Vee

I feel the same. While I believe the heart and mind are in the right place, I think the 'pregnant people' messaging is going to be a problem for a general public that just isn't there yet. There are better ways to lay these identity and rights issues out than to lean directly into frames like the ones Hawley sets out beforehand, especially when meanwhile you have publications like the NYT leaning into op-eds playing devil's advocate for anti-trans/LGBT stuff complaining about this language, trying to set women against transwomen or transmen. There has to be a more unifying frame. But I also can't blame trans people for not giving a fùck about that right now, when they're becoming Public Enemy #1 with the rest of us next.

The media has gotten well ahead of themselves on this Biden Can't Run juice. Him stepping down is not going to happen and they're going to look like fools.

I know that tweet and I agree. I just don't think that changes the fact that it seems like the White House has no clue what to do next, with those weeks or months or years let alone decades. And unfortunately, right now they're the ones left holding the bag. So, the question is what's next?

In other news: Holy shít. I knew this probably existed but never thought they'd find it.

Whoever Eileen is playing, how many times can they neg Stacy Haiduk like this?

Only a handful of soap stars have the crossover fanbase in horror, like Barbara Crampton (who has a very strong career in horror film/TV these days and really doesn't need to come back to daytime, though I wish she would). Kelli Maroney is known more for her beloved genre work while being reviled on daytime. Others like Kevin Spirtas, Scott Reeves, etc. have it and have done their share of appearances or BTS documentaries but aren't as visible. Horror fans never forget. It did my heart good when OLTL went off the air and Kassie DePaiva, who was so heartbroken about it, started doing more cons for Evil Dead II and was fully embraced. I do wonder why Cardille never did more daytime, but I guess there was the stigma and I have no Idea if she even acts today.

How do any of the DiMeras keep coming back to life? It's their thing with their evil superscience.

Yes, I believe so. Mack makes it quite clear they came up together on Wall Street. I should add that after the absolute ordeal Diana has been to watch for a long time, it's odd to put her next to a) the IRL Claudia Lonow, apparently a very funny and talented woman behind the camera in the industry who has a sense of humor about her past self, and b) the Diana of the final season or two who turns up near the end. I knew she appeared in the final year, and I couldn't resist taking a peek at one of her episodes the other day (I only watched one scene and a bit of another). It was pretty surreal to see Diana in the chic NYC/boho fashions of the early '90s - she looked great, her acting was still a bit arch - and as a grounded, centered person. Also equally surreal to see that Gary and Val's presumably-just-now-conceived twins in Season 5 were like, 9 or 10 years old. Amazing how long this show ran, and a testament to the living history that is all long-running soaps, primetime or daytime.

Steve has looked raw as hell since at least GH's initial return from the pandemic. I still think it's shameful DAYS employed him after what he pulled over there.

No, Donna, Carlivati said Bo was in Heaven for the duration. At the end of the week, he very likely comes back to life due to the power of the prisms which figure into this storyline. Spoilers have certainly hinted at that possibility. These DAYS specials should be a minimum of 2 weeks IMO. Even Ron at his laziest can make that work (and I don't think the fundamentals of the stories Beyond Salem tells are bad). I think compressing them into 5 hours is too little. You could revive a lot of soaps on their respective corresponding streaming outlets with 4-6 week arcs IMO, but that's another kettle of fish.

Bo is going to come back to life. It's not that deep.

All 100% true. They're to blame and they'll never admit it, and I will never forget. But I don't think any of that has anything to do with how I think the administration's thus far fumbled the response to Dobbs. Two different things, and while the Bern left may have capitalized on that discontent for their own purposes (just like they tried and failed to turn the public on Ukraine, which was just pathetic), it's not all coming from them. It's at least equally from sensible, mainstream Democrats who didn't see this coming like a lot of us, and want to hear specific plans, landmarks, and how far the administration is actually willing to go, not just in symbolic show votes or whatever but re: SCOTUS and everything else. Like, what will you commit to now about doing if we keep the majority and expand it? Because just killing the filibuster and codifying Roe is useless with the current SCOTUS makeup. And if the whole national parks/federal land spiel isn't viable, which it probably isn't, then okay, what is? What's next? We've got to offer something beyond just speaking on background to Politico and CNN about how they don't want to get into losing court battles, which the Republicans already have no problem getting into in order to throw red meat to the base. And yes, it would be fine to say 'we don't need to do that stuff, we want to govern instead' in normal times. Nobody needs to tell me about how real, sensible adult governance is often slow, boring and unexciting; my mother spent her career doing that work down there, and it was good work with good people who didn't get a lot of likes on Twitter or go viral. They just worked hard and did the job. But even she would tell you we're not in normal times. We're in fucked times. We have to do more to just try to function like it's normal, because it's tragically abnormal now. I'm not asking for just crass red meat, but it's clear a lot of people are asking for more. The Republican courts (not just SCOTUS) are operating within profoundly different rules, and we have to get creative. And I really hope the White House can do that, soon. I think they've been in a fugue since December, I think they were genuinely blindsided not just by Dobbs (which is something they've admitted on background) but by their conventional wisdom on Manchin and BBB failing them, and I think it's been a series of triages ever since. I take zero pleasure in saying that. But they've got to find a path, and that isn't just coming from laymen, it's coming from old hands. When you have Dick Durbin of all people roasting the White House in public over that anti-choice judgeship thing, it's not a great look. I especially feel bad for Harris, who's already stuck with a Beltway press who deeply dislike her and frame every story around their distaste for her and is trapped behind the 8-ball on the Dobbs questions in interviews, waiting for a cue from the White House.

Aaand we're back! Ep 4 (Marital Privileges): Big Bill Devane Rides In! Yes, the much-hailed Greg Sumner is here. I know William Devane best from 24, where he debuted in its fourth year, possibly its most right-wing, Red Bull'ed cartoon season of all after two very strong previous seasons, as the gun-toting, ass-kicking POTUS packing heat of former Final Year Falcon Crest alumni and 24 showrunner Joel Surnow's dreams. 24 wanted a man of action President of the United States who could keep pace with Kiefer Sutherland and fire off fusillades of hot lead by his side while fending off the unkillable, all-powerful dude from The Mummy as the season's ridiculous, vaguely Middle Eastern villain, and they sure got it. You get a sense of Bill Devane real quick when you first come across him and then you never forget. It's not a negative - he is a bracing, energetic and charismatic presence onscreen who is capable of far more than just jocularity and machismo (as evidenced by his comedy performance in the very bizarre John Schlesinger flop Honky Tonk Freeway not long before this, which probably helped push him towards trying out TV), and I'm glad to have him. The campaign slogan "Greg Sumner: The Man for the Eighties" seems to about sum it up so far. Sumner is constantly surrounded by his entourage and security detail, but is still no bullshít. The grace of this show and its handling of Abby is that even when Sumner very briskly curbs her over the Ewing dynasty's fondness for offshore drilling (40 years later, Birgitte Nyborg of Borgen would be proud), Abby can’t help but smile in admiration and clearly, fascination. She doesn’t sneer or hiss like a Dynasty stereotype, she simply takes him in. Spotted also: A very young Jack Wagner working in Sumner’s campaign office, maybe 30 minutes out from heading to Port Charles. This little view of period California campaign offices idly makes me flash back to the third act of Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza; one wonders if Alana Haim's character from that, politically active a few short years earlier, ended up gravitating to ex-idealist Sumner's campaign too. I'm calling it canon. So seriously, I kept asking myself: Is this debacle with Chip all some bullshít teenage rebellion for Diana? I kept wondering, what spurred her to take it all out on Karen specifically? Was it really all about Sid and Mack? I didn't get it much beyond what I’ve already said in the past, until Diana suddenly, proudly told the cops she got married in Vegas - "just like my mother". She seems to want to both stick it to Karen and also prove she is now an adult woman, just like she kept whining about in the first three seasons; it's their many mother/daughter conflicts writ large in bloodstained gothic drama. But no sane or well person who isn't a narcissist would possibly take that this far, which makes me think the roots are still in the collective Fairgate family traumas of the last few years: Sid and Mack, like I mentioned above and in the past. But I'll get back to that as things develop across their next couple episodes, so stay tuned. Incidentally, the Ciji/Chip flashback to the murder was fine, I guess. I do wonder if audiences back then had any inkling back then that Lisa Hartman's reappearance might herald her return. Offscreen J.R. tips Abby off about way more money coming to Gary from Jock’s will (wasn’t there a four-year codicil on Gary's share of the fortune? What on Dallas spawned this? The battle for control of Ewing between J.R. and Bobby over who could make more money?), and Abby knows what this means for her own status and position and refreshingly puts it very bluntly: "I'm gonna have to work real fast." Here, masks are off: Abby and Westmont know Abby is out for Abby, and in these discussions at least Gary, and getting Gary to put a ring on it, is simply a means to her ends. I don't believe he's solely that to her, but when her place and drive for power is on the line I think Abby goes to what she knows, which is cutthroat survival, and figures out how to make it right emotionally later. I may be wrong. Anyway: Not unlike the race for Ewing primacy on the mothership show (which I guess I should go check out some more, since the competition storyline interested me - I left off in the middle of the previous season with the last KL crossover, as Dallas is often so repetitive, simplistic, and cheaply macho to me) the race to finalize the Ewing divorce and cement Abby as the next Mrs. Ewing is on, as Gary and Val are now in a way-too-good place for Abs' liking. Val shoulda taken the money in the divorce. Just saying. I admire that she didn't, though (and doesn't again in a couple episodes, when Lilimae needs bond money). The divorce dynamics between Gary and Val are refreshingly candid and adult for a couple that seemed like starry-eyed arrested adolescents for much of the first three seasons - Gary has also come through the fire over the last two years and seems like a much more mature, grounded man now, actualized in both aspects of his nature, the soulful rancher who loves the wilderness and the would-be tycoon. As Knots Blogging said over on their site, breaking them up was the best decision the show ever made, not because they were a bad couple the audience didn't like but because they're a great one now, and we know it was very deliberate from TPTB: The more Gary and Val grow as people, the more you want them together as the better people they are today. They’re both so different now, and yeah - way more compelling romantically too. The affection and magnetism radiates off them even in those scenes with Gary leaning into Val's car after the meeting about the divorce and their just enjoying each other's company again, because Valene is now as strong and emotionally intelligent as he is, probably moreso. She is a match for him now, but in a very different way from Abby. Which makes me wonder again when, exactly, the show realized they would keep the triangle going for much longer than just Season 4, where it often seemed like they were poised to bust up Gary/Abby and bring Val back in at any moment. Whoever made the decision to keep it going, deepen it with marriage and a new man, etc. deserves an Emmy. At the other end of the spectrum, Gary recognizing that Abby's new corporate lair/James Bond villain cave is to her what Westfork is for him is the best possible synthesis of their equal drives in their relationship. Would that it could always be like that for them, but Abby is grasping now and getting more desperate as she goes. Her weak facade of delight re: the Laura news is hilarious though, and Laura and Abby working together is already a very dry, lethally funny dynamic. I suspected Abby's brief mention to Laura of 'land from my uncle' was a precursor to something else I've heard a little about that heavily impacts the show, and I was right; there's another one of these that was apparently seeded into a throwaway line midway through last season (re: a cable TV network), but I guess we'll get to that when it comes up. Val and Ben: Still cute! That is all. Same for Mack and Sumner reuniting in a fairly low-key way, as Sumner's entourage lurks and William Devane happily prances about in shirt and no pants, Donald Ducking it. You don't see alpha males on TV do that a lot these days. Oof, what a picture late in the episode: Gary and Abby in front of this Louis XIV-esque banquet spread, on their vast new estate with streetlamps of its own, as Gary sits fallow, pensive and unsatisfied by it all, clearly thinking of Val. This makes Abby even more insecure and she knows she has to throw it to their signature move (deranged sex) as the finisher, except now with the new Val in the mix it feels like a fair fight. Sated and nude afterwards, Abby lets Gary bask in the post-prison afterglow as she begins to plan to put a ring on it. Chip and Lilimae's big scene at the station is great: He seems both surprised and disinterested to see her, then after a few beats puts on his typical gladhander face. But he can’t keep it up for long at this point, and his eyes when he finally lets go and begins viciously taunting Lilimae, accusing her of working for the cops, are glowering and incredibly scary - it's a real Ted Bundy moment. Julie Harris' reaction work is stunning too. But more on all that later. Abby going hard in the paint for Diana, letting her stay at Westfork, is a stupid move. As far as I can tell she gains nothing from this besides antagonizing Karen. She can't think this is good for Diana, but OTOH Gary may be right that Diana does need space and rest as she's clearly unwell. I did love Mack unloading on Diana, finally. I gotta say again that not only is the Westfork horse range (the regular meeting site for Gary and Laura's compelling rapport) amazing, but the entire gigantic location remains absolutely insane. Seriously, Southfork on Dallas is just a painted backdrop and some floaties, cheap patio furniture and cardboard sets by comparison. I dunno who let them get away with this on the spinoff. You could film a whole show on this ranch! Ep 5 (One Kind of Justice): Featuring two of those famous moments I’ve already seen and knew were coming. Written and directed by David Jacobs, so you know it's important! Lilimae and Diana, and their separate relationships with Chip are a key engine for what drives this one: Lilimae is fixated on cutting to the core of Chip, finding a way to expiate her own guilt by making Chip face and pay for his, but Julie Harris' wonderful scene with Sabatino shows her fundamental lack of realization that the sociopath she describes to him, the man Lilimae feels he's in danger of becoming, is exactly who he already is - and he's mask off, tickled that she doesn't see it. He throws some of his old classic Chip platitudes in her face just for the hell of it; he won’t respect her enough to break the character too much, even while laughing in her face over it. Lilimae's exit line is great: "Shame is all I've got now." Abby moving Gary's extant money before her power of attorney can be revoked is another pretty indefensible move tbh, but it’s become second nature to her. Again, I have to chalk it up to raw survival instincts and insecurity and sorting through her emotions and intellect later. Either way, it's a bad look. Speaking of Abby and bad looks, we've finally come to the big Karen/Abby/Diana/Eric blow-up at Westfork! I've seen some of it before without real context, but it has such weight behind it now. Karen's speech to Abby is amazing, but Eric slapping Diana is possibly even better. Olivia watching it all is what's particularly intriguing, though, another in a string of recurring variations on a familiar scene over the last couple seasons, including early in this season at the beach house: Abby's children watching Abby doing Abby, and her decisions wreaking havoc across a revolving series of increasingly upscale new home and palaces for her family, each confrontation unmasking her in the process. Again, Abby is stupid to get in the middle of this IMO. There's no conceivable gain for her other than making Karen’s life more of a hell than it is, and for what? She knows Sid would come out of his grave over it if he could. Anyway, Olivia goes to Gary again, another interesting developing bond - great camerawork and editing too, as the camera simply stays with Abby throughout, struggling to make her way across the vast, sunswept hilly plain of Westfork (a beautiful kingdom, just not the one she's home in or ever wanted) alone over the voice-over of Olivia and Gary talking to each other about her. Olivia‘s words finally shame her mother at least a little, but she doesn't change course. Lord, is Laura still on about Richard and Ciji? Sorry, but Karen was right about both her and Lilimae when she snapped at them upon returning from the ranch. I've noticed the Avery house suddenly has a huge pool this season, which is new to me. I don't recall an outdoor staircase before either; it seems to be a considerable remodel, maybe courtesy of Laura's new upwardly mobile money (I wish we'd gotten one scene of her and Scooter saying their goodbyes when she went to work for Gary full time). Laura and Jason Number Whatever together as Laura struggles to navigate their situation and process her own feelings about Richard was decent enough, but it's capped off best by what Janet Baines says at the end of the episode: He was "a poor, unloved guy who couldn't cope." Of course as far as Laura is concerned and what he did to her that isn't even the half of it, but that's all that's needed to understand why he's gone. It's interesting that we’re still getting glimpses of Sumner mostly through Mack, with Sumner talking about Karen who he still doesn't met until the campaign gala late in the episode. The campaign bash, where Karen and Greg finally meet and Abby is beyond the 8-ball seeing Val newly in her element, is great. Greg's crime commission plan though, is uhhh, super vague! At best! Good luck with 'discussing new ideas, trying them all!' Interesting here though, and still relevant in our politics today: Ben notes that Sumner used to be an "uncompromising idealist" who was stuck in the state legislature with no chance for advancement on the national level, but who now travels in the rich crowds and can stake a run for the Senate. I assume these are the first hints of whatever the nefarious 'Wolfbridge Group' arc is about. Which makes me wonder when they realized Devane was staying for the duration; a lot of BTS interviews have indicated that they weren't sure if Sumner would only be a one-season, arc-based character, a bit of stunt casting maybe, or when they decided he would continue. Greg wisely can tell the difference between Gary and J.R. though, and he handles Abby and Gary with grace. Joanna Pettet as Baines and her collection of headbands are done. Her wrung-out, disgusted exit speech about the entire Ciji Dunne case is great stuff from David Jacobs, and I suspect is meant to prod Mack closer to taking Sumner's offer re: "The Crime Commission". But are we supposed to think Baines is leaving town because she's taking herself off the case? She has a great final moment with Mack, kissing his cheek, stealing her chance but pulling the punch. Again: The slow burn quad of Abby/Gary/Val/Ben is just great. The more insecure and grasping Abby gets, the more easy and natural Gary and Val are. But I can't believe Abby kept on pushing it with Karen at the gala. The silent moment where they both eye the cake Karen clearly wants to plant in her face (and Abby's double take) was great. I wish Karen had done it tbh. As to the Big Moment outside the courthouse: Knots Blogging notes that once again, Chip is in his element, thrilled to be the center of attention and the star for the reporters, just as he was vamping when he was caught by the cops in front of the news cameras a few eps ago. I've seen the vehicular manslaughter before, but the looks on Karen and Lilimae’s faces at the very end were amazing. Lilimae had been talking about Chip needing to pay for the whole hour, so on some level the seed must have been her in mind, though I don't think she knew what she was going to do until she saw him walk out. YMMV. Episode 6 (And Never Brought to Mind): Abby: I've always known beneath that batty little old lady exterior there'd beat the heart of a killer! I could swear that is Avenue of the Americas just off of Santa Monica where Mack and Sumner talk up the increasingly-important "crime commission." This is an intersection and neighborhood I know extremely well, 40 years later and it's surreal to see it, though I also used to live right next to where The Americans regularly filmed in Brooklyn (doubling as the city from my childhood, D.C.) and it always drove me insane, because I never saw them filming despite all the signs and then they'd still turn up on TV like two minutes from my apartment. Anyway. Ghosts everywhere we go! Ben and Val are still cute, but overshadowed as soon as Gary shows up at the police station. The big triangle shown in a single tableau again, as poor Ben and Gary exchange a few awkward words. Laura needling Abby about the G&V of it all is pretty great. This episode also gives us the first real mention of "Lotus Point," hinted at in episode 4. I don’t know all the details of this venture or the Wolfbridge plotline, but I know it becomes prominent for Karen, Abby and maybe Gary going forward and I'm very intrigued. Why is the land of such suspect value? Lilimae DGAF! She's doing the A Time to Kill GIF, lawyer be damned! Oh, Julie Harris, I love you. Olivia and Abby get a sweet moment together by the pool: Nothing but discussing her and Gary's potential nuptials, and Abby tossing her kid in the pool and blowing her a raspberry. Again, unique for the queen bitch character of a primetime soap, especially in this era. It's just there to keep her human. There's an absolutely brilliant exchange midway through when Greg tries to press Karen on Mack and Gary, BTW: Greg: What is with this Ewing character who wants to donate so much money to my campaign? Karen: Gary? Oh, he's alright, he doesn't mean any harm. It's only that in his wake, people lose their jobs, their marriages and their lives, and he always feels guilty but it's never his fault. Nuff said! I am glad Karen still hasn't let it all go on Gary even after he got wrongly accused. Very nice, expressionistic shot of Val and Lilimae when they return home from the clink, with them caught in the slanted shadows of the living room mirror's reflection. Beautiful work. Potential hot take: I feel like Abby’s emotional reaction to Gary’s divorce being finalized was at least partly genuine, with the visible, physical relief and her frame sagging. I guffawed though at Abby bluffing, offering up a prenup for marriage (which Gary clearly isn't into), while also quite explicitly enumerating her disinterest in going after "the money from last year" - yeah, I'll bet she's over that chump change. The erotic shudder through Donna Mills' body as she kisses Shackelford here is on par with the famous hot tub scene with Richard in Season 2 which the network execs allegedly thought was the hottest thing they'd ever seen (though according to John Pleshette, Mills' reactions in that scene were just because the water was actually poorly heated and freezing). Good God, for a minute there I thought Lilimae was going for round two on Chip in the hospital, Michael Myers in Halloween II-style. Instead she just straight up barges in on Gary and Abby mid-fuckfest. Why not? Completely hyper-fixated with her guilt, she clearly doesn't care that they are rutting. Gary just walking out without a thought to Abby was great, as was the overall comedy of manners with Shackelford and Harris, and Donna Mills' increasingly harried reactions to a totally insane scene. Diana: Lilimae tried to kill you. Chip: Doesn't she know? I'm immortal. Eeesh, Diana seducing Chip in the hospital with promises of wealth, privilege and all the finest things in NYC (where he'd probably try to [!@#$%^&*] Jessica Walter) is a lot. Is he feigning brain damage and a coma here? I suspect so. Upon hearing about Lilimae in the middle of the night, Karen says she is burnt out on trauma and has nothing left for Val. I don't blame her at all. As for her blaming Karen at the hospital for the hit and run, I truly cannot believe Diana is this nuts. Like I mentioned earlier and in previous posts, I really think it must all be some sort of massive delayed PTSD/Stockholm Syndrome reaction to the twin blows of the loss of Sid, her mother remarrying Mack, her becoming a woman through all of that at the same time, presumably losing her virginity to Chip and so on. That's really the only explanation for all this that makes sense to me: Diana retreating into a trauma-fueled rebellious adolescent fantasy where her mother is the villain who lost them their father and family as she knew it and is now trying to take the only sense of self-agency she thinks she has. I know Diana is blessedly gone either this season or the next, and I hope they show her leaving the show for extensive psychotherapy. God knows she needs it! Karen and Mack are really going through an absolute crucible less than a year into their marriage. We’ve never seen Michele Lee this raw and on edge for this long, and it’s still so harrowing to watch episode by episode. I know it leads to a specific storyline but watching her slowly be winnowed down to that raw ragged self is awful. Her confrontation with Laura was ugly, but she wasn't in her right mind (and it was definitely the wrong time for Laura to talk about Abby or business, but Laura didn't know that). Does Gary hang around at the house in Seaview Circle waiting on Val to put Lilimae to bed, knowing he wants to sleep with her? Personally, I think so. I knew vaguely of the famous baby theft story that's coming down the road, but as I dove into the show myself (and realized it didn’t happen as early as S4, when I initially thought Val might fall pregnant after leaving Gary) I began to wonder how the twins were conceived after I realized they were definitely Gary's. I suspected it might be some last roll in the hay among the divorcees for auld lang syne; now I know. Mack and Val are very cute together the morning after, when she tells him about Gary. "How do you feel?" he asks simply, and her beaming smile is like the sun. Meanwhile Gary's confiding in Laura, and that relationship (oft on horseback, again, which I love) is increasingly fascinating and always very candid with each other; Laura bluntly equates his love for Val to Gary knocking a few back, and openly discusses Richard. I could watch those two together for an hour. What was Abby's plan when she packed her bags? Just another bluff on Gary like the prenup? I think so here too. Good luck with that. The Gary/Val night of passion is so much sweeter than it would've been last season or the season before, because they're a long-separated couple you can root for again because of who they've become without each other, especially Val. Maybe that doesn't last as I know Val goes through some contortions in later years under future regimes JVA was not happy with, but for now they're dynamite all over again. So are Gary and Abby, even as she's losing her grip on both Gary and her own impulses, and Ben and Val have a ton of potential. It’s hard to believe the show could build a better cliffhanger than the last episode, but the central triangle has been supercharged beyond belief and they’ve done it all with just the relationships and character evolution. It's really a sight to see and makes for compulsive viewing. Which I'm going to do more of right now! Hope you guys enjoy.

I'm not quite as skeptical as AMS. Today, everything is brands, existing IP and at times nostalgia. I think many of the soaps (mostly the ABC soaps) are existing IP and brands with value that can be reinvented down the line in a variety of ways. It's a question of if that ever happens. If it does, I've never felt network primetime was the place for it but rather streaming and in a format not dissimilar to the original, albeit seasonal and with arcs. Sadly, the cancelled CBS/P&G soaps have not had the same cultural imprint, in part because they weren't as flashy or able to channel the changing zeitgeist in more public ways IMO. I do think Edge of Night could return at any time, but it's very unique and an outlier, a la Dark Shadows in its own way. (I have said for years they were very similar in stylization, with EON really its first cousin, but EON mastered melding the classical long-running soap format with genre trappings, which DS never bothered to do - if it had, it could've at least potentially survived the '70s.) GL could because it's so mutable, but I think that would only ever happen if CBS/Paramount got a hold of it and opted to use it as a rival to a similar soap revival from one of the other streamers or networks. They'd never take the initiative on their own. That's a shame.

Yeah, I know one of her soap roles did that but I didn't know which one. Cardille was tough as nails in Day of the Dead, so seeing her on a soap is interesting for me; she is not a glamourpuss or conventional heroine/villain.

It's all about Drake.

In case people care: I know I've been on a break for a minute and I am sorry, but bingeing 4+ seasons in under two months is a lot! I've been working a lot as well as busy with IRL stuff and the general sad state of the world, and as my Knots viewing has lately involved copious note-taking for these posts it can sometimes be arduous while extremely enjoyable. I've also been trying to get back to my other interests and film backlog. Bingeing only goes so far without you being in danger of losing the taste for something so a pause is sometimes needed to keep it fresh, and because of that Knots has always been great for me. That all said, I just dove back into tonight (with the episode right before Lilimae gets behind the wheel, if you know what I mean) and I hope to put out at least another couple eps tomorrow and more in the next week. Cheers.

It was a pretty lousy and ill-timed statement, by a departing official who is skilled at catalyzing Biden to action and should've known better. I can get behind roasting the dead-end left all day long for so many past sins, but the fury from the larger base over this issue isn't all the product of fringe hippies or magical thinkers. It isn't just Splinter News or Bernie or Bust folks pissed about how the WH has handled this up til very recently, it's normal, decent, levelheaded people and the Bedingfield quote should've known better by now, weeks (and months) in. I believe the White House wants to do the right thing; I also think they botched this early on and it's not improper to say that.

Didn't Real have cancer? Yeah, let's fire a 25-year vet or whatever he is for the temp. GTFO.

The CBS Trek renaissance has really come into its own with Lower Decks (featuring a hilarious Dawnn Lewis as the captain, as well as Jack Quaid and some other great leads) and now Strange New Worlds, the Captain Pike show, both of which basically put the previous two shows to shame. I enjoy things about Discovery and Picard despite their very rocky runs and Discovery has improved a lot since its inception, but the over-egging of everything and apparent micromanagement that have frequently plagued the first two shows don't seem evident at all in LD or SNW so far. SNW is also a throwback to classical episodic Trek, and it has really worked for them thoughtit also has running subplots. In times like ours now, a kind of neo-classicism in entertainment mixed with optimism and typical Trek sociopolitical relevance (like SNW pointedly using footage of January 6th to illustrate the coming Earth civil wars that have always been a part of Trek's history of the 21st century) is really welcome. just hope a finer balance between episodic and serialization can be struck in future with new shows, a la Deep Space Nine. I haven't seen Prodigy yet, the kids' show featuring Kate Mulgrew's return, but I hear decent things.

An EO isn't going to be enough, but not for the reasons the Bernie or Bust crowd thinks. It can be a good beginning, and it has to be followed through on with the measures (the courts, the filibuster) they'll have to campaign on and then execute if they can maintain a majority. Otherwise nothing else done means anything because it will all get undone by that corrupt court. That's the truth that meets in the middle between two extremes, for me at least. The above is unfair IMO, as I don't believe the Dems have had a majority willing to codify for decades (until maybe now).

It is good news. What will matter is what this EO will materially do beyond the general statement of its intent. That's what I'm waiting to hear on, like you. Per news this morning, the administration has been hesitant to declare a public health emergency re: abortion for a variety of reasons, some of which involve COVID funding that I believe would have to be re-appropriated for it. That's a very valid concern; the political concerns, or fears of a legal battle, are IMO not. There are going to be legal battles over abortion now in every dark or not so dark corner of this country whether the White House likes it or not. We might as well lean into it. Pressure did help in getting this EO out of the realm of idle musing inside some months-long committee (a running habit with the WH, especially since December) and it can do the same with further measures. For now, I will wait to see what the EO actually entails.

Oh jeez. Lenny Von Dohlen and Itzin? Both amazing and unforgettable in their signature roles - Von Dohlen was amazing as Harold on Twin Peaks, while Gregory Itzin contained multitudes as Charles Logan (the most corrupt POTUS til Trump), and pretty much revitalized a moribund show in a two-hander with himself and Jean Smart as his neurotic First Lady.