carolineg

I think there were real solid rumors Deidre/Drake dated. Before he married his wife which is a bit murky. The stories don't exactly line up. But a few of those children aren't his biologically and it's public knowledge. Which is absolutely fine. Wayne might have felt a little more safe for her.

🤣 Thanks! I knew it was something like this, but I couldn't remember the details. No relation to Jessica Blake though. Just a common name.

No lol! Roman was offscreen. Just make John Roman and call it a day. We had to live through JT as Roman and Alex North. Both of those things are very bad. Listen, if Wayne returned and was Roman instead of Alex North it would be fine. JT could walk up as Chris 3 days later. That was acceptable. Nothing about Roman since 1994 has been acceptable, so at some point I would have made John Roman and just went with it.

Yes! I remember reading that about Deidre and I thought I might be crazy. But in the classic film "Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story" she actually frames it like it was a package deal too. I assume that movie is 100% facts. 😂 It was definitely one of those decisions that seemed okay in theory, but I don't think anyone thought about how to run with it long term. What are you honestly going to do with two Romans and only one Marlena? There might have been a way around it if Staci Greason/Isabella stayed longer and John could establish himself away from that fold. It just didn't pan out that way. I would have made Wayne the imposter honestly. He only stayed for 3 years and you could easily retcon that with Roman offscreen.

Holly said they were ADHD drugs (so Adderall I assume), but the paramedics and Tripp said it was an opioid overdose. I mean maybe the pills were cut with fentanyl or something, but I a bit interested in what she actually took. I still think there might be something to EJ's behavior that's not just bad acting lol.

I was confused about the EJ scene too. He was shaking like he took something or was withdrawing from something, but maybe the stress of everything was taking it's toll? I think old people drink warm milk

Hmm...I thought Peter was much more interesting than Kristen. I thought the Kristen/John/Tony stuff was okay, but nothing spectacular. It only starting getting good during Aremid when Tony/Andre/whoever went off the rails and framed John for murder. Kristen becoming evil was a great decision. Her descent into evil was well crafted and slowly done. I believe it was Deidre that made it clear she wanted Wayne back. Like it was part of her contract deal. I don't think the show was ever dissatisfied with Drake's portrayal of Roman. The show just really wanted Deidre back and the Tale of Two Romans isn't a horrible idea. The execution was just poor. I think we will have to agree to disagree on this. I say once Wayne is gone you go ahead and make John the real Roman. Think of how Sami would have reacted. I never found John's (or Hope's) search for their pasts that exciting. In theory John still could have looked into his past as Roman and those missing years and perhaps we could have delved into what Marlena was doing those 5 years. The show started that story and then abruptly stopped it.

Harris was a pretty fringe character to begin with, but the show could do almost anything with him and his family. I don't know why Harris can't become friends with say Eric or Brady. I also don't know why the show was so set on bringing a minor character from the late 80's back. I wouldn't have even blinked if they gave SBu a new character.

I think that's basically it with Sly. I remember him being tight with Lucky and then he just sorta disappears. I don't believe an explanation was ever given. I kept thinking he would pop back up when Nik, Liz, and Sarah appeared.

I am not saying making Kristen evil was a bad choice. It was a brilliant decision. Good Kristen was boring. I was just saying I wouldn't have wanted Roman to be villainized. JER had a very clear formula for his triangles and that was generally two good people and one scheming villian. With Stefano and Kristen being obstacles to John/Marlena I don't know exactly where Roman would have fit. Perhaps you could have pivoted him towards Laura, but I think it's interesting to think about how obsolete and uneccessary Roman became in just a few short years post-return. I'll be honest, I think making RoJohn John was one of the worst and most shortsighted decisions Days ever made. It gave us great material in the 90's, but it really was basically pointless. I would have just kept John as Roman or retconned it back before Shawn/Belle and Theresa and Brady started have kids together.

I agree. I thought I was being too harsh and it was my own issue with Steve Burton, but so far Harris is just the non-hitman version of Jason. Luckily he is without the Sonny/Michael/Carly baggage, but Harris needs to be integrated with the rest of the cast.

I find Josh Taylor's Roman a completely different character. I don't even evaluate him on the same scale as Drake/Wayne. He's just not Roman.

Jordi Vilasuso looks good to me. I wouldn't be opposed to Ted King coming back as Lorenzo. I did think Luis/Brenda had chemistry. It was dark, but they had some spark.

Ricky Martin is such a handsome fella and I love him. Him and Brenda were just not where it was at lol. I *might* be willing to give him a try since I do think he's gotten better at the acting thing but he obviously is to big of a star to be on GH. I am totally open to ideas. I really couldn't come up with one on the fly. I am horrible at hypothetical casting though.

Lol! Same. This isn't even about making room for Vanessa Marcil's very hypothetical comeback. Just let 8 people go. GH has such a bloated cast. Haha! I was trying to come up with a reasonable love interest and I was like......oh no. Why is everyone she was paired with back in the day like that? I guess Ricky Martin is still okay-ish? I wouldn't recommend that chemistry less pairing to the masses again though.

Happy New Year to all my lovely Days fans! DF's EJ is so nice and romantic it is a completely different take from James Scott's version. I don't dislike it. It is just hard to wrap my head around. Tate was being a bit dumb, but at least he had the presence of mind to text Brady and not Theresa. He's only a kid and it was a realistic reaction. Holly seizing and throwing up was pretty traumatizing. Stefan's speech at the Bistro was silly. Did Brandon Barash just write his own lines? It was such a weird scene. Ari and EM were both really good today. The Paulina/Abe stuff was good, but I think this story has just drug out too long. Abe needs to remember.

Wayne seems like a wonderful guy! I don't blame him for Roman's bad writing. He did what he could including the embarrassing 1992 Mrs. Doubtfire rip off which you are heading into lol. I can see why the show went with Drake as their lead. Roman/John do become redundant when you think about it. And Drake was younger and more classically handsome. The way the affair was written there was really no other choice except to build John/Marlena into endgame. If it was just casual why would our heroine Marlena do that? I can still see a place for Roman after the affair, but I also understand the reasoning of getting rid of him to give a clear path towards John/Marlena. I would have hated Roman being villainized in the way Kristen was and that's the only way JER knew how to write triangles.

Right? I think there is a weird notion that if you are a John/Marlena fan you have to hate Roman. I don't at all. I definitely have some issues with him post return, but I actually think John/Marlena and Roman/Marlena are two different types of pairings. Even RoJohn/Marlena had a very different feel than OGRoman/Marlena. John/Marlena are much more tortured and romantic. They have a much more passionate chemistry. Roman/Marlena are a lot more lighthearted to me and Wayne injects a lot of humor. Even with all the retcons and returns they have a lightness and ease to them that John/Marlena lack sometimes. I don't know I might be weird. I liked Brenda/Jax* in the Sonny/Brenda/Jax triangle too even if I am a diehard S&B girl. *Ingo's antics were not known at the time.

To have a discussion? I don't hate Roman. In fact I enjoyed early Roman/Marlena. I didn't love him post 1991. I have no problem with people having different opinions from me. Not everyone loves John/Marlena and @Donna L. Bridges is currently re-watching so I am interested in her take.

Drake/Deidre did for me in their first scenes. They had fire chemistry. Not to take away from Roman/Marlena but it was more a Tracy/Hepburn relationship.

I definitely think this is a topic very open to discussion. I can find a lot of things I don't love about Roman, but I do have a John/Marlena bias. They just work better IMO. I guess I don't think Roman was an awful guy, but I do think he could have considered Marlena's feelings more. The actual position Roman was in was so awful post 1991. People just liked John better lol? My biggest complaint is how they wrote him off and it does make him a bit of an ass.

While I appreciate your viewing and work I still think you have a broad take on Roman being a jerk. I don't think Roman is a bad person or evil, but I think there are a lot of scenes that frame him as slightly misogynistic and kinda jerk-y. I find him especially pushy with Marlena in the 1991 era to just pick up where they left off. I would also suggest a lot of 1992 where he only cares about his job and not Marlena's. After the affair, it's hard to blame him exactly, but Marlena was more than willing to make it work. The affair is wrong, but it's a set of extraordinary circumstances that no one in real life is dealing with and I do think Marlena would have never cheated on him again. Roman uses Sami's trauma to almost weaponized Marlena's flaws and I find it ugly. Plus he just bails soon after. Who would leave their traumatized children like that? He was mad at their mother not them. Roman then remained incommunicado for years and took the most dangerous ISA missions with no regard to his family while Marlena and John openly faced their actions and consequences. Again, Wayne was fired, but that's kind of shitty behavior. It's not like Carrie and Sami were living their best lives drama free while he was gone.

That last pic of Leslie Charleson is stunning! Idk, CM and VM just feels like a Hallmark movie dream. Like two shiny soap pets making a bigger shinier soap couple. I don't think it would be that good. It's just where the mind drifts. I was going to suggest re-hiring ASJ, but then I went down his weird MAGA journey and I don't think Jagger will reappear either. Vanessa really needs to stop having chemistry with anti-vaxxers and Trumpers is all I am going to say.🤣

No. I really struggle with pairing her with anyone on the current canvas. There is like Ned, Finn, or Curtis in her age range. Drew seems obvious because Carly and he also feels like Jax-lite IMO. Plus CM and VM feel like some sort of Frons fever dream and my mind is still ingrained to entertain that. You could also pair her younger and I would guess Dante, Michael, Nik, and Cody would be possible. None of those options feel great to me although I think Cody/Brenda would be a hot pairing. It doesn't really seem in character. I would go outside and hire a decent name or re-hire Sean Kanan or Brandon Barash and go from there. I don't think there is really any way to get out of pairing Sonny/Brenda as endgame, so there just needs to be a Jax-like handsome, charming placeholder.

Yes. I would play the long game with Sonny and just tease the romance and sexual tension. I would establish Brenda and her son outside of the Sonny universe for awhile and then have Sonny making moves to better himself and win Brenda. It's a bit difficult without Jax/Jason around, but I assume they could find a good ex-soap hunk to be her love interest for awhile.