Maxim

I am truly thankful that they decided to recast him, especially now that I understand who he is. I commend the show.

Never missed him even for a second. Quite honestly... don't ever remember him.

The way they do the product placement, rough and without much thought... is how they plot the entire show basically. If they just learn how to do it in a funnier... or more elegant way... it's going to be way less absurd.

100 pages in. HARDCORE stuff. I'll need my Anna Karenina copy to arrive sooooner... just to be able to recover from Karl Ove's book. NOT THAT I don't love it... It's 10/10 so far.

Then we'll be reading the same version soon! ☺️ So excited that it will be your first meeting with Anna Karenina. So much of modern drama steals left and right from this masterpiece... and it's almost IN EVERYTHING at this point. But for a soap opera fan... woooow... it's just the type of thing we love. Think - adultery, scandal, love, lies and twists... absolute 100 percent soap opera. It's not hard to read at all, like I've heard people say. It flows like a fairytale for me. P.S. I would also love to hear more about that BTS stuff. Sounds interesting.

Oh, no problem. Quite the contrary. I liked to read that she beat Viki in something. I'll look forward to that, haha.

Couldn’t agree more! This is totally how I feel. I think the show’s main problem, aside from living from reveal to reveal and flatlining in between and the dialogue, are the villains. Someone clearly doesn’t know how to write a complex villain. I’m not quick to point fingers at MVJ, since she’s not the only one involved. But honestly, the villains are super cartoonish. And this is coming from Hayley's number 1 fan. I don’t feel any real threat from Dana or the widow. I don't feel threat from any of the bad guys in the show. And when everything is so over the top all the time... you just don’t get that suspense you’d feel if these troublemakers had more depth and dimension. I almost wish the show had an Iris Cory type of character (yes, I'm a bit inspired by the newest 1979 clip leak in the AW topic) - a clever schemer who isn’t so obvious to everyone all the time. Everything in BTG is WAY too obvious and no, these twists every now and then... don’t change a thing. A twist doesn’t fix months of mediocre writing. I believe that if you need a twist to save your ass all the time, then something is amiss. Still, I continue to enjoy the show a lot, while I also hope things get better. It’s not the quality I dreamed of, but it’s not as terrible as it could’ve been. Sorry if this sounds cynical.

Oh, yes... that's it. Damn, I wanted her to be something more than this. Thanks @janea4old for that info.

OMG... If you haven't... then you ABSOLUTELY NEED TO BUY it for Christmas! Buy it for yourself and you won't regret it. I can help with choosing translation. I think that's the most important part, because a translation can make or break a book. I've done TOO much research into it the last few days... haha. I recommend either the Magarshack translation (Signet Classics edition - black background with the approaching train)... or the Bartlett translation (Oxford World Classics edition) and finally - the newest (from 2014) Marian Schwartz one (The Margellos World Republic of Letters edition).... it is amazing (the negative is that it's slower and harder to read, the sentences don't flow as well, but that can also be a positive depending what a person wants from a book) - still I think it's the closest to Tolstoy of all of them. My husband read it to me in Russian and we compared translations together. The Schwartz translation is quite expensive even though the kindle or the eBook may be cheap. P.S. Just checked the kindle version is 0.00 for that one and trust me... it's sublime. So if you want to read it and feel the melodrama and the language to flow easy and not even feel like a translation - Magarshack no doubt about it, but if you want something as close as possible to Tolstoy, but a bit harder to read - Bartlett or Schwartz (both are the newest translations and they have the advantage of being based on the fullest Tolstoy text, the earlier editions have some missing sentences or parts). The Bartlett translation has a very beautiful hardcover and it's very easy to find online. This is just my opinion, but the most popular Pavear and Volokhonsky translation... is just not as good. I read the first 50 pages and it's just so much worse compared to the other ones. But whatever edition you decide, it's still going to be okay, I think. Let me know if you start reading it! I'm still waiting for my Signet edition to arrive, and it will be sometime before Christmas. OLTL has gotten me a bit obsessed with Anna Karenina right now. 😄 This soap just makes people want to read books and that's amazing.

This show should have been called The Secrets And The Reveals.

Up to February 1st, 1993 🦩 "A vulture circling for carrion..." 🔷 I can't believe it's already February 1993... how time flies! I think I'm only a few episodes away from when Robin Strasser returns to the show. I'm keeping it a secret from myself and won't look up the exact airdate, even though I used to know it or read about it. I've forgotten it, which is actually better because it keeps me in suspense. 🔷 Our very own Anna Karenina is going through a tough new chapter in her self-created drama. The tables are turning on her. Did she expect that Clint would just hang around waiting for her when she takes her time choosing who she wants (while sucking on Sloan's face every single day), but I’m sorry, sweetheart - that’s not how reality works. Clint is starting to pull away, he’s asking questions in a colder, more business-like manner. "What are we doing?" "When is this going to end?" now feel like a task he wants to finish instead of the pain we felt at the beginning. And throw the little conniver Lindsay into the mix, and you’ve got a classic scenario. Now Anna Karenina-Buchanan is NOT so sure if she wants to hand Clint over to another woman. Her pride can’t handle the thought of being replaced, whether it’s by Lindsay or someone else. She wants to have her cake and eat it too. 🔷 Cord is back. The way they built up to this was just ridiculous, I can't even call it a build-up. It was max 3-4 episodes of hints (and an absurd scene with an OUIJA board), and then he just showed up at the door. Now... let me take this down piece by piece. Clint's reaction was totally wrong. He didn't even cry or shed a single tear, his shock was way less than when he saw Viki hugging Sloan for example. Some could say - that's how shock works, but it didn't read well. It was just a poorly executed scene. A dead son comes back, and two minutes later, they're chatting like he never left. In contrast, Viki's reaction was true and believable, Erika Slezak turned mediocre material into gold again. Her acting choice was spot on for the situation. 🔷 Cord's already talking about Tina as if she's still the same boring housewife waiting to bake him a lemon pie in the kitchen. (Surprise, Cord... we now have LUNA in that role!) Apparently he was in a labor camp, (which is a better excuse than Sarah held in a cabin by her kidnappers in the mafia for years without being killed, like she was the lost Romanov daughter) looking for his wife, completely unaware that she is actually having a good old orgasm in an Atlantic city hotel room. I can't wait to see how he reacts. Cord was a bit controlling and totalitarian in his approach to Tina, but he's better for her than that parasite Cain. The writers completely dropped the ball on Tina's role as a mother. For the past year, we barely have seen these kids. They basically erased that part of her. It would be interesting if Cord could comment on that - how she is not spending any time with them anymore and is neglecting them for Cain. 🔷 Jason and Leanne have officially broken up. Initially, Jason went to see Leanne to cancel their wedding. He did this because Kevin gave him an ultimatum. In a way, he was trying once again to protect Leanne, but she was too stupid to realize it. And then, while bickering, Leanne finally revealed her true nature to him - she began to blame him for all her problems. SHE HAD THE NERVE to do that. She even mentioned that he can't read better than a 2 year old. THAT GUY WORKED 5 JOBS FOR HER. He went to jail for her. What an ungrateful BITCH. I hope Rachel and Kevin raise her child. In the end, Jason told her something we've all been thinking - YOU RUINED MY LIFE. And left her. I still think they are breaking them up too fast, but at least they gave Jason his backbone back. It was about time he stopped humiliating himself for this woman. She's only pretty and nothing else. 🔷 Finally... Luna is showing a hint of pride. She left Max a note saying she's going away, in the process breaking his son's heart. They are exploiting the little boy's sorrow to evoke sympathy for Max, but I refuse to be deceived by that. Max deserves to be dumped, yet I doubt Luna will truly follow through. She'll return. She always does. This sad excuse for a relationship will continue. 🔷 Aaaand I almost forgot - Asa and Renee seem to be... maybe... getting back together. Hmmm. Overall - 6/10 - BTW, talking about Josh Griffith - I notice the scenes are getting shorter and shorter lately. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Clip of the day Lindsay (that's her name, I first heard Clint calling her Lizzie and thought she was called Elizabeth, but I think Lindsay fits her better) vs VIKI

❤️ He definitely has. I first saw his name credited equally to Malone in October... and by late November/ early December I really FELT and heard A NEW VOICE, which could only be him. The entire show developed this more feminine, perfumed and melodramatic tone. (That's when Viki really started getting these heroine holding the frame of the door moments, that's when she started crying in every episode too) Malone usually has a more rough, intellectual style... he loves playing with long dialogue and there is a bit of prose and literature in everything he writes. (That's why I believe most of the storylines are inspired or enhanced by his favorite novels. We've seen Gone With The Wind... Anna Karenina... Rebecca...) It's almost like a prose writer attempting to write scripted drama (and succeeding), while IMO Josh Griffith is more operettic, more over the top, the characters' IQ lowered a bit, while the cliffhangers improved. I like the mix of the intellectual with the melodrama, I can't lie... but lately the show has veered more into the cheap melodrama. I hope Malone gets it back to reality and grounds it. I do realize why some of these mistakes are happening... It's because they are once again cleaning rooms and saying Goodbye to people. It's so frustrating how actors departing can affect/damage storyline. They were not going with this pathetic finale for Blair when they were developing the storyline months ago. You are both so kind! 😊

Thank you! Savage Iris! MY favorite! WOOOF.

Vile piece of shiit.

Just started Book 1 of Knausgaard's infamous 6-book autobiographical odyssey. 20 pages in - I am asking myself... what did I get myself into.

I can't wait to watch it.

I also love the new more retro looking rectangular banners/design. Everything looks and feels better and better. @Errol - you inspire me with how much of a perfectionist you are. Brava and thank you! This is how I feel when I open the board right now -