Faulkner

Everyone got a weekly bump in spite of the impeachment vote preemptions, but those across-the-board YOY declines are more telling. GH seems like it’s steadying the ship somewhat after a dire year. It’s back to No. 2 in W25-54.

DAYS on the other hand...

From California  
 

Saw that Nakashima took a set off Sam Querrey, which is no small feat for a young player facing a huge server.

Saw this too:

For a great/bittersweet moment that came out of tragedy, Y&R’s cast tribute this year to Kristoff St. John was extraordinary and one of the best and most thoughtful things I watched on any soap this decade or longer. Sad that it took the untimely death of a beloved soap veteran for it to happen. 

1 minute ago, edgeofnik said:

@soapfan770 B&B has the benefit of the seemingly fastest production schedule. When the first pre-emptions started in mid-Nov, they were probably filming mid-December, so they probably just scrapped all the Xmas-related scenes. It could explains why the past few episodes were so Thomas-concentrated. Some of those scenes were probably meant for other episodes. Just a guess. We'll see if anything Xmas shows up next week.

 

On another front. Was it even mentioned why Karen (grandmother) & Bill (uncle/family protector) didn't get involved in any of the Douglas drama? I get JJ probably isn't available for scenes, but Karen certainly would've had brother Bill intervene on her behalf.

 

I get they are trying to force us into buying/rooting for a Hope/Thomas reunion and Douglas is a means to an end. However, Bill loved C2 and would never let Thomas harm that child. If Bill had been the one to encourage Hope to go for joint-custody, I could've bought that. Plus, Bill could've sold it with Liam, who strangely doesn't acknowledge that Douglas is his blood.

Where is Don Diamont these days?

I wonder if preemptions pushed the holiday celebrations out? But yeah it was weird that the other soaps were trimming the tree while B&B was all Thomas, all the time. Nothing at all felt festive or seasonal.

It feels like the show has retconned Sally’s relationship with Thomas out? The problem with not being a consistent viewer is that you don’t see every conversation, but Sally’s chat with Steffy was weird.

3 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:

The best things of the 2010's? 

 

Karma finally caught up and struck Christopher Goutman, Les Moonves, JFP, Barbara Bloom, Frons, McDaniel, and some others as their careers were forever ruined by their own decisions and were all fired. 

 

Decent periods for the soaps? I'd say 2011-2015 B&B, 2013 for Days, and late 2012- late 2014 and the first half of 2017 for Y&R. 

 

Worst? 

 

Days: 2011-2012, 2015-present, with the nadir definitely being Chase raping Ciara

B&B: Everything since the fall of 2016 has been horrible with each year bringing in a new low. 

Y&R: This decade started out by Death by volcano! I'd say Mal's era was third worst after Latham and MAB&Co.

 

That said, we haven't had a soap dip below a 1.0 yet have we? 

Yeah, I like how you divided the soaps up by period. No show is capable of sustaining even relatively short periods of quality, so everything has felt a bit topsy-turvy. To me, the peaks of DAYS felt superior to those of the other three, which is why I rated it higher even though it too had awful stretches.

From Brazil  
 

This decade began with the cancellation of perhaps the greatest soap of all time (ATWT), followed by the end of Agnes Nixon’s groundbreaking creations—AMC and OLTL—on ABC. (As we know, they were later briefly revived online to acclaim, only to die due to mismanagement once again.)

While we’ve gone the rest of the decade without another cancellation, no one would say that the four remaining soaps are anywhere near their best, with declining budgets affecting everything from rehearsal time to actor guarantees to sets and camerawork. While the cable and streaming landscapes offer more choices than ever—and more outlets for diverse voices and performers—soaps have become ever more conservative, relying on age-old plot conventions, doubling down on heteronormative whiteness, and catering to a literally dying audience, with a growing recognition that they have no hope of capturing young generations. This isn’t a soap problem; all of TV (and frankly most types of legacy media, from newspapers to radio) is dealing with this existential threat. Who knows what the 2020s will bring?

That said, was there anything you liked about the soaps in the 2010s? I didn’t watch much of the AMC and OLTL revivals on Hulu, but I know @Vee and others really loved them. Some praise must go to DAYS for (in relative terms) doing a lot with so little. Even with its much talked-about constraints, it is regularly far more compelling than the other three shows. And they introduced us to Christopher Sean (Paul), who, at least initially, was such a refreshingly vibrant and sexy new presence for daytime IMO. And the return of Eileen Davidson as Kristen was THE soap comeback of the decade.

To me, the most disappointing soap was Y&R. The dismantling that began in the 2000s continued in haste in the 2010s. It was like a Red Wedding-style slaughter, with a stream of incompetents and assassins taking turns shivving it in the belly.

Plus: any predictions for where the Final Four will go in the 2020s? Will they see the 2030s?

From Palestine  
 

From Bern, Switzerland  

Stephen Schnetzer is always a dish. (Love Linda too!)

From Vienna  
 

Not to sound like the folks on Twitter posting that “Denzel heart attack” gif, but that photo scared me for a sec.

Aw, Addie was always such an important part of my OLTL watching. Loved how fiercely protective Dorian was of her. May she rest in peace.

Saw this:

From Vietnam  

Well hello Diego

From Jamaica  
 

From São Paulo  
 

From Nigeria  

Byron from Toronto