Soaplovers

I think when one is grieving, you tend to flashback to significant moments in your past in order to make sense with what you're feeling in the present. The possession story was pretty significant for John/Marlena.. and with Marlena grieving John.. it would make sense for her to flashback to a significant traumatic time in your life... and both the Queen of the Night and the Possession experiences did rob Marlena of her identity and autonomy.... and losing John is bringing up those same questions of identity and autonomy because now she's got to figure out who she is without a man in her life.

I think she meant that the majority of her work during Marland's era was about Princess Lily.. and not really about her. Although, I don't quite agree with that because she and John had a marriage that was pretty front burner and it was interesting seeing two people that love one another and were probably too much alike to be married since both of them were control freaks. Had Marland not passed.. I think the Neal/Royce story would have been seen through completely and given Lucinda more of a story from her past.

The whole Martin and Smitty conflict over Smitty wanting to go back to work would have made more sense had their kids been 6 or 7 vs 16 an 17.

Ronn Moss had that rich playboy character archtype down pat.. and he was appealing to watch (Charisma is probably even more important then good acting is). Brandon Claybon has that rich elitist vibe down pat.. and he carries himself off as someone that thinks he's superior to everyone.. including his spouse Smitty. So his anxious panic attacks fit with the character. Alex A... has the player vibe down.. but he isn't bringing anything beyond that to the role.... I put him and the actress that plays Chelsea on the same level acting wise.

Naomi and Jacob have savior complexes... which is what I think you're seeing when you see them interact with June. Nicole in her solo interaction with June seemed better able to read June and I wish that we could see June utilize Nicole's services.

The OC has always changed their cast lineup every season, yet decided on keeping this group instead of doing the sensible thing and cutting Gina and/or Emily from the cast? Katie is still learning, but I liked her tagline.. it's very tongue in cheek. Next season better have some drastic cast changes.

Passions: It seemed as though every female and male character was sexually assaulted... and the Vincent/Julian situation topped the list of most inappropriate. Days: Kristen tried to use a mirror to hypnotize John into sleeping with her in an effort to get pregnant (in a illogical attempt at covering up her miscarriage). B & B: Brooke having sex with Hope's boyfriend outside as the two are wearing masks. ATWT: Dani hooking up with Craig.. even calling him daddy (the creepy thing is that Craig had originally believed she was his child when she was first born). AW: Marley becoming obsessed with breaking up Jake and Vicky... not because she was trying to protect her twin from potentially suffering the same fate as her when she was married to Jake... but because she wanted to get back together with Jake (the man that cheated on her, and also raped her). GL: Holly and Roger having sex in 1993 and eventually had the two end up in a romantic relationship again in 1994. After the way he had raped her, held her hostage, and then basically haunted her when he came back the dead in 1989... it just seemed wrong.

I don't think June is suffering from mental illness per se. I think the Orphey Gene scene was June wanting to feel like she was contributing something and Naomi deciding to humor her instead of trying to make an awkward situation even worse. I agree with the above that Nicole should be shown counseling June irregardless if June has mental health issues or not.

Are you a Charlotte is the one Kristin Davis is doing talking about SATC. She's had some interesting episodes already. I've listened to some episodes of the podcast discussing Ugly Betty, Step by Step, and The middle. Some are decent and some get too gushy. I'm hoping 'Still the Place' returns from hiatus so that the women can get into discussing season 2 of Melrose Place

The thing about Kristen was that her descent into the dark side didn't just happen over night.. but happened over a period of time. The first sign of Kristen starting that descent was when Kristen hid a letter and/or diary.. another was her miscarriage and her lamenting that now she had nothing to keep John tied to her, then trying to use a mirror to hypnotize John into sleeping with her so she could become pregnant. Her desperation to hold onto John stemmed from earlier events such as the marriage to Tony, her not believing John was innocent of 'killing Tony', and seeing how close John/Marlena got after the Satan possession story and Marlena believing John was innocent. That type of gradual story telling is hardly told in this day and age. Nowadays, Kirsten would wake up evil instead of the viewer being shown the journey to revealing that side of her.

To be honest, a soap opera reaching 100 episodes isn't a milestone.. usually once a soap celebrates 500 or 1000 episodes is where it becomes a huge deal.

I thought he was a decent actor and was a cutie too.

Kat has noone, but herself to blame for sleeping with Tomas.. but in a modern misandrist world... she'll somehow blame Tomas instead of taking personal responsibility for the choice she made. And I wonder if there is a 3rd sister that connects June and Hayley to one another. Nicole/Dani had a nice scene.. but it must be difficult for Daphnee to always be carrying Karla in their scene. Also, anytime Pamela is on the scene and speaks.. I'm reminded of this individual:

Vana T seemed to possess some of the same essence/aura of Courtney's Alice... who had an air of confidence and sarcasm in her line deliveries. She also seemed to match up well in scenes opposite Rachel while Borgeson seemed almost timid and passive (so unlike Alice..imo).

Take full advantage of the budget, but I'm hoping it isn't going to dominate the whole week.. and that other stories will be featured as well.

I tend to like Hayley better when she's in scenes with people other then Dani and Bill, and I wonder if the show is intentionally doing this to show how Hayley sacrificed friends for the love of an older man. She has acting chemistry with Naomi, had good rapport with Jacob/Derek.. and I was surprised at the rapport between her and Ashley during their 1:1 scene at Orphey's the other week. I'm wondering if Hayley is doing this whole baby business for a variety of reasons such as money, security, and to ensure Bill is devoted to her in the same way as he's tied to Dani (because of their daughters). Even Hayley rightly called out Bill's obsession with the Duprees and thinking it bizarre he keeps acting as if he's at their beck and call. It was a nice warm up to the intensity and tongue lashing Nicole gave to him in the 2nd half of yesterday's episode.

While Doug III had a moment of closure with Julie before leaving town, it does seem odd that the new head writers couldn't find a way to keep his story going... yet have no trouble with keeping the Sophia story going

I assumed The Articulettes were going to have a late 70s/early 80s Funk sound more along the lines of Klymaxx... but I could have seen the group staying together into the late 80s and trying New Jack Swing... and perhaps that change in direction is what made Anita realize that her passions/interests lie beyond what The Articulettes were doing. It kind of reminds me of the girl group Bananarama, which started out being more eccentric/creative.. and eventually moving into more bubble gum girl group by 1986/1987... and one of the members ended up quitting the group to start a different type of musical group that was the Anti Bananramas. I would assume Anita was born in the 1940s.. and their sound probably started out Motown... but by the time they became popular... the funky/disco vibe became their signature sound.

Nicole vs Bill was so good and I hope it isn't the only verbal match up between the two. Ironically, Daphnee had auditioned for Dani.. but I'm glad that she was cast as Nicole instead. Eva/Tomas/Kat continues to impress.. and I like that Eva has enough self love to not go all the way with Tomas. I hope she'll maintain that self love, but it wouldn't be a soap if she did LOL Another positive was that we got a 3 episode vacation from Dani so even if she's on tomorrow.. I won't be cringing and actually want to see if there will be movement on her modeling agency and her being the face of that agency.

It amazes me, in a good way, that Days has continued to chug along when people assumed back in the mid to late 2000s that Days wouldn't last beyond 2009/2010.. yet continues to soldier on. It truly is the little show that could

I've gotten use to the new Ted, and I thought the actor played Ted with a bit more strength today then what he's been playing previously. His approach seems to be more restrained and pragmatic vs the more spark plug approach/aura that OG Ted had. This Ted I could see being sucked in by Silk Press Sheila and perhaps seeing something good in her vs OG Ted where I viewed his interactions with SPS as being more intense.. and not understanding how he could have gone for her.

Chelsea is unsurprisingly naive with a domineering mother Dani that controlled her every move... that now that she's free from her mother's control.. she's like a Bambi out in the wilds. With that said, I just don't care about her love life troubles

Unpopular opinion, but I actually liked the character of Chelsea.. and even liked her relationship with Phillip. They had an interesting rapport that I wish the show had made better use of instead of just breaking them up and throwing him randomly into Blake's orbit while her character kind of stagnated once she was paired with Johnny. When she finally left town in January 1991, it was time for her character to venture away from Springfield since she was single and the only prospects the show seemed interested in trying with her were either Frank or Fletcher.

I view Dani and her drinking to be more along the line of Jill Abbott (of Y & R fame) and her drinking. There were years where Jill would drink a bit more then usual, but would pull back once things calmed down... so I could see the show doing something along those lines for Dani. Unpopular opinion, but I liked yesterdays episode a bit better than Monday's episode because there was focus on multiple stories vs the more B & B type of approach that Monday's episode had (which was too focused on the Martin fall out). MVJ and co need to understand that what seems to work, or not work, for B & B won't work for BTG for the simple reason that one soap is 30 minutes long and the other soap is 60 minutes

Eva vs Kat continues to work.. and I hope it's a feud that spans well into season 2. And we all knew Tomas and Eva were interested in one another.. it was only a matter of time until he decided to look Eva's way.