Vee

An interesting note on "China Dolls" btw, from the KL Season 3 essay by Tommy Krasker I think I linked a couple pages ago:

Episode 22 (Living Dangerously): Season finale! And everyone's buzzing about Gary and Abby, even the kids. What's interesting here is that Gary now knows Abby helped set Val's book in motion for her own purposes - she openly admits it - and he doesn't care. He's treating Val with contempt and seems fully committed to Abby, and embraces what she does for who she is and why she does it. Which makes them a perfect match. I was admittedly a bit amazed Ginger is eager to bring her new baby over to visit Richard, the hostage-taking neighbor. What the hell did they tell people happened that night?! No sooner did I say this though did Ginger freak to see Richard holding Erin (I refuse to call her Erin Molly), which only makes perfect sense. Karen keeps making excuses for him, but Laura can see Richard's hand in all his strange, enigmatic behavior and refuses to engage while the whole cul-de-sac (unrealistically, IMO) continues to cluck over his well-being - I cannot buy Ginger and Lilimae being so upset over offending him at this point, let alone the others. I did love seeing Karen, Laura and Lilimae out to lunch together, and I loved them spotting Gary and Abby's lovenest even more. This goes to the throughline of the show's domestic arena; seeing people out at local spots, gossiping together as Lilimae counts the seconds til Gary emerges after Abby: "Look, he beat me." Karen lashes out when Val is still clucking over her book's new (and great!) title and wringing her hands over Gary's reaction - 'this is no time to worry about what Gary thinks!' Her jousting with Gary later over Val - him warning her not to tell, daring her - is a world from where they used to be. But I truthfully don't think either of them ever got over Gary's involvement with the circumstances leading to Sid's death. I think it has scarred the relationship ever since in ways they've never fully confronted, and now the open aggression over Val allows it to leak out and inform the situation. Lilimae's confrontation with Gary is great. I believe this scene is where David Jacobs said Julie Harris only changed one line in all her years on the show - 'score one for the blond kid' is her idea. Julie Harris excels as a schemer and shitstirrer, and they're finally giving her more of her full due; she crackles as she gets Gary over a barrel and puts him in his place. But Val knows the whole thing's a sham as Gary reluctantly agrees to go to her book party, and seems resigned. Her confrontation with Abby in the driveway (as the rapidly-growing Fairgate boys watch) is equally fun for entirely different reasons. Lilimae: Look, I know what's going on, and I want it to stop! Abby: Well, Lilimae, if you're talking about inflation or the arms race I agree! [pats her hand] I do too. [drives away] The cul-de-sac biosphere, the confines of the neighborhood, once again show itself to be a perfect arena for endless combinations of different interpersonal interactions, as this sequence dovetails directly into Lilimae, Michael and Eric discovering Richard's lawn flooded from the sprinklers and his garage door opened. Same goes for a rare first time solo scene for Diana and Olivia (a cute combination and one of the only times I've enjoyed Claudia Lonow), who's babysitting as Olivia lets slip that Gary is 'here a lot.' These kind of simple, true-life suburban 'see something, say something' permutations are all you need to ignite certain types of classic soap opera drama, and it's too often lost sight of these days because it's not seen as high-toned enough. Speaking of the Richard disappearances, there's a great scene where Laura tells the Wards, "I don't know what [Richard] knows" and admits she thinks it's possible he's planned all of this to force her back into their house. I think she's right. I don't think his leaving the sprinkler or on the door unlocked was an accident; I think he created that scene deliberately to stir up the neighbors and see to it they contacted Laura. The eerie music from "Night" replays as she finds his potential suicide note, and while he may have meant it I also think he allowed her to find it. I think his brazening it out with his ex-boss was also deliberate. I think he's been playing all of this to get her back in the house and one way or another, he's still deeply unwell. Which makes the finale where Laura and Jason move back in, with Laura's eyes darting around the lawn in the night like a caged animal, all the more satisfying in its lack of resolution, because to me this still feels like an Avery cold war and Richard feels much more calculating and dangerous, no matter what he's saying or doing. I think it's all a manipulation, and I am fascinated and spooked. And frankly, despite our comments above, this 'resolution' is a situation that can and has happened IRL which makes it scarier. Anyway, the book party is grand but Val is still! bitching about her scandalous book being too scandalous. Give me a break, lady; take the money! The show seems intent on cementing Stephen Macht's Joe by making him Val's new West Coast editor, but we know that will not last for whatever reason. He's worked a lot better in the last couple episodes, but he has no serious romantic or sexual connection with any of the stars yet. That could've easily changed. I loved Karen rushing to Abby's lovenest and trying to drag Gary out like her family problem, and I loved Val storming in and out and then driving out on Gary without a word. Great stuff. I cannot wait for Season 4, which is when so many people say the show 'really starts', but I think so much of the first three seasons is integral character and community building you really need to see (I'm sure we could all probably prune very different lists of essential episodes, though). I don't regret barreling through them. I don't know how many more of these individualized takes I'll do as the show goes full serial, but I am definitely excited for it. I agree that it very smartly delineates their takes on life, but what's interesting is I'm pretty sure (from what we know of her background at this point, anyway) Abby's always had it at least materially easier than Val, who was stripped of family, child and reduced to waiting tables in squalor for years. The difference is that all Val's ever wanted for herself up until her book is the home, family and suburban security Knots Landing and Gary provides, while Abby's had home and family and that kind of security, seemingly, her whole life - but, it would seem, nothing for herself, nothing she wanted for her own dreams as an actualized woman, a baby boomer. For Abby it seems it's less about economic survival than personal survival. I do agree Gary and Abby are a match.

So thrilling as a fan of both Kate and the show.

I think KL was always very female-centric, even in the prior S2 episode. The difference for me is that in S2 they struggled to give the male cast something to do in the story (which focused largely on the captive women) by having them all go apeshít vying for the camera with a bunch of male cops, thumping their chests and springing into physical choreography to prove they were integral to the action, whereas here the women occupy virtually all of the power and dramatic positions throughout outside of the house. No thought is given to turning Gary, Joe or the absent Kenny into men of action, because the story is about Richard, his wife and his relationships (such as with Karen).

I try to take it as a mirror of the times, especially as an unwed pregnant woman. But yes, it's insane that he is still living on this block.

Episode 20 (Acts of Love): Home stretch time, and the love triangle of the '80s is hitting full throttle. Gary is instantly belittling Val minutes into this episode for not supporting him in his latest night out with his work wife (Abby), like a complete [!@#$%^&*]. She rightly asks 'when have I ever not backed you?' Val does not exist to him atm except as an extension of his ambitions and desires, and he's literally booking her as a babysitter for Abby's child without her knowledge. Fed up, Val takes to the hills with her best wingman thus far IMO: Olivia, who's always had a lovely bond with her. Stuck in the boonies overnight after her manic tantrum, Val starts waiting tables in some country-ass dive tavern in the mountains with a guy who refers to himself as "the Kid" and tries to tempt her to stray, and this is contrasted beautifully with Gary and Abby in their upscale restaurant, wheeling and dealing James Karen. Before they even leave for their latest trip Abby's already teased Gary that they're 'just pals' and tells him Val's being petty with her concerns, but the smirk on her face as she says it and the hint of one on Gary's even then tells the story on its own: They both already know the truth and they're both getting off on it, somewhere in the darkest part of Gary's Ewing heart. There's a famous Dallas scene where Jock Ewing snarls at Bobby and tells him that power given to a man is nothing, that it's something he takes. Gary, like his distant, fearsome father, craves to take, and with Abby he allows himself to enjoy it, to feel it. They close a deal with James Karen by invoking the spectre of the Dallas Ewings, then dance and sing on the beach - "I'm a mogul, you're a mogul, wouldn't you like to be a mogul too?" If that's not the '80s I don't know what is! And it's triumphant, ritualistic foreplay for Gary and Abby, which makes perfect sense. A very candid, humanistic bit of dialogue on the beach when Gary finally succumbs to his passion with Abby: Gary: Abby, we can't do this. Abby: Oh, come on, we can't do anything else. [...] You like this, you like going to the edge like this. You like tempting me and having me tempt you. And okay, fine, if that's what you like, that's fine! [...] I've got feelings invested in this, Gary. I've got feelings invested in you. I'm sick and tired of being the wicked woman and the homewrecker. There are two of us here, Gary. It takes two people to feel like this, and I'm real tired of being the only one who admits it. She's right! And she's not just a vixen or sexpot here, she's human and has her own feelings wrapped up in this beyond her schemes. When they get home and Abby hears Lilimae's message about Val and Olivia being away, the very faint ghost of a smile on Abby's face is genius. She knows and they know that the moment is now, and there's no words; she just takes Gary to bed. And now Lilimae knows! At the hospital, Karen is of course Richard's only visitor. In a troubling turn, he's fixated on Laura and why she hasn't called, and the same eerie music from "Night" in a spooky bit as he wanders down the hospital corridor alone. Over at the Wards, there's a wonderful, awkward sequence where Laura instantly tenses up the moment she's alone with a visiting Karen, fully expecting her to bring up Richard, and sure enough she does. It is beyond me how Karen can shrug off what Richard did, and it's astonishing that she'd keep advocating for Laura to connect with him. The creepy vibes (and eerie music) continue when Laura actually does go visit Richard, and he's still joking and schmoozing away, shining her on, but you can see the fear gripping Laura behind her eyes. I have no idea where this is going, but it's very intriguing. Episode 21 (China Dolls): It's stormy weather as Gary and Abby's red hot affair continues, and his initial and consistent lack of guilt is striking - he seems delighted by it when he tells Abby he has no regrets. That's the Ewing DNA, IMO. Meanwhile, everyone's catching on, even Val who's in denial. Joe wisely ties Gary's infidelity to his past gambling addiction - 'down deep,' he warns an uncomfortable Gary, 'the gambler wants to lose.' Probably Stephen Macht's best scene on the show so far, and one of the only ones he's felt integral to. His pointed sparring match with Abby at her front door later - him teasing her about taking Ginger to his function ('a married woman!') and him shooting back ('so tacky!') - was great, too. I've seen Macht go hogwild, so with a less tamped down character him and Donna Mills could've been very interesting. He's a bit cute with Ginger but I wasn't seeing the point of any of that subplot beyond perhaps Lankford and Houghton's contractual obligations. The quick glimpse of Abby breaking down when Gary calls it off the instant after he leaves was a shocking show of vulnerability. Again, not something you'd expect to see from a typical character sketch like hers in most primetime soaps. But it doesn't last, as Gary's sexual obsession blossoms into complete mania and Val's denial is pierced by watching her husband all but stalk Abby, watching her through their living room window for hours and finally rushing across the street to confront her. The show knows what it has in Ted Shackelford, a performer who can be alternately intellectual, emotional, heartfelt and truly ugly as a human being, driven by bestial lusts, and they're fully ready to explore. Laura would have to be far crazier than Richard to move back in with him. Even crazier than that shrink at the sanitarium with the deranged amount of ostentatious cat statues in her office. How is Karen still on her ass about taking Richard in? And I wasn't really getting into the china doll metaphor with the crazy patient's story and actual doll, but hey. At least Richard seems saner this week, acknowledging their marriage is over. I can't understand why she'd ever agree to move back in with him, but she's pregnant and it was a very different time. Stormy winds howl as the camera smartly follows Val across the street with rising music, in a confrontation scene even I've seen bits and pieces of over the years. Val and Abby's perspectives on Gary are clearly illuminated here very well, as Val says she's been in love with him since she was 15 and Abby says she loves the Gary Ewing that presently is. More compelling for me though, as I haven't seen it before, was the scene that felt like the apex of the original conceptual underpinnings of this show and its suburban marriage intrigues, as Gary wanders over to the abandoned, battle-traumatized Avery house over pounding music because he can't take anymore and ravishes Abby then and there. This is another famous episode and I understand why, but it's not the equal of "Night" for me. I think its impact is slightly diluted for me in that I, like many people, have seen some of the Val/Abby confrontation at the end before. It's still a very good episode. I know it comes up in Season 4, but it's not been mentioned so far and it seems like a glaring oversight: The death of Jock Ewing. I've been idly watching a lot of Dallas Season 5 for fun on FreeVee, and Jock's death figures largely in the latter half of that year for that show. Dallas shows Miss Ellie going to call Gary, yet this same year on KL Gary and Val have yet to acknowledge it at all onscreen. (I think Karen's the only one who made a brief mention of Jock's death) It would seem as a fan to be a galvanizing event for Gary's slow transformation with Abby and out of his marriage, and a major blow to his psyche, yet it hasn't come up. That feels like a huge mistake. I am glad it will figure in next season in a material way (which I will be starting very shortly), but it warrants a lot more talk re: who and where Gary is.

Why is that his problem?

Episode 19 (Night): This is one of the legendary eps. Written by John Pleshette for his own character, it absolutely lives up to its reputation. Richard coming home sloppy drunk with Abby, wheedling his way inside, rambling about their ill-fated affair ('remember the hot tub? the neck, not the ear, right?') and then getting way too physical with her sets the disturbing tone. I assume that's the definitive end of their friendly relationship! Back at the Avery house, Richard lonely in his darkened home is a shocker, as it's turned to a complete shambles; he appears to be living and sleeping on his couch for no clear reason (perhaps he can't bear to sleep in the bed he shared with Laura). His having to put on the TV just to hear something in his solitude - an old Hollywood musical romance - was disturbingly too true to life. We've all been in dark holes, black moments throughout our lives, and while it may never have been quite as bleak as Richard's low, I think there's way too much relatable there. As he tells Karen later about his life now: "Everything echoes, everything reflects back." The late Alexander Singer directed this, along with a lot of other KL eps and a veritable who's who of classic '80s TV, but before that he already had a massive resume in network TV - he did a bunch of classic episodes of The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible and many other greats. He closed out his career doing all of the '80s/'90s Star Trek shows (TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager) for over a decade, which is how I know his name best. This episode is stunning work. The little insert shots, like Richard examining the old family photos in his wallet, feel intimate, private, something we shouldn't be seeing. Unsettling to see it at all. The slow, Robert Altman-esque zoom in on the dojo as Richard persuades his way into taking Jason out of his class again feels vaguely sinister, surveillance-like. And Jason comes home to find the house frighteningly transformed - the living room a playspace for a gargantuan train set. Then Richard cooks a perfect meal for the family, and refuses to let them leave. Joe forcing the Fairgates (and Lilimae, and Abby!) to read Dylan Thomas for him feels like extraordinary rendition out of Abu Ghraib. A line that hits different today: Karen heading across the street when they hear the Averys' yelling and telling her kids, 'hey, we're not invading Afghanistan!' The crisis here feels far more real and less bombastic than the home invasion silliness from S2 because it feels like something that can happen, does happen with couples we know (not that home invasions don't, but still) all the time in quiet suburban neighborhoods - neighbors hearing the shouting - and because we've lived with these characters so long now and know them well, their reactions, their growing concern and gossiping feels extremely real and true, and has real weight. The shot of Gary creeping into the Avery backyard and patio - a known and friendly, comfy setting as early as the first cul-de-sac party Gary and Val were invited to there in Season 1 - and seeing Laura at the kitchen window trying to do dishes is incredibly haunting. This is the second hostage situation for the LAPD in Knots Landing in a year! A studied and fascinating difference with this one, though: The lead cop is a woman, and all the main action-oriented protagonists in this situation (Karen, Laura, etc.) are women, with Karen taking Sid's role opposite a female cop. Yes, Karen, etc. were lead and active characters in the prior situation in S2, but they were all still hostages at the hands of another evil woman (the lead burglar). Here, the women are on the outside doing the police work and power jockeying against a man, working to end the standoff. This is a major change from the OTT male bombast of the original home invasion episode, where Sid, Gary, etc. all roared and raced around the living room howling at the male cops as the show strained to give the male stars enough viscera to their performances in an episode which still focused on the women, but left them in hostage roles. Something more incisive and smart is done here, giving Karen a lead role. Her relationship with Richard, as we've all noted, is loving, unique, thorny, almost brother and sister. In another life I could've even seem them getting together as an odd couple post-Sid, had Richard stayed the bettered man he was at the outset of Season 3. Initially Karen simply can't believe that the situation is that serious; she pooh-poohs the SWAT team, dismisses Abby as having 'led him on' the night before. Later she understands the gravity of the situation. The eerie music as Karen finally cuts through to Richard herself is stunning, and the central underpinnings of the season thus far begin to link up as Karen equates Richard's loss of Laura with her loss of Sid: "It's like a death, isn't it?" "My hair is growing, my nails are growing, but I'm dead," he replies. Constance McCashin does wonderful work opposite him, but ultimately this episode is Pleshette's showcase and a brilliant piece of work. The eternal question, of course, is did Richard know the gun was never loaded? Knowing his history of being a lovable loser, I don't believe he did. I think he meant to blow his brains out. I can't imagine how anyone goes on from something like this to staying in the cul-de-sac and continuing to interact with the rest of the main cast, which I believe Richard somehow does for another year in some fashion (though I don't know how, and don't tell me). It's not Melrose Place where Kimberly was accepted back in after blowing the place up and I embraced it because I loved Marcia Cross and the character had become an hedonistic chameleon (until Darren Starr quit later that same season, anyway); Melrose had a much more elevated level of glitz and camp than KL. Also, how the hell can LAPD only hold Richard 72 hours? He took hostages! The ending coda - with Karen racing to the Wards to happily welcome them home, trying to go on with another normal day in the neighborhood as the camera rises up over the abandoned Avery house - is a lot to process. I almost wish this had been a 2-parter tbh; I think it could've sustained even more.

Episode 17 (Letting Go): Oy, the opening scene. Is Larry really this engaging and hilarious? Come on, Karen. It's nice to see this mourning and moving on process play out with Karen as carefully as it has, but Larry being the catalyst is just boresville. Uncle Joe gets laid in the afternoon! And his girlfriend is the annoying chick from (again) the 'salem's Lot miniseries, just as annoying here. Their entire domestic drama bores the hell out of me. Whatever. I do wonder if they'd intended to bring Stephen Macht on permanently and either shifted gears in Season 4 with new writers (or at least I think Peter Dunne was new?) or Macht opted out, or both. I know Macht has spoken in the past about never wanting to put down roots in the '80s on various shows (like Star Trek TNG, where he passed on Picard) and having too much of an ego. As it is, his role as Joe is dreadfully staid so far and not the dynamic performer I am used to from other things. They haven't really serviced Macht that well. The centerpiece of the episode, of course, where it really perks up is the long, long sequence with the Fairgate home movies and everyone watching Sid and themselves in happier times. (And props to the show for apparently getting Don Murray back to film all this, as I doubt it's stuff they shot in S1 or S2) The music is lovely, and the superimpositions, etc. of Karen, Michael and Eric's faces as they watch and have their own emotional journeys while watching together all works more than a lot of period TV at that time which would overuse the same now-antiquated special effects. Michele Lee drives it by having an interesting mix of wonderment and fascination for much of the sequence, instead of heartbreak or grief - it's not til halfway through that a single seemingly-unnoticed tear falls down Karen's cheek, and then she gives herself over to the emotional catharsis of the sequence, along with her sons. (No comment on Diana calling herself a ham.) There's a refreshing, candid and philosophical beat here where Karen admits to Larry "I don't know what my morality is" - she married an older man very young, and the moral and sexual mores have changed dramatically from the early '60s to the early '80s. She doesn't know where she stands in the culture as an unmarried woman of a certain age, and that is a smart thing to discuss on something like a soap, let alone a primetime soap. I do know the backstory on Lee taking off her real wedding ring (from James Farentino, who she remained on good terms with and later co-starred in a TV movie with as husband and wife) in the sequence at the end. It was a good scene and a good speech at Sid's grave, though it doesn't have quite the same weight or power for me of the largely wordless home movies sequence. The overly on the nose 'letting go' dialogue between Karen and the annoying girlfriend was also pretty rough. I knew I recognized the handsome senator - it's Bruce Gray, who played Owen Madison on EON during the Mansion of the Damned/Nola Madison saga (which I am still enjoying immensely these days). I had no idea he later played a sugar daddy on Queer as Folk! Speaking of morality, there's a great scene where Val heads over to Abby's to slutshame her about fùcking the senator. Abby is great as she bluntly tells her she used the currency available to her - sex - like men use money or material power. She isn't sneering about it or mustache-twirling, she's just honest and direct, and Val can't take it. Abby: Morality is something you dwell on after you know where your next meal is coming from. Val [appalled]: Do you really believe that? Abby: What do you think? Val: I think that I better keep my eye on you all of the time. Abby: Val - do. How else are you gonna learn? The Eric Fairgate teenage mustache watch - no mustache this week. Thank God. Episode 18 (Exposé): Finally, the Ewing family potboiler comes to light. And of course Gary tries to forbid it, while wanting to stick to his work wife Abby. LMAO at Lilimae greeting Gary's return home with 'home is the sailor.' She's right, too - almost everything bad that's ever happened to Val happened because of Gary and the Ewings. I was wondering where Laura had gone to; she's not living in the cul-de-sac anymore, and it's an interesting adjustment to see her visiting people (for now - I have no idea if she moves back for good). I love McCashin's eternally dry wit, including re: the baby - 'every time the interest rates go up a percentage, the baby kicks.' And Lord, the hooker Richard spills it all to used to star on Hunter (after KL, obviously). Anyway, Richard finally has had enough of pimping for his boss, but it's too late for the 6 o'clock news! Poor lonely Richard wanders over to the Ward house, where a pretty kind Kenny and Ginger take him in and endure his awkward company - the looks between Lankford and Houghton were hilarious. There's a wonderful scene in the midst of all this where Val confides in Laura and Ginger - both newly liberated, working women, both telling her to pursue her dreams as a writer. They are right to do so, but at the same time Val perceptively delineates between their circumstances and hers; she and Gary were torn apart for decades, lost their whole lives together and are not so willing to risk it or give it up for some other dream, when their dream has been each other. Or at least, this life was Val's dream - Gary's dreams are already becoming something else, have been for awhile. He already made it clear earlier this season in a rousing series of scenes that he will never be happy just being a suburban family man in Knots Landing, while that's all Val has wanted for them. Now Val has aspirations beyond just suburban homemaking too, but Gary can't accept it for her, and Val is having to decide how much both things truly mean to her. I'm not sure she wholly knows yet, but I am glad she signed the contracts (even if Abby manipulates that situation into happening, but Gary was right - he and Val did make a stupid, pointless deal). When the hooker story hits and Richard gets the shaft he turns up at Laura's rambling on and going full manic Richard, before having a really sad breakdown in Laura's arms. Not for the first time, the transference circuit between the Averys is completed: Laura is the parent-lover, Richard the broken child. I know what's coming up next, I've heard a lot about it and I am very excited. We are now in the strong tail end of Season 3, and I am advised the show will never be the same. This has been another pretty uneven season - maybe more uneven than Season 2, I think - but it's coming together well so far. Karen's ranting monologue about Gary, Val and Abby to a Joe who has already left was classic.

Okay, calm down, champ. We all have many valid issues with Frank Valentini's GH without needing to jump immediately to old gay panic tropes and painting him as Les Moonves or Josh Kelly as Richard Gere in American Gigolo.

Episode 16 (Silver Shadows): Featuring Lew Ayres as Andrew Douglas, the silent movie director. I know Ayres best from the not very good '70s miniseries of Stephen King's 'salem's Lot, as well as some of his pre-Code Hollywood films from the '30s; I've always liked him. (He also appears in the campy and superfun Damien: Omen II with another Lorimar soap star Robert Foxworth, where poor Lew ends up drowning under a frozen lake as skaters watch to appease the will of Satan.) He's very good here in the rather cliche role he has, and Donna Mills is just soft enough with him - yes, she wants a line on his fortune, pulls a Vertigo with his lost love's clothes (after he already points them out to her and wanting to see her in them, in fairness) and antagonizes his butler (who Douglas smartly refers to as 'Erich von Stroheim,' nodding to silent director von Stroheim's own role in Sunset Boulevard), but she seems to genuinely care a bit for the old man and not want to abuse his trust too badly, but to make him happy in his last days and not exhaust him too soon. I truly hope that was not Donna Mills acting out as 'Terri' (a name no silent star would have) in the old film clip but I suspect it was. Anyway, her rapport with Ayres was lovely, and Abby is genuinely saddened by his decline and death. It would've been easy, again in this era and genre, to write Abby as an Alexis type from Dynasty or something waiting for the old coot to kick off and hissing when he leaves her with nothing, but that's not who she is with Douglas. I was worried this would be a bottle episode not featuring the ensemble to liven it up, so doing a party at Douglas's with the ensemble cast worked well. (Kim Lankford must've been a dancer, she nailed the old-school foxtrot or whatever it was.) I could not care less about Larry, the man who seems caught between Abby and Karen, two women far too good for him, but I did love shitstirring Lilimae and Val. (Lilimae is oblivious to or dismissive of Val's feelings as always as she yammers on and on about Douglas' films, which was great.) This was a better episode than most fans have made it out to be; I've seen far more interminable episodes in the first three seasons (Cricket, anyone? The biker episode? The Rose and the Briar? Val's cancer?). It moved along and the performances clicked. And the ending with Abby tearfully putting on the hat from Douglas' lost love was a beautiful little moment; the slow silent movie iris out was genuinely very touching. It's because Abby has these dimensions that sets her and the show aside from more cliche tropes of this genre. BTW, John Pleshette and Julie Harris living it up dancing together in the background during Douglas and Abby's dance was great.

Katherine?? Who gives a shít!

This stuff with Maeve McGuire's Nicole is a godsend.

Oz is an absolute quack so it's debatable whether he could even use it adequately outside the base. But it certainly doesn't make that race any easier.

I have a lot of issues with Fetterman's record despite thinking his kind of passion and yes, performative behavior is now necessary for the party at large in the hellish media ecosphere we presently live in. I also tend to look sideways at any Great Left Hope that crops up online. But all that said, this seems not good:

Honestly, I'm not sure how bad her current work would look if she was a bit less thin. We saw what happened to Kelly Monaco not long ago, and her face recovered.

Since the status ticker seems MIA from the main board on my end, I thought I'd alert the handful of Borgen fans on the forum that the new season (Borgen: Power & Glory) is now up on Netflix. Just started watching and I love it so far. In a time of absolute nightmare politics the world over, it's liberating to dive back into a series where there is at least some competence and guiding ethos in a political drama, even if the world of Borgen is far from idealized and darker than ten years ago. Like real life, I guess!

Episode 14 (Cricket): So this one introduces Stephen Macht as Karen's brother Joe. Macht, another in KL's long line of legendary character actors, who famously passed on or lost the role of Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and is known to me best for his wonderfully insane turn in the hilariously silly Stephen King adaptation Graveyard Shift, where he plays a tyrannical mill foreman who is a Mainer by way of Jamaica by way of Scotland by way of Mars. Exhibit A: That being said, soap fans may know Macht better for his run on GH as Ric Lansing's scheming father Trevor, consigliere of the Zacchara family in the late 2000s. GH didn't get nearly as much use out of him as they could've, and soaps should still be using him today. Anyway: He's been around the block all over film and TV and is amazing, but is a bit wasted on KL thus far. Anyway, Val's old flame Rusty is played by another well-known character actor, Don Stroud, who I remember best from a very different role as one of the hapless priests in the original and terrible Amityville Horror. The moment with her and Rusty alone at the house when he surprises her is pregnant with tension, as Val seems uncomfortable and awkward re: Rusty's attentions but not entirely unwelcoming of them - perhaps because she's already begun sensing the undercurrents with Gary and Abby. Meanwhile, Gary is using supposed jealousy over Rusty as a way to defuse his own guilt (and Val's suspicion, perhaps) re: Abby. I also noted Lilimae condescending to Val's writerly ambitions in the opening scenes - ambitions which I know take fruit soon. The entire Cricket plotline was incredibly tedious despite a great performance by Don Stroud at the end, but I did love Laura once again having no time for bullshīt from anyone, anywhere, seeing through Cricket and instantly dismissing her. As soon as Laura got her job she went from being a wilting doormat to having a will of steel, but it's always felt organic, because it's always felt as though it was just below the surface of her once-expected role in life as Richard's little woman of the '70s while all the while she knew in her heart her husband was inadequate. The intellect was always there. What is smart about this episode's A-plot is that the writers tied Cricket being an orphan to Val's own pain over Lilimae turning her back on her, and had her invoke Gary's banishment from the Ewing fold. This justifies Val's commitment to Cricket, which thrillingly ended ASAP. But the resentment from Val to Lilimae is still very much there so far, week after week. Nice continuity - Olivia's broken arm getting hurt again. This is what I like with background neighborhood/family stuff (like Michael's ADD) being consistently carried over week to week, a la daytime soaps. Eric apparently does not want to go to college, which Uncle Joe talks him out of - Saint Sid would be rolling in his grave. And Eric's misbegotten attempt at a stache is back. Think twice, Eric! Episode 15 (Best Intentions): This one's again written by James Houghton (Grinnin' Kenny and future longtime Y&R scribe) as well as his sister Mona. It's very solid, with the Richard/Laura story culminating in her finally leaving him just as he once again gets his act together. But that's a cycle for Richard, as we now know - bad behavior due to bad circumstances in his own work life causing him to mistreat Laura at home, then an attempt to course-correct involving lovebombing, overbearing 'good' behavior, etc. We have seen Richard get his marriage on track before in mid-late Season 2 and IMO it was wonderful for awhile, but it didn't last because when things got bad at his new job he just took it all out on Laura and drove her away faster than ever before. Here, Laura tells him she's pregnant and he instantly moves to micromanaging their lives, something the matured Laura can't tolerate. And when abortion is mentioned, he hits her (and she's hit him before) - a terrible moment, but he's not hearing her afterwards, where she's clearly just done. Because he can't read Laura at all anymore, Richard remains convinced they're able to get back on track and he's ready to commit to bettering himself as a husband (which, again, he's done before). The scene with him and Karen is heartbreaking, as she watches him cycle through the best and worst of himself and back again in front of her eyes at their lunch table - watches him reexamine his bad behavior and critique himself honestly - but can't bring herself to tell him Laura is probably done with him anyway. And it's true, because he gets home and Laura is gone, which leads to the wonderful end shot of the episode with him sitting in the darkened kitchen next to an envelope left for him. They've done two quiet, slow shots pulling out on the Averys as their marriage disintegrates this season and both were wonderful. The tragedy is it didn't have to go this way if they'd both been a bit more open with each other earlier, and John Pleshette's performance is consistently both heartbreaking and unsparing for Richard while Constance McCashin is fully committed to Laura's integrity and evolution. This is apparently the last episode for my beloved Allan Miller as Scooter, where Laura tells him she wants to put the brakes on things but he has yet to be written out. I wonder how that'll happen. As for the equally important B-plot, Val's book is ready to roll. Abby seems to have decided it's a good way to crowbar her way into things with the Ewing marriage even more, by distracting Gary further as Val's star rises (on a book that is a roman a clef about the Ewing family, something that appears to have escaped Gary's notice but is likely to stir his ire). And hey, as Abby's mind often seems to work with these things thus far, if both people get something they want - Val gets published, Abby gets her husband - doesn't that all work out? The stuff with JVA and Shackelford as Gary is dismissive of her writing talent and she bristles at it was very good. He just can't seem to comprehend (yet) that his wife could have ambitions and drives akin to his rapidly-rediscovered own. We're cruising rapidly towards what I am apprised is a very strong home stretch for Season 3, following the next episode (Silver Shadows) which very few people seem to like. (I know @DRW50does so I will reserve judgment)

The last Joey was a terrible actor.

This seems like a (controversial) first. @DRW50 I wondered if @Errolmight have an article on this, but I can't remember if he does those for foreign soaps.

Here's a question: How insane or OOC would it be if Jack and Diane actually, legitimately got back together?

No, that's the dumbest tool in the book and is used constantly to excuse people sleeping around on soaps today. For the last 20+ years daytime soaps have increasingly shied away from making 'good' characters have affairs just because they want to fúck someone.

Nikolas has been made into an idiot, it's absolutely true. With Tyler in the role (and Coloma is capable of some of this though he's not as good an actor) he would play it partly the way it really is: Dirty, horny, and appealing to Nik's baser instincts, which he does have. The show is just playing Nikolas very stupidly, when Coloma first came on as Nikolas running a scheme. As we've said for years, almost no one on American soaps today [!@#$%^&*] or has an affair because they want to. There is always some idiot reason or trickery to try and absolve them to what is viewed by the network or shows as solely a puritanical, aging reactive audience. The last time I can remember it happening on GH, other than the Michael/Willow affair I don't care about - and which they've been sanctified for - and I guess Sonny and Carly fúcking behind Franco's back, is with Nikolas himself, and Elizabeth, which trashed the characters in the late 2000s because it was intended to.