Vee

I doubt it, it hasn't been that long. I rather doubt it's dead, Lifetime has a pretty tight system in place re: their product unlike ABC taking a flyer on a primetime pilot script based off a daytime soap which was the "Pine Valley" project a few years ago. I am not going to begrudge AMC returning in a format that could lead to it running and running with a series of TV movies. The Lifetime/Hallmark pipeline stretches on forever these days. I just hope they're of some quality if and when they do come along.

Llanview's own Nathan Fillion (OLTL) appears briefly in the teaser for James Gunn's Superman, sporting what can only be described as a very comics-accurate haircut as bad boy Green Lantern Guy Gardner.

I think Mulcahey had recrafted him into being kind of the political/business-mindeed Quartermaine operator and rakish, somewhat gray rogue character, but not a full-on heel as he's rapidly become now under the returning team. Both iterations work here and Cameron plays them well, but I do think Drew's likely to join Sam in the hereafter very soon. Which is too bad IMO, but unsurprising. This show always knows how to squander good opportunities.

IIRC Gio came on simply very sheltered about Sonny's life, grateful to him and expressing that he didn't know much about Sonny's business or why people hated him. This was just as Sonny was about to beat down Dex before Kristina's eyes at the Chase wedding.

Surprising to see Cain/Christopher Cousins back within 3-4 days of the official creative handover - I thought he turned up a little later.

I don't think GH has had a half-decent opening since the mid-2000s. And I was not a fan of the overheated, strobing rock remix of FOTH back then, or of the weird floating heads/backgrounds riff on that opening that came after it and lasted until '12. But at least those didn't feel like they had no connection to the past material. I'd kill for a new version of FOTH now but it's not going to happen under current management.

This is fairly common practice on soaps over the decades, though. The problem here is Frank hires everyone and fires almost no one. It's also obvious in early press notices they intended to try him with Trina, then opted out because they were uncomfortable or thought he would be more of a prize than they wanted to actually give the Black girl. Ironically they do have chemistry now. I like GM but the BLQ/Dante crap is the least of what interests me about him, and they have once again hired a talented person to largely stand around lining the canvas and adding to the cast glut.

But he had such a secure hairpiece!

Michael Malone of course infamously did this at Another World with his 13 Bourbon Street pilot for Fox (someone has got to go to Duke University and smuggle a rip of it out from Malone's bequeathed archives there, and FWIW when it happens I didn't do it!). And probably some of his second run at OLTL. I'd forgotten about Monty's Portland soap.

Only because he can't be sure they're not related!

It's always the same thing on so many levels. Frank falls in love with the actors he gets to play too many roles and refuses to cut them, so these weak, often unthreatening villain characters linger on for years doing nothing and spinning their wheels with bizarre, wildly inconsistent writing. Cyrus is a dangerous mobster despite coming off like a geriatric old man! No, he's Laura's long-lost brother tortured by the accidental on-purpose auto-vehicular manslaughter of their father in the family driveway (seriously, who cares)! No, he's a fake man of God claiming redemption! No, he's legitimately found God and reformed! No, he's Dr. Kevorkian! And on and on and on. They did this with Julian too, except that was from the network and allegedly not FV. And now Sidwell is NuCyrus and not just in this totally Xeroxed plotline, mark my words. Sidwell will turn out to be Natalia's ex and the remorseful father to their kids, or some such nonsense while still doing evil shít, all because Frank doesn't want to fire anyone and creates the weakest, most cuddly yet invincible bad guys who spend years eating up airtime with crazily ping-ponging stories. I'll give you a preview of the next few years right now! November 2025: Sidwell and Natalia struggle to reconcile with their traumatized children for Thanksgiving as he pleads to make amends. July 2026: Sidwell runs over Jake again, for fun. February 2027: Sidwell begs his son for another chance to be his dad. Hire me now, Nathan Varni! I've got plenty more!

I know they're both doomed, but Ed Coleridge and Nell Beaulac are kind of adorable together early on. Such a cozy show.

A lot of this is on Finola at this point IMO. I've said it before - I love her, but it's like she came back in 2012 determined to show more emotional range and prove she was not just an '80s superwoman during the Robin saga. Finola is a great actress, and it was understandable for the character to be vulnerable during a good deal of that storyline. But since that time Anna has choked up and wept over everyone from Carlos Rivera to Sonny and Jason to Dex to just getting a hangnail. I wish someone would take Finola aside and say she has nothing left to prove as an actress and it's time for Anna Devane to toughen up again and stop sobbing through scene after scene.

Cannot believe they repeated the same 'twist' with Cyrus and Nina in the church from last year, only with Sidwell and Sasha this time. This is what I mean about these boring crime characters being interchangeable. Please fire everyone in this creative team immediately.

Yeah, this is 2024 and money is tight. As long as it's not a Powerpoint slideshow like GH or "Only Love Can Save the World" I'm good.

I agree, which is why I think some of the immediate elements of that big splashy revamp with the S.S. Tracy sinking in the harbor work as an umbrella story shaking things up in town with the accident fallout, and bringing in some new people. The problems were many of the characters or actors, the execution and in many cases the follow-up story. I suppose Stephen Nichols could've worked as a Bill character. But you would still not have an immediate buy-in for an entire family.

I love Jamie Lee but she is asking for trouble with this. Didn't people just kill one of these a few years ago or am I crazy?

Still the GOAT for me.

They would need to be actively trying to lose viewers to kill Felicia at this point. I don't see that happening. Maybe Old Man Cyrus makes an attempt though. Gio is pretty useless at present and I absolutely hate the BLQ/Dante love child angle, so I understand the instinct to cut him along with about 15-20 other people. But I do like him and I think he has potential as is, so I would sooner try doing new things with this newcomer than keep T.J. at this point, who like Molly is a deeply spent background character (who in T.J.'s case has minimal personality) and who has been around too long; they need to leave for a long break and Molly can come back in several years. Would I blink if Gio got cut too though? Nope. I think all the Lulu stuff with both her family and Tracy was very good. I think JJ and Alexa did especially well together considering their first scenes were almost nonstop exhausting exposition. But Jane just always has a way of getting you in the throat.

I must've missed that post.

You can feel however you want. I'm just not sure it's necessary for you to respond in this way any time this show doesn't match what you created as fanfiction in your head months ago for its characters, cast, story, setting and now opening theme. And honestly, CBS and P&G are not paying the entirety of the show's annual budget (or more) to the Ray Charles estate to license that song in perpetuity. That's not realistic for a soap in the 2020s, let alone the 2000s.

I suspect they would've gotten Carson back for a cameo during Fluke. Much more MIA soap stars have returned than her. I would be happy to see her return for plenty of visits if possible, but I see no reason to bring back Julia full-time and therefore no reason to recast. I could be persuaded for the right actor and story though. (Hell, Cady McClain hasn't done GH yet.)

Always welcome, and if his streaming show doesn't pan out the show is always here. (Though I'd probably recast in the meantime, Lipton can always be brought back if the other one doesn't take as well.) There better be scenes with Lucky. He raised that boy (until he didn't).

Definitely what I expect it will be, though I always like a cast ensemble opening.

With Lower Decks sadly coming to an end it was nonetheless a thrill to have so many big guests in last week's penultimate episode, including Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson as Bashir and Garak and amazingly, Jolene Blalock as T'Pol. Blalock married very rich years ago and has notably kept out of the public eye since Enterprise, citing an unhappy experience with Rick Berman and co. She was so good in the role in an often-messy show with pockets of greatness (Manny Coto's Season 4 was especially good), I'd always wanted her to return and hoped it would happen this year. I'm glad I was right. Hopefully LD will get renewed on another streamer sometime or get a feature continuation as Paramount continues to decay. I still hope the same can be true for Prodigy on Netflix, and eventually the mooted Legacy spinoff though Terry Matalas is now at Marvel doing the Vision show. (Jeri Ryan notably turned down other opportunities to do a spinoff without Matalas and Legacy.) It is not lost on me that the more popular, non-Alex Kurtzman run shows are getting pushed out or frozen on ice, though that may be a tinhat conspiracy theory on my part. SNW is of course very popular and a great show, but it's the creative outlier vs. the others. Oh, and I forgot Alfre Woodard! What a thrill.