Vee

Jason refusing to do Sonny's bidding over Tracy and Monica a few months ago re: the kids was a huge deal for me. I haven't seen him move like that since the late 2000s, as @titan1978 noted, when Guza began to sour on Jason.

Like he's on the poorly aged Diddy remix video, too. Idek what top he was wearing last week but it looked like something Sisqo would pass on. Vinyl or something.

I believe it was covered in Megan McTavish's leaked, unpublished scorched earth memoir in this thread a few months back. It is a hellraising and hysterical read. Kiberd's conduct seemed pretty indefensible, and to her dubious credit McTavish says she relished slaughtering his character off-camera years later in the 2000s. If you've never read it and have even a passing familiarity with AMC I do recommend it for dish value. Just bear in mind McTavish is, by her own words, clearly as much of a terror as was often rumored and has smoke for just about everyone in it other than Brian Frons lol. She hates just about everyone and her word can't be taken as full gospel. She does have some GH and OLTL commentary in there too.

Andre regularly dresses like he is guesting on 106 & Park 25 years ago.

Not really, no. And it's Alan.

With Lulu I think it's somewhat deliberate tbh, because FV wants the focus on the BLQ end of the story. With Britt I think they all think it's a fun feature and not a bug, lol. If they try to sell RP playing a villain it's just going to be laughable.

Absolutely no one.

Steve always comes to work for this kind of stuff, at least. He clearly had the bond with Leslie offscreen, even as Jason treated the Qs like filth for years. It helps that Jason has softened in recent times for the reasons I've mentioned. He played the emotion with Sam's death last year despite his and Monaco maybe being on the outs. I remember him playing Alan's death well years ago. I do think the last disastrous year and his paying for a costly divorce may have also contributed to some renewed commitment.

Jason also treated Monica, Edward, etc. like shít for almost two decades. It's past time he bent the knee, and I'm glad he's done it.

WGA and IATSE are picketing at Disney, and Damon Lindelof among other creatives have vowed to not work for the company until Kimmel is reinstated. I think this will be a rare bridge too far for Trump II and Disney will relent, as they should. To their credit, the Dem leadership is actually playing this one right. Demanding Carr's resignation from the FCC is smart theater. The key is not letting this be one isolated incident. They came to DC to legislate and govern responsibly, but that's not the world we currently live in and no one responds to it or cares. For the foreseeable future, this kind of guerrilla war in the chamber is the New Normal. Fight every battle, every inch, everywhere.

I don't think they're trying to drag Eva back down or anything. I think they just don't have a clear handle on her. They want Eva to be the hardscrabble ingenue/schemer with a heart but also want her to have the mother/daughter relationship with Leslie. That to me gives B&B atm, because it's very black and white. Unless Leslie is humbled a bit or Eva puts her in her place more, you can't sustain that without Eva looking like a fool. That's what needs to change IMO. The Eva/Kat rivalry though is dynamite. One of the best things on the show, even if their current prize (Tomas) sucks.

The good, soapy portion of this is that they are both right IMO. Kat is right about Leslie and Eva enabling her. Eva is right about a fair amount of Kat's behavior. The issue is that I don't think the show really understands how Eva has fallen back to old patterns or if they do they haven't put it onscreen yet. Hopefully they'll address it. Either way Tomas is a bust.

One thing I would like to see more of, explored at a deeper level, is Jason and Tracy. This is something the show has brought to the forefront in the last 6-12 months, largely by necessity. Jason moved in with the Qs with the kids after Sam's death to block Drew IIRC, and also because quite frankly all of Steve's stories or romances in the last year had flopped. Putting Jason there in the Quartermaine hub was a reversal of fortune after 25 years; now the Qs are ascendant again as the primary family on the show, while Jason was in need of a safe harbor. He got it and Steve played it, because thus far he has been very good as Jason as the fish out of water among the Qs, still supporting them and counseling them. Not just Michael but BLQ, the kids and yes, Tracy. He belonged there a long time ago, and tbqh I think more mob or Britt, etc. detracts from it. Jason can and should still have action/adventure stories - it's his bread and butter, it's what a portion of the audience comes to see - but they can be done without being mob-based. Though in fairness the Five Poppies silliness had nothing to do with Sonny or the mob. It was all WSB, and for as goofy as I find that current setup Jason should've been drafted to work for them long ago. Jason has softened in the last decade re: the Qs and Monica, etc. This is largely because the show reverse-engineered this behavior after having Drew/"NuJason" do the same and embrace them while first Billy Miller and then Cameron were in the role; they obviously felt it reflected poorly on the real Jason not to do the same, so suddenly he was much more friendly with them (the same goes with their faltering attempts at building a relationship with Jason and Jake, after Miller). But for whatever reason, it's brought us to now which is a net good. JE and Steve have shared more scenes in part because the show has chosen not to play Lisa Lo Cicero or Wally as much. But again that brings us to here; Tracy and Jason have a functional, working relationship. Tracy held Jason in contempt for decades and rightly so given who and what he is, and how he treated the family. But Tracy also treated the family horribly (and vice versa) in the past. What I think they would understand about each other, now more than ever, is loyalty and brutal necessity to do what they must for the family. And I'd like to see that explored and talked about sometime onscreen. Tracy has the killer instinct David Lewis' Edward had and understands how tough the Qs can be. Gibson's Michael may have some of it. Jason has the same, but from a very different world. I think they can at least respect that about each other.

Erika on-set at GH (per Nancy Lee Grahn's IG). What a story she tells re: Erika and Joe Stuart.

Wonderful to see.

Hayley doesn't have it. Eva does but they often play her rock stupid. Like, they spent a month or two selling her as the hardscrabble ingenue with a bit of a scheming edge (which AM excels at) only for her to turn around, quickly forgive Leslie and suddenly resume excusing all of her behavior. Every other day now Eva is howling "MAWMA!! What did you do??" and acting brand new lol. I enjoy Eva and Leslie on the show but this cycle has gotten tiresome, she needs to either own what her mother is or cut her off for awhile. It's crazy that closet schizophrenic June, having psychotic episodes in rhyme maybe a month ago, is now waiting tables at Orphey Gene's. That's the B&B resume for you IMO. Naomi: June, I'm sorry but neither of us got what we ordered. June (rocking in place): Real eyes tell real lies... real lies, didn't order no fries...

Agreed on all. Though I'd never advocate for keeping Britt lol. And I don't care about that dayplayer. RG is very strong as Michael and you need to cast strong. I'd bring on Zoe Ward or Serena at this point (or both), while still playing out the Willow Wars. Imagining someone like Colby Muhammed from BTG as Zoe makes me sigh, though she's shining where she is.

Very bad.

I don't even know when "Season One" ends for a daytime soap opera. For me it is simple as watching or not, or stopping watching, coming back, quitting, etc. Happens all the time. Either way, time will tell.

I much preferred Leo, who I miss. James is another cute kid who can't really act, but he's at least more charming than Wiley and most of the other needless children. Agreed on Ned and Olivia.

What will be interesting for me is not only seeing more of JL and Korf's brief material together, but revisiting them in '94 down the road with Kassie DePaiva. I saw their reunion when she took over the role again recently, and revisited some of the other stuff with them from '94 and '95. I'd forgot how serious they actually got in that year, to the point that IIRC Cord initially thinks Blair's first (miscarried) pregnancy by Todd is his baby. They were always easy enough together but I am curious how they will play as a couple. Some have said recently that the original endgame for both was them together in '94 before Todd entered the mix, but I don't know if that's true; I think it may be pure spec.

Agreed. I find this, the Lifetime thing and the new GH timeslot reversion on ABC all curious.

It is wild how little we see them or Leo atm. They used to be a fairly regular staple not very long ago. I am glad Rena is not gone for good but it is exhausting how much they've screwed up with Lois. Obrecht has been toned down considerably over the years even if I'll never accept her. But highlighting the Rocco issue makes things much worse again, and I will still wager pushing this with her and Britt is a big part of what will sink KT again in the end. The general audience is just not here for buying that line and it shows, even people who were nominally okay with Britt and Obrecht. I'm not looking fwd to the inevitable Emmy bait emotional journey for them both when sentient brutalist sculpture My patience for Obrecht begins and ends with her as a straight-up villain, not dominating the show. She was good when she first came on and you could tell this dayplayer had a real edge, and she's good in short run doses for the same material. But that's not how they want to use her. They find a strong character actor and try to make the character all things to all people. That began as the school of Carlivati, but CVE, etc. learned it from him on staff.

I partially think it's an ultimately weightless story for all the reasons most of us discussed months ago - what's the dramatic heft in the long run, other than one more Quartermaine/overly grown secret child in a canvas now full of them? But I do think the actors and yes, the day to day writers played the dramatic fallout to the hilt in the moment when the reveal came out, to their credit. I do think the show is invested in GM/Gio, who they made a point to create a role for (a common practice at FV's GH). But you're right that I think some things matter more. First and foremost they have to justify Steve's price tag, and they seemingly think action with Jason is integral to the show's longevity. Then there's Joss and all the cross-connections with the remnants of the mob trio who Korte and FV still seem to want to keep central. (I suspect CVE, the lesser evil here, is also a big, big booster of the Obrecht clan - they're all from the silly/snarky character school from the old OLTL team.) I've already ranted on and on over two different forums abut how insane it is that they are not playing Gio and Emma (or Dante and Alexa's Lulu) all week long the way Guza II would've, but GH has its priorities and old habits (like pushing Joss) die hard. It's just leaving money on the table to me with those two couples who could be huge. Mazza has leveled up incredibly and Braedyn Bruner is a major find, and neither is likely to be here long if they're not given strong material (or even then). And Alexa, settled with Justin Bruening and their children, does not need this job and in fact came out of retirement for it. I don't think they were apathetic about NAC per se - they played him heavy - but I do think the popular interracial couple and his alleged unwillingness to play the BTS game left them somewhat paralyzed. It was obvious to me (I know others differ) that they would've loved to put over a 'reformed' Esme with Spencer and get away from Trina any way they could. I think that only failed because Chavez took his out. I just wish someone would see sense, because there is so much potential good on this show if properly utilized or better choices were made.