Manny

Being Croatian, I saw first 2 years of the Croatian version. It was the first time Croatia ever did such soap opera. It was exciting at the time, but realistically it was pretty meh.

Ah okay, that's interesting! Thank you!!

Thank you so much, @FrenchFan! You always sharing your collection has been priceless! And I will happily write recaps out of scripts, if that will help you Btw, ATWT went from episode 2296 on Monday, to 2299 on Thursday, which would mean that ATWT aired on Tuesday and Wednesday. But it says that all soaps were pre-empted on Wednesday. But maybe ATWT still aired, since the episode numbering suggests so?

Y&R and AMC really popped up in this period, wow!

I haven't watch GH in years... and seeing this, I am happy I am not watching. This list is just sad.

I have to say, I'm not a fan of these special episodes, even though it was well done and great acting here. I really liked both. I was a bit more familiar with Nancy, because I've seen some videos previously when I am watching random scenes from the past. But I must say, I don't think I've seen Lee before and I really liked him.

This was the first time really seeing Lee and Nancy and I really liked both actors. I would like if they came back full time too.

Well Lauren found out that Cindy had a secret (the affair), but didn't know what it was and she learned that Cindy was somehow involved with Kojo's accident. At the same time, Cindy learned that Lauren was addicted to painkillers. So they both blackmailed each other with the information and Cindy even provided Lauren more painkillers. When Lauren burnt down the house due to the drugs, she confessed everything to Peter and Ian, but Cindy convinced them Lauren was lying, so Peter and everyone turned their backs on Lauren. So when Lauren overheard Cindy speak about the affair, she revealed it all on Christmas via the recording. But for some reason everyone blamed Lauren for revealing it in such a manner. Tommy is not beating Kat anymore, we haven't actually seen him in a while now. We saw a glimpse on Christmas and they all seemed happy and laughing, so Tommy is "cured"? That would be a disappointing ending to that storyline, since all of Tommy's "recovery" would have happened off screen. Alfie and Kat are back together. Oh and the campy lady is Elaine, Linda's mother and George's wife. I actually enjoy her and she had some great moments this year. A nice character journey. That's true. This is what was lacking from the reveal, the fact that we haven't seen Cindy with her daughters at all. Junior was also severely underdeveloped. All of this was lacking in this storyline.

Actually Clenshaw said somewhere that Cindy's attacker will be revealed for the 40th. So in a month and a half. So luckily we don't have to wait long for this story to finish. EDIT: Oh and regarding the familiar moments, I think someone told me that it was also Clenshaw that said that they wanted to recreate the familiar moments as an homage to 40 years (hence why we had Ian recreating Arthur's scene by having a breakdown in the living room; Cindy falling into the snow like Pauline and even the affair revealed via a recording a la Sharongate/Stax). For me, that's nice, but I didn't need that to be the centerpiece. When you do homage like that, you do it in small scenes, sort of like crumbs that fans notice. It shouldn't be a copy/paste for your main storyline of the Christmas season.

I did not enjoy it. I just don't care about the Cindy/Junior storyline, like at all. And the only thing that was keeping me hopeful was the fact that Lauren was going to be a winner and she will have everyone apologize to her for treating her like [!@#$%^&*]. Oh, wait... Hated that everyone was dumping on Lauren in the midst of Cindy drama. I did not like that the Kojo reveal was basically nothing. That Elaine knowing reveal was nothing. That Cindy giving Lauren pills that same evening reveal was nothing. We didn't have time for this because we had to have everyone threaten Cindy with murder so that we could have a new whodunit. So I don't really care who hit her. I am looking forward to see other storylines and hopefully she'll be in a coma for a few weeks so that we don't have to watch this storyline for a while.

I loved that opening too... in 2007. So if they do something similar, I'd at least hope it's a modernized version! Or just have a completely different modern opening for a fresh new soap

Yes, it kind of reminded me of that opening with how characters were positioned within the promo, one in the forefront, another slightly in the back and then kind of the similar color palette. Again, having seen it only once (as the second time I was only listening to the music lol), I could be wrong about the color palette, but anyway, it immediately reminded me of that opening.

Oh okay, I see, the second part of the promo has a bit more musical theme.. Could be a theme, yes, indeed.

I have never watched the Housewives, so I don't know. You think the music could be the theme? To me sounds very promo-y lol I forgot already how it went (lol), but I felt when watching it the first time that it sounded very "horror movie trailer" I don't know if I would use it for the opening theme.

First of all, geo-blocking a trailer.. I'll never understand this. Annoying. I haven't watched a US soap in years, so I cannot compare the promo to any of the current soaps. The promo itself looks okay. I like the stringy music. I like the outdoor scenes, looks primetime-y. The indoor scenes looked very daytime (maybe daytime of old, according to your comments of how Y&R and others looks today?). The only thing I didn't love was those posing shots of characters that looked like the opening sequence. Someone said it looked like 2007 ATWT opening and I agree. But one would think in almost 20 years, graphics would have been a bit better now. Otherwise the rest looks solid. Good that they started the promotion now.

That was a powerful scene with him and Peggy. Adding some audio to showcase what is going through Phil's head might not be a bad idea. I would have then maybe just added different bad moments, not only that one. Just to show the chaos in his mind that was probably happening at that moment.

I am glad you enjoyed it as well! It really was done so well. I loved the door opening sequence and how they immediately showed us this episode will be something special and focused on our addicts. I loved Sharon calling Nicola out in front of everyone regarding what she did to Phil. I really enjoyed Nicola A LOT when she arrived, now I am a bit cooled off on her and I was so happy that someone (Sharon) knocked her down a peg. Linda's stuff was just hard to watch, but it was so well done. Loved Kellie Bright's acting. And they really showcased well why Linda was left alone. Linda saying those awful things to Alfie was really heartbreaking. The final scene of Linda alone sitting on the bench, next to the big Christmas tree. Chilling. I was thinking Linda might freeze to death, but I guess not. Phil's last scene of the episode where he's fighting not to drink was so intense. Steve McFadden was amazing. I was so relieved when he did not drink finally. I was so happy for him.

Today's episode has been AMAZING. I loved it so much. It was heartbreaking and awesome performances from Steve McFadden, Tish Dean, Kellie Bright, Jac Jossa and Charlie Suff. Not to spoil for those who didn't watch yet, so I won't talk details yet.

Really weird how they did that 2 months into the show when some shows don't update their openings for years

Oh yes, maybe I would have enjoyed AJ more if Elaine was there. Especially since Olivia, Bette and Elaine were friends and then both Olivia and Bette dated AJ at some point.. So Elaine was needed for sure. Leo never did anything memorable anyway haha Ah okay. I am curious if you will enjoy it this second time around

Oh yes, exactly that. I think I remember reading an article way back when that this is exactly what they were trying to do. They wanted to restructure it to have several soap core families, and less of the individuals, chosen families etc. Which was a shame. I mean, I did enjoy the addition of Carmen and Antonio, but I did not really care for the Cummings' (including Sara). Even A.J. and Leo Deschanel were pretty meh for me. I liked the other characters that left much more. Oh you didn't enjoy Terror Island? Oh if I was enjoying SuBe, by the time Terror Island hit the screens, I was obsessed lol But I was very much into Scream and I Know What You did Last Summer, and I've always been into "whodunnits", so this was exactly my cup of tea. The only thing I didn't love as much was that they made "Ben" the killer, which was obvious.. I mean, the twin was obvious.

Yeah, I guess they wanted to expand the Deschanel, Torres and Cummings families, so they had to lose some people. But I felt really sad losing all the characters after year one. Even if I enjoyed some of the new characters like Antonio, Carmen and Emily. But it would have been interesting where Paula, Elaine, Mark, Rae and Tiffany would go. Why did Adrienne Frantz leave the show? Was she fired? Or did she leave on her own choice? I think she got hired at B&B right after, so I guess that was a win for her, but I wasn't sure if she left because of B&B or was she fired from SuBe.

Oh I mentioned earlier that Annie and Bette are some of my all time favorite soap characters. But I really loved Vanessa and Olivia and Gregory. Even Meg, although in retrospect, I think I would not love Meg today. She was so whiny Instead, I think today I would love Gabi more. I did not like her watching back then, but I think today's Manny would love someone like her more. Oh and Kelly Hu's character Rae was so cool, I really thought she could have been used better and more. Alas... Oh Francesca was awesome! And even if she was gone too soon, considering that the show ended in the same year I am happy we got the who killed Francesca storyline. I really enjoyed that. The cake scene was so campy and soapy

Oh yeah, I never found him to have chemistry with anyone (even Tiffany), and just found his acting really bad. Especially when he was in scenes with Lesley-Anne and Sam.

I think who they should have recast was Randy Spelling as Sean (or just dump his character, send him to school or something). I never cared for Sean or Randy Spelling. I know he was the boss' son, but he just didn't work for me. I loved Emily and Cristi Harris, and always thought she was so wasted on Sean.