ranger1rg

Great episode today. Strong follow-up from yesterday, and a lot of really good dialogue. -- Lots of comments here about Vernon being the Olivia Pope of BTG, but I'll let you know when that happens. He and the family "move into action" after a scandal, but they've yet to really accomplish anything. Vernon couldn't even clear the room of everyone but family when he tried. -- Wardrobe did a great job overall. Anita wins Worst Dressed. That gown did not flatter TT and that gigantic necklace was bad. -- Sean Freeman did great work as Andre in Andre's scene with Eva. -- Brandon Claybon was great as Martin in his most dramatic scenes. I don't know how anyone can avoid seeing how much he's improved. -- There's way too much criticism here of Maurice Johnson's performance as Ted. If we didn't know he was replaced, I don't think we'd see this "He's not giving enough" stuff. My feeling is that this is all confirmation bias. I think the guy's done a nice job. Ted didn't whine for pity and he didn't scream like he's a victim. He's spent decades hiding this, and I think it's fair that he feels blindsided and unable to respond. -- I don't want to hear Vanessa lecture and moralize about any other character when she's so compromised. She's a cheater and a ho. -- It would have made more sense for Vanessa and Doug to be at the party. The hospital visit was weird, and seemed like an excuse for the scene where we (again) realized that Doug knows his wife is a cheater. -- I love this board, but damn, do people give away Emmys around here like gummy bears. -- I wish I knew what Leslie's end game is. Is it enough to destroy Ted's marriage to Nicole? Does she really think she can win Ted back? Or is she just so batsht crazy that it's impossible to know what she wants?

Beginning to end, just a GREAT episode. -- Starting with the shallow but also vital, the GH gods finally answered and gave us a Shirtless Gio. I've made my infatuation with Gio very clear, and the reveal did not disappoint. Boy is beautiful. I love his face, too. -- On any other show Vaughan would be THE snack, but today goes to Gio. -- Nothing in the episode seemed to be filler, and all of it seemed important. Brook Lynn and Tracy...Drew and Willow...Carly and Nina...Rocco and Danny...Dante and Lulu -- especially Dante and Lulu. -- Everything played like an A story at a high point in the plot. Excellent pacing and dialogue.

I see her moral dilemma, too, and I don't think Lulu was out of line. I just felt it was overboard for her to break down in tears over her dilemma.

-- I was OK with the music. I think the first 5 minutes of the first episode spoiled us -- we really thought we were going to get "real music" a lot more often. Instead, we got some budget money for the opening scene, and that was it. -- I'd like music to be used more often, but I'll put that on production and not on the musicc supervisor. I think they've intentionally dialed down the music on this show. -- Editing? I still have major problems with it. This episode was SO good, but almost every fade to commercial was off or bad. I just don't get it. That, too, is intentional, but I have no idea what they're going for. It isn't working.

-- Really good episode today, with a lot more happening than I expected. -- SilkPress is great, but I don't see the need to criticize Dani/KM when supporting Leslie. -- That being said, I don't like Dani with Andre. I think they should end that as soon as possible. -- Very lame that Vanessa and Doug weren't there. If they want to impress on us that Vanessa is Nicole's best friend, they need to do better. -- Brandon Claybon continues to improve as Martin, and his relationship with Smitty finally feels real. -- Dr. Carlton is, as others have posted, fine as fck. We need more.

Today showed why almost no one comments on this crap soap. -- We're back to pretending that there aren't SCORES of cosmetics companies out there -- only Jabot and whoever else opens up shop in Genoa City to be the competition. No real business runs this way. -- Marchetti is supposed to be an internationally-renowned fashion house, yet both Chelsea and Sally are ready to walk after being high-level executives there. -- It's not often women leave choice executive positions in their field of expertise to work in a business they're clueless about. -- Sally had a lot of nerve shading Chelsea with "It's easy to see Adam's influence on you" when the same damn thing is happening with Billy. -- I'm glad Lauren told Michael to quit, since we've all been mouthing that for weeks. None of that story is helped by CLB's over-the-top acting. -- The scene with Victoria helping a sick, coughing Cole walk to their car on the way to the hospital was laughable. Wouldn't rich people call a damn ambulance? -- Claire was really concerned, wasn't she? She stayed in the doorway instead of helping her mother, and then headed right to Crimson Lights for coffee. Why bother with checking on her possible terminal father at the hospital?

OMG, did Gio look good. Do not get me started on how good he looked. Lord. It's as if the writers realized Lulu had almost no scenes with her mother, so they wrote all this material for a 2-day Lulu/Laura therapy session. It was nice to see them connect, but I scratched my head yesterday when Lulu tried to connect her adoption story to Laura's life. That was a stretch to me, and I sign the writers were working overtime. Today, the script eventually got to the right place, but I thought it was overboard to see Lulu so worked up that she was near tears. That's investment in a story that's become an obsession.

I'm on record as being happy about the mature turn with these new writers, but that goes away every time I see Leo, who's apparently as big a favorite under these women as he was with RC. And yeah, Javi could work, but as long as he's with Leo, he sucks, too.

We need to talk about the awful outfit Leo's been wearing the past couple episodes. No self-respecting gay would think that shirt goes with those slacks.

I remember when Scott Clifton was a good actor. I guess those days are gone, because he's been really bad lately. Everything is so affected and intentional, and it screams ACTING. None of it seems genuine.

Just started today's show, and in the first 5 minutes I have to put up with Leo and Susan. I'm ready to turn this off.

I don't blame Allison Lanier for leaving. Josh Griffith absolutely wasted her, and the last year have been especially bad. She was good in the role. Also good as Summer? Hunter King. I'm sorry, but I don't understand criticism of her. Regardless, she's busy, and she's not returning to Y&R.

I agree with you there. Still, I think it's important to talk truth and reality about these decisions and not make blanket statements about how "stupid" the decision is and how "it doesn't make any sense" and "no one watches soccer at 2 pm."

There you go. Also remember that these organizations include airtimes in their contract negotiations. The soccer organization is not saying "Write us a check and air it whenever you want." These things are all negotiated.

I disagree. Soccer fans will watch. TV audiences for the Olympics are proof that viewers will watch various sporting events at any hour of the day. The ratings might not be sky high, but the demo they want will watch, and that's what matters. These things have been studied by the networks for years. They are not pre-empting shows because some Joe lost his mind one day and said "Let's air some soccer!"

Where are you getting that ratings are horrible for this? The fact is that the demo for sporting events like this is very strong, and CBS would not pre-empt BTG if it wasn't. They are not losing money on this.

I understand that sweeps still matter. That wasn't my point, which was that we're not missing anything as viewers. I'd also like to point out that the show should be aware of upcoming pre-emptions. I don't think CBS announces these sporting events just a week before they air.

None of us are happy about pre-emptions, but we're not being cheated out of anything. We're still going to see every episode that was filmed, and it's not like this arbitrary "sweeps month" label has any impact on content at all.

No question. Honestly, I don't want him anywhere near the Democratic Party. As others have said, they're writing Sidwell the same way they write Sonny -- doing criminal, awful things followed by some "heart of gold" act such as loving your gay son unconditionally or giving big money to a good cause. This allows GH to keep villains on the show for a much longer time than necessary, or for forever. That was my first takeaway when I mentioned they were throwing Natalia under the bus, They've definitely made Natalia look worse. There's no way Eva LaRue can get these scripts and think "They really love my character here at GH." I gagged, too. It was enough to make me hate the entire dedication. And then Sidwell makes his big move by underwriting the Nurses' Ball. Is it any wonder why Port Charles is such a destination for violence and criminality? The supposedly good leaders and citizens glorify the worst criminals. I'd make the case that Laura isn't fit to be mayor because of her feelings about Sonny. I wouldn't want her near public office

Just finished the episode. Things got worse. -- Mariah showed up at Crimson Lights after her work trip so she could see Tessa. Huh? She said she stopped at home first to see Aria. -- Tessa was surprised to see her, so how did she know Tessa was there? And why did Mariah have a dozen things to do regarding work when she just got back from a work trip? All so contrived. -- Billy left his meeting at the GCAC with Phyllis, only to return and sit at the bar. Why? Oh, so Daniel can conveniently show up and talk to him. Neither of them get a drink and Billy leaves. So why did Billy even go there? Contrived.

-- This is my biggest complaint with the show -- and that's in a long list of complaints. The sets problem is HORRENDOUS. Now we have Daniel and Tessa meeting all the time at Crimson Lights. Doesn't Tessa run Society? Doesn't she have a wife and kid at home? I don't know what the hell she's doing spending all this time sitting in CL. It's all so contrived, to the point where I find myself getting angry about it. -- And then we get Phyllis eating dinner, or lunch, or whatever, at the GCAC while she yells in her argument with Billy loudly enough to disturb the entire dining room. Billy is hiring and firing for a company we've never seen do anything and a company we've never seen him do work for.

I agree with you about B&B's ratings. I do not understand it. If viewers are punishing GH by not watching, why isn't that happening with BOLD? Why is the reverse happening? With all its problems, GH is a MUCH better soap than B&B on every level. None of this makes sense. Worst of all, there's no impetus for Brad Bell to change anything. He can look at these ratings, smile, and continue to give us absolute crap.

60+ year old Brooke and 50 year old Katie talking about how Ridge looked at Brooke on the runway. So embarrassing. B&B's ratings were very strong last week. I do not understand it. If viewers are punishing GH by not watching, why isn't that happening with BOLD? Why is the reverse happening? With all its problems, GH is a MUCH better soap than B&B on every level. None of this makes sense. Worst of all, there's no impetus for Brad Bell to change anything. He can look at these ratings, smile, and continue to give us absolute crap.

-- GH threw Natalia under the bus again today. All that talk about Sidwell accepting Marco as gay and still not getting acceptance from Natalia -- while reminding us of Natalia's "homophobic rant" against Blaze -- serve only to make the audience despise Natalia even more. Sidwell comes out even better. -- The Drew Is On Ketamine stuff was fun. Entertaining stuff. When he yelled "Body shots!" I laughed out loud. Of course, it was convenient that bar area was completely free of any drinks and barware.

I don't know any more than anyone else does, but I can't let the show off the hook with "they had more pressing issues to deal with." I don't think ANY changes have been made to this point on the Ashley/Derek story. We're calling their scenes "filler" because they haven't been given a real storyline. I also don't believe for a minute that the writers are intentionally sabotaging the white characters as payback for the way Blacks were historically treated on soaps. I don't believe MVJ plays that way. It's better than it was, but it's not fixed. Some fades are still really awkward. I'm enjoying the show, too. Still, I don't think I could watch the episodes twice -- not BTG or any other soap.