carolineg

I would love Joss to have some rich bitch characteristics. She's the most boring parts of Carly and Jax. I always thought Joss should be a bit of a schemer like her mother and she can always grow out of that like Brenda and Liz did. I don't understand why they haven't brought Lila Rae, Alec Barrett, or Emma back. I do think they are waiting on the OGEmma actress to be older tbh. Alec and Lila Rae would be fairly easy to bring back even sans their mothers (although it would be stupid not to bring VM and RC back). Alec/Lila Rae could both be staying at the Quartermaines for the summer or something and fall in love with each other and it could be drama. I still think it would be cool if Alec was gay, but it would probably fall more in line with the show to pair him with Joss/Lila Rae for the mother catfights. I don't understand why the teen set/Frank/the network doesn't take any risks with them. They don't act like teens at all. I am glad they didn't do the teenage pregnancy route with any of them, but the Joss/Oscar stuff is what really set the tone for this group to be lame and deal with really heavy adult problems. That story easily could have been tweaked to make Oscar Alec instead and might have been poignant with Brenda/Carly/Sonny dealing with that as well with the Stone stuff coming full circle. If Frank would have went there, even if it was a bit shoddily done, the story would have been remembered and probably set those teens up much better for the future.

I think part of my problem is none of this teen set has ever really gelled for me. I think Chavez and SM were the standouts and Lipton can do good work. Obviously the main problem was building this set around Joss/EM, who at her best is blandly adequate. Chavez is someone I could see being a lead for years (but I doubt he will stay that long), but no one has given me the star power KMc, JJ, AT, VM, SBu, RH, TC etc did from the jump. That's probably more on GH than the actors, but the teen set has had either extremely adult stories or really chaste ones. Even this sex tape isn't the scandal it should be.

Yeah I get it. SM definitely was charismatic and likable. I prefer Trina to most all the other teens and her and Chavez had chemistry. I am not trying to knock her really. I just don't think she's a Jonathan Jackson level find lol and I have no problem with her being recast. I'd rather that than Trina disappear. I guess my overall point was I think TA is decent and will only get better. I don't feel like I have seen enough of her yet to make a really solid judgement.

I think the recast has been good. TA seems capable and I think it will work out. Obviously, I need to see more of her and time will tell. Tbh, SM as Trina never set the world on fire for me though. I thought she was good, but I didn't think she was the find some people did on here. My hope would be Trina's story moves more coherently now that they have an actress that is available full time.

The Tony/Renee stuff is uncomfortable to watch as a viewer. Not only is it awful, but I don't want to see LG as Sarenee hit on 70 plus Tony. Eeeewww. Does Chloe have a house? It's weird her and Brady were getting it on at John/Marlena's house. I know Brady lives there and they wouldn't care, but it would break the mood for me lol. I am going to agree with you and say I didn't mind the Chad/Leo stuff. Leo has always been portrayed as intelligent, so we all knew he wasn't going to fall for this, but it was at least entertaining. I actually like Abby better because she let's Chad do this. Abby can be a bore. At least we know now she supports wacky shenanigans and has a sense of humor. It a shame Gwen and Xander are so dull. I thought both characters were good when they were introduced and had potential and Days managed to squander it completely.

I think this might just be the story that wins Dee her long deserved Emmy 🤣

As long as Marlena has a near death/heaven experience (natch for Marlena) and she sees her twin Sam before she decides if she's going to other side! All the roles for Deidre lol.

I am assuming Ron probably hasn't heard about the Marlena clones that Stefano sent out during the Possession story yet. That could be next.

They made me laugh too. I still don't think Leo is dumb enough to fall for it, but I liked those scenes. Am I the only one that thinks Craig is a better choice for chief of staff? Kayla's not very good anyhow. Ava did make a chuckle a bit too. Her disdain of Nicole/Rafe makes me like her more.

I think I have an okay tolerance to pagodas. Not sure. What I read about it makes it sound interesting and maybe the first sign John wasn't Roman, but your explanation just makes it sound messy. Not sure why they dropped Stefano. I believe I read Deidre Hall was in serious talks to come back at the time and it fell through and that's why the show was introducing clues that Marlena was alive. Maybe when DH decided not to come back, the whole thing just ended up getting scrapped and Stefano's story was done. A lot of the RoJohn/Diana stuff seems to change tone as well from what little I have seen after that. But then again, even 80's Diana wasn't a very fleshed out character.

I have never seen the full pagoda story. Is it worth watching? Roman seems like a much more logical choice on this than Shane. Is it the same story were they hinted Marlena was alive? Because at least in 1991 there was a strong thread that Stefano had Marlena even if Orpheus wasn't explained. Agree 100% about your thoughts on the John imploding/suicidal stuff. It was good and I wished they explored it more. It felt like everything was cut short about that and it was more Isabella/Romulus jewel thief focused. I wish there was more fall out with the children-Carrie wasn't even on canvas. And making Isabella pregnant almost seemed like too much? A lot was going on and the show knew Wayne was coming back. It seemed like an unnecessary complication that was much less interesting than the psychological aspects that could have played out. I remember seeing the 1988 clips and thinking that was silly because it didn't even make historical sense lol. To me, there is also a lot of Pawn/John/Victor stuff that wasn't explained in 1991 as well.

This story and LG are so awful in it I almost feel bad for her. She has to know everyone hates it and LG seems like a nice person. I have never thought she was a master thespian or anything, but it has to be difficult to get into character when the description is character that's been dead for 40 years and in love with Tony Dimera lol. I rag on her as much as anyone else and LG could do actual research on the character, but I would love to know her reaction the day she found out she had to play that.

Outside of the Marlena issue which was never resolved, Kristen wasn't a good character introduction. Her devotion to Stefano and marriage to Tony was creepy. IMO, their differences were more than obstacles-they were complete non-starters lol. She never believed John about anything from Day one. The entire town was telling her Stefano brainwashed John and tortured him, but Kristen ignored that until John walked out of Maison Blanche in literal shackles. But it's easy to say that looking back knowing how the story ends. I think there was a mention in 1991 that Marlena either saw the real Roman or almost did, but it was after Stefano had her. I didn't realize John was really Forrest Alamain. I thought the Yo-Ling stuff negated that, but you explained it much better than I remembered it. Thanks! Obviously at this point you just wish Real Roman never came back lol.

Yes, but the coffin was empty and Stefano kidnapped Forrest/John as a child, but I am not sure why. I still don't know if we ever found out if the real Forrest Alamain died in that pool. Probably?

Did Palumbo do the John is a jewel thief story? That was awful lol. It had continuity errors from his own recent story the Tale of 2 Romans. I don't think tying John to the Alamains was that bad of an idea, but the show didn't do a lot to solidify the Alamains long term. Once Lawrence was out, John only had Vivian and that wasn't really dramatic. I think every writer salivates at the fact John has such a blank past and wants to write their own story so none of it makes sense. They should really have made John Roman's twin that Stefano kidnapped due to a Brady past vendetta that made sense back in the early 90's.

Thanks! I wasn't sure if she ever followed up with Tripp. Not that she has to, but he's probably thinking she feels one way and doesn't lol. But that kinda sums up their entire relationship.

Agree. They based the whole thing on a before and after photo. Everyone should be embarrassed. I think everyone just liked John better and went with it. Including Marlena lol. I think it's obvious she liked some physical differences. It's sorta funny that you think Stefano made him practice to have sex with Marlena. If I am going to go even further into all this-why did Stefano even make John faux Ro? What was his point? Especially after he kidnapped Marlena as well? Was there an end goal he was looking for like John to turn on all the Brady's at some point? Or was it just for like shits and giggles? Have they ever even tried to explain it? As far as Eric he got kicked out of the priesthood for Kristen seducing him. I don't even want to talk about it. He always got in a drunk driving accident and killed Daniel among the other lesser sins. I honestly didn't even hear his excuse about why he went back recently.

I strangely admire his commitment to thinking his live version is going to be as good as his weirdly edited track with background vocals. I honestly think TR is aggressively touching Finola's hand to remind one another they can't burst out laughing in this scene. I don't know anything about Conner or the actor, but was singing the actor's main career?

I think Kristen's view of religion was just so strong at that time (and completely abandoned post-Possession lol) that Marlena's "I support you no matter what" attitude came off more natural. I just always thought she was okay with it and maybe pro/pushing is too strong of a word, but she wasn't against it and didn't want him to turn his back on it necessarily. So do you think Marlena realized if John was a priest brainwashed out of the seminary that meant John was probably a virgin when she met him and she was embarrassed she couldn't tell the difference between him and Roman? Lol. I know it's completely retconned out of existence now, but at the time.. I don't think JER ever left his vision of John/Marlena even if I suspect the network and other PTB wanted John/Kristen more when ED first arrived, but JER was never going to truly let that happen. Aremid is where John/Marlena stuff becomes really clear, but I think the true turning point is when the devil starts using Marlena to actively seduce John. You truly get the idea that's the endgame couple Anyhow, Eric's priesthood journey confuses me more than John's. Eric can leave, have multiple relationships with women, have a child out of wedlock, and get married and DIVORCED, and just go back to being a CATHOLIC priest? I know women used to join convents after they were widowed, but I feel like Eric's life is not the same at all. Maybe they just keep him around in case an exorcism needs to get done.

You can get it for $4 bucks on Amazon-never heard of it either, but it's fairly newish. I think a lot of time wedding attendants are based actors leaving the show and who is vaguely friendly enough that's still on the cast.

This is hilarious. Is he performing live to his own music video? That seems...rendundant lol. I agree the music could be a little cheesy in the 90's and I don't think the Outback, Luke's and sometimes Jake's all needed to be a place people needed to sing live at. Add the nurses's Ball and traveling to Puerto Rico to see a concert-it's a lot of singing. Is PC that big of a music mecca? I get that it's not very exciting to watch other people reacting to people singing, but I loved the idea of Luke's as a bluesy club and L&B as a business venture that Lois/Brenda could do where they actually showed them doing work. The first few years of the NB worked because they felt like a variety show more with some silly acts. When it became really glossy and characters that would never perform started to perform it got clear they ran out of ideas. It's certainly not a nadir of viewing, but why would anyone want to watch Chloe/Jax ballroom dance?

This is a serious question, but did I miss an episode when Allie decided she was all in with Chanel and over Tripp? I saw her talk with Will, but has she just dropped the idea of getting back with Tripp now? Today's show was awful, but I had to laugh when Ciara/Ben were explaining to Chanel the devil wanted their baby and Chanel was rightfully worried and asked 'why'? And Ciara said "Idk, hope it's over" in the most casual way. I think it's clear how VK feels about this story.

You are probably right. Maybe I was just confusing the fact that Marlena was generally really pro John finding out his past, which was fair, but never cared much about the 5 years she was kidnapped lol. I remember her urging him to find out as much as he could about the priest stuff. I would say, IMO, that John was still really into Kristen until Aremid and that's when he saw something 'more' again with Marlena. But obviously, the audience would see it better than them and knew there was unfinished business with them even at Maison Blanche. On a sort of unrelated priest note I always thought it was funny John decided to re commit to being a priest and all of sudden he was performing weddings and had these duties. Does it even work like that lol? I know very little about this, but isn't it difficult to go back after you had a wife and children? How does Eric go in and out as a priest as well?

I think it's interesting to hear more about Sami/Eric's time in Colorado because so little is known about that time or even how long they were there lol. I could take or leave Madison, but it was a good intro. The show probably got rid of her too soon, but her backstory got weird quick.

Yeah. I get that. There is a lull between maison blanche and the possession where john and crew aren't doing anything exciting and Kristen and John have the same conversation about 10000 times. Even in edits that period is tedious and I skip ahead usually too lol