Vee

Victor really abandoned those folks like the last chopper outta Saigon.

That much we can agree on (though I also don't find Brenda prissy). These days a lot of the cast are neutered in that respect. You look back at the action of the '80s, '90s and 2000s and while sure, some of it in the latter decade was sometimes trashy stuff out of the primetime Melrose/90210 playbook courtesy of Chuck Pratt, many of those characters were willing to throw hands. These days BLQ, etc. will sit on their resentments for the better part of a year. Action too often comes from external threats like Sidwell or his various henchmen, as I've said before. Have Carly and Nina ever even had a real catfight outside of that brief pool scuffle? The Carly of 15 years ago (let alone 20 or 30) would've. Sam and Carly were still going at it hammer and tongs into the Obama years.

Ashley is among the least of the show's problems these days for me. They have severely curtailed her role in the new year and I find her much more palatable in a B or C role. I also do think she has chemistry with Jordi. But if she left tomorrow I also wouldn't care.

Randy, Marcel and Evil Overton (Elon) are lower tier characters, and tbh they go back and forth a lot with how they portray Elon as good or corrupt. They want it both ways with him. I can see the issue BTS being needing a more high profile/contract player in the underworld, and one of the key production outlets possibly pushing for it not to be a Black character. MVJ clearly adores Jon Lindstrom and always has but I don't think the balance on any other soap would be this skewed. It just feels like they are straining in the narrative against having to be very hands-off or constantly positively affirming the Duprees. Yes, they have their hands in some cover-ups and conspiracies with Joey, but it often defaults back to the great and wonderful Dupree clan so far while Joey, Lea, Ashley Jones or the other support players (or Hayley/Leslie) take the weight. The experienced soap pros at this show know that is not realistic long-term. And I agree it inadvertently sends the wrong message while possibly trying to send a different one.

Again, I strongly suspect Joey being the prime mover in most criminal activity on canvas may be an NAACP push. Keeping the core Black characters and Duprees' hands relatively clean by comparison. I agree it's not a great look despite what I suspect are BTS concerns about representation (nor is that hands-off treatment a realistic or sustainable proposition for a daytime soap), though I am fine with Jon's portrayal. I just think the character has a limited shelf life and needs to see a downfall and be done in the next year.

For $2500 Giovanni Mazza needs to be in a hot tub in my backyard!

Either way it goes is good story. And less of Mother Superior BLQ.

Eh, I'd have aged her down to Michael's age myself. They could've hired someone slightly younger. But I take your point.

BLQ framing Willow for her own mistake is absolutely the kind of dirt this show should be getting into. Chris McKenna has such a thankless role that probably shouldn't even have been recast but he always works so hard, and he does have real chemistry with LW and Cynthia. If he'd come on as a doctor, maybe RIck Jr. or something who knows.

Rewatching lately I think Leigh McCloskey is perfect as Damian. That voice and his looks really do it for him, and he has real chemistry with many women. Had they not turned him into a bit of a cartoon in '95/'96 he might've been able to run a bit longer. They could still add some surprise Smiths today to make trouble. I last saw McCloskey when he played Dorian's very brief paramour to write her off OLTL in 2000. As someone who grew up not making the connection between Damian and LMC's role in the Dario Argento Italian horror classic Inferno, it was a shock to realize they were one and the same (probably right before or after he began on Dallas). I get what people are saying about the DAYS transplants. I think SN always worked well throughout despite his story falling apart in '97. I still miss Stefan. And I will stick up for MBE. No, Katherine shouldn't have stayed as long as she did or had all the stories she had, but MBE played her to the absolute hilt and she's fun to watch at least early on making trouble, in '94/'95 (I skip over all the Stefan stuff). It was night and day vs. Kayla to me. That's one more needless undead return I might support, Katherine turning up briefly to be behind conning Cody and Mac or something. Or Katherine's twin! I'm not picky.

The only endpoint is him doing it for Brenda or someone else, as I've said before. But that's not happening any time soon.

It's ridiculous. I knew they would do it this way though. It's exactly how this regime handled Cyrus, etc. with kid gloves just so Frank could keep the actors he liked on the show (while also writing terrible, ineffectual stuff for poor Jeff Kober) and made both sides of the canvas look weak for not dealing with each other. It also betrays FV, CVE, etc.'s fundamental discomfort with mob stories in general over the years. They just aren't good at it or excited by it. Not that I mind that per se - I think the recent refocus from the mob to the WSB is potentially more interesting long-term, particularly if Jason ends up there which I think they've flirted with before. But the actual WSB saga they are telling onscreen, with these boring dayplayers like Cullum and Pascal, tedious recurring characters like Jack and Sidwell and annoying returnees like Britt and Cassius (to say nothing of Joss and Valentin), really really stinks. I don't mind that doddering Sonny is now taking his cues from Lucas and Laura - I kind of find it hilarious and such a sea change from the Guza era. But it's still such a ridiculous, awkward storyline.

Thanks!

Seems I can't access old discussion threads from a few months ago (specifically, GH in April, etc.) The search results appear for certain key words (or searching my own posts for key words) but when I click one of the results I get this: Oops indeed! Couldn't find a topic for this but here you go.

You ain't missing much! I am skipping around a lot since too. And no, the show glosses this over but Britt never took Rocco out of 'love' for him or Patrick Drake. She took him because her terrorist parents wanted her to steal Luke and Laura's grandchild and also steal Robin Scorpio's husband. It was all just a big revenge ploy and Britt was a useful pawn. And yeah, Sonny letting this slide is crazy. But again we see how far he's fallen and the mob canvas in general with him. Sonny and Jason spent most of the last year talking about what Sidwell, Britt, Lucas, Laura, etc. were doing in other storylines while not actually doing much themselves. Now we have Sonny taking his cues from Laura and Lucas about Pascal the evil gay butler dayplayer. Lucas!! Imagine that even 10 years ago.