Vee

Courtney was unbearable. Sam at least had a volatile and tense relationship with Carly for years. We've discussed it in GH threads a lot, but is truly weird what went down with Monaco and Burton. She was clearly very into being paired with Billy Miller as "Jason" and had real chemistry with him. She was vocally unhappy online when they were split up onscreen for her and Steve. But regardless of any BTS issues they'd been paired come hell or high water for most of the last 20 years and seemed accepting of it. Then suddenly two years ago they're split up in record time after being the ride or die couple GH would never let go, Jason is thrown at multiple women in record time despite not being promiscuous and Sam is instantly paired with Dante. Bizarre.

@DRW50

Returns for Season 2 late this month. Remarkably solid in its first year and a bit of a sleeper at first. Excellent lead work from the young and old versions of the women; Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress and Christina Ricci along with Sophie Nélisse, Sophie Thatcher, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Sammi Hanratty. I'm very glad the showrunners are being very explicit about only letting the show run five years tops. I don't know how much the dual story can sustain, but I am very excited to see the winter months of 1996-97 unfold. I think the timeline shown in the first season only ran from summer (somewhere around May-July) to October or November. For those of you who haven't seen it, the (apparently un-embeddable) Season 1 trailer is here. The first teaser for S2 is below.

Both GH and OLTL were shrouded in atmospheric fog at night for a lot of years, and a lot of autumnal, warm tones as already mentioned. Unlike OLTL where it tapered off, that aesthetic persisted at GH until maybe the mid-late 2000s. That moody look, especially in night scenes really worked for me but I can see why others found it too much. I didn't like what I saw of AMC Los Angeles' look at all. It looked plastic to me, and the increasing location shoots (a sure sign in the late 2000s of budget struggles, though most other shows like ATWT kept confining them to poorly-disguised studio grounds or in the case of OLTL, one boring park) for AMC always looked like they took place in an overly glossy theme park which had no relation to Pine Valley. There was a vibe to the East Coast soap look that used to be unmistakable.

These folks never get soaps out of their blood. He'll be around.

People couldn't see him ever returning after he flamed out in the '90s either. B&B recycles and burns through people constantly, he'll be free again sometime.

The answer is and always has been to put her back with Sean Kanan's A.J. That was the answer when he first came back, as well as when Howarth was taken from them the first time, they put them together for a few weeks to fill space and the sex scenes were scorching hot. But Frank has killed off A.J. (again) and alienated Kanan so it won't happen any time soon.

I think whatever went down with MC was untenable so they had to write him out. The fact that that dovetailed with once again trying to put Roger over with a popular actress was just an unexpected boon for Frank. The audience would revolt if they tried that a third time.

I'd always wanted to bring back Tom's son as a doctor (which leaves T.J. Ashford in an interesting spot since when last seen Tom Hardy's son was literally another young Black kid named T.J., but we'll just call him 'Thomas' not that I think T.J. is exactly indispensable from the canvas), so I guess in that scenario it would make sense to bring on Tom too. Or maybe you could just have Tom and Simone pop in and out for appearances, and recast Steve Webber as a full-time character (anyone but Scott Reeves). I think the Steve Sr. namesake and the connection to Liz and possibly her relatives coming back as well) would have more weight and more opportunities than Tom Hardy. Despite the fact that it was clearly just a device to give Steve Burton's evangelical pal a job, they sort of fell ass-backwards into bringing back Steven Lars after many years late in the Guza era and it was the right thing to do - the namesake, his singing for the kids like his grandpa used to do stuff for them, having him leading the hospital, etc.

I don't remember her changing her hair? personality? at all. I must've blocked it out. There was a Kevin angle with the Cassadine return under Guza I think, and I know we've discussed it before here not long ago. I can't remember what was discussed but I was under the impression whatever he'd toyed with did not come to fruition. The irony is that if they absolutely had to have Howarth he could've easily played either Tom or Steve. By their own admission in 2013, they chose Franco because Ron and Frank wanted an 'edgy' character close in type to Todd. But for all Todd's sins he was not a serial killer.

On paper adding Matt Ashford as Tom Hardy should've worked. Pairing him with Felicia was a mistake and the material with Simone and Justus was, to put it mildly, sketchy. I also think the creative handover and then John Beradino's death kind of screwed him. Now Tom is a forgotten tentpole character who kind of got supplanted in people's minds by the later resurgence of Steve/Steven Lars. It only makes sense canvas-wise to potentially have one around today, and it's too bad for one or the other.

Oh yes - that I've seen.

Ooh, pass it along.

They tend to have people locked in for long stretches over there. Exits are announced something like 6-18 months out lol

He's 30! And Setton does not look or come off her age. But I agree they write their younger cast (which includes those two) like either very young teens or old people. LOL at old Benjamin Franklin Gregory not even having a job at the university! I called it. Just an old salaryman going to the train station and sitting there all day.

This is at least partly a FV thing. IIRC it's been said he determined at OLTL that the younger demo at least does not want to watch a scene for longer than 90 seconds. But this is also something constant across the industry at this point, so it's not all him.

I am aware of that. I thought it would be nice to see Anna, and I intended her to bring on Dan's son, from whom Dan would be estranged. Daniel Wolek would return later.

I should have seen it coming. (I am also not spoilering this since it's been days.) Even after they showed the way that crewman's face reacted I wasn't sure it was the Founders. I am all for the callback and very excited, but I'm slightly hesitant if only because I think the multi-season Dominion War on DS9, which was built up almost from the beginning of the series, was kind of the ultimate story for the changelings and it's hard to top or even be a successor for that. If they want to tell a huge new story with the Founders as the big bad again then it needs to be something really wild. Still, we're 3 eps in and I highly doubt we have the full story or scope of events yet. Worf's brief mention of Odo was touching, and very poignant as Rene is no longer here. This to me was the strongest ep so far. The scenes with Picard and Crusher were excellent, and beautiful work from both actors. The script did not skimp or play it too coy or witty. That said, I am curious about the exact timeline of their on-off relationship - Picard says they got together and broke up 'five times' before the final break. I would have to assume this on-off affair began during the run of the TNG movies, not just after Nemesis. I did mostly buy Beverly's reasons for staying away. The Romulan refugee mess was very dangerous for Picard. That being said, I am now onboard with what others have suspected about Riker from the jump: That he is a ringer. I don't believe he'd ever talk to Jean-Luc like he did. That's a changeling. Surreal to see Thomas Dekker back in Trek, BTW, after playing Picard's imaginary child as a small boy in Generations. Also: The subplot material with Seven, Jack and LaForge Jr. screamed backdoor pilot for a Titan show and I am all for it.

@DRW50

Tom Sizemore lived a tortured, tragic and at times ugly life but he was an electric performer to the end. David Lynch made very unique use of him as a comic relief character in Twin Peaks Season 3 and I was glad to see it, despite scandals and sickness associated with him before and after. I'm glad his body of work can be remembered. I never knew this:

Chase is hot but like an overgrown child. I've never seen the purpose. I've talked about this before but the twenty/thirtysomething set alternately behaves like 14 year olds or 60 year olds. It's bizarre. BLQ, etc. should be more fun than this.

They were pretty involved then, too. But Brian Frons swore by Bob Guza's team, and they had a lot of room to run. The 2004 hotel fire story just before this was goofy and dumb, and a lot of stories in that era were pretty bad. I do not remember '03/'04 with fondness, lol. But a great deal of the dialogue staff had been there since at least Claire Labine's run, and many remained until Guza was fired/quit in 2011 or until Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati took over in 2012. Those writers elevated so much of the daily material despite a lot of bad stories, even as the daily scripts also began getting lazy in this same era. But there was almost always some legitimately intelligent stuff amidst the crap, for many years (like the scorching scenes in early '04 when Carly taunts Sam about being just another Brenda clone to Sonny and Jax). And some good stories too, here and there. It's strange that a lot of the 2000s looks like near-art compared to the last decade. The difference is that when Frank and Ron came in they did give the show a lot of its heart back while completely stripping the quality of the day to day writing (and doing many bad stories of their own).

I cannot believe they have roped Mayor Laura into gaslighting her own deputy for this goofy 'James Patrick Stuart's awkward recurring retainer' storyline. Anna, Billy Joel Cassadine and Lucy hanging out in Wherever is not as kludged together as the OLTL 2.0 deal I mentioned where most of Todd's convoluted evil cartel story arc happened in one hotel room while they tried to work Roger Howarth around the clock with his limited availability, but it's getting there. I could not give two [!@#$%^&*] about anything happening there and I still wish Valentin would die immediately. Camryn Grimes is doing absolutely nothing at Y&R. I would try to poach her for GH as Christina Baldwin. Why not? This show needs stronger young female leads and most of these chicks are not cutting it. Speaking of wasted talent, the younger Davis girls have been consistently slept on. I would really give HP a shot at the title as ADA Molly, I love that role for her. If she comes off silly or too young and can't sell a real story then back on the shelf she can go, but why not try? Is it going to cut into time for Willow, Sasha or Cyborg Jordan? Lexi Ainsworth is still beautiful and somehow looks younger than Hailey Pullos now, but Kristina is stale and I can't see a story for her right now though logically I know you can and should write for her. These characters have had nothing to do for years but still feel played out (then again, so much of the cast is played out but in different ways). It's sad.

The My Date with Sonny scenes scream meeting Maurice's guarantee. Just bizarre. I am waiting for Sonny to buy Dex a suit and/or dress and offer to take him to the island.