Vee

This is the filming leak from some time ago that suggests Bonnie Langford will appear again next year in episodes with Tennant, Tate and Gatwa (who appears to have some kind of role in the specials along with Tennant and Tate before the handoff, which I think is smart). There were pix to go with it which showed a redhead from behind.

Was not at all expecting name-drops and footage of both Dirty Den Watts and Bobby Ewing in the shower in this news clip...

Incidentally, I am hearing that This is new:

This is thirdhand, but allegedly Sophie Aldred told a story in a show follow-up Q&A about and John Bishop sitting with him and looking after him. DW has always had such a loyal and loving community of actors, so if true, while a bit sad, that makes me very happy to hear. I liked Bill! I mostly like the final year of Capaldi, but I admittedly haven't revisited it in awhile. I thought the show was in a rare, pure groove with Moffat and Capaldi after getting past the baggage of Sherlock and the big anniversary events that dogged the final third of Smith's run and made plotting and scheduling a mess, so losing them both too soon for me stung. I do think giving both Bill and Clara the same 'dead but not really' exit was very lame. At least one should've stayed dead (probably not Bill). It's always been a big tell that the brief glimpses of Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor had more personality and fire to them than anything they've written for the extremely generic Doctor they gave Jodie. Martin stole the show.

Moffat did fluff that off too, IIRC lol. But I largely loved the Moffat era so I'm biased. The classic companions discuss returning: As I had heard a while ago, Anneke Wills (Polly) was requested by the show to appear but per the article apparently either could not or would not make the trip. This screencap kind of sums Tegan and her Doctor up:

The entire ending of the Flux storyline doesn't make a lick of sense. I believe they had to clean up the question of 'is half the universe destroyed' on Twitter. I don't know who Swarm or Azure were, why they looked like whatever "Time" is, etc. The last three episodes of that series are fun (and the Angels episode is quite good on its own) and the whole thing looked gay and stylish, but the larger convoluted plot falls apart quickly. There's a superficial similarity in all of that - camp flash and overwrought plotting with zero clarity - to the JNT/Saward era or the Cartmel Masterplan excesses, where their chaotic BTS troubles or in Cartmel's case their scope exceeded their grasp or budget. But unlike much of the Cartmel run, nothing in the larger arc feels inspired despite its grubbiness. Flux just feels like Chibnall speedrunning the bad parts of the '80s. The less said about the Doctor/Yaz 'romance,' which seems to have just been spun up from online shipping despite them not actually really writing it in until the last moment when Yaz was barely a fleshed-out character to begin with, the better. Say what one will about their personal take on the Doctor and Rose or River or whoever else, but those stories were written for.

I think it's an unnecessary retcon, but I also think it can be handwaved like most other messy DW continuity in one way or another. I suspect RTD will fluff the majority of it off somehow in one or two lines.

Confirmation: The show returns a year from now, but Gatwa's first proper episode will broadcast either that month or for Christmas/NYE.

@DRW50Three surprise faces in today's special: Glad to see the rumors were true. I will be watching it later tonight, but I am apprised that Good riddance to Chris Chibnall, condolences to the talented Jodie Whittaker who deserved better, and I am excited for better times ahead. Also: Evidently That will be a lot for me. The most, undoubtedly. The Next Time clip, and a glimpse of the future:

Meanwhile, let's check in on what the immortal Bonnie Langford (still rumored to be back next year) is up to this week. Seems about right.

Again, I think McCarthy is just a blind obstructionist. I don't think it's part of a grand scheme. He's not capable of it. The rank and file congressional GOP has not had a plan beyond obstructionism for over a decade - it's the higher institutional figures or money men that are the dangerous ones.

Yeah, I have my share of issues with what I refuse to call "The Squad" but this seems like tinhattery and paranoia over them (and people like Raskin, among others). I also frankly do not think Kevin McCarthy is capable of that kind of plotting or strategy. All he knows is that he will take hostages out of sheer obstinance. Most of the time when you hear people talk about a "GOP Master Plan" in the Congress and how all their stupid blunders and embarrassing mistakes are 'calculated distractions' it is doomer fanfic about incompetent racists who say no to anything Dem. The real master planners on the right are in high finance and at the oligarch level or in the higher courts, and they aren't necessarily pulling the strings on this kind of crap.

Catching up on Who in time for this weekend's big special. What I will say about Series 13/Flux is that the second half is a lot better than the first, and probably the most engaging the entire Chibnall era has been. It's far from genius and suffers from far too much going on as usual with Chibnall, who can barely manage one storyline or villain let alone three or four, but it mostly coheres into something watchable, bombastic and entertaining vs. the bland runarounds and message shows of most of his regime. Jacob Anderson is still very handsome as Vinder but I don't particularly care about his love story with Bel (who spends most of her screen time yammering on and on about him). There's a few too many side characters you forget exist, but both the Ravagers and the entirely unnecessary Grand Serpent are straight out of the cocaine '80s and the late JNT era (the Grand Serpent in particular reminds me of the Cartmel years) which is entertaining enough, even if the latter character is in no way needed. I'm still not exactly sure who Swarm and Azure are supposed to be or WTF they were doing, or why "Time" looks like Swarm, but they look great doing things. Their motives were uniquely incomprehensible in a very late '80s Who way, so Chibnall gets points for nostalgia there at least. Barbara Flynn is very good as the scheming Tecteun, even if I still neither care nor totally buy into the labored retcon of the Doctor's origin that Chibnall has insisted on pushing - but it is very interesting to see a female on female dynamic between hero and villain/elder vs. what we usually get on this show over the decades. Once they got away from the frankly embarrassing "Gallifrey black ops squad" depiction of Division in the first few episodes which screamed Chibnall playing out his adolescent fanfic and Halo multiplayer dreams, it was much more watchable. Tecteun should've probably been the main villain, as opposed to Swarm and Azure who despite their flash come to very little. Professor Jericho is easily the most compelling character in the entirety of Series 13, and Kevin McNally is excellent. "Village of the Angels" is also possibly the only truly good episode of the entire Whittaker era for me, despite all the Flux storyline baggage in the background; I recommend it. I think Jericho must count as a companion based on runtime and sheer amount of years served offscreen with Yaz and Dan, if Katarina and Sara Kingdom do. It says something when this guest character for the series makes a bigger impression than both John Bishop and the incumbent companion of several years. I am mostly tuning in this weekend out of brand loyalty and to see Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred, and to hopefully usher in a much brighter new era for the show where I can fully invest again. We'll see.

I still think Ali is superior both performance and chemistry-wise. YMMV. I think the show has definitely tried to tamp it down.

I assume it's just a local cable affiliate with a lot of different programming. They had more of those back then, IIRC. (RIP to Los Angeles' beloved film-loving Z Channel)

They're scared of it because she is Black, not Eden McCoy, and because Frank Valentini and perhaps the network are still operating on an outmoded mentality of coddling Midwestern grandmas from over a decade ago. Frank learned the lessons of the "Kish" backlash on OLTL, where he wiped the canvas clean of minorities and gays after a significant demo drop in that area, too well. They think a shrinking, rural white senior demographic is their primary remaining audience, their meat and potatoes (and they may or may not be right after years of minority marginalization), and they are afraid of how it will react to a frontburner interracial teen couple. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until something changes.

Spencer and Trina still ain't kissed yet? A year plus and counting? Just checking!

And now, the conclusion: Episode 8 of Season 6, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is famous for reasons I don't think I need to elaborate on for most people here. I knew vaguely of some of the events coming but not the hows, whys or specifics, which made it all very compelling for me. This ep is also the first fateful mention of the mysterious Paul Galveston, where we get a warning about him very early on: "No one works with him, you only work for him." Like Wolfbridge in S5, the writers very slowly start to weave first offhand references to Galveston and his empire into the show. First, like Wolfbridge, there's connections without a name attached then more direct references; Laura looking for water sources for Lotus Point and getting wind of a bigger power player in the region. Once again the show draws disparate and seemingly unconnected threads together slowly, and of course we're about to discover just how deep Galveston's involvement in the core of the show really goes - all I knew was he was a major business player who made trouble for several characters and is apparently Sumner's father or something, but I did not expect him to be tied into Val's babies. I do suspect the deeply strange "Who Killed Loder?"/Tidal Basin subplot with Mack and his ex-con right hand Tom Jezik (amazingly still on the show and a regular recurring player, which I did not expect a year ago), all about a dirty cop and some dead women, is also connected to Galveston but I have no idea at present. That whole weird story is fascinating so far though in that it seems so random. Ep 8 also gives us Cathy singing "Time After Time"! It's no Cyndi but Lisa Hartman does a great job and then moves directly into an old Ciji track. They've transformed the character a lot very quickly, but I'm not too fussed about it. I can buy her trying to move on from the kind of person she was with Ray and Gary real quick. Alas, Mack is finally moving out of Ben's. Their comic and occasionally homoerotic relationship will hopefully live on. That's the end of the funny little loose ends for this episode as it's time for the main event: The creepy lullaby music as Val goes into labor is terrifying, and it's so unsettling as she tries to call around the neighborhood with no one home and phones ringing in empty houses - except for the Fairgate boys, who are partying with sub-Friday the 13th Part III disco music while Eric is happily fed pizza by a young lady while also wearing a rather well-fitting red striped top. The boys rush Val to the hospital and are clearly very worried for her, which is touching to watch. The birth sequence is incredibly disturbing in spite of dated camera effects - the close-ups on Val's face and Ackerman in almost direct close-ups to the camera, howling away in either direction, the mix of triumphal orchestral music with the creepy discordant synths. Anyway, Ackerman gives Val the bad news as the biggest story in Knots history begins, and all Val can say is "but I saw them. I heard them cry." And so did the audience! This must have been the most insane mindfuck of a twist for a live viewing public without spoilers or streaming BITD. And it's very hard to watch JVA like this as she takes the news, having radiated joy about these new children after the struggles of her desperate youth for well, a few too many months for a TV pregnancy, but never mind that. There's also an intriguing cut during these events directly to Abby soothing a crying Olivia following another of her (prophetic?) nightmares just before or after Val gives birth - an almost mystical, supernatural element is almost intuited with this connection between the two, not unlike the townsfolk of Twin Peaks reacting psychically to evil acts in the night on that show a few short years later. Gary has a great, cryptic line to Abby as he goes to Val upon hearing she's gone into labor: "You have nothing to worry about. You never have." When you look at that statement through the lens of how the Ewings came back together against impossible odds at the end of last season and the start of this one, and how Gary ran headlong after Abby when he saw her taken hostage while leaving Val behind, it has a new and unique impact. That doesn't mean I don't think Gary loves Val, or that she's not in his blood, because she is, the same as Abby. But it's different, and I think Gary knows at least part of that. That's why he tells Abby she has nothing to worry about - because he believes it. At this juncture in their lives anyway, when push comes to shove I suspect he'd always be the man chasing after her because of how she excites and inspires him. Abby seems genuinely sad for Val when Gary breaks the news about the twins, and it's well played by Donna Mills. It’s not camp or bitchery, and the slightly guilty sigh of relief she lets out after hanging up their call is real and conflicted too. then comes the final call in the dark from a brusque mystery man in the dark asking for "the father’s blood type," which is creepy as fùck. Abby's mounting dread as she begins to put the pieces together about what the man calls "the children in question" must have mirrored the audience's. This was the absolute right way to do this story vs. what they'd originally planned for Abby, but I'll get to that more in a bit. Julie Harris' performance as Lilimae reacts to the news about the twins in Ep 9 is possibly harder to watch than JVA's. It feels like the weight of all her own sins coming down on her, like something she feels punished for far more than Joshua. There's a lot more film noir lighting in Abby's drawing room, and Ben's office, in the hospital corridors with the camera prowling down through the shadows as Gary and Ben discuss events, then as Gary comes home to Abby, who listens in horror as Gary muses that Val thinks she saw the twins. Off-kilter camerawork persists in the fallout from the 'miscarriage' even in the sunlit cul-de-sac. Everyone's staggered reactions are played out carefully, including Karen and Mack returning from their seaside trip happy in love and getting the bad news from the boys - there's a great moment where Karen wordlessly bolts into the house. They also do a beautiful job with a key scene with Lilimae sadly dismantling the nursery with the help of Gary, of all people. When he quietly confessed he wanted the twins to be his, they gave Lilimae the admittedly portentous but graceful line "in a way they were." "You are the continuous thread that runs through her life," she acknowledges. "And you," Gary counters. They hold hands as he helps her take the cribs apart, and finally seem to have found some degree of common ground after years. Shackelford and Harris don't vie for power, they're just very giving to each other onscreen. We all know it's not always that way on other soaps in either daytime or primetime. The gaslighting aspect of Val's story, and the veil falling behind her eyes as she tries to put on a genial face, hits very different in today's world. Other reactions also get space to play out: Karen wanting to cancel Thanksgiving dinner (Val says no), and an equally naive and damaged Joshua earnestly asking his new favorite TV preacher if Val's miscarriage is retribution for her sins. He's still shot through with dogmatic puritanism and dysfunction despite his earnest and unworldly innocence, and that's what makes him potentially dangerous. So of course, the pastor suggests Joshua try writing a sermon of his own. I'm pretty sure I know where this is going and it's quite topical for the time. The atmospheric direction from the early sequences post-tragedy kicks into high gear at the close of Ep 9 as a dazed Val wanders through her now-empty nursery, with the roving camera from above following her as she shrinks into herself in a light-shafted corner of the blank space. They have Gary go fetch her, where Val confesses, "we should never have gotten married again." (She might be right, despite how killer they've been together since early Season 5.) But as Gary says, "I've never regretted it." Both statements of note. Mack’s Thanksgiving speech for the ensemble at the MacKenzie house is very classy stuff, owning his mistakes and being humble and thankful for having his new family back. Abby being back in the cul-de-sac for a community event for the first time in several years is something I made note of about this ep a couple pages ago, and it's trippy to see her there; you can tell she's uncomfortable, having previously tried to beg off IIRC, but it's fitting that she is there and we get to see her and the others having to adjust to who she is now vs. the rest of them. Even Tom Jezik is there! The dinner is pretty wholesome and comforting in the face of a monstrous tragedy; everyone in turn gets to give thanks and give their own perspective on the various storylines of the moment, and that feels very of a piece with something daytime would do at its best. Of course there's a twist in the tail at the end, when Gary and Val return and Val cheerily chirps, "Gary and I were late again as usual." Just ambiguous enough to be unsettling for the freeze frame. A brief interlude: Greg Sumner spends his Turkey Day alone in his suite, with even more atmospheric lighting, lonely angles and shadows on him and his perfectly plated hotel food. There's very little said between him and the help. A little artistry on this show says more than most dialogue. By Ep 10 ("Message in a Bottle") Val is flying a kite in her hallucinatory erotic dreams of her, Gary and a cheerful Abby on the beach. A lot to unpack there, and obviously Val is not well. This is another very well-shot episode from newcomer(?) Nick Havinga who also did Ep 8. "I had no business raising an Ewing, let alone being one," Val calmly tells Ben, while also seeming to quietly blame J.R. for what happened to the twins. I was wondering if they'd hit that beat, and I'm glad they did. It makes sense her mind would go there. All the stuff with Abby from this point on is straight out of '70s conspiracy thrillers, all Alan J. Pakula or Sidney Lumet's greatest hits, stuff like Klute or The Parallax View - creepy phone calls, tinkling music, disappeared people. Abby races out to the Galveston Industries plane on its airstrip accompanied by amazing Harry Manfredini-esque strings, only to find no Scott Easton waiting for her - just a strange Easton doppelgänger. Abby rapidly turns into an '80s TV version of a Hitchcock Blonde with all the fashion, trappings and music to match as she scrambles to hunt down Easton, play phone tag and unravel the scheme that is turning her world upside down. This is compounded further after (in another smart plotting move) Olivia goes to see Val, who lets Olivia in on the secret of her very much alive babies; Olivia tells Abby, who acts on her own concern by going straight to Val's doctor: Ackerman. She knows something is up, and she tells him she knows he knows - on another show a character like Abby wouldn't necessarily do that, trying to undo a horrible crime against someone she's supposed to hate and fear. Instead of Abby as the direct conspirator as was originally planned (and vetoed by Donna Mills), her role is repositioned so that her culpability is mitigated. Instead the story becomes a conspiracy thriller starring Donna Mills, where we know she has done mischief in the past and gotten in over her head, but here she becomes almost the audience identification figure in the storyline - the only person who knows something is up, trying to learn the truth about something she never intended to happen but feels guilt for. They go so far with this as to have Abby storm Galveston Industries, security be damned, with the viewer cheering her on; here, she find Easton's weird doppelgänger who essentially says Easton is dead and watch your step. Her growing paranoia and fear is so well played, so carefully built up, and by the end of the ep Abby is literally rocking in her chair out of sheer nerves. She's tried to do her due diligence, which is a smart move by the writers by way of Mills. She becomes the protagonist, or at least the antiheroine. It's brilliantly nuanced character and plot work and you'd never know they didn't originally plan it this way as opposed to something that Mills is right about - the original idea would've left Abby irredeemable. Paul Galveston finally appears in the flesh in Ep 10, where he and Gary bond over horses and ranches. The surrogate father/son angle here, with Galveston appearing to be a superficially kinder sketch of Jock Ewing to Gary, is not lost on me and is a fascinating idea if they lean into it. Which is notable given I know whose father he apparently really is. The whole weird Loder/Tidal Basin storyline continues in this ep with a focus on Jezik, still the most unlikely surprise recurring player. There's a super-cinematic suspense sequence of Jezik meeting a contact at a foggy abandoned warehouse with a drip-drip-dripping water faucet, followed by silhouetted men grabbing him and working him over for snooping in the wrong places. It's very well done, but this whole side story is still baffling yet spellbinding to me because unlike Wolfbridge it feels beamed in from another show, with most of the events (murders) and key players (a dead cop named Loder) taking place offscreen. I assume it must go back to Galveston too - this team loves giant umbrellas on this show - but the jury is out for me on how well it will play in the final analysis. There's a nice sequence in this ep too as Karen listens to Val tell her origin story about falling for Gary, calling him 'this blond god' who helped her in the diner back in Texas. But most of Ep 10's stuff with Val is given over to her collapsing psyche, with a terrifying, brilliantly shot sequence with Joshua walking in on Val talking to herself in the dark about the babies, and then a campier but equally spooky dream sequence of her in a blazing white hospital room with creepy Ackerman, her family and her men all looking on in scrubs, chiding her, gaslighting her. Val's rightful paranoia gives way to paranoid delusions against her loved ones, and that leads to her finally making her getaway. JVA is genuinely frightening in this stuff so far, and with the first third of an already epic season down (maybe my favorite for now, and not just for the baby story but for the evolutions in Abby, Gary and Sumner so far) I'm very excited to finally continue on with the show.

I think the indicators that Ron seemed to be angling towards pairing Sonny with Leo suggests they were going to do more with him - they like Tinker and know the fans like him, hence trying to latch Leo to him to once again make one of Ron's 'bad guys' into a romantic hero via a series of diminishing returns (Gwen, etc). Not that I'm into that story at all, because it's OOC and also so predictable with Ron and his beloved camp antiheroes/villains at this point. Still, it's typical DAYS if they lost ZT.

I think most of us feel that way here.

I believe most of the polls. I think whatever happens will be tight - I think it's likely we keep the Senate, and possible the House margin of loss is fairly tight. But there's also a question of what you poll for and how many.

Kirsten has looked rough for years and the wardrobe doesn't help. But we've all said both she and the character need a long break from the show.

I'm happy they're cast and I like the actors, but there's no reason to trust in GH to deliver competent story.

William Moses is in a perfectly reasonable age range to play Jeff Webber, lol. Come on.