Taoboi

4-17 Wow. Actually caught up. It's been a minute! :) For all of my complaints over the writing the last few days, I thought this episode was a nice coda to the whole week. What plot they focused on came to some end and/or turn. Thank you, Nat. I'll be honest. I don't want Vanessa vs Nicole to end so soon. But that didn't take away from their scenes for me. Adults coming to some kind of understanding. And we got a flashback to how they met. Adorable. So that was the point of Babygate? lol. I was talking about how Dani/Andre was too background and far away from the Hayley storyline. But great to see Babygate is the way to get them back into that orbit. Okay, Show, I see you. I actually enjoyed the Dani/Bill scenes even though it was annoying at the same time cuz Dani playing with fire again. The fallout from Jacob's beatdown was okay. At least Naomi knows. But that is probably only going to add to her stress. And there were some C plots. I thought it was cute in a Soaps 101 way the Eva/Izaiah/Kat scenes cuz like I said ever...there is so much potential in that rivalry and those two girls shouldn't be getting along anytime soon. Meanwhile, the start of a Vernon plot while Anita's story appears to be coming to a break is just heartbreaking. I don't want anything happening to Vernon. At all.

I don't think they lied either. It has been clear they had the major plotpoints planned out just through the superb foreshadowing dialogue they had those first few months. I'm still wonder if they are still going to plan a baby switch on Kat and Eva in fact due to a lot of their foreshadowing that has come to pass in other storylines in the first year. That said...yes, they have made the timeline for some things too wonky.

You know me sooooo well. I will never not have sour grapes about that...the very year that I wished that all of Laura's kids were back in town at the same time. Not to mention a single Liz with her also-single main love interests being back in town at the same time, too. Given how it was fumbled, Frank deserves all of my wrath. He's lucky I have calm down enough to only give 'a little bit' lol. Just because I have sour grapes doesn't mean that I don't find this intriguing. And possible. Because Lulu and Ethan had a good brother/sister relationship so it should be easy to rope Laura into scenes as well. Amen.

I didn't pay Ethan any mind until he cut his hair myself, but why use a knock-off Lucky when the real Lucky can be used was how I always saw Ethan...which is nothing against Nathan who grew on me from his stunts on THE ORIGINALS and ROSWELL. And don't get me started on how Ethan should be Robert and Holly's kid anyway. Basically my way of saying...just like a certain brunette...we are both on the same page when it comes to Ethan. I mean that does make sense. JJ has known the character of Lucky forever. And while not all actors should be dictating stories, I feel he would know better than the writers what the audience would like from a return. We even have his latest return as a case in point. But...Frank is gonna Frank. I fully expect that whatever was being planned for Lucky will now be what Ethan will be getting story-wise. If so, expect shade from this corner. :)

Those are good nitpicks though. Because sometimes I wonder if Hayley is worried about getting her score by killing Bill or if she truly wants to keep him from Dani out of jealousy.

Okay. I admit that I forgot those scenes in my earlier post so that does help with the timeline in my head. Thank you.

4-16 See? This is exactly what I meant. This measured 'just a little bit' approach to plotting is not working for me. Especially because the show is doing it with all the stories and at the same exact pace. While this episode was a movement day, it still doesn't take away from that fact. This one and 4-15 started off slow, but I felt made up for it by the end. I would say the highlight for me was seeing how Nicole vs Vanessa has continued. And I kinda saw that it might have more legs to it than I originally thought on last Friday. Then again, I know others have mentioned that this story thread with Nicole/Vanessa/Joey has been building for a long while which is probably why I like it. It had a build to it. And it was a matter of time before Nicole was in direct conflict with Vanessa over Joey. And their friendship has been firmly established. I actually don't want them to make up yet at all because I find it fascinating. And Nicole reacted how I too would have reacted. I had too many friends who will forget all about you over a man...until they break up and then remember you exist. So her annoyance at the fact that Vanessa showed up cuz Joey told her so versus because she wanted to...HIT. But I was going to be on TeamNicole anyway because Vanessa has gone back to being Whiny Vanessa. And Whiny Vanessa ain't cute. Oh, no!!! Not Lynette!!! I'm not sure how I feel about that story development. It is out of a 90s DAYS playbook for me, but Lynette has really pushed the Hayley storyline to its current position as one of the better storylines this year. And they have already stalled this story once. I would hate to see it slow back down or abruptly vanish AGAIN when there has been no need for it. Let the story run its course. Especially right now when it has so much momentum to it with so many people cluing in to Hayley. And I'm invested enough to see who will find her out...Bill? Tomas? Kat? SPS? Joey himself?...the amount of people have grown to the point that it now HAS to come out. I definitely feel Lynette's alive. So...is Randy holding her? Joey? Who? The plasma ring storyline moved another inch (ugh) with Lia sending that henchman after Jacob. But he was overdue a beatup. Sorry. I really enjoyed ChelsKat talking to Japan. Well, doing business period. But I always love seeing Kat in businesswoman mode. Whether they have an office or not, they are making it work so it was great to see it. I didn't even think that Madison's pending lawsuit might affect them. So a good beat to hit. I live for any moment that I get Andre vs Bill. Always a pleasure. I also love that we got a Bill/Martin scene and Nicole/Martin scene. What is with the show going back to a lot of good interactions we used to get a lot of last year?

Yeah, them shifting the timeline from what appeared to be at least a decade or more to a couple of years ago on Hayley/Naomi really messed that up. Just like the Martin's Secret storyline turned out to be a couple of years ago rather than seeming longer than that. You're welcome.

Hollering!!! Good to see in that Universe, Garcelle is still there. She must give Kyle Hell.

And she does it with such glee. Who knew? lol. I have no doubt.

Exactly!!! GET INTO IT! Summer is going to have a soundtrack this year and it is dance until you drop. HERE...FOR...IT. BLOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol. Yes, yes, YES!!!!!!! You don't know how happy I was to come back in from dancing Friday night to see Madonna had dropped it. And it was in great quality. Being able to hear every note, every sound, and I swear how much I love the drop at 4:00 so much. I want to be on a dance floor when it hits that point...so will be my moment. lol. I want it. I need it. And the Sabrina Carpenter duet sounds like one that I will be loving as well. My coworker knew I've been talking about Madonna all week and sent me the link since she's a big Coachella fan. I'm shocked that Madonna held her appearance so well. I can't wait to meet Madonna on the dance floor. And Fourth of July week, too? I could go on!!!

As much as I loved him on ROSWELL, it does feel weird to have Nathan Dean back. And moreso after the misuse of JJ and Lucky. Cuz surely they are not going to use the 'fake' Spencer brother better than the real Spencer brother, right? Oh, well...he will be pretty to look at from the one picture I've seen, still sporting the short do he had on the last season of ROSWELL where the storyline gave him some actual swagger.

Well, I thought in canon, that Hayley's real name is Valerie? Outside of her other aliases of course.

Well as I've been saying...manifesting that exit storyline.

Yeah, Gina can be kinda...hard/cool...for sure when she was younger. And I don't recall if I truly connected to her when she finally returned as Kelly in OLTL's final years, but I was such a fan of Joey and Kelly that I adjusted. There's a scene of her as Phyllis on Y&R during this storyline where Victor hired a lookalike for her husband and she did not know. And it made all the way to court and she was on the stand, explaining how violated she felt. I had heard about it since I had stopped watching, but saw it and saw why people loved her as a recast Phyllis. I think at this point I would rather want Lila Rae back than Skye...who tbf was always Skye Chandler to me than Skye Quartermaine though her vs Brenda was always fun. And very. re: losing goal when hiring name actors.

And the Duprees have done that often, too. re: calling without revealing why. Starting from the very first week when they were all summoned without knowing why and then finding out they were going to Bill and Hayley's wedding.

4-15 Hm. Same technique. And this episode was more 'no movement' and thus no pace. What really made this episode shine for me were all the little moments. Hayley code-switching was completely out of Kristen Dimera's playbook and I had to laugh. I think that might have been the first time in a while that Tomas/Kat looked compatible comparing notes on Lynette, which reminded me of the potential in Tomas if they truly played him as a social climber which he has had hints here and there. Kat vs Eva is always fun. But I'm going to take a detour for a moment...since I have not had time to say it before now. I really don't like how people are about the whole rivalry online. I know, I know...they are new viewers for the most part and don't know how soaps work, but for me, Kat vs Eva was (and still is) a great rivalry to use on this show. I would rather have last year's writing for them where the rivalry was more gray vs now where it feels like people let Eva get away with anything while Kat is scorned for her very justified feelings. And lest we forget...Kat was about to call a truce with Eva when she walked right into Eva sleeping with Tomas. Kat was. That said...the plot thread needs to stay out there to be played with...and that I have felt the writers have done a good job of letting Kat have her life, Eva have her life, and they cross paths once every few weeks/months. I want Kat vs Eva to go on as long as they are on the show so I'm looking forward to them entering each other's story orbit again at some point. For now, it's cute they had a nice moment at Kat's birthday party. It's a no, no, no on Ted/Nicole. In fact, all of these Ted scenes are reminding me of last fall/winter when Andre had those left-field insecurities after finding getting his backbone to give the Bill/Dani/Andre triangle some real heat. Basically...abrupt. And the dialogue about off-screen talks with Shanice...though interesting the writers tried to pinpoint WHEN it happened in Ted's dialogue...doesn't make it any better. Because I don't recall the actual on-screen scene playing out like that. I love that they have kept the Devon Winters plot thread dangling out there. And I'm looking forward to it. I think my only worry for it is that when it finally gets active and they try to use Silk Press Sheila for drama in it, that she will not at all be as compelling as when the Barbara reveal occurred. Don't they dare do anything to Vernon! I do hope that it is a case of exhaustion on him per his conversation with Dani. It has been a minute since Martin, Kat, Chels, and Naomi have been in scenes together so I was happy to see that. But I've been happy to see an increase in Martin's presence again...period. Ooooo the Kristen Dimera really jumped out of Hayley in her scenes vs Silk Press Sheila.

I know! It's so silly half the time. So it's not at all far-fetched that Anita called a meeting to just give them her good news. Which is deserved but still...

Well, the funny thing is that the Gio stuff made more sense...though I felt they really should have leaned into the fact that she was in a coma for four years so never saw the growth in BLQ so she did not believe it at all as her justification for it. I mean Gina is a great actress and definitely turned into a recast that people like as Phyllis over at Y&R to the point that people STILL miss her over the original actress. I think she might bring some people. Heck, I liked her as Dinah at GL myself. And she was always Kelly for me at OLTL.

You know Frank don't want that. ;P

Honestly? Yes. How many Dupree family meetings did we get last year over something as simple as a pen dropping?

I mean if this is also on the album, I don't hate it either...feels late 80s.

I do as well. Especially after that teaser single.

I was as well.

4-14 Let me take a moment to note...that I thought it was cute that Bill and Hayley were matching (though Hayley had on her leopard print to show her personality was still there). A cute little design detail. And well done since I didn't notice until halfway through the episode, but the duality of Hayley having to balance pleasing Bill with having to please Lynette, too. I see what you did there, Show!!! A good episode. Though not as good as Monday's. I just think I will never be a fan of having episodes where all the plots move at the same pace and that pace is 'just a bit.' It works for the plots one likes, but if it's a plot you don't like...it's ugh. Broken record here...but pick a main story for the week...with other stories (B and C plots) around it and let it flow. At this point, it makes me think the writers are self-sabotaging by keeping all the stories at the same slow pace. Even though now that I wrote that...it's very B&B when B&B has nothing going on (not the case on the show right now). For the plots I liked... The aforementioned Hayley storyline. I continue to love that Bill has gotten his suspicions. And his making moves is putting even more screws to Hayley. I TOTALLY enjoyed they got Maurice Kerry's foine military body out of that shirt. (sidenote: so I guess no wife, but babymama after all then? per his backstory). I do feel Hayley's storyline has a flow to it again and is moving apace. Anita's news. Loved the Sharon cameo. Loved Anita's talk to Dani. Same, Dani...cuz...shouldn't Nicole had sat with her? And of course...so far, so good on the cancer shrinking!!! One round down, two to go. It is great to have some hope in that storyline. For the plots I don't liked... Surprising, I was not caring for Chels and Naomi. Which is odd for me. We don't get enough scenes between the sisters. Plasma ring storyline. A no-move day so ugh.