Manny

I am currently in hate mode for this show. The way they made me feel tonight, I shouldn't allow a TV show to make me feeling. And yet here I am several hours later, angry and heartbroken.

I have been on a real high with the show last year, but during the last few months, I have cooled off sadly. I was really disappointed with Christmas, simply because I found the Cindy/Junior storyline such a weak storyline to be fronting Christmas. And then when that switched to a whodunnit, I cared even less, just because I felt it was such a poorly constructed storyline. I honestly don't think anyone (except maybe Junior) would have hit Cindy because she cheated. And whoever is revealed to have done it will be ruined, in my opinion (again, aside from Junior). I did enjoy Sonia/Reiss/Bianca stuff, but there was on such a long break from that story (I know, actresses went on vacation, but I don't care, I still blame the show for such bad planning and pacing of that story) and then I have a feeling now has been rushed through. So again, somewhat poor pacing. I hated Sonia's trial, when out of nowhere Sonia wanted to plead guilty, when I didn't understand why she is doing this, other than to push the plot. I enjoyed Sonia's discovery of the truth and the scenes where she confronts Reiss. Natalie and Jonny were both awesome. I didn't like Bianca just arriving out of the sudden and saving Sonia. But I am curious how this will go on now. I hope we deal with some PTSD for Bianca before both ladies leave the show. Phil and Nigel's storyline are amazing. I cannot find faults there (or can I ). I have really been enjoying them and the performances have been amazing. I was slightly disappointed with the special Phil 1985 episode, just because I thought it would hit me more, that I would be crying, but it didn't. I was taken out of the story when we would cut to the stag party or for some reason Linda's return (even though they tried to connect it to Phil's story, it didn't work for me). Also Jay and Sharon just leaving Phil, even though he almost broke down in front of Jay, yet he just left... So yeah... But I am still enjoying this storyline immensely. Denise's little instant love triangle is a disaster. Probably my least favorite storyline. Which is shame because Denise is one of my favorites. But she should be with neither of them. Jack is scum for cheating on her, Ravi is a drug dealing, children bridge hanging, kidnapper and murder and aside from Aaron Thiara being hot and charismatic, I don't get the appeal of Ravi as a character. There was no investing in Jack/Denise for months, they just got divorced (what was the point?!) and she clearly told him she sees him as a friend like two weeks ago and yet now suddenly she is choosing. Whatever. From technical perspective it is impressive that they created wrote and filmed two different paths, but for me it was a wrong storyline to invest so much time and effort in. I hate how the Six fizzled out. I hate how Tommy/Kat story fizzled out. I hate that Nugget is such a Nish worshiper now. I didn't get why Ian took Cindy back after the brick thing. I hate that Gina slept with Freddie, made no sense, both characters suffered A LOT for me here. George basically forcing Kojo to lie for him and be his alibi was a huge character assassination for me. The market storyline was probably one of the most boring things I have ever seen on a soap opera. And as much as I love Stacey/Martin, the whole addition of Ruby has been really dull. Okay, maybe "hate" is a too strong of a feeling, maybe it's just disappointment, but whatever.. So yeah... was great for a while, but last few months, the show did a lot of mistakes in my opinion. But weirdly enough, I am still excited for next week and for the 40th and the live show.

I have put this as my desktop background

Yes, same here. Basically all the young actors were unknown inexperienced newbies. As for the older actors, I only knew the actress that played the mother of the twins.. all of the other older actors were also unknown to me, and were also hit or miss.

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.