Vee

It'll do in a pinch until they finally reunite her and Kevin; it's an inspired idea. MEK looks so good these days compared to the sad sack 2000s it's unreal.

It came up here not long ago, but there was a lot of less than great behavior in the past by both parties including in the mid-late '90s. It's not all Tony's fault in that era, and I can see why he'd harbor ill feelings. But the thing is, even after those incidents he was still incredibly loyal to Genie on and offscreen and to the pairing until about the mid-2000s. That's when he began allowing Guza to completely mutilate the character, IMO out of a resentment towards the legacy that had eaten his career, and he became more and more contrarian about it. I think also he had tried to combine so many characters and types he'd wanted to play into his conception of Bill Eckert in the early '90s, and when Bill flopped he took it very personally. I think he basically allowed them to reverse-engineer Luke into Bill II starting about 15 years ago. I agree that Laura and his family life is a place of strength Luke has denied himself for years. That is the angle I'd take with it as part of a larger adventure storyline. But at this point I don't think that story could be told unless maybe you killed Luke at the end of it. There's a slim chance Tony would agree to play that, I guess. (I also think Laura needs a better all-new love interest because while I love Kevin they just don't work together, but that's another story.)

I think if L&L were going to happen it would've already. It was Carlivati and Valentini's first and foremost goal, their big dream for the show, and it was sabotaged almost immediately - first by Tony improvising still drinking when they'd begun a storyline tackling Luke's alcoholism, forcing them to rewrite that into some nonsense involving radiation poisoning, then by him clearly vetoing going back to Laura before he quit the show. I don't think he'd ever agree to return to play a reunion. I'd be shocked if that happened at this point. I think the most you could get away with is a return stint that ended in Luke's death while indicating a kind of reunion or renewal of their love beforehand, which is what I would try for at this point. I do think it is very possible DAYS will bring both Kristian and Peter Reckell back together someday, if maybe only for the end of the network run. They clearly thought Rafe was going to go the distance but any idiot could've told them he never would.

Except I'm neither of those things, lol! I don't watch this show regularly at all, haven't in years. And I almost never revisit the Reilly '90s because I find it a lot of it very bad; I think James Reilly helped destroy this show at least as much as he took it to the top. So there's absolutely no nostalgia to be had there for me. And I have never been a stan for ED; I don't follow her from show to show, I don't do that for any actor. But I know her strength and I know her impact any time she appears. And I am able to take a very unsentimental look at the show, because I have no attachments to it atm. It's nice that her castmates love Haiduk and I think she acts her heart out onscreen. But none of that matters in terms of the results the show has left her with. The only fans the current, confused iteration of Kristen seems to have are maybe half a dozen folks on Twitter. You're right that shades of grey and complexity are necessary for mature storytelling. Except DAYS has no mature storytelling. It is incapable of writing a complex, reformed or nuanced Kristen Blake, and meanwhile the only popular Kristen with a broader audience is still Eileen Davidson. Stacy Haiduk is very talented but has not made it work, and the writers certainly haven't either. Kristen is not going to evolve because the writers don't know how to write it, because the audience has rejected it, and also because some larger than life characters just don't lend themselves to that anymore. Kristen is not needed on this show year-round, she is always a force of nature, and meanwhile Eileen is the only actor that has been able to sell with the audience long-term. So why not do what the character is actually good at and has been an audience success with? As for Corday, it's obvious he doesn't like BD. But I don't care what he likes and I never have. if this show is going to truly flourish and evolve on streaming it will have to do it without his micromanagement or those of his varied underlings. Otherwise it's going to be the same old thing.

That's on Corday and a host of bad writers, not on Lucas. You're not going to get a new audience on streaming by recasting with another soap has-been. Because frankly that's all any of them are viewed in the large scheme of things if we look at this from an outside POV. No newfound audience or teen base on streaming are cutting for Billy Miller, they don't know who he is or care about him. And the kids that actually grew up watching the show will only know they fired Lucas. Teens also aren't really out there cutting for Ali's next man tbh - Ali has a very strong crossover Hallmark fanbase which is broad and family-based, but no woman pushing 50 on the soaps is going to command an all-new streaming-ready fanbase with just the right combination of leading man. There's no magic formula to make her into thirtysomething Hillary Duff. They just love Sami. So since none of these performers are 25 anymore, the best thing they can do for those characters is go with what works and what is popular. Lucas and Sami are beloved tentpoles at this point, together or separate, whether you put them back together or have them reunite and then keep fighting or sleeping around. Billy Miller or any recast would be a nobody. If DAYS wants to be bolder in casting they can do that with the actual young or new characters. I like Stacy Haiduk, I've talked often about how she did so much with about 90 seconds in an unrecognizable cameo on HBO's Sharp Objects. It was a worthwhile experiment to recast, I think she's done the best anyone could. And I think it's a nice idea to think Kristen could somehow be reinvented as a completely different character for modern times. But they tried and she can't. It hasn't worked, in part because they went too far with it in the other direction but also because they are clearly unable to imbue it with enough depth without Ron immediately pivoting back to more camp. Kristen is an icon, and the fact is the only Kristen with broad appeal is Eileen Davidson. Eileen has a major profile outside this show now thanks to reality television; she is a soap legend but she also has major crossover camp/pop culture value, as well as the ability to actually play much, much more than camp when given the opportunity (which she isn't on this show). This isn't nostalgia, it's facts, at least as far as I see them personally. They are doing this idiotic thing with 2 Kristens on at once because they know it hasn't worked but are too sympathetic to Haiduk to cut her loose. Kristen should not be on this show year-round because she's not needed to be on that much. She is a force of nature, she comes in and out. Eileen can do that. It's time to let it go.

The E.J./Sami fanbase is also never going to be what it was without Scott. Never. So the playing field is at the very least level again like it hasn't been in like 15 years, and Lumi was always popular.

They made Bryan a legitimate lead years and years ago when Lucas and Sami were finally together in the dreadful second Reilly era. They qualified as a supercouple at that time, IMO and the show let it ride because they knew Sami was the key draw and Lucas played off of her very well. The story became handicapped against Lucas because James Scott was a phenomenon on the show, which I won't deny, but they could never erase the fact that E.J. raped Sami at gunpoint in the passenger seat of a car on the side of the road. While I enjoyed that couple at times that stain never went away. Bryan Dattilo has aged naturally and is not as conventionally attractive a lead as Scott or DF. His hair also needs serious work. But none of that really matters to the audience. It's the same thing as when ATWT thought they had to purge Scott DeFreitas (Andy Dixon) who'd been in the role since he was like 14; he may not have been a Shawn Christian type but he was very handsome and photogenic, younger and hotter than Dattilo is now. But the show kept thinking they had to find a way to make the show sexier. Fans never got over it and never forgave ATWT, they were asking for Andy back til its dying day. It would be the same if you recast Lucas; it would be a blunder on par with that or the infamous Susan Batten fiasco. No one wants it, no one cares. It's not going to solve a problem when there is no actual problem with Lucas, in the eyes of the longtime audience. Sure, he could look slimmer or get a makeover, but they love him anyway and like him with Sami. The problem with Lucas is not in the audience, it is that upper management and/or creatives do not find him sexy enough and has therefore made him the goat in story for many years since the mid-2000s. That is a perception problem and it is on TPTB. Ali is not 25 anymore either and doesn't look it. She has a strong fanbase, they'll go where she tells them to. The Lucas/Sami revisit was well received. Corday should get over it. But yes, someone should cut Bryan's hair.

I knew from Day 1.

Ron always does this - reveals a 'good' character to be some sort of sinister nut or pious hypocrite, and thinks that balances scales with the audience.

I mean, Schumer appears ready to put it on the floor and make him vote no, which is also what Waters said above they should do. I think it will happen and it should. But I don't blame anyone for the likely result of that vote or for Manchin's behavior but Manchin. I have had many issues with Jayapal in the past but she played it smart when she came out the other day and said that she didn't blame POTUS but Manchin who she felt betrayed Biden's trust. That's the kind of talk that gets her labeled a sellout by the dirtbag left, but it's the truth.

Rafe is here because someone thought Luis from Passions tested well with focus groups at NBC. That's it! He is a charisma void and even his initial story was a weak tea riff on Marlena and Roman and frankly beneath Sami's heights up to that point IMO. He did have more chemistry with CC but people freaked out about that. He should've been fired years ago.

This character should not exist. At least half the kids currently on the show should not exist. Don't get me started on why I'm supposed to care that they are featuring McBain and Greenlee's lisping daughter on General Hospital. These kids only exist because the show is lazy and keeps doing more hetero baby stories which eat up time and are easily approved by the network. Charlotte, the test tube quasi-rape baby with Billy Joel Cassadine who has no reason to exist, is just the start. There's what feels like Sonny and Carly's 20th child, named after a deceased GH crew person so now they can never kill her off. There's Dante and Lulu's kid who is suddenly out looking for his learner's permit, when his parents are hardly dried up for story and I feel like he was born like twenty minutes ago. It's turning into late-stage GL or AMC on the network, where it was like some sort of TLC reality show Mormon wet dream, where Bianca, Kendall, Marissa, etc. had like six kids between them and it was a mob scene of shrieking tykes and I couldn't remember who half of them were. This happens all the time here now: Charlotte, Violet, Leo, Rocco, Scout, Wiley, Donna? I can't remember they exist half the time but they age all their parents and they burn story. Same with Maxie's children I don't remember the names of! I'll come back in 5 years and Maxie will have five kids. Remember the school bus crash? BJ's Heart? I'm just saying, maybe there should be another school bus crash. And no hearts! Ricky Martin can't help them now!

Politico!

I think Murkowski can potentially go rogue. Sasse is pathetic.

I think Manchin is more likely to support a carveout on voting rights based on recent tea leaf readings from various journos (I can't find the tweets right now) than he is to ever support BBB. I agree on Murkowski.

There are always more kinescopes turning up somewhere - I wonder If any survived among random associates. I know Ellen Holly has maintained she has several of her key episodes from her early days on OLTL, thanks to urban affiliates.

The thing here is that he says, repeatedly, that he would never support BBB and he knew it all along. Many of us suspected it from the start bc his arguments against it have always been circular, repetitious and half-baked, and when he dropped one he'd always go back to another. Now today, in his radio interview, he has gone back to old stuff he was saying last spring or summer and referring to testing and committees, things that have already been done in several cases on key components. It's possible that dropping climate and adding pork would get his vote on pieces of this bill, and that may be a goal worth pursuing. But I don't think he wants to do anything period, it's clear now that his bruised ego and right-wing sensibility is far more important to him than any other political enrichment he might actually get from the passage, and I hope the WH doesn't take too much from the Politico Whisperers insisting there is a way to get to 'yes' with Manchin. I think any yes would be extremely meager and they should consider looking at Murkowski. All that being said: It is very possible Manchin's vote will be there for us on voting rights, so there is that.

Being called out as opposing the CTC really rattled him last week, and still does. Hence this morning's second leak.

Olivia Nuzzi is outraged! Not by the white supremacists she clubs around with, but by this:

If the Democratic fusillade continues (and I think some of it will) he is likely to get more than he cares for. When people in the press gaggles hit Manchin on sore points, like his family's money or the CTC, he hollers and loses his cool. The leak today about his CTC comments is not a coincidence.

He has impressively managed to publicly array just about the entire party against him, including people like Josh Gottheimer and Spanberger (who is undeniably smart and tough but comes from a conservative constituency).