Soaplovers

I have a feeling this only dropped on Tubi because I believe Tubi is owned by Fox... plus the creator of Pasadena is also one of the creators of White Lotus.

So happy Pasadena is on Tubi.. at least here in the states :) TubiPasadenaAn influential family in Pasadena enjoys a life of wealth, power, and prestige. And never have they been so close to losing it all.

I think Reva driving off the bridge in 1990 was a poetic end to a character that always got in her own way, had struggled with mental health issues, and had degraded herself for others because she had self-hate for herself. It's a shame that this tragic end was reversed with that stupid ghost and later the Amish story.

The actress has a sense of humor

I think early Vanessa had more layers and was close to a gray character, but I think the fact that she was sleeping with Joey the night Doug passed.. and quickly latched onto Joey not too long after Doug's death is where she tipped the scale over from gray character into a more dark character with less layers. Is it due to the writer change, or just the show deciding to take advantage of the chemistry between JL and LB, I don't know. If she's doing all this in order to nail Joey for Doug's death, the writers have done a bad job of giving hints of that.

I'll weigh in on this 'just a soap' comment because there are different rules and expectations for the genre vs a primetime drama vs a play vs a broadway show. Soap operas have to write a large number of scripts in a short turnaround time, they have to be filmed with little to no blocking/rehearsal, and the pressure/pace is intense compared to filming a tv show, movie, or performing a play or Broadway show. I think considering how barebones the genre is right now, people saying 'just a soap' is probably the nicest way to say that the quality isn't there anymore. Once you educate the people on what goes on behind the scenes, most people amend that statement.

Martin/Smitty: Not surprised at the conflict because they never resolved their issues.. just forgave the symptom of their issues without actually handling the root cause. I kind of figure Martin and his deeply enmeshed relationship with his family is one of the root causes... but not sure what Smitty's angst is all about since we hardly know anything about his life pre-Martin other then being a journalist. Joey/Vanessa: Vanessa is truly a toxic one. Joey is right that she's the give an inch and they try to take a foot. I did like the conversation between Martin/Smitty about the secret with Joey sitting at the corner as a great symbol of the secret just waiting to approach them. And Smitty exits the room, 'the secret' approaches Martin. I commend the breakdown, writing, and the directing for that. Grayson/Ashley: Curious to see where this goes long term (if there is a long term). I like that Ashley is a strong B or C story character.. those characters are just as important the A-story characters. And she got to do the Tide plug, that must mean something if she got picked to do it :) Lia: Such a shame she's short-term since her role as chief of staff would be nice as a semi regular antagonist :) This is why you have to be careful when casting commanding performers for short-term roles.

I think India has some stuff with Alan coming up right around when SC's Annie leaves.. but I don't recall if much happened or if it was just a few scenes and then she vanished again and later mentioned being out of town on business. India was a character that worked best in short arcs. The return in late 1998 wasn't planned properly and she wandered around for several months without an actual story. Her 1990 arc was so well-written and her 2002 visit was memorable.. even her 2005 visit had a few nice moments as well. At first, I thought it was random India and Ross were interacting in 1998, but then I recalled that they interacted some in her original stuff. It wouldn't have seemed so random had there been mention of their interactions in late 1986/early 1987 when Ross had custody of Dinah and India had custody of Dori. Dinah and Dori were close foster sisters I believe.. and India/Ross interacted because of them with India even suggesting they split custody of Dori so that she still had the connection with Dinah.. but I think MKA quit so she was quickly written off the show and left suddenly in the spring 1987.

The surprise was it was placed at the end of the episode thus making it a cliffhanger. For once, the writers actually wrote an old school soap opera episode

I happened to be working in my local office today, and was able to watch Beyond the Gates live in the lunchroom as I worked. I also caught the last ten minutes of B & B and the only thing I'll say about that show is yikes (haven't watched it in several years so I was very confused who everyone was... and was bummed that Brooke didn't give a look that indicated she also hid a letter written by Caroline to Ridge that she kept hidden! Today was a filler day, but I also think there is some groundwork being laid out for May sweeps. Shanice's line about men and their drama really hits home the anti-male vibe that the show has even though Shanice is doing the complete opposite of what her instincts are telling her to do. The ending with Grayson was a nice surprise, and I think we can now agree that he's telling the truth about his mom. It would be nice if Ashley had someone she actually has chemistry with stay on the show LOL Hayley was doing the Oscar reel today while the talks that Tomas had today don't bode well for the lad.

The reason I think sets are less important was that in the 80s, the focus became on sets and locations instead of the writing and plotline. And there were a lot of substandard shows that had decent sets, but lousy acting and stories. To me, it sounds as though TPTB didn't think realistically about what sets were needed and what sets they could without. Was there a need for two offices for Nicole, a living room set for Nicole, a kitchen set for Dani (which could be re-used for Anita/Vernon's house), Dani's gate house, and a living room set for Bill/Hayley? Bill's office could easily be re-used for Joey's office or even Vanessa's office. At least they gave Jacob/Naomi a living room set eventually. To me, I would have not introduced the coffee set, and perhaps used that set for perhaps the clinic instead.

To me, sets aren't that important. I don't care if the Dupree's have a dining room table, or if Naomi has an office. Those things aren't that important to me. To me pacing is the biggest issue and working on some of the dialogue so it seems a bit more consistent from episode to episode should be the focus over if the Dupree's have a dining room table or not.

Nicole and Joey's 1:1 was the highlight of today's episode followed by a nice surprise appearance from Caroline. And I see that Tomas had a bit of expression on his face.. miracle of miracles. Dani/Vanessa was a waste of a scene.. but we all need filler. Hayley needs to learn about doing things on the DL.

The key difference on this show is that the male toxic behavior is always called out, but some of the female toxic behavior is framed as being empowering. Leslie/SPS is called out for her behavior being toxic (the whole Fatal Attraction talk proves that), but the way that Dani is presented is what I have a problem with. She's perhaps the most toxic of the female characters and yet she's never called out. In regards to Joey, I do agree with you on that. He was a one note character and I think he was intended to be just a recurring villian like Lia... but when you hire Jon Lindstrom, you know that he'll bring more to a part then what is written. And now the show is trying to bring dimension to the character.. and it comes off weird.

RIP to a wonderful actor that could play the heart throb (Austin), the cheater (Jeff on Saved by the Bell), the psycho (Richard on Melrose Place), and play the holiday love interest (A Boyfriend for Christmas).

I love that this show is run and written by women, but show feminity toxicity in spades with almost all of their female characters. Dani and her manipulative crying routine in order to get Andre to comfort her just because Chelsea established boundaries. Vanessa being a whore, a bad mother, a bad business woman, and trying to change a man (which is written as being empowering, yet if a man tries to change a woman.. he's a plain old misogynist) SPS and the SA of Ted, the way she talks down to the white characters with borderline bigoted comments (i.e Vanessa and Derek) Naomi and her constantly cutting down on Jacob, who is nothing but a saint to deal with her. Chelsea and her tendency to make everything in her relationship with Madison all about her (This is why you need to hold off on the U Haul LOL) Lia... say no more LOL Now do I enjoy watching the show? I do, but I also know that toxicity reigns supreme on this show and I wish that it was equal and that we had more male toxic behavior to even out the female toxic behavior. The best books written thrived on toxicity and forbidden things ( The Thorn Birds, Any book written by Danielle Steel, Any Judith Krantz novel, etc). So to the poster/s that call Joey and Bill misogynist... I say to them... Thank God! They're the most interesting characters because they are toxic and not written to be anything but toxic... while the female characters are being portrayed as 'empowering'. However, you can put lipstick on a pig, it's still going to be a pig.

I am intrigued with the Rachel Lewis angle. I also liked that we got a little update on the Chelsea/Dani dynamic since Dani was a domineering momager and it was good that Chelsea enforced her boundaries with keeping them as mother/daughter (this story reminds me of Brooke Shields and her momager). Derek seems to have great scene chemistry with everyone, but Ashley. It's fascinating how chemistry works. SPS was actually more subdue today. A little of SPS goes a long way..imho

Maybe she'll be Joey's estranged daughter since didn't Joey mention that he was divorced?

They did that the hooking up thing on their first official date I recall. Ashley seems like she jumps headfirst into relationships and it would be nice to explore why she seems to do that since I believe she did that Derek and Andre pre-Grayson.

Sabrina/Madonna sounded good together, hopefully Sabrina will mature/evolve with her music as she gets older.. but time will tell. Just wish she wasn't such a misandrist in her song lyrics. With that said, with Madonna having such a vast array of songs that span 40+ years.. we all know that there are always a few clunkers that hard-core Madonna fans don't like.. and oddly I have to admit I enjoy some of those guilty pleasures. Here are a few of mine> I just love this 80s girl group song :) This, plus White Heat, are under-rated guilty pleasures. Spotlight was the 'I Feel so Free' of 1987 with dancing, self-love, etc. This was such a love song, I wish people would want a good mid tempo love song like they used to back in the day. Early 90s you stole my man song. Shame this wasn't a single. I remember everyone I knew hated this one, but I kind of low key liked it (though Gang Bang was the best song on MDNA).

Cady is NY based and seems very settled there so I don't know if she'll ever be on contract.. but I do love when she pops up with her Transatlantic accent as Pamela.

I enjoyed her collabs with Britney and Justin back in the 2000s. Me Against the Music was a good song, but from what I read, she did some modifications on it to improve it. 4 Minutes.. they sounded good together and had a good dance off... even though I wish that Give it 2 Me could have benefited from the momentum of 4 Minutes.

From what I recall, Rebel Heart had massive leaks and it caused Madonna to either rework tracks, drop tracks, or quickly put new tracks together. The original concept from what I understood was that it was supposed to be a double album type of format where the Rebel part was going to be the more edgy content while the Heart section was going to be ballad oriented. Also, Sabrina is vastly over-rated and very shallow. She seeks manchild types because she knows she couldnt handle a real man lol With that said, I feel so free is very full circle to 1982 in terms of lyrical content:

I was looking at the ratings for the two part 1997 mini series, and while it wasn't a huge success compared to Dallas (mostly because it was too soon and they had tied up all of the loose ends before going off the air), I was surprised that the ratings for each night were decent. Part 1 came on a strong 2nd place on Wednesday night opposite Drew Carey Show & Ellen (this episode was the follow up episode after coming out of the closet), and it improved on the regular programming on CBS at the time (Wednesday Night Movie). Part 2 came on Friday night with lower ratings than the first part. And while it was a decline, compared to the average ratings for programming on that night.. the ratings kind of improved (two weeks previous was the Dukes of Hazard reunion movie and it scored better ratings than KL.. probably because Dukes of Hazard was on Friday nights traditionally while KL was a Thursday night show). So while it wasn't as successful as hoped, considering that they were coming back within a few years of ending... the ratings were decent, but it might have worked better as just a two hour movie instead of four hour mini-series..imho.

I have a theory on why Jessie and Calla didn't work. 1) The original concept for Beth's cousin was supposed to be a combination of India and Roxie. When casting happened for Beth's cousin, it was in mid 1984 and both MKA and Kristi Farrell read for the part. The casting people liked both actresses and decided to 86 the Beth cousin connection and create two brand new characters. India (who took on the troublemaking aspects of the original character sketch) and Roxie (who took on the spirited and working class elements of the original character sketch). 2) We also have to remember that both Calla and Jessie came on at least a month or so before Long left the show as head-writer so we never got to see the mother/daughter relationship explored in more detail nor did we get to see the Calla/Lillian sister relationship explored. If you watched the November/December 1985 episodes.. you saw Calla guilting Lillian about how she and her husband helped Lillian when she was single with a baby and how it would be nice to have that kindness returned while she seemed to rule her daughter Jessie with an iron fist in the pageant world. Rebecca Staab had just come from playing a working class girl that dressed like a Madonna wannabe and was the bad girl.. so it's possible that perhaps Jessie was going to be revealed to be that way to Beth... but the writer switch happened before that got telegraphed maybe? Plus, from what seems to have been mentioned by the actors that played Jessie and Simon, it didn't seem as though they were supposed to be paired and that became a thing later on since both mentioned that they hardly interacted at first.. and then one day were told they were being paired.