carolineg

I hate to knock my girl when she's down but wtf is happening here? Lol. Hate this story

I am not sure that's it. I don't think Dee/Drake got into that comfort zone until the 2000's. They do have great chemistry from the jump though. Good casting, although Drake looks a lot younger than Marlena/Roman in 1986, but by like 1995 Deidre almost looks younger than him so whatever? I don't think they didn't allow themselves to not have chemistry with others (DH was pretty good with Kate), but I think Deidre did lose chem with Wayne in his return.

Completely switching subjects but I was watching early Jarlena stuff (1986) and Josh Taylor and Deidre Hall actually have decent chemistry as Chris and Marlena. I wonder why they have always had 0 as Roman and Marlena. It's not like JT really plays Roman differently than Chris.

The thing about Ciara and Ben is I buy they are soulmates. I don't even like them much, but I do think they are very much in love. VK and RSW have good chemistry. I just don't need to be hit over the head with their psychic connection. They are never going to be Bo/Hope or John/Marlena. I don't think they have ever even had an argument lol. I fully accept them as a decent young pairing (even with him being a serial killer), but I get irritated about them being portrayed as the greatest love of all time. I think if Ron scaled back on all that crap, a lot of people would like Cin more. I would like Cin more. I think Ron is squandering one of the few new(er) pairings with genuine chemistry to play something that isn't there instead of letting the chemistry flow organically.

I assume its similar to Marlena's Paris cage that had an unseen bathroom that allowed Marlena to change into her elaborate clothes and hair everyday. That's not sarcastic. That's literally what I just assumed lol. This show.. I may be giving Ron too much credit The thought of the DH's doing Romeo and Juliet all OTT and gaspy sort of gives me life. I think I would truly enjoy that lol

Very true. I agree with @Soaplovers that Jo was more evenly matched to Amanda but I enjoyed Amanda/Alison much more. It was more central and a true rivalry, but at the same time a sort of love/hate thing. You know they actually really did care about one another even when they were at odds. Amanda delivered bitchy one liners the entire show, but it was always more significant with Alison. Maybe because it was the first Amanda rivalry, but I still think it was the best. But again, I like Alison. She was my fave, so I might be seeing things differently than others. Taylor and Lexi vs. Amanda was fine, but Amanda was always going to win that.

To be fair, in the 90's the Golden Globes nominated some random people in the lead actress category. Jane Seymour won for Dr. Quinn one year Heather was nominated. I really can't think of anything she did to merit any sort of award either, but I am sure she had some scenes. I am surprised as well though because I didn't think anyone took Melrose seriously lol. I always thought Daphne Zuniga was a pretty good actress as well as those you mentioned. Once that dynamic was removed Alison suffered a lot as a character. Amanda was bitchy to others, but Alison was her best rival by far.

I would have loved that. It just was never possible with CTS's very decent post-Melrose career. I would have taken a casual mention on screen that Billy/Alison were married. The show evolved in so many ways, but the core to me was always Billy/Alison ending up together for so them to just fade away was sad. From the first episode on that was endgame to me so it's weird it didn't happen at all.

Agree to disagree on the OG's. I felt like the writers stopped writing for them on purpose once they knew they were leaving. Alison absolutely could have broke up with Jake, went back to D&D, and been involved with Billy/Sam in season 6. Grant Show is very likable. He could have been paired with a newbie. Maybe Sam and make it a quad. Craig/Sydney were very good. The show could have expanded on that. I don't think any of the OG's were ever done, although I agree Jane in 7 was a bore. But then again I always thought she was boring so I may not be the best judge of that.

+2 on this. I want to say she is miscast, but Nina wasn't much before CW. I want to like her and I think she is great, but Nina sucks. She's boring and lacks any sorta chemistry with Jax/Ingo and JPS/Valentin. I think if I could root for Nina/Jax or even Nina/Valentin I would feel more. I am a huge Jax fan (Ingo's politics aside) and I haven't been this meh about a Jax pairing since Miranda and Jax were on a beach in Australia with a horse lol. I liked him and Sam and a dead man's hand more than this.....

Yeah Melrose burned through so much in such a small time period. And there was so much bed hopping their wasn't a lot left for the original crew after season 5. I would have loved Alison to truly get her life together and have that dynamic with Amanda. With Alison, it always felt like the other shoe was going to drop and she would drink again. Realistic, but sort of sad for a soap character. Her ending just seems so pathetic-not CTS's last show-but the post-Alison mentions after. Hopefully Billy found her at some point and they are happily married lol. And let's all be honest: her role in Ally McBeal was lame af. I know it helped her career, but she honestly would have been better served just returning to MP.

I honestly didn't think the wheels fell off the show until season 5. In retrospect, it did have major problems in season 4, but I always chalked it up to the amount of story they burned through in seasons 2-3 and thought it was just a bad period the show would pull out of. Guess I was wrong. To me, the writing got worse, but the casting was a bigger issue. There was no one in the new cast that was much of a breakout star other than Taylor. I liked Rena Sofer, but I don't think that's a popular opinion around here lol.

ASJ was just woefully miscast. He was never a good actor, but at least Jagger was in his very limited wheelhouse of skills lol. Jack was supposed to be smart, intimidating, evil, etc. ASJ could play none of those things. I will never believe he could scare or outwit Amanda in any capacity or that they were ever married. They had no chemistry. Plus, again, way too young. I have no idea how close in age HL and ASJ are in real life, but ASJ was playing a teenager on GH months before. PM was miscast too. Both of these guys would have been okay if they played characters similar to what Austin/Jagger were, but they made both of them evil and, unlike Dan Cortese, they were just not capable of that. I wish Brooke would have lasted longer, but her death was awesome. She had potential if they moved her out of the Billy/Alison stuff. Bobby always creeped me out. I think it's JE because he was pretty good with Amanda/HL and his story was fine, but the actor always struck me as sleazy. I was fine when he left.

I understand what you are saying. I have trouble thinking there was any room for new characters in those earlier seasons with everything going on and the only character I remember thinking left too early was Brooke. She still had potential. I would assume Patrick Muldoon and ASJ would have lasted longer if they better characters and could act, since they both were coming off high profile daytime stints. Also, neither here nor there, but ASJ was totally miscast as Amanda's ex. He seemed way too young lol. I just think so many og characters leaving was slightly unexpected. I really don't think the producers thought they would lose 5-6 characters in a year or so and should have tried to keep at least Sydney (LL) and tried harder with Alison or Jake. I always considered Alison the central lead until about season 4, but she clearly wasn't. I think everyone would say that was Amanda. It's similar to 90210 where Brenda was the lead and then it became an ensemble. To me Alison was in a slightly higher tier than Jane or Jo even in later seasons, but that was just my perception. By season 5, it was clear there was little interest in Alison/Jake. I had no idea CTS/GS asked for that pairing or that they ever dated lol. I thought GS was dating LL at the time. And I am never sure when CTS/AS stopped dating, but obviously it's long over by season 5. That cast got around lol.

I think Alison's focus as a heroine was done by season 5. She was still a heroine, she was just no longer THE lead. The problem with the mass exodus is there was no root for, endgame couple. Without Jo/Jake or Billy/allison you are left with Amanda and Peter? Who weren't even really interacting much in any romantic sense until the very, very end of the show. The show was good about adding cast members until season 5 because the main crew grounded them. That had a lot of misses after the core group left. I think taylor and Kyle were the only 2 I even liked.

I want to say I can remember one scene where Olivia and Brenda talked about the Dante/Brenda baby , but I can't find it. Olivia and Sonny talked about Brenda a lot when Brenda first came back. My impression is that Olivia didn't like Brenda and she was upset about the baby thing and I remember her saying to Brenda or someone else that Brenda took advantage of Dante. It's been a long time since I watched that story, but I know Olivia wasn't a fan of Brenda's. I don't think Brenda cared one way or the other about Olivia lol. Brenda and Olivia don't interact at S&B's wedding, but Sonny/Olivia do. He says she's 'like a sister' to him which never fails to crack me up and gross me out at the same time.

I don't remember Jane and Amanda being close in season 7 but it's been awhile for me too. But Jane in S7 was all over the place with Michael then with Kyle it was weird. The worst thing about Season 5 is Alison and Jake moving out of the building and them being completely isolated and backburned. And they worked so hard to make Alison/Jake a big thing and true love only to break them up in the end. Poor Alison is probably still drunk in a bar in Atlanta somewhere lol. Were they really a 'gang' though? Some of them were friends, but others never were like Alison/Sydney. The friendships were mostly forgotten to make way for all the bed hopping. I mean, how close can woman be when they have all slept with Jake lol?

I thought they were all basically friends in the first season. Even Alison/Jake had some scenes were she helped him get his GED which was I guess foreshadowing their future relationship. Sandy was always sorta the odd woman out. No one seemed to like her much. I can't even recall her and Billy ever having much interaction. The problem with the first season is everyone is boring. It's a good little show, but there is no soapy action until Amanda/Kimberly show up. Sydney is okay, but she definitely doesn't hit her stride until season 2.

I agree. I actually think the show lost its focus when they moved away from Billy/Alison. That to me was the heart of the show and I am still mad they never got a HEA even off screen.

Lol! I know there was more to the Stefano stuff but I always thought it was extreme. She can feel guilty but maybe not invite your former psycho stalker into your home? It actually increased his obsession in the end but I liked it too. I wont complain too much. It was just very nice and forgiving of her since Stefano basically caused 90% of her life problems lol. So I guess she can forgive kristen.

Yeah, I definitely see the point about the speed. And I definitely don't think SH is a bad actress I just don't think she 'gets' Kristen in the way she seem to 'get' Susan. ED would have played those scenes so differently. Kristen seems so pathetic right now and I never found ED's Kristen pathetic even when she was doing pathetic things. I also think MM has actually improved as an actress. She is definitely putting more energy into her scenes. The writing is better, but she was very lifeless before. I actually don't mind Kristen/Marlena coming together in a time of crisis per se. My problem is that it basically came out of the blue-one day they hated each other, the next Kristen and Marlena made up on Mother's Day. There was no evolution of how it came about. Just a handful of scenes of them being nicer to one another. It progressed too quickly and now they are too close. Even John seems much more wary of Kristen and he would be the one I would think would give her more of a chance. But again, Marlena was someone who was taking care of Stefano after he lost his memory like an idiot, so maybe she is just the most forgiving person on the planet. It just seems so dumb that Ron brings in all these short term villains to bust up Jarlena and they don't use the one they have on canvas that would make sense. More so than Stevano, Gina, or Diana Coleville.

Honestly, that's on DH too. She doesn't play it like Marlena is wary with Kristen at all. She did at first with SH, but hasn't lately. I don't really understand why Ron would throw away one of Kristen's most important relationships/rivalries to make them friends. And Kristen really doesn't seem like the type of person to just drop her LIFELONG hatred of Marlena just because she loves stupid Brady. Kristen has just lost everything that made her special. It's not all SH's fault, it's mostly the writing, but she just seems really miscast as Kristen now.

Lol! No worries! I am a morning person. I think there might actually be more story to tell with Susan that SH could play. There is a darkness to Susan that was never truly explored (her kidnapping Marlena/Kristen, her sudden John obsession in 97, the Will/EJ stuff). But everyone in town sorta eye rolls her ridiculousness and moves on. I think at this point Kristen is so played out I would "kill" her off and keep Susan and bring Kristen back if ED ever wants to return and just keep both actresses. But I don't need Susan at all if she going to have a few episodes where she says "Dr. Marlena Evans is my bestest friend or Kristen is mean, mean, mean." That nonsense was tired in 1998.

I think she's fine as Susan, but I never had that much investment in Susan. I always thought Susan was borderline obnoxious with both ED and SH. Is Susan disturbed, slow, mentally incompetent, or just a little wacky? Who knows? We will just trot Susan out, much like Hattie, for comic relief and plot points. I guess I just don't see the point of making SH Kristen when she basically plays random Dimera sibling #10. It would have the same effect since they don't play on 99% of Kristen's history on the show. But if they wanted to make Susan an actual character I would have no problem with SH playing her.

I agree. I don't like the way SH plays Kristen at all. I think she's a good actress, but there is no humor in her portrayal. She's always a victim and she is so morose. There was always something root able (in a weird way) with ED's Kristen. I don't know why Brady is so stuck on her. Plus SH, is too young to be Kristen. I know Kristen is younger than John and Marlena, but even with SORAS she should be about 10 years older than Brady. They look like contemporaries. Plus SH lacks any chemistry with the DH's or her siblings. I think she's fine with EM and SS as Lani but that's about the only people on the show she sparks with. I know it's a lot of bad writing, but Kristen should always be a thorn in Jarlena's side. Sure, Marlena can be forgiving, but she's not downright stupid. And cuddling Kristen while she sobs just makes them both look stupid. I'd even except it if Kristen was somehow playing Marlena, but that doesn't seem to be the case. She just wants MARLENA to raise her child if she's in prison forever lol.