Vee

Insane how relevant Andor S2 has become despite being filmed some time ago - darkly predicting this administration in America. Mon Mothma whipping votes in the Imperial (formerly Republic) Senate for a cause she cannot accept is futile, in the hopes of a semblance of good governance, hits far too close to home. Andor is, as ever, Star Wars does The Wire, does Oz, does Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, so many genres. Easily the only work of import left in this exhausted, overspent franchise in recent years, and far too good for its brand. If you haven't watched it, do. You won't believe it's Star Wars.

Am I the only one welcoming the preemptions because I've been mad busy and have to catch up on over a week of episodes? Just saying.

No. Agnes Nixon had worked on a number of shows before creating OLTL (and AMC, which she had in her drawer waiting to come to life). AW was only one of them. Many classic soaps have personnel coming across back and forth all over the map, it's not a unique situation. And to my knowledge very few of the head creative teams at AW came to OLTL. If you're thinking of Harding Lemay, he did only a very brief consulting stint in '98 and maybe '99, and clearly had little actual impact on the writing. Paul Rauch was also a different EP at AW than he was at OLTL, GL, Santa Barbara, Y&R, etc. Nor do I recall him bringing many writers with him. Nor did his work at those shows resemble his time with Lemay at AW AFAIC. Frankly '70s Rauch and '80s Rauch seem like night and day. Beyond Rauch, the only two examples of key AW additions I know of would be first when George Reinholt and Jacquie Courtney jumped from AW to OLTL in the '70s. They were debatably the first daytime supercouple (some might cite Penny and Jeff from ATWT), and the show attempted to recreate that with new characters at OLTL to garner ratings. This was not unique to these shows; many soaps attempted the same trick after them. It might've worked but Reinholt's behavior once again drove him to quit and/or be fired. Robin Strasser was hired several years later as Dorian, but not opposite them in any triangle. Reinholt was long gone. JFP would be the other example and the only one who actively tried to model it after AW, bringing over several of her favorite actors from AW and several other shows she'd worked on in 1998-99. She was accused of trying to remake her AW at OLTL, but it was a poor fit because of their being very different. (She tried the same at GH.) I don't think OLTL was ever seen as 'just Another World' even remotely. It simply occasionally had AW stars coming aboard. And in the late '90s, they didn't fit. Jacquie Courtney and George Reinholt's characters fit in much easier, but Reinholt's in particular didn't last and Courtney's became quite different. OLTL and AW were dramatically different shows IMO, which is why JFP forcing actors from it onto the show didn't work or last.

I said they would do this when they hired him, lol. He's the new Cyrus who will mope about his family woes while terrorizing more people for the next 2-5 years as the show tries to have it both ways. Much of what he's done so far (including eavesdropping in the church) can be planned by simply taking old breakdowns and doing CTRL-R on any mention of "Cyrus" and adding "Sidwell".

I agree they need more, but I suspect they will get it. I think they went a bit overboard cementing the Dupree family as the core early on as much as possible.

B&B and Y&R survive on loyalty and in B&B's case, the runtime. That's it.

Episodes can flow without lots of characters on, that doesn't mean you should lift them out. There's plenty of space to find Dani, Nicole, Kat, Dana, Eva, etc. all essential. If anyone's broken out I think it's Dana first, Dani next and Eva/Kat not far behind. At least gauging by the response I see to all of them online.

I think if he is (and it has occurred to me) he may not even be aware of it. Nonetheless, my answer to the problem remains the same.

I do understand the sense of obligation from the show and the people there who love him. It is far from the first time something like this has happened at this show or I'm sure many others. GH for years put in all sorts of subs for Jessie Brewer and worked around Emily McLaughlin's issues until they couldn't anymore. We know they did the same for Kirsten Storms, which has recently turned out right. I do think FV's heart is probably in the right place re: Mo's health. But it is not good for the show, it's not their job, it's incredibly bad for story at this point and it's ultimately bad for Maurice IMO. It needs to change. And that's not even getting to the other question.

I liked the story but I think if it actually was affecting Maurice's IRL health then they were between a rock and a hard place. (Although I sometimes do wonder if Mo's health is sometimes leveraged against story he doesn't like, intentionally or not.) In response to that though, I simply would've sent Sonny away for a bit on a break and then tried to resume it. But their solution to this, working him as much as possible so he isn't at home spiraling or whatever while retreading the same tired plotlines, is not a solution IMO. Which is another reason I've spent years insisting that in addition to breaks they should bring back VM, have Brenda carry the lion's share of major story for a pairing with Sonny, while Maurice can take a senior/secondary role and be on less. I suspect if Maurice would feel content doing that with anyone it's Vanessa.

I am too, but that's another reason I am saying it. What happens when another producer comes along (if indeed one ever does) who doesn't indulge Maurice's need to be there everyday, or in story all the time? What happens if Frank's GH simply ceases to be able to afford it anymore and he has to cut back? When an actor literally needs a soap opera to keep going, the story always ends the same sooner or later. Not only are they using Maurice very poorly onscreen, which doesn't have to happen in order to keep him around and keep Sonny on canvas, but IMO they're reinforcing a pattern which isn't sustainable for his health. That needs to change. Same as how they crashed last year's story with his breakdown because Maurice apparently couldn't handle it. They need to start moving the character in another more, viable direction both story and airtime-wise. As has been attempted before, by different regimes. And yes, we agree it has to be about finding a way to do this that can not wreck his health. It's awful. And however I used to dog him in the 2000s or even early '10s it's gotten so much worse.

He might, but he needs a break and the character needs one too. If Maurice can't function mentally without being on 3 days a week that is an issue in and of itself. The show cannot be functioning as that kind of release valve forever. It's not healthy for him, and certainly not for the show's stories.

That headline is misleading. Dyer's interview blamed a new producer coming in (I can't keep track of them - was it Clenshaw?) and claimed he didn't like the Carters and began dismantling the family and firing Mick's kids, but I thought that might've begun with another EP. He said the pairing with Janine was a byproduct of that. It seemed like a rather convenient personal narrative, but many soap actors have a version of that same story they believe whether it's true or not.

They need to start giving Maurice Tony Geary breaks. Let the audience miss him insofar as they can.

There's a lot of things they could do, but I am far from convinced the dude playing Derek could sell that kind of story.

I also think Beth was actually very good as Irna. And I thought Kim nailed Charita Bauer.

I will hazard a hot take that the audience will largely return. It's a different kind of show and the viewership is different.

Exactly. There's at least a dozen things to fix on the show if not more, but in the longview of building a soap this has honestly been a drop in the bucket time-wise. Still, certain folks in the thread have been predicting doom for this show ever since their fanfic spec scripts were returned to sender. They need it to hurry up and die.

We all know Jacquie Courtney did it as I'm sure did many others. The difference is Courtney and those others didn't often seem barely there onscreen.

I didn't want Cody to be a cad - they tried that when he first came on and it was one of the most unpopular introductions in recent show history. I do think he can be up to a little mischief and various shenanigans, but I thought the mostly settled man in the stables close to Tracy, Mac, the kids, etc. was good for him. That didn't mean he couldn't be the wandering happy stud servicing various lonely heroines, or couldn't settle down with Tracy.

Stopped me dead in my tracks with that one, thanks.

I agree with that, I just don't think Vaganos is interesting enough to make it viable, not when Molly has lingered on canvas since birth with no breaks and very little compelling story as an adult. Like Adam Huss, she does a good job but can I see her leading story? No. I think we need to miss Molly and forget her years of pointless omnipresence before you recast (or even bring back Hailey Pullos someday if she serves her time and debt to society, but I don't care which tbh) with someone more exciting to watch that still retains the unique element and specificity the character has always had going back to childhood, even when it was often annoying as they turned HP's Molly into Spinelli Jr. in the last Guza years. We need to begin to remember the aspects of that personality before she became a bland nobody sitting largely in the background for the last decade-plus, and then reinvent her with someone new or some new story after maybe several years' break.

It's more FV cheapjack utility plotting/couples: They exist, are on contract and/or are free, ergo they're paired regardless of whether it works. This is worst of all with the Black characters of course, and to an extent also with older vets in limbo. Kevin was available for Laura years ago and Frank clearly did not want to hire someone new for Genie, Jon Lindstrom could be depended on to appear and did not need a contract; thus a couple was born. What's almost as bad is how he has trained some fans to think like this: Insert Person A into Person B. I do like Cody, or did like him a lot over the last year. He became kinder, more easygoing and less obnoxious. I love his bond with Tracy and I'd still put them together. But Molly is indeed so basic, and a spent character period who needs a long break from the canvas. This recast is serviceable but not interesting to me and the character is tired. Unfortunately I don't see them doing the Lulu spoiler pairing vs. Lulu/Dante, and Tracy is clearly not happening so if they can't find somewhere interesting to put him soon I might be tempted to cut him too. Which is too bad, because as I've said (and as @prefab1 did) mischievous but inherently decent (or less so!) guys like Cody, happy-go-lucky sort of studs like him, are what soaps often used as their bread and butter. Chase OTOH I would can almost immediately, but not before having Willow use and dump him to screw with the Qs. He's like a little boy playing dress up and has no personality whatsoever. Curtis would also go.

It was very weird seeing her in this kind of role after her bland Star Trek character(s), lol. I do think she did well though I often wanted to throttle Santos. I've liked Shawn Hatosy since The Faculty aeons ago so I am glad to see myself again vindicated. Fiona Dourif is stunningly good, and so similar to her father. I think it's criminal she wasn't much known outside those Child's Play DTV sequels until recently, where she played very fun, demented material more in the family wheelhouse; seeing her in a more straight role here was jarring, but she was excellent. I wish she'd had the chance to work with David Lynch like Brad briefly did.