Vee

This season is also a real love letter so far to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and especially Robert Englund, Freddy Krueger himself. With that series lying dormant and Englund maybe never playing Freddy again, it makes me very happy to see so much tribute paid.

Donna, that really isn't appropriate to the topic of Ray Liotta passing but you knew that.

The premiere is on point. Sadie Sink has had a major come-up in the intervening years with COVID delays, etc. due to the Fear Street trilogy (worth a watch!) and so on, but she is getting a real chance to shine this year after having a bit less to do last season. Sink is a Broadway/theater kid, like so many soap kids (Eden Riegel, Chris McKenna, etc). It's a shame the New York soap industry collapsed before it could help foster her earlier - that would have been neat. Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) has been extraneous to this show since Joe Keery broke out in Season 1, and he's still dead weight today. He's the only key flaw for me.

I'm glad ST4 could get Kate Bush trending in the middle of the night among a generation of kids for whom many are just now being exposed.

Really impressive. The third season was a considerable improvement and I will be watching.

Season 3, Episode 7 (Secrets): Another John Pleshette script! In which a happy and contented Richard Avery learns pimpin' ain't easy. Richard and Laura are so good together in the mode they've been in for awhile - witty, urbane, an equal match in intelligence but able to give and take with Richard contented to let Laura lead - in a way that I never thought was possible for most of the first season and a half. So it's tragic seeing that begin to fall apart; to think it all begins with a misunderstanding and Laura ready to be the one to have an affair. Allan Miller and Rosemary Prinz are both back - they crackled together. So do Mills and Shackelford the more time they spend together - "tough day at the office, dear?" I did not know you could get away with saying 'orgasm' on network TV in the early '80s - I can't remember the last time I heard it since. Melrose Place certainly never dared. Abby ringing up a massive lunch bill on the dealership's dime was great, as was Gary's suggestion they just make stuff up for the audit. Karen: Do you really think the IRS is that stupid? Gary: Well, it is a government agency. That is a young and dashing Ian Abercrombie (Mr. Pitt from Seinfeld) as the slinky caterer for Richard's latest ho train. Weird to see him bearded and roguish. The chemistry between Abby, Karen and Gary at the dealership is brilliant, including the continued grudging care and admiration between Abby and Karen, but as I said I can't fault Mills at all for pushing the writers to dump KL Motors. You can just tell Abby and Gary are meant for far bigger things than this car lot, and that her aspirations in particular are grander - like I said last season, the slow metamorphosis of her house already reflects the far scope of her vision. The glimpse we got of it here as Gary visited was even more modern, a sharp contrast to the rest of the homes in the cul-de-sac. That being said, Abby's breakdown over Sid's gift and the women's truce was really touching. Allan Miller's Scooter is touchingly tentative with Laura, who he's been soft on since the beginning of their relationship. I honestly did not expect these two to ever go there; back in Season 2 I thought their closeness would simply drive an already awful Richard madder and madder. Instead, Laura's almost strayed after Richard's worked hard to make good, but his sad lot in life has forced another secret between them, left them unable to communicate and drove Laura to nearly commit the first betrayal of their better marriage and worse, completely check out. The talk between Scooter and Laura about Richard's struggle was earnest and kind, and it's brutal to watch Laura not fully heed or understand Richard's cries for help, right down to the cold silence at the table in the backyard at the end. No comment on the collection of comic Japanese stereotypes! I love Abby's parenting. "Drown quietly, please!"

I had a particular fondness for Depeche Mode's mid-90s comeback album, Ultra, which straddled the grudge wave but did its own gritty, electronica-infused thing. I knew a lot of their other stuff from the radio but I'd never heard anything like that before, where a group had managed to take an emerging trend and turn some of its stylings to their own ends, but leave the rest to make something new. What an incredible talent Fletcher was.

Legends all day. Ugh.

Nothing.

Another glimpse of Zach Tinker (DAYS, Y&R) is what appears to be a prominent role as one of the many playable characters in horror video game The Quarry, starring a who's who of both horror and youth talent, including legends Lance Henriksen, Ted Raimi, David Arquette, Grace Zabriskie and more. Zach is playing the jock in the backwards cap who also gets topless a lot. A bit more of him here:

Same here. He was one of the greats. RIP.

Thread:

Viki (which is how her name is spelled) did undergo major therapy in 1995-1997. Her heading off to Paris, Texas was not depicted in any way as a psychotic break or mental illness crisis. She took a leave of absence from her job, told the family she was on vacation and went off to find herself. There's always more the show could've done, but they played her DID out more than once.

I've never heard anyone specifically blame JFP for Stuart Damon. Guza had creative power well above JFP, and his writers have always insisted Damon's firing was not his choice.

In which Kasie Hunt plays Twister with herself to avoid simply saying 'blocked by Republicans' and using every other synonym possible to avoid blowback from either her bosses or her GOP access:

I do think there is absolutely room to do a school shooting/gun violence story on soaps. But I remember the storyline on OLTL, and who was writing it (Dena Higley) and the depth or lack thereof of all the characters involved, including the would-be shooter played by a young Jonathan Groff, and I think it would've been a debacle. The weird irony is Higley actually had her finger on the pulse of several key 'ripped from the headlines' social issue storylines during her tenure - first aping the Jim McGreevey closeted gay scandal with Daniel Colson, then school shootings, and finally the rise of the new undercover white supremacist cells online and in media with "One Pure People" and Chris Beetem's Tate Harmon character. The big moment where Bo confronts Colson (and Nora standing by, watching) at his swearing-in ceremony is classic soap, if you remove the quality of the content itself. These are all storylines and issues soaps, especially socially conscious soaps like OLTL, can and should deal with. It's just that the actual content of the storylines Higley built and executed was crass, poorly-built, superficial or tasteless. The Colson and One Pure People storylines can and should be done so much better.

Video:

Beto should take it to him. He can win there. And he's right to do this - the fact is he is in front of a mic, with cameras, preaching Democratic and liberal values, and there needs to be more of that all day, everyday in the current environment. Because if the vapid rich in cable news can't find a Dem to show out and get in front of a mic they will happily put on another ten Republicans, or guys like DeSantis, who has never met a podium he doesn't love to spew hate from. Often GOP rhetoric has no apparent news value but they still push it out daily, and they never stop. Media wants takes and drama and Republicans give it to them, so news producers feel no compunction in platforming their filth. Beto is doing the necessary in countering it. That's the ground war now, as much as organizing.

Rumor has it:

Considering the fact that we already know in the past certain trolls have likely used this forum to monitor, target and wipe out sources of classic episodes, I just don't think it should be discussed in public period. I think people should be very careful.

In other, (relatively) better news: Perdue was absolutely crushed numbers-wise, which may speak to a waning Trump wave in the fall.