Faulkner

Seeing Y&R that far down on any list is stunning.

A global treasure and institution unto herself.

Ronn Moss wasn’t the most expressive actor (although he could be surprisingly effective in scenes—like when Ridge learned Caroline had cancer), but he had real star quality and a model’s ability to know his angles and hit his marks. His chemistry with women was so strong that he was the anchor for three classic pairings (Caroline, Taylor, Brooke). He was almost a parody of the debonair, square-jawed soap stud, and you could roll with his take on Ridge for the most part, even if you were rolling your eyes from time to time. He was a one-off. AA ain’t that. I feel bad for him to be honest. Obviously, he’s not being held at a gunpoint to be on BTG, but it must be so soul-deadening to get this kind of audience feedback. But TPTB should really put him and us out of our misery. One thing’s for sure, Ambyr Michelle and Colby Muhammad are going to be pros at green-screen acting after working opposite AA.

Love DD, hot and cold on KM, and appreciate LB in spite of my ambivalence towards Vanessa and her story. TMG can be superb and hilarious even though the show oversells the camp with her a lot of the time. I just think Ambyr/Colby are on another level (for me), and they transcend the show with their chemistry. I wish BTG valued its men as much and gave them material and hired actors accordingly. Having two or three strong male performers/characters isn’t good enough, and it really lets the women down. Alex Alegria standing around like the world’s most awkward mannequin would have been embarrassing if Colby and Ambyr weren’t so compelling.

They’re just endlessly watchable: Ambyr and Colby. I think it’s a very strong female cast. Best ever is a big statement. Daytime’s had some stellar actresses grouped together. BTG has a way’s to go before they match mid-‘80s Santa Barbara or ATWT or late ‘80s/early ‘90s GL or AW (or early-to-mid ‘90s GH).

Eva and Kat elevate this show.

Yeah, pretty much my thoughts as well. I thought the Y&R, ATWT, and GH ones were just the actual logos. The retro GL one is cool. Would be interested to see what it comes up with for DAYS when you do the NBC ones, since the hourglass and font are so iconic. And Another World since it never really had a brand that stuck.

It’s sad because she was somewhat given a strong POV that first week as a counterpart to Dani, and this show really needed some scrappy strivers who were Dupree outsiders. Eva/Leslie have eclipsed her in that respect, but they are played by exceptional actors. MG is very uneven. The writing for her hasn’t done her any favors either. She had that scene with Leslie at Orphey Gene’s, and I thought maybe they’d collaborate on that fake pregnancy scheme against Bill and Dani. Just feels like a bunch of stories with Hayley were set up and dropped either because they realized MG was limited or they decided to focus on other stories. But the writing did feel like they were building something with her initially.

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.