Vee

You really do not. Trust me. Anyone who has watched this show 30 years or more knows they both literally cannot exist. (They're alleged to have been born in 1991-92, respectively.)

Lord. Run, kid!

Yes, Brown and Esensten for all their faults had a fairly strong Black canvas during both their AMC and Loving runs. They brought back Darnell and Debbi (with Agnes allegedly involved as well), who they'd written for on Loving and The City, but also had Mario Van Peebles and his onscreen son as Samuel and Dre Woods (Samuel was another in a long line of failed love interests for Erica IIRC), and Yaya Dacosta as Cassandra. IIRC they also brought on Cornelius Smith as Frankie and of course, Randi. I don't think Natalia was them. I didn't know LR was that young either. I think teen actors in love scenes is and was a complicated and murky thing on soaps - but it's one thing when it's a consenting and comfortable actor with a partner close in age and another when it's something like say, Lily and Jonathan Lavery (where the young girl is both underage and on the spectrum and the IRL male is much older). At OLTL David Fumero talked in the oral history about his being uncomfortable doing love scenes with Erin Torpey early on, but they ultimately became fairly close friends offscreen IIRC and it seems it wasn't an issue. I've never heard of Kimberly McCullough having an issue re: Michael Sutton, who I believe was also older. Kristen Alderson at OLTL has never noted any issue with her various love scenes when she was younger, but she also was never one to complain or dish even when the show was long gone and I would not be at all surprised if she held back her feelings on some uncomfortable situations. (And the very young makeout scenes she had with Connor Paolo in the early 2000s frankly made me uncomfortable for them.) I don't think it's wrong to show teens having sex on soaps, but it's a messy dilemma. I remember people balking at the awkward scene with Mick Hazen even 20 years ago. Realistically, would Parker and his girlfriend get intimate IRL? Probably. Did they need to show it? Maybe not, particularly with that lame couple. But maybe something like Skins would get a different look today too. I think the primary issue is less depicting the reality with the right actors at the right time, and more with not putting young actors like Rambin in an uncomfortable and unsavory position. Anyway, sorry to go so far afield.

I think you're right. At a glance I thought it was Ambyr Michelle as Eva Thomas, where we know there's more story there.

Obviously BTG is going to have high drama and people behaving badly. That's soaps. But equating standard soap opera dramatics with Passions or Tyler Perry, or something inherently racist and stereotypical, is just an excuse for obsessive or mentally ill folks to drag the show for not matching up the fanfiction they built in their heads before seeing a frame of it or knowing any of the castmembers. This happens all the time with new movies or shows, this extreme positive/negative bipolar whiplash. You have some people who get intensely, overly involved and build a product up in their minds as an outlet for themselves and their own creativity. Then reality hits when it actually begins to exist, doesn't correspond to their fantasies and suddenly it's the worst thing ever. It can't be their thing anymore, they don't approve of this announced castmember or that previewed story or location choice, so suddenly this thing they were obsessed with becomes something they have to police, 'keep in line' and destroy. Anyway, if by chance anyone fits this description just get another SON fanfic blog I don't read and move on with your life. If that section of the board still exists. (And BTW, this won't be the only extreme knee-jerk reaction we see early on. The GH threads get them every week from folks who don't even watch.)

There do appear to be various socioeconomic strata on BTG, starting with But we'll know more when we see it.

I would be surprised if they don't leverage the Bell/P&G linkages at some point. It's easy eyes on the show with various guest characters.

The trailer already has me going back through all the past cast/character announcements which put a persona and thumbnail sketch to the various daughters, sons, cousins, etc. The whole bit with the young woman being run off the road hits different when you realize who (I think) that is and what baggage she apparently has. I have a feeling Nicole's 'perfect' husband Ted may be the other dark horse here - I find that whole summary pretty ominous while the promos have us deliberately honed in on messy Dani and her family drama. Though for someone who was always very lukewarm on Karla Mosley in the past (though I admittedly haven't seen much of her B&B work) I think I, like the rest of us, may end up ride or die for Dani Dupree.

I trust MVJ to not deliver Tyler Perry-level schlock.

It was obvious in that period that Frons, McTavish, etc. were also leaning on Lily to replace Bianca as the new young 'heart' of the show - for an interval of time she even had Bianca's slot as the final falling picture in the opening as the theme wound down, before Erica and the book. It just seemed bizarre to me. As did having her play a promiscuous wild child twin of Lily. There were stories in those days about Rambin being wild, a NY party girl, etc. That may have all been slander or it may be to a degree true, but that doesn't change or invalidate the fact that she was a very, very young girl put in an ugly spot on a daytime soap opera during very misogynistic times.

I'll just assume Aiden Turner was once again among the creeps.

Am I the last one who just now realized the Duprees are almost certainly all deliberately wearing black to Dani's ex's wedding? lol

I still don't understand how "the #1 soap" is using embarrassingly bad greenscreen on the regular in lieu of sets but GH isn't and keeps churning out new locations. If anything explains how Frank Valentini is keeping his job it's that wizardry, and I can't fault him for that. Every soap today has those problems - I remember the OLTL cast talking about it in their oral history a decade ago. "Why are we having so many scenes in the hospital? Because it's up!" The key is how different shows and their producers manage the constraints to keep a community and canvas still feeling alive and vibrant. Y&R can't.

It's not even a guess. It's him doing what he's always done from his career during the dying days of the old P&G soaps defending their failing honor, and it's very tiresome especially when you get actors and writers who want to dig into an issue from that period where he minded the store (or even before) and be candid.

Lookin' good! And no, while the show is bright it is nowhere near Rauch's GL. My eyes bled back then. Someone mentioned the PP soaps and I do think they had the lighting down. OLTL in particular had a lot of dark or shadow and atmospheric lighting or warmer/darker tones in furniture and sets, which was good for the renewed contrast between it and AMC. But I'm not seeing anything egregious here yet.

I don't. Her star image never had any relationship to her character in Dune, particularly Part Two. But while Challengers uses her persona (because the character in Challengers is also a megastar, in the vein of the Williams sisters) it also inverts it in a certain way. She is far from perfect, all-seeing or infallible. In the end the film is a love story about the boys as much as her if not IMO moreso. The male bond is what none of them can shake. It's the platonic happy ending of something like Ken Russell's polyamorous Women in Love, or a somewhat more honest version of Robert Towne's Personal Best (which also ends similarly). I don't think Zendaya is Viola Davis, but she's also not Paris Hilton. She has a specific range of talent, possibly, but she does keep challenging herself and the work she's done this year has been pretty good (I can't speak to Euphoria, as I haven't seen it). I'm only interested in the memes or online reaction if some of it's funny, but stan culture has no bearing on watching a film to me.

But that has nothing to do with the actual movie. I think the movie is excellent. Oh, and Lily-Rose Depp should be on there. That's a shame she wasn't nommed.

Hence why they have trained a lot of the (dumb) online audience to expect the longtime characters to never do controversial things.

Of course he is, when dead-eyed Wiley and the other random children also regularly make it in.

I'd rather Lucy not be wasted on another incredibly boring villain from this regime. Martin was bad enough.

I think both Guadagnino's movies are brilliant, particularly Challengers, so I'm not thrilled they were snubbed. But not surprised. I don't connect unrelated fan content (or conduct) to the quality of the movie itself, which had nothing to do with the product. Do I think either needed a ton of nominations? No, but I would've liked to see a bit more, particularly for Mike Faist. I'm glad both Conclave and The Brutalist got some recognition, though I am still unpacking the epilogue of The Brutalist. I do think Fiennes should probably win. Isabella is lovely and very talented but there was no reason to nominate that small part other than who she is (a la Jamie Lee Curtis, who should've won for a role they would never nominate in Halloween 2018 so they gave it to her instead for EEAAO). I have no interest in Complete Unknown, and I still need to see The Substance this week. I saw Fargeat's first film and it was solid. Oh, and very happy for Anora and Mikey Madison. I still need to see The Apprentice and Nickel Boys.

Working Vanessa to death for a short run again 20 years after the first time they did it and drove her away isn't the answer. Give her a contract with the breaks and potential outs they lavish upon James Patrick Stuart and leave it at that. Easy. She can shore up a lot of this show on a long-term basis. I am catching up since I'm finally back in L.A. but I will say at least LNL2 still have it while the story is pure boilerplate. I'd rather they were investigating literally anything more interesting. Same goes for Alexa as Lulu - the energy is there for her and it's great, but why sideline her at Deception and have her obsessing over that mutant?

Certainly none in the 2010s. IIRC he literally fled the Q mansion on foot like a bat out of hell after being found out as being in league with Fluke. I thought it was too bad as I felt there was a real spark there with Jane. But of course they have so much bad history. The same could've held for Richard Burgi's Paul Hornsby recast as Burgi is a very accomplished actor, but he was wasted by turning out to be serial killer. And the show passed on Jane's major chemistry with Michael Easton when Finn first came on, and seems to have no appetite for pairing her with Cody. So castoff recurring player MEK it is.

I do wonder if they ever had him mention Llanview. I'm still stymied by the magazine print preview I saw not long ago from late '91 which indicated he would reappear on OLTL in time for Megan's "exit" the following year (death). I wonder what happened there.

Wow - thanks.