Vee

Sasha Calle (Lola Rosales, Y&R) co-stars in the new Matt Damon/Ben Affleck heist thriller The Rip for Netflix.

Gloria Monty's Santa Barbara is a wild idea on so many levels, given that show's already turbulent history.

Married or not, I don't think Smitty and Martin have been lacking in story (unlike Naomi and Jacob where any occasional excitement comes from his association with Kat, or Ashley in general post-Andre). They also have had at least a couple fairly explicit love scenes in the last few months, and plenty of overt physical affection over the last year. My issue is not with them being married, but with the show not generating enough hot new couples or triangles. The rest of your post I largely agree with, though I think Chelsea and Madison has begun to improve a bit once they settled in post-kidnapping. Except for Madison's presently-invisible mother. I would love for the Bill/Dani/Andre triangle to hit high gear (and I am all for Bill and Dani reuniting further down the road, breaking up again, etc). But you can't rely on just those three triangle/quad-wise. Just as one example, when they had Naomi fall drunk into Izaiah's arms I thought this might lead to her being tempted away from Jacob by the prodigal son while he was already involved with Eva, and Jacob ultimately having that much-discussed fling with Kat fandom has been clucking about for the better part of nine months. But now Izaiah and Naomi don't interact; Izaiah rarely interacts with anyone other than Eva and his family. That should change.

I'm not watching that and you can't make me. I do think Karla is lovely on the show to be clear. The bigger stuff she's given them is simply what they've asked for from Dani.

That explains a lot.

Thanks!

Do we know what season the 98 episode was from? Asking for a friend.

Karla always put my teeth on edge on GL, and that sort of poisoned her for me re: B&B (a show I barely tolerate as is). But she's been excellent here. Especially in the last six months.

I don't think they've been that prudish re: Kat or Sam, per se. While Kat waited to lose it which was a character choice, they've been very frank about them getting it on since given Tomas' whole hospital ordeal once they got hot and heavy. And I think the rest of the show is remarkably candid and edgy about sex with the other couples (including the sex education material with the two teenagers) more than most of today's soaps. I also don't think it frowned on Sam having sex, but instead indicated that the guy she was with bad news. Yet for whatever reason they've played it very safe with Eva and Izaiah. That is what doesn't make sense to me when both are grown, experienced adults. Those two can and should be steaming it up more, but instead they get a lot of sexy wordplay and very earnest conversations, and not the hot and heavy intimate scenes that Dani and Andre, or Joey and Vanessa or Smitty and Martin (who got a couple fairly explicit scenes last fall), or even Jacob and Naomi (the most boring couple on the show) get. I do think the show is very progressive in its regular depiction of Martin/Smitty (who have pretty regular heavy story, and are gearing up for a new one) or Chelsea/Madison (who may be in the wings for more) who are core couples and regularly featured. I found Madison to be a pretty artificial insta-love interest at first - they made it official faster than even most lesbian cliches - but they've started to flesh her out more, bit by bit. I just would like to see them become an actual three-dimensional unit, and Chelsea herself needs more work as is. I think they should lean into RhonniRose doing more screwball comedy tbh. That seems to be her best asset right now.

They need to get serious about strong love stories or triangles in the new year. As it stands, we're saddled with Tomas for Kat atm (though I don't think that will last), and Eva/Izaiah often feels like older people trying to write for sexy youths but being unsure of how far to go with it. Yeah, I think they got it on over the holidays but it still feels a bit afterschool special. The show has not had a problem with being quite explicit or raw with other couples, but here they seem gunshy - maybe because they want to sand down Eva's edges. There needs to be more depth to the writing there and more complications added with them, namely Kat in the mix, or maybe Naomi mixing in with Izaiah and wrecking everything. (Nothing else is likely to make Naomi interesting) Joey and Vanessa are evil, kinky and for my money still compelling to watch as performers, but they also have an expiration date because Joey is the devil. That's a duo you watch for crashout drama, story machinations and skullduggery, not as a legit love story. What's more, Leslie entering Joey and Marcel's sphere is far more interesting for everyone involved than his officially being down bad for Vanessa (though I'm glad he is, it makes them a bit more equal). Everyone else worth mentioning is happy coupled and solid - Vernon/Anita, Martin/Smitty, Chelsea/Madison and the terminally boring Hawthornes. The only big new game in town is Dani and Andre and the perpetual thread with Bill, but that's not enough. Greg Vaughan is on recurring and while that doesn't preclude him from being a very regular player (look at Jon Lindstrom as Joey, Ernestine Morrison as Shanice, etc.) it's time to start seeing Kial Rollins weekly and get that moving with Nicole. Ted and Shanice I am agnostic on because Ted can be such a fool, but they do have real chemistry. And then there's the youth. Make Donnell and Deanna regular fixtures, add some people and go.

I also like what I see of Katherine Delafield. She's got spunk. But it's hard to buy any of these women as a patch on Holly or Anna as a love interest for Scorpio.

Death, taxes, and readily-available or syndicated Dark Shadows: The three constants of life.

Crazy how much more charming and well, human Alex Alegria is in these interview clips than literally any time he is onscreen as Tomas.

I just have found Greg Beecroft obnoxious in every role I've ever seen him in. I have admittedly seen very little of his Faux Duke, but I found him wildly miscast from the jump and then bizarre and effete in the actual part. I have no idea why on Earth he was cast.

LMAOOOO! Nice. If you do need to find the uninterrupted episode let one of us know.

I still believe a lot of this would not have changed if not for Patrick Mulcahey. This team (most of which is back in place) seemed content to trot along with Michael and his saintly wife playing happy families and pumping out kids (and other tedious elements of the show, many of which persist in 2026) to appease Facebook seniors until something shook them up BTS. I def think FV would've inevitably fired or killed off Sam though lol. She was on a track for an exit long before this. I didn't know until I went to the insanely detailed GH wiki that Wyndemere was actually built by the founder of Wyndham's Department Store! And has a strange, spooky gothic origin story on par with something like Dark Shadows or Arkham Asylum from the Batman comics, where the estate's namesake (Wyndham) was supposedly haunted to his grave by ghosts. They could make more of that today for a Halloween story - I know they tried to do a bit of a ghost story (or faux-haunting) there around that time in '89, I assume when Wyndemere was first introduced.

They definitely should. I had to sail the high seas to find one I missed.

They are clearly setting up romantic intrigue with Sidwell, Lucy and Ava onscreen atm. I'd take that further and have Lucy marry him after already getting wise to his schemes, hoping to make a play and retake full control of Deception using his money, which would loop in Kevin concerned for her, maybe a returning Serena, etc. Then you have a few months of Lynn and Carlo Rota having fun dancing around each other since they both have such a facility for comedy, maybe him also squiring Ava around as a mistress, and you end up with some sort of Jonathan Kinder situation from AMC with a dead Sidwell at the end of it. Easy enough to do. And yes, I'd bring back Aunt Charlene to visit and cluck over Lucy if Maree is willing.

There's a lot of kooky stuff in 1989, but Aunt Charlene is an absolute hoot. I've seen Maree Cheatham on many soaps but I had forgotten about Charlene, who I saw a fair amount of on PC as a talk-to for Lucy, etc. back in the day. I wish they'd have her pop up again today along with, say, the returning Serena to give Lucy a pick-me-up. MC is doing DOOL so she's clearly capable (or was 5 years ago when DOOL filmed her recent appearances!).

This has nothing to do with the show, it's all Paramount/CBS.

Nuking all of Season 1 mid-week is tacky of Paramount.

Greg premiered a couple weeks ago. It's not that serious.

No idea. I didn't dig that far back in '89. I thought Laura named the baby Luke Jr. or something (which they later called Lucky) in the '84 story but I could be wrong.

Yeah. I'd much rather bring on some young techbro guy or girl today, and much later it turns out they're secretly a Smith, maybe targeting Mayor Laura. I do think Leigh McCloskey really sank his teeth into the role, esp as I'm revisiting it as an adult. But I do recall his schemes got pretty silly at times in his final year on the show.

It is genuinely surprising. You don't hear of something like that often in this day and age. But it does lend credence to how often they always called each other 'my best friend' right to the end, on Tony's deathbed. He called her that there. But I do think they clearly became compatible lovers. Also of note: During her pre-wedding tiff with Tony, Bobbie apparently went to visit Luke and Laura. When she comes back to GH Amy asks how they are.