Faulkner

Akshay, a trainer from Mumbai

Not that she’s responsible for the overarching vision of the show—that’s all on Brad and CBS—but Michele Val Jean is still on staff at B&B. I just wonder what she thinks about all of this.

Just started watching (into Episode 2). Can’t say that I’m that engaged, but it doesn’t seem like I’ve gotten to the good stuff yet. Zach Tinker is obviously an upgrade in pretty much every sense, but he’s at an absolute 10 in terms of intensity when he maybe should be at an 8 or a 9. (Chandler and Billy don’t feel very present in these early scenes, which only makes ZT acting his heart out seem a bit odd.) It’s almost jarring to see a Sonny with actual energy that’s not forced, though, and I’ve liked Freddie Smith in the past.

It’s exacerbated by the fact that Bradley Bell doesn’t give a damn about any of the black characters on this show. They have zero depth and the actors don’t get any material to dig their teeth into. They are all outsiders and interlopers in the lives of the Forresters and Spencers. They have little agency. They have no history to dig into. They currently have no family ties (even Zende, who is a fûcking Forrester). They are written as not to be trusted, and they rarely have the dignity of having their inner lives and complex motivations shown on screen. And yes, Justin is basically Samuel L. Jackson in Django Unchained. Going from one master to another… (One huge problem is that Bradley has refused to invest in a black family. We keep cycling through new sets of black characters and Carter and Justin have made a home on the back burner over the years. We don’t get the sense of depth that comes from seeing characters tackle many trials and tribulations over time.)

Miqueas, a model from Brazil

And McEnroe replying, “Good point.” Wow. (Didn’t Tatum O’Neal make allegations against Johnny Mac?)

Model Daniel Osgood

Unclear if it would have made a difference here, since there were many different drugs involved, but users should invest in those fentanyl test strips, at the very least.

I remember when they tried to launch a Doctor Who theatrical feature-film franchise. What a debacle that was. I get that they are under incredible financial scrutiny, but the BBC always make things 100 times harder than they need to be.

Ohhhh… Nikki Newman is so big and bad! All hail the new Stephanie Forrester with nothing to back it up.

Deidre is always great when she’s allowed to camp it up a bit. She’s incredibly funny.

Ahhh, that intrigues me more than anything else. They had to make *some* concessions to lure him back. Lydia West reminds me of Tessa Thompson.

I definitely think the RTD era has aged poorly, but when he’s good, he’s excellent, and I’m interested in seeing what he does after all these years. I’m somewhat surprised that he’d want to return to that crucible, given the creative freedom offered by his other projects. They can’t have offered him much money, as they don’t have much money to spare.

Good that they have protocols in place, but would Joy and Sara be potentially close contacts? What does this mean for the show in the near term? Would Sunny be remote or off the show?

Wow