Faulkner

The dialogue often sucks, though, so I wonder if that’s part of the problem. When I watch Y&R lately, most actors deliver their lines in a very deliberate, formal way that doesn't reflect how people naturally speak. The pacing feels artificial - like they're carefully enunciating every word instead of having organic conversations. It's not that the performances lack emotion, but the delivery often feels more like a staged reading than natural dialogue. This wasn't always the case on Y&R - in the past, even with melodramatic storylines, the speech patterns felt more naturalistic. Stafford doesn’t play it that way: she has her own rhythms and tics that are uniquely her own. But Ordway has been a main offender in having that “staged reading” feeling to how she speaks.

Other people seem to get it, so I’ll just let it go. Take care.

I see it differently and that’s fine. It takes me out of the show because it feels artificial. I prefer a more naturalistic approach and even when Y&R was more melodramatic in the past, I felt like the way they spoke was much more natural. It’s more pronounced on certain days and with certain actors. I don’t feel that way about Jason Thompson—and certainly not Stafford because she’s always gonna do her thing. But there’s a very stagey, declarative way of speaking that makes Y&R almost feel like a children’s show at times. It’s not stylized like Old Hollywood-type speech.

Katie Boulter and Alex De Minaur are engaged:

It looks a little nicer but yeah. It is. The actors could pretend like they give a toss, though. (Unless they’re directed to talk like that.)

“Y&R actors speak naturally” challenge! Stafford is the only actor who gives her line readings any personality, which is sad. Everyone else feels like they’re reading off cue cards or performing in the most basic-ass stage play ever. It wasn’t always this way.

This is why it’s so bad that they allowed the malaise to go on for so long. I can’t even imagine picking these shows back up again—once you’re done with them, you begin filling your time with other habits that are hard to break. I do feel some connection still: I see and watch the clips. I love seeing Dorit go so hard on Kyle. Reminds me of her early backbone. But digging into a new episode every week seems like a slog, even for breezy shows like Housewives.

They are definitely promoting it a lot. Saw the teaser during last night’s Kennedy Center Honors. The promo style is very “CBS”: a Matlock promo had similar editing and music. (As a cord cutter, I don’t see many of these promos anymore.)

The Maggie Smith transition was particularly beautiful.

Esme was who I was thinking of when I said this show just needs simple schemers. Esme would have been great as a bitchy, Regina George-type vixen but nope. They literally made her a demon spawn.