Maxim

God I love BTG 😁😁😁😁😁

I'm so thankful for everything you do Errol! Can't thank you enough. Don't know how to thank you enough! We'll adjust to the new layout and love it even... SON is our home away from home.

I'm having a moment adjusting to it too. I'm too old for such a big change 😁🤭🤭🤭

My husband just asked "When are we going to watch One Life To Live?" 🙊I've done my job!

Also interesting. Smitty/Martin scenes and clips dominate TikTok in terms of views. I've been saying this for yeqrs... Soaps would not be the same without the gay community and our support and viewership through the years. One thing I'm glad that BTG is not ignoring. The most watched video on the official TikTok - 17.5k.

Guys... I don't know if this is any relevant... but look at the characters that are in top 5 most watched videos on the official BTG YouTube channel. I think this information is very interesting. Kat/Eva... Dani/Hayley not surprised to see at the top. And it's also interesting how most of the Vanessa scenes are at the bottom of the list. Not only the fresh ones too. We have a month old clips who barely anyone wants to watch. I agree with the viewers.

Amen x 100.👏 I feel the same way. You articulated it perfectly. I've also noticed the smaller topic, which was to be expected. At first, we were all energized by the newness of it... and many joined the discussions. One more reason I wish they would enhance their social media presence. More conversations lead to more clicks, attention, and better ratings. Half of what The Hamilton Widow says could go viral. Dana too. It's not even been a year, and I fear there's not enough effort to promote the show. 🥲Just my opinion. I agree. Also... people have different reasons for enjoying different shows. I can't compare my reaction to a show I started as a child and now watch just for laughs... to how I feel about BTG. My comments on that other show have nothing to do with BTG. I mean... is there anyone special out there whose opinion is always more valid than the rest? And if yes... what makes them so superior? Should I start watching a certain list of shows or are there books I have to read to get into that exclusive club? I'm a great learner, I promise. 😁

I hope this thread is the adequate place for what I wanted to post. It's coming from a different discussion in the OLTL topic. I just wanted to tag @DRW50 with a few clips depicting Eda - one of the most legendary (If not THE MOST) antagonists in Turkish soaps history. Very similar to Marty... when she is alone... she had these envy-driven breakdowns. That's just Eda on a regular day. Strangling people for fun. He hobby is pushing people from high places. And that ICONIC moment when she poisoned the main character before her wedding, leading to her miscarriage (a short part of the original audio by the end is replaced by youtube due to copyright reasons)

That little smirk was everything. I love details like this and I'm glad you also noticed it. She was. I think the most iconic Turkish soap opera villain of all time. Legendary. There was not a single person in Bulgaria when the show was airing that didn't hate her. The show's most successful season ended with the protagonist collapsing and losing her baby... in the middle of the fireworks on her wedding ceremony... Just an hour ago Eda poisoned her by making her a nice little tea. She acted like her best friend for months and months and the protagonist had NO IDEA what was happening behind the scenes. That made it work. I remember reading on the Bulgarian forums years ago that the actress who played Eda was scared for her life after these scenes aired in Turkey. People were so outraged by how evil Eda was... she received threats! Later when I finish work I'll find the appropriate topic... in the forum and tag you with a few clips with Eda, just a little sample. I am not sure if the show is available with English subtitles, but I bet it is.

Up to January 18th, 1993 🦩 "The good PRINCESS and the envious DEMON." 🔷 GUYS! GUYS! GUYS! My fingers are ACHING to tell you what I THINK. I'm beyond excited! LET'S GET TO IT. 🔷 The lead-up to Cassie and Andrew's wedding saw one very unstable character, drinking herself into a state of utter madness... Marty Saybrooke, or as I prefer to refer to her, "The Demon of Llanview" was on a path of destruction. With the writers pairing Cassie with YET another man who has a stalker, we were dangerously close to recycling old material. I mean... Cassie's last wedding had a similar scenario with Alex Olanov. However, this time the drama is more layered compared to Alex's cartoonish fixation. The fact that Marty created the pedophile rumor about Andrew adds a layer of authenticity to the situation. It's what we expect from this creature. I enjoyed watching Viki struggle to control Marty, who was having a nervous breakdown at the wedding. Viki and Marty... despite their contrasting personalities... found themselves in similar predicaments that day. Both were on the brink of losing the man they want. The acting! Oh my goodness! THE ACTING! You simply have to witness it for yourselves. Marty reminds me of the villain from the Turkish soap opera 1001 Nights - her name was Eda, and she was fixated on the protagonist's future husband. She even poisoned her while she was pregnant on her wedding day. There were many scenes with Eda wreaking havoc while the heroine's life was going happilly. 🔷 This leads me to Viki and Sloan. Clint not only saw them chatting as if they were the best of friends... he even expressed his disgust, telling her, "I know you are in love with another man." After that, he chose to sit away from her, leaving her by herself. Viki reached her breaking point, unable to bear watching Sloan and Clint at the same time anymore... and had her own emotional collapse, which happened parallel with Marty’s. Eventually, they ended up together at Marty's apartment... where Viki once again attempted to play the role of a supportive friend/mother figure to the BEAST. Naturally, it didn’t work out. I believe that beneath her friendly demeanor lies a strong dose of condescending PITY, which Marty can sniff out. AND THEN just like that... like a scene from Anna Karenina, Viki and Sloan found themselves outside Marty's house. They kissed and KISSED. AND KISSED. He kissed her. She kissed him. SHE KISSED HIM AGAIN. The intensity and passion were overwhelming. And the line that will forever stick with me - While Viki was trying to convince Sloan to stop, telling him about her marriage and the potential destruction of her family... his RESPONSE - I... DON'T... CARE! CONTINUING to kiss her. It felt RAW and REAL, like something one would say in such a passionate moment. 🔷 Rachel and Kevin have officially entered a new phase of their relationship. Rachel finally did something she has loooong desired. She shared her first time with Kevin. Normally, I don't like stories like this, girls losing virginity is not a topic of my interest... but I actually CARE about Rachel. They've placed her in a fascinating position - caught between Leanne and Kevin, while also being at odds with her father. She is the young heroine I truly care about. Naturally, Leanne had to come and watch her child through the window... I would feel sympathy if she were a decent person, but I don't. I appreciate that the writers have kept little Duke with Kevin. I would much prefer Rachel to be his mother figure rather than Leanne DeMerest. Oh, and before I forget - Rachel decided to leave her father's apartment and move in with Nora. FINALLY! Even though... despite my dislike for Hank's attitude, I believe he is correct about one thing - Rachel will ultimately get hurt. Kevin will hurt her. But isn't that what soap operas thrive on, after all? 🔷 The drama around Blair Buchanan is still going strong. We witnessed Tina and Cain attempting to pull a ridiculous scheme involving hiring a male escort, drugging Blair, and snapping photos of her with him. This is not just repulsive and illegal it's downright IDIOTIC. Tina and Cain, along with Morty-Carlo and Alex, are the show's weakest links when it comes to character development. They fall far SHORT of the quality of everything else. I've mentioned this numerous times before. Unsurprisingly, the plan backfired, leading Blair to Blair laughing at their faces. Nothing unexpected here. Oh... and before I forget - Renee now believes Mortimer is Carlo, because he cited a poem she knew from years ago. LOOOOOOL. If they really pull it off that Mort was Carlo... I'm going to PUKE. 🔷 As a whole... I found the three episodes we binge-watched to be quite exciting. My husband joined me, and I believe he’s finally become hooked on the show - he’s particularly curious about Marty and what she'll do to Andrew and Cassie. This will be his first real storyline from the show, so I’m hoping it's good and not just a repeat of Bo/Cassie/Alex. I always knew he would eventually start watching with me, especially if he wanted to spend time in the living room, of course. 😁 Overall - 9.5/10 - (Minus 0.5 for Tina, Cain and Morty) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Clip of the day Marty threatens Cassie and has a nervous breakdown.

Thank you for not spoiling! I always appreciate that! And cheers to me surviving till the 2002 year of this show. I don't know if I'll be able to do it... with the current pace I'm watching (1 complete year took me 6 months) I'll be at 2002 in... 5 years. 😁 I'll look into that right now! Thank you for sharing. It's such a pity that she left. She could have done SO MUCH more in the role. Quite honestly, she is departing JUST when Blair became reaaaaaally interesting. Which has a positive side to it as well... (stepping down on a high) but still.

I agree with what @Khan and @Soaplovers said before that. It would have been muuuch better. I have a complicated relationship with this show. Sometimes I love it, other times I question it. In recent months... I've felt positive overall. The Hamilton Widow gave me my escape. However, the dialogue and writing can be rough at times, especially while watching classic Malone OLTL. I wonder if I should stop watching better shows to avoid comparisons. It's unfair to BTG. Everyone's opinion counts, even those who enjoy or hate-watch bad shows. Every one of us has done it. Every single one. If we counted these opinions out... none will be left. And just like people often disagree with critical views... others can disagree from the opposite side too. It's a two-way street. I want to point out that from where I'm standing... no one from the more critical side has made personal attacks regarding this show. This is a major issue - people take discussions personally when they shouldn't. We're just sharing opinions about a soap opera. That's the only nooot so deep part. Much of what we say is ironic and humorous. At least I don't see an issue. Maybe I am missing something. There have been condescending and passive-aggressive remarks towards critical comments in the past, but I haven't noticed them lately. Maybe my ignore option is working, or maybe they’ve stopped. And there’s always that one person who tries to stir drama, but the real issue lies with those who take the bait, even if they have the right to respond. This seems to have calmed down too. I have no desire to bicker with anyone in this topic, as I said previously - life is too short. Waaaaay too short. But when BTG annoys me... I need to vent it... So I can love them next time I see The Hamilton Widow. That simple. I'm still treating this show with velvet gloves. We are in the first 2-5 years after all. 🤭 Exactly. And I've also enjoyed much of the positive takes through the months. Smiled and laughed with them. God... I think I have been one of these voices myself. I had tried to stay away from saying anything critical because I didn't have the energy or time to write what annoys me. That's why I appreciate reading critique - it take a lot of time and energy and mental effort to sit down and analyse.

Yeeeeees

This show handles drinking in a very bizarre way. That's all I'm going to say. Next time someone becomes an alcoholic and then stops drinking just as abruptly to serve the plot... we'll talk again.

I never realized she was imagined this way originally. Thanks for telling me. Wow... just imagine how social media could have changed things back in 1993... how people would have reacted. Do you think anyone would have lost their jobs over it? If the outcry was so bad. It’s a new thing that this part of the show is now easier to find online and on YouTube... This means more people will start talking about this particular issue. Those who never got to see the original Blair... Now have the opportunity to do so.

This stinky ho should stop crying because nobody is buying what she is selling. Literally the most annoying cliche outdated character. It's like she doesn't belong to this show at all. Her and the entire mob fiasco. Chile please erase everything that has mafia written on it from the show. We don't need it. Keep that sh-t to GH.

I immediately pictured it with your description. It could have been quite iconic actually. Can we recommend you to MVJ? I love your ideas. 🤭

While the billionaires are having balls...

For sure! Also don't forget the "why do you watch it if you don't like it" or "only here we have this negativity, people on Facebook and twitter looooves it" But actually... what are two years... That's just a short... little build up period before the amazing next 20 begin. Maybe we should wait at least five...

Will it last this time?... They ask. No... I answer.

Couldn't have said it better. I've been hearing "this is only the first month", then "this is only the first 3 months"... Now it's "this is only half a year"... Soon it will be "this is only the first year"... But when does it get to a point when we stop excusing all the writing mistakes with it just being growing pains. At this point I'm calling it as I see it and that's it. Period. IMO the build up lead to nothing and that is not good in terms of audience engagement. One of the worst things a show could do is leave the viewers with empty baskets at the end of the day. And no I'm not waiting for the next year event. Life is short... Who knows if I'm going to be alive next year... Maybe I'll cross a sidewalk wrong and never get to see year 2 of BTG. That's just some dark humor... You get my point.

I agree. It felt very anticlimactic. I would forgive these types of things if the show was in their tired 20th season... but it's YEAR 1... COME ON.

YES! And... 15 clips in a month... when you already have thousands of followers who can like and spread the clips (the moment couple of thousand like it, it will start popping up in other people's feeds too)... is absurd. It's like a miniscule drop in the ocean. Just hire one guy who knows how to do TikTok... give him a normal salary and get him to upload clips and moments from every single episode... short clips... memorable scenes... bitchy moments... funny lines... They could make up to 10-15 little short clips an EPISODE, not that amount in AN ENTIRE MONTH. I've seen people's businesses go from 0 to a 100 just from using TikTok. They are doing the same thing on YouTube too. Like 1 clip a day. NOT ENOUGH. Their promo people need to start doing something! Add to that the strange way they did repeats without announcing them... with most people finding out from here or their television... I'm like... You guys need to think this through more.

BTW, I don't like how they are NOT doing enough promo on social media. We have fans on TikTok uploading more content that gets thousands of likes... yet the show uploads so little. IT'S THE FIRST YEAR FOR GOD'S SAKE. PROMOTE THE FREAKING SHOW. So many moments can go viral if they do the work. Just for an example - the official TikTok account has 23.6 thousand followers... yet they have uploaded only 15 new clips in the last MONTH. I MEAN... SERIOUSLY. Some may say we don't need people from TikTok since it's a junk place... but I DON'T CARE as long as they make the ratings go UP and the show does better.