DramatistDreamer

Yeah, I have even heard some people start to complain that DST will be dangerous for the bus drivers on the roads, as if they really care about bus drivers who are subject to bad roads, terrible pay-- many drivers suffered from lack of pay during the pandemic while they waited for unemployment. Whether it's ST or DST, I can deal with it personally but I have no use for the backwards and forwards. I used to work with someone who suffered from acute SAD, so much so that he was on medication and ultimately decided to move to another state that would provide more sunshine during the winter months. I don't know what the suicide rate is lately but I feel as if I have been reading a lot of news about suicides among people in their 30s and I wonder whether this is a factor behind the push and no one really wants to admit it. It does seem like everyone is ultra concerned about children, which is strange considering how money for education usually gets cut first and there are still issues with overcrowding and I just know that not all of these schools are properly ventilated despite Covid still being around. Also, a lot of these same people who claim they want to protect children from the dark, also claim to be protecting the children from CRT, bilingual education and whatever else seems to close to the real world that we live in

And if you have extra-curriculars that surround winter sports, you're often leaving for school when it's still dark and coming home when it's already getting dark. They need to decide on one way to stop messing with people's circadian rhythms and seasonal mental health issues. On another topic, politicians have to stop (mis)using and abusing the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

You don't really need a set to have Nate in a semi-darkened room with a couple of scans and looking puzzled as he utters "this can't be right!" Even a later scene of Nate on the telephone, speaking to someone and then says "Mom, I really need your advice...as a physician... something that I've discovered about a patient that's highly disturbing to me. It has to be confidential. I don't know how to begin..." Cut. I mean seed the story over time. You actually don't have to reveal all, but drop some clues, so that viewers could actually go back and see the logic. Those scenes cut be shot with Nate alone, at any time, in a small space and placed in a relatively uncomplicated editing process. The post-production professionals at Y&R are more than capable. The main idea is to show, not just tell. IMO, the budget cuts have really come to bear on the people who would normally look at these scripts and say "This needs something... it's missing something..." It feels like the budget has reduced the role of those folks. It seems like there is only a script coordinator who maybe makes sure the script pages are in numerical order and hands them out. Continuity went by the wayside over a decade ago, so we know nobody's checking for that anymore. But yeah, seed some seeds to fill in these gaps.

See, this is very sad to me. Characters sitting around delivering a lot of exposition after the fact, rather than showing actions, as they happened. Are people satisfied with this? Couldn't be me.

Even if you believe that COVID-19 is somehow 'winding down', why wouldn't you want to at least ensure a proper infrastructure and distribution system for future endemics/pandemics, so that nations won't be caught flat-footed again. Honestly, I don't understand this.

@Fevuh Being the soap fans that we are, it's never a surprise how the most storied organizations and institutions can make decisions and take stands that exhibit the highest degree of folly and hubris and end up putting themselves on the path to irrelevance. Tennis organizations themselves are known for doing this. I know someone who has kids who were in the juniors (tennis) but got so disgusted and ultimately pulled them out of the junior circuit. The USTA is another institution that takes in so much more than they actually produce.

Then you're probably going to dislike the idea of a biopic of Somen Banerjee that Salman Khan is producing.

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.