carolineg

Yeah, well in the 90's Sonny was allowed to have a dark side and his business was allowed to be dangerous and scary. Sonny was a bad guy that did nice things sometimes. He was so far in the business he couldn't get out when he tried. 20 years later he's had numerous opportunities to get out........he just didn't. I don't know why Sonny doesn't just get out now. For Michael, for Nina, for whatever reason. I don't even think the mob really drives much story these days. When in the Riche area do feel like it began? I always think of it as after she left.

Yes! I personally think he's importing fake Gucci's and Yeezy's, but tigers and monkeys would be cool too. Like @Darn said we will never know because Sonny does illegal things, but the audience can't know what those bad things are because then we might think Sonny is bad.

I know. It's was almost impossible for me to type out🤣, but she did a good job with the material. If you saw the whole shoot the bride stuff from 2018 it was all very similar (minus the part about Belle wanting to pull the plug on her mom-she actually wants her to live this time).

I think we discuss this every few months and never reach a definitive conclusion lol. My understanding is we are to believe it's mostly money laundering and various RICO violations. I don't think Sonny deals in sex trading, drugs, guns etc himself, but does launder money for those who do. Plus I think he imports illegal items that may not be drugs or guns but could be anything from counterfeit items to exotic animals lol.

I am obviously a sucker for any Marlena/John life in peril plot and I enjoyed it a lot, but in all fairness it wasn't that good of an episode. It's not any different than any other "Marlena's about to die and her family rallies around her" episode. The performances were good (especially Martha), but I wonder if Drake, Martha, Eric, Greg, etc get tired of reciting the same dialogue and crying over Marlena's bedside especially Drake/Martha who don't do much else. Perhaps if the stakes were higher or I believed Marlena was actually dying it would have resonated with me more. As a standalone episode it was definitely way above average, but it's nothing we haven't seen before or like once a year. Not to be a downer though lol.

They probably use him all the time and that's his slick 'disguise' so we don't notice. Or maybe that's his natural sweet 'stache. 😂 I really enjoyed the Brady/John and Allie/Johnny scenes. Today's episode was decent. I need Gabi to chill though and I wanted Chloe to kill Kristen with the fire poker. There is nothing more annoying than characters acting smug about things they actually did and are lying about like Kristen today.

I knew it was only a matter of time before Brenda or Brenda/Sonny came up and I won't murder you because you did compliment Vanessa lol. I obviously cannot agree, but the toxicity of their relationship doesn't hold up that well I suppose and in 2010-2011 they were overrated at least as far as what was shown onscreen. There was a lot of hype, but very little actual development to their relationship. Brenda should have moved past Sonny decades before, but I still hope they end up together when all is said and done. I agree about Days couples especially John/Marlena and Steve/Kayla. They are too perfect and wonderful and while I suppose at their age it makes sense, a lot of the reasons John/Marlena and Steve/Kayla were interesting were their internal conflicts and issues. Orpheus/deadly diseases/kidnapping/etc every year doesn't make them exciting.

Lol! I am glad I saw your earlier post because when I watched it those scenes were still in and I probably would have thought the writing was just worse and more repetitive than usual.😂

One of these days they are going to have to show Marlena dying instead of just talking about her for entire episodes lol. I wish Steve would have succeeded in killing Kristen. Stupid Johnny...... Gabi asking to see Marlena to cure Stefan was so stupid and ridiculous I don't even know what she was thinking. Brady kissing Chloe was similarly inappropriate, but I liked that better. Are we supposed to think Li is not just evil but unhinged? Is he having a breakdown or are these just very "interesting" acting choices?

@j swift Roman retired as Police Commissioner several years ago. He took over the pub to ostensibly help Caroline out after Shawn died. I am pretty sure since the Pub opened it had a bar in it. I don't remember it being a diner ever. I think people just picked up food there more often than drank. The fish market only had a counter though. Today's episode was pretty boring. I am surprised the Alex/phone secret is already out. That was quick. I wish Sloan would give up this revenge plot against Chanel/Paulina. It's so boring. Sloan's pretty high and mighty for someone who was just aiding and abetting a kidnapping a few days ago lol.

I have to believe Frank made some sort of deal with Tony. Luke's death was so random and so inconsequential that I have to think Tony agreed to come back for the 60th or at some point in the future to finish the story. Leave it to FV to prove me wrong, but I can't imagine he would move forward with killing Luke Spencer off without a plan especially since nothing came of it.

Not sure if this counts exactly, but Marlena & Roman with Wayne and Drake. Obviously Josh Taylor ruined the streak, but that was excellent casting for the first two. I thought Austin/Carrie on Days had good chemistry with both PM and AP. PR and RKK had really good chemistry with CC's Carly even though I loathe Carly. You described the way I feel about the 2 Carly's and Sonny perfectly.

I actually think LW's Carly is a little more lighthearted and humorous than SJB's. Not always, but when she's explaining her idiotic plans she sometimes seems to get how silly they sound when said aloud. SJB could make Carly a lot more layered and sympathetic, but she was a lot more serious most of the time. ETA-I just read @Vee's reply and basically that's exactly what I was trying to say lol As far as Sonny, I don't mind him being a petty, busybody because I find it mildly humorous-it just doesn't fit the Sonny character at all. Sonny is a conundrum though. If you are going to write for him there aren't many options. He's not good as a romantic lead, he's too old to be an action hero, he sounds ridiculous tolling out advice, and he's not believable as a threatening mob boss. I don't know what I would do with Sonny except ship him off to Italy to be with Brenda. But MB is here to stay so I guess he'll just run around town mining secrets and start an anonymous blog about the citizens of PC.

If I had to chose, I would keep Sasha. Willow/Sasha are fairly indistinguishable, but at least she might snort some coke or go nuts. Willow also gets twice the airtime Sasha does. It is ridiculous out of all the actresses in LA and all the characters Frank could mine from history, these are the two females we get. I am sure KM is a nice girl, but I can't remember the last time a female lead on a soap has been so devoid of charisma and a discernible personality. Michael and Joss being mad at Sonny falls flat. Michael cares more about Sonny sleeping with Nina than he did about Sonny killing his father. Aside from Michael/Willow being hypocritical about this, it doesn't even make sense that boning Nina is the straw that broke the camel's back with Michael/Sonny. I do understand Willow disliking Nina though. Nina is extremely obnoxious and nosy with that girl. Speaking of nosy, I giggled when Gossip Girl Sonny not only went through Britt's box, but took out the files and read the medical records. Who does that? Not to mention there seems to be a lot of HIPAA violations happening if Britt just keeps private important medical info strewn around her desk.

There is something so cloying and pitiful about the way she wants to be 'strong' for Wiley/Michael, but is always a sobbing mess. I know we should think she's brave and selfless or something, but those scenes with Michael yesterday were endless and actually unbearable. I actively want the cancer to kill her off. I find her horribly bland and uninteresting. Easily one of the worst, if not the worst character on the show.

😂 Fair.

I liked the promo because I thought it made the current show look much more fun and interesting than it is lol.

I love that promo! The mix of classic/current clip was excellent. I wouldn't necessarily think Rena/Lois was featured in that commercial. Those clips with her are commonly used in the anniversary montages. If anything, Robin was the most heavily featured. I hope both return.

The whole Alex thing could have been avoided if Chad text Stephanie instead and explained. Or, you know, her father made an effort to contact her. Or her brothers. Or anyone but Chad. I don't understand why the responsibility of getting ahold of Stephanie was placed solely on Chad lol. It actually makes little sense. I have no problem with Alex being the bad guy because he is, but I kept wondering why Steve wasn't calling Stephanie himself 😂

I would love to know, but I am sure we never will. Like you said, Jason is not a character that the show has ever been cavalier about especially with love interests. I wonder if post-Covid the tension and chaos was too much behind the scenes and some things got rewritten. Even if KT was talking up Jason/Britt in her exit interview perhaps she was uncomfortable working with Steve until he was vaxxed?

I considered the fact that they knew Steve was going to be let go and they went all in on Carly because MB's story needed to be ramped up since he was going to be the main leading man again? Perhaps it had something to do with the uncertainty of KT's contract status at the time? I know people said she was recurring, doing a short stint, then reupped, but I am not sure when that happened and how it lines up with story. Perhaps they were eventually going to circle back to Britt and Steve got fired. Another odd thing to me is that once Sam/Jason broke up there wasn't any hint there were still feelings nor has there been much to Sam/Drew since CM came on.

Well, I guess Alex has become the heavy is this Chad/Stephanie/Alex triangle. Can't say I am mad about that. So, I may be way off base here, but this story about the poison feels like a John/Marlena story that the other two couples were inserted into after someone initially pitched the story. Or maybe even a Beyond Salem 3 plot that got scrapped or drawn out in a weird way. The quickness of the deaths of Kate and Kayla and the marginalization of Steve/Roman's point of view just makes me feel like this was really only supposed to be a John/Marlena arc and the other women were thrown in to give them story. It's like we are getting Kate/Kayla out of the way to get to the main plot (John vs. Orpheus and Marlena's death) instead of it actually being about three couples/three families. Even Kristen having the orchid feels more focused on John/Marlena/family. Anyway, I know Kate/Kayla have been part of the story since the beginning, but they feel like side characters instead of equal parts in this and it's just weird to me. The main point in Kayla dying today was to give Stephanie/Alex angst and the main point of Kate dying was to give Lucas angst and to give JT some moments to sob?/act?/moan? for a scene. Outside of pacing something about the structure of this story is just very odd. @Vee Beyond Salem was better than Beyond Salem 2 unless you are big Bo/Hope fan. It was good, but I definitely enjoyed the first one more.

Yes, I seem to recall KeMo tweeting a few things about it and perhaps passive aggressively speaking to mags in a way you knew she was unhappy about his firing. The Carly/Jason thing is perplexing. Steve was so against it like you said. I wonder if he thought going along with Carly/Jason when it was written would help him with his vax stance since he was being a team player about storylines. Or he lost his power after they fired him the first time and his objections were ignored. As to why it was written the way it was, I can't even begin to speculate.

It always seemed Kelly was checked out of Jason/Sam once SBu returned. She seemed to enjoy working with Billy Miller/Drew. Maybe she though that a Dante pairing would give her more to do? It didn't though lol. I am just not sure if Kelly who is someone who cares enough to push an agenda or a new pairing when Jasam earned her most of her fans. I always thought it was SBu. He did seem to be into the Britt/Jason pairing. That was the most I have seen SBu into a love scene in years. No idea why they shifted to Jason/Carly. I would assume for maximum impact when Sonny returned, but it really just fizzled instead.

I supposed Carmeron still could do that if he finds out. I agree it was odd they tied it all up with Dex finding the shell casing. Something should come of them lying.