Vee

It finally happened. As always, archive.is will get you behind the paywall by plugging in the original NY Times link.

Almost certainly not a hint at anything, just a bit of fun, but it would be a treat to see him on DW; he's still doing good work and his active social media presence is strangely, consistently adorable.

Woof - it has been very difficult to turn away from the final eps of Season 5 and not just binge straight through, which means my material on them is piling up considerably. I'm about 3 eps from the end, and I'll see about starting to parcel out posts about the previous 4-5(?) over the next few days as IRL allows. I do intend to take a bit of a breather before diving into Season 6, but we'll see how long that lasts since the show is so great. I will say that I actually really like Gary and Cathy together - sue me - and I was surprised to see they actually hit the hay. Lisa Hartman is legitimately creating a different character (sometimes in broader ways than others) and her butch vibe suits Ted Shackelford's more internal and at times softer masculinity.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for Chodd:

Thanks @SFK. Erika's newsletters are always very cozy as well as very candid - probably because the newsletter has largely managed to stay under the radar of press attention all these years, with the exception of the Dena Higley flap. I don't agree with her about everything re: the online show, but I understand her viewpoint and I do agree it was only five minutes ahead of its time (and that the management had no idea what they were doing). Anyway, her newsletter is always a delight.

Did she have to say "Peacock" in the sexy whisper at the end? Oh, Dee.

I just watched Episode 19, where it comes crashing down on Abby. She's at both her absolute worst in this episode (laying out the scope of her plans to discredit Gary to Westmont) and her most sympathetic at the same time at the end of the hour when she's banished from the ranch, and that simply should not be possible but somehow Mills and the writers manage it, which is amazing. I don't know how to reconcile Abby's love for Gary with everything she's done to him this season, but it's clearly still there on some level, remote from the rest of the insane things she's done to him with Cathy, Apolune, etc. There is no comparison to me with the portion of Dallas I've watched (admittedly only so much). That show is repetitive, stodgy and prioritizes the men and above all J.R. The personal struggles often seem about three inches deep.

They've taken back actors who've done worse, and will likely beg Steve Burton to return eventually after firing him for behavior that should have him banned forever IMO. TC's exit from GH was fraught but not nearly as scandalous as his later exit from DAYS. If he is well it's very possible and I think it would be the best thing for the character, but as I said before I don't know if it's a good idea for Tyler's health or sobriety, and that is more important.

Obrecht's Law!

I know Devane has said in an interview with one of the fansites that he felt it was a mistake to cut Laura where the relationship was Greg maturing, and felt the relationship with Nicollette Sheridan's character was 'more juvenile.' (I have never seen Sheridan in her prime and always felt she was sort of a campy space case whenever I glimpsed a bit of Desperate Housewives, so this will be interesting whenever I get there.) But IIRC both those couples had a lot of fans, which does not happen often on primetime soaps. So I am intrigued to see how it develops. Right now I feel Laura has just enough story and presence, but we'll see where it goes.

Episode 15 (Forsaking All Others): it’s Bill Duke Hours, and you know what that means! Watch Prey on Hulu, it's good! With Duke back in the director's chair, you know you're in for some particularly impressive work behind the camera on a Lorimar soap. Here the show opens pre-title/credits on a startling extreme close up of Karen's eyes, slowly pulling out as she rambles incoherently about her 'sore muscles' and pain, in denial about her addiction. The title and credits don't come up til they cut to Mack in the hallway of her rehab center, Duke keeps you immersed in Karen's mania. Michele Lee has no makeup throughout much of the next couple episodes and Karen ping-pongs between emotions, often reduced to a petulant child in the detox process - nothing like the Karen we've ever encountered. Not for the first time I found myself wondering during this episode 'Jesus, did Michele Lee win for this?' but it seems, inexplicably, she did not nor was she even nominated, which is outrageous and I suppose another indicator of bias against the primetime soaps. It is nice to see Val holding down the fort with the boys at the MacKenzie house early in the show. Even Michael (who is notably busting out of his t-shirts at this point) is in on the Sumner campaign now with Karen out of play, and Jane Sumner herself is making calls. There is an incredible Bill Duke flourish again as we see Greg taking a call from Mark St. Claire, who calls from his darkened Wolfbridge office; the camera circles around him, the only lit figure in the room surrounded by shadowy men of power as he informs the protesting Greg they're 'taking care' of Mack. Greg responds by cheerily signing papers for Eric, Mack's stepson, while listening to St. Claire tell him how they're going to snuff out Mack's career. When Mack does show up excited about more dirt on Wolfbridge Sumner manages to conceal his emotions, all genial encouragement - he's a practiced operator, even if you can begin to see the stirrings of struggle behind his eyes. He does tell his receptionist to send Karen flowers. Gary is starting to get wise this week. Initially it's Cathy ices him out, presumably because of her guilt over her deal with Abby, but soon he's been made aware of the Lotus Point development by one of the many recently-mentioned preservation groups in the area, which causes Laura to quietly freak as he asks her to look into it and buy out the development to save the land. By the close of the hour, when Gary demands an audit of Gary Ewing Enterprises, he's the one who is suited up and all business - Cathy can no longer tide him over and divert him. For her part, Abby is desperate to hide the Lotus Point shenanigans from her husband while ineffectually protesting as St. Claire and Wolfbridge take more and more control of LP and Apolune. The walls are closing in. David Jacobs has claimed (perhaps self-servingly) to have woven in as many Black actors into supporting/guest cast roles as he could while Lorimar or CBS supposedly vetoed Black contract characters through the years, and while this may or may not be true it's also easy for a white guy to say that decades later. That being said, there's also often a notable focus on Black guest players whenever Bill Duke directs an episode, and the same holds true here - first with the presence of the corrupt, taciturn D.A. in the pocket of Wolfbridge who warns Mack he's being targeted, well played by ex-OLTL star and recurring TV presence Arthur Burghardt (hated by virtually everyone he worked with on OLTL), then more notably with Karen's rehab roommate, whose performer's name I sadly could not lay my hands on despite a bit of research. There's not much mistaking the subtext when the haggard, pallid Karen tells the young Black woman "I'm not like those people. [...] It's different for you." But it's this young woman who begins to pierce Karen's denial and class/racial armor, calmly explaining that Karen's drugs are simply legal while hers aren't, and begins to lay out a parallel which is still startlingly resonant in the wake of the opioid epidemic. "I can get arrested for mine," the young woman says. "You deduct yours from your taxes. But we use for the same reason: life's tough, and we want out." Diana is blessedly with Uncle Joe in NYC these last few episodes (some fans have suggested it's possibly because of Claudia Lonow's own drug habit, but we've no idea), and good riddance. Gary and Val have a nice scene at Westfork talking over both the Fairgate-MacKenzie women, and it's a little wild to see Val on the vast ranch. Gary wisely offers to go see Karen, which sounds like a good idea to me. It's a sweet, quiet moment to see the exes bonding over Westfork, his dream realized. I did laugh at Val's seemingly guileless exit line: "Say hi to Abby for me." The smear job and cover-up on Mack begins as Sumner very publicly hangs Mack out to dry on national television, with Val and the MacKenzie kids watching in horror as Sumner pins misconduct charges on Mack by using Karen's name and unwitting connection to the Lotus Point development to tie him to both the project and Abby's shady variance. These are absolutely brilliant, intricate linkages I would not have seen coming, nor did I see Greg cutting Mack's throat this way coming at all - I thought they'd be friends for years to come, and maybe they get back there, but I truly have no clue what happens to them now (and again, when was Devane definitely set to stay?). Mack of course has no idea what's going on, what a variance is or what Lotus Point is, and it's exhilarating watching the other half of the canvas begin to be made aware. The umbrella unfolds even further as even Karen sees Sumner's press conference in the TV room at her rehab and goes berserk, delirious as she tries to reach Mack. Duke milks this with handheld camerawork and more stark use of light and shadow. When Mack and Val turn up to try to question her about Lotus Point, she can't do anything but babble incoherently about going home. This whole arc is the performance of a lifetime from Michele Lee and it's a scandal she didn't even get a nomination. Also, Val looks amazing in a suit. (She has a great moment with Ben in the hospital elevator after, as they've both shown up in the MacKenzies' corner with Ben and Mack getting closer - alone, they do it all with their eyes.) Abby and Laura make truly amazing love/hate conspirators in white-collar crime - if this show came out today there'd be lots of lesbian slashfic. You can see the shame and fear, finally, in Abby's eyes when she discovers that Ben's kindly old neighbors, the Marcuses, had their home burnt to the ground by Wolfbridge to clear the way for Lotus Point: "Apparently there was a fire. There is no home." She's in deep and she's genuinely scared. It is of course about this time that Gary finally confronts the women about Lotus Point, now major news, and Abby gamely tapdances and blames Karen and the MacKenzies because of course she does. At which point Gary demands AN AUDIT! Just pretend you heard the musical sting from this famous episode of Roseanne here, because that is about Abby and Laura's reaction. It's goodbye for Danielle Brisebois as Mary Frances when the Sumner women rather awkwardly visit the MacKenzies at rehab - Lee does a great job conveying Karen's barely concealed shame and heartbreak with a happy face as they say goodbye, but crumbles with Mack as they leave given how important a surrogate daughter has become to her: "We never took her camping." I do wish we'd gotten to see more of Eric and Mary Frances in years later; she was a pistol and those two had promise. There's also a nice Bill Duke extended handheld shot with Mack fending off reporters at the hospital as a guilty, estranged Laura arrives with flowers, then flees. On Primary Day, Greg is chafing at St. Claire and Wolfbridge's heavy hand and increasingly discontent - but only so far. His own sunny face is notably blown up extra-large on a campaign poster, looming over his growing hangdog malaise as he does the bidding of his masters. The press swarm the MacKenzie house as Sumner visits to try to clean things up with Mack, but it doesn't go anywhere except the beat where the old friends admit they don't trust each other - "nothing’s a hundred percent," Sumner snaps. "That's the kind of business we’re in." He makes up an excuse neither of them believe in about buying the variance story which he knows is bullshít, and sure enough he wins the California primary at the close of the hour. There's another fantastic Duke shot as the dejected MacKenzie family watches the results and Greg's victory speech from the shadows of the rehab center. Episode 16 (Reconcilable Differences): Mack's friendship with Greg Sumner is over; now Ben Gibson is his best friend! Yes, the hottest bromance in Seaview Circle is closing in on Apolune, the mystery company behind Lotus Point, but they're not quite onto to Abby just yet as this episode opens (by the close of the hour Ben is onto Abby). They're tight enough to start comparing their female woes, but Mack wisely doesn't let in to Ben that he knows the truth about Val's pregnancy. Abby, meanwhile, is terrified by the power of Wolfbridge and fearfully complaining to an outwardly blasé Greg, who warns her she knew the rules of the game. "They're not my rules," Abby insists, again possibly thinking of Sid. "I don't play this way." She tries to threaten him but Greg is a smiling cobra and still out of her league, shrugging it off and genially reminding her: "I never put [my name] on a piece of paper. And I never spoke to anyone on your behalf. I'm clean." Engagement off? Karen's demons in rehab lead to some stunning night terrors as her mind begins to conflate past and present, Mack and Sid - "the parts were stolen," she babbles to a nurse (and the show wisely doesn't mention Sid by name at all here, trusting the audience), before starting in on her fears for her current husband. But just like Sid, she shrieks that Mack "wouldn't quit!" Gary visits the morning after, a compelling scene and Shackelford and Lee's first two-hander that I can recall in a long time. At the sight of Gary, a shade falls over Karen's eyes and face that seems unmistakable to me. When Gary tries to connect with her re: their addictions she spits venom and calls him nothing but a drunk; Karen can never conceive of herself being as weak as him, as weak as he has been drunk or sober in the past, and perhaps that shade is still there most of all because of Sid. There's an interesting beat at the end when Gary leaves and runs into Lilimae, who once again runs her mouth to rub Gary's face in it about Val's pregnancy. The mental machinery clearly begins working for him here, too. Abby and Laura are both on high alert about the audit throughout this ep, but Abby and Westmont manage to cover their tracks on Apolune - unfortunately, Abs forgot one thing. After the auditor hilariously shames Gary for not having adequate expense records for the ranch, he notes the larger payroll for Cathy from Abby - checks dated to before Gary met her. Gary wisely dummies up when cannodling with Abby, gauging her reaction when he suggests letting Cathy go and Abby tries to dissuade him. He plays it chummy with Cathy too, right before discovering she's an ex-con. At Apolune, Laura has another fateful run-in with Greg who tries to put the moves on her, and frankly it verges on a #metoo moment as she looks deeply uncomfortable as he vaguely presses his face to her neck. I was just beginning to wonder 'will we see when the magic begins to happen here?' but apparently the answer is no, because the next time we see these two Constance McCashin and William Devane are in bed together, so I guess that really gross maneuver worked. In fairness they do seem a lot cozier in bed together, and Laura seems much more overtly sexual and liberated with him in our brief glimpse here, as Laura begins working her mouth down Sumner's side. But uh, what an introduction after their brief flirtation a couple eps ago. After another night of delirium and madness in Mack's arms Karen is clearheaded. Her big group session scene in rehab is solid, but I found myself wondering how long exactly she's been there, as she refers to 'all these sessions' and how she wasn't ready to admit she was an addict before - they seem to be speedrunning this story a bit at this point since she was only admitted last episode, but I guess there has been some time lapse we're not fully privy to per the dialogue. "I feel like I'm talking about a stranger," Karen marvels as she discusses her addiction, and I guess I can buy into the shift after the last two eps of Karen in utter agony and ugliness, but I still might've given this one more week. There's some nice friction as Mack is visibly uncomfortable after the session, taciturn and feeling voiceless. The MacKenzies still fundamentally disagree about how she should've handled Diana, but it goes deeper: "I'm living with someone else's family," Mack says, "I'm a visitor in that house." The core of resentment about not feeling settled in their family unit, about Diana, about his insecurities boils over as Karen also reminds him that he pushed her away before they tied the knot. They talk past each other until Karen pleads with him to talk about what he's feeling and going through, and Mack being the man's man can't do it, yet. He tells Ben his career is falling apart and marriage isn't the TV illusion he thought it would be, disillusioned with his crumbling life. It takes Karen coming home (again, a bit soon for me) and an offscreen conversation with Mack's obnoxious drunk dad for things to penetrate; she watches him break down and cry after keeping it together for his alpha father. Mack pursues and embodies a certain period masculine ideal because it's part of his professional life, his cultural background and his sense of self, but he's not so cut off from his emotions that he cannot access them or release them when it becomes absolutely necessary. Here, the show allows Karen to finally take back the dominant role as she goes to him and he unburdens himself, weeping in her arms, which is a great example of KL's willingness to center the female characters. I mean: You don't get this on Dallas. I'm going to try to cut out a lot of synopsizing going forward and keep to just specific story and character beats that particularly interest me episode to episode, as I used to do - I think episodic context is important for what I discuss, but I don't have any interest in doing recaps (I did them weekly once long ago on another soap for pocket change, it sucked). Cheers.

Yeah, unfortunately Davi is among the ranks of great character actors who have been right wing for years. I can usually ignore it til nonsense like this turns up.

The press was visibly pissed when Obama won handily and frankly easily in '12 despite attempts to manufacture a horse race which never really materialized, and any time Democrats win they always pivot to 'this is not a mandate, Democrats must bring the country together.' This is never a charge levied when Republicans win. They actually admitted it was a mandate in 2020 for Biden - notably, a white president. In the Beltway world, Republicans are bold, salt of the earth true Americans, and Democrats are the wimps or hippies who must clean up other people's messes (it's never quite stated whose messes those are) and always play defense to prove their bonafides to the heartland, because they are innately inferior/false as 'elites' and it is their role in the hierarchy of American life. This is, at core, an indictment of Beltway media itself - they have been trained for decades to believe they are out of touch with the 'real America' and have 'liberal bias,' all of which is solely defined by GOP strategists, that they are effete coastal elites, and they (especially internal analyticals like Nate Silver, who has been convinced he must now become a 'feeling' pundit) redirect this internalized guilt and contempt onto Democrats vs. themselves while constantly trying to curry the unattainable favor of the right. Then you have the true believers - the elder 'sensible conservatives' or their kids who come out of conservative clubs and think tanks in school, or the evangelical-adjacents. That's all a longwinded way of explaining a simple thing we already know, though: Both Republicans and media hate when Democrats fight well and win, because Democrats aren't supposed to fight. They are supposed to be the weak libs who eat the shame and sin of everyone else to keep the country functioning and nominally pro-white. When that doesn't happen, the media gets mad because they can no longer live in the old paradigm. But no, there's no way student loans will energize Republican turnout on par with Dobbs. That is hilarious. If Republicans take one or both chambers it won't be because of that, it'll be the usual midterm trends.

Exactly my point about all this. There are no windows of time this could have happened with Dominique with her onscreen love interests.

How could Mac be Cody's dad? Was Dominique even offscreen after breaking up with Mac?

They're also howling mad about it, which is always a good sign of when they're hurt.

That's a shame. Still, she had a very long run at that show and will likely find another home.

She has been offscreen with Uncle Joe but returns in the ep I am about to watch. I know some have suggested it might be due to Claudia Lonow's publicly admitted drug habit in these years. I know she doesn't exit til S6, which surprised me as I thought/prayed she might be gone sooner. Lonow for her part seems to be a very funny, candid and talented woman behind the camera.

Thanks. I think I may take a bit of a breather when Season 6 rolls around, but we'll see. Struggling to secure continued viewing has been an experience to say the least. It's a tragedy and a travesty this show is not currently on an official streaming service like Dallas.