Soaplovers

I think had the showrunners not been switched out, I think we would have seen a slower descent for Joshua in season 7 and perhaps the cliffhanger would have been the rooftop confrontation between Lillimae and Joshua.

I thought the first year or so of Krista's stint as Billie made sense for the character because she was supportive of Bo/Hope, told Kate to back off, and seemed to have a life of sorts where she was... and then the kidnapping of Billie and being made to go back on drugs by her captors was well done. And Bo being a supportive person as she went through withdrawal recalled their rapport back during the Curtis storyline... and after she got through the withdrawal and getting back on her feet.. she realized that she still loved Bo and became determined to get him back. In her defense, Bo and Hope weren't exactly a strong couple so I can see why she saw her chance to be the person that Bo deserved. After that, the character became one note and only in her last few months did Billie start to develop layers as a character. Had she been the first person to play Billie, it would have been a good stint.. but she was following up on Rinna's superior 1st stint. Julie didn't have the humor and grit of Rinna nor the vulnerability of Krista.

Other than Dani/Andre.... the show can barely build a believable romance between characters on contract... and Dani/Andre was a happy accident. @Taoboi I don't know if awshucks Derek is fully back... the darkness could be under wraps and could come out down the line again.

I think the Dobson's would have had a field day at SFT especially in 1980 with the whole Stephanie/Jo/Wendy/Suzi orbit, plus I could have seen them have a field day with Liza, Sunny, Stu, etc. I remember reading somewhere that the Dobson's said it took them being head-writers of GL for eighteen months before they felt confident about what they were doing on the show.. and reading monthly write-ups of the show.. you could see them trying to figure out how to update and modernize GL during those early months. The difference was that P & G probably gave them time to find their footing and put their stamp on GL in the mid 70s vs ATWT where it seemed as though P & G wanted instant results. Plus, GL in 1975 had a mix of younger characters with Holly/Peggy being in their mid to late 20s and Roger being in his early 30s along with other characters that were being focused on at first like Tim and Pam.

So the whole Derek holding back his progress in order to surprise Ashley and then being found out long before he was deceitful wasn't a pivot/adjustment? Wow! I'm on the fence on whether this was all MVJ's vision (that she said played out in her mind all these years), or if the abundance of EP's/Production companies have somewhat muddled the waters.

I actually think Orphey Gene's should have been a cute and trendy coffee house instead of a sit down restaurant. People will hang out at a coffee shop over a restaurant especially during work days. Laura is getting more story and focus than Chelsea. I would cut my losses with Chelsea and just focus on developing Laura's character. Derek/Ashley trying the friend thing too quickly. I do like SPS and Marcel together.. and it's a nice break from her mooning over her Teddy Bear. I see the show is still playing the Tomas/Eva connection... but I hope nothing further is done with them until both do some growing up.

Lisa was a really good movie especially the relationship between the mother and daughter.. and the twist was that the daughter was basically stalking the serial killer with him being a bit uneased about not being the one in power.. and the mother/daughter teaming up against the killer at the end was effective as well. Great soundtrack as well. USA made for tv movies were the thing back in the late 80s and early 90s.. Morgan Fairchild was in at least two

Soaps used to be 15 minutes so I think as long as each episode has something interesting happening in each episode... those 50 episodes will fly by.

Bill collapsing could have been done at Winterfest. Wasn't he supposed to co host the auction with his ex Dani? Bill could have collapsed with Dani panicking and going back into wife mode with him while Ashley and the handsome new Doc get to work with making sure he's breathing and alive while Andre notes Dani's reaction to Bill's collapse while Hayley gets a panicked look afraid that she'll be exposed. That would have been more than enough to make Winterfest an event with a payoff.

Everyone saying it was nice that the Winterfest didn't have any drama need to go watch a Hallmark Channel and not a soap opera LOL I truly think the Winterfest was a mutual event that MVJ and Guza came up with in order to resemble the Nurses Ball on GH.. but with Guza gone and his replacement being hired without proving themselves... it just became another ho hum event... just like Thanksgiving and that fashion show earlier this year.

It should have stayed like a soapy Walton's instead of trying to be like Dallas or Dynasty. I still get a kick out of Earl Hamner saying his favorite scene was when Melissa told Lance after they married that she was pregnant and he wasn't the father. He may have said he didn't want Falcon Crest to be like Dallas/Dynasty.. but he certainly could write a guilty pleasure moment.

There were episodes of Jan mentioning how she wished she could go to Winterfest, Mona saying she wished she could invite her, SPS/Leslie inviting her... plus there were episodes where SPS was taunting Laura while it looked like Anita had ulterior motives for having SPS help with setting up the event while having Marcel and Elon help her with SPS... and than we got nothing. Maybe tomorrow will still have some after party for Winterfest

Dani is obviously still insecure due to her digs at Ashley.. which is so sad to see in a woman that's old enough to be Ashley's mother. Greg Vaughn is handsome and I liked his rapport with Daphnee... and I saw a jealous Ted looking on. Drunk Vanessa sticking her tongue out at SPS with a baffled SPS looking on was my favorite moment of the episode While it was a nice event, I was hoping for a secret or two to come out. I still think the co-head writer switch affected this because Guza was all about big parties and secrets being revealed when he was head-writing GH and who knows what the new kid on the block specializes on.

Unpopular opinion, but I actually liked Budig as Michelle. I was so happy when that annoying Rachel Miner was recast because she had a very whiny voice that was like finger nails on a chalkboard. The problem was that Budig joined the show after it's peak, but at least she was on the show when Ed was on the canvas (both times) and the show eventually picked up the Holly/Michelle friendship again as well so she at least was interacting with characters that had interacted with Miner's Michelle. With that said, Joie's Michelle was a natural progression for the character of Michelle based on how Miner had played the role. The downside was that her Michelle hardly interacted with the characters that had ties to her character (i.e. Jenna, Holly, Vanessa, etc) and it felt as though her character was on an island most of the time story-wise except her final weeks in the role when Claire was bought back onto the canvas and the two interacted some. I also gave some thought to how the post Mick story would have gone had Budig stayed on. Most likely Danny would have remained the heavy and the forced marriage probably would have still happened... but the show would have most likely resolved that story beat with Jesse/Drew and the Bauers rescuing Michelle from the marriage and either phasing out the family.. or moving them to another orbit (i.e. interacting with the Spauldings, etc).

Kyle will never cease to give off Robyn Dixon energy (side kick). At least the OG's on the other franchises had some star power and charisma. Very underwhelming taglines.

RHOBH: The amount of mention Garcelle got in the premiere reminds me so much of season 6 when Kim Richards was talked about non stop the first episodes after she left the show. I'll never understand why Ericka has been kept on the show because she's done nothing for the last few seasons. Dorit would make a good friend of because she does insert foot in mouth and her outfits are always kooky... but her marriage break up with PK at least is giving her an angle to play unlike Ericka. Sutton... the fall is always more harsh than the descent to the top. These women talk as if they're 10's.. but they're 6's on a good day. Not sure how Rachel Zoe will fit in, but I think she's a step in the right direction.

That gutter trash Monica can stay gone. She's not needed on the show, in her kids life, nor out in the free world. A padded cell is the only place that piece of trash deserves to stay in. Now that I got that vent out of the way.... I have always thought that Heather has been gunning for Lisa since season 1 (or even before season 1). Shah said in an interview when the show first premiered that Lisa was the queen behind the scenes.. and seeing the little digs Heather, Little Girl, and Shah would do to Lisa during that first season just confirmed that they were wanting to over throw her. Monica was too hostile and unlikable to do the job so now Faux Lorelei is now here to over-throw Lisa... but considering that Lisa lives rent free in their heads.. I doubt Lisa will be cut in season 7. Little Girl should be worried about her job (and it's long over-due).

I remember watching the last few months of Budig's Michelle and the change-over between her and Joie Lenz as Michelle. Budig's last day is her really nailing Mick in the head with the rock and Joie's first day was recreating that scene before sulking as Jesse/Bill/Drew try to plot how to avoid being implicated in what happened to Mick. It was an odd attempt at doing 'I know what you did last summer' that didn't seem to work. Joie had a softer/fragile take on Michelle which contrasted quite a bit with Budig's more harsh take on the character. I often wonder how this story would have faired had Budig stayed on in the role because I doubt her Michelle would have ended up with Danny.

It felt good to have some actual male energy on the show and the thing was that I much prefer how men and women were written when interacting with one another in the 80s than whatever is considered modern day male and female interactions. I liked that the show portrayed all the women with moments of strength and moments of struggle. I also loved that the show wrote the men as masculine and not in a toxic way that Dynasty did. This was a show about marriages in an upper middle class California town so it made sense to have equally strong male and female characters interacting with one another. Unpopular opinion, but I loved the times when Karen and Paige would interact because you saw an unease from Karen over how to relate to Paige and you saw someone that didn't consider Karen to be the second coming of Christ like the other characters did. It was a dynamic that wasn't explored, but you didn't need to explore it because both actresses provided subtext in their scenes with one another (plus, Karen learned her lesson from how she treated Annie in the pilot also). Also, the show not knowing how to write Laura seemed odd especially since she had her ex-husband Richard out and about that could have been bought back as conflict for Laura/Sumner in season 9 instead of killing Laura off... but when you have writers without much imagination, it wouldn't have occurred to them.

When I was growing up in the Chicagoland area in the 80s/90s... All My Children, General Hospital, & Days of our Lives were what were talked about when I was a kid and into high school. My late mom watched CBS live, but she taped Days of Our Lives & Santa Barbara to watch on Friday nights and Saturday with me. So I picked up All My Children in the early 90s in order to find something to talk to my peers about. When I was in college in the early 00s, everyone watched Passions. P & G soaps were always what grandma watched though because I was exposed to GL as a kid, I did have a soft spot for it.

The scenes of the Dupree's gaslighting Kat about Eva is sadly a thing in most families. Is Kat being self-centered, or is she being self aware enough to know that the way her family is behaving about Eva is not a rational nor healthy thing? Just the way Naomi was talking about family and loyalty made me truly see the power and hold that dysfunction has over individuals. Which is what I wish the show would have focused on with her character.. her anger and snapping at Jacob is projecting feelings/resentments she can't express toward her whole family. I wish the show could show one of the Dupree's, or even one of Vanessa's kids, realizing that the family isn't so healthy and break ties/go no contact since that is happening in 2025 with a lot of Millennials and Gen Z kids.

I don't know if pacing is actually the main issue, or if we're missing some vital steps/scenes. Case in point: Jacob/Naomi are now acting all romantic and affectionate proclaiming that couples therapy is working. Say what!?!?! Naomi was a raging bitch to everyone several episodes ago and now she's all positivity? I'm not buying what the writers are selling here. I would have liked to have seen a scene or two of the duo in therapy discussing their issues in order to give more weight to their relationship and obstacles. Chelsea's whole story/arc has hardly had any sort of focus or attention since day #1 except when it came to her wanting to fire Dani as her momager.. but that was only because it was about Dani and not Chelsea. The whole trople situation came out of nowhere, the whole kidnapping came out of nowhere, the insta-relationship between Madison/Chelsea came out of nowhere, and now I'm expecting to care that the two are fighting about Madison's mom that we've never met or actually care that the two are having problems when we've hardly seen the two in a relationship? Tomas/Eva/Kat has had focus.. but her suddenly being all starry eyed over Tomas after the way he cheated on her with Eva still baffles me (although her reaction to him suggesting they move in tells me that she isn't all starry-eyed as she pretends so perhaps she's only with him to stick it to Eva). Eva and Tomas' brief scene indicates to me that the writers aren't quite done with that, but she has a good rapport/chemistry with Izaiah so I'm hoping the show doesn't revisit that since the scene between them after they hooked up seemed final to me. When Derek/Ashley have a more natural linear progression in their relationship... you know you have problems LOL

The thing I found interesting about his character having two sons are that it sounds as though they're in the 18 year old range so I'm wondering if Vaughn's character is accepted.. that perhaps one or two of the kids comes on as a love interest for either Samantha (since she's around 17 right now) or if they'll be eventually paired with Kat and/or the unseen Deanna (Vanessa's daughter).

She wasn't accepted once people got over the resemblance to Rinna... she had none of Rinna's spunk and intensity.

Kelly was a thankless role, and it only became something because of how Watros played the part and her chemistry with Peter Bergman. Once Watros had to leave the role, Cady came in and struggled to figure out how to play the part because there wasn't anything to build from.