Vee

I think the first week of June was fairly strong, despite the Sonny stuff I mentioned, and the onscreen acknowledged stall with Pikeman (by Brennan in the script) or on many plots, like with Kristina vs. Natalia or Ava and Natalia - well-written sparring, but what is the point? Why is the surrogacy story still going? Why did Pikeman have to stall this long unless FV is trying to save JPS? I can't speak for the rest of the month as I'm still going through it and have only watched a bit of this week ahead. I still think the Drew, Nina, etc. stuff early in the month is pretty well done, and the Nina/Maxie stuff still sings for me. I'm waiting for it to totally fall off before I drop it again, but I intend to.

I'm out probably at the end of the month, since Mulcahey quit and his work is already being affected/barely even got onscreen. The wedding/death stuff with Gregory, etc. was well done, as were a number of other things but that was in April and May. It's clear the show is a mix of creative/executive directions right now but it has been even since the beginning in March, and the focus on the town turning on Sonny, the refocus of the moral center has gotten a bit muddled again in the last month or so. There's still some intelligent dialogue and good scenes, but what upsets me is that with the exception of Drew/Nina/Willow, etc. it's clear almost none of PM's stories really made it to the screen and he was allegedly prevented from trimming the cast as well. (I'm still not convinced ME or JPS/Valentin are going anywhere with Mulcahey now gone.) GH could still be great, but keeps just fumbling at the gate. I have little faith in the remaining creatives continuing any lasting quality.

Dr. Mark Greene? Really, Ron?

Me neither.

One down. @DRW50

And why is half the cast swimming in their fúcking shirts??

It's just frustrating seeing a lot of great building blocks and setup about to go to waste, and not just the Drew/Nina/Willow, etc. stuff. Jake stumbling upon Finn while he and his little dumbass friends trying to drink underage is classic soap to me, and Hudson should still be on a contract (and the presence of an Asian pal reminds me they really should add young characters or another doctor - or both - from the Asian Quarter). And Carly sticking her nose in on Drew and Nina for no real reason is classic Carly, though I won't be surprised at all if EK and co. use Carly to bust up this entire storyline and end it ASAP so Nina can go back to her role as the show's all-purpose punishment goat. I did think the early June confrontation scenes with Sonny v. Carly, Brennan and Valentin, Anna and Jason re: his loyalty to Sonny and her past with Valentin, even Carly and Kristina as well as Ava/Natalia and Kristina v. Natalia were very good, as was the amazing stuff from Tracy and co. at Gregory's funeral (minus Violet's damn poem). But it's a definite mix of interests on the show. You can tell they're trying to reset Sonny now back to a softer place and have him all grief-stricken about Jason suddenly. Ava seems to just be randomly scheming at this point. And they even had Brennan call out the stall in the show by complaining that Valentin has been stringing out his schemes with Pikeman for months. Why is Brennan still on this show? What is his purpose and what is the purpose of his flirtation with Carly? Just a few random women on FB down bad for this dayplayer? Who cares? Move this along. And yet half the show still really works for me, but I'm still catching up so we'll see how downward it trends. And don't get me started on how someone - Korte, Van Etten, whoever - just will not prioritize Trina. Gio is a beautiful kid but seems just very nice and there atm - what is the conflict if Trina gets a random nice guy, unless he is a deliberate contrast to Spencer (who was arrogant, cocky, rich, damaged) and then has other layers? What is the purpose of highlighting the physical similarity to Spencer unless they're going to a weird psychological place? I think it's good to add more non-core people, but he looks so similar to Spencer it makes me wonder if they should've just bitten the bullet, pulled the band-aid off and recast the role with Giovanni Mazza then and there months ago. It's frustrating too because I can see how you could wrap up half the current mess (starting with Pikeman) in a week or two tops and then just reset and leave in place what works, which for my money is still a fair amount. But it's not going to happen. I could even get behind bringing back Budig for a few weeks (and I hate Hayden) to get rid of Violet - Liz thinks she'll keep her, then thinks her sister will stay, then watches Hayden vanish with Violet again to parts unknown after a mysterious and foreboding conversation with a scheming older woman with dirt on her: Liz's mother Carolyn, recast of course, a brilliant surgeon who is real bad news. (Colleen Zenk is the too obvious choice plus she's busy, so I'm open to suggestions)

Feel like you're forgetting the time he livetweeted at length on a plane flight about "Muslim dog eaters" during his and KT's trip to Bali, or when he and Kelly were basically selling private video chats.

Drew Q as he's been since the writing change suits his best work on soaps - breezy, cocky, a bit of a schemer/con man and mischievous, not unlike early Ryan. I've always liked Cameron, I just have never felt dark drama was his wheelhouse and he became intolerable on AMC and in recent years on GH because they tried to make him do material he isn't suited for. And Cynthia has soared. I had zero use for either character til March. I've hung in as long as I have getting slowly through June because I wanted to see how much of this particular story continued (and also finding a lot of the material with Gregory's death/Finn's meltdown pretty good). Some of us have commented on how similar it seems to some of Mulcahey's work on GL with politician Ross Marler and his tangled relationships with mother and daughter Holly and Blake. I assume this will all get a hatchet taken to it with PM gone and be dismantled in short order, but I'm enjoying it for the moment. I'm ready to bail any day, so I will likely be done by July.

As Jason IIRC, but it was shortly before the Two Jasons reveal and I think was done as part of that setup to show how un-Jason he was becoming. BM's faux Jason had always been making an effort to move away from the mob and back to the Qs, Jake, Monica, etc. so it seemed like a natural evolution to me. I think CM has actually done a great job with CW and even Willow and the business/political stuff under Mulcahey, so I'll be sorry to see it get diluted or go. It also suits him to grow the beard back out. He's approaching the levels he was at in his successful early months as Drew for me, before he became Carly's male purse and tanked onscreen.

That was Aurora, yes. Drew still runs it and Nina's company (Crimson) is now under its corporate umbrella, hence their working relationship which led to their affair. I agree with you and talked about this and him and Sam a few posts ago.

I know. It's wild how far she's come, but to her credit minus some short-term switchbacks and relapses it really did start with Danny's birth in 2012.

One of my favorite moments. (Not my tweet)

I think the best thing for all parties would be for Vanessa to do a Special Guest Star stint on The Gates a la Rosemary Prinz on AMC in the first year. If anyone still has that kind of clout with soap fans today it's VM. That would leave her open to GH, which I agree is her home.

Everything Sam said about Jason was absolutely right. It's just a shame she didn't come to any of these conclusions during the first Obama administration.

As with any paywalled article, run this through archive.is to read:

The immortal Donald Sutherland - so fluid, so thrilling, so much more funny, sexy, fascinating than many modern filmgoers know - has moved on. His work in Klute, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don't Look Now, M.A.S.H., JFK and so many more never leave me.

Every law enforcement officer worth their salt within a 50-100 mile radius should know who Sam and Damian Spinelli are at this point.

It was. They were in open conflict with the polling, to the point that IIRC Karl Rove walked live down to the polling guys on-camera to complain on Election Night. The voting factors I see cited in these and other polls (less drama, future of democracy, abortion) also back that up IMO.

A bit more re: the above on this article which I suspect is the deathblow for Lewis.

Am I wrong in recalling that Fox News' polling outfit is actually pretty good?

Puck's premiere starfucker Dylan Byers has written a somewhat sniffy and defensive piece of Lewis (who parlayed his favor with an exclusive interview months ago) which I will not link to, as he is the outlier in Washington rn and Puck is bought and paid for by money and power above all.