Darn

Killing Luke offscreen was just plain weird. It didn't generate story at all. It just...happened. One of the most famous television characters of all time dies (even in 2022 this got major media coverage 5 whole years after his exit) and it's a nothing plot? They could have given Genie a lot to play with Luke dead. Maybe it could have made Laura spiral (not in a Laura's crazy again way but a "The love of my life is dead, who am I anymore?" way), fractured her marriage to Kevin, something, anything.

Thank you @All My Shadows @SFK and @j swift Erica was ahead of her time!

Was Erica ever consistently referred to as "Mrs. Husband Last Name" during any of her marriages? I notice on soaps that no matter how many times a woman is married she immediately starts being referred to by her latest husband's last name.

Been watching a TON of GH clips over the past few weeks and Tony's death did it for me. It's the most realistic death I've seen on a soap. Brad Maule and Tony were disrespected and discarded by this show so heartlessly but his death scene was treated with gravitas. Tony was a good, honorable man that was punished by life and lured into making bad decisions, I think these scenes conveyed that.

It's very odd because usually by this point they would have brought on a love interest for Spencer. And kept Trina in a go-nowhere relationship with Rory. Spencer is their hot young male lead and Nicholas Chavez is an Emmy winner and future star, I'd expect them to have him with some pretty young (white) thing or Joss god forbid (she hated him for a while, that could have lead to an enemies to lovers thing easily) by now but they're still pushing Sprina.

Pairings tend to stay together when they have no story. Molly and TJ on GH have been dating for a decade and they're in their 20s! Michael and Lauren should be heavy in story with their adult son. But the children of legacy characters mean nothing on this show anymore if they were born after 1996.

There's been more press about her 40th than the 50th.

That's funny, I thought of her was much more smug. Don't misunderstand me, it was a stronger characterization. Even with understanding her motivations I hated so much of how she was. The way she would speak to Bobbie and about Tony and AJ made me rage. Now Carly is mostly a very loud plot device. I can tolerate that somehow. SJB's Carly just made my skin crawl after a certain point. @titan1978 100% it's what he deserves. Spencer and Trina take me back to the early 2000s when I cared about couples. Anyway, look at their engagement versus official couples we have to suffer through.

Sonny is both the lead of the show and feels shoehorned into the show (which is why he's doing things like reading Willow's medical records, @carolineg, like an aging gossip). They're grasping at straws to give him something to do. He's certainly not leading story (thank god). MB is unwatchable. Those between Sonny and Victor were interminable. Two men past their prime posturing at each other. Enough! It's funny, I think SJB is the superior Carly but I came to hate watching her Carly. She sold the deeply selfish and insecure and cruel version of the character so well, she felt like a real person I'd want nothing to do with. Laura's Carly is all of those things but I don't mind watching her. I can laugh off or find entertainment in Carly's self-centeredness and self-sabotage that I couldn't find in SJB (or Tamara's for that matter). Maybe it's the shifted focus of the show, where it's not just the same 4 characters trials and tribulations. All that to say I like enjoy watching Laura work, I do not like the character but seeing someone use their craft so well is a pleasure. She made those scenes with Drew, we've seen all of this a billion times, sing. When I watch Michael and Willow scenes I think about how much better they'd be if they were people I liked. I'd find all of this heartbreaking if I were invested in the couple. They don't seem to have any fans but there they are with heavy story yet Sprina can't kiss.

Those were very good. I just wanted to harp on how he uses callbacks as a crutch.

Oh that's so sad, dementia and Covid. He was one of the few highlights on Passions. He played the hell out of some awful material.

I don't care for the light gray walls of the redesigned Quartermaine house (or Carly's kitchen) but ABC seems very invested in the legacy of the show. As they should be. It's a cultural touchstone and the longest running drama on American TV. Characters have HOMES. There are multiple restaurants and businesses. There's varied camera work. It's treated like an actual program broadcast to millions of homes and not a shameful afterthought.

Great promo.

ANYWAY Those pictures of the cast look great. I'm glad about the Sonya Eddy tribute and to see Jane Elliot is back. I hope she's not the only return. This reminds me that Y&R has announced nothing for its 50th, which is a week before GH's 60th.

Has Ron ever created an iconic moment?

I think there's a very good reason a lot of these people didn't receive nominations until a lot of soaps received the death notice. KKL and Lauren Koslow's hush baby sexy talk could not compete against Kim Zimmer or Erika Slezak or Nancy Lee Grahn. Not to mention the sci-fi plots or rotating sex scandals. It didn't give actresses like them much room to show range, even Susan Lucci as over-the-top Erica got to show a more wide range of emotions (she had a very full inner life and so many friendships, romances and rivalries to play with) outside of her Emmy bait stories.

Everyone standing around like statues as Robin and Patrick reunited was truly stupid but man were KM and JT good. Especially Jason Thompson. He sold the disbelief and shock of seeing Robin again. The way Sabrina immediate became a non-entity to him was something to see.

I kindly disagree with all of this. The actress playing Jordan has been on the show nearly a year and hasn't gotten one ounce better. You can see her reciting her lines in her head before she says them.

Isn't this just soap? I guess Reilly's difference was characters constantly being on the cusp of finding out the truth. Every scene before a commercial break would seemingly lead into someone finding out some big secret. This would go on for 6 months at a time. Even if there was a side plot to extend the main plot the main plot would never lose focus because everyone was always reiterating what they were hiding and why.

Oh god you're right.

What's he got against the character?

That's the problem, they write these over the top characters then keep them around forever. Ava despite Maura's talents would not have lasted past 1998. But soaps are at a place where they're afraid to write out anyone just in case some portion of the audience might like them. That's why Days is a revolving door and why the average cast member on Y&R is a 30 year vet. And I think the youth set could use a good troublemaker, that's why I would have invested more in her. It's a damn shame that with Nik gone Laura will have no children on this show. It makes no sense. Jonathan Jackson has been gone for a decade and ain't coming back, recast Lucky. Convince Julie Marie Berman to come back. Something.

My point is that the material would be just as bad if Serena or Christina were around instead of Wilsha. You know what I meant. Right now the character is all id. She has no depth. She's like 19 or 20 and pregnant (by a man twice her age) and it doesn't seem to phase her beyond a means to an end. There could be a lot more there but the writing isn't supporting a character here. She's a plot device when there potential for a lot more. Genie's clothing looks horrible every time she gains 10lbs. At this point I think it's her.

I was thinking the same thing lmao Although I get how comforting it might sound to have someone like Serena married to Michael instead of Willow. It's a nice idea since they're legacy kids. But she'd be in the same terrible stories except with Scott and Lucy--I'm sorry--overacting in the background. It's crazy to me that this show can afford to have a fake snow, winter clothes, a horse set, a horse and horse wrangle on set and Y&R can't afford extras. This show never should have had Esme go into psycho territory. I think the actress is very good and the character being unrelated to anyone gave her room for growth. I would have still done the pregnancy story but have Cam be the good stepping up as her friend to help her throughout. Could have been a sweet love story without softening her edges too much and cemented Cam as the good guy he is. Now she's just a psycho with psycho parents stuck with a baby. Cameron Mathison's Drew is just brought to life by spit and gumption mannequin Cameron Mathison.