Vee

This is common with Ron and it's also what he's tried to do with Leo, Gwen, etc. and characters on his other shows (hence the attempts at cockeyed redemption arcs for Leo and Gwen which deliberately try to drag down more conventional protagonists to compare unfavorably with them). It's why they're trying to pair Leo with Sonny too. 'The love of a good man.' It's not like that kind of story in soaps with reformed antagonists or schemers is not as old as the hills, BTW. That in and of itself is not a bad trope. But it's how Ron does it - and how far he takes them both before the 'redemption' and after, while vacillating and wanting the character both ways - that always wrecks the execution. And frankly Kristen cannot and should not be redeemed IMO.

Filming for Season 14/the RTD2 era commences with Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson:

That (and the fact that the affair started before they separated from their spouses) is one reason it's unlikely to be a good idea.

I don't get what an Aremid spinoff would've consisted of. Did they expect Missy to leave the main show?

The question is, how many more embarrassments can Semafor stand both before and just after rolling out of the gate?

Al Strobel - MIKE, the One Armed Man of Twin Peaks - has passed.

RIP Al Strobel.

All of them treasures: We may begin to see leaked location shooting pix in the next weeks as has happened often over the last several Doctors dating back to at least Matt Smith's first block, so I assume they will finally unveil Fifteen's official look/costume sooner than later to get out in front of that. But I've been wrong before.

Judith Light (OLTL) is great in a supporting role in the new thriller The Menu, easily the sleeper hit of the year and really excellent.

It's also worth noting that TSJ got his role on OLTL by first auditioning for the Kevin Buchanan recast in '03. Except in his audition he (again) raged out, throwing papers, etc. around in Kevin's office or whatever. It was totally not Kevin, but the show saw his volatility and saved him for the Todd recast. It was a wise move, and some of his ugliest scenes on the show, like the ones I mentioned above, are his best. Whereas I hated his Death Row sobfest in which Todd/Victor was canonized instead. But I will never forget "Todd's" unmasking himself for Blair around Christmas that first year after she (having secretly learned "Walker" is "Todd") torments him for weeks and emasculates him, where he goes from mewling and pitying himself and whining like a child to snarling and almost striking her - he was an insect. TSJ had no ego about it and no illusions as to his character, and could play both good and truly foul. That's what made him fascinating when he cared.

The rare decent Atlantic article:

Two great non-entities that go great together, off my screen!

Graz is still extremely attractive, I like the beard and I'm hardly one to talk about age with the salt and pepper growing in my facial hair too, but continuity-wise it is awkward for him to be parading around with that while they're still trying to sell him as Stafford's son lol.

This has been going on since before the midterm results, but it's always nice to see it get more notice:

Romney, at least, buckles under pressure:

I think he's talented. My feelings about him are complex. I think he did great work on OLTL, on and off right to the end. I also think he did supremely shítty work, same timespan. Part of the reason they had to do Two Todds is because TSJ simply did not give a fùck and would play against anything earnest at times, even when they tried to pull him back from the voids the writers often fully drove the character into on their own. (He generally did not fail to deliver on heartfelt material under Michael Malone who introduced him, though that may have been because it was so early.) And TSJ would love to provoke the audience even IRL - if he threw out some lines like he used to at fan events (joking 'I love rape') today, forget it. But I will never forget the scenes he had with Susan Haskell in 2010/2011? where Victor/Todd shows up at Marty's office demanding their children stop dating, and when she tries to call the cops Victor starts screaming at her, hurls the phone and is completely out of his mind. This is a man who had raped Marty ('again') a little over a year or so before and he was now preventing her from leaving the room, preventing her from calling anyone, and launching into a self-pitying, narcissistic tirade littered with threats against her if she doesn't leave town. This culminates, after he finally leaves, in Marty being pushed down the stairs and miscarrying her baby. Victor is the prime suspect, but of course, according to the show, poor misunderstood Victor didn't do it. The show still wanted to present Victor/Todd II as a good guy deep down, and that is not what was on display in those scenes in the office. It was frightening and good work by TSJ onscreen, but it was completely irredeemable. That's largely on the writers, not him; so much of what became of the Todds is on the writing. The thing is Trevor didn't care, and any time they belatedly (and poorly) tried to insert more dimension or pathos to try to clean things up he would fluff it off and smirk through it. Later, Roger Howarth came back prepared to perform again but Trevor was still smirking and blowing off a lot of crucial scenes in the Two Todds saga up til his last days. You came away with the impression Victor was a narcissistic sociopath. (And I don't think he was deep down, because as it happens we don't know the real Victor who could be a fascinating character.) Was the sociopath mold true to life for a character with a criminal profile like Todd Manning, probably - but it was not what the show had, in its better years, worked to build. I thought Trevor did a solid job in his brief turn on OLTL 2.0 and I thought he always had scorching chemistry with Florencia. I thought the Victor Jr. character could go many interesting and dangerous places. But that was ten years ago, and you can't do a show with rapist twin leads today. In a hypothetical world where OLTL still existed, Victor and Todd should both largely be relegated to the past or to very controlled appearances. Anyway, this is a lot of pretentious bloviating just to say yes, I think Trevor can do great work. I think he also is often on his own trip - good and bad - unless the writing brings him around. Y&R is no different. But at least he'll liven that show up.

I should get back to this show. It was stunning. Still don't know WTF happened with Dawn-Lyen Gardner skipping out before the end though.

A very impressive sequel and probably the best MCU work since the end of the classic cycle with Endgame. Very strong, and notably led entirely by Black females - there were barely any males in the film other than Namor and the fitfully appearing M'Baku and Everett Ross. Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira and yes, the deeply problematic Letitia Wright carried the film, along with Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams (a much more appealing character here than in the comics as created by Brian Michael Bendis). I did not expect Riri to work but she really did for me. I'll talk about the film more at some point but the introduction sequence for Namor and the Talokanil/Atlanteans is one of the best horror sequences Marvel has ever done, if not the best. Terrifying stuff and a great, brief performance by the always-lovely Lake Bell.

Also: The two great opening tracks from Christine's solo '80s album, good stuff. Featuring Paul Bartel in the music video!