Vee

6 minutes ago, prefab1 said:

You see, I remember that weird gothic Mick Dante storyline fondly, mainly because it's the only time I ever saw Marnie Schulenburg's Alison have chemistry with anyone. 

She was a revelation in a recurring role on the brief OLTL 2.0 as a fast-talking TV producer in 2013. I thought she was a terrible drip before then, completely unsuited to Alison.

I don't think anything on ATWT past some parts of 2004 is worth a damn. And any time I saw it in the 90s post-Marland (which is when I first took notice of most CBS soaps aside from occasional Y&R and B&B) it was afflicted with the same disease as Rauch's GL - stodgy and boring which somehow mixed with loud, flashy and tacky. I never understood why years seemed to go by in that era in which the show revolved around two identical woman with identical bad short haircuts who spent all their time together: Carly and Molly. It took me years to soften to either.

17 hours ago, John said:

Editing can have lots of tricks

I've edited, and not those kind of tricks.

Jeff Kober has spent virtually his entire career playing horrific killers in great movies and TV, lol. It's the show letting him down, because the show is bad.

I thought killing Rose was bold because she was so fun and vibrant. It rocked the show. Did I think all of the story at the time was very good - no. Some was, some sucked. The Paul/Rose wedding stuff was a ripoff of Todd and Blair's equally dumb "hell no" wedding at OLTL with Roger Howarth, who should never have replaced Scott Holroyd. But did the bold choice outweigh the losses with her gone - I don't know.

25 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

When announcing MADD taking over the P&G soaps, I think it was Michael Logan who pointed out, aghast, that ATWT no longer had a long-term story plan. I have wondered if they ever did again. It sure didn't feel like it.

As early as MADD? That's nuts. Wasn't that the '90s? 

I know Frank Valentini was livid at OLTL when Dena Higley never had a long term bible, just a pitch line or two (Jessica has DID, etc).

Josh Griffith is another burnt out writer who was good 25 years ago but has become another Passanante at this point - he gets shows made, makes the trains run on time, inserts some of his own dark [!@#$%^&*] and that's about it. Just a cog in the wheel. Neither of them should be at the show and nothing will change while they are. Hoping for that under the current management is pointless and foolish.

Passanante was repeatedly employed as a HW because she would write as directed, not because she had a talent for it. And she wrote the poorest stories possible. I'm sure she's as talented a staff/breakdown writer as many say she is, but she has never been a good HW. Ever. Her AMC was its nadir for me, next to the Rayfield/Cascio Fronsian interregnum in early 2003.

@Darn reminded me of a statement somewhere once that said most HWs today keep pitching baby stories above all because the networks will almost universally approve those vs. anything else. That explains why AMC, GL, etc. turned into Mormon baby factories by the end. It's why fùcking party girl Maxie Jones on GH has two fùcking kids. It's laziness, apathy and keeping the checks coming. I thought ATWT was hollowed out and dead long before it was cancelled and Passanante is a major part of that.

I haven't watched it all in a long time, but I remember them playing all the beats with Stavros and Laura's long build to reuniting with Luke. They played it all out for what, a month, two months, nonstop.

The Jesse story, which I paid close attention to, was far less granular on detail. I still don't remember what MacGuffin Gardner had on Jesse. Maybe Jesse had been investigating "Papel" or something. That doesn't explain why he stayed away or believed in Papel's reach to get to his wife and son.

@DRW50

Griffith isn't any good for the show either. But they're not making a change for no reason, so no, neither is good news. The show is bad and it's staying bad.

I think they see Amanda as a way to claim they've 'satisfied' Black viewers while keeping an inordinately popular Black actress neutralized on the canvas. Hilary's popularity upset the mix of a show that has done its level best to deemphasize a non-white cast vs. their chosen leads since Rowell exited. Amanda is a poor replacement, but they rehired Morgan so they can say 'see? what more do you want?' They know what people want. They have no intention of giving it because in terms of how they view Y&R and the kind of show it 'should' be, the Hilary character is dangerous.

She's just another very generic latter-day AMC staff writer who was all about quips and pop culture references vs. any substance. CBS and Sony have been trying to turn Y&R into a mediocre-to-bad 2000s-era ABC soap for many years and have mostly succeeded at this point. The show has no identity or quality compared to the show in the classic episodes, just like what befell many ABC soaps in their later years. So it fits that they'd go out and hire more people consistent with that dead style. And I grew up with ABC soaps, I loved ABC soaps. When they were good. Which was not where Beall came up, and it's not what Y&R is emulating. They've been wanting to turn Y&R into a superficially ABC-shaped youth-demo widget for over a decade. The networks and shows are not and never were the same, and they shouldn't be.

If they keep Amanda around instead of Hilary, they're not serious.

I may be jinxing it, but GH may have the makings of a potentially decent new Black cast with Brook Kerr as Portia and the girl who plays Trina. Both seem pretty good, Trina is cute with Cameron and I suspect the head of that family unit, Taggert, is not dead after all. I don't care about Jordan and poor Curtis hasn't ever had a worthwhile story. Do I expect GH to do anything good with two talented new actors of color, absolutely not, but they're still worth noting for praise.

Not to my recollection, no. I still don't remember why they faked Jesse's death either.

Oh God, the chick from 2000s AMC should not be HWing this show.

3 hours ago, John said:

Wonder if Robyn Richards would return?

Dude, no.

Will the same overly invested people bring the knives out for GV too?

Jean is by all accounts an excellent breakdown/staff writer. As a HW she's one of the all time worst.

@Darn and I talked about this a few weeks ago, but the fùck energy with Nick and Phyllis in '05 or whenever before Cassie died was off the charts. The affair was the right thing to do, and the antagonistic energy was also crackling. Making it true love was what never worked and has never worked, and I'm not someone who particularly cares who Sharon is with. Soaps don't let people just fùck anymore because they want to fùck - there's always some bullshit rationale, or it turns into soppy Valentine's Day.

Maxie shouldn't have one child, let alone three. And I have tremendous sympathy for Kirsten, but she probably should've been sent off for a rest the first time she took a long break.

Didn't JFP just bring over a bunch of the generic 2000s-era GH people with her, including the music guy? It showed.

Kirsten has looked exhausted for years and should not be on the show anymore tbh. It's not healthy and she doesn't look healthy. I know people love to hate on her but Molly Burnett was a solid replacement. Either way, Maxie as is is beyond played out and the character needs a long rest.

I haven't seen anything like that doll clip since Sonny slipped little Emily Quartermaine the tongue. My God.