DynamiteKiddo

🤣🤣🤣

I haven't caught up to the JJ/Theo material . . . it's what I'm most looking forward to, though. This may be the writers' well-intended course correction of a WILD storyline that never should've happened. This was one of RC's first stories in the fall of 2017, when police injustice against black people (esp. youths) was finally getting the attention it deserved. And what did he do? A Blue Lives Matter story told completely from the wrongly accused cop's perspective. And there wasn't room for interpretation--go back and watch the scenes . . . Theo was holding some electronic lock descrambler that resembled a weapon and due to his autism, he didn't respond to JJ's commands. And iirc, Lani was however far behind so she couldn't corroborate anything as a witness/JJ's partner. Should JJ have fired his weapon? Probably not, and he definitely shouldn't have shot to kill . . . but the SHOW was very clear that it was a horrible, horrible, but totally believable, misunderstanding. We all remember what followed, culminating in JJ's standalone Christmas Eve suicide episode (which was, imo, one of the strongest episodes of modern "Days"). This provided really good content for Casey Moss, Jim Reynolds, Missy Reeves and others, but it was such a tone deaf story. It was lovely that years later, RC had JJ and Theo's story continue off-canvas, but without him around, maybe tptb are trying to undo some of this . . .

It is too bad that he ruined Alexis' return last year . . . I feel like if she could've shown her life with her kids post-divorce (instead of just Alexis/John/Shannon), she could have thrived as she's had a VERY interesting evolution. (But Jim probably didn't give clearance? and if she said anything disparaging about him he'd probably sue her for slander!) But she was just so psychotic about Johnny J.! I hate to wish people ill, but I think we'll all be shocked if this lasts a year . . . . . . . . . .

👎 Thanks, Jason!

If they were going to bring back a Horton ex for Steph it really should've been Nathan. He has existing familial ties to Maggie, Sarah and Holly aaand we never learned who his father is so there are different story threads you could pull there, too. Plus, guest appearances from Melissa fit a little better into the current canvas than Mike. But that may be a reminder that this Stephanie bears no resemblance to who she was during the Philip/Melanie/Nathan era, which was, by far, when she was the most interesting. I think that Abigail Klein is very natural and likable, but this very generic, kinda perfect Stephanie who all the boys fight over is such a downgrade from Higley & Whitesell's self-sabatoging tragic vixen that Shelley Hennig left as.

This is such a shame. He's very talented and Chad has become such a staple on the show. It's also very sad because it somewhat confirms that Abigail will stay dead (for now). But he's obviously been wasted . . . I know he thought Marci Miller leaving would have Chad be less constrained by her scheduling, and I think he was made a lot of promises . . . but Chad has been pretty aimless since her travesty of a murder in 2022. It's hard to not think it would've been better for them to ride off into the sunset, or even that they shouldn't have returned in late 2019 at all considering what came their way.

I won't be mad about Tamra finally getting her comeuppance from Gretchen. Talk about full circle. Bitd, it was easy to let Tamra get away with it because Gretchen (and Slade) was(/were) trash, too. (Except "Naked Wasted"--that should have been objectively horrifying to everyone.) But Gretchen does not get the credit she deserves--her & Tamra's feud literally made HWs what it would become and Tamra takes all the credit. Gretchen had to go to Bass Lake for Tamra to start it all. However, if Shannon is involved it'll take away some of the justice for me. I think the Tres Amigas: Vicki, Tamra and Shannon are all equally vile and evil people . . . Shannon has somehow gotten away with murder for these last few years while Vicki and Tamra have (deservedly) been going through it.

I wanted to post before watching the OC reunion to keep my opinions uninfluenced by whatever happens . . . first off, this season was FIRE--the best season of any Housewives in years and years and the first season of OC I've watched from start to finish since Lydia 2.0. I am really looking forward to the reunion. One of the reasons I tuned out years ago was, honestly, Emily and Gina. They were so shoehorned into the show and I was horrified by Shane and couldn't understand why they'd hire someone like Gina who was so obviously hiding/lying about so much of her life. Wow what a turnaround--they are like old friends now (irl and to the audience) and, dare I say, the heart of the show (?). I don't know if Shane got a bad edit in the beginning or just didn't understand how to be on camera, but he is so funny and charming now . . . he is a masterclass in househusband redemption arcs. A letdown of the season for me was that they didn't continue the focus on Gina & Travis--their (living) separation was heartbreaking and so real during the first few episodes . . . but I understand that Gina wasn't necessarily at liberty to divulge everything and, honestly, this kept things intriguingly mysterious and it didn't become redundant. Consequently though, she didn't wind up having a lot to do and whatever was happening between her and Heather & Katie made her look thirsty for a storyline that was already trifling enough without her. I have never liked Heather . . . she's obviously rude af, has a gross superiority complex and is incapable of any meaningful self-awareness. I think what's sad is that I bet irl, she's a LOT more likable--this is a tv persona she's creating and she's reaching for all the wrong things. The one thing that's great about her is how she plays the game--she gives zero fs, she will never bend . . . she's not a badass but 100% plays it like one and because no one checks her, she can do whatever the hell she wants. Kelly was the only one who's really bested her and instead of fighting, she threw enough tantrums that she didn't get asked back full time. Katie absolutely feels fantastic. She's fun, she's fresh . . . she's cool, unbothered and feels warmly authentic. But I think she's about to be exposed as a total fraud. And an A+ chameleon can be an A+ Housewife, but what makes her likable is how seemingly "real" she is . . . if that goes, can she remain viable? Jenn is a top-tier newbie on like a Shannon level. Girl is putting it ALL out there and she's delusional enough to truly not understand what kind of long-term damage she's doing to herself like a Shannon or a Teresa, so she'll keep putting it out there. She is amazing. However, and like a big however--she IS well and truly delusional and putting herself in serious harm's way. She does not understand consequences and has centered her entire life on finding a man to protect and provide for her. She has NO security for herself and her children, and I bet she'll get grimy af to hang onto a meal ticket . . . it usually goes that way. And she's also never been adequately checked that she'll never understand how bombastically tenuous and dangerous her situation is. Like her delivery was whack, but Gina absolutely had many valid points with the eviction, and Jenn pulled an A+ Shannon and played victim (she does this flawlessly with everything). And Tamra IS right about Ryan. Jenn is insane to put her kids through this. She is an amazing character, but on a real life level--girl, get out and get your life. Parlay being the breakout star of OC into getting real independence. The real story of the season was obviously Tamra vs. Shannon and they both missed the mark and so did production. Is Tamra disgusting? Obviously, but we've known that since "Naked Wasted." It's very important to remember that Vicky, Tamra and Shannon connected on such a deep level because they're deeply evil people who have horrible intentions for other people. The difference between Tamra and the other two are that she has some small ability to be perceptive of reality . . . and the reality IS that Shannon is an entitled, hypocritical LIAR and Tamra thought she could expose that. But she underestimated Shannon's superpower of not only playing, but being perceived as the victim and teaming up with Jesus Jugs was such an epic miscalculation. The two most authentic aspects of Tamra are her seething, deep hatred of Gretchen and Alexis. No one was gonna buy this stupidity. And I was looking forward to Alexis' return, but what a dumpster fire. Anyway, Tamra should have just been honest and told Shannon she hadn't really ever forgiven her for ghosting her when she needed her the most. And for all of the horrible things you can and should say about her, you can't say that she wasn't a really good, supportive friend to Shannon. Anyway, no one is a better Housewife than Shannon, but she has managed to get away with murder this year, and I hope that's meaningfully addressed at the reunion. Not that she'll ever be capable of acknowledging it...

The RoHNY residences were so central to the show in a way I haven't seen on other cities, except maybe BH. Like, sure, everyone thinks about the McMansions on Jersey and the early days of OC in Coto, but the NY women's properties were truly extensions of them. The aesthetics or lack thereof almost always reflected where they were in their lives and how they perceived themselves and wanted others to. Just like New York was always the other housewife on the show, so was Sonja's townhouse, Bluestone Manor (and Dorinda's underwhelming apartment, which starkly contrasted her pre and post-Richard life), Carole's downtown apartment, Kelly's loft in the Police Building with the horse, Ramona's ever-changing Park Ave. apartment and Hamptons McMansion, BOTH of LuAnn's incredible Hamptons homes and taking it all the way back Bethenny's IKEA apartment and Alex's Brooklyn townhouse. It's why we missed so much with 'wives like Heather, Aviva and Tinsley--they didn't have proper home scenes . . . Heather wasn't allowed to film in her apartment (but her Berkshires house was an amazing contrast to the other wives' vacation homes) and neither was Aviva, so she staged a rental as her home in s6 and it did not land . . . the only thing that landed worse was Tinsley's stupid residence hotel that she used to fake living in NY. Losing the townhouse is losing a character in the story--I am very sad from that perspective. But omg Sonja has needed to free herself of this for sooo long. Realistically, Sonja can't ever fully let go of her past . . . but the townhouse literally had her living in it. I, too, pray that she realizes enough from it to give her a future.

This is so sad. Hopefully "Days" can reconcile with her . . . there has been a lot of uneven writing for Nicole and honestly only certain hws know how to properly utilize her, but she's indisputably been one of the only consistent leads of her age group for the past 20ish years. This is a profound loss--Nicole has been a captivating character for years, portrayed by an even more captivating performer.

Even though they revealed him to be "The Gloved Hand" earlier in the fall, I remember when Sheffer on "Days" did those two INSANE NYE eppys at the end of 2006 where EJ raped Sami, shot John and ran Lexie (and TEK) out of town. EJ as a supervillain got one helluva grand reveal in those episodes. Ciara was also born in those eppys and I imagine Shawn & Belle and Steve & Kayla maybe fit in, too. That was like over 15 years ago but I can't remember any episodes feeling more climatic since, including The Baby Switch, Ben being the Necktie Killer, The Time Jump, etc.

I agree with a lot of this. Jack and Billie are two of my faves and I really like Austin & Carrie, too. Right off the bat, that hurt. A lot. And the constant deification of Daniel Jonas and using Jennifer as the vehicle to propel him to the center of the show was infuriating. But all I’m saying is that there was very thoughtful dialogue and some characters got very well positioned… on the one hand they DID feel like they were tearing down the foundation of the show, on the other, it felt like they were doing a loving, sensitive historic renovation of it. Like, it was HORRIBLE that we lost Jack, but they wrote his memory better than any writer since his heyday in the early ‘90s. And I HATED Dannifer and their transparent agenda to legitimize Daniel through Jenn, but Jenn was positioned as the central heroine of the show and she, Abby and JJ absolutely became the heart of the show in the Horton home, which was lovely. I feel like with TomSell, there was a LOT of “take the good with the bad.”

The production, at least visually, was already really, really bad lol. However, I thought the daily scripts during TomSell were SO good, and I give a lot of credit to Lorraine Broderick being the breakdown writer in those years. Even if the stories were bad, which they were at the end of their run, the dialogue was so on-point and character and history rich. This is a great example. However, if one wanted to say that TomSell were anti-J&M, I wouldn't disagree . . . Marlena was portrayed as a self-righteous martyr in those years and she was sooo supporting. John was thrown under the bus (but I thought his characterization as a egocentric himbo with a toxic hero complex that caused a lot of collateral damage was a wildly different, interesting interpretation of the character) and Marlena eventually settled into a default background pairing with Roman after John was written out! Does anyone remember that it felt like TomSell was thisclose to maybe reuniting them?!? That was a really strange time for Marlena & John.

I remember Casey D's Chad having many nice scenes with that cute little Johnny. In those years, they very, very quickly shoehorned him into the DiMera family--making him very close to EJ and Lexie, then later Kristen. That's when he was the anti-DiMera good guy, until TomSell let him get pretty shady in the year+ before Casey exited the role. When Billy Flynn took over and Theo was aged a year later with Kyler Pettis, they made it clear that Chad and Theo were sooo close so it tracks that he has (or should have) a close relationship with Johnny. I remember when Johnny was first aged, he kept referring to Abby as "Aunt Abigail," which sounded weird to me lol.

This could and should have been so good, but Lucky was never given an adequate p.o.v. Liz vs. Sam was very good at that time, as was Carly vs. Liz. Carly vs. Sam was not as strong, but I remember a killer confrontation scene between them over Jake's paternity. On OLTL, I loved Blair vs. Kelly, and all the Cramer women infighting lol.