soapfave06

I can’t disagree, but I thought sometimes he worked, but between the writing (especially the circus of fathers, Stacy) and some acting tics it didn’t work out. I really loved Rex and Gigi 1.0 through Brody being sacrificed. Not sure about earlier Rex, I’ve watched some of 2003, and didn’t enjoy his bad boy days.

In retrospect, I would say the Lunas, Wanda’s, Roxy’s and even Rex’s (hit or miss there) really made OLTL different and even consistent in those last few years. What you describe also breaks up the repetitive nature of soaps and allows someone to speak for the viewers.

My mother loved Luna so I’m almost shocked to see all the hate, and she loved Luna with Max. But I do enjoy Luna more on her own merit but I haven’t seen the entire run to comment.

Would you say it hurt Max longterm? Was her death harsh given her archetype?

Can a character like Luna work in a front burner romance on a soap opera or better served in the Wanda type role as supporting? Interesting notes on the addition of Josh Griffith.

Most of The Willows plot is on YouTube, is the Grant/Lisa story available at all?

I am not sure I have ever heard of the trial aspect but it would have been much better if they had shred a couple months off the island tale to focus on the trial instead before picking up on the island. It probably would have kept at least some of the momentum they had going.

I am still really enjoying Claire and Holden, is his past with Audra revealed to the audience or are we still waiting? I agree, this entire Matt Clark story has the oddest pacing. I’m not bothered by the wash, rinse, repeat of villains returning from the past but this is just insanely odd and the stakes feel low. I still can’t forgive that they could have utilized LA for location shoots and had Matt playing games with Nick and Sharon. So many missed opportunities.

Is this a budgetary decision for block taping?

Side Note: I have to go back and finish 1992, I’m a huge Viki fan but in the Spring episodes I watched if it didn’t pertain to the Cramers I was bored out of my mind. Viki came off so stuffy with LeeAnn and Kevin drama and the Carlo Hesser murder bored me to tears.

Hi Maxim, out of curiosity, do you just focus on the main stories at the time? Are there C stories you don’t recap?

Still running through October, and I am not sure what the general consensus is but in my 19 years of soap watching B&B is the only show to successfully introduce a new generation twice. I loved Liam/Hope/Steffy era from 2010-2014 (got old by then) and I’m loving the Electra/Will/Luna/Deke/Remy set. It’s a shame they have had Luna go so far, I think she’s a talent. I really want to like the Sheila/Deacon/Taylor drama but seriously the de-aging is laughable and all I see is Greenlee of Pine Valley every time. I loved HT as Taylor and grew to love Krista Allen and this is killing this for me. Overall while not perfect (yawn at Bill and Katie discussing Luna on repeat) at least the cast is actually feeling connected.

Starting peeking back in on a lazy day and I have to say as usual the business stories are a flipping snooze fest, Claire and Holden are absolutely hot together, and that was an extremely lackluster reveal with Matt/Mitch. It would have been nice for an actual sense of atmosphere, some fog, a spooky place in LA if Matt is playing games, anything but that.

I’m very much enjoying these recaps and I hope you keep them coming!

Ellen Bethea reminds me of Ellen Holly in many ways, I really would have loved to see her longterm. I’m not sure where story could have gone, but I’m sure they could have gotten years out of Rachel and Kevin entanglements. The show had such a solid diverse cast but losing Valerie Pettiford and Ellen Bethea (now adding this Ben to the list) really hurt that progress. I would’ve given anything to see Sheila torn between Hank and RJ. Ditto on Mia Korf, i was mesmerized at Mia/Laura/Elaine in 1992. I’m sure it’s blasphemy, but I would’ve preferred Mia back, Elaine as Melinda down the line and Kassie to have been an older version of Kelly to have them all. I unfairly judge Marty having not watched all of 1994 but it seems she floundered on paper IMO until Patrick came along, maybe because I didn’t care for anyone they paired her with actor wise. Forgot to add, there was no Todd, Powell or Rebecca in these episodes which was almost a breath of fresh air. Again, having not watched the entire year, I would’ve been over any rape drama at this point.

I randomly selected some 1994 episodes and they were wildly different, the extremely goofy wedding of Tina and Cain playing against Rachel and Ben being trapped together at an apartment building he was scoping out. The next episode maybe a month later played with heavy drama, Cassie being infertile, Dorian behind bars, Jessica acting out and Kevin realizing Rachel has feelings for Ben. This goes back to Maxim’s point about the show and comedy, for me it did not work and the darker drama played much better. This show really botched Rachel, Cassie and Marty as the future leads. Maybe not Marty and Cassie took a while but I really think losing Ellen Bethea was such a loss. Does anyone know why they recast this Ben? He comes off very natural in his scenes and I quite enjoyed his chemistry with Rachel compared to what came later with that other one.

I saw this on my break at work and was so excited to support and watch only to see it is not available in the US 😭

I love Megan but longterm not sure what it did for the show. I would have loved to have seen Carla recentered around the 25th Anniversary with a long-lost daughter with a rough childhood who found her way to Fraternity Row (since Carla originally wanted to be an actress)

Those scenes between Marty and Viki are great. I never thought of it, but since Megan’s exit ushered Marty in, I really wish Megan had been this much of a hellraiser when she was revealed as Viki’s daughter, they clashed only very briefly with little character driven drama before getting along well. A missed opportunity there.

I love reading Vee’s 1991 reflections and Maxim’s 1992 reflections. I love this show so much. I still have to finish 1992 but at the time I watched it wasn’t available online and it was TOUGH to get through the Carlo murder mystery and the idiotic Tina/Cain scenes plus Maggie the cop. This is a great example of a soap being 30 minutes. Oddly enough I think the brief 45 minute runtime would have been ideal to keep (not that I was watching then) Elaine Prince, Mia Korf and the Billy Douglas story really saved 1992 for me overall in what I have seen although I can’t say I was ever attached to Jason or LeeAnn.

So was there an original plan for the show to keep the Timmy doll onscreen as a talk to for Tabitha instead if he was going to be resurrected as a doll? Does anyone think that the doll would have worked better than Endora and her pop up bubbles?

I am watching July 2005 with the debut of Tika Sumpter as Layla and she immediately hits the ground running, I’ve always felt she was their biggest waste of talent in those final years and this proves it for me. I see they chem tested her with Antonio. Does anyone think that either Williamson sister has chemistry with Antonio? Also, seeing Hugh tending to a drunk Marcie I always did not mind him. Was their wasted potential there? Same with Duke, I started watching when he died but the actor is pretty good. Not feeling he and Adriana though. Seeing these three compared to the Ford brothers and Todd yelling those final years is quite drastic

I’ve always dipped in and out of B&B but haven’t been a fan in about a decade now. Last week I started peaking in since I was streaming BTG and I literally thought an episode repeated itself on Paramount, only to realize I was on a new episode. Now today I let it play in the background and I thought the episode restarted but Luna was just saying the same dialogue from the beginning of the show. They really don’t even try. It was nice however to see two different storylines playing out.

How long did Henry Slesar write SEARCH?

That’s fascinating, I’ve always wondered about that story. Sara just happens to be on for the same time period I’m most interested in GL-late 60s to early 80s, I haven’t had much interest outside of that. What a cool way to deep dive into these long forgotten stories by seeing the original outline! Do you have the rewritten document or you just know how the original document played out? I forgot to add, it is interesting how they fit so well at GL while their ATWT ended not so great. Maybe they were at ATWT for too long.