Faulkner

I can’t imagine anyone but MVJ writing this, even though she doesn’t have a long stint as a HW on her resume. It’s not like we have a strong back bench of trained head writers left who could handle this type of material. Lorraine Broderick? The Cullitons? Nope. Maybe as a co-HW? Tracey Thomson doesn’t instill confidence IMO. Most of the great HWs have died in the past 20 years, apprentices like Kay Alden and Natalie Minardi Slater have been run out of the industry, and, even then, none of them would have had this level of personal connection to the material (including the obvious—she’s a Black woman who has had a long career in a very white, insular genre). There’s a lot of Guza (obviously) and Brad Bell influence here, two writers I have little respect for. The show could use a lot more Claire Labine influence (to cite another MVJ mentor) in the attention to character. Think of how rich and well-thought-out Delia was and how sketchy Hayley and Leslie are as troublemakers. But sometimes I wonder if it’s simply hard to achieve a certain level of creative success with all of the cheapness and pandering to low attention spans. It’s a problem that’s hit a lot of creative industries.

There are plenty of positive, even effusively positive, comments as well. YMMV. It’s definitely light years ahead of the Bell soaps, which just have a whiff of neglect about them. I don’t think “neglect” is at all the problem with BTG. I don’t watch DAYS or GH enough to know what they’re up to, aside from when they step things up for real-life deaths of cast members, but I obviously stopped watching those for a reason. I just want the best for this show.

The dialogue on this show is rough, very paint-by-numbers with an occasional one-liner or pop-culture reference to break up the monotony, and some of the actors really struggle to make it sound natural (looking at you, the overly earnest Jibre Hordges). I didn’t enjoy yesterday’s episode at all. I feel like if they’re going to do this theatrical style, they need lush scoring to support it. Otherwise, the forced melodrama feels really awkward.

Sienna Bacall. LOL. Let’s see if RH’s character is named “Bogart” to extend the whole noir allusion.

That’s one way to keep your boss sweet, if so. He’s cute.

At least she’s a lifer who knows a better Y&R. We shall see if this makes any difference with JG still head-writing.

I will say the sixth photo is giving Kimberly’s wig reveal on Melrose Place.

The show is too tightly focused on the storylines they intend to tell (or restricted by budget/actor guarantees) to let the canvas breathe. Those character moments will only make those same stories richer. The show tends to primarily allow those moments at big events.

They need to keep their foot on the gas with these interactions. You can’t build these sorts of relationships between characters with these sporadic meetings.

KM’s husband is hot:

Roger Howarth posted a great photo of him, Tuc Watkins, and Erika Slezak. https://www.instagram.com/p/DO6WgqIjt4y/?igsh=ZnNobnNqZTM4cWMw

They couldn’t have made a more respectful promo for Monica’s funeral? Even if they also included the Nathan scene?

Just the sheer numbers of the Dupree women vs. men also tell that story. It’s like the Cramer women or the Kane women or GH’s Davis girls, but those families weren’t/aren’t the only game in town. It’s also telling that they made one of two male scions of the family a gay man and the other his adopted son. I want to celebrate that as a Black gay man myself, but they also made Martin a long-suffering, mentally fragile, almost childlike victim and placed him with a supportive, morally upright white husband whom he has deceived. There’s no sense of him as a competent leader who was considering a presidential run. I’m just waiting for the skeletons to fall out of Vernon’s closet. Jacob the Boy Scout is so underwritten and weakly portrayed as to be meaningless.

I agree that a huge problem is that we don’t see these guys in their element as much (even the characters they’ve invested in, like Bill, Martin, and Smitty). But then you have Doug—a Black man whose white wife cucks him with the local white gangster and seems to be headed to a tragic end. And we’ve all speculated that Ted is equally expendable. I’m trying to understand what they were thinking with all of this. This show can celebrate and elevate Black women without making the men ciphers with no real perspectives or agency of their own (especially the heterosexual men).

Lots of characters need do-overs. The men on BTG are flat-out pathetic and emasculated (or one-dimensional, dollar-store louts, criminals, and ne’er-do-wells). I hate to evoke the late Hogan Sheffer, but these dynamic women need strong men to match their freak, and these duds just don’t. I like JG, but Doug is a key example of this.

She was so bad she was good. Gave off VERY inappropriate sexual vibes with Drake Hogestyn (her on-screen father, R.I.P.). If you read her brief tenure as sort of a Christopher Guest absurdist comedy, she deserved an Oscar. The powers-that-be are pretty good about deleting any clips of her that pop up (not linking any of them for that reason), but you’re in for a treat if you can find them. (Lauren Buglioli actually has a similar vocal tone to her, but she’s talented.) Alex Alegria doesn’t come close to that level of entertainment value.

It’s funny that they see him and don’t think, “My god, we gotta recast.” He’s definitely down there with the Ken Kenitzers and Charity Rahmers (the truly, distractingly incompetent).

He’s definitely a talent. It’s a shame that he often has so little opportunity (or motivation) to showcase his sensitivity and incredible access to his emotions. I remember the scenes that won him an Emmy on Y&R, and he was great in those, too, even though Dylan was a nothing character. I’m glad it appears he’s getting more opportunities nowadays on GH, which I don’t watch much anymore.

Steve Burton can play emotion so well. Certainly if he were weepy all the time like JJ’s Lucky during his first big return, it wouldn’t stand out. But just how stricken he looked was so powerful. Like all of the blood drained from his face. He can really step it up.

I’m a bit in my feelings about what’s happened to Eva. There’s still time to get that train back on the track, but it’s almost as if they didn’t expect her to be such a breakout. I’ve not been a fan of what they’ve given her since May.

Instagram and Meta need to fix their sh!t. Videos embedded don’t play, etc.