Faulkner

Yeah, it's pretty upsetting. I've seen a few of Toback's movies (not a fan), but I wasn't aware of his predator reputation.

Agree with most of the praise. Some of this is because of the low expectations after the dismal last few seasons of the initial run. But it is sort of settling into becoming sort of a latter-day Golden Girls, but gayer (if that's possible). I am finding the Grace/Karen interactions less appealing than the Will/Jack ones. They don't seem to be as able to mine comedy from them. The shower bit from the second episode and the sexual harassment of the male assistant fell flat for me. That's not a diss on Debra or Megan, who still find ways to shine. The third episode with the focus on Grace and Harry Connick Jr. (hate him) was zzzzzz. Andrew Rannells is sexy, as was shown on Girls. He deserves his own adult-oriented series where he gets to be naked as much as possible. Like a Queer As Folk-type vehicle. Eric McCormack looks great, and he's owning the gayness of the role much more now. For me, even more than Sean (who we all knew was brilliant), he's the revelation in the reboot.

I can only imagine how agonizing this must be for him and how doubly traumatic for this incident to be made public. But thoughts with him as he hopefully gets some treatment/medical and therapeutic intervention. And perhaps it will be somewhat comforting to know he has the support of colleagues and fans.

Terri Conn (ex-Katie, ATWT) relays a disgusting and terrifying story of sexual harassment from indie director James Toback in a larger exposé on him from the LA Times. Just sickening. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-mn-james-toback-sexual-harassment-allegations-20171018-story,amp.html

Ingo and Manu Bennett were key to my gay awakening when Paradise Beach aired in the U.S. So I'll always have a fondness for them. But yeah. That turtleneck is... unfortunate.

If they hired Zoe Lucker as Alexis, I'd watch. She might be a touch young (43) and of course she's no Joan, but I'd just love to see her play a rich, fabulous bitch again after Tonya from Footballers' Wives.

Not that anyone is checking for this, but just saw Michael Muhney (ex-Adam, Y&R) in a preview for next week's episode of "The Good Doctor."

Really really beautiful episodes! Thanks for sharing! Terry Lester was a god, and Eileen was stunning. She had a few unfortunate hairdos during the '80s (who didn't?), but I love seeing her so fresh-faced with the wet hair.

I'm not sure, but there's been a steady decline in the number of younger actors on soaps in the past decade or so. (Look at how embarrassing the younger actor Emmy nominees are each year, even compared to the other diminished categories.) Maybe it's because of budget and declines in the younger demos. I'd guess a lot of it is because so many soaps have been cancelled, and the few remaining shows started poaching established soap hunks, leaving little room/budget for newbies? Again, that's a wild guess.

DAYS is really the only soap that features male actors in their 20s. The others have all but given up.

I definitely feel like the show has improved. As mentioned, RC is actually playing interactions that would just be common sense and instinctual for any barely competent writer to play, which just shows how low the bar has been set by previous writers. He's clearly smarter than Higley et al about writing around the increasingly burdensome issue of limited actor guarantees and set availability.

I suspect there will be a very heavy double decker bus that Paul will be thrown under, which is why I'm not all that excited to see what's in store for this plot. Paul/Sonny feel boring because they are both Gary Stus. Paul came on with such swagger, but they neutered him. Outside of the bits of humor from Bonnie, the show really drags. Usually Ron's shows are full of energy and verve even when they are careening out of control, but I'm finding the day-to-day of DAYS a little dead. I think some of that is due to the dollar-store budget they are working with now. Things feel... claustrophobic. Nicole should have been gone by now, and I can't but feel that Brady and Eric can go with her. Just blandness as far as the eye can see.

I think @Vee summed everything up pretty thoroughly. It's not just soaps that are suffering. Primetime, cable, live sports, awards shows... they are all seeing drops due to changes in technology. But daytime soap viewers are literally dying off at this point. It's a genre that's had its day, and it has come to an end. Hopefully it will be preserved for scholars. Soaps never got the respect they deserved due to misogyny/sexist views of what "quality television" means, but they were undeniably influential. It's just too painful to see what these shows have become, honestly. Y&R just saddens me to no end because it meant so much to me growing up. They are just so... half-hearted. If they don't care, how can they ask me to care? I watch when there's a gay story, and I love Christopher Sean/Paul, so I take a peek at DAYS from time to time.

There are tons of actors I don't like at the moment. I'm pretty much over the entire cast of Y&R at this point, and that was my favorite soap. But for most, I can always look back and remember a moment when I appreciated them. Maurice was really sexy and magnetic as Nico/early Sonny, but he's calcified into a poor, mumbling De Niro impersonation for the last 20 years. It's laziness. Same for Steve. He actually perked up a bit in his last few months on Y&R.

Vincent Irizarry. I could *sort of* see the appeal in old Lujack clips, but that's only because he was hot then. But Nick McHenry on, I just saw him as a charisma void. One-note smug.