Vee

This is pretty much my take. I will never forget seeing the pictures of the very young Elizabeth working as a mechanic in the war. That's what I take away from her and respect most of all. She didn't have to do that. She put herself out there when her country faced annihilation from a fascist empire. I respect that.

It is surprising to me how quickly they seemed to ditch the Gary/Cathy affair - I'm talking about it now simply because one of Cathy's few scenes (possibly her only one) in the Season 5 finale is telling Laura she's leaving town because there's nothing for her here and it's obvious to her Gary is not over Val. This seems to come out of almost nowhere to me; Gary and Cathy discuss their past entanglements very openly and honestly once they become intimate, particularly once he's in isolation with her faking his death at the police station, and there doesn't seem to be any profound beat or confession that he can't get over either Val or Abby. Cathy seems very understanding of Gary's complicated feelings for the other two women, who they discuss, just as he is of hers for Ray (which is a great scene for her, mourning his death), and they still seem to be together. But you cut to an episode later and Cathy says she's leaving because Gary still has Val in his heart. What? I don't get it. Obviously they were planning even then to begin to pivot away from the affair, but I think it's a little bit of a loss. Not that I think Gary and Cathy were a romance for the ages, but I personally liked their unpretentious, matter of fact chemistry and natural, athletic interplay a lot and I thought it was something very different from Mills and Van Ark. It could've driven story for a bit as his kicky midlife crisis and gone to some interesting places. But it also seems clear at the end of Season 5 (just as at the beginning of the season, when Abby had been all but positioned as the evil queen at the end of S4 before they reset) that they again decided 'hey, maybe we're not done with Gary and Abby after all,' there's still a lot of complicated love there, hence the emphasis on Abby's love and guilt over him in the final hours of the season, her willingness to risk her life for him, and Gary running after her in the car and leaving Val in the dust in the final moments of "Negotiations". Tommy Krasker again has an interesting take on the finale sequence; I don't agree with all of it but with a large portion of it, and it's beautiful analysis: Richard returning as Greg Sumner's major domo in say, Season 6 or 7 - once he's firmly established with Laura - would've been very interesting, at least as a guest spot. Richard as a stand-in for Jim Westmont is interesting but I think would've just become an ancillary role. But yes, I agree I prefer McCashin hanging around.

I agree that would've been very interesting. We saw very little of Jeff Cunningham but the man who turned up in Season 2, though he'd obviously gone to an extreme that was unlike who he might have been before, was no picnic. I seem to recall Abby mentioning her and Sid's father too, but I don't remember the details. I previously had thought it wasn't totally necessary to cut Richard at the end of Season 4 given Pleshette's immense talent, but now I'm more inclined to agree with him that he would've had no solid place on the canvas. More importantly, as you say, I don't think Laura could've fully blossomed with him around. I do think they could've brought Richard back more often in a recurring role, but that's another pipe dream. And while Laura's role has already become somewhat transformed, her voice and attitude are so different that I think losing her down the road will be very tough.

Another great commentary on Abby in Season 5 (and overall) from KL writer Richard Gollance on Krasker's blog, who notes a line that I also found very important in the finale:

I did finish Season 5! Very solid stuff. I think I may try to cover it and the opening eps of Season 6 in one go in a more abstracted overview, because I'm very busy right now. I did want to make a point of admiration re: the well-known climactic scene of the season with the cliffhanger at the hotel and Karen being shot in that blood-red dress by Twin Peaks' own Grace Zabriskie. I especially liked the great climactic moment where the whole eternal Val/Gary/Abby triangle is explicated onscreen with Gary literally torn between them physically in the parking lot. Man, if Mack's stunting here isn't grounds for divorce I don't know what is.

I couldn't find a tweet linking it, but here's a non-paywalled link to a gossipy Puck News story re: Brianna Keilar allegedly stumping to keep her job at CNN, hence her recent behavior.

This is just sad, yet I can't help laughing.

Really never thought I'd see Mike again.

I don't know what to tell you, dude. They are running new Trek practically year round and have greenlit new seasons of most of these shows a year to two years in. First Picard/DSC then SNW and now Lower Decks. Their Trek schedule is fast and hectic enough that I am still catching up on the last season of DSC and Picard. Adding more live action shows right now would turn it into a meat grinder for quality just like Enterprise or a lot of Voyager. If the animated shows aren't to your liking, another show is coming soon enough. And that's even with COVID delays. What more can you want? Just stop the subscription til one comes back.

They're running new Trek right now. There's rarely any interruption between Trek shows on Paramount anymore.

Still broke: Also, the public is ahead of the Beltway again.

Exciting to see my beloved Gates McFadden back in the thick of it.

Very excited for this. I know @DRW50 is a fan of hers too. Carol Kane was a relentless delight throughout the run of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and is still going strong today. Strange New Worlds is also very, very easily the strongest of the new live-action Trek shows and had a very solid first season. I'm a little surprised Trek has never (to my knowledge) tapped Kane before. There's also talk (from Kate Mulgrew) of a Kate Mulgrew show being in the works in addition to her voice role on the YA animated spinoff Prodigy, but I'll believe it when I see it.

I'll reiterate that: There's a lot to process, the good, the bad and the ugly. I'm not going to get on my high horse about it but I'm also not going to venerate her as a saintly figure above criticism or reproach. She lived a hell of a life though. My friends in the UK have a lot of thoughts about her, lol.

Apparently he's going to go visit his wife on her tour of duty overseas (who I guess guested last season). They've indicated they'll still weave him in for guest spots but he was basically recurring anyway, and I haven't watched regularly in several seasons - I do intend to catch up someday, but Disney/Hulu makes it hard when they remove past seasons. It's pretty wild it's had what seems to be a strong, long run. It is nice if jolting to see Dan and Louise/Katey Sagal, Darlene and Ben (who I always liked) and Jackie and her new beau who I'm unfamiliar with all married. And I think Becky back to college.

A new (puff) piece on the film. They do seem to indicate the history of the nation will be directly addressed, so I'll give it a chance even if the marketing seems very reductive because I usually love Viola Davis and I've always liked Prince-Bythewood. I was very surprised to discover the one and only Maria Bello of TV and film produced this.

Oh lord.

I agree. And if Y&R wasn't just on cruise control for years now, a strong EP could still potentially push back on all that. I've seen bigger persona non grata come back to soaps in the last 20 years (bigger examples exist but remember when Roscoe Born was blackballed for a few years for walking off AMC?). Won't happen here. I knew that shít would happen, I called it ahead of time and I know it's awful, but it still cracks me up. She was literally there to be the piano player and I just cackled.

I still think the characters/actors and storyline got away from them with the audience, especially the online audience, and now they are trying to walk a cowardly tightrope to keep both elements of the audience on side while Frank struggles to find a way to get back to an OLTL 2008-era teen scene, preferably with Chavez and someone else who is at least off-white. Call it conspiracy theory if folks want, but you can't tell me a white (or all Black!) teen couple in the making would not have at least kissed once by now on a 21st century soap. This isn't 1980 where Doug Marland played the long, long game.

I've been saying for over a year. Don't tell me it's a coincidence!

No, Lily was a victim of incest by her father and the story happened onscreen. The characters were all dropped after because of its content and because ABC was promoting "Something About Amelia". Folks need to read more.

Definitely exists, but also not the answer!

I can't imagine what the common factor is on these pointless subplots that are left running for years. 🤔