Vee

I admittedly didn't pay that much attention to press in the D&C era but I don't remember FV ever speaking on seasonal story stuff in the place of those writers. I don't remember them being super unavailable either.

Is it me or are they chem testing Anna with Calvin the PCPD instructor (Kendrick Cross)?

Some of those folks are plugged in, whereas a lot are just very self-important and chasing DC's old wake from back when they were totally in Frank and Ron's pockets. I really don't know which is the case with these alleged people, but regardless dropping a statement like that requires a little more information two rocky months in.

Yeah, I'm gonna need more than some random podcaster and a vague statement like that.

Who is that and how are they credible? What exactly did they say and who said it?

Which I would find very curious. PM is not known for being non-vocal. I am not going to form any assumptions about Mulcahey's ability to HW based on his very benighted time at GL knowing what I do of that era. I do think GH could well be a similar clusterfuck atm - especially if he was hired over FV's head. The show does feel sandbagged.

This is a hypothesis that may well be accurate, but unless @cassadine1991 is willing to source his claim we're all just spitballing. It would also be highly beneficial for the new HWs to actually give a standard magazine interview to talk about this stuff and their plans, as is customary for new creatives.

Erika usually waited, then unloaded much later. The only time she did when a story was still airing that I know of were possibly in '96 during the "Viki is hypnotized to kill Kevin" story under Laiman(?), and definitely during Dena Higley's reign in the mid-2000s when she sounded off about the writing in her newsletter. This was among the first times (if not the first) that the newsletter leaked to online and the mags got ahold of it, and within weeks she was fired. Erika's response was basically a verbal shrug.

Erika stuck to the official story on Farley Granger as recently as the OLTL oral history, which makes me think it was probably true because she was extremely candid and no bullshít for the rest of that book lol (as she often has been over the years in her fan newsletter, which flew under the online radar for many years). I do know the other rumor, which got to some pretty dicey territory in terms of names.

I thought it was fine tbh. Lucy gave a nice, touching tribute to both onstage with giant pictures of them onscreen behind her between musical acts. I appreciated it. I would love to believe that, but Imma need to see some sources for this stuff lol. I think the show has improved a lot, but it's got a long way to go and needs to get there faster. The weird wannabe tastemakers on social media tire me out with their self-importance (and are way too fond of the shítty or boring couples of the last decade), but they're not wrong about the speed at this point.

"True stories?" This is where I'm at. The show is considerably improved on the fundamentals and generally engaging even though it's got a lot of work to do. It feels a lot smarter, even if the canvas is so messy. They're never on Hulu, sadly. Jason and Anna's bond isn't really friendship IMO, but it is still too tight for me. Their connections with Anna were always there to put the two men over to the audience in the last decade via a fan favorite, and IMO Finola had played too much into it with Maurice. The Jason thing I can at least say she respects his skills in combat, as Anna is a highly skilled covert operative. That's a new Nurse Amy, no relation but who clearly is supposed to be a homage to Amy Vining. They introduced her maybe ten years ago. She has all the same character traits as Amy Vining but is far more annoying. Amy Vining was acknowledged as having passed away and was honored by Lucy along with Jessie Brewer onstage during the 2013 Nurses Ball.

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It's not that expansive, lol. Just a quick and relatively adept way to clean things out fast lol. I can do it faster! We can do a hurricane or a plague!

The legendary Roger Corman, who launched so many careers (Scorsese, Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich and so many more) and was unbelievably prolific, has died at 98. @DRW50 From not long ago: Here is some of his recent appearance on The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder, where he was honored with a screening of several of his films. I had a feeling his time was short but I am so glad they got to honor him in this way. If you have never seen Easy Rider, Peter Bogdanovich's stunning debut film Targets, or Corman's own The Trip (written by Jack Nicholson) or A Bucket of Blood (or his Poe film cycle, especially The Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia) I highly recommend them all - Corman had a major hand in either directing, producing or shepherding and growing the talent behind all of them. Film would not be what it is today without him.

I thought she'd have changed it by now, but no!

I like it, but I think you'd need to hit some consequences well before July which I agree is a great moment for bigger action (and which is close but not close enough for me after the last two months of the slow hand). Let Ava's machinations end with Kristina horribly injured and miscarrying in this hit without her action or inaction being known and instead blamed on a fight with Joss, and then she links up with Valentin and gets in with Pikeman. She informs him she will either get Sonny into a marital bed within the year or not, but either way his territory will become hers when she and Pikeman cross him out and then carve it up. Meanwhile, yeah I would injure either Jake, Danny or Rocco in the same incident, causing drama for the parentals. When it comes out that Jason is putting them all at risk for Carly she finally gets the heat and leans more on Wagger. The miscarriage shatters Molly and T.J.'s already very-frayed relationship. Meanwhile, Natalia's scheming to divest Blaze of the wounded Kristina at her weakest point strains the girls, as Blaze seems increasingly noncommittal about her career vs. her girlfriend and the mercenary way her family has always done things. Natalia also tries to capitalize on her relationship with Sonny in business, and quickly makes a more active nuisance of herself as she begins to commit corporate espionage against Deception and attempt to rope in Nina and Drew. I'd probably give Chase and BLQ a month or two of wedded bliss and then either kill him or send him off in a coma (to eventually write him out for good) in the assault in July. That guy is a manchild and a test pattern to me. His replacement on the force, dragged out of his existential exile, would be Lucky Spencer. Other July casualties can probably include Natalia (scheming to the end!) who possibly gets got by Ava personally amidst the chaos, possibly an injured Michael sent away for a recast as mentioned, Jordan, etc. Gregory would die from ALS complications only after saving people at the scene, going out an unexpected hero with Tracy at his side. Finn would of course return to Doctors Without Borders with both his family gone. Sasha would be maimed or something and also decide it's finally time to dip tf out of the town that's given her nothing but grief - whatever she's looking for in a new life, she can't find it here and Cody isn't ready to leave Mac or the Qs behind. Heartbroken Blaze can probably also dip. Molly and T.J. leave, trying to mend their battered relationship. And once Anna draws down on Valentin and has him dead to rights following the botched attack, she blows him away. The only person who gets away clean for now: Ava, since the only one who knew about her is Valentin. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few people I'd kill or fire. To be clear, this is the chill version where I wouldn't just kill a bunch of people next week. Which is a good option! I don't have an interest in bear-baiting those old fanbases tbh. JFP was right about one thing long ago, but in the wrong way: Sometimes a soap audience does need to be trained. In this case they need to be re-trained to not just watch for their couples or their characters and FF the rest. If you're watching my show you better be prepared to watch the hour to keep up on WTF is going on. I'm not writing just to stoke the embers from 20 year old YouTube clips for a daily bump. I think you can write substantive material for Jason and Elizabeth and Jason and Sam (who have had more), and I think some of the Jason/Carly material has been quite good and well-acted. But it can't be about either ignoring them all for Carly, and it can't be about baiting them with a reunion which AFAIC should not happen. Both those couples are burnt to me. The FV shuffle, IMO.

There is much to improve and fix but for the record, I have absolutely been far more bored by D&C's show than this lol. I honestly never want to see Jason paired with any of these three women again and might die if they went back for the umpteenth round of Jasam, because I do like that Sam seems to have finally and definitively moved beyond him as she's been working on doing since his first 'death' in 2012. (Not that I care about the pairing with Dante, bc I barely do despite some good writing during the shooting) That being said I do think they could play the relationships with Jason more. The lack of them and especially Liz makes me wonder if it is down to Korte and her alleged Carly fixation, and if so it's time to demote.

Thank God

It's just not very good coffee! I would lay waste to this show in a week. I know how I'd do it too, starting with that damn wedding. Character work is important but sometimes you have to go scorched earth. It seems obvious they may be unable to though.

Wonderful news.

I do. I was for it as a bold change after decades of tiresome psycho Heather tbh, but I acknowledge I am clearly one of the few, the proud, the marginally brave.

Tuc Watkins (OLTL) is featured in the next season of Criminal Minds: Evolution.

According to Google (grain of salt) this kid is about to turn 19 and turning 20 next year, so I really don't think pairing him with Trina (TA is three years older) or whoever else would necessarily be an issue. Maybe he just is graduating late? He looks older.