Vee

I have a lot of hope for The Gates. I'll be there.

That too, especially with Tracy. And her burgeoning relationship with Stella. There were almost always decent or good scenes sprinkled into the show when I looked in on it occasionally before this. I'm sure there will be again. But this was the first time I'd watched daily in years with the exception of last February's Spencer/Trina Ice Princess adventure, which was silly but fun. For most of the time since 2015 I've only kept up with the show in intermittent clips or the very occasional spate of episodes here and there if something or someone caught my interest. Unless something massive changes at this show, that's what I'll be going back to.

I'll probably stay through Davies' first day. I am in no rush to stay current anymore though, lol

I think she's been a mix for awhile now really, but the writing for her was much more intelligent and nuanced since the writers' change. The glimmers of stuff that felt a lot like PM to me - the really wonderful series of scenes about Marshall's misdiagnosis; Trina's long series of monologue segments at Spencer's gravesite; Drew and Nina's business/political canoodling and possibly this Ross Marler-esque political setup for Drew Q - and just the enhanced focus on families and connectivity and character really stood out, as well as righting the scales re: Sonny however clumsily it was done at times. Maxie especially improved tremendously. But there was also a ton of random mess. You can't tell me PM was invested in the Home and Heart/QVC 'Let's Pay For My Daytime Friends' Insurance' Showcase stuff. Ohhh yeah, I forgot about that. I was gonna drop it this week but I guess I'll wait out the month! I do think PM probably was all in on the kooky Heather thing to keep using AM. I was into some of it unlike most, but I also thought it was over-featured.

Those Tracy/Gregory scenes were pretty good, though. I'll miss that level of intelligence.

Yeah, she shows up every now and again for Ava's (or when he was alive, Julian's) regretful reveries, wearing the same dress Kelly Sullivan's Connie got killed in complete with gunshot wound. I think the last time she popped up was in Julian's death spiral along with Ghost Duke. Let's just say MW's return performances left a lot to be desired. I think Ava is a great villain and should be allowed to be that. It's when they tried to rehab the character and make her buddy-buddy with Carly, Sonny, Nina, etc. that it doesn't work and is just an excuse to keep Maura around. I expect we'll be going back to that.

I do suspect part of the disconnect re: how Kristina, Joss, Anna, Laura, etc. suddenly came to various different mindsets or realizations about Sonny may have been the product of a guy who hasn't worked on this show in decades. But honestly it needed to be done, and it would've been awkward and clumsy no matter how they were going to do it after 20+ years of Sonny worship across the whole town. So I was mostly satisfied with the handling of it despite people like Kristina having slight amnesia (and Kristina has always been a daddy's girl, so I could buy her denial). And I appreciated the scenes with Molly, etc. unpacking their pasts with the mob. But, here we are! I do think the lack of momentum in the Jason/Pikeman SL is down to a) the FV guarantee shuffle and b) possibly actively sabotaging the show, lol. I suppose next we'll also get Valentin's teary confession and blaming it all on Jennifer Smith or something, so FV can keep Primetime Royalty JPS for yet another season to tickle the ivories and weep.

I guess it's time to trot out Megan Ward's terrible acting as Ghost Connie (sorry, I loved her in the 2000s but every appearance she's made since in this role has been dreadfully bad) to make Ava cry and weep and do penance for her natural self once again so they can reset the character to 'kind of nice and friendly with everyone, actually.'

It has felt very similar from the beginning. And I say that as someone who found a lot of improvement in the show and that the glimmers (I think) of what PM was trying to do mostly worked.

Because structurally he's keeping the show on air and profitable, and they're clearly not interested in finding anyone else who could possibly do that.

Or in some cases, cut 10-15 mins from the episode lol.

That is absolutely the sense I've gotten.

It's shades of Corday's long codependent relationship with Dena Higley or Tomlin/Whitesell tbh. Any time something got too bold it was back to them as his security blanket despite Dena being nightmarish and panned for years. Or, I suppose in a different way, whatever the hell has gone on with Y&R/Sony and Josh Griffith for years. FV has built and controlled the creatives at GH since RC got fired - D&C were his people and wrote largely what he wanted. PM was loud, had a proud reputation at GH predating all of them and was not a yes man. It doesn't take Encyclopedia Brown to crack this case. It's the same old lazy, safe stuff to keep control.

idk, it's pretty obvious to me. But it would be great if he did one.

FV clearly never was behind this hire or losing his trained writers, which is why Van Etten is back. The show was much improved but also deeply schizophrenic and stuck in the mire. Now Frank gets to keep control and reset. Sad, predictable but I don't have to watch it.

Bye!

What a hoot to have Gates McFadden from Star Trek voicing Mother Askani/Rachel. She got Dazzler's powers totally wrong but I still love it! She's voiced X-Men stuff in the past (for games, if nothing else) and she needs to be onboard!

Yes, I was thinking of the Senate thing.

Am I the only one getting a 'Ross Marler runs for mayor' vibe from the 'Drew Quartermaine runs for office' thing?

I know Finn was a drug addict and therefore doesn't drink but was alcohol ever his actual problem? He's a much better actor than Paevey, but still comes off like a juvenile manchild.

Llanview's own Laurence Fishburne re-teams with Francis Ford Coppola for his long-gestated dream project, Megalopolis.

It's happened before, sure, but is not his preference or wasn't in the past. From what I recall he prefers the shorter bite-sized scenes bc he believes it keep the youth demo watching, he has since OLTL. I still feel too much of his mindset is stuck in the mid-late 2000s when he was fixated on the Starr Manning Show.

It's giving The Birdcage. I'm waiting for Hank Azaria to show up to clean the place.

Anna is really planning to keep this Jumanji wallpaper of Sasha's. Okay, Frank.

As always, since it's been quoted above from behind my block, I must reiterate that 'quiet back channel talk' would need to be elaborated on as opposed to the actual details merely amounting to 'I saw people talking about it on Twitter/suggesting it could be true'. That is not back channel talk, that's just something someone saw on Twitter. Yes, it is very plausible to me that FV or Varni could be complaining about the longer scenes which are not at all Frank's style or preference, or that there could be a creative clash between various parties. But given the track record here I need a little more to go on to call that authoritative. If Donna has an actual, non-Twitter source outside of people talking to her on social media saying this or that or hypothesizing, that is fine and fair and it's not my business to know who that is. I will be the first to admit that she seemingly got it right about Kirsten Storms' BTS issues before anyone else, AFAIK anyway. But a lot of times she just seems to go by Twitter gossip and vibes instead. I need more than that.