wingwalker

I thought Max had good chemistry with Tony and Gillian T, but even that waned over the years and he never had chemistry with Jamie or Steve. While Ballum were and still are popular, outside of that fanbase, Ben became far too divisive of a character for the general public. His rape story is about the only one I've watched where the victim got just as much hate by viewers as the rapist did. Poking around various boards and social media, there are just as many comments of people happy he's leaving as those who are upset. Ben does need a rest and if they bring him back, just get Harry Reid back. I like Callum a lot. I hate how since he got with Ben, his character development slowed. I don't blame people for calling him boring. It's easy to see why, every Ballum story was about Ben. That's not how you write a couple in the long term. It needs to be more 50/50 and it never was. I have no idea what they'll do with him, but he's salvageable and there is a place for him. Put him back in orbit with the Carters, like how he originally was, build up a romance with Johnny. Bring his mom on (something many fans have been asking for) reveal Johnno isn't his dad (something many fans have also suspected), but it's X instead (Alfie, Jack, etc, take your pick). I think writing Callum out would be a damn shame.

Not surprised. I heard some rumblings 6 months ago, that me think this could more of a mutual decision, than a straight up firing that The Sun is presenting. The combination of alleged BTS problems coupled with Max's clear mental health struggles, made this inevitable. Makes we wonder what happens to Tony Clay/Callum? Ballum fans are going to want them both to leave together for a happy exit, but with Johnny coming back, Callum's backstory is linked to the Carters (grew up next to the Carters, school/army mates with Lee). There are dozens, if not hundreds of examples in movies, tv, literature of characters falling for their sibling's best friend or sibling of their best friend. You can easy say Callum and Johnny had crushes on each other when younger before either came out. Could also explain why EE never gave Callum parental responsibility of Lexi like they did Jay, gives Callum a clean break if they are keeping him.

I'd give the marketing a 5/5 and the episode itself a 3/5. It's been a while since I've seen a soap successfully hype up something so mediocre. I share many of DRW50's thoughts. It doesn't bother me that Keanu is dead (he was never a great character) but he was the most boring choice to kill off. Jack dying could have provided years of aftermath given all his connections, while Nish or Dean dying would have given viewers a "the evil villain is finally dead" moment. Keanu has basically no family and friends while also not really that evil compared to Dean or Nish. I barely care he's dead the day after, let alone 6 months from now. The Panesars all need to go except for Suki and Ravi. I didn't care about any of their scenes. I normally love big reveal at soap weddings, but this one felt so flat to me. Mostly because I feel I've seen Phil or Sharon involved in so many weddings secrets, I just lack interest now. I also found it odd as hell that Phil and Kat returned to the Mitchell home to open presents and nobody asked them what went down at the wedding. I would have much rather have watched the Mitchells react to the news of Albie being Phil's son, than watch the most boring character on EE (Jay Brown) get the most boring story I've ever heard of (running a marathon). Which brings me to my next point, why was the "first Christmas without Lola" all about Jay? This was Lexi's first without her mom, but EE seemed to not care at all. I didn't really like the "girl power" moment either, where the women have Suki call Nish over. I understand what they were attempting, but makes no sense that the these women, whom all have been abused or manipulated by men, would put themselves in harm way like that. I would have liked it better if Nish had simply broken in and the six rallied to protect Suki.

Very glad to see Ryan Carnes back as Lucas. Ideally, GH would use this opportunity to bring him back full time, but won't hold my breath.

Exactly. While certainly some kids still have rough coming outs, there is still some bullying, homophobia etc, much of the country has changed overall for the better since the days of Luke and Noah on ATWT. Way back when Lucas and Luke had their coming out stories, very few parents would have acted like Liz did today, but in 2023 it's different. The scenes we saw between Aiden and Liz, is a fairly accurate representation of the progress that's been made. Just my own personal experience, I have noticed how much has changed. I grew up in a conservative rural farming town. I was in high school in the early 2000s and was not out. I knew that if I was, I would have been bullied, and likely beat up. Today, my old high school (which is still a small conservative rural farming town) has a student LGBTQ Club and for June, paints the rock out in front in pride colors. In my day, if we had tried to paint the rock in pride colors, it would have been vandalized with the letters F, A, and G within the first day.

I haven't watched GH in ages, but my twitter timeline blew up today about Aiden coming out. I decided to check it out. While short, very well done. I loved how Liz picked up on Aiden using neutral pronouns and went along, didn't assume he was talking about a girl, which made Aiden comfortable in revealing it was a guy that he has feelings for. Perfect. If GH was smart, they try to go after the Heartstopper crowd. Give Aiden a love interest, give it decent airtime and don't make it a toxic misery fest.

A side character is exactly what he should be. Way back when Leo first started, I liked him. I thought he made a good villain to Sonny and Will. I feel he works best as a character that comes to town stirs trouble for about 3-6 months then leaves. He shouldn't be a permanent character. Every attempt to make us feel sympathy fails. Also a lot of his humor and jokes are no longer funny and stale.

Actually we should be more grateful Zach Tinker left. Ron was totally going to pair up Sonny and Leo, what would have been even worse.

I like Peter Porte a lot, but Dimitri was a terrible character. Won't miss him. Leo needs to be the next to go. Leo and Dimitri are a huge downgrade from Sonny, Will, Paul and Andrew.

Overall I thought it good considering what DAYS budget is. I liked that we saw Chelsea and got an update on what she's been doing. Too much Alex and I felt that setting up Alex and Theresa as a potential couple could have waited for another day. I did like Xander and Sonny's little feud and Xander calling Sonny a cuck. 🤣 However was disappointed that DAYS didn't have Sonny talk about how Victor was accepting of him being gay. I feel Sonny coming out to Victor and Victor not caring was an important moment in their relationship and deserved to be mentioned. Also, where did Sonny go at the end? He should have been back at the mansion. I know they have budget issues and can accept why some were missing but I do think they should have found the money for Nicole to be there.

Awful episode today all around. While I'm glad the lawyer wasn't dumb enough to be fooled by Leo in drag, but that didn't make the scenes much better. This goes beyond being a campy soap, but venturing into bad SNL skit territory. At least on Beyond Salem, they did a good job turning Sonny, Will and Chad into drag queens, this time, I don't think DAYS did anything other than put Greg in a wig.

Sonny's brother Alex, best friend Chad and cousin Stephanie was on, but what DAYS do? Have Sonny spend nearly the entire episode arguing with Leo. Awful. I asked the same question Sonny! This Leo/Dimitri/Gwen story is dreadful. The show is getting rid of legacy characters yet not only keeping these three failures, but putting them in a major story. They need to go!

So I've been attempting to get back into DAYS for the Victor stuff. That story is good so far and worth watching, but everything else is terrible. This show is awful. First Gwen/Leo/Dimitri. Who is this story aimed at? Why on earth would you create a triangle with two characters most viewers hate (Gwen and Leo) and throw in a newbie most don't care about? Do they really think people would rather watch Leo and Dimitri this over Sonny and Will or Andrew and Paul? Since they are in Iceland, I hope all three slip and fall into a volcano. Chad/Stephanie/Alex, just as terrible as when I left. Stephanie and Alex both could have been great next generation characters they've ruined with terrible writing and Chad, he's pointless without Abby, Will or Sonny around. Honestly, they should have just written Abby and Chad off together. Then there is Johnny DiMera who is just being completely wasted. Firing Ron during a writers strike would probably be a bad look, but if he doesn't come back with better material when it's over, the new EP needs to fire him.

Hopefully at some point the new EP brings Zach back full time.

Great news to wake up to. Glad they picked a woman to take over. DAYS has been a boys club for too long. Hopefully she can steady the ship and turn things around.

Ken Corday should be ashamed of himself, for not only letting this happen to begin with, but letting it go on for so long and still not firing this man yet. We've all joked how incompetent Ken is, but this I feel will be a black mark on him forever for how poorly he's handled this.

Looks like Christopher Sean isn't a fan of Alarr...

WGA, doesn't have a choice. A 1963 Supreme Court ruling established that workers can not be compelled to join a union as a condition of employment, but they still can be compelled to pay their share of dues aka Fi-Core. Any business that is unionized, a worker can chose to go Fi-Core if they want to. We just hear about it mostly with the entertainment industry. In fact that original SCOTUS ruling was a case between General Motors vs the UAW. If unions had their way, that SCOTUS ruling would be overturned and going Fi-Core wouldn't be allowed.

I've seen several people on my social media that are members of the DGA that plan to vote against the deal, but I have no clue how representative that antidotal evidence is of DGA members as a whole. Very nice to read how strong the strike vote was for SAG-AFTRA. They seem very motivated.

If this what it seems, then this reeks of desperation. When they start pulling plots and stunts from DAYS, might as well just pack it in.

If the actors strike too, it's going to really hit the fan.

I wish they'd recast Johnny Carter and pair him up with Callum. I like Callum and he deserves better than to be saddled with the vile Ben Mitchell for all eternity. I miss how he used to interact with the Carters and now there's only Linda left. I loved his bond with Stuart, who has also left the show. All gone and now stuck with Ben in a boring cycle of misery porn.

I am happy for him, he's a talented guy and deserves to go on the bigger things, but I also can't help but be angry at how both Y&R and DAYS wasted him, especially DAYS. They had him on contact for a year and did nothing with him.

Meanwhile Kevin was thinking: I hope Fen doesn't spill all our secret adventures we've been up to in Salem.