwing some hard truth's to Julie, which led to her resigning and leaving the show until the next season. Had the show been more soapy, I could have seen Julie pop in and out of the show as either a thorn, or ally, to JR.

If I recall from reading old 1980 summaries, Vanessa came onto the canvas in late May/early June 1980 while Holly left the canvas in mid to late November 1980 so there was little to no opportunity for the two to interact other then Andy (who came onto the canvas in August/September 1980). I think Holly's primary interactions between April 1980 to November 1980 was Barbara, Andy, Ed, Rita,.. with occasional interactions with Nola, Hilary, Katie, and Kelly. So I could have seen Vanessa and Holly perhaps interacting once or twice in 1980.. but nothing significant where they would remember one another years later. I also viewed it as it being 10+ years that Holly had been gone from Springfield so Vanessa seeing Holly and commenting that she was actually attractive could have been taken to mean that she had hoped Holly had let her looks go over the years and was disappointed she still look good and a possible contender for Ross. One thing I'll say about the writing team in 1989 was how the writers effortlessly weaved Holly back into the canvas even though her primary scenes partners were no longer on the show (other then Ross, Ed, and Alan). There was one episode where Holly was at the country club where she had been put in charge of the tv station and she interacted with Rose, Ross, Josh, Mo, and Will.. and she had great rapport with all of them. Soaps hardly do those types of interactions nowadays.

Unpopular opinion, which I always seem to give on this board, but I think TT was served better when she was playing Jessica Griffin on ATWT during the Douglas Marland years then she's been given here at BTG. When I looked at Jessica Griffin, I saw an actual fully fleshed out character played with strength and conviction... while Anita Dupree is basically a caricature that TT is trying to infuse with her talent.. and the writing isn't helping any. I'm hoping Derek finally has closure from Ashley and can move on without the added weight of Ashley and her neurotic tendencies on his shoulders. I wonder what Jan thinks of the break up since she seemed on Derek's side more so then her daughter's side in terms of their relationship.

So Hayley is going to try to pull an Annie Dutton?

Yeah... one is unhinged (Dani) and the other is anal (Ashley). Andre needs to get better taste in women.

Karla is very hit or miss with her acting... she's much better when she restrains herself vs when she tries to convey emotion. Smitty needs to divorce Martin because who knows what else Martin is lying about. Never say never... recurring characters seem to vanish on this show for awhile and then they pop up when we least expect it so I think she might pop up again in the future. @Maxim I do think given Anita's backstory that she might have a few extra skeletons in her walk in closet that could come back to haunt her. Also, maybe AI could come into play with someone generating her voice via AI to sell products and/or used as a sample of a new song.. and she finds out it's related to someone/something she did in the past.

I don't see why recast when the character is kind of taking up space

The random pacing (i.e. multi episode breaks for stories) is killing the potential momentum of the Doug/Vanessa/Joey story... right after Vanessa finds out about Doug's gambling and becomes partners with Joey to pay off the debt... the story has kind of stalled and the on and off featuring of the plot isn't helping matters either.

My least favorite story has been the Articulette story because it seems kind of like filler, although it's nice that Anita was shown to be the bad guy in the situation. I guess I'll wait till the concert arc is over before resuming my viewing of the show.

The writers didn't seem to know quite how to handle some of the characters during this period of time. I always viewed Stephanie as a floater character after her Romeo and Juliet story with Kevin bombed so making her the killer was an effective way to write her off the show. Tina was adrift for awhile after Cord's departure and having Cain as her partner in crime was a good idea on paper.. but the show didn't seem to think about Cain/Tina long term. I remember having to tell my mom that Blair was originally Asian, and she thought I was making it up because why would a show be so stupid as to change a character's ethnicity from Asian to a blonde southern girl. And I said 'soaps have always not dealt in reality so why would we expect them to maintain the ethnicity of a character.. especially in the early 90s'.

I'll be honest... I'm not into Andre/Ashley nor Andre/Dani because both couplings are basically rebounds for both Dani and Ashley with Andre trying to be a player and not doing a good job of it LOL

No, she doesn't have any claim on the house. Her time is up, and it was time for her to leave. And I'll be honest.... I didn't like Mo and wasn't heartbroken when she was killed off. She judged, she victim blamed, and she was kind of bitch to her own husband... and she sided with a rapist (Roger) over his victim (which showed she wasn't objective). In fact, I think Michelle marrying and falling in love with a mobster was partly due to the shoddy example set forth by Maureen (who seemed to treat a rapist nicer then she did other people).

While Tomas is a dog, both Eva and Kat are also to blame for their current situations.. .but we can't ever have women take ownership over their mistakes unless it's to blame a man LOL Eva knew Tomas was with her sister and she still hit on him and made out with him.. then cries because he lied about being with said sister.. and Kat knew in her heart that Tomas/Eva were being more then just platonic and instead of listening to her instincts.. she chooses to jump into bed with him to one up her sister. These are adult women and the lack of holding both accountable for their parts in this situation is typical in this day and age.