Faulkner

Hate is too strong a word for my feeling toward Sonny. I’m just hopelessly bored with him. He’s a drag on the show, and we’ve seen all his tricks.

This shirt.

LMAO.

Karen is VERY lucky to be alive. That car was absolutely totaled and burst into flames as they were talking.

Jordan and Isaiah’s face cards are unmatched. My mom (who no longer watches soaps these days) was swooning over them. Cameron Mathison really works as a heel. So much time wasted trying to sell him as a good guy. Loved seeing William Lipton again.

I go back and forth with the music (I could hear it opening a family drama), but it feels like something that would introduce a Ken Burns history documentary on PBS. Doesn’t suggest what the show is at all and the blink-and-you-missed-them family portraits feel disconnected and tacked on at the end. The idea of exploring family roots (“Generations”) and linking it to American history isn’t bad for a show about connections between black and white families; it’s just kinda slow and solemn and poorly executed. If they’re using some of the shots in the promo for the opening (the napkins, etc.), it would definitely give Succession vibes.

More like Billy against all the Abbotts. He had a very tense scene with Jack yesterday. Re: today’s episode: The Jack/Traci scene was a great idea—linking Diane’s abandonment of Kyle to Dina’s abandonment of her children—but the dialogue was sooooo stilted. Probably sounded eloquent on paper. There are still so many things that need to be fixed on this show beyond how it looks.

Raises hand. Hated the billowing red porno opening. But I was so attached to the white background and piano version of the theme, which I felt better represented the hot-cold dynamics of the show. That porn opening was overheated and too much (and felt to me like a too brazen way of “modernizing” a show that didn’t need it). Now, in 2024, I wouldn’t mind it with the current visuals. It needs something to give it energy and they long since abandoned that traditional Y&R feel so it doesn’t matter as much to me. The theme/opening for BTS should really set the tone for the feel of the show. Whatever MVJ’s vision for it is.

The overly theatrical way Michael Mealor speaks as Kyle irritates me. He’s taking all the wrong lessons from PB. I hate Billy, but I like the way Jason Thompson’s more naturalistic delivery contrasts with Peter’s overenunciation.

I wouldn’t mind a sultry, sexy original song with lyrics and vocals like Loving’s Jeffrey Osborne theme:

ShrewLu lives! I kid. JMB would have been unbelievably abrasive in those BrookLynn scenes, but still.