Vee

Can I ask what is known to be at UCLA from AW? Or if it's more easily, is there a link or site where I can survey what they have? I don't know how accessible it is to the public though my mother is an alumni.

It is going to be a hard fight and I personally would love to not be in this situation, but I do think we have a good shot. I will especially enjoy the media reaction if Trump loses and Biden wins, again. They're so mad.

Kristina's delusional behavior after T.J. and Molly's one argument was so ridiculous.

No, you moved it to a new thread you made, ignoring the one that already existed.

And why aren't you in the July thread?

I only have energy for one catastrophe at a time while recovering from a nasty virus, so I'm going to pivot to other less earthshattering yet unsurprising news:

Fine, I'll start. June was interesting in that it is a clear transition, like many have said, between some of Mulcahey's work and then reverting to staid factory settings. We've talked about some of this before in the past thread. I thought a lot of the Gregory funeral/Finn downward spiral material was often quite good - particularly Tracy's reflections on Gregory, her discussion with Stella about lost loves and the razor-sharp, tense and intelligent scenes between Finn and Alexis, trading knowledge of the nuances of addiction - though I do think ME's talent gave out near the end of his umpteenth set of crying rager scenes. Some of his stuff later in the month (not his final scenes with his family) got laughable, particularly him hurling the vodka bottles and woodenly shouting "no!" I think it was for the best to get Gregory and Finn gone ASAP and I can understand doing it quickly and relatively quietly, yet part of me also wishes they'd let him go out with a bang as I suggested previously - have a drunk Finn crash his car through the front of GH with Violet in the passenger seat, Guza-style. That at least gets the show's heart rate up, which it desperately needs right now. You don't even need to kill anyone in a setpiece like that, but it at least allows for some action. Finn's raging paranoia with Scott, ranting about the Quartermaines like this was 1999, was actually an interesting angle on the character; what if he'd lost it a month or two ago and we'd gotten several months of drunk, angry, volatile Finn like this and like those scenes with Portia and Terry, getting wilder and wilder before some sort of autovehicular incident? That could've been well worth watching, if a darker ending for the character. Still, what's done is done. The 180s on Sonny, Ava, etc. speak for themselves: Suddenly Sonny is remorseful, sensitive and caring about his friends and family, and after a single typical tearful convo with Kristina all is forgiven. Okay, Korte. Further: A month ago Ava had Natalia on tape all but signing up to repeal Obergefell while Natalia was giving Kristina hell at Blaze's recording studio but now she's eager for a sit-down meal with Sonny and the girls. We all know she's about to be busted for her homophobic remarks so I can’t wait for Natalia’s emotional meltdown apologizing to try to redeem her. The show clearly wants to have it both ways with Natalia: She came on strident, unpleasant and meddling, but they increasingly want her to be seen as a cute new option for Sonny because FV is excited to have Eva LaRue, who he openly targeted for the role from the beginning according to Mark Teschner, and wants to keep her around as another daytime prize for GH where yet another soap or primetime star sits around doing little of import. Meanwhile, the character has a bone to pick with everyone in town's background but the infamous crime boss she is semi-dating. To be clear: When ELR is in controlling bitch mode she’s quite good IMO, uncomfortably so. Natalia feels too real re: so many real life Karens. That's partly why people are so annoyed IMO. And they’re more annoyed bc Natalia doesn’t actually do anything but show up and be a bitch to Kristina, Lois, BLQ and most of the town and then flirt with Sonny. If she did something about all her complaints and threats you’d at least have a little story, but instead you have an unpleasant person who we're also expected to accept as a potential new female partner for Sonny because she is played by another soap star Frank is gaga over. I have no time for her. Then there's Brennan, another issue I have discussed before. Why is this dayplayer still here? His FB fans cannot be that numerous. And why is Carly still hanging around talking to this villain? Every time she visits Pentonville(?) she happily gives up all the intel Jason and Anna have to their enemy over and over. Is this supposed to be her heroic role on the show? Do they not get how fúcking stupid she comes off by doing this, or is someone just using mayfly brain in the writers' room, responding to social media feedback randomly wanting more of Carly with this Australian dude, with any man? If this was Guza at least it would be about Carly being Carly and doing stupid shît, but I don't think we're supposed to think that here at all. They want us to engage her with her weird connection with this bad guy who is the co-head of Pikeman, because... LW needs another chemistry option on canvas? I don't get it. So what have we got? 'Nice' Sonny again, throwing Ava out on her ass (not that I mind him bringing up Connie or being adversarial with Ava again, as he should be, but it defuses the entire scheme Ava had going under PM). Ava in a craven position, beginning to grasp and plead with people like Laura for help while slandering Sonny. Natalia all over the map. Kristina, Laura, etc. all slowly being set up to look like dupes over the last few months for turning away from unstable Sonny because Ava is now the one preaching that gospel - her being the new delivery system and also his gaslighter/druggist enables the show to once again handwave everything about Sonny's actual behavior and choices that most of the spring was spent reeducating the audience on. And then there's Jason and Anna. Anna now runs most of her op and decisions through Jason as of this last month. So yeah, the show is changing quickly and not for the better. But I am glad Alexis got her license back. And hey, Drew and Nina are still in play for now. Maxie is still revitalized, and there are still some striking, intelligent scenes. I'll probably hang til PM's name is off the show, and return for Jonathan. But we'll see.

That's so stupid if true. Katherine was the stumbling block to their true love that they vanquished before even getting properly married!

IIRC she was there for the initial exit in '96 with all the drama surrounding Jax, Ned and ELQ. Tracy was part of the inciting incident. Blaming it on Katherine is ludicrous and doesn't even line up time-wise. (That would be on the show though, not you lol) I do think it's something you don't need to get granular about onscreen decades later, maturity and mellowing would explain a lot with Lois. But I do think something could and should be said that she only saw the worst at that time in that nasty situation, and she realizes the Qs were capable of nuance and multitudes.

I was watching a fall '96 episode tonight dealing with Lois' exit, and the indictment of the Quartermaines - including the Q women, Monica and Lila - was brutal and well-written, if slanted in a way which would of course later become an issue in the next few years. Lois was right about the dysfunction in the Qs, but it wasn't the sum total of who they were or what they meant to each other or how they cared for each other. What I'm curious about is if Lois has ever reckoned with and discussed this exit and her old attitude re: the Qs in any of the recent episodes since her return - I have seen some of her talks with Ned and Tracy, and some of those scenes are quite good but Lois is really pretty lovey-dovey and copacetic with both of them overall, especially Tracy. I can understand age and maturity mellowing her out, but I really think it's a topic that needs some broaching. Anyone recall anything about this stuff?

Oh, I totally agree. I meant someone not currently around or relevant, far in the future.

Eddie Murphy discusses SNL a bit in this NYT profile, and the David Spade joke he took offense to. I also think it was probably deliberate. @Khan

I can see potentially doing something with GIo's parentage at some point since it was openly discussed in his first days on the air, with someone worthwhile and not just the same old boring options. But nine times out of ten the obsessive fanfic over making any unconnected character a secret kid of someone is embarrassing and stupid. Dex does not need to be someone's kid. Dex was never going to be someone's kid. Move on. This show needs more new blood. Gio and even boring Dex represent that.

That center of Kristina's is never going to appear onscreen. It was a plot point.

Yep. Truly bizarre. JT was so checked out by the end, having spent the bulk of his last years onscreen with Sabrina. You could tell he was often miserable in his last year or two, having been reduced to a cipher. I know that RC deliberately modeled Robin's 2013 return after Laura's return in 1981 - he had Robin lurking in town for weeks in disguise, etc. to draw it out in the same way. I could understand calling back to that classic story and milking the moment, but when it ended up becoming weeks of Robin, Faison, Obrecht, etc. all hanging out at Wyndemere with Faison dressed as Beetlejuice for Halloween it just got to be too much. In any event the wedding climax worked, and I can't fault them for that. It's the journey that Carlivati often mangles.

In fairness, that wasn't all Kimberly's fault. My understanding is the show drug it out longer even when she was available. There was no need for Robin to go back into captivity after being rescued in 2013, for example. They should've just bitten the bullet and written out Patrick and Robin then, but for RC plot was all. There's a reason one of the first moves done after he was fired in 2015 was to finally end that infinitely long storyline, bring Robin home and send the Drakes away.

My take as well.

I'm sure that's why. But I saw enough of her attempts at nuance in the kiddie triangle in Ron and Frank's heyday. I don't think she's improved much. It's a no!

She also can't act!

All true. But that's a sea change ABC and the show clearly aren't ready for.

Whatever. She'd come back.

A Brian Stelter piece, but pretty in-depth:

Are we talking Brenda or am I missing something else?

I think Gio showed interest in Trina early on. The problem is that I don't think the show wants to give him to her; they seem awfully enamored of him, but anyone who was invested in Trina in recent months or years seems to have left the building BTS. Gio is an adorable kid but I fail to see what the story would be there even if there was an investment in the two of them together. He just seems very nice and very musically talented and it's not exactly a recipe for huge drama, unless it goes to a kinky psychosexual place where she's like, deflowering this hot innocent who vaguely resembles Spencer lol. He would need to show more facets to his character than he has so far.