Soaplovers

To me this whole June/Samantha/Tyrell story makes the Ashley/Andre/Derek scenes from earlier in the episode count seem riveting and interesting. Naomi is a typical rich girl that tries to soothe her guilty privileged behind by being a 'savior'. She has good qualities, but she comes off as patronizing when she interacts with others. Although with Bill and Dani as parents, she obviously had to do something to cope with them being less mature then her.

Ron C is known for his shorter scenes so I'm not surprised that with a different breakdown writer helming this episode that the scenes are a bit longer. Perhaps one day Devon could join the soap... test him with some of the Dupreee women and see where he pops best.

Maybe they only counted episodes where Jessica was the main character and not episodes where Jessica was just the book end host.

Thanks to the pre-emptions.. the Friday episode is technically the Wednesday episode. And I believe while the show is filmed 3 months or so in advance, the scripts were written at least five months in advance so when pre-emptions happen.. the writers can't correct/tweak the scripts

And because Dani was raised in wealth with two parents and an older sister... she can't be the Erica Kane type. Erica Kane was a have not that was driven to be successful in order to finally gain the love of her father that was long with held (in her mind).

Murder She wrote was about an American version of Miss Marples.. who was warm and grandmotherly... yet had strong observant and analytical skills to solve mysteries. I could buy Angela's Jessica Fletcher having friends, family, and a host of other co workers that invited her to wonderful places where mystery seemed to follow her. Jamie Lee Curtis seems so harsh and judgmental that she is the wrong actress to even be associated with Murder She Wrote. There has to be a more logical and superior choice to headline this movie.

Therapists and USA Today would disagree. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/09/19/narcissism-and-breakups-can-a-narcissist-feel-heartbroken/70888597007/

Dani makes everything about herself. She's a classic narcissist and it has been hinted by other characters that she has always pulled this stunt before.

The thing is that the show had an out for keeping the Laura element on the back burner because Jacob had mentioned that they couldn't identify the motorcycle nor the driver and video wasn't working/missing. At the time, I assumed that the writers were keeping that in the background while other elements in the plot were playing out (i.e. Kat/Tomas/Eva, Eva/Ted building a father and daughter relationship, Eva and Nicole trying to navigate the awkwardness, Silk Press Sheila and Nicole building up their feud, etc). Playing up the Laura element and then dropping it was not a good plan because it made almost all the players look stupid.

In regards to the Doug/Vanessa/Joey story... I'm wondering if Vanessa is slyly playing Joey and Doug out of revenge for Doug's debts leading her to laundry money to save his behind and to Joey for making her fall for him and admitting he was manipulating her. There is an old saying that nothing is scarier then a woman's scorned. While the Hayley 'miscarriage' is a cover up... I do like that Dani is suffering from guilt for once. Ironic she's suffering guilt for something she didn't actually do... not because she pulled a gun out at a wedding and throws tantrums when she doesn't get her way. Seeing yesterday how Jacob's dad gas lit him... it makes perfect sense why he seems willing to be dominated by a domineering Naomi. I'll be honest that I wish that MVJ would have beefed up Jacob's family and left some of the Dupree family branches off screen. Is Jan pro Derek because she thinks he's right for Ashley... or because she kind of likes what she sees? Jan's an attractive woman in the prime of her life and she would value someone like Derek... I bet Ashley would think Shanice being with Derek wouldn't so bad as long as he wasn't with her mom LOL Previews for next week look interesting with Kat/Tomas/Eva being focused on plus the older woman showing up on Silk Press Sheila's doorstep (finally something different for her to play).

@TaoboiI don't have a problem with rotating stories in terms of focus (i.e. Plot A, Plot B, etc)... but the show is still trying to figure out the timing to which the rotate the stories. For instance, the Silk Press Sheila situation has been oddly paced.. and I'm not talking about the Nicole/Ted/Eva/Kat situation... but the Laura hit and run arc. If the show insists on keeping the character on the show, it wasn't smart of them to focus so much on the Laura situation(i.e. search warrant, Eva keeping the evidence in her room, etc) so soon.. that should have been something that could have waited to be revisited until later (i.e as we were getting close to the end of season 1). However, because that plot point was focused on too early.. it made Jacob look stupid, Kat look entitled, Eva becoming an accessor, and Silk Press Sheila being sloppy with her comments... and the plot point was then put back into deep freeze without any sort of resolution. Also, I'm confused about the Hayley arc. Not only because we didn't get her POV.. but because the motivation is off, the pacing is off, and it just seems to have been generated because the writers realized they had nothing for Hayley to do while Bill and Dani had separate stories going on.

Talk about three completely different actresses being cast to play Paige Miller. I recall seeing Kimberlin playing Paige in one or two episodes.. and her take on the character was more intense and tortured... and I heard that Cady was vastly different.. It's sad that Alexandra Neil never really found a role as interesting and fun as her part on Texas (such a shame really)... but it didn't help that she played her last three roles (Rose, Dawn, and Paige) as insipid instead of trying to infuse those characters with a bit of spunk/edge

At least Sharlene and a few other characters made mention that Gwen had changed and they weren't sure why she was so different. I think she was out of sorts because Willis had left her and she put the blame toward Rachel and the Cory's. I think Dorothy had just finished playing Naomi Harper on Mama's Family so I think she hadn't quite shaken that character's aura when trying to tackle Gwen in 1989. She was much more subtle when she was briefly at Generations and Bold & the Beautiful.

I also like that some of the interactions have been in people's residences vs at OJ's or Uptown. Let's face it, the writers dropped the ball with Hayley by not providing her point of view in the same manner as Bill and Dani. This leads me to think that the show is leaning toward Bill/Dani as end game and Hayley is just a plot point/obstacle vs an actual character I'm on the fence with Naomi because the writers haven't really given her any development or POV other then she's the lawyer and was close to Bill/Hayley. Her marriage to Jacob works because the actors sell it, but the writing doesn't really go there in terms of natural conflict (Jacob's boy scout level need for ethics vs Naomi's somewhat grey shadings). I've also have said that about the show doing strong Milestones (i.e. Point A, Point B, etc).. but we miss the beats between Point A and Point B in some cases. I had chalked up the Silk Press Sheila/Ted bombshell being stalled due to the recasting of Ted and allowing the new actor time to put his spin on Ted (which I've noticed in recent episodes that he's playing Ted with a bit more edge).. but the other stories I can't understand why they stall and/or not focused on for many episodes (i.e. Vanessa finding out Doug owes money and that Joey played her with no follow up for many episodes, Martin's secret coming out with little to no mention, etc).

I always marvel at the loss of memory when it comes to certain characters. Sami is best in smaller doses, and I think having Sami coming and going is what is best for the show and for the character.

The way the show rotates stories from the front burner to the back burner, I predict Ashley will probably be put back in the backburner in the next few weeks. To me, both Ashley and Dani are hurting the show.

Unpopular opinion, but Julianne Moore wasn't all that much to write home about.. but I will concede that she was able to make both Sabrina and Frannie completely different characters and play them both well. With that said, I thought Mary Ellen was a much better Frannie then Julianne Moore was.. but I think it's difficult to really put yourself into a character if you're playing two different characters (Ellen Wheeler and Anne Heche struggled at first to make Vicky and Marley distinctly different and fully fleshed out characters). Claire Beckman wasn't given much to work with as Sabrina, and the history and writing was there to make Sabrina more of a grey character. Remember Sabrina did pretend to be Frannie in order to get Seth to sleep with her... she did to her sister what Kim did to her sister. And I think Claire Beckman would have played those darker aspects of Sabrina (she did that when playing Silver Kane on AMC) with more flare then the passive way Julianne Moore approached the material. Martha Byrne was much better when she came back in 1993 to about 1997 then she was when she played Lily originally from 1985 to 1989 and after 1997.

Angel Falls only had 6 episodes and it ended with multiple cliffhangers. The least CBS could have done was pick up one additional episode and/or two hour made for tv movie to tie up the loose ends.

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