j swift

If Chanel took the morning off at Sweet Bits, where did Connie buy the donuts? I know I'm writing a story that's not actually being played on screen, but I still think there's potential in the Connie plot. In a town filled with doppelgängers, and easy access to latex masks, where everyone is stunningly beautiful, the idea that an ordinary looking woman could get away with murder is intriguing. Unfortunately, the character is absurd and everyone around her looks like a fool for allowing her to go unnoticed.

also posted 7/29/2024

It seems like a rather inconvenient time to move to Paris, right in the middle of the Olympics. 🤔

I prefer this version of Brady over scab-Brady. Scab-Brady was boring, hypocritical as an agent of virtue for Tate, and poorly used in the business field. I mean, Brady was hardly a saint at Tate's age. Remember Belle and the train track incident? Nu-Brady is consistently amusing in a snarky, not too campy fashion. He's a bit of a dullard, which is appropriate for a guy in his 40s living with his parents. And, he is impulsive in love and sex. This kind of casual sex was what I enjoyed about DAYS right before the strike. I think it differentiates it from network soaps that tends to moralize sex and punish those with adult needs. And, I enjoy that everyone in Salem is not baby-crazy. Also, @carolineg, we got clarification on the will today, which was a good move. Alex and Maggie each got 50%, and then Maggie split up her 50% amongst the others (except Phillip and Bo who got a trust fund). Alex is going to have to pay back his portion, which is exactly what I wanted when the letter was first found. Finally, I know Roman called Kim after the wedding, but I hope someone is going to check in on her more regularly if Theresa winds up in jail.

Soaps never explain how if a guy passes out in bed, he can wake up shirtless. Like, who's going to undress a drunk dude, especially when you're also drunk? And, in this case, Brady's a big guy, so I would imagine it is difficult enough to get him into bed, let alone take off just his top.

I think there is a sense of maturity, or liberation, in Curtis that comes from being raised by his grandparents that makes for an interesting contrast to Jack and Stacy. Stacy is obviously beholden to the values of her close family. But, Curtis can be mischievous because he was neglected by his parents and allowed to act out without fear of reprimand. So, I think the initial family structure is vital to setting up the Curtis and Jack rivalry.

I enjoy that the books tend to embellish a bit, but my criticism of KLK's books is due to the format. On screen, we are allowed to infer or interpret the character's motives. But, in print, she tends to articulate the thoughts of characters that were not part of the original dialogue. For example, when she was writing about Robert and Clarice, she gave Clarice an inner monologue to explain her choice to keep her pregnancy from Robert. But, when I watched the actual scene, there was less internal conflict than was written. I understand that KLK would not want to copy a script, and only use dialogue to tell the story. However, it is interesting to read her projections about the character's thoughts and beliefs, at times when it was more ambiguous on screen and left to the audience interpretation. In other words, we are often reading her reaction to the story, as opposed to what we as a viewer might get from watching the same plot.

Talk about “old enough to be your mother”, I recall when it was implied that Brady and Xander were the same age.

@Xanthe I hope you are holding onto your copies of the Soap & Serials novels, because it never ceases to amaze me how much they have appreciated on eBay and Amazon. I mean, from $1.95 to $99.99 in 37 years, you couldn't that kind of return on investment if you bought a Birkin bag. 🙄😉

Today, I got a laugh about the different rules for how sound travels in Salem. Nine times out of ten, if a person enters a room while two people are talking, they have to ask what they were discussing. And somehow nobody seems to hear it, when Connie talks to ghost-Li, or just complains out loud about Gabi, But, if Connie is around the corner while Jada and Stephanie are talking, she can hear them perfectly, and totally avoid being noticed. If this was a story about how plain-looking people go unseen in a world where people wear velvet mini dresses to visit their brother in the hospital, that could be interesting. But, I think I would be giving them too much credit.

I imagine that Iris would say that Mac would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that Rachel named her son with Carl after him.

Watching pirated videos on YouTube and criticizing the production quality is like eating food off a stranger's plate and complaining it is too salty. Stop telling on yourself.

Now that we've met Xander's mother and father, can anyone remind me how his Scottish roots make sense? Why is a guy with an English mom and a Greek dad wearing a kilt?

We are steamrolling through a lot of stories, but the revelation of Ava and Stefan having drunken sex seems both unnecessary and yet inevitable. Unnecessary because I think it will only be a temporary stumbling block in Gabi and Stefan's relationship. And, inevitable, that it will be used to humiliate Ava, despite the fact that she did nothing wrong. I am a Jada-fan. I wish she was given more to do and more people to interact with, for example, a single scene, or even a mention, of her ex-lover Eric would be nice. It is also ironic that Li is much more interesting as a ghost than he was when he was alive. The Dimera siblings have played so many cruel tricks on each other that when Stefan and Kristen discussed his framing her for child abuse, I'd completely forgotten that gross storyline where they put pretend bruises on little Rachel. That was a tacky tale that was best left in the past.

I might even watch The Gates live, if this news means that every commercial won't be for mesothelioma lawsuits or dental hygienist colleges. 😉

It would be remarkable if they made Alex pay back all the money he frivolously spent, but that thread seems to have been dropped.

I agree that the inspiration to utilize two characters with similar names is clever, but I thought Xander's mother's name was something like Angelique, which was also similar to Angelica. So, I'm confused that she is being referenced as Fiona. But, I adore the soapiness of her flying to Salem, wedding-ready in a cocktail dress, with no visible luggage. I had predicted that John would find her in Greece, and bring her back, or she would have some relation to Konstantin, but neither seems to be true.

That was a very exciting episode. I mean, I'll suspend my disbelief that Justin has been carrying around that letter for a year, including in his tuxedo, but I guess they established that fact last week. And, it's a bit odd that everyone just instantly believes Fiona, and they're willing to give Xander the estate, based only the word of a woman that they've never met. I actually thought the amount of exposition that they got through in one episode, while maintaining some organic conversational style, was remarkable. Maggie went through her entire marriage to Victor. Xander and his mother reviewed their entire history. And someone even ate Chanel's cake. I think it is weird that Gabi went to visit Will and Sonny, but there is no interaction between them the next day when he arrived for the wedding. Like, why wouldn't they fly back together? I thought Xander's Mother's name was going to be closer to Angelica, in order to explain the signature. And I thought Xander's name was Alexandros (I may have misheard her call him Alexander), but those are trivial facts.

All the speculation about RonC joining other soaps makes me wonder if he'd really take a job where he would not be the headwriter? After being at the helm on three soaps, I question if he would want to take a step backward career-wise.

Just to be sure, Cwikly is pronounced like “quickly”, not like “sea-wick-lee”. Correct?

I think the counterargument to this talk about a condensed timeline is that most undecided voters historically make up their minds within weeks of the vote. Which is why the “October surprise” has usually been a useful tactic. We also have the Olympics coming up, which will distract us in popular culture. And, this campaign is so divisive that I can't see anyone crossing party lines to vote the opposition based on personality or other non-political reasons unless they are truly a racist pig, and as an optimist, I don't believe there are enough of them to matter.

How can it be this difficult to beat a 78-year-old convicted rapist for president?

@Errol or @janea4old Does this mean that DAYS is going to employ non-WGA headwriters? So, now Y&R, B&B, and DAYS are all written by non-union scribes? That's pretty wild a year after the strike. It seems like a step backward for collective bargaining. Personally, I'm more offended by that, than whatever RonC has done for the past few years.

I laughed at the discussion about the RSVP's, because she only sent the invitations last week. Most guests probably didn't even have a chance to reply yet. Meanwhile, the out-of-town guests arrived in their formal wear, while Marlena and Kayla were just too busy to make it over to the square.