Gray Bunny

A non-window always bugged me with Paulina/Abe's place that's now Chanel/Johnny's. One thing Paul Rauch could do well was creating a look of natural lighting. If there's a "window" on the 4th wall we don't see, we'd be sure to see sunlight shining through some Venetian blinds.

Same

Agreed, and I think that's the problem for a lot of these Housewives shows these days with newer casts. [Side note: To provide a soap analogy as I tend to do, it's like watching seasons 5 & 6 of Melrose Place, where most of the original cast is gone; i.e. the cast that was firmly established in roots in the first season so that by the time they cranked up the crazy, we still understood where the OG's were coming from. Once they had the cast turnover from Season 5 to 6, we had just a few OG's left and were otherwise flooded with newbies with no firm establishment; it was just plot after plot with no substance or reflection. That's how present-day Housewives are to me, where they just immediately get thrown into petty stuff or have to dig up dirt, but we see no growth or anything that resembles genuine, organic friendships. ] With some of our shows on hiatus, hubby and I randomly picked Season 9 of RHOC to watch in reruns. At first, it was just going to be a one eppy thing, but then we got engrossed in it and I remembered this was the first season where I actually liked the show. They had just done a mini reboot of axing Gretchen, Alexis, and one-season Lydia, and rebuilt around Vicki, Tamra, Heather (only 1 season under her belt), and newbies Shannon and Lizzie. I can't imagine these shows working with only 5 castmembers now. And actually, the first 3 episodes only had 4 castmembers, as Lizzie didn't premiere until the 4th episode. But back then, we still had a lot of family interaction -- interaction that was interesting -- such as Vicki with her children, Heather & Terry and their 1st of many house projects, Tamra starting up CUT fitness with Eddie, and meeting Shannon and her very awkward, uncomfortable marriage with David. When the cast interacted, it was a lot of light-heartedness with only some shade and tension (this was when Vicki & Tamra thought Heather was too snooty). Okay, I digress... In addition to the intel and digging up dirt on people's marriages, businesses, kids, past, etc. to weaponize it for the show, I also find it obnoxious when half the story takes place through screenshots of texts, instagram posts, instagram comments, instagram DM's, tweets, twats, X's, etc. I know it's the world we live in now with our phones being an extension of ourselves, but to me it gets convoluted and sometimes hard to follow, or I just lose interest in trying to follow along (it doesn't help that Bravo gives us such a short time to read some of the mess; I'm not going to be constantly pausing to read endless receipts). To summarize a long random post, I also wish they'd go back to the way things were run in the earlier seasons; it's what made them so popular in the first place! Okay, back to work I go

I agree on both assessments. Though they did recover creatively and put on an overall consistently strong show from Season 3 to the end, they really took the wind out of their own sail with that disastrous season 2. I loved Desperate Housewives, but what I don't love is how so many scripted shows since have adopted that cheeky, wink-wink nudge-nudge to the audience, where's it's half drama / half comedy. Case in point: DAYS' Possession 1.0 took themselves seriously. Possession 2.0 was a cheap Ron version of a Desperate Housewives clown show.

Oh yeah, that's right! And when they did the recreated flashbacks, they used Chandler Massey's real-life younger brother as Will.

Oh damn good for him! He's hilarious

DAYS could really benefit from everyone doing a "Port Charles" hiatus and take off for a solid 6 months, at least. If need be, the writers, producers etc can gather and reassess, but have the show go dark in the meantime. That kind of advanced taping for a soap is just ridiculous.

Nicholas Alamain, Lizzie Spaulding, Rick Forrester, now this. How many kiddie shooters have there been on soaps?

I did a hybrid when I saw Madonna for the Celebration tour (The Madame X tour had a strict no-phone policy with everyone's phones sealed up and locked in personal baggies). I'd record the first verse and chorus and then live in the moment for the remainder. But even as I recorded, I was still jamming along; definitely not standing there like a statue to get a "perfect shot." Is my video footage shaky? Heck yeah, but I was having a goodass time! (Her opening with "Nothing Really Matters" still gives me chills)

Okay, time for me to finally add some commentary to this wonderful Housewives thread now that my work is having its usual August lull before we pick back up in September. OC: So that's what caused Tamra to "quit" for a hot minute? Obviously a mix of her emotions over please-don't-let-her-come-back-to-any-Housewives-city Terri, along with getting called out for her obviously flimsy lies about Katie. Funny how the old adage of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" still rings true, as we saw that ever so brief triumvirate of Tamra, Shannon, and Gretchen, joining forces to take down the newbie yet again. Alas, it was short-lived because even Bible thumping Gretchen is smart enough to know never to take Tamra's words at face value; get the other side of the story and then decipher who's the bigger liar, which Gretchen nicely did. Tamra definitely seemed "medicated" at the table, and her running off instead of owning up to her usual lies and manipulations was a great throwback to the oh so underrated one-season-wonder Lizzie Rovsek calling Tamra out for what she is and Tamra dramatically running way saying, "you'll never see me again!!". She still dishes it, but can never take it. Speaking of lulls, with some of our usual shows that we watch together being hiatus or ending (Goodbye to Carrie Bradshaw again... for now), hubby and I randomly decided to watch old-school RHOC and I finally saw the infamous "Naked Wasted" episodes and OMG the cringe factor was off the charts and it's no wonder my hubby has ALWAYS hated Tamra. RHOC has its good episodes and ho-hum or chaotic ones where the alliances and friendships go all over the place. It's teetering into New Jersey territory but not completely toxic. SLC: Looks fun Lisa in the hot seat with her marriage, but knowing Lisa, she'll cry and run away... Meanwhile, it'll be funny to see Meredith back in the mix with the women, doing her usual frenetic, malfunctioning Rosie-the-Robot tic when she gets hot 'n bothered. I've gotten used to her being the cool savvy mom to her whiny snowflake son on Next Gen NYC. Side Note: I managed to watch all 8 episodes of that mess and I'm not sure what was the point. All I know is the girl with the horrible idea to open a bowling alley club looks like she never showers. That's all.

GL's Clone Reva wanted to visit Y&R's Genoa City based on watching it on TV. I think someone on ATWT (Katie?) was watching the GL opening once. It's never consistent

Jeezus, is Sheree the Kimberlin Brown of RHOA? "In case of emergency, bring back Sheila Sheree".

Looking forward to it Welcome back Monique

Ah, so that's why Dean Cain signed up. Maybe a couple former Thornes from B&B will be next.

Oh Lord, let's just pretend Tracy Middendorf never happened. Unless they were able to pull off a casting coup like Sarah Michelle Gellar, I wouldn't want to see a Sami recast, IMO.

I loved seeing Carole back! I had to watch the eppy when I heard she popped in. Side Note: Not to be catty, but does Matt Rogers ever do solo interviews? The fabulously talented Bowen Yang can carry a show all by himself, but Matt seems to always need a wingman crutch... Jussayin...'

Well, isn't that lovely. An out of work actor is open to working. What are Charity Rahmer's ambitions? I'm curious about that too.

I'll be in the minority on this one and say I'm sorry to see it go. Was the show great? No. Did it offer nostalgia and a look into the continuing lives of characters we loved decades ago? Yes. We'll never know what would've become of Roseanne 2.0 had Barr tried her best to portray herself as a semi sane person in real life, but what I do know is The Conners was a nice way to see the continuation of most of our favorites from Lanford, Illinois even if the show itself wasn't really that great or funny. It tapped into the nostalgia though. And for that, I don't feel I wasted my time on The Conners or And Just Like That. Also, I do think Season 3 was better. The crazy shenanigans with Miranda was over, and there was an easy-breezy feel to the season. Nothing gangbusters, nothing potentially noteworthy, but a decent pace. I'm glad Carrie let Aiden go. Che from Seasons 1 & 2 was just... no. I wish they had been able to keep Karen Pittman as Nya though. Anyways, my two cents. I get the feeling we haven't seen the last of these characters. Whether they're in NYC or retired and living together in Miami a la The Golden Girls, we will see them again.

Reductive I should have visited this thread eons ago. Madonna is THE queen in my book. All-time favorite artist and every month she is my most played artist on my music. I've seen her 3 times (2008, 2019, 2024) and the 3rd time was the charm with her celebration tour. Amongst all the fabulous music (Ray of Light is my favorite album) I was SO pleasantly surprised and elated she did "Bedtime Story," "Bad Girl," and truly shocked she did the relatively unknown "Mother & Father" from her American Life album. Definitely my favorite concert I've ever seen.

I love it but I also kinda hate it that so much is getting leaked now. Can't wait to see it though

I thought Paul was conceived around '94-95 when John returned to the priesthood? I seem to remember Paul's mother having a flashback where they showed John praying while at St. Luke's and they used footage from around that era. So he's around Will's age but also technically older than EJ but we're not gonna talk about EJ because present-day EJ and present-day Kristen look like they're the same age, as does Brady...

I'd say Brady's endgame should be Chloe. Though admittedly, Chloe and Kyle Lowder's Brady is my preferred choice. I hate how it seems like Brady is the eldest of the John/Marlena/Roman kids.

Thank God. The current set is absolutely dreadful. Each day, the blue "sky" in the background looks more and more cheap.

Love me some Lana My top 5: 1) White Mustang 2) Old Money 3) Ride 4) 13 Beaches 5) Born To Die

Agreed. Besides, getting rested for a year or so has happened with many characters over the last decade and it did them well. I'm surprised they've never given a one-year break to characters like Brady or Rafe.