j swift
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Everything posted by j swift
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To me, the thing that is missing is that EJ's motivation is based on his devotion to Nicole. Which may explain why his lack of anger was not surprising to me. Their past relationship is completely messed up. She is not the love of his life. There is actually no reason for him not to divorce her once he found out that the baby was not his and that she preferred Eric. EJ's not a symp and he's not desperate for female companionship. I could understand if he thought Jude was his baby. But, given that he knows that he is not the daddy. I don't feel like the show has established a reason why he would be so desperate to hang on to Nicole, and it is not as if that is an established motive of the character. For example, Sami just wants to win, so she'll do whatever is necessary to best Nicole, Carrie, or anyone in her way (a bit of an oversimplification for summary purposes, but you know what I mean). And Eric is drawn to women who he needs to save, so he'll do dumb stuff whenever a lady is in trouble. But, it has never been mentioned that EJ suffers from either of these types of pathology in a relationship. And if the CEO story has taught of anything, it is that he won't settle for being anyone's second choice. -
Can you imagine a modern news profile that mentioned an executive's weight? That really stuck out like a sore thumb.
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If memory serves, after Raven shows up in court, the scene with Geraldine is especially good.
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I enjoy the Alex vs. Xander rivalry, and I even think it is clever that they used the similarities in their names. And you need Konstantin to tell that story, because few others would have a motive to change the will. So, I'm giving it a pass. Also, I like the interplay of John and Steve. I mean, he was really Bo's friend, but I am amused whenever they're in a scene together. I am also amused that characters could travel to Montana or Scotland, and all that means is that they'll re-dress the hotel room set. Stick on some clipart of a snow capped mountain in the window, and it's Bozeman. Then rip that off and inset Loch Lomand, and they're in Europe. However, Rafe outsourcing the decoding of Clyde's black book to anyone who asks, is the detail that gets my goat today.
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I was just pondering how funny it is to think of the same actress who played Angie Perrini on Another World dropping her fur coat as Vanessa on GL just a few years later. On the face of it, Maeve Kinkead seemed to have been cast against type. Even though, in hindsight, one cannot imagine anyone else playing the role. Angie was a “salt of the earth” gal from a traditional Italian family, so it took some vision to cast her as a buttoned up WASP goddess.
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I think it is worth reiterating, that there is a difference between thinking that and writing it in a book on the history of the show, as if it was a fact based on the majority opinion of the audience. One of the interesting points in the book was how the entire inferstructure crumbled once the show was sold to ABC. As a result, there were fewer voices urging restraint on creative decisions.
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IIRC, when we were reading the SOD news from 1991 that were posted on Tumblr, the casting for Harlan was a big story. For weeks ahead of time, there were outrageous lists of actors being mentioned as auditioning for the role. And amusingly, his daughters were previewed as being named Justine and Kelly (someone was watching too much 90210). It was very 1991, and Harlan was described like a certain convicted former president, just like all 1990s businessmen, until they all became based on Richard Branson in the 2000s. So, it must have been poor casting that doomed the character because one cannot imagine that the original plan was for Faison to become the only surviving member of the Cartel.
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The algorithm is so wild that I wanted to survey other's top 3 categories. Mine are: 1980s soap opera clips (mostly Dynasty and DAYS) The good and bad quality of luxury leather goods (apparently the Loewe purse is not what it used to be) And women trying on wigs (you get hooked in by one and suddenly there are hours of them)
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All things being equal, I prefer a DID story over a long-lost twin, or another latex mask. And I assume it will be a factor in the Abigail storyline. Maybe Marlena will find the cure and win a Nobel Prize for Medicine? My dream scene is a debate between Marlena and Rolf over medical ethics 🙄
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Who is that with Lucas? I enjoy Jessica as Sloan, but that punch is very poorly shot, and that scream is not convincing. But, kudos to this promo for highlighting them moving around the Dimera living room set. Last year, I noticed that shots in the police station were so static that every time someone stood up they went out of screen. But, now they're in the corner of the room, and being shot from other angles, which makes it more exciting to watch. It is interesting to think that Sloan's got nothing to lose vis-à-vis throwing EJ under the bus for forcing her to reveal the secret. I mean, somebody has to ask why she disclosed the facts of the adoption.
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I was just pondering that some characters, like Faith and Joe, maintained their traits despite the actor. Whereas others like Siobhan and Frank varied wildly based on their portrayal. It is almost as if I could forgive the production for recasting if they wanted to take the character in a different direction, or if their original vision was not being conveyed. The Oral History's take on Sarah Felder's firing as Siobhan will stick with me. There's a debate about the conventional wisdom that she was fired because she was not as beautiful as the other actress, versus the stories that she was tempestuous with her co-workers. Then, Art Rutter (an ABC exec) is interviewed and innocently says that he never heard anyone say that she wasn't pretty; which pretty much confirms that she was just a pain to work with. I thought that was one of the most clever uses of the interview format in the book.
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But you get my point, that making EJ against it, makes it seem like there is something valorous about raising a baby with a genetic disorder. As opposed to an actual discussion about giving birth to a child who would likely face intellectual, adaptive, and medical challenges, when it is unnecessary. I disagree with the politics of this story.
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There is really no great outcome for the plot. Either the infant is fine, in which case their relief will seem odd given that they just met with this girl with Down's Syndrome. Or, the baby will have a congenital disorder, in a town where men get heart transplants three years after they died. Or she'll miscarry, and it will just be about what might have been. It seems like an unfortunate political message, because 92% of all women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down's Syndrome choose to terminate their pregnancies. In the absence of prenatal testing, the United States would have experienced a 34 percent increase in the number of Down births between 1989 and 2005. Instead, 15% fewer such babies were born during that time, representing a 49% difference between expected and observed rates. So, to make it into a "heroic" decision seems very anti-choice and vilifies the reason why testing during pregnancy occurs. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_ParentingResource/down-syndrome-births-drop-us-women-abort/story?id=8960803
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8/10 - best episode in a while A few nitpicks: Jada was married to BobEtte for years and never suspected DID? Isn't she a detective? Holly texted an apology to Nicole? Doesn't she live upstairs? EJ thinks Nicole will quit her job to raise the baby, but she didn't do that for Holly or Sydney? EJ and Johnny talked about the baby five feet from Chanel, how didn't she hear them? I cannot believe Sloan confessed. It was so simple, but I didn't buy EJ's "checkmate" statement, so I thought she'd find a way out of it. Other than Dimitri's absence, I also wish that they would've just gone full evil Sloan. I wanted her to scream about her dissatisfaction with baby rearing, and how awful Eric was as a parenting partner. Especially because she had to be the breadwinner the whole time and Eric tried to guilt her every time she needed a break. But, that ending was so satisfying. I remain unconcerned about uninspired, conventional wisdom takes on the production model, which have no impact on my experience of the show. We get it, they tape in advance and the head writer is gay. Wake me up when you figure out one more thing about the show. Opinions are subjective and do not require relentless responses for me to understand. This is not an argument that people can win or lose. Also being contrarian for the sake of engagement is not the vibe. Please go proverbially rain on someone else's parade and allow us to discuss what is actually being streamed. Because I am not better informed nor entertained by the projective hypotheses about producers and writers by pseudopsychoanalysts who endlessly provide the most reductive reactions.
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I turn into that bothersome lawyer/doctor/chef who feels the need to correct a TV show whenever they get something wrong about their workplace. So, at the risk of diving too deep into Marlena's professional ethics, (1) How did Jada know that Everett was in treatment with Marlena? & (2) Why would Marlena break her client's privilege by telling the cops that he ended therapy? For those wondering, a therapist is obligated not to disclose in this exact type of situation. I recall Everett told Stephanie that he was seeing Marlena, and maybe she told Jada, but certainly Everett wouldn't have mentioned it to Jada. They have hardly spoken two words to each other in the past year. Also, if Sloan's confession turns out to be a dream or some type of false alarm... I'm gonna... (probably do nothing and keep watching, but it felt like a possibility) (mostly because it happened on a Thursday)
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I thought the Agnes Nixon gossip was fun. One tends to think there's more than one side to that story. But, I was just pondering that among the cast that were eventually hired by other soaps after RH was cancelled, I could not name anyone who wound up on AMC. For example, Bernard Barrow went to Loving, Ilene Kristen to OLTL, and Ron Hale to GH. Can you think of any examples of actors who went from RH to AMC? EDIT, found one from Ryan's Bar Online - [Helen] Gallagher had recently completed an unhappy stint on All My Children, in the recurring role of Nurse Harris, [..]"One day on AMC, I was there from 8:20 in the morning until 11 at night," she recalls. "That's a long day, and unless you're having a good time, there's no point to it whatsoever. I can't do that unless I can have fun with it, and on AMC, I just couldn't do it. It wasn't so much a waste of talent as a waste of time - and that's awful!"
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I'm glad that there are more people to talk about the book. I liked all the parts about the history of the development, and the retelling of the plots. As well as the humorous backstage stories about filming in the park, the opening sequences, and Louise Shaffer's story about her ill-fated Emmy submissions. For me, it highlighted the idea that soap productions are like any office scenario, where success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. However, weeks later, my lasting impression is that it badly needed an editor. I began skipping through parts where every time they would introduce a new actor, the book would go through the litany of interviews of the friendly (or occasionally unfriendly), recollections of the rest of the cast. It got to the point where I could accurately predict who Michael Levin would like or dislike, so I didn't need confirmation every time.
