DramatistDreamer

Now that BTG has secured a season 3 & 4, I'm going to need the show to spring for a dining room/table for the Duprees. I have a hard time believing that an illustrious, cultured Black family with alleged "soul" doesn't have big soulful (with drama) dinners, at least sometimes. And no, the country club doesn't count. As for today's episode. I got nothing.

Vanessa is all over the place. What is her goal with chatting up Leslie? Don't let your so-called "bestie" hear that you think Leslie is a swell kinda gal. Also, wasn't the selling point for Vanessa that she could accept Joey "as is"? It's moments like the ones at the casino where she's trying to force the issue of Joey having a friend. The dynamic is weird to me, it's as if she sees Joey as this lump of clay that she needs to mold somehow. Don't get me wrong, I don't care but why is this aspect taking up so much of the show when it makes very little sense? Is Dani doing modeling full time or is she still partner in the modeling agency? Either way, I don't see her actively working in either capacity. Instead we see her trying to carve out partnerships that don't make any sense, like trying to partner her daughter's handbag to the clothing line that she is modeling for, without even running the idea past the actual designer. I can't bring myself to care about this clinic, sight unseen. It's great that they decided to extricate Leslie from being a thorn in Ted's side but with all the sweet talk about Marcel, I can't help but think, if anyone bothers to solve the Laura Peterson case, Marcel will likely come in handy for Leslie, if she's trying to tamper with some evidence. There were some little moments of interest but it seems, nothing of significance. No general movement in terms of story.

And I remember the on call physician when Anita was hospitalized with the infection, that her regular physician Dr. Bauer was out of town. I don't know why my mind thought of Rick (Ed would be retired was my 1st thought). Probably because the by the time Mel was on the canvas, I was no longer watching GL.

@DRW50 asked me a question in the ATWT thread and it made me remember something that BTG did in Season One that, looking at it now...doesn't seem to make much sense. When June first appeared and seemed to have some sort of mental health issue (which magically disappeared), she told her personal story, that turned out to be Jessica Griffin's story on As The World Turns. In that context, Jessica was treated as a fictional character on a fictional show. The next season, Hayley is mentioning Barbara Ryan Originals as though it were a designer brand that she always dreamed of wearing. Is Oakdale real or fictional? Are the residents of Oakdale real or fictional? What are the writers doing?

That whole thing with June was very odd. Jessica was very much looked at like a fictional character but apparently Barbara Ryan is real? Sometimes I wonder if they know what they're doing on the show.🤔

You're welcome. These mentions do make me miss seeing episodes when ATWT was riding high. It's too bad P&G doesn't care about their classic soaps (other than bragging in ever PR sheet about how they were at the forefront of daytime drama).

When I saw that flashback, all I could see was Betty Draper looking for a smoke.

I hate it when others presume to know what people are thinking.

Apparently disease and frailty are the only topics these writers can think of to build storylines for older characters. How unimaginative. I could think of plenty of other storylines for Anita and Vernon that don't revolve around either topic. It would be a shame if they're truly going to go in this direction.

I'll just keep my thoughts to myself on that recent casting news.

Why do soaps these days always insist on making detectives look inept? I am old enough to remember a time where a detective looked reasonably capable at their job, even if their personal lives didn't match up to their professional competence. Back then police work/detective work solved actual crimes. Now, it seems like it's a mandate to make the police and detectives look like they have no idea to do their jobs.

Naomi had mentioned that deal that "ChelseaKat" made with Fenmore's and Hayley (being over solicitous) starry-eyed began to talk about how she used to window shop at Fenmore's then proceeded to talk about how she never imagined a day when she'd be able to wear something from Fenmore's or a Forrester Creations or a Barbara Ryan Originals!

Well, they acknowledged ATWT way back when June (who's strangely, not had any further issues with her mental health) was pretending she was Jessica Griffith.

Speaking of Paul Ryan, Barbara Ryan Originals got a mention on Beyond The Gates' latest episode. It made me think that I wouldn't mind seeing Colleen pop up there for a cameo. Had Scott Bryce not had to contend with illness over the past year, he might have made an appearance on BTG since he and Tamara are such close friends.

The nod to Barbara Ryan Originals was a nice touch and I wouldn't mind seeing Colleen Zenk pop up as Babs herself. That's it. That's all I got.🤷🏾‍♀️

To be honest, someone can get pregnant from a ONS. And I was building from the odd look that Carlton gave Eva on the night of Ted & Nicole's anniversary party debacle. I don't know if that mini conversation was intentional or meant to be a filler aspect but it stood out to me and any writers worth their salt could make a meal out of that brief conversation and the way Carlton was with Eva. I wasn't even the only one who noticed. As far as Eva & Kat not needing to interact without the biological factor, some people are beginning to speculate that, with Tomás being dropped down to recurring, there may be a triangle between Kat, Izaiah and Eva. I don't need to see that triangle. There are other ways for Kat and Eva to interact and the bio-sisters kerfuffle was getting old as it is, many people were at the point where they wanted both to actively avoid one another because they were tired of seeing the same ole same ole vibe between them. If this is not my grandmother's soap (ironically, neither of my grandmothers ever watched soaps since they weren't from the U.S.) I want to see some new takes on shopworn aspects like love triangles. Also, I'm not seeing it between Kat and Izaiah, Kat needs a more dominant personality that she can go toe to toe with as Kat herself is a dominant personality.

There was a brief moment where Vernon had a moment of confusion that he attributed to being tired, after Dani asked him if he was okay and urged him to take care of himself. In his defense, he did acknowledge that he had a lapse.

I did let out a big laugh when Bill called Dani "Baby" and went right back to grubbing, like it was nothing.🤣 Please, no Alzheimer's or dementia storylines, especially not now, with this heavy health storyline finally coming to a dénouement (Haley will hate that I used a French word 🙃) and not so early in this series' history. Can Kat & Eva be reaching détente? (oops, another French word) It would be ironic if just at the moment both women begin to accept each other as relations, something happens where Eva and Ted find out that she's not his biological daughter (and that Carlton is). I have a feeling that Ted & Nicole will likely find themselves in each other's orbit a lot more. As Samantha's grandparents, they might be attending Samantha's cotillion, as grandparents sometimes do.

Thank goodness we won't have this limbo/speculation to deal with next season. And you see...some critiques and criticisms, here and there did not get the show cancelled. It's okay.

Thank goodness there is daylight coming in Anita's storyline, Tamara Tunie is a gem and she's a shoo-in for a nomination for a Daytime Emmy but I'm not sure how much more of this storyline I could take. Lynette did rescue the Haley 'kill Bill' storyline because before she sashayed her way into this mess, this storyline was treading water, at best. Even though, Jacob looks far from supercop, I'm glad he cut Smitty down to size a bit. Smitty was playing boo-boo the fool hacking into his mother-in-law's computer. It's called criminal trespass Smitty and it's a crime. At least Jacob could conceivably get a search warrant, what does Smitty have...his employee badge?

It just seems like Y&R saw what BTG was doing with Anita Dupree and said, hey let's do our own version, but only spend on a day or two on the actual story.

Have any of these writers ever been working class? It doesn't appear to be the case. They desperately need folks outside the gilded cage who are grounded in reality. They've already played fast and loose with people's ages and the logic of character backstories. Give us some reality lol.

I've said from Day 1 that the Plasma ring story was shallow without much logic or depth but some posters thought it would land somewhere. Nor did I get the excitement about the hospital administrator which has veered from cartoonish to bloodless. I've stopped asking questions about the Hayley/Bill/Lynette storyline at this point. It is what it is, I guess.

Smitty is definitely not the brightest bulb in the box. Finally the lawyers look to have an actual case to act as lawyers. Given how the harassment case (don't want to be more specific, because I don't want to risk violating the censor) at the firm never went to court, I am dubious of an actual trial happening, which is just as well.