Vee

I do think there were a lot of plans percolating over Gio early on - the constant mentions of his being an orphan, of his secret dead hero dad, etc. I suspect there was some creative tug of war over the character, over maybe testing him with Joss instead of Trina, etc. and then once Mulcahey was gone they seemed to toss most of it period and move on to other things. Their attention span seems extremely erratic even for this team lately. I can't tell if they've actually dropped or even concluded the Wagger saga. I do wonder if the Dante/BLQ secret child hints around Gio will actually return, which wouldn't shock me though I'd hate that for all of them. Me too, at this point. She also initiated the sex, not him.

There were rumors at the time that a fight with Joss would lead to Kristina miscarrying. It would've been an ideal and organic way to go but of course didn't happen. I do believe there were plans for Gio and Trina initially, and IIRC he was specifically promoted as a new man for Trina at one point (I think) and indicated some interest in her early on onscreen, but that all died on the vine and then got scrapped once Mulcahey was gone. Of course we don't know whose idea the character was anyway - I think he may have been another of those random separate auditions Frank liked and decided to make a character for, but don't quote me. (Which is a common soap opera practice to be fair, but FV has enough characters as is.) I still think in hindsight they should've simply recast Spencer immediately which would've kept the show (and PM) in a stronger position in the spring, and I think Giovanni Mazza might've been capable of it. But we'll never know now, and I think keeping Sprina out of commission suits both FV and the network's preferences. I do think Drew is genuinely mourning Sam. I just think it's played poorly by both Cameron and the writing.

It's depressing that even DAYS has changed creative hands but at GH Frank's crew has an iron grip.

The only long-form story they plan for anymore is pregnancies. Hence the endless surrogacy. It kills months of airtime and fills space. The entire Scorpio thing feels like it has only two real purposes: Write out Tristan and make the R/H shipper on staff happy, and above all provide an excuse to keep Sofia Mattsson employed after her near-firing during Mulcahey's tenure. Did anyone even find out the truth about Wagger? And then there's the Pikeman thing. I am still baffled by how we are supposed to accept that (IIRC) Brennan was in fact Pikeman or one of the two heads, but managed to get off scot-free by claiming he was merely 'undercover for the WSB' (which I think Anna has said was a crock and a cover story on his part, unless I am wrong) and now he's just a roguish romantic prospect for Carly.

It does make me wonder if they're wrapping it up somehow. Willow has spent forever claiming it was all a huge mistake and now she's immediately banging him. Understand, I am far from against them finally fúcking. But there were ways to do that kind of night of passion right and build it up quickly even now - maybe Michael turns horribly verbally abusive, maybe she learns he's been with Sasha or thinks he's serving her with divorce papers - but the total 180 she did from the night before where she sleeps with her husband and vows Drew is in the past to fúcking him in the nursery, with no real call to cheat on Michael in her mind, is just deranged. To be clear, beyond the scandalousness of this Drew story Sasha and Willow can both go into the farm thresher for me. I think they are both useless and totally overstayed on the show long-term. But if Sasha wants to embrace her inner schemer with her parents' latest abandonment and bleed Michael for all he's worth for awhile, sure, I can allow that as an exit story for both. I also think it might as well be time for Who Killed Drew Q? It's clear no one is committed to developing the character (or Nina) in an interesting way post-Mulcahey.

I don't love the idea of ruining that male friendship, and again I'm more into Cody and Tracy. It feels like a waste of time to me, but if the options are Lulu or Sasha then yes, I'll take Lulu.

Lulu?

Nina is now barely on, so that checks out. Whereas with Mulcahey the focus was clearly on those three (and Drew and Nina's hate sex/power playing moving towards romance), now Nina is the afterthought and the actual story for Willow and Drew is largely a series of hollow plot mechanics. It made zero sense for Willow to fúck Drew when she did, a few mere hours after she re-dedicated herself to Michael and resolved to put the kiss with Drew behind her, with zero knowledge that he'd slept with Sasha. A day later, maybe less, Sam is dead and she decides to bang Drew in her infant's nursery. It felt like they wanted Event A (Willow and Drew having sex) to happen but weren't ready for Event B (anyone knowing what Michael did) to occur, so they just shrugged and did it anyway. But in this instance, without having a deep enough romantic connection or at least sexual obsession established between her and Drew, it makes Willow come off totally schizophrenic and insane. God knows I blame plenty of things on Frank's whims but again I don't think Lucky's return is a big conspiracy. I think the show is purely and simply that inept on plotting returns and story (and Jason's showed this - it was on ice forever due to the same block scheduling and probably creative turmoil) and working with the relentless block taping chaos that leaves key story and characters plate-spinning for weeks and months while they rotate some in and some out to save cash. I do not think FV is prepared to stick his neck out to sabotage Jonathan Jackson's return if it came from the network. I am convinced Heather and Violet will be back soon enough. Frank never lets go. They did have Alley Mills' last(?) scene, I think, whispering creepily in the obviously unnerved Ace's ear "I'll be baaaaackkk!" You can play that beat ambiguous and still have it turn out she's harmless and happy in Sedona, but they clearly wanted to leave the audience guessing/suspicious.

Finally.

I'm aware. Still, Duplaix as a grandmother with fully grown adult married professional children is a hard one to swallow for me.

I still don't understand some of these TV Line character bios. Do they expect me to believe Daphnee Duplaix's character has not only grown children but teenage grandchildren??

Nothing I could say about Trina and the new guy would be fair or appropriate other than to say I wish they'd cast the Black Quartermaine character that was rumored during PM's run instead. Do I find it surprising that the male of color who has appeared instead is a random newbie with no real ties, summoning the spectre of Bryan and Claudia? No. As for Gio and Trina, I'll just say again that poor GM has a) a very nice body they seem intent on hiding and b) a character with the personality of amiable tofu, and he could be and do more. Am I surprised they didn't let her near him romantically after all? No.

It's just the FV way of block taping that shortchanges any coherent storytelling or throughlines. It's been getting worse since the end of OLTL.

The only silver lining! Watching Robert totter off with trick-ass Holly at this point was depressing, but I do think Tristan needs to retire. I am glad Elizabeth told Lucky off though. I get why people are infuriated with it but I think the only way to deal with what has become of the character is to have him backslide and be challenged - it makes sense for him that he'd do that. The problem with this, of course, is that this creative team rarely ever writes anything with depth or sustained focus for anyone. So I suspect what we'll get next is weeks or months of Lucky making an effort merely in the background of the main storylines (or talking about having done it offscreen) instead of having real substantive storyline about it or discussions about the issues, and over time and through osmosis that's what will settle the past. Which I find meandering and lazy. OTOH, hey, it worked for Felicia in 2012.

It looks askew.

I just remember several shows being well ahead of that 10-15 years ago. Maybe I'm misremembering, who knows.

Not for me! Sorry, I'm just not broken up about this right now. If you think the person next to you is the bad egg, that your own blood are exempt and you vote for the leopards that eat people's faces, well...

It's a bit much! Before COVID I'm pretty sure a lot of soaps were what, 3 or more months ahead? I know GH was at least that. Nothing remotely like DAYS.

No one cares or ever did.

Only political thing I care about right now is if the Senate manages to confirm all those blue judges they've teed up before the handover. If they whiff on it or Schumer and Durbin decide to act like it's still 1992 and wouldn't be sporting, fuckin' miss me. They can all retire, BTW.

AFAIC it was just supposed to kill a year's worth of time. Like virtually every pregnancy story on this show these days. And neuter the LGBT characters.

Wendy, all my best to you and yours.

Good luck with that! I'm completely disengaged from any emotion surrounding this at this point and just watching the assembly of the next Trump Backstab Brigade with detached amusement. Like a lot of people online I'm just done, and if that indeed seems to enrage MAGA so be it.

I mean, everything with Kristina's miscarriage came in after PM left. I do think Kristina seeing through Ava and Natalia had her in a stronger position as a heroine and that Mansi sold it very well. It was the surrogacy fallout that put her on everyone's shitlists, but that (and Blaze) was also from either the strike or CVE's prior run.

I know I've said many a time I wanted more people on this show to just fúck more often, but it is insane that Willow chooses now to do it without even knowing about Michael and Sasha. Earlier today(?) she vows to recommit to Michael and their marriage but less than 24-48 hours later she is letting Uncle Drew lay pipe just because Sam died! They haven't even laid enough groundwork for it to be like, 'Willow finds Drew too irresistible so any excuse is enough.' Which I could totally buy, given a bit more time and a little writing for it! But no, it just randomly happens because it's sweeps after Willow has been vowing up and down she is done with it and thinks her husband is blameless. Huh??