Vee

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.

I hope those rumors are true tbh. It would not be the first time the soaps have paired a younger person with an older one. Hi, Kimberly McCullough (or Genie). If they intend to add Natalia's son Eloi (sigh) that would also be someone in the mix. If we start firing people!

A major trade article on Please start cutting, GH.

The fact that he gets a Deadline article would suggest the previously-spoiled Gio is not just a random wedding dayplayer. Having some new blood come in plus Lane Davies are signs of new things I like - I just wish this show had approached May sweeps the way GH customarily used to do, which is with a big, noisy event. It is past time. Why couldn't groom-to-be Chase get incriminating info on Pikeman and have them attack the wedding?

It's why he quit - he was sick of the depressing stories and how the situation with Elizabeth was treated vs. what he was allegedly told they would do with the couple. (Something VM wisely held their feet to the fire on.) They squandered him, and he did very good work with bad material. I agree, but this no-cliffhangers, just stopping points situation has been an issue for at least 3-5 years running if not longer. It's become part of the house process in recent times.

It was clear even then something was up with his health, but at the same time TC was heavily featured and in bad story and often doing bad work so I can only feel so sympathetic for him in that period. It was clear the show had it in for him in 2005-on for a good while though, with the rape drama, Courtney affair and Guza making him out to be the loser/heavy opposite Sonny, etc. for a good stretch, then having Nikolas slowly spiraling into less and less impactful story, often with B or C-players (Rebecca, poor Nadine, the Liz affair mess that ruined his character again and subsequent Aiden fight, etc). After 2004 or so, for whatever reason I think Guza mostly lost interest in having OG Nikolas back, it was Sonny and Jason and their women all the way. Much like he lost interest in and began actively disdaining former favorites like Alexis and Jax. Nik was just another one for the pile, same with Lucky without JJ in the role. The instant he got Jonathan back though, the treatment of Lucky flipped on a dime. For all the dumb story and often bored or bad performances Tyler turned in off and on over the last 20 years though, he was Nikolas like no other and I wish he was here in the role. He was the real deal and could still deliver when he cared and was well.

His weird Southern take on Connor was so bad lol. Those were not good years for TC period.

I don't think it's a Shawn and Belle situation - those two haven't been relevant since the mid-late 2000s. Lucky and Lulu are still popular, revered characters who just need either a good recast or a returning star, both of which are options. The issue is clearing some of FV's deadweight to make room for them. I think we're well past the days of Aiden dying for no reason, but any major story (or talent) remains to be seen lol. Mary Bishop.

I thought Cooper was a block of hard cheese tbh. I didn't get it at all. Logan, I thought he was wasted but allegedly Duhon was an problem on set. They squandered the character regardless and poor Georgie. I'm still not over her death. But Guza, Phelps, Frons, etc. were infatuated with their find in Julie Berman and instead angled all youth story around her (with virtually every young man infatuated with her at once) for ages until Spixie became a thing.

Folks:

What a surprise to see Yolande back. I had no idea Angela Wynter was also playing Ruby Sunday's adopted grandmother on the new Doctor Who (starting Friday!) - she looked absolutely unrecognizable in a much less put-together part in the Christmas special. Good for her!

He ain't!

Kristina actually told Sam this to her face in 2020, in a great scene that was posted in one of these threads not long ago (and I don't think it was the first time Sam came to that conclusion herself, then put it aside). Either way, Sam and Jason were done (seemingly for good, for now) by the end of the year. And I do think some of the boys, etc. have been reckoning with this onscreen lately. Not that that excuses Jason at all. Jason also basically admitted in the late 2000s around the time of the Claudia mess that he and Carly had screwed Michael and made a mistake. I don't recall Carly if came to the same conclusion (I doubt it). Not that that excuses either of them him either. It's just interesting stuff to think about.

Oh lord.

It's all made-up nonsense.

And never was, and never could've been! Y'all need to stop trying to magically make any unattached young person any random person's kid. Was the Dev idiocy not enough?

I don't know about that. I think Mac was definitely an A or B-list lead until 1997 or so.

He was always over-talkative and overinvolved in the FV/RC years, and I always got the sense he was some underling the network had left to mind GH out of disinterest who thought he was Brian Frons or Les Moonves. I never thought he had much power in those days and I still don't think he did then, but I got a sense he could be a squeaky wheel in times of crisis and get his own way. Could be the same here, especially if he's moved up in the world.