Faulkner

Annika Noelle/Hope looks fierce today. Come through, eyeliner!

Hmmm…

He could be a big boy and ignore it if it’s not constructive. I think in his case, a hit dog will holler.

I’m not as gaga over him, but he looked better than he has in a while. The past few times I’ve seen him, he looked like he needed his beauty sleep. This scene with Chanel confronting BeDevil and her feet being stuck to the floor? Dan Curtis is doing somersaults in his grave…

Jordan Cipriano 🇺🇸

On another soap, I’d be afraid that Ashland would kill Nate off.

LOL. Did you see this? In addition to Nene, the cast members are Ray J, Lamar Odom, Big Freedia, Stacey Dash, DreamDoll, India Love, and Slim Thug. “The celebs will live together and join the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Texas Southern University as students. “In the reimagined series, per BET, each cast member is committed to focusing on their higher education as a personal challenge to prove it’s never too late.”

Martin from Slovakia 🇸🇰

LOL. I thought Kelsey Wang is a solid actress, but she’s walking into a show that won’t leverage her talents. Not sure if she has enough energy to enliven a glum character like Noah.

Yeah, I feel that it kinda goes off the rails. The seasonal arcs get less credible with each passing year. Gets harder and harder to surprise people without straining for an effect.

Zende is conveniently a “Forrester” for this Grace blackmail when he’s had little to no involvement with his family other than working for their company in isolation.

Another week at No. 1 for “Heat Waves”:

I know Coronation Street did one that I really loved with Deirdre and her daughter Tracy during the Charlie murder story. Y&R’s special Wednesday episodes are awful. I wish Patrick Mulcahey were writing for a show because he’d knock a two-hander out of the park, even if the show itself was a stinker.

Tintin from Thailand 🇹🇭

Sebastian in Munich 🇩🇪

The Jeanne Cooper tribute was also great. I love that Y&R takes the time out to actually honor the actors behind the roles, and not just the characters themselves, when most soaps don’t, even when the actors are iconic. GH’s stand-alone tribute to Sean Donely (after John Reilly’s passing) was well done, with a strong performance from JR’s real-life daughter. But it set up expectations for the show to do the same for Stuart Damon, who was ultimately more important to GH history and an even bigger star. Alan Quartermaine was killed years ago, but they certainly could have taken the opportunity to do a remembrance. They do things like that tribute to women’s suffrage in 2020 ahead of the elections. Hell, they did more for the long-dead Courtney, who was far from iconic, than they did for Alan. Why not honor the famous-before-GH, beloved, Emmy-winning actor who led the show through its pop-cultural heyday? That’s just my rant.

Another stunning passing. I thought he was so sexy in Body Heat.

I was just thinking about those special episodes that soaps sometimes do, that Gary Tomlin did a lot during his OLTL EP tenure or that Ellen Wheeler did during her time as GL EP. These episodes don’t necessarily push the narrative forward or they might celebrate a certain milestone in the soap’s history or mourn the passing of a longtime favorite (like KSJ’s Y&R tribute). But what’s your favorite episode of a soap that went meta or stepped outside of their normal structure to do a standalone? I thought Y&R’s Neil tribute with the cast was brilliant (unlike most of that show’s recent track record) and I typically enjoyed it when soaps like OLTL did a Live Week. I suppose OLTL’s “Trading Places” episode was fun:

Peppe from Italy 🇮🇹

LJ in Honolulu 🇺🇸

There was just a baseline of depth and care that went into soaps overall in the ‘80s, even the storytelling on a few of the shows (like OLTL and GH) wasn’t necessarily to my tastes. And like you said, a belief in romance. The ‘90s was a huge step down for DAYS that seemed to augur the total destruction of the other shows.

Yeah. I watched Reilly-era DAYS as much as anyone, but of all the long-running soaps, I find I have the least connection to DAYS. Yet when I stumble upon ‘80s supercouple-era DAYS, it’s so much smarter and richer than I’d expected. That’s a soap that I might have cherished and not just watched for high-calorie, low-nutrient sugar rush.

In old clips, I felt it with both Maxes. Very interesting. But they were electric together. Also OLTL: Krista Tesreau’s Tina and David Vickers, even though it made Tina look ridiculous to be banging someone she thought was her brother. Y&R: Eric Braeden and Signy Coleman. Victor and Hope just had an easy, quiet chemistry. Non-romantic: Tracey Bregman/Kimberlin Brown; Jeanne Cooper/Jess Walton; Victoria Rowell and Michelle Stafford.