Vee

My buddy Darn is right: Martin is giving Noah's Arc acting. If this was B&B they would've superimposed Ashley's floating head onto Dani as Andre came back for round 2.

Sorry not sorry to GH for the ratings!

Did I say that? I would prefer the former myself, but they absolutely haven't cared for years. Thrilled with the show. And thrilled to see GH put in its place. LOL!!! Don't get me started, he's bad today too.

Speaking of getting attention, I went to YT and y'all weren't kidding on these master shots of Gio in bluejeans. 👀 No one caught that, or did they choose it? Any port in a storm, eh, GH. GIovanni Mazza is definitely much more confident and assured than he used to be on top of his cast chemistry and fun attitude. But I am still not coming back to the show rn, lol.

The bottom line, and it was long before BTG premiered. Though I think it is also potentially suffering because of a multicultural audience getting frankly slapped in the face by the imagery on a show that centers them. GH drains most characters (especially minorities) of any real life, personality and idiosyncrasy. Why would I go back to watching rice cake five days a week? I've tuned out on GH many times in 40+ years of watching, and it's easy for me to do it again.

Yes, I've never forgotten how much credit people on the inside give Passanante for breakdowns and certain storylines she supposedly heavily worked on (like Bianca on AMC and I think something else I've forgotten). I think she's one of the worst HWs of the modern era and I cringed any time I saw her coming, but I don't deny that skillset. I don't remember Ron's status at OLTL pre-summer '07 and I am too tired to check. I do know he allegedly dialogued all the Asa funeral episodes himself as he took over, and those were very, very good. I always thought he was on dialogue but he could well have done both. Regardless, I don't have a problem with him on breakdowns presently because he is a trained hand. And while I feel his skill for dialogue has seriously degraded since the early days at OLTL, breakdowns are breakdowns. They may contain some of his choice ideas for dialogue or may not - parts of today reminded me of one of his sweeps event monologues - but I thought the wedding showdown was very good nonetheless. But I give the most credit to Lynn Martin, the dialoguer.

On another show Chelsea would've livestreamed it just because it would be sort of reductive shock value, 'she's the social media girl and that's what they do.' The weird OOC Kristina recast Ron Carlivati introduced on GH, for example, would've done that in her brief reality show phase. I was pleased that it was instead an accident on Chelsea's part. Those do happen. Per what dc said, I can potentially see a Carlivati influence in having Dani vamp for segment after segment holding the gun which is understandably not to some people's taste. But I also think that's (in addition to being typical soap) just what Dani's histrionic persona is and how she operates - demanding a stage for her drama. Nonetheless I think Karla killed it and Lynn Martin did a great job with the very arch but cutting dialogue. Some of which I imagine RC could have tossed in, having seen his breakdowns before.

I'm not gonna lie, I ain't watched this in a couple weeks and I'm not inclined to come back.

Another random dude for Joss to fúck and then watch die in -18 months.

Yeah, I know he's the breakdown writer. Lynn Martin wrote the episode.

Ron didn't write it.

They were. I think MVJ seemed much more comfortable on eps 4 and 5, where there was less exposition needed. Her work on 5 (Friday) in particular reminded me of some of her GH soliloquies.

The last two eps are a huge step up on every level but especially dialogue, though I thought a lot of eps 3/4 were strong (and the early scenes in ep 2? with Dani and Anita). The only confirmed weak link for me remains the Morgans and Robo-Martin. Jury is out for me on Chelsea and Naomi, who have good and bad moments.

They're rich, powerful and I think, per most soap dynasties, used to a degree of drama. Dani's gun was full of blanks and she's likely pulled stunts before. For families like that (or the Kennedys or Bushes or whatever IRL example we could cite) it is often about control first, trauma second. Hence the reason they were all there in the first place (Martin).

Truly wild watching the bulk of the white cast of a soap opera reduced to talk-to and reactors after the fact to the main Black plot. Refreshing! Meanwhile, Derek stares at AHN-dre and Ashley and mentally drafts tonight’s 4chan post. I do wish we'd gotten to see Dani and Pamela just sitting here knocking back drinks at Uptown AbFab-style for awhile. Bill and Hayley's living room is, uh, different. And yeah, Anita and Dani are in no way Mona and Erica. Anita has a hold on her that seems very strong and at times toxic, which may have contributed to part of Dani being who she is (including re: Chelsea). Anita is the one giving Edward Quartermaine or Lucinda Walsh here to me, while Vernon so far seems to be the soft power.

I love that Nicole went after Dani following Anita's dressing-down despite their differences. Tamara was great, too. You understood and totally got her anger while (for me, at least) understanding Dani's hurt. Same with Anita coldly dismissing Naomi when she doubled down on supporting herm other. Classic soap family nuances and crosscurrents. Martin remains an android. "Humans are sometimes pushed to extremes!" The reason Karla can do as much as she's doing (and do it well) as Dani is because Daphnee is so, so strong as a foundational character. Trying to get Anita to apologize, while Anita keeps her nose turned up.

AHN-dre and White Ashley stuck in the ABC Fan Fantasy crossover elevator is a cliche as old as the hills lol. "I'm sure she'll be here soon," her loaf of a husband tells the thin air for the third time. Please recast them both. Karla has been killing it the last two days in particularly, first on Friday in the very vulnerable and beautiful (and well-dialogued, the best on the show so far) scenes with Andre and Bill and now in today's show going HAM. Was she OTT and foolish? Absolutely! That's soap opera. I don't mind a histrionic, narcissistic and messy character when they are presented honestly as such; it's not like the show is saying everything Carly Dani is doing is great, unlike at GH. Dani is her own worst enemy and the show clearly tells you that. I think KM's well-known crazy-ass soap opera eyes sometimes can obscure her talent lol. And her range, which she's proven to me in the last several shows much more than before. I never thought I'd buy her as a ladyboss of Chelsea's career, etc. But she's giving Erica Kane, among other more deranged examples. Not too sure about that whole-ass afghan Leslie/Dana is wearing. But she's still great. Nurse Shanice gossiping about the IG stream at the hospital is hysterical.

Paramount has been pretty good with BTG in the last week IMO. I was astonished they put it up within an hour or two of the West Coast airing. GH on Hulu takes much longer.

We're really gonna make new accounts with the same name in front of everyone while our current ones are still in good standing just to get more attention? Okay. I can block both. Amazing improvement in the show in the last two eps.

Hoo boy. So who wrote today, Lynn Martin or Guza? Or can we not be sure under the circumstances, given HW passes?

I feel bad for Zoe Saldana, who'll get yet more Internet hate over this silly win (and from Ariana Grande stans). I choose to take it as a win for her excellent work in Avatar: The Way of Water. Demi should've taken it, but I liked Anora a lot and Mikey Madison was wonderful so I'm not too fussed about her win. I wasn't surprised it swept - it's funny, sad, closer to Academy-typical style (almost a Bogdanovich-style screwball farce) without being as old-fashioned as Conclave, and it's nowhere near as long as The Brutalist, which I thought deserved considerably more awards and was equally remarkable. So Anora, while good, was kind of the safe Hollywood choice. I would've rather Brutalist taken a couple of Anora's awards (at least Best Director), and I would've rather Best Actor gone to Fiennes, who was excellent in Conclave. The Substance is a funny and very well-made but very unsubtle gore-soaked horror satire (and a bit of a riff on silent film - there's very little dialogue for most of the first hour) which it's insane they nominated at all. If not for Demi and the impeccable direction by Fargeat it would've been an underseen and underrated streaming-only release on Shudder last summer. There's nothing wrong with any of that though - Rosemary's Baby got essentially the same makeover. I'm just glad Demi was recognized as much as she has been this season. I still need to see I'm Still Here and Nickel Boys this week. I will say The Seed of the Sacred Fig is very good and everyone should see it. That stuff always is so weird. I don't like them directly talking to the nominees, lol. This isn't The Real World. That's awful. Olivia Hussey has indeed been a school staple for generations.

Tina outwitted Cain in summer '91. Later, the character returned and they got involved after Cord 'died' in Jaba City in the fall.

I would love for any soap to run year-round, I just don't think it's viable for a streaming or hypothetical revival show. So I'd split the difference and do it in arcs that have a solid 13-16 weeks and reasonably short hiatus periods. I do think it's very important to replicate the cycle of soaps celebrating holidays, etc. onscreen 'live' along with the audience - Christmas, New Year's, etc. So I would try to make sure those arcs fall along most major holidays. That's a way to sort of replicate the same ongoing connectivity to the audience as a year-round show.

I agree, but by the same token Cord haranguing Tina over and over got exhausting. The show actively begins to play against that endless pattern in fall '91 by having KW's Tina confront Cord about it. I think Loprieno may have misread the paradigm shifting moment. I think they may have locked in quickly on putting KW with Christopher Cousins as Cain, and I think Malone and Gottlieb may have hoped to really try Korf's Blair with Cord. At least for awhile, as I know there have been rumors Witter and Loprieno did not get along (which is too bad if true, as they had real chemistry). I also have heard that the original endgame for KDP's Blair (pre-Todd) was Cord. There's just a lot of potential roles not taken, and I do think Cain and KW's Tina had plenty of chemistry, but I can't say that I necessarily found any of them better than a more evolved, less repetitive Cord and Tina.

That's very interesting. I had no idea.