DramatistDreamer

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.

I only tuned in to see the first day of Shemar and Vivica and although the actors are obviously professional, I guessed what was going to happen right off the bat. Holden ends up related to Lily follows a definite pattern for what we've seen of Lily's character. 🤐

Especially since Laura lost her mom, she would be particularly vulnerable where having a possible mother figure re-entering her life is concerned. Not that Darlene would be consciously exploiting that and perhaps she really does genuinely become close to Laura. Soaps used to have these types of relationships where people weren't related by blood but there was a pseduo familial or a multi-generational relationship between two characters. On As The World Turns, Lisa was like that to some of the young wayward characters in town that she could relate to, or Kim Hughes and her former step-daughter Betsy Stewart. These relationships, I think, add layers to characters' personal stories and the show itself and it doesn't require a lot of screen time, just a series of well-placed, brief scenes, sprinkled here and there on occasion. I am tempering my expectations on this. I have a feeling it will be the continuation/culmination of more off-screen action.

There is an element missing in the dynamic between Darlene, Izaiah and Eva. In the old granny's soap opera days, Darlene would have been on the hunt for another young woman to catch Izaiah's eye. Darlene would have re-acquainted herself with someone like Laura (who she would have known via Naomi, maybe?) and befriended her, while on the sneak tip, invited Izaiah to a lunch that she already invited Laura too. They're sitting down to brunch at Uptown an lo, and behold, Eva walks in to see the trio chatting it up. But I know BTG doesn't do old-fashioned drama, sooo-🙃 Anybody who thinks all divorced couples stay divorced hasn't watched Y&R in the last 40 years lol. I'd be fine with Dani and Bill staying exes (although, sadly, I don't see Dani and Andre staying together forever) but with Nicole and Ted, there ought to be wiggle room for back and forth.

If I were to binge the last few weeks while playing a drinking game for every time Vanessa said that Joey made her feel "alive", I'd be seriously drunk by today's episode.🫨😵‍💫

Shanice, out of the blue, mentioning a previous relationship where a boyfriend cheated on her with his ex, seemed like either foreshadowing or a red flag, at the very least. Months ago, I told a few people who were watching the show that, at some point, Ted & Nicole were likely to fall in (in bed, in lust, in love, in...whatever) with each other again and they scoffed at me. I told them "you never really watched daytime soaps before, have you?" We expect couples and characters to go back & forth. I still think half the characters on this show--including Nicole--could have used some time with a psychiatrist. And it still doesn't sit right with me that Leslie s*xually assaulted Ted, you can't claim to be a new type of soap when you pull the same old soap opera tropes. That said, I think that Daphnée and Keith have a natural chemistry, the actors are good friends offscreen and obviously trust each other onscreen. I have never believed that Nicole & Ted were "finished" with each other.

Does every CBS daytime soap now have to have a Black character facing a life-threatening disease?

If Vanessa mentions how "alive" Joey makes her feel one more time...

No. I was referring to the costume and Halloween balls.

It's definitely the writing for me.

Oh that mini scene with the 3 kids and Anita? That's not what I was talking about. I meant amongst the other kids, so we get an idea of the actual peer pressure of messing up in front of a group of your actual peers. A cotillion is a communal event and these scenes are too isolated. I get it. They don't want to hire extras and dayplayers but again, if you can't afford to make it look realistic, don't do it!

Since I learned that the show would be pursuing the cotillion thread, I had been wondering which dad will Samantha be dancing with in the daddy/daughter dance? I never really mentioned it since I realized we wouldn't be seeing any of the lead-up to the cotillion (which is really as important as the ball itself tbh) but will Samantha be dancing with Martin, since she is technically representing the Dupree family line? Will Smitty feel left out? I guess tptb may not deem this worth consideration. 🤷🏾‍♀️It would've been a nice breadcrumb to see a few non-speaking extras as teenage participants practicing so that we could see two-left-feet Tyrell accidentally stepping on Jessica's feet repeatedly, so that if Jessica is irritated with Tyrell and down on cotillions yet again, we understand why she has an attitude. I like getting to see storyline breadcrumbs that clue the viewer in, instead of just hearing Samantha tell us about Tyrell's two-left-feet. That way, if we see Tyrell actually do the dance successfully, there will be a little payoff. 🙂I would settle for that one scene mixed with Samantha pondering whether she should choose one dad over the other for the dance. It seems that she wants June there and June may not feel comfortable going (which angers Samantha?) but the daddy/daughter dance is very important and it's a bit odd that it's not a consideration.

Now that I think about it, during the 80s heyday of the CBS Daytime lineup, it doesn't seem as though any of the HW for those particular soaps seemed much concerned with 'Sweeps'. The one time I can remember a 'Sweeps' storyline that was really big was the return of James Stenbeck, after 3 years, when he had been presumed dead after falling out of that plane (which they...GASP...showed onscreen. It aired during early November, and I remember it clearly because the Friday cliffhanger (remember those?) happened on one of my brothers' birthday. But other than that, the storylines that culminated in a cliffhanger during the week leading to Labor Day weekend seemed to pack the most punch. Between NCAA and U.S. Open, etc. preemptions, I think the HW usually just focused on compelling stories.

Let's start with writing decent Friday cliffhangers for BTG. I haven't seen a decently plotted Friday cliffhanger in a LONG time (Season 1) for this show. They need to build something organic to this show. And given the lack of good promotion that CBS Daytime was once known for, I see the impact as crossover being minimal. If this show wants more viewers, they need better plotted stories and outside of the one storyline with Tamara, these other stories have either lost focus or never had it. They're losing me and I really wanted top-tier for this series. Since I haven't regularly tuned into Y&R in years, I don't see a cross-over with that show luring me to tune in but I guess they can try and see if it brings in a few of their viewers? The characters most likely to generate a lot of interest in a Y&R crossover are sadly, no longer on this show (KSJ, VR, TLW, NP).

And as I hate to say this, there seems to be more effort to build on certain characters. It's the reason why that vacay/work trip to L.A. between Dani & Andre never delivered. It's why this big wealthy Black family has all their dinners (even Easter??!) at the country club and not at a dining room table (yes, Rowena could've had the day off and they could have gotten it catered 🙄) It's why we still haven't seen even a hint of Banneker (supposedly an HBCU), which MVJ loved to brag about in earlier interviews. It does smack of Josh Griffith, overpromising and under-delivering. But I thought everyone understood that if you're going to do a series about Black wealthy people and "Black excellence" you will need to spend some coin? I was reading Essence magazine online and saw the the only grandchild of Dr. Martin Luther King just had her cotillion. She vividly described the process in detail, things we are unlikely to ever see onscreen on this show. EssenceExclusive: Yolanda Renee King, Sole Grandchild Of Dr. Mar...The 17-year-old, who is already an accomplished children's book author, is stepping into womanhood on her own terms.

I agree. I would pay money to P&G, a company I detest at this point, if they could stream 85-87. I include 85 because as frenetic as some of the plots are, it does, in a way, it helps present a few of the main characters that really come to life over those next two years. Also, the wedding of Bob and Kim and some really visually attractive costuming and wardrobes for social events and parties that I find entertaining. Presumably, when the uneven storytelling from the Writer's Strike had run its course, there were some iconic scenes that, if I were writing a soap today, I would steal--like the scenes surrounding Emily's outmaneuvering of her ex-lover Tonio to get control of M&A. So '88 did have some entertaining story.

My main frustration with this show (which I may take a break from for awhile) is that the writing continues to tell us, rather than show us. We get endless conversations in front of brick walls, we get conversations about what happens at a the preparation for a cotillion but no scenes of any of the actual preparation (and honestly, they would only need a handful of scenes to show us the preparation). We get conversations over cocktails between nurses at a bar over a man being stabbed within an inch of his life and left outside of the hospital but we didn't see any of it. The Anita cancer story, as deeply triggering as it is, is truly the only story that is being written with care and detail (and good for Tamara who is surely in the running to get her first daytime Emmy award), every other story is meandering and unfocused. We get the same conversations between Vanessa and Joey (girl, we get it, you want to live your life and you don't care how others feel but why are you trying to get your daughter to like your man when she told you half a dozen times, she thinks he's a sleaze?) Hayley has been talking about killing Bill with Randy and at this point that's all she does. If the blood plasma storyline is supposed to move over to the clinic, but we haven't seen this clinic since...well, ever! If this show didn't have the budget, well maybe then don't tell us that you are going to focus on the wealthy and well-heeled. This show can be entertaining at times but one-liners aren't enough to sustain my interest. I need visual storytelling and movement, with a payoff. I know it's a continuing story but you still need stories with a beginning middle and yes, an end. I feel like so many of these stories have been drifting. Maybe it's just me but other than Anita's storyline, I just don't feel invested in most of these characters.