DramatistDreamer

Oh okay. I am familiar with both, so there was no confusion in my mind. Lately, I have been seeing a lot of people mistake Black folks for each other and I guess it's starting to get on my nerves, tbh.

When I saw a post about it in the Cancelled Soaps thread, the movie with Dev Patel immediately came to mind. Many people are scratching their heads about his involvement in this but it's likely a chance to transform himself into a complex figure. I can see how, as an actor he would be drawn to the challenge of playing someone who cuts against the grain of the example of what a Desi-American success story is supposed to be.

Uh, he's an actor. Is that who you thought was on this list? Adewale Adeyemo otoh, is the Deputy Secretary Of Treasury for the U.S.

While I am glad that Ms. Maslova's family made it safely to Poland and are being treated well, this makes me upset that not all refugees are treated with dignity, simply due to the color of the refugee's skin and national origin. Tragically, racism is universal.

I think Campion's remarks have fallen back on her so harshly because it's what Black women hear all the time and many people were so sick of it. It came off as dismissive and she apologized after being dragged. The Williams sisters will let it slide, as they have lots of other micro aggressions they've endured in their careers, although Serena could have something to say eventually. It's kicked up a backlash because without knowing it, Campion has illustrated a prime example of what some deride as a classic case of white feminism. Very conditional in its solidarity. Apparently, Campion wasn't aware that Venus was the one who brought equal pay at Wimbledon for the women of the tennis tour. What has she done to level the field for women directors besides competing with the men, as she has said?

Beverly McKinsey and Chris Bernau as siblings on GL had that great tug of war between love and enmity. They managed that delicate balance and made viewers believe it all. Soaps just don't write these types of complex relationships anymore. Elizabeth Hubbard and Larry Brygmann had some seriously scorching chemistry. Everyone always only seems to focus on the scenes that happen in Lucinda's bathtub but there is so many more scenes where you could focus on the intensity of their chemistry. I think this was something that lasted through various writing regimes in the 80s, 90s until Brygmann left the show in the '00s. They were each complex characters with complex histories who became entwined in a complex relationship. For decades. If you really want to see an example of what I am talking about, watch the mystery at Ruxton Hills in '88 and the way that John and Lucinda relate to one another. For those who don't know, the Ruxton Hills storyline was from ATWT.

After Jane Campion's ignorant remarks at the CCA, she can take a moment to go sit in the corner with Sam Elliott.

Now it's Venus alone trending because Jane Campion decided to go white woman feminist and is getting thoroughly dragged for it!

Venus and Serena look gorgeous and they are trending, right in the middle of a tennis tournament. I love it.

In the interconnected world in which most of us now live, I think it's going to be hard for Russia to go back behind the "Iron Curtain". This time Russians will be fully aware of what they are missing and it seems as if deprivation and isolation is not a situation that most would want to return to. The numbers of Russians that have already left that country is not insignificant.

Away from the usual citations, I am going to mention some actors whose characters were together on screen for a relatively brief period of time. Monti Sharp and Nia Long for GL (romantic) Monti Sharp and Melissa Hayden/GL (platonic and I am so glad they were kept platonic in the end). On a ATWT livestream reunion, Hillary Bailey Smith said she desperately wanted Gregg Marx to join her on another soap (I don't know which, as she was on OLTL but has also done web soaps, which she produces) and either he wasn't available or couldn't be persuaded. I would have loved to see them paired on another show because they were 🔥🔥 on ATWT.

Do these flashbacks of Brooke and Stephanie mean residuals for Susan Flannery?

As a tennis fan, I can take or leave Osaka but if tennis wants to not have this happen (at Indian Wells of all places) maybe give these players some strategies for dealing with heckling, especially on the WTA side. I do think that at this point, Osaka just doesn't enjoy tennis anymore but it's up to her to figure it out at this point. You all know that I am firmly opposed to people telling players what to do with their careers. Players cry all the time and suddenly folks have objections to it? C'mon, man.😅

Definitely this! There are too many bullsh*t excuses being given for poor quality. Yes, I realize that some of these soaps wrote themselves into a budget corner by going "luxe" in the 1980s, but they could honestly bring the budget expectations down to earth by maybe not making everybody rich. Maybe one upper class family, a couple working class families and the rest in the middle. Even on Dallas, there really was one wealthy family consistently onscreen. And also, what do budgets have to do with better or worse writing? It's not as if they're hiring Academy/Tony award winners on the writing staff. I remember watching episodes of soaps on YouTube from the very early 80s and the sets were cheap as hell (I'm talking when a door slam was enough to bring down an entire wall!) but the drama was so compelling that you barely noticed and when you did, you hardly cared! Honestly, I think the biggest problem is that the writing is "cheap and peppy" more than anything else.

Oh wow, that sounds like a whole lot! At least he got medical intervention in time, that could have been tragic. Hopefully Irizarry will have a full, lasting recovery.

What I enjoy about Roger are not his critiques (and you know how much I enjoy a well presented critique!) but his ability to curate soaps, from a historical and cultural perspective. Whether soaps are good, bad or indifferent, those perspectives are sorely missed. I personally miss them anyway. I know that the WLS blog probably both became too time consuming for him, while he may have found good enough content in which to post lacking (he's likely much too diplomatic to say this) but to me, the absence of an updated blog speaks for itself. But the blog kept me feeling connected to serial daytime drama, even the soaps I didn't watch and imo, that presence is missing now. Also, yeah, I miss seeing him interview past and present cast and crew members from the daytime dramas, especially because he demonstrated that he knew what he was talking about and could speak and ask questions with competency. I'm not saying that others lack respect for the genre, I am saying that the lack of well crafted questions and discussion topics comes off as a lack of regard for knowledgeable fans and in turn, the genre. Roger had the ability to keep fans connected and engaged with the cultural relevance of the soap through his presentation and curation of the soaps and I appreciated that. No one else does that now.

Thanks for posting @Soapsuds. I will be sure to give this a listen a little later.

This wasn't directed towards me, I know but it's such a fascinating question and ironically, one that I had been thinking about recently. Just my perception, of course, but had Norcross stayed, I could see the issue of Thorne having either some form of mental health issue or psychiatric break being explored. There were so many signs pointing in that direction before, during and after Ridge's shooting. I think because of Norcross' good looks the issue of mental health could have been explored as happening to anybody, even the rich, well-bred and those seemingly having everything going for them in life. Remember on Y&R, Bell Sr. used the character of Ashley Abbott (the "Beauty"), the second born child of an illustrious and prominent family to have a psychiatric break, so I could definitely have seen the second born of the illustrious L.A. based first family of fashion going through something similar. It would have been interesting to see Norcross and Eakes together onscreen. I think Eakes is strong enough an actor to have pulled off the pairing in a believable way. It would have been an interesting dynamic to see, for many reasons. Soaps aren't the best as maintaining long-term issues like physical or mental ailments, so I wouldn't expect B&B to fully explore the issue of Thorne having mental illness, but I could see the exploration of Thorne dealing with the aftermath of a psychiatric break or a mental health issue over several months to a year. The writing used to be at least that consistent back then.

At this point, I'm not going to argue about whether she deserved or didn't deserve the Oscar, especially when there have been actors who have spent less than ten minutes on screen and won the Oscar (no offense to Alan Arkin) and nobody said sh*t about it.

So entirely shameful.

Picking up on the thread of distinguished ATWT alum, there is a NYT article regarding the 30th anniversary of the movie My Cousin Vinny that centers around Marisa Tomei's Oscar winning performance and the backlash she faced on account of her win and how she faced and ultimately overcame it.

I remember Cahill once briefly split with Haley. I don't know what sorcery she pulled to get him back but they worked together for awhile after that initial split. I do think Cahill probably wanted to stop traveling for quite some time and is likely burned out but it probably would have been better for Amanda had he not made an agreement at all.

Apparently, citing burnout, Darren Cahill abruptly ends his coaching tenure with Amanda Anisimova, who has been through quite a lot of personal upheaval in the last two years.