Vee

What titan and I are talking about is the show itself. I've watched the entire series, and you know me well enough by now to know what I do and don't have time for. It is pure romance, as he says. It's also refreshingly frank and explicit. Anticipating what some of the audience may or may not do in future in social media bubbles is not my problem, and not in my interest as a viewer of Heated Rivalry. I'm not watching the audience, I'm watching the show. The show exists independent of them, I watch it and it's quality work. It has been a success because of its quality, not just because it's explicit. Daytime may be afraid of their viewers and unwilling to bother pushing the envelope vs. just going along to get along, but it made that kind of effort in the past and it should again. HR and other recent successes in the same wheelhouse (homo or hetero) prove they are dividends to be found, whether it's with Gio/Emma or whatever else.

A lot of viewers (male and female) enjoy watching gay men fúcking, and HR has certainly leaned into allowing them that pleasure. But that show is about romance, in addition to being refreshingly explicit about sex and sexual roles. It's not vapid fetish material. It just doesn't shy away from or apologize for sex and intense intimacy being a part of its hook and its appeal. It's the story, the characters and the execution that keep people there.

I think the Sonny of '94 or '95-'96 is a very different issue to handle vs. the Sonny of '99-onward. But YMMV.

Judge for yourself! The overall scenes that day are well done but the end made me do a double take. You're not getting that from Molly and Cody (though I think they did finally sleep together after the world's longest build).

I don't see why Curlee wouldn't have worked at GH tbh. I am no GL scholar, but what I have seen of her work there seemed very much of a piece with a lot of Labine/Riche to me. It always struck me as a choice that would be staying very much on brand and tone. Guza was a very distinct departure, and a strong one in the first years. For me Curlee is the road not taken, and possibly one that might've been better for the show in the long run (and I say that loving a lot of Guza I stuff, flaws and all). Alden I never heard of going to GH. I did hear she was approached for AMC, I think. And I think Riche arguably could've saved ATWT or GL.

I am sure someone has already mentioned this, but Mazza and Braedyn Bruner were really going for it after the fireworks following their lovely but largely wholesome scenes on Tuesday's show. The switch flipped and they were all over each other hot and heavy like it was 1994. Judging by their socials I would not be surprised if they are together IRL, but regardless that was heat and it's something the show needs to lean into instead of writing them like overgrown children.

Rosie was absolutely ride or die for the soaps, especially AMC. She'd get in the weeds with it. I always loved that about her.

I always had a soft spot for Becca. Happy to see her steadily working.

Sasha Calle (Lola Rosales, Y&R) co-stars in the new Matt Damon/Ben Affleck heist thriller The Rip for Netflix.

Gloria Monty's Santa Barbara is a wild idea on so many levels, given that show's already turbulent history.

Married or not, I don't think Smitty and Martin have been lacking in story (unlike Naomi and Jacob where any occasional excitement comes from his association with Kat, or Ashley in general post-Andre). They also have had at least a couple fairly explicit love scenes in the last few months, and plenty of overt physical affection over the last year. My issue is not with them being married, but with the show not generating enough hot new couples or triangles. The rest of your post I largely agree with, though I think Chelsea and Madison has begun to improve a bit once they settled in post-kidnapping. Except for Madison's presently-invisible mother. I would love for the Bill/Dani/Andre triangle to hit high gear (and I am all for Bill and Dani reuniting further down the road, breaking up again, etc). But you can't rely on just those three triangle/quad-wise. Just as one example, when they had Naomi fall drunk into Izaiah's arms I thought this might lead to her being tempted away from Jacob by the prodigal son while he was already involved with Eva, and Jacob ultimately having that much-discussed fling with Kat fandom has been clucking about for the better part of nine months. But now Izaiah and Naomi don't interact; Izaiah rarely interacts with anyone other than Eva and his family. That should change.

I'm not watching that and you can't make me. I do think Karla is lovely on the show to be clear. The bigger stuff she's given them is simply what they've asked for from Dani.

That explains a lot.

Thanks!

Do we know what season the 98 episode was from? Asking for a friend.

Karla always put my teeth on edge on GL, and that sort of poisoned her for me re: B&B (a show I barely tolerate as is). But she's been excellent here. Especially in the last six months.

I don't think they've been that prudish re: Kat or Sam, per se. While Kat waited to lose it which was a character choice, they've been very frank about them getting it on since given Tomas' whole hospital ordeal once they got hot and heavy. And I think the rest of the show is remarkably candid and edgy about sex with the other couples (including the sex education material with the two teenagers) more than most of today's soaps. I also don't think it frowned on Sam having sex, but instead indicated that the guy she was with bad news. Yet for whatever reason they've played it very safe with Eva and Izaiah. That is what doesn't make sense to me when both are grown, experienced adults. Those two can and should be steaming it up more, but instead they get a lot of sexy wordplay and very earnest conversations, and not the hot and heavy intimate scenes that Dani and Andre, or Joey and Vanessa or Smitty and Martin (who got a couple fairly explicit scenes last fall), or even Jacob and Naomi (the most boring couple on the show) get. I do think the show is very progressive in its regular depiction of Martin/Smitty (who have pretty regular heavy story, and are gearing up for a new one) or Chelsea/Madison (who may be in the wings for more) who are core couples and regularly featured. I found Madison to be a pretty artificial insta-love interest at first - they made it official faster than even most lesbian cliches - but they've started to flesh her out more, bit by bit. I just would like to see them become an actual three-dimensional unit, and Chelsea herself needs more work as is. I think they should lean into RhonniRose doing more screwball comedy tbh. That seems to be her best asset right now.

They need to get serious about strong love stories or triangles in the new year. As it stands, we're saddled with Tomas for Kat atm (though I don't think that will last), and Eva/Izaiah often feels like older people trying to write for sexy youths but being unsure of how far to go with it. Yeah, I think they got it on over the holidays but it still feels a bit afterschool special. The show has not had a problem with being quite explicit or raw with other couples, but here they seem gunshy - maybe because they want to sand down Eva's edges. There needs to be more depth to the writing there and more complications added with them, namely Kat in the mix, or maybe Naomi mixing in with Izaiah and wrecking everything. (Nothing else is likely to make Naomi interesting) Joey and Vanessa are evil, kinky and for my money still compelling to watch as performers, but they also have an expiration date because Joey is the devil. That's a duo you watch for crashout drama, story machinations and skullduggery, not as a legit love story. What's more, Leslie entering Joey and Marcel's sphere is far more interesting for everyone involved than his officially being down bad for Vanessa (though I'm glad he is, it makes them a bit more equal). Everyone else worth mentioning is happy coupled and solid - Vernon/Anita, Martin/Smitty, Chelsea/Madison and the terminally boring Hawthornes. The only big new game in town is Dani and Andre and the perpetual thread with Bill, but that's not enough. Greg Vaughan is on recurring and while that doesn't preclude him from being a very regular player (look at Jon Lindstrom as Joey, Ernestine Morrison as Shanice, etc.) it's time to start seeing Kial Rollins weekly and get that moving with Nicole. Ted and Shanice I am agnostic on because Ted can be such a fool, but they do have real chemistry. And then there's the youth. Make Donnell and Deanna regular fixtures, add some people and go.

I also like what I see of Katherine Delafield. She's got spunk. But it's hard to buy any of these women as a patch on Holly or Anna as a love interest for Scorpio.

Death, taxes, and readily-available or syndicated Dark Shadows: The three constants of life.

Crazy how much more charming and well, human Alex Alegria is in these interview clips than literally any time he is onscreen as Tomas.

I just have found Greg Beecroft obnoxious in every role I've ever seen him in. I have admittedly seen very little of his Faux Duke, but I found him wildly miscast from the jump and then bizarre and effete in the actual part. I have no idea why on Earth he was cast.

LMAOOOO! Nice. If you do need to find the uninterrupted episode let one of us know.

I still believe a lot of this would not have changed if not for Patrick Mulcahey. This team (most of which is back in place) seemed content to trot along with Michael and his saintly wife playing happy families and pumping out kids (and other tedious elements of the show, many of which persist in 2026) to appease Facebook seniors until something shook them up BTS. I def think FV would've inevitably fired or killed off Sam though lol. She was on a track for an exit long before this. I didn't know until I went to the insanely detailed GH wiki that Wyndemere was actually built by the founder of Wyndham's Department Store! And has a strange, spooky gothic origin story on par with something like Dark Shadows or Arkham Asylum from the Batman comics, where the estate's namesake (Wyndham) was supposedly haunted to his grave by ghosts. They could make more of that today for a Halloween story - I know they tried to do a bit of a ghost story (or faux-haunting) there around that time in '89, I assume when Wyndemere was first introduced.

They definitely should. I had to sail the high seas to find one I missed.