BetterForgotten

Nina and Drew have been on the road to hot hate f.ucking since PM/EK took over, lol. 

I really don’t care as Wagger will not last on this show, unless he unexpectedly catches on somehow. In the end, we’ll still be wondering why this had to be Jagger and not one of the random law enforcement antagonists Jason and Sonny always encounter (which he is, just with the John Cates name tacked on for no apparent reason). 

You know, I never cared for Sam and Dante and always felt like they were thrown together because they had no idea what to do with either character. That and Kelly Monaco appeared to be in an acting coma for like a decade.

However, the more thoughtful day to day writing has made care and accept them. I can now totally buy them as couple and that they love each other. I also think their blended family with Rocco, Danny, and Scout is adorable, and those blended family scenes on Friday had a lot of heart.

They seem to be building up to intense hate sex between Nina and Drew. 

I never want to recall Lindsey Morgan’s run ever again. 

I find it funny that Laura forgot about Dante after a few days, who is the father of her grandson, but is all up Heather's ass and her recovery. 

6 hours ago, dc11786 said:

I think what I really liked about the Stella / Tracy scene, other than the continuation of a dynamic set with the confrontation a few weeks back, was that it really emphasized the internal journey Tracy is on navigating her role as the lead of the Quartermaine clan. She is not her mother's daughter, and that seems bring her some pain. All the pride she has had in being a daddy's girl is not really paying off. It's interesting watching Tracy trying to figure out how she is going to balance the different aspects of her personality. 

And I say this as someone who hasn't been to happy with some of Tracy's material in the short time I've been watching. 

There was a concerted attempt today to show Tracy as a whole character again - her doctor visit, talking about how no one would notice that it’s her birthday, her insecurities, and those scenes with Cody in the stable which were playful and cute. And then her pleasant surprise and how touched she was when she discovered her birthday cake in the Quartermaine kitchen. I have to think this is building up to something important or significant for Tracy. I hope that isn’t wishful thinking. I’ve long thought Tracy is the type of character and Jane Elliot is the type of actress Mulcahey would love writing for. 

I say it all the time, but this show is so lucky Jane came out of retirement. There’s a rare presence that only she brings to this show. Not having Tracy tied to Luke is a gift as well. 

Make the wedding a massacre with all the dead weight characters being killed at once - problem solved. 

4 minutes ago, John said:

Maybe PM/EK are following Marland's rules

How Not To Wreck A Show
* Watch the show.

* Learn the history of the show. You would be surprised at the ideas that you can get from the back story of your characters.

* Read the fan mail. The very characters that are not thrilling to you may be the audience's favorites.

* Be objective. When I came in to ATWT, the first thing I said was, what is pleasing the audience? You have to put your own personal likes and dislikes aside and develop the characters that the audience wants to see.

* Talk to everyone; writers and actors especially. There may be something in a character's history that will work beautifully for you, and who would know better than the actor who has been playing the role?

* Don't change a core character. You can certainly give them edges they didn't have before, or give them a logical reason to change their behavior. But when the audience says, "He would never do that," then you have failed.

* Build new characters slowly. Everyone knows that it takes six months to a year for an audience to care about a new character. Tie them in to existing characters. Don't shove them down the viewers' throats.

* If you feel staff changes are in order, look within the organization first. P&G [Procter & Gamble] does a lot of promoting from within. Almost all of our producers worked their way up from staff positions, and that means they know the show.

* Don't fire anyone for six months. I feel very deeply that you should look at the show's canvas before you do anything.

* Good soap opera is good storytelling. It's very simple.

I don't need anyone to follow these rules to make a good show, and Marland often didn't follow them himself. They're good guide posts, but not necessarily a mandate for a strong show. 

Makes me think PM/EK were put in place abruptly, and didn't necessarily have much planned for when they inherited the show. The Jason return stuff was a mandate, but a month in, little set-up otherwise seems to be happening and Chis and Dan's supporting crap is still lingering strongly. 

Yesterday's episode made it abundantly clear that the supporting stories inherited from Chris and Dan don't work and need to end quickly:

• Does anyone care about Kristina being Molly and TJ's surrogate? Kristina needs to miscarry and end this mess pronto 
  • On a side note, Kristina and Dante have inappropriate sexual chemistry as siblings...
• Has anyone ever cared about Sasha and Cody?
• Does anyone care that Curtis can walk?
• Does anyone care about The Face of Deception nonsense?
• Does anyone care about any member of the Chase family? This ALS story is boring as hell and with a character most people are not invested in. 

The show only really has Jason's story going for it now, other stories need to get started, and the mess from the previous regime needs to be trashed. 

PM/EK looks to be setting the stage for the legitimate Jason/Carly romance that they've always wanted since the Sarah Joy Brown days.

In today's episode alone, you had both Sam and Liz question what they ever saw in Jason, lol. 

13 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Stuff like this is exactly why the show still needed AJ. We need someone to be in Jason’s face about Michael and his hypocrisy at shunning the Q’s and then totally ignoring his own children. He’s actually a worse parent than AJ would have been when you count the abandonment, shootings, kidnapping, constant threats. Jason Morgan left because he wanted to be free to choose his own path. Are Sonny, Carly and Jason’s kids free? 

Where’s Tracy to give this type of commentary to her idiot nephew when we need it?! 

Oh, I don’t think it’s totally out of character for him, but a totally disappointing character flaw, IMO. Especially after his last return and Drew stealing his life. 

But if that’s the route they’re going in, they really need to stop with Carly being everyone’s BFF and people like Sam and Liz softening their position on her and going back to the way it was before this story. 

Sam and Liz should have a visceral hatred for Carly and Jason for their sons never coming before her on Jason’s priority list. 

I think it’s really lame ass excuse Jason continued to abandoned his sons to save f.ucking Carly. I hope there’s more to it than that (looks like there is?).

X-Men ‘97 made a nod to ADW in this week’s episode centering on Mojo.

1 hour ago, Liberty City said:

They're in the same place they've always been: after the opening credits. Been that way pre-Valentini.

That’s not accurate - they did have the credits in the cold open at one point when JFP was there. This random 2010 episode is an example:

26 minutes ago, Dan said:

Curious question, did GH stop crediting the writers and directors in the cold open or do the streaming feeds just cut them out? Was looking for the writing credits out of curiosity and didn't see them. 

The creator/EP/writing/directing credits happen after the albatross of an opening that this show has. Valentini did the same at OLTL towards the end as well, I believe. 

And the demographics support CBS - they skew older regardless, and unfortunately, those are the only people really tuning into soaps in large quantities (in a trackable way at least) these days.

In addition to this show being targeted to black women, they have to know that much of that audience tuning in will over-index for the 50+ crowd.  

1 minute ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Aiden left, Rocco right

One can act, and the other can't....

Agreed, Anna's already crossed the line and is clearly putting her ethics and moral code first (as she should). No need to play it as conflicted anymore - Anna needs to go no holds barred with no f.ucks whatsoever to give. 

It would be nice to see scenes with Laura as mayor backing her up too. 

Natalia herself needs better definition and fast, right now she's essentially a caricature. Having her in a bunch of scenes with Sonny of all people as her main talk-to is not going to advance her forward. 

These characters are bland and a thinly veiled way of TPTB checking the box for both Latinx and LGBTQI+ representation with minimum effort at the moment. Or, at least, that's what it's feeling like. 

I suspect they only had Luke do that because he’s the only one that could have gotten away with it without actually being killed by Jason. 

Geary loved playing this type of sh!t though.

JFP would later do a semi knockoff of this story on Y&R with Delia’s death, which has, of course, stuck.