Faulkner

I remember the quicksand obsession.

TSJ’s body looks great. He’s obviously committed himself to fitness while on the show because he didn’t look as ripped in his earlier shirtless scenes.

The drums in the intro are so killer:

He was so touching on This Is Us. So glad he had that platform to share his talent:

Edit

Oh right, the reading of the names on 9/11…

Venus on what she learned from her toughest loss (1999 USO SF against Martina Hingis):

I think they’ve largely and realistically given up on a youth audience. Which ok, fine. And the loyal older audience will freak out when they go too long without seeing Victor or the people they know. But these shows feel so STUCK. GH at least has had a vibrancy and a consistency (and the budget management) to allow new faces to break through and eventually those longtime viewers warm up to the younger characters. (Granted, if you go up a few years in age beyond the Spencer/Trina/Cam/Joss crew, a lot of those newer characters have been flops.) But the commitment is there, even if there is ambivalence. Y&R hasn’t taken the same care in the past 15-20 years. Why isn’t Faith featured as much as Joss is on GH by now? A legacy kid, a NEWMAN. AAL’s departure and RC’s addition gave them an opportunity to play out more adult stories for Faith. But nope. She’s gotten two “little girl in distress” stories. Even the Cameron Kirsten hostage situation felt tame, especially when we know what Cameron is capable of. (Those flashbacks were HARROWING.) It would take patience and a commitment to build a scene that Faith could thrive in, but all attempts have been so clunky, halfhearted, and quickly dropped instead of fixed. The show would rather dig into its greatest hits.

Definitely. GH feels extreme with so many offscreen kids in Port Charles. There’s no need to have a gazillion baby stories, but they are easy to get approved, as writers have shared. Yet now we have all of these randy, rough-and-ready AARP cardholders mingling in bars away from their young kids, who are being raised by offscreen nannies, I’m assuming, or offscreen older relatives. (Or to bring it back to Y&R, sent away to boarding school like Johnny and Katie.) They expect we’ll be so caught up in their “scintillating” stories of the moment that we won’t remember these people have LARGE families they barely see, not even at holidays. For Y&R, it feels like budget mode has made them hone in on “comfort food” and “what works,” which apparently is familiar faces locked in a state of perpetual adolescence. Their attempts at featuring the kids have been fully half-assed. Seriously, what on earth did they have planned for Moses? Was it surprising that he disappeared after that “exciting” non-story he had? Charlie and Mattie? Reed? Fen? Ana? Allie? What even was that characterization of Noah? Creeping on a lesbian and skulking around town in a leather jacket (when Rory Gibson has a body like this he loves to show off)? That’s how you introduce a potential leading man? They weren’t even trying. Even Faith, a character we have known for years on the show, has just experienced significant trauma. Yet the show has not explored the aftermath and emotional impact on Faith. This seems like a missed opportunity, especially since Sharon also has a complex history of trauma and probably feels a lot of guilt. Sharon helping Faith deal with the aftermath could have been an engaging story arc about intergenerational trauma. However, instead of developing this story, the show sent Faith away and we’re back to another boring business story with Sharon inheriting Cameron Kirsten’s company.

Victoria is so stale as a character and really digging into her experience as a mother with three kids would offer at least something different. (Beyond using the younger two as chess pieces in her co-parenting situation with Billy, which I’m glad is no longer a thing.) The scope of the show feels too limited for it, though. AH is 50, yet Y&R continues to play her character as the tormented ingenue desperately seeking the approval of her father, who himself needs to step aside and let a new generation flourish. Y&R is desperate and EB/Victor’s notoriety as the badass transcends the show. No one else comes close to his cachet. I’m glad EB is happy and healthy, but Victor is a sitcom character with a catchphrase at this point. After all these years, we’re still stuck playing out the same stories because they won’t allow the Newmans to evolve past this caricature of a ruthless patriarch.

Y&R’s glut of worn-out vets they refuse to either sideline or give age-appropriate stories, plus the severe budget issues, seems like a bad combo for any evolution. MTS could easily be on recurring with how they’ve been using Nikki the past few years, even if she’s been slightly more prominent in the Audra/Nate stuff. I wonder if EB would go apesh!t if they took her off contract. She’s one of the show’s marquee stars, but that’s certainly not how they’re using her.

The legendary trainwreck that was his Meg Ryan interview.

I liked Frank, thought FD was a solid performer, and he had a real-guy sex appeal. He also had good brother/son chemistry with Harley and Nadine. Did I expect him to stick around GL for 22 years? But he never was a blight on the show like his on-screen father became. (I liked Buzz initially.) I never really ever felt like FD was out of his depth with the show’s more obviously accomplished actors.

Tour dates officially rescheduled:

@Vee @DRW50 you may have already seen this.

Yeah, that hair grab was the high point for Mia IMO. That was the moment when I became a fan. I wanted to see her snatching more weaves around Genoa City but unfortunately the show saw her in such a limited way (meaning only as the spoiler for Abby/Arturo and Sharon/Rey). Her introduction felt very stereotypical “fiery Latina,” right down to how she was styled, but I felt like Noemi Gonzalez was coming into her own, adding layers and depth, right when the show was disposing of her. It’s a sad pattern for Y&R.

On a Chrissie Hynde kick. Never a bad time. Lady’s a genius.

Glad she addressed this: