Faulkner

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:

Morgan Wallen reaches its 16th and likely last week atop the Hot 100, as he’s pulling “Last Night” from radio to make way for another single. It breaks the record for most weeks at No. 1 for a single not billed as a collaboration.

Wow, it’s been forever since I listened to Magoo. It feels like so many black male hip-hop artists are being taken from us in their 40s and 50s:

This man in sweatpants

To me, that defined most soaps from the mid-‘90s to around 2005 or so.

Ugh. I can’t stand Lauren as Phyllis’s hype man. What a waste of the character. And it’s so forced and really underscores how desperate the show to make Phyllis sympathetic, which is a fool’s errand. We’re supposed to feel sad that Phyllis’s kids have abandoned her, when she deserves that and so much more. It’s interesting that they have these characters who are parts of two families, but due to budget or lack of imagination, they can focus on only piece at a time (Summer and Abby are both Newmans, but they feel completely divorced from that side.)

Off topic but the reporter in that first clip had an unbelievably sad life and tragic death. I wish we had demos regularly available back then.

So much fun.

The quality of the “Kid” video!

Can’t hate. She looks damn good for pushing 60. For any age.