DynamiteKiddo

Thanks for posting! Do you guys think this is short or long term? I was never here for EJ but I'll admit that this is the kind of return that could be a really valuable, game-changing shakeup. But wouldn't this depend on Sweeney staying? I guess they could cast to finally break them up and free up Sami for other love interests (Lumi is endgame no matter what, lol). Either way this is super buzz worthy. And I hate that they're getting so far ahead, too.

Nicole’s apartment redecoration isn’t great. It’s also sorta sad because that set was one of the few to be dressed with a lot of care for which character actually lived there—it had a lot of what was obviously Eric’s Africa photography and stuff he picked up on his travels. It’s pretty generic now. As far as St. Luke’s—I’m ok with anything that isn’t the park or Horton Town Square for this christening. The bar is low, lol.

It’s like a den/sitting room in the Kiriakis mansion. They’ve had it for several years, but I don’t think it’s really been used since RC started until now.

I think the new DiMera set looks great bbuuttt it is obviously the K mansion reconfigured. So it's not worth it to me. Those obviously should be very distinct places and this set completely lacks the gothic aesthetic that defines DiMansion. And even though DiMansion's "study" was small, I thought it was a good set . . . what's an absolutely horrible set is the K "den" that we'll be stuck with for however long now.

WTF?!? The character was really problematic but this is random af. Sarah was shoved down our throats from her (re)intro. to about halfway through 2020 and they did not capitalize on her Horton legacy status, but I think LG is really talented and was, by far, the star of the baby switch. I will miss the actress, if not the character . . . but it feels very irresponsible to ditch a character who was relentlessly positioned to be the ("young"ish) center of the show for so long. Between VK's sorta recurring status and ID's very lackluster turn as nuClaire, I'm sure hoping they've locked down MM so Abby can represent the younger Horton female portion of the show that's so necessary. At least we definitely seem to have a real asset with LA as Allie, unless she randomly gets dropped. They have GOT to get a better handle on keeping cast consistency . . . this revolving door has become so insane and very damaging to the continuity of the show.

I missed that 😵

I agree. I usually like random characters interacting . . . and, I mean, Roman is involved with Gabi through Will/Ari. But this was bizarre lol. One thing I really liked about RC's first couple years at OLTL was that everyone, esp. the newer characters, didn't act super familiar with each other. Soap towns should feel like a community, but sometimes it doesn't make sense for the super rich "public figures" to act hella familiar with a random twenty-something. Like, I wouldn't want to see Tony or Anna chumming it up with, say, Tripp . . . that saps believability out of the premise of who the characters are positioned to be. Sometimes these soap characters have no reason to know each other but they're often like, "oh hey!" lol As far as what everyone's saying about NuClaire . . . yaaa. ID is fine. But even though it took ORK a long time to really find her footing, she did. And it helped that the writers incorporated her quirks into Claire. ORK's Claire wound up having a lot of personality fueled by her neuroses and unrelenting drive and she was really extra and kinda offbeat. That really came to define Claire. And like many have said, ID's Claire is SO nondescript. She's palatable at best and that's so not Claire. Like this iteration of Claire seems only defined by being gullible and that's the extent of her insecurities . . . Claire was literally driven insane by her own sociopathic need to be the best and she was so weighed down by comparing herself to Ciara and feeling like she couldn't measure up to Belle's expectations (that was a surprisingly complicated relationship) . . . and she was sneaky and manipulative with Shawn and J&M and Theo/Tripp. She was a MESS. I don't get that at ALL with this Claire. And I agree with everyone that JH is fabulous as Paulina. RC is being really heavy-handed with her and the social commentary, but it's so fun and she is speaking TRUTH! But after JJ and Theo's "Blue Lives Matter" story, I am apprehensive of RC tackling the world's racial reckoning. Here's to hoping this Paulina commentary is some kind of attempt to correct that insanely tone deaf JJ/Theo story and Julie's casual racism toward Gabi. Smh.

Oh no! It looks like we're getting the Kiriakis "sitting room" back (instead of the foyer/living room set??) . . . Lol! The saddest part is the townhouse is better decorated than it ever has been. I remember when they returned in 2011 . . . omg the way that set was dressed then was horrifying. 2009-2015 was a really low period for sets and basically everything visual on this show. I do think since very late 2017, the sets(/how they dress them) have been improving more and more. But the fact that they can seemingly only have 2 "full" house sets at a time really takes you out of the moments on the show. The worst is Hope's Shawn & Belle's house consisting of that den, which was being redressed as Rafe's living room before he got Maggie's his kitchen back. lol

I’ve always loved Marci Miller. I think she took the notes that she should play Abby with more fire and unpredictably like Kate Mansi, which is working so well. But I liked her quiet strength, long-suffering heroine Abby she played from 2016-18, too. However, what’s most important is that Abby be on the show and the musical chairs between Marci and Kate is unsustainable. Kate obviously doesn’t want a long-term contract and I don’t know where Marci stands. It’s all over the internet that she’s pregnant (I totally missed this lol) so I wonder how they’ll handle her maternity leave (another recast would be too much, imo) and I really, really hope she’ll be sticking around long-term!! 🙂

Eli 😍 I have had ZERO interest in the Cin storyline, but I'm down for Claire (and Theo?) to get involved. The promo was kinda cringey, but I liked it enough. Sarah catching Kristen is actually a really, really interesting story beat. I hope Ron doesn't screw it up. Can anyone believe that freakin' Sarah was basically the main character of the show a year ago??? Lol thank God that's over.

LOL about Stefano!

This is one of my favorite GH scenes, but in hindsight, I can totally call this ott af--when Tracy found out Lila died, after lashing out at everyone, I believe she fell into either Ned or Edward's arms and SCREAMED, "I want my mommy!!!" It was raw and so painful to watch, but also a lot.

That was the BEST. And TC & NL were the presenters--she seemed genuinely thrilled for him.

I love CB/Zander.

I've only seen a handful of clips of SF as Laura, but it's hard to imagine her playing an older Laura after watching her as Stephanie . . . when the scene called for it, she could exude a lot of warmth, but she was always SO direct and steely. However, JLB's Laura was, imo, a total disaster in the 90's and her drive-by's in the last 20 years have been so bland (except when she plays opposite Lauren Koslow). Ya, I can't see Marci Miller's Abby doing any of that . . . I can't even imagine her opposite Austin Peck in the Chad & Abby in Paris web series. I actually love MM, but there is something so unpredictable about Kate Mansi's Abby that's really interesting and makes her super versatile. On GH, and even though I LOVE him, I can't imagine Billy Warlock's AJ with Liz and that ons with Laura Wright's Carly (which was great, so of course GH had to ruin it).

If the premise really is the reporter and Kane vs. Santos, I expect to only see Susan, Eva, and Sarah Michelle back with Kelly & Mark as guests. Maybe Darnell & Debbie, too, because if it's a mystery they'll need a cop and Maria could use a friend at the hospital. Everyone else I imagine will be new, recast, or quick cameos from the really notable actors/characters. There will not be much room in this format for too many characters. I didn't see Grand Hotel but from this thread, it sounds like I didn't miss much lol. It's a shame because the original Spanish version is probably one of my favorite shows. That was a nighttime (period) soap that worked but that show had a LOT of episodes and they were able to feature a pretty big cast, but it was still very focused in comparison to daytime. That's one of the problems with transferring one of our beloved daytime dramas to primetime--you don't have the scope available to tackle everything that you can with a 5-days-a-week show. Past its production values, I've never had anything positive to say about B&B, but that's the only daytime soap I've seen that has the kind relatively focused canvas and message to make a transition like this viable without losing SO much of itself. Still have to wait and see, though. Regardless of how this turns out, or if it even makes it to air, this is good news, imo--interest in the genre is only positive.

I want to say so much but we don't have enough, or any really, information yet. But my gut is telling me it's really unrealistic to have any expectations that this will resemble AMC as we've ever known it.

This is promising! Hope she won't just be played for laughs like Sheila.

Oh I love the pic!

Gene Brisco! I loved how there were so many ancillary characters back then, that we actually saw and had speaking roles--Gene, Marie, and Henderson for Titan/Victor, Eliana for Stefano, the blonde waitress at the Brady Pub, Dr. Bader and Nurse Brenda who always gave Sami a hard time at University Hospital, etc. etc. etc.

SO down for Dorinda on Heather's podcast.

Langan was knee-deep in who's the daddy. Between Greta, Chloe, and, of course, Zach. And I think it was always obvious Abe would be revealed as Brandon's father. The most disappointing was never finding out about Greta, who I guess confirmed John wasn't her father when she left. The Greta character had a lot of disappointments, from that to dropping her & Austin . . . I think it was a big mistake to dump her after the Jack debacle because she had SO much story left and was a breath of fresh air, esp. during that period, despite some extreme writing with being a forever virgin and Virtual Eden. I'm surprised RC didn't bring her out for the recent Gina mess. But Craig being Chloe's father was total WTFery. And frankly, so was Bo being Zach's father. I LOVED Brash & Cwikly, but those were two sloppy retcons to make fans happy.

Thank you! This was amazing! I always loved their friendship . . . prob. my all-time fav. on RHoNY.

OH $H!T!

LUANN did this right before s6 started filming and we all know what happened. Unless BRAVO is really hedging their bets on her revitalizing the show (which they probably aren’t), she ain’t gonna get what she wants. She deserves more, but she should take the positive response and recognition it’s giving her brand and take what she can negotiate before they say, “forget it.”