FrenchBug82

Not in French, it doesn't. It is a very condescending word for homeless people. So weird.

The show features Will and Sonny, as heteronormative, wholesome and unremarkable as two gay men will ever be on a soap. The repeated jokes around Leo's predatory behavior do suck but if people decide to draw conclusion about gay men based on that one character who crosses boundaries with consent on a show that features a murderer and a rapist among its STRAIGHT leading men, I think we can safely say it has more to do with them than with the show.

Having now seen today, I want to say that I liked what LW did with the material the past couple of days, from the great face-acting to the sadness to the very brief semi-mimicking MB's speech pattern to mock him Carly is a harpy and it is hard to feel entirely sorry for her but I like that once she got what was going on, she *got it* and they are writing her smart enough to immediately see through Sonny's excuses. I don't care for Sonny/Carly but that's the kind of instinctively-understanding-each-other that says Love more than sirupy love scenes to me. MB is so uneven but in the fractions of scenes where he remembered his lines and delivered them as is rather than stop every three words, he was actually compelling. Sadly that was one third of the time and the rest is. So pain. Ful to listen. To. I can't believe I hadn't picked up on what the purpose of that inane out-of-left-field scene was. Of course it was to retroactively create a supposedly close relationship so we could shoehorn Joss into the drama

Not going to lie; I'd love to read the casting call they put out for Drucilla back in the day. Lord knows that story ended up being very special but I have to imagine it didn't age well.

OK This may not be new but I just got this recommended to me on YT and my question is: Do the Greek folks who hired KKL to advertise their perfume know that the name they gave to it - "Clochard" - mean "Streetbum" in French?

This reminds me of the whole Franco saga where Lucas was even worse at hiding his guilt. Which is adorable but also going to be irritating very quickly. Not happy about Lucas doing something out-of-character like this, even if I accept the Devil's interference, but I would be even less happy if they turn Sami into an idiot as well. That is indeed the correct diagnosis. The minute they said they would revisit the posession I said I was worried that RC had only *heard* and seen tidbits of the posesion and would take the camp elements of it without understanding the heart and subtext behind it. I didn't even like it the first time but at least there was some earnestness on Reilly's part. It was camp and bad at times but he was telling a story, not a months-long wink-wink nudge-nudge series of jokes. RC

I third the feeling that while this was an extremely poor "strategic" decision, it actually unfolded well - and gave those two wonderful actresses great material after a slow period. I'd add that later having *Tucker* as Katherine's son and the non-story of Jill as Lauren's sister make me think that, in retrospect, maybe Jill/Katherine wasn't the worst option. It is unfortunately too late for JC but I wish someone can some day sit down with JW and ask her how she truly felt about the storyline and how she feels about it now. I know both of them gushed in the press at the time but it is hard to know what is PR and truly-held beliefs AND whether the excitement of having a frontburner storyline then changed how they think about it looking back on it.

I agree with all the commenters who say we should learn to stop overthinking the recurring thing. In the current world it can be good for both parties: leaving actors the flexibility to take on other projects while having the soap as a steady paycheck on one hand while the show gets to keep a lot of people around who may have decided to leave altogether when the choice was binary between tempting their fate vs staying. Considering the rate of failure out there, giving them enough of a leeway to try while still keeping them one foot in is a smart strategy that is only a small gamble; most of them will never find the same kind of steady work out there that a soap provides but they won't feel trapped anymore. And of course not being forced to write some actors' guarantee when they are on the backburner helps save money and keep the show around. Long enough for, as seen with MA and MM, put them back on contract when actual story is beckoning. I am not saying this is what is going here: but as many said, on other soaps some heavily-used actors are on recurring. With the investment they put in Jackee, there is no way either of these two are being written out.

Man, ain't that the truth. I don't want to be too negative on Amelia Heinle because I don't think all the problems with current-day Victoria are only on her but I watched the following scene two hours ago out of a random YT suggestion and I swear that HT is giving me in three minutes more range of acting that AH has given me throughout 2021. And for a storyline that didn't even revolve around her character

I'll take it too. I wish they would point it out because I like character-based drama and it feels interesting to me but that's a similar dynamic to a lot of the "bad things" Lucas did in the 90s re: Sami when it was Kate who was "planting things in his head"

Yep. I don't want to gush too much but the parallel was too obvious not to be intentional and, I can't believe it I am saying this, this is actually clever writing.

I agree that my pessimism after the infuriating limp noodle rushed way they returned Sonny turned out not to be warranted (making that bungled week of crucial episodes even weirder) and I have mostly liked the fallout and how they have paced things quite smartly. Could have done without inserting Peter into the mix but they are doing just enough to make Sonny/Nina still feel viable while understanding they need to take their sweet time breaking up Sonny/Carly. I didn't even need Carly and Jason to sleep together if they didn't want to go there but I still think the return scene was ridiculously rushed and the way they handled the Carly/Jason part of the equation sucked a lot of potentially good drama out of it. Missed opportunity. And while the Nina trial thing is ridiculous to anyone who knows anything about the law, knowing that smug Michael is headed for a serious fall when the bribe is revealed makes it worth it. I am not engrossed by GH right now but this is easily the part where my ears perk up.

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

I found myself violently nodding in agreement while reading your comment. You are absolutely right (and should be applied to many comments many people made over the years) but probably even more so when you also remember the guy was also a writer. On top of your point about strong feelings that may have faded with time or perspective he may have gained later, most writers *write* everything. They are creators not just putting simple thoughts on paper; they are "writing", molding, shaping, influencing, tweaking to create a story, elicit feelings, be compelling. Even an ostensibly non-fiction autobiography will have been shaped by the desire to create narratives, drama, feelings in the audience. It may not have been intentional but even as he wrote it, it may not have been the full picture of his feelings or thoughts.

I mean this would have made sense when they were dating IRL. As exes, it seems... a tad unlikely. I don't think the issue with Shawn/Belle are the actors. I think it is the disease that ate up so much of DOOL potential: supercoupledom. Once you have decided two actors are to stay with each other, and the audience does not tolerate you separating them for any length of time, the characters become a lot harder to write for in any compelling manner. And it is even worse when it is two basic good characters in the first place. You are piling boring onto bland and that doesn't lead to good results. I liked Beemer on B&B so I know there can be life somewhere in there if they are given something different to do. Going from Shawn/Belle to Belle/Shawn with a stop at Shawn and Belle is always going to struggle being compelling.

I mean, it is part of the job but one thing I noticed here that I appreciate is that she answers the question and is always friendly and gracious... but you know how many times she has done it because she keeps her answers short. Other folks who do fewer interviews will launch into anecdotes and stories but here she is not far from just "yes/no" very often on the most common basic questions. She is good because it never comes off as terse or rude. She is a professional; she knows to keep the interview moving. For instance, when they ask her which of her characters would go on Housewives. She just says "Obviously Kristen". A less clever interviewee might be tempted to explain why at length but she knows better. Answer with a smile and next question.

That's why I ended my praise with "I am not optimistic" because... yeah. Even when they try to tell traditional soap stories, Bell will have a "brilliant" "buzzworthy" idea that he will throw suddenly into the mix and shove aside all the careful work done until then. But the show can be so infuriating that I wanted to throw a hat tip at whoever crafted December 2021. It was not brilliant mind-blowing stuff but it was solid traditional character-based soap storytelling and it was interesting and comforting.

OOOOH That's why. I remember watching that. Thanks for helping me put two and two together.

Obviously CLB wasn't the center of my interest in this video. Everyone knows about his friendship with MS. But I didnt know about Finola and Stafford for one, and I found it unexpected that JPS was also there. Guess I am interested to see former co-stars still hanging out with each other socially, that's all.

I am probably going to regret saying this but it feels like the past few weeks have been more soap-like in a good way. Scenes that establish characters relationships without going for shock moments. Taking the time to explain where folks are coming from... etc Was there a recent change in the writing stuff that might have influenced that different style?

I am not sure which thread to post it in but I was surprised. Christian LeBlanc of Y&R posted this with Michelle Stafford (formerly Nina) and JPS and Finola. I don't know why I am surprised but I guess they made friends while she was on GH.

That's what I have been resenting with the caricature that Sheila become in the past few visits Bell wrote. Initial Sheila on Y&R and even better Sheila on her first BB run had some real vulnerabilities. She wasn't sympathetic per se but she wasn't randomly vicious. You could see how that awful relationship with her mom made her crave Scott's love. You could see she genuinely was desperate to be accepted by the Forresters and her resentment growing from their actions, even if her starting point was delusional. She wasn't a mustache-twirling cuckoo bird. Hence this kind of scene working because they give her a thoroughline - a weak one since Mary is still out there and she is not even mentioned - but a clear motive for her to have feelings.

It is damning with faint praise that Bell NOT writing Ridge storming of Brooke's after finding Deacon there to immediately sleep with Taylor after seeing her because he is mad feels like him doing better than usual. He does seem invested in making KA work as Taylor enough that he took the time to introduce her with proper talking scenes with Ridge, the kids and Brooke. What do you know! The dialogue was a bit too stiff for me but at least there was an attempt at a little bit of character development so I'll take it. I said it before and I know I am in the minority but I actually like Deacon being a source of tension between Ridge and Brooke. SO much more plausible than contrived triangles like the Shauna mess. You understand both their POVs - Brooke's dilemna with Hope and Ridge not feeling it, noone is wrong or right, it feels like a real issue that could cause organic tension in a marriage while not cheapening their feelings for each other, etc. This is proper soap storytelling - even the repetitive beats. And if he takes the time to introduce Taylor in the mix not as a immediate spoiler but a further source of tension that can later turn into a plausible alternative for Ridge - without the usually hackneyed "I slept with her on a whim and now secret" scenario - it would be vastly superior to 95% of what we got from BB in 2021, even if it is less "exciting" or headline-worthy. I am not optimistic (and neither am I enthusiastically hooked) but so far I appreciate that storyline.

The difference is that the show made announcements in both these cases and I haven't seen anything about JKJ either so I assumed it was a temporary way to rest the character until whatever next twist.

So another wrinkle for why the wig was not just that her hair was short but that it was also blonde. So they thought a wig would help her look familiar to viewers while she transitioned her natural hair back to something more Taylor-like Her natural hair looks great here and I definitely love how complimentary she is to Hunter Tylo. Not necessary but classy