carolineg

Just now, FrenchBug82 said:

Personally I don't mind people using the Days Thread to talk about whatever they want Days-related, be it old storylines, Marlena fanfic or Zach's facial hair, but from a keeping-things-on-topic POV, it does seem we are getting close to the point where a Zach Tinker Appreciation Thread is warranted

Lol!  I don't mind thread drifts at all. I create them all the time😂.  I just think it shows the state of the show when people are more passionate about Sonny's facial hair than any story.  For the record, no mustache for me.   I do believe there is a ZT Appreciation thread already as well lol.

4 minutes ago, AlexElizabeth said:

Saw this on twitter in case anyone needs a good laugh... 

It is just Freddie talking about it for 38 min...........lol.  No Alyssa.  Not that she helps, but that's a long time to listen to one person talk about that.  And before you judge me for listening to it all-I didn't.  I just skipped ahead to see if he was still talking about the same thing.   Listen, I hope their real estate business is lucrative.

You know Days is really off the rails when everyone has been talking about ZT's facial hair for the last 12 hours.😂

20 minutes ago, Khan said:

OMG, was it really over Kung Fu Barbie?  Of all the shitty things to break up a partnership over, lol!

IA about Sonny/Carly.  They've been going in circles for the longest time.  As a matter of fact, given everything the two (and viewers) have been through over the years, I think Carly has overreacted to Sonny hooking up with Nina.  She's acting as if her entire world has been destroyed when she should be like, "Is it Tuesday again already?".

I don't know if I am being accurate about that, but for some reason I think Pratt/Frons were fans, but Guza was not and didn't want all that marriage pregnancy crap for his beloved Jason.   

Seriously, Carly should just be glad Nina's past her child bearing years.  Because this is the same story told multiple times.  I am not saying any of Sonny/Carly's pairings aren't toxic, but, Carly girl, you been down this road before lol.  Half the time Carly/Sonny don't even seem like they are physically attracted to one another.  Love, Devotion, Loyalty, etc. I get.  They have that, but they don't seem to even want to be together in a sexual way lol. Which is fine by me, but not exactly what a supercouple is built on.

24 minutes ago, Khan said:

I do, too.  Even if it's just for one scene - Sonny gets into a car, and guess who's in the seat next to his? - I don't see Sonny leaving PC, or GH leaving the airwaves, without that final button on the Sonny/Brenda saga.

IIRC, didn't Guza and Pratt have a major falling-out that led directly to the latter leaving GH?

Obviously, same.  Sonny seems to be just running in circles with Carly and has been for so long it feels like they are just filling time with him.  At the end of the day, you just have to think Sonny will just end up with Brenda.  Nothing on the show actually indicates that at this point and I am aware of reality, but it just seems like the best and easiest ending for Sonny as a character.  You really don't even have to do much work except to get Vanessa to show up and read a few lines lol.

Didn't Guza and Pratt have a falling out over Courtney or Courtney/Jason?  Lol, what a hill to die on Pratt...

16 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

I got the impression when Brenda returned that Guza had clearly decided it was Sonny/Carly as the long term goal.  Now admittedly they did not have Vanessa on a long contract.  But the writing felt skewed to me.  And the baby stuff with Sam- I have read it was going to bring Jason and Brenda together as an actual couple.

Also- not to let him off the hook for his writing errors, but didn’t Guza take an extended leave of absence around the time the show fell apart?  He was still in the credits, but not at the show.  I think his child died.

I believe you are right about the Sonny/Carly being a long term thing.  The writing was very skewed toward Brenda/Jax, but it made sense in how we last saw Brenda.  She was over Sonny and in love with Jax.   I think Jason/Brenda would have been fine for a short/medium length of time.  Tbh, if Guza decided Jax/Brenda were endgame I could buy it because enough work had been done to make me believe it back then(no longer the case now, obviously-Ingo aside)

I just don't think Sonny/Brenda would ever be off the table either.

No idea about Guza being off the show.  It does look like one of his children did die around that time.

10 minutes ago, Vee said:

They had wanted Vanessa to stay. They wouldn't give her the time off she wanted with her kid. The clear intent was to put her with Jason and keep S&C cemented.

A few years later, with Tamara gone, I think Guza was over S&C - hence moving LW's Carly to Jax, which worked for the character under her IMO - and then increasingly over Sonny himself. Until the Dante saga, and Vanessa's return.

I don't disagree with anything you said, but, again, I think Guza did have an actual long term plan for Brenda/Sonny regardless of how long it played out.  I think "baby Lila" would have lived if Brenda and Sonny were the kids parents and Jason/Brenda would have had their run.   Idk, it's hard to speculate because that's literally nothing like how it turned out, but I just see almost every writer on GH since going toward S/B as endgame eventually.  I still see them being endgame when this show wraps though.

3 minutes ago, Vee said:

When he was good he was brilliant. But he could also be very, very lazy and misogynistic. I just can't cosign Guza writing GH again after the rest of the 2000s unless he had a lot of oversight or a significant co-HW - a woman. I'd sooner see Karen Harris and MVJ back. Most of 2003-2005 were total dreck, and the years after that weren't exactly genius. GH ultimately became a dark nihilistic void I largely ignored under his stewardship, even when they still had some very good daily writing staff in those years.

I don't know what stories they re-appropriated from Brenda for the Fab 4, so that makes me curious. Sam you can point to later on, but they didn't really move her towards Sonny til the very end of '03.

It pushed everything back for them if that makes sense.  It followed Sam's storyline with the Sonny affair/baby/Jason, but the show wouldn't have needed all that time to set it up with Brenda and it would have been better lol.  I know Guza wasn't keen on Journey and I think Brazen was the get out of jail free card on that one with Frons.  Instead it ended up in marriage and I don't think that was ever where Guza wanted to go.  As far as Sonny/Carly, I have no idea where Guza saw that and have never heard anything.  Probably better than what we got because there was always a viable pairing with Brenda if Carson broke up, which was never an option with Sam.  I think I always heard Guza preferred Brenda/Jax to Brenda/Sonny because he basically created them.

1 minute ago, Vee said:

I think Nikolas/Emily was always a grand plan starting when they got Tyler back. I don't think Gia was ever a consideration from then on. They'd been teasing Nik and Em since the late '90s, and Guza rarely lets a good chemistry test go (he continued teasing Nik and Robin almost until the 2010s). I understood doing it. A long-running, well-written triangle with the three of them, or a quad with the right Gia, including Stefan as the scheming patriarch, would've been dynamite. That's not what they wrote for any of it.

Frons' micromanaging at ABCD was at its height in 2003, when he was fully ascendant. That was also the Year of Courtney. It felt like five years tbh. I think the stories going so extreme as well as into overdrive pacing-wise was in part Pratt, who also unleashed Guza's worst instincts. The writing also was often weak and ADD in many stories, and not as razor-sharp as what they were known for on the daily dialogue. Once Pratt was gone the show righted itself in a few ways, but Guza remained ugly in many others.

Yeah, I assume Emily/Nik was always the plan to help get TC back.  He was still a pretty hot commodity in the soap world at the time.  With AT not coming back, it really opened the door to find an Emily that sparked with TC and CB, but we got blandly gorgeous NL instead lol.  It is something the show could have played for years.  With Lucky, Liz, Zander as spoilers.  Like you said that group was already incestuous.  

Gosh, I forgot 2003 was the year of Courtney/Journey/Fab 4 as well.  That group went through so much story so quickly.  When you have your perceived male lead shoot his pregnant wife in the head while giving birth, you know you have problems.   I am not overblowing the importance of Brenda I don't think, but I think that whole group suffered from the loss of VM and the future plans completely being blown.  Instead of re-directing the whole story, Guza/Pratt used bits and pieces of ideas they were planning and it fell very flat.

I just think bad casting decisions were worse than even story telling.  JY as Lucky, NL as Emily, AP as Gia, Summer, Lydia, Sarah recast, and so on...

TBH, I think Guza and co were so busy trying to figure out the Fab 4 crap and taking Frons direction the B stories just fell apart as well.   I still think Guza is a good writer.  He just needs someone to reel him in.

@Vee I suspect a lot of the Nik/Emily stuff was to give TC a viable love interest.  If you think about TC's initial run he spent a lot of time in unpopular pairings (Sarah, KATHERINE-for so long) or aborted ones (Nik/Robin).   Gia was clearly not working out so that wasn't an option and there was enough of a tease of Nik/Emily during AT's run that it could work (although AT and TC kissing was disgusting).  Zander was expendable to the show, so we wound up with the "fairytale" that was Nik/Emily.

2003 was a mess.  It started with the Sam and Brenda are the same story and just weaved into the overall canvas.  I think casting issues were a big issue and Guza and co had no idea where to go.

12 minutes ago, Vee said:

She was basically recurring. She only turned up occasionally to fūck Zander (literally, every member of that teen scene ended up hooking up even when it made no sense) and primp Emily for her wedding, and they had been far from friends. I don't remember any TC Nikolas scenes with her, and I was waiting for them. I'm sure a couple exist. As a Nikolas/Gia fan I was not happy about that entire experience.

Did Gia and Lucky ever hook up?  I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was yes, but I can't recall.   I don't remember a single Gia/TC Nik scene, but I am sure they said goodbye when she left town at least.

I think AP dated or was engaged to Ted King for awhile.  The internet is not backing me up on this, but I am almost positive they were a couple.  Gia/Alcazar isn't the worst idea...

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

News to me, but I wouldn't be surprised. Anyway I'd accept the lawyer thing now, with some sort of glam sideline lol.

Same.  Her brother is a cop, so it sorta works.

Anyway, I want to say MR left for a primetime show and it was quickly cancelled and the show went back and tried to get her again, but I don't think she was interested or only interested in recurring.  I remember reading a SOD article or something about it.  I could be wrong and SOD lies, but Gia was practically recurring (or maybe was?) toward the end of AP's run.

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

It seemed like a deliberate attempt to dispense with the character entirely, though IIRC they did start the lawyer thing (which always seemed off-brand for Gia) with Marisa in the role.

It did seem off brand for MR's Gia because being a model was her dream.  It would be like Brenda becoming a lawyer lol.  I think something with Zander/Nik? or something sparked Gia's interest in the law and I do believe she gave up her modeling career because of Nik as well.  Anyhow, it was clear the show wanted to get rid of the character after AP took over the role.  Weren't they still in talks with MR and trying to work it out for awhile?  

Gia #2 (Andrea Pearson) actually was a good actress, just woefully miscast as Gia.  She could have worked in a different role like a Ward relative.  I do remember thinking it was a shame because she wasn't bad-she was just so wrong in the role and had no chemistry with the actors she should.

TA doesn't have that problem.  She seems to at least fit the idea of Trina.

26 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

They substituted Nancy with Leo. We've seen this story before. Ron and Jamey are recycling the same [!@#$%^&*] we've seen before but doing an awful job telling it again.

I still can't believe Craig would choose the first dick he's barely known over his own daughter. This story truly stinks!!

It's Ron's continued fantasies.

Craig's an idiot.  I have no idea what he's thinking lol.  On top of everything else he's done, he was mean to Marlena.  No redemption for him here.

I couldn't even concentrate on what Brady and Chloe were saying because they weren't even sitting up covering themselves.  They were laying, cuddling while Leo was talking.  It was so weird.  Who directs, edits, and blocks this stuff?  It's idiotic.  Not even going to mention Brady/Chloe's 'room' set was a bed, a lamp, and a small chair.  WTF?

The Craig scenes with Marlena today were interesting-not in actual dialogue, but Craig's demeanor.  Last I remember Craig/Marlena were friends.  Is the show leaning towards making Craig a villian again?   That's where I think this should go and I do see Leo/Craig cooking up schemes all over town like people suggested.  I don't know if I want to see them up against Sonny/Will (because Craig feels way too old for that), but I feel like Craig is so obnoxious right now I'd rather he just become a villian.

Days also does the most awkward scenes.  Why were Chloe/Brady in bed naked talking to Leo for so long.  That's weird.  No one does that.

7 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't understand the thing about her killing a bunch of dudes!

That's fair lol.  GH did that Days thing where they want to just keep a character/actor and just extend their stories beyond the character's clear shelf life.  Nelle embodies this as did Peter lol.

The Nelle stuff reminds me of Sam's past life where she married and conned about 7 different men, but arrived in PC at about 24 years old.  It will never line up.

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

There are definite similarities, but Esme is considerably better conceived than Nelle, whose origin and evolution make absolutely no sense.

Agree with that.  I still don't understand the Nelle/Carly/Jax/kidney situation lol.  For me personally they just feel like very similar types of villians and it hasn't been long enough since Nelle disappeared for me to get excited about Esme.

I can't get over Esme being Nelle lite basically.  I know their schemes are different and the show is even acknowledging it, but both actresses look similar and have the same energy.  I think AP is good.  It's just the fact that they are basically the same type of villian.

5 minutes ago, Gray Bunny said:

I'm still wondering why the devil is suddenly so interested in having sex with mortals, but the whole thing is a giant clusterf#ck with their own set of rules being broken left and right. 

Well, the devil was interested in MarDevil having sex with John back in the day, but that was to corrupt him.  So maybe if the show wanted JoDevil to have sex with Gabi to ensure another Devil baby in case it would make sense.   None of this is good, but there is a precedent of the Devil wanting to have sex with mortals if it suits their purpose enough.  I don't even know why I am defending this lol.   

I don't mind the jumping to different people, but the story obviously works better with one person (Marlena), one hero (John), and a clear agenda.  I have no idea what the devil wants here-it keeps changing.

10 minutes ago, Vee said:

IMO they don't take risks because for the most part, ABCD is simply marking time keeping this show on the air and keeping it functional. They have no investment in it beyond basic sustenance, and so they choose to simply cater to a shrinking, aging FB audience - keep it middle of the road, keep it running until they can cultivate a replacement. It's the same thing with Y&R at CBS IMO.

Frank, who simply wants to keep the show on the air at any cost (while also playing his favorites), will go along with that because he knows they can't afford to lose any numbers, ergo why take risks or jeopardize the things on the show he is invested in? So instead we get things they know the network will greenlight and FB won't complain about: Tame teen stories, and more and more babies. (Supposedly the #1 thing the network will always rubber-stamp storyline-wise) Even Ava, Carly, Nina, Liz and Sam are all civil or even friendly to each other now. Why??

It's sad because there is potential here on GH, more than a few years ago.

That makes sense.  I just think GH sits on an embarrassment of riches as far as cast and does nothing.  No beats are played, no reveals are good, and everything just fizzles out.  Unlike Days where the ideas are batshit, GH has a lot of good ideas-they just never workout the way they should.

I have no idea why Ava/Carly/Nina/Liz/Sam are all friendly.  Carly and Sam chitchatting about Carly's marriage was bizarre.  And when Carly explained she caught Nina in bed with Sonny the show didn't make the obvious correlation to the same thing happening with Sam/Sonny lol.  

6 minutes ago, Forever8 said:

I remember hearing a rumored storyline was that a few years back that Josslyn was somehow going to get involved with Dustin making it a "Hot for Teacher" story, but I think ABC shut that down allegedly. 

I don't think I would have liked that because Dustin was such a non-entity of a character, but at least it would be something interesting.

11 minutes ago, Vee said:

I think Lipton was the breakout star (and is the best actor) until he got chained to EM as her new accessory sans Oscar, and for a time he picked up bad habits from Roger Howarth, etc. He's circled back around again for me and is good now. I think he is still the most technically capable of the youth set and I suspect he'd have chemistry with TA just as he did SM. But his role today is simply to be Joss' white boyfriend.

FV will never give up on building the teen scene around a young white blonde who superficially resembles Kristen Alderson, based on youth demos from over a decade ago. Eden is passable but could do more as a rich bitch than a central heroine, if you had to keep her which you don't. Then there's other kids they could bring on - Emma (NOT with the kid who's been playing her), Alec Barrett, Lila Rae Alcazar, etc. Hudson West (Jake) could also easily come up from the background like Kimberly McCullough once did as a junior character and I think he's at least as good as she was back in '92-'93, and technically better than most of the older teens, but it's more likely Frank will foolishly fail to secure him and lock him down and he'll be recast.

I think the extremely bland and generic at best writing for the kids is a huge factor. If you had Karen Harris, MVJ and Labine or Guza's crew writing for these kids we'd potentially be in a very different place with how we talk about all of them and the raw talent therein. Frank doesn't take those risks, and neither does the network anymore.

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.

3 minutes ago, Vee said:

She was solid and charismatic, but neither Chavez nor SM were without their green issues onscreen. People on Twitter especially (which I don't use) get high on hype quick.

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.  

14 hours ago, AlexElizabeth said:

God this Renee stuff is BAD. LG reciting lines about wanting to f-ck Tony... are you kidding me? And they really have Tony living in the Kiriakis mansion. Awful. Anna is the ONLY saving grace.

The buildup to Brady and Chloe finally having sex was so weird. Did the Leo/Craig/Chad stuff get them horny or something? Bizarre.

Xander and Gwen are just having the same conversation on repeat at this point.

I found the Chad/Leo stuff hilarious of course. That was some interesting music they used in some of those scenes. Of course Craig proposes. LOL

I love how Abby just totally supports her husband partaking in this nonsense with Leo LMAO.

I need more Sonny on my screen.

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.

8 hours ago, te. said:

She could also have a future vision of an aged Sami (played by Deidre Hall) telling her grandchildren what a wonderful person her mother was. And in the vision there's a visit from Belle, also played by Deidre. This all leads to a very dramatic moment where Marlena yells (passionately) I want to liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiveeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

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