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That's just a still from Nicole's upcoming movie, Oops, I Did It Again: The Britney Spears Story.

I agree that they overuse Heinle. But I actually don't feel like they've tried everything to make her work. In fact, I think the show rarely writes to her strengths as an actress, which in my opinion are significant. In her best scenes, like the ones in her Emmy reels, I find her to be one of the most compelling actors on Y&R because she's able to convey a profound sense of sadness, of a woman who feels exhausted by all the pressures in her life. I know that's totally different than the way Heather Tom played the role, but it still makes perfect sense to me that a woman who's had to deal with Victor Newman her whole life would feel this way; I can barely stand to be around him for the 36 minutes it takes to watch an episode. You could get great drama out of a melancholy "poor rich girl" character like that; in fact, in the early days, Y&R did get great drama out of Kay Chancellor's similar state of existential malaise. But for whatever reason, the show rarely acknowledges this aspect of Victoria's character; it's all in Heinle's performance and rarely in the actual script, which often places her in a "girlboss" role more suited to Heather Tom or writes generic romance stories for her.

Tough question, because each soap had its highs and lows during each decade, and even with the shows I watched a lot, I never stuck through an entire decade's worth of episodes. But off the top of my head (and based on the limited episodes I've seen), I'd say: 1970s: The Edge of Night (with The Doctors as a runner-up)--intelligently-written mysteries that didn't dumb down its characters 1980s: All My Children (with One Life to Live as a runner-up)--nice balance of humor and drama 1990s: General Hospital (with Guiding Light as a close runner-up)--great social issues stories, plus very interesting couples like Kevin & Lucy 2000s: Guiding Light (with As the World Turns as a runner-up)--hard call, because GL was atrocious in the first half of the decade, during the same years when ATWT was much better. But even as budgets were cut, Ellen Wheeler produced some really interesting and experimental character-based drama. 2010s: Days of Our Lives (with General Hospital as a runner-up)--the right balance of camp with intriguing cliffhangers, plus the best dialogue on all the surviving soaps.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing! Kill Victor off a few months before the end of the show so you could play out the "battle for Newman" drama with the kids. There would be all kinds of opportunities for organic drama there; maybe Jack would start to console Nikki, which would anger Nick. And then Phyllis would be with Nick, but would also be territorial over Jack and thus would clash with Nikki. I think they'd also need to give Jill some kind of big storyline, but I'm not sure what that would be.

It's interesting; Luke and Laura are one of those couples who've broken up so many times (and for such good reasons) that I'm not sure if I'd actually want to see them together again. I felt the same way about Josh and Reva at the end of GL. I knew that the show in a sense HAD to end with them together to appease the fans who still had fond memories of 1980s Josh/Reva. But I felt like the show had done such a good job in the late 2000s of delineating exactly why Josh/Reva were a toxic coupling that I really wanted to see her end up with Jeffrey instead. It's the same with Laura; I'd be much happier if she ended up with someone who respected her more, like Kevin.

Imagine that your favorite of the 4 current soaps was not renewed and given only 6 more months to wrap up its storylines. How would you want them to spend those final six months? Would you kill off any characters? Bring back any past characters? Pair off any currently estranged characters?

I think you're absolutely right: he probably would have made a great Lucky recast. GH has a lot of these casting disasters (Roger Howarth as Franco, Jeff Kober as Cyrus, etc.), and I guess the blame should be laid at Frank's feet. He keeps hiring these actors he likes, without having a clear understanding of what their actual strengths are or what kinds of roles they'd be best at.

Yeah, I was also struck by how well-written those texting scenes were. As you said, they were the highlight of the episode and were genuinely hot. I wonder who wrote them!

Oh, I thought he seemed a lot like EJ, just without the interest in the family business. Which probably means he'll be the new CEO of Dimera by February sweeps.

SORASed Johnny really hit the ground running today. I'm all for a love quadrangle where Chanel is torn between Allie and her twin brother. And Dan Feuerriegel is really growing on me as EJ; I liked his scenes both with Johnny and with John (whose wordless reaction to EJ's protests was fantastic). The only thing I didn't like about the episode is how stupid are Marlena, John, and Allie to believe that those "leave me alone" text messages actually came from Sami.

Josh Morrow's bad hair is the most interesting thing I've seen on this show in months.

Why does EJ know or care about Ben and Ciara getting their "happily ever after"? Does he even know Ben and Ciara? I did enjoy watching Gabi and Ava trade bitchy barbs at each other, however. TB is so much better when she gets to show that hard edge.

Me [yelling at my computer screen]: No s***, bitch!

Wow, I didn't think we were going to get the reveal about Lani's parentage so quickly! I guess it spares us weeks of Jackee and Marla Gibbs talking in vague terms about their family secret.

Ben and Ciara's schmoopfest aside, I really liked most of the scenes in today's episode. Xander and Gwen were the highlight for me, but I also thought Sal Stowers did a terrific job with her monologues about why she doesn't trust her Aunt Paulina. We were complaining just the other day that it seemed out-of-character for Lani to hold this grudge against her aunt, so I have to give them credit for slowing down and giving the backstory (which Lani desperately needs, since she tends to be an underdeveloped character, as a lot of black characters on predominantly white-written soaps often are).

Amen to that! Although I actually did like all those scenes of Ciara snarking at Ben for being a serial killer who disgusts her.

Well, they annoyed the hell out of me. That fortune cookie stuff was unbearable.

Probably. She did a technically good American accent, but didn't have a ton of natural inflection in her voice. She also suffered from some poor writing; it's as if the writers decided that, with the recast, Claire would no longer be crazily obsessive and jealous... but they didn't bother coming up with any new personality traits for her.

Okay, so who do we think , and how many months do you think we'll have to wait before that information is revealed? My money is on

That comment could apply to a lot of the stories and scenes on the show right now. In the recent episode I watched, everyone seemed bizarrely unmoved and even bored by the news that Ashland has decided to get treatment for his terminal cancer. I know some of the characters on Y&R are marked by their WASPy reserve, but come on!

Having just checked out the 8/10 episode, I have to disagree with that. I felt like the episode only came alive once Chloe and Kevin showed up. Maybe they were just glad to be working again, but EH and KR played their scenes with a lot more energy than the rest of the cast, most of whom just seemed bored. But once I got past all the interminable conversations about Phyllis being upset Summer was staying in Italy, it wasn't such a bad episode.

The Ben/Ciara stuff was again the low point today, especially with RSW playing the argument scenes with this weird flirty energy, like it gave him a boner to hear Ciara yell at him about how she wanted to marry another man. But I did appreciate Ciara's sarcastic little "maybe you and the car have a 'psychic connection'" line at the end, and I liked her line about being grossed out over getting a sponge bath from a serial killer. (You and me both, Ciara). I really liked the other storylines though. Nice that they finally had Jake talk to Ava about working for the Vitale crime family. And great confrontation scenes between Nicole/Sami and Lucas/EJ.

With the Ben and Ciara stuff, I've gotten the sense for a long time now that the show's writers find that whole relationship "creepy af." But the couple has its Stans (never underestimate the number of viewers who will fall for a "he's not bad, just misunderstood!" storyline, even when the "bad boy" is a serial killer). So they're kind of stuck playing both sides. I was just glad that Ciara got to shove him to the ground today; I've been dreading the return of Ciara's memories/love for Ben, so that fake-out was great.

This should probably go in a new August thread, but I'm too lazy to open one. So I'll just say that Monday's post-Olympics episode was terrific. Loved the scenes between Sami and EJ, and the Phillip/Lucas and Nicole/Rafe scenes were also well-acted. Even the Ben/Ciara stuff didn't annoy me, because you had Ciara clearly asserting that being kidnapped by Ben (who seems hellbent on taking away her agency) isn't romantic. I also loved how pissed-off Lani and Abe seemed at Claire and Ally, who deserved all her scorn and more for abetting said kidnapping.

Well, this IS Days, so they could mean the 2022 Christmas episode.