carolineg

Sure, I can buy that. A shady, scheming, con woman is one thing. An abusive, murdering POS who tortured her son because he exists is another. Diana as a grey character is fine. I even believe she might try to swindle John for money. The OTT mess we have as Diana currently is not believable. Could you imagine Genie playing any of this?

You and I have had this discussion, but there is no reason his mother had to be Diana in the first place. Diana made sense for 1 story arc-pretending John was Leo's father. Since John wasn't actually the father and all Diana did is try to kill Marlena, something that different characters do on a yearly basis, the whole thing was pointless. To add insult to injury for Diana the show has made her this evil villain with no redeeming characteristics. I think anyone could understand being frustrated about giving birth to a child that ended up like Leo, but c'mon, she has zero nuance and is nothing like Diana was in the 80's. Not to mention, JC is a horrible recast. The unnecessary detail we get from Leo about his abusive childhood is just to gain Leo sympathy. Diana, as played by Genie, was of course undefined and it's doubtful many fans even remember her, but this Leo stuff has ruined her. It also makes John look like an idiot because he was going to marry her lol.

Oh, I know. In Kristina's mind though, I can see here explaining it in the way that she was right and not wrong to be worried about TJ/Molly's stability as a couple.

People pay for early access to hear Steve and Bradford talk?

It also fuels the narrative that Kristina was right since TJ/Molly are breaking up now.

Thanks. I have seen this already. Some of the Leo/Alex stuff has already aired and just because the show hasn't fired both of them doesn't mean they are a main focus. It actually looks like the show is moving into other stories with other characters.

Oh, I agree 100% on Ciara. She's been damn near ruined. I just don't really think it's RSW's fault. Ron had the stupid idea to make a serial killer a romantic hero. I thought RSW was quite creepy and did well as evil Ben. Like Leo, RSW is shoved down our throats when they decided to make him Alex. I suspect once the new writers start we will see a decreased presence of both Alex and Leo.

I wouldn't mind this at all 😂. Anyhow, The general consensus here is that RSW is the worst, but I swear, he doesn't bother me much. I have never had much affection for Ben or Alex. I just think RSW is a regular, run of the mill soap hunk. I actually don't think he comes off smug-just dumb. The writing for him is a bit obsessive and RSW should have been let go when VK left. I just don't think any of that is RSW's fault. I know people dislike him based on RSW's real life personality, but I don't know enough about that to say.

I am in a similar place as @Vee is with Kristina. I don't actually think the show is writing her like a villain. To me at least, I feel like the show is setting us up to understand her point of view as well. That makes Kristina more unbearable. Molly only has Ric, of all people, fully on her side while everyone else is like "Poor Kristina". I definitely don't mind a character like Kristina on GH where everyone is either nice or EVIL. The writing is just not hitting the mark. Unless this leads to Kristina becoming a full on bad girl she's basically been written into a corner. A lot of people on GH are just co-signing her crap because she's "traumatized". I mean, her husband of 40 plus years just passed away. Perhaps Lynn is just taking a break?

I always thought the Casey the Alien story was kind of popular. I personally thought it was a bit silly and a very different tone for GH, but it's mostly inoffensive and sweet. Was it universally panned? I have heard mixed reviews on it. I found it a little difficult to distinguish the members of the Cartel apart. Harlan, Leopold, and Lord Ashton were all kind of the same character or at least very similar. The show really didn't need all three on the canvas at once.

To me, it actually would have made more sense to bring him back more than the dead mom. Just saying. There was more material there. The obvious miss was not making Cooper Barrett Julia's son. Just a random guy that had the last name Barrett no one questioned. The Jagger flashbacks are truly hilarious. They don't even give a lot of clarity to the situation. The mom just left. Did Jagger try to provide for the kids or did they immediately get separated? Where's Jagger's father? Do they all have the same father? I am still so unclear on the situation because Jagger looked so much older than flashback Gina/Stone. Was it just to show ASJ's angst?

IIRC, that is correct about Harlan, but everyone in that Cartel story fizzled out besides Faison. He was played by a vaguely famous prime time actor right? Not to be dense, just not super familiar with Michael Cole's work*. It seems like a Monty thing that didn't work? He was trying to kill Robert at one point, so I don't know how far the character could have gone. It's strange to give the character more material and a daughter after he died though. The Jagger flashbacks are pretty hilarious. The coloring of the flashbacks, the mom being ridiculously evil, and the kids crying. IIRC it ends with Jagger just sitting slouched in a hallway sobbing, which was obviously the type of "acting" ASJ excelled at lol. *ETA I just realized he was part of the Mod Squad, so he was pretty famous lol. They had to have more plans for Harlan.

I didn't find Harlan terribly interesting while alive, but after his death there was compelling material that could have been explored while he was living. I don't remember that thread of Julia's story at all, but it sounds interesting. Obviously Vanessa did a lot without good material. She was a paper thin character that was cast on charm and looks. I think Vanessa just inherently is likeable. A backstory would have helped, but I am not sure if Levinson had a vision for Brenda long term. Yes, the Cates flashbacks were sepia with much younger Stone/Gina and ASJ playing Jagger. It was always unclear to me where the father was as well. I wasn't even positive that man the mom ran off with wasn't their father. He just didn't like kids and Jagger was "old enough" to take care of it. I might watch the Jenny clips if I feel especially in a good mood later lol. I think Marcil is pretty astute about how to play things especially if she doesn't exactly agree with the material. Bold for a brand new actress on GH, but it worked on screen for the most part so I assume she didn't get much push back on it.

Thank you for giving more details. I remember them interacting and partnering up. I just couldn't remember when it turned "romantic" or for how long.

I think Addie is so dated it's almost current now. It's a very Gen Z kid name. I actually didn't know Hope's middle name was Alice and Kayla's was Caroline. Interesting.

I don't recall all the details and my edits aren't super helpful, but I think Simone left town because Tommy wasn't adapting well to Simone's engagement to Justus. Tom finished out his part in Laura's fake death story and left town quietly to go back to Africa. Separately from Simone. I did find this cool channel that has quite a few Ward/Mary Mae videos I haven't seen. I couldn't find Simone's departure specifically, but it has some great edits on there. Link in the spoiler.

Well, you have two Alexander Kiriakis's currently. Plus John/Johnnie. Susan and Sarah have been used more than once. If you go with kids getting named after someone the list gets long.

I think there are places Scott could be useful. Aside from Scott/Ric filling a similar role career wise, I don't find them redundant. I just can't stand the kooky way Kin decides to play Scott these days. He plays him more like a joke than a human. Outside the scenes with Jagger about Karen, he's usually so OTT and campy. It's not like Kin doesn't know the character or how to give Scott nuance-he just chooses not to for whatever reason.

It's excessive. I side eyed the first child, but to give her two is a lot. It limits where the character can go if Days does decide to bring her back. She's so young at this point she'll have 5 kids by 30 lol.

Thanks! I couldn't remember if it was a fling or just one night. I have no use for Scott on the canvas and haven't in years though lol.

I am pretty sure Tracy/Scott have been romantically involved in the past, so it's not that crazy. They had a fling before she married Paul, I believe.

Yeah, it had to be one or the other. If the dress was at least knee length or midi length, the top wouldn't be so bad. If the top was more covered up and the dress was short it might have been acceptable. The dress was really short though lol. Anyhow, on to today's show. I agree it was a big mistake to not have JJ or Chad at Doug's funeral. It's not like the story progressed while the funeral was happening. I don't understand why Chad didn't book hotel rooms with two beds. That's extremely common in almost every hotel regardless of how nice it is lol. It's not like Clyde thinks Chad/Cat are sleeping together so there would be no reason to book only one bed for Gabi/JJ at the very least. The EJ/Johnny and Alex/Joy stuff is whatever. I like EJ's involvement, but I don't need Alex's at all. I still think the actress that plays Joy looks a lot like Amber Tamblyn lol. Do Sal and Lamon not want to be on Days full time? I am glad they visit fairly often, but they would be nice on canvas permanently. Not much of a cliffhanger this week.

Roman would have made the Possession hard to buy in general because John had to be her savior. No. He returned when John/Marlena were about to married. So it went Possession, then Aremid, then the Paris kidnapping, then the Kristen baby story with the secret room and Susan. So there were multiple arcs before he returned. Roman actually "died" in 1997 and gave John/Marlena letters forgiving them and encouraging them to be together then popped up shortly afterward. Kristen/Stefano found him

Thank you. There wasn't anything extra at play here in his firing in 1994. I am pretty sure Wayne used the terms that his character had run out of story and he was let go, but could be back in the future. That's a production decision. JER was ready to move on to his Possession story and I could see Roman not fitting into those plans. There was no way Roman would have just not cared or been involved if Marlena was in trouble. You probably could have set up a Kristen/John/Marlena/Roman quad, but outside of Carrie/Austin/Lucas/Sami, JER seemed to prefer triangles. Roman did have that whole wacky story about play a faux Mrs. Doubtfire for Marlena and the kids when he was supposed to be on the run in 1992. He did have some lighthearted moments, but that was mostly due to Wayne's inherit charisma. He became the real heavy when the show was building up to the affair. His anger in 1991 was mostly understandable due to circumstance, IMO, at the time. I'd be mad if most people preferred my imposter too lol.

I'll be honest I don't think JER hated Wayne-he just preferred Drake. Roman and John did become redundant in the 90's especially if JER's vision was Jarlena and it was. Sure, you could have spun Roman off into several different directions and he was viable. It just didn't happen. I do think it was quite calculated to recast Roman when Wayne was already tied to PC, but I chalk that up to a Corday decision. @j swift Wayne openly admits his contract wasn't renewed in 1994. It's in articles. He didn't choose to leave. That's a production choice. I absolutely don't think Wayne's health had anything to do with anything here. He came back in 2005? and was giving very coherent interviews with SOD about his character and hiring less than a decade ago.