Vee

Good news, it seems: Meanwhile, I didn't see this so:

Trailer time. @DRW50 The BBC has confirmed Neil Patrick Harris is indeed playing

Yes. IIRC the legend of the Phoenix and the trappings of Egypt came up a lot in the original story, and in the tale Laura told David.

I knew Bette was a big fan of Lisa Brown on GL but I didn't know she also wrote to ATWT and Smith. Seems she ended up following Marland around, or kept her dial to CBS.

Did Melanie have some sort of mental health issue? That seemed to be what was being implied.

I think that was Agnes too! Or Broderick. I felt for their fans but tbh I was not shocked, because I remembered the Jane Cox story very well and had always felt Janet was still fuckin' crazy lol. I never really bought into Trevor and Janet as a result. Robin Mattson was a great performer but Janet always spooked me because of that early story. Looking at their romantic material today a lot of it is really great and the show did do the character work on Janet, but I felt what I felt.

I knew some of that, not all. I'm always happy to be educated and I appreciate it! I don't care that Byron is a recast, but I definitely do find him to be a bit of a Ken dolll.

I just watched Tuesday and Wednesday's shows. A few errant thoughts from a clueless newbie. Mackenzie is cute and winning - I didn't realize she was trans. I'm still getting the hang of the other youths but I have a vague understanding of who each one is. The acting skill among them varies (especially Sadie, I think her name is) but there's nothing horribly offensive. Mackenzie and her new beau are really fun together to just watch hang out, there doesn't feel like there's that much artifice in those scenes. It's nice to open a miracle revival of a show like this, which has always read wholesome at a glance, with a big party for the cast all enjoying everyone's company. And Toadie and Terese are sweet even if it's supposed to be an odd couple. The lack of much visibility on Melanie, Toadie's ex, makes me wonder how much they'll show going forward. The exposition given thus far re: the couple swap is interesting. I wonder how longtime fans feel about the details we've been given as to the break-ups. I hadn't realized at first that Paul has been the on-off heavy for years. I also didn't realize Harold had been gone so long until coming back for the TV finale. The dementia/whatever storyline with him is a bit heavy-handed so far but I've seen plenty worse. I really like Wendy Rodwell's spunk. Apparently Byron the bellboy is a recast. He's handsome but very plastic to me, which is making solo scenes with just him and the tentative Mischa Barton strange. She has been through a lot IRL and it shows, not that she's unattractive, but this is a woman who was primed for big things at a young age and flamed out quickly after a lot of backstage dramas and is now doing a niche soap on the other side of the world. She's doing a decent job despite that shadow hanging over it, but Byron feels very bland to me, he's giving Bolt from Soapdish. I have little patience for his bratty younger co-worker - apparently Karl's kid by another woman, and only recently returned? Holly is a lot. I still find the all-new Varga(?) family especially intriguing, and not just because of its progressive makeup or that they like me are new. J.J. being the 'good boy' of the family who still clearly has an agenda of his own in the neighborhood is a solid mystery and a unique way to play it, he's not scowling his way around but he's in some ways using what is expected of him as a nice kid to follow his own plan. Is the gold confetti all over the street supposed to be from the party in the TV finale? And has there been a clear tip-off yet as to who J.J. is looking for? He seemed to be looking at the dartboard at that pub/restaurant. I do like that they are apparently picking up on a plotline involving Susan and Karl's money woes from the past show, just as AMC 2.0 tapped into Angie and Jesse's baby swap issues, etc. from the ABC run. Susan is now forcibly retired it seems. Jane and Guy Pearce were in the preview for episode 3 but didn't appear - maybe it was a more general teaser. Didn't realize the visiting Daniel was supposed to be Kylie's kid. What a world. Wasn't Jason Herbison a massive soap fan or soap magazine guy before he became showrunner? Or am I wrong?

I am brand new. I enjoyed it, and I caught up as I went.

That is a great Sue Ellen scene especially post-Season 8. It should not have been cut.

OLTL: Dena Higley.

Thanks!

Is there a good primer news article on the cast and the families in the wake of the revival, or should I just google wildly? It is weird to have a new soap to tune into 4 days a week overnight, again a la the PP soaps. (I will stop making that comparison) Apparently the new opening is slightly different on Aussie TV vs. Amazon? It's interesting that Barton who is supposedly short-term appears to be in it. I do like hearing that the ending is apparently an homage to the classic opening.

I like the new family - again, never one with a make-up you'd get on an American soap. I do wonder what the boy's fascination with the area is about. I have a very passing familiarity with several of the veteran characters, but the youngsters I don't know from Adam so I can't tell who's who or why. Mischa Barton definitely has had a career comedown but looks decent for her age. I wasn't sure what Paul was talking about re: losing people in his family unless it was all meant to signpost the twist. The somewhat frenetic or overwrought nature of the montage cutting, intros, slightly awkward exposition etc. again remind me a lot of the AMC/OLTL revival pilots, plus the timejump. But that exposition was necessary here as it was there, as well as them being somewhat similar tonally and aesthetically. In both cases a fair bit of it is corny but still on brand for what the audience expects - and the glitzed-up editing style/rhythms remind me a lot of the Euro/UK soaps in general too. None of it's bad per se, just different than what we generally get here in the States (and God knows Neighbours is in a more healthy position than they are atm).

Very sad.

Lord!

I guess I should check this out - we'll see how newbie-friendly it is. Oh, the opening recap featuring all the classic standard-def footage reminds me so much of the AMC/OLTL recap videos when Prospect Park brought them back. Sigh.

My God. What a shock. Billy Miller had a real volatile, magnetic energy when used well and written for properly - I remember his AMC stint as Richie Novak that first got him noticed and how compelling he was. Other shows like Y&R leaned too hard on bad story and bad ideas, but he was still a quality actor. His GH run was a total mess creatively but he gave the recast Jason (and later Drew, a stop-gap character the show clearly had little investment in) real soul for the first time in aeons and was so tender and kind both with Hudson West's Jake and with Leslie Charleson as Monica. He was also the last man to have serious chemistry with Kelly Monaco and the last to wake her up. I'll always remember those aspects of his performance; he deserved better from soaps than he got. What a tragedy.

The generations of Trek on the line. Jack Quaid, George Takei, Tawny Newsome, Dawnn Lewis, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Linda Park and many more.

Crossposting, hooray! Just to be needlessly anal: For the sake of audience exposition, Tracy seems to be unaware of who the Cramers are, which in terms of ABC Daytime soap continuity, where characters always kept up on this kind of stuff (pre-lawsuit), I have a hard time buying. Tracy is a shark. She would know about Dorian Lord and the other power players in Llanview as a matter of principle, and she also used to have a less than above-board business relationship with Llanview's own Marco Dane when Gerald Anthony crossed over in the '90s; she would've looked into him too. She also researched everywhere Rae Cummings had ever been when planning to take her and Skye down when she came back to the Quartermaine family fold in 2003 (a task she quickly accomplished, clearly with great relish by Guza whose writing made it eminently clear he could not stand the crossover). I'll just pretend Tracy was dummying up for her own cards-to-the-vest purposes. She also would know Starr, Michael's college sweetheart, but I would hardly blame Tracy for forgetting Michael's one other live girlfriend exists. In any event it's nice to see Blair even if the GH fans don't deserve to be put through all this. I have no need for KDP to share scenes with Roger Howarth's latest failed character though. I can't stand the cutesy stuff with Howarth and Patrick Gibbons as is, and making Blair and Franco share scenes would've been even worse than Austin tbh.

I know they're divorced and I thought I'd read once that WK had allegedly cheated, but I don't know if that's true or how rocky the relationship has been IRL. I hoped/assumed it wasn't as bad as Kristina and Jack Wagner used to be, but I still can't see Rena playing a romantic recoupling between Ned and Lois.

Wow. This is going to put poor Lisa Lo Cicero's place on the canvas in harsh contrast, but tbh this should all have been dealt with a long time ago. @carolineg and I have gone over and over how similar Lois and Olivia are down to identical backstories, how Lisa probably should've just been the Lois recast and how the show has never really dared deal heavily in the Lois/Olivia dynamic re: Ned. Now they have to. I am okay with Olivia staying with Ned and I highly, highly doubt Rena is back for good or will agree to be re-paired with Wally, but I am glad this is finally happening.

That will not stop Frank from featuring him.