FrenchBug82

I can't imagine they'd have her lose the baby at this stage. But I do wonder what is going to happen when they need to write her out for her maternity leave. I am fascinated by the cognitive dissonance between that storyline vs the Jason/Britt storyline. Granted I hate Jason but it is reminding us that, yes, Jason did have a choice and has had that same choice over the years and has repeatedly chosen to keep killing people for a living. So... not quite the hero.

No question would they have sold it that way and it would have worked in a mushy kind of way. BUT not for me. I tend to cling to characters thoroughlines more than what the writing du jour tries to sell me and I could never have gone past it. Too incestuous to fit those particular two characters. Which btw was my objection too to the Clay/Stacey storyline. I actually liked the gaslighting part, dark as it may have been, but I kept thinking "Stacey would never have gone near him in the first place" Of course we will never know and it is a fun idea to consider but I object. lol

Because I am a gossip I like to read between the lines in interviews like the one LW gave and while it is extremely unsurprising, I found the way she reacted to being asked about Frank Grillo amusingly telling. She said something positive but the subtext was very clear. You're right. I projected what happened with Tom Eplin but obviously nothing would have mandated it being Cassie.

Yeah. I love it when they share little tidbits like that! I am not going to lie: I hear her point and why she asked but she would have been an odd fit for ATWT and considering what happened to the AW characters who had to be transferred, I would have advised her against that idea at the time. When she mentioned "security" I first imagined it had to do with episode guarantees. That's usually where negotiations come down to when long-time performers renegotiate contracts. It would technically be true she didn't ask for a raise but it would power up the level of income she would bring in. Could also have been that she requested longer cycles? Actors can be fired at the end of each 13-week cycles but maybe she asked it be made 26 or something?

Me too. He was one of the rare male characters who came off as *liking* her rather than simply lusting after her, if that makes sense

I have always said B&B works best when it embraces the camp and that kind of dialogue worked for me.

It was the one that made the most sense to me, I will agree with that. I am not sure I saw chemistry as much as the combination of two REALLY good-looking actors with both had a very sexual aura. It is hot to watch but it wasn't quite the same, for me, as the kind of je-ne-sais-quoi that chemistry can/should be when selling a love story.

I don't know if I agree with the latter 😉 but bringing him Stephanie Beacham as Sable made that season enjoyable despite the fact everyone was one foot out of the door already. But it didn't feel like another step in the decline. There was enough frosty fun with that character that you weren't bored Any long-running show declines and usually some of the OG actors leaving generally mark a step in that direction. Where Dallas failed, IMO, was in bringing new characters that would be compelling. I don't need to list all the failed attempts at introducing new faces but not one of them ever gelled. The only one that lasted was April and the writing for her was awful and extremely inconsistent. Every show struggles with failed characters but they generally manage to introduce new faces that give a shot in the arm to the show (Anne on Knots Landing or Sable in Dynasty last season). Dallas was left with a dwindling cast of OG actors and absolutely nothing remotely compelling to replace them. And I think the show runners underestimated how much JR couldn't be the entire show because "I love to hate him" only works in small doses.

I should clarify what I meant earlier. I thought Tess was interesting as a character; I just never liked any of the storylines or the pairings they tried for her. It just didn't gel for me but at least I wanted it to which is what you want, really.

I am glad there was talk of NR and LP but there were more questions I wish he had asked about Loving and The City (Michael Weatherly!)! But I love how glowingly Laura talks of her experience there. Made me happy Oh and Eric is looking like a dish. Yum.

Personally, I'll never understand the need for anyone to kiss and tell regardless of how long has passed. But more to the point, LR has always had the fundamentals of being likeable; it is when she tries so hard for the show that she becomes a monster. When she is natural, she is fine. It is often the case with housewives btw: those who start to perform for the cameras end up being very tedious (cough, Nene, cough)

I don't want to caricature but based on the quality of the vocabulary and grammar of the Ben/Ciara fan comments I see on YT, I'd reckon they are mostly younger viewers. Which is why I am torn. I dislike them too and want Ben off but on the other hand I understand why the show would want to cater to the rare younger fans they have

The minute they announced Ciara would be back again I knew they'd give Ben/Ciara the pre-Olympics pre-cliffhanger. Which is a huge groan for me. Are we on this forum so out-of-step with the overall fandom on this?

Very very very unworthy of the importance of the character. I mean it is not that I wanted her to be murdered but I felt it was insulting to the audience and to LP, frankly. Such a flimsy not-in-character excuse for a low-key exit. If I didn't know the show was one month from its end, this would have felt like a last-minute rushed exit after contract talks broke down. Not a well though-out closure for one of the best and most popular characters the show had had. I get that they didn't want to bring her on The City but wanted to keep the door open to bring her back later on as a spoiler for whatever Alex would be doing but... Man. For all the brilliance of the final months of Loving, this was one sore point for me. I am glad I am not the only one who, while seeing the chemistry Ally and Casey had, did not stan for them in as much of a black and white way as the show wanted. I really was rooting for Cooper and Ally, long after the show made very clear she didn't really love him. I guess it was the nostalgia for their early days but I loved the chemistry between them. Both MW and PMS could get it from me any day but Casey was such a downer at times while Cooper was always fun and charming even when he was an a**h***e so I guess I was leaning towards him more. And yes I am talking to my therapist about my attraction to charming a**h***es. They had a really nice friendship but I am surprised to hear ya'll think they would have gone there and it would have been viable. It would have a huge NO for me. Dating your "great love"'s best friend is always a bit touchy but it would have been out-of-character for both of them, chemistry or not. One thing we had established about them was their almost self-righteousness. This would have felt wrong... I also liked genuine non-sexual friendship and affection between a male character and a female character on a soap. It is so rare! I never projected any romantic potential on them because I always thought they'd feel too guilty about Trisha if the show was writing them in character. God bless CH and there was nothing wrong with her characterization but nothing they did with Tess gelled for me at any time. Particularly not romantic pairings.

This is absolutely the lesson of the improvement in BH. You can have light moments and petty spats but the point of the franchise - and thus how it works - is the REAL part if the Real Housewives. Hence real existing relationships work better than auditioned artificially-assembled casts. Hence real life drama is more interesting than producers-enticed fake squabbles. Hence the show being infinitely more interestingly when the ladies tell us what's up rather than worry about looking glamorous and pretending their life is perfect.

I have been known to be infinitely more fond of characters that lean on the bitchy and I can tell I have never liked or at least more interested in Ciara as a character since she developed, well, a bitch backbone. It helps that it is directed at Ben but they had sanded off the Brady spunk she initially had and I am glad it is back, even in this form. She even had chemistry with JA's Victor despite the fact that, well, that was an odd pairing, shall we say. The only pairing that never worked in any way was the Lucas marriage - I say that as someone who is fond of BD but that chemistry was flat-lined. Which made sense based on the story but still.

I mean, let's face it. Teenagers around that age are horny. I would find it weirder for them not to go there tbh. I realize the "Mike" story is slooooow because they want to move the rest of the stories to a point where revealing Sonny is alive would have maximum impact and I am at peace with them dragging it a bit because the timing of the payoff needs to be impeccable. But it is leading them to try and keep MB busy with C-storylines within a B-storyline and it is not really compelling, regardless of the likeability of Lenny.

Actually, it even predates the show which I point out simply because I think this is SO key to what makes good riveting TV. Teresa vs Danielle vs her family, the NY OGs against each other, Giz vs Karen, Kyle vs Kim... The most compelling lasting feuds have been when there is underlying history and layers after layers of subtext that goes beyond "Look! A camera! Let me start [!@#$%^&*] with this relative stranger for airtime!"

I had no idea "Carter" and "Quinn" had an age difference. I don't think RS looks 53 at all and I think he could pass for relatively older in a "black don't crack" kind of way. I have seen many black men who looks like he does at 53

I am hugely in favor of female sexuality being talked a lot more openly on TV but this trailer features a LOT of cheap bawdiness for no real reason. Dumb sex jokes sprinkled over a season would not bother me but piling all that juvenile banter in a 90 second trailer on what's coming up? Seems like Leah's being-crass-as-a-substitute-for-a-personality last season strategy has influenced how they are trying to feel the content void. But say something nice: at least Luanna's Eboni impersonation doesn't seem to feature black-face so... progress!

I don't share the confidence that we know all there is to know. We don't know what we don't know. However: This indeed is what tips the balance in the negative for me at the moment. It is hard for me to come up with an overall frame that would make some of what she does now OK. But I like to keep a sense of perspective on the humanity of even wretched people and keep space for compassion and empathy. Because one never knows...

McKee certainly looked younger than 20yo and I will give credit to his acting that it was partially due to his conveying pretty effectively the ADHD puppy energy of a teenage boy. But Wright certainly looked roughly the same age. I wouldn't have bought they were more than a couple of years apart either way. Not sure I remember what the age difference between Ted and Kelly was supposed to be. In all fairness she was on the show several years and looked exactly the same four or five years older. So they would have had the same "problem" regardless. The Alexis backstory was used in several soaps in the 80s (Young and Restless' Dina for instance) so can't quite throw the stone at them for it but having two characters on the same show having a similar backstory certainly was not good writing. As for the Dynasty crack: I actually don't see it. There is a rich family and some oil involved but I don't think content or tone or even the stories matched at all. Pamela and Sophia didn't remind me of Alexis in any other way. Every soap kind of have the same tropes; Dynasty didn't own them. Heck, by that logic Dynasty was a Dallas clone (which it wasn't but point there is more to a handful of lazy archetypes to make a show a version of another show).

Who does everyone think was the best and the worst Clay?

I guess since I tried to nuance the case against her a bit I can afford to be a meaner than I usually would be now: She probably feels she has earned that jewelry: she has been putting out for that old man. Where he got the money for it in the first place is irrelevant to her; in her mind she has done the "work" to get it and they are hers. You don't marry for $$$ and then shrug when it might have been all for naught.

Sharon/Adam in New Orleans was 2010 I think.