Faulkner

Aw. Michael Cole is now the last surviving member of the Mod Squad.

And they’re playing favorites with people who are on the last legs of their careers. And then when the other big superstar (Naomi) withdraws early, they’re caught flat-footed. Pretty much they’re now relying on Coco, who they prefer over even Rafole.

It doesn’t help that they only show the big stars, so people can get familiar with the up-and-comers. Like I get it, but it’s short-sighted and a self-fulfilling prophecy. They are replaying Federer/Koepfer on NBC (both of whom are now out of the tournament) instead of letting people watch Fokina/Delbonis, one of whom will make the quarters. NBC’s ratings don’t make me any money either way. I just wanna watch some competitive tennis, big stars or not.

Rybakina just took out Serena. NBC’s coverage of this tournament is… weird, to say the least.

So Kirsten Storms had brain surgery to remove a cyst that had split in two? https://deadline.com/2021/06/general-hospital-star-kirsten-storms-acknowledges-recent-brain-surgery-1234770061/

As somewhat expected with his press statements yesterday, Federer has withdrawn from RG after his marathon win against Koepfer. Berrettini advances to the QF against Djokovic or Musetti.

From Paraguay 🇵🇾

From Indonesia 🇮🇩

SNL was the No. 1 entertainment series (meaning excluding sports) in the 18-49 demo across all of ad-supported TV this past season, beating even The Masked Singer and This Is Us. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/snl-ratings-no-1-2020-21-season-1234963138/

Also, we all noticed how watered-down Will had become, and even former serial killer Ben is now a self-pitying, neurotic Mary Sue. They’ve become neutered. Basically, the guys are pretty vanilla aside from Xander and the villain du jour (currently Michael Lowry’s character), while the ladies get to have all the fun (Gabi, Kate, Sami, Abby, et al. aren’t out-and-out villains but they get to scheme and be witheringly funny). Not entirely shocking for a female genre, but still… would it hurt to have preserved some of Tripp’s early ne’er-do-well energy while still making him generally a decent guy?

Genie is killing it. What else is new? But Jeff Kober is actually matching her for the first time during his whole GH tenure. He’s hella talented, so it’s not a shock. They got all the black folks wrapped up in this drama. We love to see it. Can we not with the Hellmann’s-on-Wonder-Bread love scene? RH is playing this Austin reasonably mild-mannered for now, but Goofus is right there under the surface.

Xander’s mostly played for yuks and beefcake, but I feel like he’s RC’s best recent male example of a grey character.

He and Ash Barty both looked so strong this season…

I think Mishael has a facility with the formal, somewhat unnatural dialogue that Karla didn’t have, and it really changes the tenor of those scenes (for the better by leaps and bounds… it really drives home how talented MiMo is). You can have an educated, upper-crust family without making them sound like robots… Y&R is really doing them a disservice. Speaking of bad, this Tara actress is a miss. If they intend for the character to stick around, they need to recast. That’s not to say that this story can be saved (even Richard Burgi feels stiff in his role), but she still is conspicuously bad.

Sloane has seemingly picked a good moment to peak after what seems like forever. Let’s see if she can keep it up. Serena just beat Danielle Collins, and Coco is still in it.

Ha at the bold. I like Sonja too, but I do worry that she could heading for tragedy.

I see Medvedev has made the adjustment to clay LOL. I thought you liked him…

That’s the thing about these shows. If they acknowledged the omnipresence of cameras in our lives (or cell phones, etc.), most of their stories wouldn’t be possible. Like Ryan Chamberlain skulking around Port Charles in public places committing murders undetected.

I swear… Kei is one of the most frustrating players to support.

From Texas 🇺🇸

This guy 🇫🇷 IMG_1098.mp4

In hindsight, I’m glad Luann wasn’t fired and she really delivered and evolved over time, but at the time, sheesh, I wanted her gone.

I actually thought she needed to be fired along with Jill and Kelly that season. Was not a good look for her. Still, her behavior with both Sonja and Eboni had a weird gratuitous edge to it that disturbed me.