Vee

Like others, I do wonder if a lot of what's happening now with Allie/Keemo and Diane is rather hastily added on. It's got actual, potential life to it unlike most of what Griffith does. The Ashland story could very easily fizzle out too. Y&R today is simply cruising on its audience loyalty and a very thin budget, marking time. There doesn't seem to have been any compelling interest in shaking anything up or out of moribund torpor for a long while. The attempts to turn it into a Fronsian ABCD soap didn't really take off, but the echoes of that are all that's really left. So these recent changes (while nothing particularly spectacular so far) are surprising.

Yes, but the question is how the public will feel about that line. They didn't care about leaving Afghanistan, the shame of our century according to DC press with lots of friends at the Pentagon. Which is part of why the press has doubled down on trying to catch Biden in gotchas over Ukraine.

Walters' comments about daytime having more complex roles for older women at the end of that posted article are very true about the medium historically, though sadly not nearly as much now as in the glory days. I can't fault her for still finding value in reclaiming Diane and having a purpose of her own on the show vs. primetime guest spots though.

A potentially hot take: Biden's "Putin can't remain in power" gaffe today will help him in polling, which remains predictably confused and muddled due to a public which is unclear of what our involvement in Ukraine can safely involve. That confusion has largely been because of a media still resentful of Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal (and the public's lack of interest in their anger), and eager to score points against him and look non-liberal, by criticizing the Ukraine relief efforts and urging him to 'do more' while failing to acknowledge that that could lead to open war. As Obama and Clinton knew and Trump manipulated as well, a lot of public sentiment is based on gut feeling vs. logic and facts about inflation or war or 'doing more'. What Biden said today 'feels' right even if it was, by the textbook, a potentially perilous messaging blunder.

Now that they are not presenting Taggert like an ailing chump, they are nice together.

I hope NuTrina doesn't stay as retiring or demure going forward, but I did see more layers. I do think she needs to bring the heat against Esme. If they make the character passive it won't matter how good the actor is.

Tabyana Ali is really cute. I thought she was adorable with her parents (who looked good together). I think this is going to work.

The feature article in Errol's OP has Sean Blakemore explicitly indicating he left for other opportunities/scheduling conflicts.

That works, and Courtney Hope (who as a gamer I admittedly love from Control) can certainly play it. The IRL Shultz family conflict is also straight out of soaps, but can be even more salacious on daytime.

I absolutely believe his health scare is real. I also know he would rather die than step down with a Democrat in office. He will never do so. So it's either death or we're stuck with him for now.

Meanwhile:

If this was ten years ago I think they would be able to keep it a secret much longer. Not anymore. DC always talks and it still hasn't fully acclimated to the social media age. TMZ alone would find out, because it doesn't have that Sally Quinn-style deference.

Tyler is giving me late stage Boogie Nights tbqh. I hope he's well.

Either way, he's discharged now so either he's going to survive and continue to spite us, or he's dying at home and Ginni, Mitch and the gang will go to extraordinary measures to prevent that from leaking for as long as possible. (Yes, I am waiting to pull out the Weekend at Bernie's material)

Shawn looked hot as hell in those power suits. I'd have him back any time.

If he is dying, the Dems are going to have to be prepared to pull the Amy Coney Barrett shuffle to install a new one before November. No courteous feigning towards the norms and puttering around for a few months, which too many Senators still want to do. Because if we don't confirm another justice before the midterms I'm seriously afraid of what we're looking at in terms of both violent insurrection measures and completely breaking down government to try to stop any hearings after. The GOP has waited generations for this balance of the court and for them this is holy war. Speaking of:

Ron isn't the worst fit for DAYS, but whenever he's untempered and unmanaged by a strong counterweight and clear directives, we all know what he does by now. Jamey Giddens has clearly had his share of bad ideas but Ron didn't need his help getting fired from GH. The pet theory (which I know te. did not come up with) that somehow Jamey has overridden Carlivati's better angels and is co-opting the show discounts Ron's own long history of narrative insanity well before this year and this storyline. IMO that's personal and rooted in fandom's resentment over Giddens going from fan to creative. Jamey has obviously come up with a terrible story, but Ron does not need Jamey's help to fùck up. Both problems can exist.

Listen, I'm putting a pin in that because I'm still trying to wrap my head around the current 'climax' to the Ashland story where he just walks out on Victoria when he's confronted and that's it. That can't be all!!

I will always find Johnny Cage so fine. Melrose Place wasted him. I was psyched when they hired Ashby.

I know, that was my point. That's because he already had a parasocial relationship with Ron Carlivati personally, which reached its nadir when he spent hours raging about the disloyalty of the GH cast for leaking against Ron in 2015 and comparing him to Gloria Monty being betrayed by the ensemble in 1991-92 (not the most sympathetic parallel, if he'd taken the time to think it through). I think he's matured a bit from that behavior. I can't speak to his actual writing, other than to say that this entire Sarah/Renee thing is a joke and something he had the experience to know better about.

I think Jamey's matured a bit as a person. Creatively, ehhh. I could swear I remember him grudgingly admitting the Teen Jess story was terrible, but that may be the Mandela effect in action.

Who is Casey?

I would 100% write a ripped from the headlines story where Abby or Victoria goes full Elizabeth Holmes - Steve Jobs turtlenecks and all - and begins running a Theranos-style scam venture for over a year. That doesn't take a ton of money to do, and people would watch and seethe and wait for whoever the character is to get taken down. But those stories don't get told anymore.