j swift

Any time, in summary he was a prototype for Bo Buchanan (rich son, learns to respect the family, and settle down due to the love of a good woman). So, once Bo move to Llandview there was no need for Tony to stick around.

I would propose that one of the flaws in the creation of Tony was that he was predestined to be with Pat so that they could re-play the AW chemistry. As a result, Tony lacked depth. He could have had more mysterious motives regarding the Lord fortune, creating more conflict for Vicky by wanting to gamble the fortune and go into riskier investments. I mean they didn't even play the beat of Vicky's disappointment that Victor was so pleased to have a son. He could have been an excellent partner in crime for Dorian (much like David was, years later), He was also into nightlife and fast cars, so he could have been more noncommittal and hard to settle down. Instead, the writing was on the wall for Pat and Tony to be together after a series of misfortunes, so it all seemed too predictable, and lacked spontaneity. And yet, spoiler alert, Pat and Tony didn't wind up together after all..

I've begun to think of the problem with Ron's writing as a pattern. Each story starts with a bang, a good scene, a great cliffhanger, a surprise reveal. Fans dig it, critics thinks it's groovy, and everyone has a theory. But, there's never a setup for characters to investigate the mystery and find clues. Most classic soap mysteries have also been the background for love stories between heroic couples. However, Ron plays his cards so close to his chest that no clues are revealed. Instead, we get endless scenes of people talking about being shocked by the events, but nobody has the agency to actually try to solve the crime. For example, this should be Lani & Eli's story which inadvertently reveals Paulina as her mother within the plot, or Rafe and Nicole's story where they learn to trust each other and work together, or even Johnny and Chanel's story. With the possession as a backdrop for the progression of their romance. Then there's a confession. In the end, the solutions are usually so convoluted that characters could never have solved the mystery given what was shown to the audience. So, there is always a big vomit of exposition, followed by an arrest, and no consequences or follow up. For examples of this pattern see The Tale of Two Todds (that was a memorable cliffhanger), The Mysterious origins of Nina Clay and Ava Jerome (remember how excited everyone was when GH went to Corinth?), and The abduction of Ben after his DAYS wedding. I actually believe it is the crux of the issue between Ron and the fans. When you watch his writing it always feels as if he is trying to trick you. As opposed to an EON Slesar story where the audience knows the killer and is waiting for them to be caught, he doesn't trust the audience enough to share the secret. Or a PFS story from DAYS history when you didn't care about the McGuffin, you just wanted the couple to kiss and hide out together, he doesn't respect the intelligence of the audience to know the function of a soap plot.

I'm an optimist, (most of the time), so my immediate response is to think of the positives because I feel as if the reunions have become an artifice that have too much effect on the rest of the show. I would rather that they focus on their present lives rather than carry over the drama from past reunions, or change their behavior based on future reunions. We either get a situation wherein everyone is afraid to fight because the fans won't like them at the reunion, but they never discuss audience reaction during the season because they aren't allowed to acknowledge that they are on a show. Or we get a reunion fight that they aren't allowed to directly reference, because with the exception of Potomac, they never discuss the reunions during the season. Also, most of the material has already been reviewed on WWHL, so it is rare that we get new information (except for the background of the Tinsley/Dorinda fight). RHONY is consistently my favorite because they've been together for so long that it feel more like reality. Most of them are a-holes, but I feel like they are an accurate representation of women in that culture.

It is especially odd story planning because Lorna went into hiding, then the next week Gabe was shot from afar. So, there were multiple other options, including having them leaving together. Of course, it is even more ironic that Lorna left to be safe from Cindy, but then Cindy stays in Bay City for another eighteen months, without ever going to jail and avoiding all negative consequences (unless you count kissing Grant as a punishment). Agreed, it was just speed of her shifting from Shane to Matt, and then Cass, coupled with the inevitable spoiler of Anne, that made the whole thing seem driven by writer's pen, or audience reaction, rather than her character's motivation. We were lucky that Lila and Cass were so charming together that their marriage had rooting value, but there was very little build up for Matt becoming such a prick in response. Was that the story about a secret room in the hospital where Mrs Love was killed? Which made very little sense given the history that Reg had built a hospital room in his cellar for Donna to give birth, and knew the evil Dr Dunning, who could have more logically killed his wife.

Which must also explain Lila's immediate shift from Matt to Cass. One day she is desperate for Matt's love, and alienating him from Sophia. The next day she is head over heals for Cass and Matt is an a-hole trying to get custody.

While I understand the logistics of a new regime, John's disappearance doesn't make much sense. He was a part of at least two stories at the time of his exit; the Alexander story with his ex-girlfriend Felicia and and his nephew Nick's trial. Neither story was resolved at the time of his exit. I know the Felicia pairing was not popular, and they were focusing on Shane as the main doctor (although Shane was killed off six months later), but this is one of those times that it felt like they were cutting off their nose despite their face. Meanwhile, I read the rest of 1997 and 1998, and it was a bad period of story telling. There was Grant's confessional tape being held by Cindy, then Marley, then Vicky, and back to Cindy. Then, there was the secret that Cameron fathered Josie's baby. By the time the baby was born everyone in town knew that Gary was not the father; except Gary. Tons of people got away with crimes in order to keep the secret, and there were endless scenes of Amanda asking Cameron if he fathered the baby. Even in print, it was so repetitive that the motivation that people had for keeping these secrets were no longer logical. I mean Grant is trying to keep the secret that he caused the crash of Bobby's bus, for eighteen months while Bobby, who then became known as Shane, died in a separate accident. And, Josie is trying to keep Gary believing that he's the father so he won't drink, but why would she want to raise her baby with a guy that incapable of dealing with stress? They were two cops raising a baby, stress was inevitable. It doesn't help that characters are abandoning Bay City like the Titanic and the crazy Lumina story was the cherry on top of all of that mess. I'm usually a fan of a big swing at a nutty soap story, but that one was so ill-timed, and felt as if the canvas turned on a dime. One summer they're telling a gritty story about rape. Then, Gary is kidnapped into a room with a vat of acid on the floor which somehow leaves him sterile, Vicky is kidnapped by Marley and placed in the suddenly abandoned Love Family mansion basement, and Grant is kidnapped while faking his death. The tonal shift is completely bizarre and you know a writer is crap when the motives for multiple characters is that they've been inexplicably hypnotized. Yet, even the worst writers in soap history usually have characters get a job offer in a new city or a call from an out of town relative needing support rather than just having people disappear and never spoken of again.

Inspired by this post I went back through the AW home page. John left in 1997, but his exit story is not covered in detail in the synopsis. Kirkland had just been hit by a car driven by Paulina, while she was addicted to drugs. John diagnosed that Paulina was an addict, while Shane did the surgery on Kirkland. Meanwhile Felicia broke up with John to be with Alexander (the nefarious Lucas look alike), and Michael is busy with Nick's trial for Toni's rape. On John's final air date, the synopsis includes one sentence that John, Michael, and Felecia bond over his kindness. But, what was his exit story? I also seem to remember that Morgan Winthrop just disappeared from Bay City around the time of Toni's rape trial, does anyone recall the details of his exit?

For me, (and I don't know if this is attributed to the acting or the writing), but prior to Watros it was often difficult for me to differentiate Nina from Ava, as they are both bad girls who are trying to gain sympathy based on romantic pairing (gross over-generalization, but true to my experience as a casual viewer). However, I think Watros adds complexity to Nina by playing her loss, both in maturity and experience, over the years she spent in coma. She seems less unhinged and more damaged, which is really what made this story work for me. It was as if Nina saw a shared partner in Sonny because they both missed a part of their past, and she was desperate to create a new life for herself.

Given that people in Salem are still surprised whenever someone returns from dead, wears a mask, meets their doppelganger, or finds their lost child, despite the fact that it has previously happened to most of their relatives, I think it's going to take a while. Meanwhile for a 94-year-old man Doug is surprisingly spiritedly, so maybe possession does a body good.

I always think about the missed opportunities of these plot driven stories that did not take the time to explore the motives of the characters. Mary was around long enough that we could have gotten one or two scenes about what was broken in the McKinnon's relationship and what attracted her to Reginald. The portrayal of Reg is just short of Snidley Whiplash, so there is no viable triangle. Mary never has regrets giving up her way of life in South America, filled with philanthropy, nice clothes, and a full household staff to go live behind a restaurant. Her refusal to take any money from Reginald is supposed to convey some moral high ground, when in fact not only was she owed half of his fortune, but also payment for the pain and suffering of her family who thought she was dead for years. At the very least he could have paid for her education. So, while I thought it was fun at the time, in retrospect, I only remember all of the plotholes and missed story beats.

Elena was written into a corner without any redemption possible, nor any potential love interests. Her death brought Pamela back to town, and the casting of Pamela was one of the reasons cited by the Dobsons for their fight with the production which got them locked out of their offices. So, it marks the end of the line for the first rein of the Dobsons and a newfound creative period for the show.

Page Six is reporting that Wendy was placed on a psychiatric hold at Beth Isreal Hospital. She is going through it. https://pagesix.com/2021/09/16/wendy-williams-reportedly-taken-to-hospital-for-mental-health-check/

There is some ironic justice in the CA recall election. Catilyn Jenner's campaign raised about $747,000 and spent some $910,000, leaving her campaign with about $156,000 in unpaid bills in order to achieve 56,016 total votes, barely cracking the top 20 candidates. Just for comparison Larry Elder, the top GOP candidate raised 18 million to get 2,386,710 votes. However, she can claim victory over erotic billboard star Angelyne who got 26,552 votes, and RHOC's Vicky Gundelson's fiance Steve Lodge who only got 12,693 votes.

Again, I would not want to age in public if I were known for my beauty in my youth. But, I present to you Heather Locklear wearing a Heather Locklear mask

It makes me wish that recall elections were like civil lawsuits, if you loose you have to pay the costs. Instead almost 300 Million will not be used for programs for the poor, schools, or infrastructure. All because some fool didn't want to wear a mask in the supermarket, allow the unemployed to survive during a pandemic, or stop evictions from real estate companies that were already getting tax subsidies to offset losses.

The CA-GOP wasted 276 Million Dollars on a campaign that was never able to articulate why a recall was necessary. Elder and others noted their opposition, but those same arguments could be made at the time of re-election. They failed to find one good reason why Californians needed a special election today rather than in two years. My only hope coming out of this farce is that the losers won't be able to maintain support in 2024, and maybe we will see a some new ideas in that campaign. Although, to be honest, I will never vote for a GOP candidate in California, because I think Democratic leadership is needed in state with the 5th largest economy in the world, to maintain the civil rights that I value.

I'm a bit surprised by the response to this article. I understand that people on this thread don't like the Ben/Ciara story, but the article itself is remarkable. It seems like there are frequent requests amongst the fandom for DAYS to get coverage in mainstream press, so calling these rather artful pictures sacrilege seems to conflict with those desires. Paper Magazine is known for their provocative photo shoots, (they're the ones who published Kim K's "break the internet" pics with the champagne bottle on her bootie). The article itself was written by Micky Boardman, the main editor for Paper, and it avoids all of the mainstream soap articles tropes that call it a dead genre. Both actors look very sexy in the photos, and the recreation, (which includes a spot-on digital background image of the Horton living room from the 70's), seems cheeky and fun. It may be that people forget the original context. Susan and Bill Hayes posed for the original Time cover with parody in mind. The original Time article was about the increasing sexuality of soaps in the 1970's and and the cover pose was meant to convey the kind of overwrought passion being played in daytime. Susan's cleavage and Bill's gestures are meant to be over the top, even camp. It wasn't a screenshot, nor was it a profile of the actors, it was just an essay questioning the morals of portraying love in the afternoon. I don't know if people would have preferred that Paper cover Mary Beth Evans' pies or Judi Evans' sartorial choices, but it would not have been a good fit with that magazine's audience. 😉

I may be gullible, because I was honestly surprised at the reveal of Marlena both as the Desecrator and the Melaswen Serial Killer. However, it is endlessly amusing to me how people in soap towns have such short memories. I am certain that everyone will first suspect Ben (I assume something evil will befall Ciara), yet Marlena has a much higher kill rate (Alice, Maggie, Jack, Doug, Abe, Tony, and Roman).

@Cat & @Taoboi so now the question becomes will it still take them a day to pack for a two hour car drive? She may have hired a firm, but I bet she didn't pay them Did anyone else notice that those podcast mikes were not plugged in, nor is her podcast available on Apple or Spotify? The idea that Brooks is still figuring out his sexuality was a little hard to swallow, but introspection and self-awareness are not the strong suits of either Housewives nor their families. Both sons were wearing Off White sweaters to shabbot, (the knitwear goes for $800 on the Neiman Marcus website) love thahhht

It probably goes without saying, but camp (as defined by Susan Sontag) is produced in earnest, without a wink and nod. Stefano in a cravat with an undetermined European accent, Marlena and her fancy peignoir sets while being exercised, and the blind priest who can't sense when others are in the room were camp. Middle aged actors doing stunts was camp. And the cheap sets, special effects, and stock music were camp. If those things were planned, it would seem silly and take us out of the drama. Overt camp is not usually well received, because it takes away the audience's agency when we are being told what is funny, rather than being allowed to decide for ourselves. I liked the self-parody of Rinna's scenes in Beyond Salem, but I think a writer can't force humor on soap fans without getting some pushback. So, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

RHOBH - in the promo wasn't there another trip (maybe to the far east)? There are three more episodes before the end of the season, and they filmed the reunion on Friday? But, wasn't there a trip out of the country (which admittedly seems odd given that the season was filmed at the second height of the pandemic)? If so, they'd better go already, we know it usually takes them a full episode to pack.

I think what's exciting is that between this and Beyond Salem, they are doing a great job of keeping Days in the pop culture zeitgeist. Soaps have such a rich history of promos that rile up excitement, it feels like Days of old. Also, as I recall, the possession in 1994 was one of those stories that was consistently interrupted by the OJ trial. Here in Los Angeles, it seemed like every third commercial during the trial was for the storyline. And it felt both endless and repetitive because there were so many delays and disruptions that it extended the plot.

It does make one wonder if Shane's death in a car accident was karmic retribution or just new writers forgetting that he was once a race car driver. Although, given that Shane took on Bobby's persona after meeting in prison, maybe Shane never actually raced cars?

Upthread I noted that I read the entire history on an SOD Tumblr and enjoyed it. However, these promos are not doing it for me. You know a show is bad when you feel the urge to FF at 30 second video. It seems like Rituals was much better on paper than in production. And, all that fur...