Broderick

The dialogue today was clever. In the segues between scenes, I noticed they would repeat lines from the previous scenes to tie it together. (One scene would end with Leslie telling Eva, "This ain't some deep dark secret, baby" and the next scene would start with Big Bill telling Joey, "This sounds like some deep dark secret.") And Vanessa's line about "cleaning up" in real estate was funny regarding the money laundering. I'm guessing the mysterious informant Randy referred to is Haley, who is probably his kid sister or something. I thought Theodore's scene was Miss Nicole was especially good. I genuinely thought they were about to have a break-through, when she suddenly said, "I can use this against you in court", and marched her Attractive Ass right out the door.

The only reason we know Andre is a playboy/casanova is we're constantly being TOLD he is. We've never seen it. If MVJ had asked my advice (fortunately she didn't), I would have suggested introducing him in February by having a semi-comical "revolving door" of random sluts in & out of his apartment. Ultimately, he would go to Garland to be treated for an STD, and Nurse Ashley would give him a lecture about safe sex and about monogamy. It would've then been organic for the audience to see the attraction between the two characters --- he's drawn to her compassionate, caring advice about how to live a "cleaner" life, and she's attracted to his more devil-may-care outlook. As it is, he's got no reason to like her, she's got no reason to like him, and he doesn't appear to be the fcukboy he's described in the dialogue as being.

Dani Dupree is especially cute when she's drunk. She sells seashells by the seashore. Andre appeared to be wearing my grandmother's sofa as a jacket. The two of them are FAR more entertaining when they're free of the Drab Ghost of Ashley, who hangs around Andre's neck like an albatross. Tomas didn't take it very well when Kat suggested their lackluster sex life is potentially attributable to his robotic line delivery and small pee-pee. I can't stand Joey Armstrong, but his storyline always holds my attention, because it's such a sprawling spiderweb of crime and bad guys.

Yeah, that whole "Moat & Bridge for Trollin" speech seemed designed for Vernon & Anita to get her ass ousted from the country club, which she'll be ENRAGED about when she finds out. But once again, she'll have another ace up her sleeve, thanks to spending the night in Teddy Bear's hotel room.

Now that she's in her 30s, Samantha ought to go ahead & get her cherry popped. I'm not sure how Shanice knows Derek's legs are recovering. Their physical therapy seems focused on stretching a band with his arms. The fire department must have a good health insurance plan to keep paying for that hospital room.

That was a good interview. Enjoyed the rapport between Miss Daphnee & Keith. I certainly don't "like" the Joey Armstrong character (and I'm not fond of the actor who plays him either). But I believe he's made the Dupree family more complex. Sometimes when they want something done, they call the assistant director of the FBI; other times they rely on a crooked cop & a gangster to help them. To me, that makes them more relatable.

For it to work effectively on screen, the actor playing Andre needs to be a sure-enough "bad boy player-type" who's inexplicably smitten with the "sweet down-to-earth" nurse. The audience should be wondering, "Can Andre really settle down with this girl and give up his playboy ways? Or is he only going through a temporary phase with Ashley?" Sean Freeman doesn't project this, and the writing hasn't helped him. The actress playing Ashley needs to be completely sincere and devoted to salt-of-the-earth Derek but inexplicably drawn to the more worldly Andre. The audience should be wondering, "Can she forget Andre and settle down with Derek, or will she always have a weakness for a bad boy?" Jen Jacob doesn't project this, and the writing hasn't helped her. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John made this same story work in "Grease", but obviously Sean Freeman and Jen Jacob lack the charisma (and the effective writing) that made "Grease" so successful. The actor playing Derek needs to be blue-collar, sincere, down to earth, devoted to Ashley, and a little bit jealous that he doesn't have the free, wild streak that she finds attractive in Andre. Ben Gavin doesn't project this, and the writing hasn't helped him. All three of them are a complete bust, in my opinion. Andre works fine as Dani's "boy toy", but it's clear she's got the upper hand in the relationship, and he's just along for the ride. I doubt that's the way it's supposed to come across.

I had to look them up, too. I've read "Their Eyes Were Watching God" of course, but knew NOTHING about the author & very little about Nella Larsen. I was embarrassed that Samantha Richardson (who's only 30) knew more about them than I did.

When the lady who plays Samantha says "Aunt Kat", it takes me right out of the scene, because she looks older than Colby Muhammad. Ashley & Derek are like a wet blanket thrown over the Big Bill/Dani/Andre dynamic. (I can't ever remember who Ashley is supposed to be in love with, or why. She seems to vary arbitrarily, and Derek just sits there with his mouth halfway open & goes along with it. Plus she makes Andre seem as dull & drippy as she is.) Tomas was even more robotic today than usual. Bless his heart.

If they introduce a new category at next year's Daytime Emmys (Best Butt -- Male, and Best Butt -- Female), it's safe to say Martin and Miss Nicole are going to be the front runners in their categories.

Same. What happened made sense to me. Smitty told him, "I love you" and "Wanting you doesn't mean I trust you." Poor Ted, with all the gambling going on at Bare Minimum Boulevard. However, Miss Nicole's attractive ass definitely understood what he was saying. He ain't as bad as Bill, and the Duprees heap Dupraise on Bill (whenever they need something from him).

I think it'd be funny if the bank turned down her loan application, based on her lack of liquid assets ($1 million to her name right now, minus what she's already spent, and another distribution coming in 6 months if she's lucky). Obviously she'll have to finance the Jarvis house with a mortgage, and there's a good bit of uncertainty in what she'll be receiving and when she'll be receiving it.

The highlight for me was the look on Ted's face when Miss Nicole said, "Well, come on then. Let's go." He was like, "Who is this woman?" 😂

When Andrea Evans first popped up on Y&R, I thought she was the WORST recast in the show's history. Well, 2nd worst, after Wings Hauser as Greg Foster 😂 But now, 40 years later, when I watch her work on Y&R (without the context of seeing Lilibet Stern the week before), Evans really ain't bad at all. By the time she made her exit (in the storyline with Paul, Lauren, Danny, and Traci), I think she works pretty well, and it almost makes me sad she didn't stay longer.

Ted's definitely tricking Leslie. He's concocted some round-about plan to keep her out of Fairmont Crest, after Lil Evie told him Thursday it would be best for Mama not to move there. He looked off in the distance and said, "Nicole would appreciate it, too." Then Big Bill's Tall Tree Lookin Ass came over and threatened Leslie if she moved there, which looked as though it might thwart whatever Ted is planning. I hope neither of those girls gets stabbed with a knife that's got cake all over it.

I think you're right. Back in 1973, Young and the Restless had a late March premiere. So did Capitol in 1982. So did Bold and the Beautiful in 1987. This time, it sorta looks like CBS got caught with their pants down. The Talk ended its season in December 2024, leaving CBS with 3 months and nothing to air (except reruns of "The Talk", which was performing poorly). They instead substituted reruns of Price is Right in that time slot, and they likely started Beyond the Gates a month earlier than planned, in order to get out of the 90-day consecutive rerun business.

If taping 200 episodes per year (instead of 250 or whatever) enables Beyond the Gates to manage their budget better than the other CBS shows are doing, I'm in favor of it. One thing I really enjoy about this show is how they seem capable of hiring extras and under-5s, which Y&R apparently is too poverty-stricken to accomplish. (I do worry about how frequent "breaks" impact the ratings though.)

"Dear Lord, please bring that precious little girl home to her triflin' two-faced daddy." 🤣

Yes it has, along with the corrupt cop (Marcel) and the frequent use of the police department and attorneys. Many of EON's attributes are present on this show. Not to mention the literary IRONY and "parallelisms" we saw on Edge. After the introductory scene of Vanessa & the "male escort" in Episode #3, the next usage of the Uptown set (Episode #4) was when Chelsea, celebrating her Ebony shoot and her surge in social media followers, was approached by the man known as "Craig" at the Uptown bar. It was basically a "replay" of the Vanessa/Zeke scene with the "lady" and the "escort", but it was disguised sufficiently to throw most viewers off. At first I wasn't fooled by Craig -- I assumed he was a hooker, too -- but he never asked for money, which made it somewhat bewildering. And then a few episodes later, he introduced Chelsea to his "wife" Allison. It LOOKED like the set-up for a con game (putting Chelsea in a compromising position and bilking Senator Dupree out of some $$$), but it never materialized in that direction, and I slowly decided Allison & Craig perhaps were on the up & up, till that weird "wound" Allison received that required a trip to the hospital.

This storyline was actually "previewed" in Episode #3, back in February. Vanessa was at Uptown with a male hooker, doing some roleplay. He was pretending to be her "greatest fan" who wanted to spend some time alone with her. Dani Dupree came barging in (fresh off her Golf Club Takedown of Big Bill's desk), and she asked Vanessa, "Who is THIS?! Where is Doug?!" Vanessa looked guilty & embarrassed, lamely stated that the prostitute was "Zeke" from her realty office who was dropping off some keys, and the hustler hastily scampered out the door. Sheila Ducksworth (executive producer) did a podcast a few weeks ago in which she admitted she'd gotten hooked on soaps as a youngster, watching The Edge of Night weekday afternoons on ABC. While Michele Val Jean isn't a Henry Slesar by any means, this is 100% an Edge of Night-type storyline, where a fairly naive individual (Chelsea) unknowingly wanders into a seamy underworld of hookers & psychos, and everything is slightly different from the way it initially seemed. It was all right there in front of our faces months ago, just like Edge of Night.

DANI: "If SHE is Barbara's daughter, then I'm Serena Williams!" MISS NICOLE: "Call me Venus." 🤣🤣 And then Wig Mama called Mr. Hamilton "Billy Goat". In the preview she squealed, "Unhand me, demon!!" They were killing me today. Seriously, how on earth did Leslie get a membership in the club? Did she just walk in there, plop down some cash, and someone signed her up, like the ticket window at the movie theater? The country club I belong to has an "admissions committee", and they can accept or reject anyone's application. And you have to wait until the admissions committee convenes to find out whether or not they accepted your application. With that gigantic painting of Paul Cheeks Dupree prominently hanging on the wall, you'd think the admissions committee might BALK at admitting Cruella De Vil when they know she's the wigged nemesis of Paul Cheeks Dupree's granddaughter.

I saw an interview with Sheila Ducksworth (exec producer) a while back, and she made the comment [paraphrasing here] that one of the greatest challenges in launching a daytime serial in this era is determining how to tell the stories in a way that appeals to traditional viewers (those who are accustomed to most of the beats being played on-screen) without exhausting the patience of the 18-49 demo, who've become accustomed to faster paced developments. She didn't get way down in the weeds with it, but clearly it's something that's constantly on their minds in the writing room and in the production offices.

He'll plead guilty to a lesser charge of Breaking & Entering with a Small Concealed Weapon.

During that SLAP, I was hoping Leslie's wig would fly off her head, sail out the front door, over the gates, and it would ultimately land on the bell tower at good ole Banneker U. Nice of Kat & Jacob to announce to the bullpen at Metro PD that Tomas is a dud in the bed. And a couple of weeks ago, Tomas was advising Eva that Kat's a virgin. Not much love, devotion, and loyalty detected in that little relationship.

If Vernon had known what was transpiring downstairs, he'd have probably told good ole Banneker U that zoom call would just have to wait a while. I was glad June said the 5 Dreadful Words to Naomi today. ("This is all your fault!") I'm crazy about Naomi, but yep, somewhere between 95% & 100% of June's broken heart was Naomi's fault. That was some good material for all of them today, IMHO. Really liked the scene when Smitty said, "Don't look at me all starry-eyed." And Martin grinned and said, "Was I?!" lol