Vee

We've been asking that same question to the heavens for awhile now. But yes, the cousin thing was a key part of the 1991 intro and the 2015 flashback episode with the young Spencers - Joey Luthman played both Luke and Bill as teens. IIRC Luke and Bobbie's mom Lena was an Eckert, Bill's aunt.

Still one of the funniest things I've ever heard. I also didn't know how ridiculous it was til I looked it up.

I do think he's attractive! People used to mock me for how down bad I was for him in the 2010s lol. Again, I'm all for dadbods and normal physiques IRL. It's just that the whole character is such a schlub that it's just one more thing that makes me tired of him, like this is our spent leading man.

I am fine with dadbod dudes IRL - they can be hot. But it's the whole personality of Michael, the years of bad story, etc. that make the larger overall package unappealing to me. And I don't mind Natalia in theory, but in practice all she is doing is wandering around complaining, propping up her mediocre daughter (though Blaze was a bit better today) and now the classic dreaded chemistry test with Sonny. I'm open to the brother, open to better story, but I want to watch her make trouble and add drama and action, otherwise I don't need her here.

That location shoot and its lighting were not Eva LaRue's friend. Jeeee-zus.

That's because it still definitely is. I had a feeling from the beginning when he was hired that there was no turnaround time for a new long-form bible; I think they expect people to just jump on without clearing any new stories or characters ahead of time. There's a lot of improvement I see day to day which I often enjoy watching, and an admirable new ethos re: the mob, but there's a very slow pace to the plot or changing anything too much and I wonder what or who is behind that. I wouldn't be shocked if FV is handicapping it, but it could well be ABC becoming overinvolved again - or both. And the FV guarantees/taping process make the pacing issues that much more difficult. I think they started strong in March with the Jason story, Ava scheming and the Pikeman reveal but right now everything feels stuck in second gear, waiting for FV to let key characters and storylines take up more airtime. The newest and freshest thing for me remains Drew and Nina and hell, even the Heather redemption stuff which is controversial for people at best lol. I hope they are allowed to actually end the Pikeman story in grand fashion this sweeps. But I'm not holding my breath. In short I think it's not enough time to truly judge things, but I also think there is plenty to analyze and yes, critique.

ETA: nvm, I see DRW got to it. The Times is still pissed.

I'd love to get rid of Sonny. But I'm trying to think about the most realistic possibility, which is that MB is unlikely to leave this show unless it's off the air or he chooses to retire. So I'm working with what I consider a viable option. I would love to destroy the whole house of Corinthos and leave just a few of the kids behind. That said I think Sonny could run a legit business. He's had many opportunities. But as he told Brenda long ago, he does not want to.

Upon further review of Thursday I can’t really tell if this Aiden can act or not, there's not enough material to judge but he sure does grin wider than the last one. And his eyes are wild, possibly insane! Enzo’s were usually at the Sonic drive thru or analyzing Tortured Poets Dept lyrics, so that's an improvement at least. It feels like some days are just FV getting rid of spare actor guarantees and utilizing whoever they know will be on-set - specifically, all the fuckin' kids at once. I am all for quiet family connection days, but not when they are dominated by Sasha, a half dozen kids, Deception operating out of the standing set of the week (the Q living room) and Love Boat Scott 'helping' on his phone. I also never need to watch Violet, glue-eater Wiley and James (cannot believe plastic Nathan has a kid) dominating scenes again. FV knows where this leads back in the days when the network made him and Ron shut down the interminable kiddie love triangle of Spencer/Emma/Cameron in 2015. At least the Tracy/Gregory scenes were actually very good, again. I used to be very fond of both Chad's body and his acting ability and found him underrated. This has long since ceased being the case. He was not prepared for a love scene last week, and he is clearly not prepared for major story. It is past time to recast with an energized and hot guy, but that may never happen.

To me the best option for Jason has always been one he is currently doing something similar to: He takes a deal c/o Scorpio and works for the WSB in conjunction with the PCPD in town or he goes to supermax and stays there. I highly doubt his situation with Wagger will last, but I sure wouldn't mind if it did. Sonny - he needs to have it all taken away (probably by some blowout scorched earth scenario with the likes of Ava) and end up tooting along with a cart in the back alleys for a bit lol. Then he can work himself back up to some sort of largely legit white collar business and become Brenda's conniving kept man, transition to sort of a skeezy Victor Newman patriarch focused on meddling in his children and wife's storylines. Which is what he was moving towards in the late 2000s anyway, when Dante was first ascendant. The throughline could be something similar to how Marlo Stanfield ended up on The Wire - he is legit and 'clean' but can't stand it and misses the action, living a quieter life of comfortable and privileged desperation. Sonny's ongoing machinations for/against his loved ones could be how he processes and internalizes his resentment of being out of power forever.

I found the look of the '90s pretty strong myself. I miss the fog, the sound of the harbor and the boats that used to always be in the background. But I understand why people OD'ed on the docks and such given the omnipresence of the mob in the early 2000s. Why would making Blaze Roy DiLucca's daughter make anything better?

Bear in mind she started as a dayplayer in the extremely silly '80s soap-esque 'Chase is an undercover pop star to bust BLQ's Dr. Luke-esque producer!' storyline. She was his singing partner under the thumb of the evil producer. I thought she was cute but that a bigger role would be a bit too much. I was right! Compared to some of these sets I miss those foggy docks these days. A lot.

I thought the PD obstacle course was fine and looked about as functional as one of those would look, esp since we weren't shown all of the course. I found the scenes last year where Sonny was supposedly wandering around 'the PC streets' to meet Selina Wu and it was clearly just an exterior studio door in broad daylight far more embarrassing. But again, this has been going on for decades at this point. I think GH has done a lot better by most of its studio-bound remotes in recent years, but I am never a fan of the 'wander the park' stuff. Her real name is Alison. I am not calling her that.

These dumbass 'walking in the park, oh it's you!' remotes have been going on since the mid-2000s tbh. It started out at GL and ATWT, then AMC and to a lesser extent OLTL picked them up, and now GH has been doing it a lot over the last few years.

Sir/ma'am, I admire the fire but they are Lit-erally blood related!

We're not trying! 100%.

It's true! I'd take it!

I'll be shocked if Dante actually resigns unless it's a temporary plot thing, or he's doing some WSB shít. I wonder if he's going to be a mole inside the Bureau/Pikeman, since he has a background with the WSB.

I would love to see Sly again but I doubt he's in town. My fear is if they brought him back the show would just put him with Liz because why not have her run through the whole family lol.

I'll only get interested when they fire MCE, EH, etc. for what, the sixth time?

It is definitely the same bakery. IIRC the mentions started around the time of the Fluke debacle in the early 2010s, when they were originally planning to bring back Bill himself as the heavy among others. Lord knows who runs it now.

My curiosity is directed elsewhere. If we see a P&G soap committing to gay story you know it's a new dawn, lol. The old school stories about them reacting to social content are legend. I watched part of the first season of that show and loved the cast, including Merle Dandridge (now probably best known for her role in both the game and show of The Last of Us). I should get back to it.

In the past FV was clearly the buffer/shield between Ron and ABCD as much as possible, particularly in the Frons years (with the exception of stuff like Kish, where he completely ceded to the network after some demo hits and dumped all the gays and minorities from OLTL in favor of white hardbody hunks more to his own historical taste - just ask anyone who unfortunately watched I Wanna Be a Soap Star). Since Ron got axed I think FV has largely been running his fiefdom. I don't think it's about the network much at all. I never got the sense the network gave much of a shít what was running at that slot in these last 8 years so long as it turned a decent profit and was cheap - I think the show's weak, nonconfrontational storytelling, generic young white leads, Black C-story, zillions of cute kids and OLTL favorites/soap star cameos are all just Frank from top to bottom, trying to do the least in order to keep the show inoffensive and alive while also inserting all his preferences. I would welcome a Shelley Curtis. My experience with this show for years and years now. This shít started on GL, AMC and ATWT in the 2000s and has only gotten worse. Half these kids on the show should not exist.

They are exactly that. It's insane. I could've sworn a few of those dudes were actually in Die Hard lol. I envy you your access, I have only seen a handful of eps between February through to mid-March.

To be more accurate I enjoyed the last years of OLTL, but they were full of flaws and many highs and lows. Do I think OLTL was still a very active, vital show at the end on the network and am I grateful for that? Yes, and I thought the final episodes were a shining example of that right down to both the happy endings for some characters and the cliffhanger - I feel ending a soap opera on a definitive 'end' for the show itself is a fundamental betrayal of the longstanding comfort and the social contract with the audience, who need to believe that world and those stories go on. Did I think the last year of OLTL was very good? No lol, it had a ton of terrible stories as well as some good ones, but they wrapped it up fairly well in the last 2-3 weeks. We will agree to disagree about the NB. I don't think I can argue with anyone about it having a certain element of cringeworthiness, because it always has had that but I still think it's a tradition to uphold. That said I'm not exactly crying tears about not seeing it this year, because I think the truly cheap presentations of it with the mortifying nurse numbers, autotuned songs, etc. in the last decade-plus have often just not been worth it. Give it a break and bring it back with something a bit less tacky. As far as you can with the Nurses Ball lol.