Skin

Natalie trapped in the well sounds like such a Disney story to me.

I actually liked Ryan's retcon, a lot just because it put a kabosh on the whole Lavery's were born evil thing and lightened up Ryan as a character. Ryan was always at his best when he was a romantic lead or a supporting dramatic player. I hated it when Megan brought that back for the sole purpose of giving Ryan siblings that never existed before. To add further insult to injury they gave him that good awful domestic abuse storyline that pretty much ruined his character. I never thought LH had a lot of charisma. She always seemed very subdued and boderline bored with her material. She had nice lady chemistry with Eden's Bianca, but I never thought Maggie had legs as a character which is why bigger character personalities always overwhelmed her in stories. The whole domestic abuse with Jonathan story dragged in part because she was a weaker dramatic player. I personally think she has more of a personality on Y&R as the scheming Chole then she ever did as Bianca's sometime lover on AMC. As to if they ever tried to get Maggie to comeback, I doubt it. Pratt was only thinking about getting his favorites to work on the show and if that meant destroying Bianca's character to get there then he did it.

I'll admit my bias against the JR character just to have the discussion above board. I truly have a problem blaming anyone for his behavior from 2004 onward because there were so many times JR should have stopped himself and realized he was going on the wrong path. There were so many ignored epiphanies on his part in the last seven years of his character development that I find it extremely hard to find him in anyway to be a sympathetic character. The reason why I say I personally don't blame Dixie for the way he turned out is because she was largely considered to be the perfect model mother in all ways. JR had the best parental relationships growing up with Tad and Dixie when they showed them as a family unit. Dixie was always his primary care giver and there was no sense that she was a poor parent or a poor provider to him in anyway, so from childhood to late adulthood JR had a perfectly stable upbringing. Things only got "rocky" during his high school period and by that point Dixie had already "died". At the end of the day Dixie's health was in jeopardy, I would imagine JR would be at the age where he would understand that his mother was sick (she already had a failing heart which was why she needed David to treat her in general) and that she needed better care in another country. I don't believe JR at that age (17-19) wouldn't understand why Dixie left to seek better health care. As far as Dixie's death being a reason for his decline I would give him leeway in that and agree that most certainly should have an effect on him. That most certainly could have aggravated his ill habits and behaviors with drugs and liquor at an impressionable age. The fact that Adam and Tad didn't discipline him better during that period is egregious. But how long are we going to excuse his behavior with this excuse? JR was far beyond the pale before he was told Dixie faked her death back in 06'. JR had already drugged, framed, hired hitmen, gaslighted, blackmailed and nearly killed six or so people by that point in his character history. I say this because I really don't think JR's depravity in 2004 is appreciated fully. I always hear how JR was "betrayed" by the Martins, yet I almost never hear about all the things JR did before which caused them to turn their backs to him. Why would anyone, let alone Tad condone the kinds of behavior JR exemplified in the above sentences? Why would Tad or Jaime for that matter support someone who did all of the mentioned above things to them, their friends and other innocent people? JR was certainly no angel through out 2004 and 2005 and this was prior to Dixie's secret. I imagine once JR nearly killed Jaime and had him framed and jailed for something he didn't do Tad would wash his hands of him. I can't imagine why Tad would have this unyielding loyalty to JR after JR caused actions to nearly have two or three people killed. Especially when JR was dead wrong in doing the things he did and he and everyone else knew it. JR is the one to blame for his own actions and he is to blame for the people in his life turning his back on him. Why? Because JR purposely did evil, hurtful, malicious things to his own family and to people he said he loved before those people ever turned their backs on him. The truth of the matter is JR screwed with Jaime first, and then expected like the spoiled brat he was for Tad to be on his side, even when JR was wrong. The fact that Jaime and Tad hurt JR is superseded by the fact that he hurt them all first. I just don't agree. JR's early life if nothing else was relatively peaceful. JR was an infant during the time of his custody battles and through most of the horrors Adam inflicted on Dixie, he was a toddler when Tad died. So he wouldn't remember any of those bad times. Most of the time he grew up under Dixie's care and he had a good life in Pigeon Hollow from what we know. Adam didn't start becoming more involved in JR's life until much later late 90's in the earliest as Adam was obsessed with Liza by that point in show history. But even still his primary influences were of Tad and Dixie with Adam popping in every now and then when he felt his legacy was being threatened by a Martin. The first true rough spot JR truly experienced was as a teenager when Dixie found out Tad had cheated on her and then Dixie cheating on Tad with David. That was also the first time JR actively started acting out with drugs, attacking David and him going to Adam to bail him out of trouble consistently. JR was more or less considered a capable adult by that point. JR's downward spiral never had any catalyst to me and that's largely why I find him so unsympathetic. He's just a loser for no reason. When all logic tells us that he should at least be a functioning human being yet he became a sociopath who had no compassion for other humans. All the other things JR went through Babe's infedilities, Jaime and Tad's "betrayals" and Dixie's lies happened when he was an adult who should be capable of handling these things in the manner in which an adult would. Not shooting people, drugging people, framing them for your own crimes and trying to kill them. The show would have done a better job if they went the Jonathan route with him and given him some kind of mental illness that caused him to react this way. As it stands the character simply made no sense. His character overhaul from being Dixie's boy to Adam's son never translated well with me at all.

Say what you will about Megan but I always thought she was generally good at creating social events that moved story quite quickly. She also did the Mardi Gras Ball as well and that pushed several stories forward. Megan knew how to play the game more then most and she always had relatively good/strong/interesting sweeps stories to keep people watching for the most part. I don't think she gets enough credit for the good things she did for this show. Bringing back Janet Dillon for instance was a gold mind it really made the show so much more interesting for about five months or so before Dixie landed in 06'. I think one of the worst things about AMC in the last few years was that the show seemed so insular in so many ways, and an extension of that was due to the poor use of sets and the lack of diversity in PV. You really only had a hand full of sets for the show and most of them were homes and apartments. You never really felt the show had a community environment much of the time. You just had endless sets of apartments and houses. Very little outside establishments and places of business. I don't really remember much of JR prior to Ridings. Can we codify them real quick? What were the JR's most memorable for? I know McCartney dealt with the decline of Tad's cheating and their break up and Riding ran away. Jesse McCartney - ? Bennings - ? Ridings - ? She never should have came back for her 05-07 stint. Moreover that entire Di storyline at the end of 05' never should have happened. The impact that Dixie was alive could have been a bigger deal had she just comeback at the end of the show like they planned just before for the cancellation. That was the best way Dixie could have came back. I hate how the show used her like a yo-yo whenever they needed a sentimental appearance for the Martins and Chandlers it gave her no gravitas as a character. I don't hate her. I just think she was overrated and over important. I remember reading a publication that once said she was the "heart" of All My Children shortly after her 07' death and I just never felt that way. I could agree about that statement with Eden Rigel's Bianca or Debbie Morgan's Angie. But I never felt that way about Dixie in her most recent interpretations. I never got the Liz Hendrickson love, she is a very understated actress though so I can see why she would work on Y&R. That kind of actress just can't work on AMC though. Was she better/different as Frankie? That seems to be where most of her fan support came from and then the audience just accepted her as a long lost twin. Interestingly enough I liked Kendall here more then I liked her during her last few years. I can't believe how utterly and completely Zach wrecked her character. The person Kendall was from 02- early/mid 04' was exactly who she was supposed to be and once she was paired up with Zach she completely lost any viability as a character in my eyes. You just slowly saw all the life seep out of her. It happened with all of the members of Slavery. Greenlee should have left after Leo did. Kendall should have went to jail for killing Micheal Cambias, Ryan should have never came back in 03' and Zach should have left with Maria. The characters themselves just became so redundant and pointless so quickly after they were created. Trey had so much raw potential as a character. It's a shame he never took off. This screams of writers wanting Dixie to be perceived one way character wise (sainted mother) while writing her another (the cheating). I think it is obvious that the writers didn't want to write her this way but I am sure Cady wanted Dixie to have more "edge" in order to justify Dixie as a character instead of just Tad's wife. Hence why both times when she came back she was saddled with grey characters like David (98-02') and Zach (05-07') instead of utilizing her familiar role as mother and wife. Didn't Adam kill Gloria's baby though, by locking her in a room and not helping her when she said her baby was in danger? I never got over that. To me that's one of the reasons I could never like Adam as a character. His evilness was just extraordinary and I didn't find it charming or interesting, I just found it sick and depraved. It doesn't shock me at all that someone would want to shoot him after all he did to people in the Pine Valley community. I disagree here, Dixie got a lot of crap when she returned back in 06'. It was just starting to get better by the time Dixie died in 07' but I generally do think she paid for her mistakes in terms of having people pissed off at her for staying away for so long. I also can't blame her for JR ending up the way he did. I honestly think JR was just messed up from the start. He was always a written to be a character who couldn't cope with hardships and had very little resilience in the face of adversity and I don't think that can really be blamed on Dixie. JR had a relatively good childhood all things considered. He wasn't abused, mistreated, neglected or in anyway treated badly as a young child. So I can't blame Dixie for JR's problems once JR went into adulthood. I don't think you could even blame Tad for that matter he was so rarely around until JR's teen years. For example look at how Jaime is and compare it to how JR ended up. Night and day, even though they both had the same parents.

The biggest problem with Glee will always be the character development. These characters don't act realistically at all which wouldn't be a problem if their actions made sense or there was some kind of arc, reason attached to their development. Even the catalyst for most of their problems and the way the resolve them don't really make sense either. It's like they are in some bizarro world or something. I remember in the first season where everyone in the club kept the fact that the father of Quinn's child was not Finn but Puck. Finn believed he was the father of the child because Quinn tricked him into it. Everyone in the club went along with it because "it was Quinn's choice" and they didn't want to "blow nationals" by telling Finn the truth WTF? How can there be 13 characters and not one of them has an ounce of morality in them to see that what Quinn was doing was wrong? And worse yet both Rachel and Puck were said to be in the wrong for exposing Quinn's lies! Ridiculous especially considering Quinn was on the side having dates with Puck even while she was Finn's girlfriend. Fast forward to season two, Quinn and Rachel are friends, Finn wants to get back together with Quinn because they "have firework chemistry" and Finn has completely forgotten the fact that Quinn cheated on him and lied about her child's fraternity. Quinn has completely forgotten she had a child at all and now is all about becoming Prom Queen and achieving something in high school because she knows she won't amount to anything after high school is over. She just accepts this line of thinking, doesn't try to change it make herself better. She doesn't aim for college, doesn't aim to work a trader, anything, she just wants to be Prom Queen and be popular. Fast forward again to season three Quinn is a delinquent and supposedly everything bad that happened to her is a result of the fact that she lost her baby since she put her up for adoption two seasons ago, after she went an entire year not giving a second thought to her baby! The character work is just unbelievably messy. I am sure you could find horrible development for most of the side characters. I like Rachel a lot. She is probably the cornerstone character for the series and she seems to be the only character who consistently grows and who's characterization is deep enough that it doesn't change by the episode. Finn, Quinn, Puck, Mercedes, Tina, etc. all of them change so frequently and so ridiculously that there isn't a point in investing in them. They are all so shallow. The only characters I like are Santana, Artie, Brittany and Rachel. The rest are useless.

Ratings 7.01- 2.1 7.02- 1.8 7.03- 1.6

You could add in Nip/Tuck to that list too. I really don't think Ryan Murphy knows how to write a series. He coasts solely on shock value and (ill) humor. I don't think a single one of his characters are likable or sympathetic. They all come off so deeply problematic and self-absorbed.

All of her songs have been doing well. Every single from this album has been a top 10 hit. Only bad thing is that the album sales have been a bit slow but that's pretty much the norm now.

She performed this on a German Award show.

This song is getting major airplay from Top 40. I think it's a grower personally. That chorus is pop genius.

I thought Livvie was one of the most defined characters on the show. She started out as the young ingenue and due to actions lead by Alison and Caleb she ended up being this bitchy villian, but really even when she was only one half of herself (Tess being the other half as she was split into two people) she was more human and had more depth to her then most of the other characters combined and magnified. She was easily the most interesting character study out of all of the characters on Port Charles because of the fact that she her journey was so interesting and poignant to watch. Livvie was the best part of the show for me just out of the simple fact that she was such a tragically flawed character who always got the short end of the stick even when it wasn't her fault. I hated Alison. I have to think that she is seriously the worst character on the show. She wasn't interesting, dynamic and she had no depth to her. EHP wasn't good at all and I agree with your sentiment that EHP should never land on another soap ever again. She was just that wooden as Alison. No chemistry at ALL. Livvie was a much more fleshed out and interesting character and it's so sickening to see all of Livvie's friends and FAMILY turn on her for that airhead.

I loved Livvie. Man was one of my all time favorite soap characters. There was so much depth within her and it's so sad that she was always turned down for the door knob Alison.

Me too

I've been liking Meredith alot more this season then of any other season of Grey's. I don't know why. I just find that she seems to be alot warmer lately. Ellen is doing something right I don't know if she finally laid off the botox this season but it seems she is actually acting and she seems to be doing a better job then season 2. She was horriable season 2 alright and a little green in season 1 but much better this season IMO. I find myself liking her more and more lately. I wish she would of picked Finn. I liked the actor and thought he was cute and It would have been nice if she would of picked him but he got screwed over. I'm not understanding Derrick at all this season. He is everywhere. He goes from wanting Meredith to stepping aside from her and then from apaethtic all in under three episodes and it makes no sense. I hate how out of no where they mentionmed that Derrick hurt her when it wasn't even mentioned back in season 2. We just got a brief i'm sorry and we allm moved on so I don't see how that could have been such a big pivitol change in his desicion. I'm not caring at all for the Burke story or Christina. I feel she has become isolated from the group way too much. She seems to detached from the rest of the cast. George's story for me goes no where. Cali and George's flip flopping isn't interesting and Sloan going into complicate the relationship even more does nothing for me. What will Addison do? Will she leave? Will she forgive Mark? Will they run away together? Mildly interested. Ditto with Izzie's story.

I thought the premiere was great. It started off kind of slow but the ending was amazing. Addison at the end when she put the panties on the bulletien board wasn't expecting that. I think she knows. The flashbacks were amazing. Loved the Derk and Meredith one as well as the one with Addison and Derek and the one with Izzie and Kerev. Meredith has Mcvet and Mcdreamy vying for her affections now. I liked Cali and George in this episode and I usually dislike them. At the end with Christina and Burke amazing acting. She just broke down and said don't ever die. Which was new she almost never breaks down and she did after Danny's death. Seeing Izzie's struggle was a good underlying theme. Izzie and Mere have the best friednship chemistry there scenes were really good. Ellen almost never cries or give much emotion but she did in this one she was very warm and caring threw out the entire episode and it's a major acting improvement she seems more like a protaginist now where as in the last two seasons she seemed soo detached, cold and desperate. I feel like her acting has improved tremendously. She was soo good in the bathroom gloor scenes and with Cali, Derek and McVet and I don't know I got a better feel from her then her previous work. These actresses continue to work. Word about Miranda Bailey she was amazing in the Quarentine.