DramatistDreamer

I do agree with you on the question of whether Joey really needed an apartment but in this case, I just think it's lazy storytelling. They could have sequestered a darkened corner and stuck a sign that said "Hospital Staff Entrance" and had Ted and Shanice find the man splayed out in front of a door. Ted and Shanice are checking for a pulse as the scene goes black. That could have actually played out on a Friday and by Monday, had the man on a gurney on the main floor of the hospital and had the rest of the action play out there. As for Jacob and the informant, use of the area that looked like it was in front of an abandoned warehouse (where Jacob spotted Marcel taking a bribe from Joey) that was used in Season 1 could have sufficed for their rendezvous. As for Jacob and Smitty, they're in-laws, they could go jogging together in the park and it would be unlikely to raise much suspicion. But yeah, building Naomi an actual office or at least a bedroom for Anita (who might actually need a bed to lay her head with her health needs) would have been a much better use of money than a place for Joey and Vanessa to get it on (especially when they have shown their preference for the craps table in the back room of the casino they normally use). Is the fact that Leslie has such broad access to Ted's suite going to finally push this show to give Ted a proper apartment, somewhere away from Leslie? This storyline is an insult to everyone's intelligence.

Is this show going to keep telling us, or are they going to show us? This plasma story is not off to a good start. The informant and Jacob were sitting at Uptown and talking about things that we should have been seeing play out in real time (things that bitd, we would've seen play out in real time). And I cannot bring myself to care about any of it, at the moment. Finding that man, unconscious at the doors of the hospital was a dramatic moment that should have played out onscreen, even if we didn't have enough information to piece together the connection at the time it happened. Hearing Shanice and Ashley casually chat about it over cocktails really diminishes the impact that it could have had in this story. Today's episode was about Anita and Mona for me. Anastacia is obnoxious but at least the actress is good at portraying snippy and obnoxious and her back and forth with Tamara's Anita kept today's episode interesting. Mona's exchange with Randy was interesting. Mona was definitely flirting with Randy. With the way Mona was batting her eyelashes, I thought Randy was going to catch a cool breeze. I thought Randy had a girlfriend but perhaps he was just referring to the mother of his child? I'm intrigued as to where this could go. I wish Mona had a house because I have a feeling we'd see more of her with Jan and possibly Laura and who knows...Randy? The rest of it for me was...meh.

Seeing Anita and Vernon makes me happy. They have an easy chemistry. Even as Nicole is in bed with Carlton, she is still weighing her options.🤣 Me, watching Eva and Izaiah fight over nothing, thinking "Where is pretty Laura Peterson at?" 🤔 Introduce them, please.

So. much. exposition. There was some good dialogue between Vernon and Bill but it seems repetitive. Bill (maybe under the truth serum of whatever Hayley is giving him) admits he has regrets about leaving Dani. It made me wonder whether he also regrets having multiple affairs during their marriage because he also did that. It's not the clothes, it's the writing that makes Dani seem utterly immature. I'm looking forward to seeing Leslie ruin yet another one of Ted's relationships. Maybe then, he might realize that he cannot build nor maintain a friendship with someone who sexually assaulted him. I am honestly bored with the Kat/Eva tussle. Put someone else in the equation with Izaiah. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. Can't wait to see what's in store for Black History Month.

Sly Dunbar, one half of the genius musicians/superproducers duo Sly & Robbie passed away (Robbie Shakespeare passed away in 2021). Rest in power, Riddim King 🕊️ https://people.com/sly-dunbar-dead-reggae-pioneer-was-73-11892874

Respectfully, people have the right to be wary. If 2024 has taught folks anything, that should have been the lesson.

It will be cool to see Clifton Davis, Tamara Tunie and Eric Braeden interact in their roles. Bryton really fit in well with the cast, so I am glad Devon is making the trip again. The one character I would love to see make a long-term crossover is Anna Hamilton, it's not as if Y&R is using her or Loren Lott. I would love it if she were related (on her dad's side obviously) to Mona or Laura. Having a friendship between Anna and Laura would work because it would be nice to see a friendship between two Black women who are not related on this show.

This show is really risking alienating the very viewers that MVJ claimed to be courting, having stated that daytime has traditionally neglected. I understand that they are trying to placate the new bosses at Paramount/Skydance but the onscreen shifts are very very noticeable and I hope this doesn't portend the beginning of taking Black viewers for granted, some are new to daytime soaps and of those, a number have already dropped off since the debut and others are barely hanging on.

I was hoping BTG would bring the twins on before they killed off poor Doug. But yes, I thought last summer might have been a good time to introduce the twins and maybe have them as having known Samantha and Tyrell during their formative years. Maybe it's because soaps today seem ill equipped to write good storylines for the under 25 set (and in some cases, under 35 set) they don't seem to bother much with creating story for them but if BTG intends to do a decent story about Samantha's cotillion, they can't do one without giving her at least 3 contemporaries that don't include her brother's girlfriend. As it is now, I'm seeing calls from people to eliminate Samantha and Tyrell, some viewers seem hostile to their very presence but having a viable younger set was how soaps used to lure in younger viewers and build viewing loyalty in the long-term. It feels like most daytime soaps have given up on this concept and BTG does not appear willing to try. Deanna could have even brought in some intrigue if Tyrell had a crush on her in the past and she reappears on the canvas, causing some conflict between Tyrell and his girlfriend. I would also like to see Deanna give Vanessa real cause to worry, that we can see, rather than just hearing Vanessa whine about it. In the past, daytime soap fans would complain about the younger set taking up too much screen time but written judiciously, storylines for younger characters can be entertaining and provide a good buffer between other storylines. Unfortunately, that seems to be a lost art.

It was contrived, sure, and I found it odd and confounding that Dr. Ons was called and Ted ended up there (rather than a visiting nurse?). Still, I did like the scene itself (Robinson, Davis and Tunie) and as a doctor, Ted would know how to set up an IV bag of fluids. And as Anita's former son-in-law, I imagine he might have offered but I wish the writing would have given a clear explanation (it could have been one sentence saying that Ted was still on the list of Vernon and Anita's emergency contacts, with Nicole and he was never removed from that list 🤷🏾‍♀️) Dani asking her sister Nicole to compare peen sizes between Ted and Carlton, struck me as bottom tier. It gives the impression that Dani is envisioning both naked and is "sizing" up who she would imagine herself eagerly doing the horizontal mambo with more.

When are we going to see Banneker (is it designated as a College or University?) This show barely shows what people do for a living. We have a whole host of characters that are connected with Banneker-- Vernon (who is a prof./lecturer there), the McBride twins and now Izaiah Hawthorne. It would give more dimension to Vernon and Izaiah especially, if we actually got to see them in action at Banneker. Even having Vernon preparing his lectures in an office at Banneker. Seeing Izaiah counsel a dayplayer or under-5 student in Student Support services would give them lives outside of Anita and Eva. We could even see the other twin Deanna, who we only hear about yet never see. Perhaps, Deanna uses the Student Support Services and is in frequent contact with Izaiah, forms a crush or an unhealthy attachment to Izaiah, which Eva eventually picks up on because Izaiah gives a lot of time and attention to a student he sees as being in need. It could cause some tension in the relationship, as Izaiah comes to think that Eva doesn't fully understand the importance of his job. Gives us something!

I will say that today's episode was entertaining. Tamara, Clifton, the actress who plays Sharon were all terrific today. I am glad to see Sharon outside of the Articulettes (still hate that name!) framing. So many of us were agitating for Shanice, Mona and Laura to get more screentime, so it's a great payoff to see Shanice take up more space onscreen. I'm still going to need Shanice to date more than one guy (a la Nicole...who I hope is not using her friend Vanessa's skanky escort service). It's sad that Dani seems to want to tank her marriage. I never thought she and Andre were a forever couple but it seems like she is professing her love for Andre with one side of her mouth, and kissing and flirting with Bill with the other side. I did like seeing the complicated dynamic between Vernon, Anita and their sons-in-law. It was very poignant to see Ted caring for Anita. It actually reminds us that, despite his flaws and failures, Ted is good at his profession and he loves his family and he still considers Vernon and Anita to be his family. It's almost a year and I have seen minimal improvement from AA. I don't like the prospect of anyone losing their job but he is one of the least powered onscreen at this point. I really need Tomás to work. Colby has come a long way since her early days as Kat and she has earned the right to have a screen partner that can match her. I don't know what to say about this, at this point. Like I stated, I did like today's episode but I am still concerned that this show does not have a strong B story or a reasonably proficient C story to balance out the A story that is emotionally very heavy.

It is not unimaginable. This is what America has always been, especially to people who are considered to be on the margins. Those of us who bear no illusions about the kind of society we have been living in for decades, historically since this nation was founded. Years ago when George Floyd was executed, I warned that this wouldn't stop at "just us" Black people, this would eventually touch white people as well. I had a non-Black friend who I had a disagreement with post-election 2024, when he insisted that things would be alright and we'd get through it "together". I said "no...there is no together when some of us voted for harm reduction and others voted for people they find "unworthy" to face obvious and certain harm". And I said, things would only get worse. I was very angry but I wasn't speaking out of anger. I was speaking out of awareness for what this country has always been and the predictable path it would be on, once it became clear that some people wished harm on others that they found unworthy of protection and some opportunity to live in dignity with some type of fairness. Until people are ready to face some truths about where were are as a society, it's only going to continue along this bloody path.

If somebody with some interview skills could interview Lucy Deakins about her time on the show, her movie career and then leaving show business for a legal career-- that would be really interesting imo.

This show better be landing somewhere with this Plasma Ring story because right now, I don't care. Even if Carlton turns out to be the head honcho (something that would actually make him and his spray-painted on beard interesting), I am not sure I will care. I would care about Jacob solving the Laura Peterson case though. We all know that since Kat tampered with the evidence, that might be Leslie Dana's "get out of jail" card...eventually and that crooked cop Marcelle could actually find the evidence to prove it. Dig up that shady lawyer who once worked at Bill's firm to defend Leslie and you might have an honest-to-goodness classic daytime drama umbrella storyline. During the trial when it seems like Leslie might actually do serious time, (after witnesses appear on the stand, including some very interesting witness testimonials. The revelations which cause the jury to decide not to convict, due to reasonable doubt. Leslie eventually walks, but not without losing a substantial chunk of her inheritance to legal feels and a civil suit brought on by Laura Peterson and her recently contracted lawyer...wait for it...Naomi Dupree Hawthorne. The story practically writes itself (or I could write it, for a fee 🤷🏾‍♀️) I miss soaps that knew how to utilize all their characters, including the minor ones from the past. Characters on BTG are going 'a wasting. I vacillate between being reasonably entertained and being frustrated with this show. The elements are already there but the writing is resisting them, probably in favor of placating Paramount/Skydance.