Khan

Oh, Lord, why? What happened?

Well, Kim's an actor; and actors are nothing if not greedy. [/Richard Culliton]

Wait, how DID KZ feel about Michelle Forbes? (I've never read her ENTIRE book.)

The whole concept of Justine, with her WTF accent, kidnapping Rachel and assuming her identity was just too damn absurd, especially for ANOTHER WORLD, which had avoided that kind of storytelling for the most part. But, at least Carl was hip to her jive mess almost right away, instead of being the cuckold from beginning to end.

Sonni/Solita: a CLASSIC example of what a prolonged writers' strike can do to a story.

Poor Victoria Wyndham. AW put her (and Rachel) through the proverbial wringer multiple times, but nothing -- and I mean nothing -- beats the all-time low that was Justine.

McCabe is Comey?? This is not GH, okay, Donald? McCabe is not suddenly going to pull off a latex mask to reveal he's been Comey all along. Get. A. Grip.

True dat.

RE: James "Pee-Wee" Comey -- I'm in complete agreement with Vee, with marceline, with Roman and with Carl. There's no denying that his actions affected the election's outcome. At the VERY least, those who had been on the fence on the run-up to Super Tuesday about who to vote for probably ended up voting third-party or staying home once he had performed his little sideshow. So, even though he's right about Trump -- no, I probably won't bother reading his book either. I had no idea he had done that. LOL. Trump really believes he can perform Jedi mind tricks on people. (Of course, the sad part is, it works on others more than it has any right to.)

Melania was upset about the pee tape? REALLY? Yeah, I doubt Melania was all that taken aback by the tape, or the dossier, or anything else pertaining to her husband's extramarital activities. As the polarizing Wendy Williams says, all she wanted (out of the marriage) was a green card and a baby. She knew what kind of husband she was getting when she said "I do" -- and frankly, if I were Melania, I'd be getting my things together for the first open chance to drop his ass and collect what I'd hope would be a nice paycheck. Meanwhile, I'm convinced Comey's gonna end up getting his own courtroom show. ("Justice has a new name: JUDGE COMEY. Weekdays. Check your local listings.")

Well, I'm saddened by the news, but I can't say I'm surprised. Let me just say upfront that there was not a moment when my support for our state's teachers flagged. I was with them every day of the walkout, and I remain with them always. However, the sad fact is that our teachers could have remained out of their classrooms until this time next year, and it probably wouldn't have made any difference. Because, as the union head intimates in that article, there comes a point when you have to realize you're just banging your head against the wall. In this case, the wall was our state legislature and governor. You got your raise, they seemed to say, now go away. Here's another sad fact: although I do like the call for everyone to make their displeasure known at the next local elections, the truth is that Oklahoma is in no danger of "turning blue" anytime soon. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the devil himself could run for office here on the Republican ticket, and win... Sigh. So, yeah, the educators end up being the losers here. The package they get is a pittance compared to other states; it isn't sustainable fiscally (they'll be in the red from jump street); and if the anti-tax nuts have their say, part or most of it will be undone by the time you finished reading this post. Which probably means, our vicious cycle continues: deficiencies in education funding means more students falling behind academically; more teachers and support staff will either keep bailing to other states that actually pay their teachers a fair and decent wage, or they'll just drop out of the profession entirely; and as classroom sizes continue expanding, administrators will be forced to emergency certify as teachers people who 1) are ill-qualified for the gigs and 2) not as committed to the noble task of preparing future generations for a tomorrow that, no doubt, is gonna leave them behind. Honestly, I think most Oklahomans would just as soon home-school their kids at this point.

Bye. (Not to you, Roman, but to Paul.)

Agree. Susan got her chance (several, in fact) to return to DAYS, but by that point, DAYS was such a different show, and I don't think she fit in anymore.

I don't think anything that had anything at all to do w/ Laurel was popular with the majority of AMC's fans. Which is a shame, I think, because Felicity La Fortune isn't a terrible actor by any means. She was just saddled with a character that began with no real definition, acquired a backstory (the con-artist thing) that came COMPLETELY from out of nowhere (and cost us a longtime character, even if the original actor had long since left the show), and then gradually faded into the background as part of the beloved-but-definitely-doesn't-fit-with-the-rest-of-the-show Dillon family.

Agree. Sadly, I agree with this as well. (I say "sadly," because I truly hated seeing AMC waste Larkin Malloy the way they did. IMO, Travis had long-term potential, but it just seems like several wrong-headed story decisions derailed him as a character.)

Well, I will admit that part of the reason why *I* enjoyed Travis and Erica as much as I did had to do with Larkin Malloy. I'd been a big fan of his from GUIDING LIGHT (LOVED him with Kim Zimmer's Reva); and from EDGE OF NIGHT, where the few memories I'd had of that show were of him with Sharon Gabet's Raven. Ergo, pairing him with my all-time fave actress was like heaven to THIS junior soap fan. In retrospect, I wonder if AMC's writers were indeed transitioning Erica into being a more mature, less insecure person. Not only did you have her relationship with Travis -- which, as you've said, had more depth than what we were used to for Erica -- but you also had Bianca's birth and Eric's return, two events that were sure to shake up Erica's life profoundly. Plus, once you've done all the crazy things you could with Erica -- like run off to Hollywood, drive a race-car, stage a prison break and helicopter escape for her boyfriend, and, of course, stare down a bear in the woods -- where ELSE was there to go with her? Unfortunately, after all the progress that the show had made toward solidifying Erica, I feel like they gradually had her regress -- by having her father betray her and then leave town, by having Travis betray their marriage with his and Barbara's affair (although, granted, it was done in order to save Molly's life), by having the court award custody of Bianca to Travis when Erica and Jack's affair came to light, and eventually, by retconning Erica's own history with Kendall's introduction. Ironically, I think I read somewhere that Steven Andrews/Dave Gillis is Nic Coster's favorite soap role.

Yep. I think it was Nixon. She always believed that Erica's insecurities stemmed from her father's absences, so having Eric back full-time in her and her daughter's lives probably flew in the face of that. I think it was unfortunate how that storyline ruined Travis and Erica's relationship. Susan Lucci played so well off Larkin Malloy, but there was no way those two could ever reconcile after what he had done.

I tell you, that man's brand of villainy is the stuff of Dickens novels.

Actually, BF, I agree. People tend to give Agnes Nixon credit for AMC's early-to-mid-'80's golden era when, in fact, it was Washam who handled the actual HW'ing duties. Yes, Nixon kept her hand in, so to speak, but I get the impression that she spent the bulk of her time on other pursuits (LOVING, her prime-time miniseries, etc.).

Agree. But, ya know, even if I've never thought much of LB as a HW, I'd still take her brand of wackiness over MMT's any day. At least Lorraine tries to ground her in some emotional truth. To me, Megan McTavish was all plot, all gimmick, all the time. I STILL would LOVE to know what he meant when he said she had a "big mouth." Did she "runteldat" on him to Agnes Nixon, or FMB, or the network?

I didn't know that Jake has gone on record about that, but I did believe KZ when she said she and her husband pulled him off the show, not because ATWT was going to make Luke gay, but that they were afraid that such a heavy storyline would affect his education. To me, that explanation made perfect sense.

How sad is it that we could say that about SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many in office today?

Bits and pieces. But, like you said, it was a tough story to watch, given that it involved characters we had had little-to-no investment in.

Frankly, I think there were a LOT of roles on AMC that were recast needlessly.

. Thanks, but no thanks. (Yeah, I know, I'm a prude, lol.) Meanwhile, I give AMC 2.0 props for daring to tell a sex trafficking story w/ Cassandra. I only wish it had been told better.