Soaplovers

I don't think Ceara not taking off had anything to do with Genie Francis and her being associated with her GH character. She was fairly popular when she was on Days, but I think she quit when there was a writer change and her character got lost in the shuffle. I think the problem with Ceara was that the writers didn't really know how to present the character. I faintly remember the first months of her character showing her to be a gold-digger.. trying to entice David while his father Jeremy decided to date her to save his son from her.. and even some Erica/Ceara sniping at one another. Once the incest story took over.. the character became this teary eyed character and never really recovered. The incest story made sense in a way.. since it helped explain why she was kind of bitchy and not wanting to get emotionally involved with someone.. but the show never really found a way to maintain the character's initial edge. Same thing kind of happened with Gloria, when she was raped by Will. Though there were instances when she would revert to her previous con artist approach (case in point.. during her wedding renewal vows to Adam when she outed him for faking his kidnapping, or when she instantly knew Ryan lavery was trying to con her when he first came to town.).

I do think the 2nd Josie was pretty good.. tough, yet still retaining the dreamer essence that the first Josie provided. The only thing I could say about Josie #3 was that she looked like the 2nd Josie.. but had neither the personality nor acting talent of Amy Carlson. And I do think Jenna had cause to be 'mean' to Lorna.. considering the fact that Lorna played the porno tape Jenna was conned into making for all to see. I think Jenna was a good girl, but wasn't afraid to fight and stand up for herself. yes, she could be drippy.. but she was still interesting to me. She wasn't devoid of personality.. which is what I think soaps are failing miserable with nowadays with their good girl characters. Jenna and Amanda were the good girls.. but were flawed and when they made mistakes.. they weren't let off the hook. Characters like Lorna and Olivia (the bad girls) did bad stuff.. but they also had good points (Olivia was good friends with Jenna.. even giving her advice... and Lorna was good friends with Jake/Paulina...).

Robin Christopher.. good actress... she just wasn't Lorna. I do give her props for playing out the whole rape aftermath as well as the scenes with Morgan and Victor... even being able to mirror Alicia Coppola in mannerisms when she first took over. However, she just wasn't Lorna and the character changed into a polished woman with decent dress sense and add to the fact that she looked nor acted anything like Felicia either (especially when replacing an actress who looked, acted and dressed like she could be Felicia's daughter). Kelsey worked as a member of the Harrison family.. being the Marilyn Munster of the family.. but she didn't work as a romantic lead. Dean/Jenna were a good couple.. it took over a year before they became a couple.. and it happened gradually. Donna Swajeski had said that Dean/Jenna were modeled after her and her long term boyfriend at the time. Lorna was a great spoiler for Jenna/Matt.. and man when Jenna and Lorna fought.. it was epic. I couldn't wait till Jenna found out that Lorna was Felicia's long lost daughter... that relationship was always complex.. they eventually became close.. but they would still bicker like sisters do LOL The Jenna/Felicia scenes in the cabin where Jenna saw the light in regards to Felicia's alcoholism plus miscarrying were powerful scenes. I did like the early D & D record stuff.. with Lorna, Jake, Matt, Dean, Jenna, Olivia mixing it up.. with visits/input from Paulina and her foster sister Hannah. It was a good mix in the early 90s. Also, I was watching some youtubes of scenes from 1989/early 1990. I liked how Vicky was the Rachel of that era.. hence why Rachel never really liked/trusted her.. I even liked seeing Jamie with Stacy.. even watching scenes of Jamie being a spoiler to Stacy/Derek in early 1990. It's a shame the show never really went forward with that.. Stacy was likable in that time period.. and it made sense that she would be drawn to Jamie due to their history.. while also bringing up the element of Stacy dating Decek due to wanting to rescue him, not cause she loved him.

It's interesting to read that the original concept of the show when it premiered seemed to be a combination of The Secret Storm (with one branch of the Matthews family reeling from the recent death of the father.. with the tensions between Liz/Susan and the weird transference of emotional spousal from her late husband to her only son Bill)... and As the world Turns (with the other branch of the Matthews family with a working father, supportive wife, and three children with only Pat starting off with angst while Alice and Russ were supporting/greek chorus). I can see what Irna Phillips was trying to do.. but she really couldn't merge those aspects together... and I can see why she only lasted a year or so before she departed.

If Brandi and Kim aren't fired after this season, it just proves that Bravo rewards bullies and enables addicts.

Brandi may bring it at reunion time...but like what Taylor Armstrong said on wwhl...if she picked. Housewife to fire for being boring..I'd also pick Brandi. Her whole shtick is boring and played out.

I heard Eileen goes at it with Brandi more then with Kim.. but that Eileen tears Brandi down without batting an eye lash.

I don't like.Brandi getting the seat closest to Andy...that usually means job security. Perhaps Andy Cohen needs to be fired as executive producer

This Kim and Kyle fight all stems over some house that Kim thinks Kyle 'stole' from her. Since this conflict has existed on and off since since season 1.. it is becoming like Bass Lake.. imho. I think Kim needs to go only because played out conflict can mar a show.. scripted or non scripted. With that said, this past episode of RHOBH was kind of a recap and build up to next weeks finale. http://www.chicagonow.com/confessions-coffeeholic/2015/03/rhobh-recap-confessions-housewife/

I can understand the recast of Sally not taking off but why not just have Sally leave town when Taylor Miller quit. Have Sally be tired of having the whole Brittany drama to contend with.. and just leave town. Then when THomas Ian Griffith left, had him go after Sally and reunite off screen. I do think having Sharlene, Russ, and Iris returning in 1988 provided some great story that played out into the mid 90s. It's a shame that the show stopped having characters from the past come back when it warranted it. WIth that said, I never understood why the show thought Vicky was the more interesting twin to focus on vs. Marley. Did the show ever really delve into how Marley truly felt about the fact that the woman she thought was her big sister was really her mother? To me, that should have given the show plenty of material to work with and made Marley more complex and seen as more then just the good twin. I do think the last year of the show kind of started to do that.. but I don't recall Marley being given that much attention beforehand other then the rape story and being put on trial for Jake's shooting.

It's interesting the changes that the character of Mary Matthews went through based on the writers. It does sound like the actress was more in tune with playing Mary as written by Agnes Nixon. It's difficult being an actor and having a new writer come in and alter a way a character is written/acting without any context. It sounds like she wasn't opposed to the character being a buffer between Steven and Alice being together.. consider the way he kept leading Rachel on as well as her daughter.. but she was opposed to how the character went about keeping them apart.. sounds like Lemay wanted to write Mary more like Liz.. when the original concept was the contrast between Liz and Mary. I do wonder how different the show would have been if they hadn't killed Mary Matthews off.. would the focus have remained on the Matthews family past the early 80s?

Overall I like Rebel Heart.. I like there are more ballads on this particular CD then on MDNA and Hard Candy combined. Best songs: Ghosttown, Messiah, Rebel Heart (loved the acoustic demo, the dance demo, and the final version), Inside Out, Addicted, Iconic, and Wash all over me. Decent songs songs: Body Shop, Veni Vidi Vici, Joan of Arc, Unapolgetic Bitch, Heartbreak City The rest of eh for me. Looking over the above list.. that's my 12 track makeshift album

Nicole was a good actress just wasn't Cassie. I would think losing two men shed love via death would've made anyone hard as nails. Let alone the hardships she went through pre show. Cassie should've stayed the hardened anti heroine.. imho

Eileen was made of win in this episode. Lisa and Kyle.. please observe how a true master deals with delusional fools like Kim and Brandi. http://www.chicagonow.com/confessions-coffeeholic/2015/03/rhobh-recap-amster-damn-slap/

I actually have found myself liking Lydia much better this season thus far. When evil influences are taken away, one can become nicer. I actually much prefer seeing the women in their day to day lives...I thought they Chyka and Lydia scenes on their own were great.. and Pettifleur's scene just shows how mean and clueless she truly is. At least Janet is owning that she is a gossip queen and she's very hilarious as is Gamble. The one thing I like about Gamble thus far is that she will say what she thinks to the person's face and I think her reaction was unscripted. I think the show needs to better balance the group interaction and the day to day aspects of the women. Most of them have careers, i want to have scenes focused on that and their families.

I'm not sure how Laura Wright would have played Tammy's death. Certainly differently for sure. Laura Wright seemed perfect as Cassie.. chip on her shoulder, thought the world owed her something,e tc. I could buy her playing a hardened stripper with a heart of gold buried deep within... I disliked that the show made Cassie into a heroine.. just didn't fit with the essence of Cassie at all nor how Laura Wright played the part. I could never buy Nicole Forster playing the hardened stripper whatsoever.. she seemed much too contained and controlled to play Cassie.. imho. It was like two different characters.

Too much gossiping too soon. I'd much rather the first few episodes of the season show the women in their lives.. and then start to interact them again. Best of both worlds.

Rhoa needs a revamp for.season 8. Bye porsha, Phaedra, and Cynthia. Keep kandi, Kenya, Claudia, nene, and add two new.housewives. Rhony: 8 women is a lot...I would have cut Carole or Kristen from the cast. 7 is pushing it already, 8 is too many to focus on. Too many contrived gatherings and less day to day in a life of a housewife.

I'd forgotten that another actress played Angie pre-Maeve Kincaid. I wonder what she was like as Angie.

last night's RHOBH was mostly drama free.. and actually kind of fun till the end of the episode. Welcome to Amsterdam never sounded so onimous LOL http://www.chicagonow.com/confessions-coffeeholic/2015/02/rhobh-recap-welcome-to-amsterdam/

I agree it's a shame there isn't any early Alice stuff available any longer. I'd love to seen perky teenybopper Alice, and beatnik/artistic Alice as well. It just seems like Irna Phillips and the following writers loved Pat and Missy as the main girls while Alice was just a b-character. Thank gosh Agnes Nixon rescued her.

I actually thought that the first episode nicely caught us up with the veterans.. and nicely introduced both housewives effortlessly. I even liked that Gamble and pettifleur knew each other pre-show.. and that if rumours have been swirling around about Gamble pre-show.. then it makes sense she would defend Gina and be her supporter.. but time will tell. Janet: Such a little gossip and I like that she admitted she and Gina are frenimies. I always got that vibe about them last season. They will bicker, apoligize, and bicker again. Her talking heads were hilarious especially when talking to the cake designer LOL Jackie/Chyka/Lydia: I liked their lunch.. it was a good balance of gossip and actually talking about their private lives. I think when RHOBH films for season 6, they look at this first episode on how to balance the gossip with day to day lives of the women. Lydia: I do think she is partly trying to make amends with Gina due to the backlash she got last season, but I also think they were actually friends.. hence why Gina was more guarded and hurt by her then by Janet/Andrea. Gamble: She seems very eccentric.. kind of like an Australian Shannon Beador.. kinda of. Pettifeur: She seems very in your face and very militant. I'd love for her to appear on some of the american housewife shows. I think she could shade the heck out of all the Atlanta housewives Gina: So far, so good.

I was hoping for the reunion not to be so stressful and toxic, I hope that some fun moments were filmed and will be shown to balance out the toxicity. I was afraid with Andy there that Brandi and Kim would be protected to some degree.. but I'm hearing differently, so that might be good.

The music was too old fashion and the leaves had nothing to do with a light house. I think the opening music during the late 70s should have been more dark and intense.. to signal the more psychological undertones of GL that happened circa 1975 to 1980. Still that leaf opening with the soft music was loads above the disco opening that Marland and co. opted for. I much liked the 1983 to 1986 theme with the sweeping orchestra and even the more sync version.

I do think Swajeski did well with what she was given once Lemay left again. Considering she was a program director at NBC daytime when she took over, I think she did pretty well carrying out the outlines Lemay left (if rumors were true). In fact, I think she did well with Rachel's character considering that a lot of whatever Lemay would have planned for her had to be changed given the unexpected death of Douglass Watson. In fact, she was smart to interact Mitch/Rachel after Mac's death at the same time as Felicia's first love Lucas returned.. and how the Felicia/Mitch marriage ended was very realistic because the two had grown apart and traveled different paths. And I think Iris' character was handled very well under Swajeski as well. Did she write Iris' romance with blue collar Hank, or was that her successor Peggy S?