Faulkner

That is so on the money.

More of Artur Dalaloyan, from Russia’s gold medal-winning men’s gymnastics team 🇷🇺 :

They showed Dustin Lance Black reacting to Tom Daley’s win at home with Tom’s mother, and he let out the most high-pitched scream. I’m sure the neighborhood dogs were in distress.

Ditto.

The only song of theirs I’ve heard a lot out and about is “Dynamite.” These other songs, nope.

And BTS replace themselves at No. 1 again, with “Butter” soaring back to the top (for its eighth week at No. 1). Officially the summer of BTS for Billboard.

Elizabeth Leiner gets a lot of deserved criticism for her low-energy performance but I find Burgi extremely wooden too.

These were bad but it could be interesting for soaps on streaming to take on some Marvel Cinematic Universe characteristics. Having a mothership and multiple ongoing spin-off series that characters come in and out of but with a tighter focus. For example, a Will/Sonny/Paul series where they can show more of their lives immersed in a gay community, and people like Kate, Sami, and Gabi can pop in (similar to how characters from GH turned up on PC and GH:NS). It would require a creative visionary with a defter hand than Ken Corday and someone to make sure all the different series cohere narratively under the DAYS umbrella, but it would be an interesting streaming model further down the road. A way of introducing a lot of content using tried-and-tested IP.

Just saw that, yeah. If it’s reasonably successful, maybe they’ll do a DAYS universe on Peacock of spin-offs (and provide a roadmap for the other soaps). And, more importantly, give the genre an off-ramp…

SON poster Khan. He loves him some Zach Tinker.

Donkey Booty vs Stallion Booty, Part Deux.

Khan would approve.

💯 I will say that some of the existing creatives appear to want to do more but just can’t. They’d have more freedom in a streaming environment (if they were released from the current internal structures, that is).

This show likes to nod to “social issues,” but never really delves into them the way that soaps can. Maybe that’s the best they can do in this day and age, given Patrick Mulcahey’s commentary on soaps avoiding things that would ruffle the feathers of core (read: white, older, and conservative) viewers.

The body is ok, but that’s not a flattering photo lol.

Wendy is doing The Most. She wants to be the star of Potomac so baaaaad.

Andrei King, a vlogger from Manila 🇵🇭

I mean, the stupidity of this. Didn’t they someone see the huge boat in the way when they started the race? I can’t imagine the stamina of those guys. Looks absolutely exhausting.

A Season 13 trailer was released at Comic Con (which I forgot was even happening this year). This will be a COVID-shortened eight-episode season with one big story:

I’m not talking about Paris’s motivations. I’m talking about the writers putting the character in that position in the first place. I’ve already discussed B&B’s problematic history of having its black actors sing (trotting out the Avants to sing at Forrester holidays when they were no longer featured in story). It’s very stereotypical, and actors themselves have mentioned it on other shows (like Timothy D. Stickney). And Paris is a character who was recruited to be a top executive at Forrester moving in and offering to be a caretaker for Steffy’s child. There’s nothing wrong with being a nanny, but it’s odd optics and a weird direction for a character who could eventually be a power player at FC. And I’ve mentioned Ridge’s condescending comments toward Justin in previous posts (like “your boss is talking to you!” when Wyatt was questioning Justin).

The other, hotter Ryan Murphy 🇺🇸

More horror stories out of Indonesia.

I wasn’t able to watch, but a lot of pundits were claiming it looked like vintage Kei. Maybe playing in his home country inspired him, and he won bronze last Olympics. Plus, he knew he couldn’t just go walkabout like he usually does against some nameless scrub in the opening rounds of a tournament—he was playing Rublev in Round One and had to be on point and fully focused. But as he ages, I feel less confident he’ll be able to sustain any quality, at least not enough to win big titles. I saw CSN beat Jabeur. That’s a good win for her. The other Monfils beat the evil Laura Siegemund, so I guess it evens out!