Skin

It was definitely this, honestly even in the 90's. Billy Douglas for all of his earth shattering firsts, was front burner for a couple of months for a huge summer story, and then by Christmas he was all but gone from the canvas before being quietly put on a bus to college never to be heard from again. This was a character that was written to have pretty strong connections to the Buchannan's and Reverand Carpenter. Even Marty Saybrooke was heavily involved in that story as an instigator. Bianca and Luke on AMC and ATWT seemed the most purposeful, but they lacked what the other had in excess. Bianca had wealth in terms of story, but no meaningful love interests. While Luke had multiple love interests but was often relegated to B or C list territory when it came to airtime. Will was well done from the beginning but was sort of sanitized for audiences, to be as unthreatening as possible. They even had him have a daughter with Gabby prior to him even touching Sonny to show the audience that Will was a male lead for Days. The transgender storylines on B&B (Maya) and AMC (Zoey) weren't much better proving to be quite messy, and uneventful. Daytime will never get a QAF or a Looking kind of representation, or a Hollyoaks or Emmerdale. I think like a lot of soaps the best is behind us. Morgan would have been a perfect opportunity character to be gay. Having him come into open conflict with both of his birth parents (Carly and Sonny) for being gay and finding solace and support in his siblings, and step parents would have been a strong story. It could also create some additional tension, and an extra dimension to the Jax and Sonny rivalry, and maybe even give some conflict between Carly and Brenda/Alexis where Morgan develops a stronger emotional support outside of his biological parents than in them. It also could have created an interesting reverse Jason moment, where as instead of driving himself into the mob, he goes the more morally acceptable route and becomes a sort of moral center character that denounces the mob mentality. Sort of like an Emily/Robin/Georgie/Lucky character. I think one of the problems with Daytime is the fear that once they label someone as gay, that cuts off romantic potential for many other characters. This is something Daytime has problems navigating. It's like they sort of have to pair the spares to create a pairing that is meaningful, and the characters are sort of shackled to each other the entire series (Luke & Will), or there is a will they or won't they, with a straight character, which is mostly just ship baiting (Bianca & Maggie).

I honestly couldn't careless about Howarth, Todd, Franco or the like but I also have to laugh at ABC putting their foot down nearly a decade after having this character suck up airtime endlessly and now they are having a crisis of faith saying "we don't feel good with this character leading story any more." I say this as someone who thought Howarth as Franco was hilaribad acting. The idea of ABC daytime being squeamish on anti-heroes and problematic leading men, when that's pretty much what they built ABC Daytime on in the aughts is a rib buster if there ever was one. The idea of them drawing a line in the sand now and saying "we care too much to let this happen!" is closing barn doors after they've been willingly torn down. This isn't crying over spilled milk, this is spilling milk, hoping it becomes cheese, and then crying when it produces mold. To be fair to the character of "Todd", he did have a storyline where he was wrongly accused of raping Blair and Marty Saybrooke sort of forgave him, without actually saying those words. That said, all of that "good work" was undermined when he raped Marty Saybrooke again when she had Amnesia, and then of course when it was revealed that Todd wasn't really Todd but a brainwashed twin who was designed to pick up where the old one left off. I honestly don't know what OLTL wanted us to feel about either Todd in the end, nor do I know what they want us to feel for Todd in the context of GH, but it's hard to say he doesn't fit in when we have to regularly watch Sonny, Jason, Peter, Julian, Jerry Jacks, and whoever else actively terrorize characters, and then watch them come home to milk, cookies and pie and say they feel really bad about it, so don't remind them of the pain and lets move on. All the while the writers pair these men up with female leads, and write them romantic stories like this is Bridgeton. That said it wouldn't be surprising to have Todd come in as apart of a larger business story for GH. Again not saying that I want Todd back by any stretch of imagination, but it wouldn't be a stretch to fit him in the screen or narrative. Birds of a feather and all that. It's honestly likely that Sonny, Jason, or whoever horrible person of the week who actively kills people would encounter a fellow shark like Todd.

I agree that they graduated and matriculated Belle and Shawn too early into domestic super couple status. But I also think a portion of that comes from the Shelle fanbase who wanted Belle and Shawn shacked up with a house and two kids immediately, once they established that Kristen Storms and Jason Cook had a following that NBC was all too willing to capitalize on. Days own preoccupation with their summer stories and demo's only escalated this. They skipped out on Shawn and Belle's character progression, but they've always been willing to do that if they got a super couple out of it. In an alternate reality I could see Belle having Sami's 2011-2012 story when she inherited Countess Wilemina, while seeing Shawn as something like Pacey was in the final seasons of Dawson's Creek. I could also see him as a sort of Private Investigator. +1 on Belle and Carrie being the same character, which could still work if they played in their own generational cohorts. I think this presents another issue with a lot of Days characters. They aren't able to mature or progress well past their initial story vision archetypes. Chole's character still feels steeped into what she initially was, this Phantom of the Opera ingenue who Brady fell in love with. Her other subsequent characterizations feel so far divorced from that, that I no longer really see her as Chole but someone completely different from what she was created as, but also no where near as poignant. Phillip feel much the same way, as does Shawn, Belle, Austin, Carrie and a number of Days characters. It's like they are frozen in time, cast into different roles but never living up to what they were initially designed for. Someone with vision is needed to mature these characters, but without the investment they are just old husks of what they once were. I also agree a thousand percent that Patrick, Rex, Cassie, Mimi, the Lockharts, etc. worked well overall from a story perspective to add some heft to the generational groupings that existed for the youngest cohort on Days. It gave them some dimensions to play and exist in a way that didn't before. Even Jan Spears could have been better utilized to bring out some different view points and colors to those groups to make things feel a bit different, and open up some some storylines.

I always felt AMC (and honestly all the ABC soaps during the 00's) ran on a three tiered leading actor/actress framework, and you could kind of tell from the way the airtime was distributed that ABC soaps worked by having a first, second and third preference actor/actress assembly line on who would drive story or story would revolve around. I always felt through out all of the 2000's it was decided very purposefully early on that Kendell and Greenlee were the top 2 actresses of All My Children, and would be aired most frequently. It was sort of up to debate based on writer preferences on who would fill the eventual third "leading actress slot". Be it Anna, Erica, Bianca, Babe, Annie, Dixie or Liza but it was always clear who the top 2 were, and that Kendell and Greenlee were the leading actresses/characters on AMC, if they ever left everyone else was just a placeholder until AMC could get them back on screen.

I don't think it was resentment so much as trying to put together two halves to make a whole. Alica's Kendell had the natural romantic affinity and chemistry to serve as a romantic leading heroine, while Rebecca's Greenlee had the tough as nails soap bitch exterior that exceled in driving business storylines, and paid off dramatic climaxes seamlessly. They were both short on what the other had in excess. Both were needed to produce a powerhouse dramatic soap lead. TPTB wanted both and couldn't find it. So they made them friends.

I think Tad was somewhere within the middle. I don't feel like they completely gave up on him, but I don't think he led story in his last days either. The show definitely tried to give him love interest, after love interest and see what worked. He was definitely seen as more independent from Dixie than she was to him. Honestly it felt like Dixie was completely defined by Tad, where as Tad felt like he could be paired by numerous female characters pretty easily. Ultimately I think they positioned Tad to be numerous things to numerous people and that's why he got on as much as he did. He was everyone's friend, he was a father figure to many characters, he had his rivalries, and he had multiple love interests. He could skate by on meager amounts of story because they could connect him to whatever they wanted to.

It's the Luke Supercouple syndrome. He was the male equivalent to a super couple, who the producers felt held most of the audiences interest more than the female equivalent (Dixie). Outside of that, I think there were several things that kept him on the canvas one of which were the number of relationships, (however questionable) that Tad was involved in. This likely fueled interest in him as a character. He was sort of a male Erica, just played for laughs. His relationships made him important to the canvas (Brooke, Liza, Krystal, Jenny, Kate, Jaime, JR, Dixie, etc.). He also served at the functional patriarch of the Martin's so I can see why he stayed. Add in his rivalries with David, Adam, and friendship with most of the cast and I think it all makes sense. As a character he was directionless, but he could be used to loop into stories when needed as a vet to add connection to the larger series. He was a bit of a legacy character and a major player in 80's and 90's storylines, and that payed dividends even if he had dead story in the 00's. Outside of Erica and Adam, he was a particular cornerstone of the soap. He also didn't really have a successor, extending his self life. Jaime as a character just sort of flopped after Justin Bruening left, which made Tad viable in stories thereafter.

I don't necessarily think that it was the character so much as the actors who played them, but I think the writing got much better when the roles were recasted. Greg Vaughn's Lucky and Billy Warlock's AJ got really horrible treatment under Guza but were better written or at least written with more dignity and integrity when Jonathan Jackson and Sean Kanan returned to the roles.

I don't see the point of giving Sami any sort of long term love interest if Alison is just going to swoop in and out with these short stints. Even with the deal she just signed, it sounds like she will only air for 2021 and then she leaves again. That's not worthwhile or really long term for anyone currently on canvas, especially on a soap. Writers need to be able to build stories, relationships and connections that last and endure past a year to keep the plot going. Her doing these Eileen Davidson based runs does favors for no one. The best this could do is set up a SORAS introduction with her kids Allie, Johnny and Sydney and use that as a jump off point to reintroduce them into greater stories. The only concern I have with that is that these kids will have virtually no anchor to the show, unless this new recasted EJ is supposed to be that for them in Salem?

I disagree that Ryan killed her character, Kendell was still viable all throughout 2002 and 2003 when she and Ryan were more or less on and off again. Ryan is actually her last interesting or inspired pairing, and him leaving her at the motel, as he rode off in the rain with his motorcycle is one of AMC's few iconic images from the 2000's. The Rendall pairing had vestiges of what made AMC really spark in the late 90's to early 00's. Ryan leaving her, and them reconciling is a testament to the growth her character faced during that period and is pretty much the best Alicia ever was in the role, along with the Micheal Cambias murder storyline that ran during that time period. That's the truly last time I can recall Kendell being a great or magnetic character in her own right, and when it felt like she was leading story independently. The Greenlee worship, was a subcomponent of her relationship with Zach. Kendell needed a forever BFF Girlfriend and Greenlee fit the bill, because they needed to have a comparable couple Zendell could double date with, and that was decided to be Rylee. Once Kendell was settled down with kids she ceased being Kendell, and all of her storyline's and autonomy went out the window. She was just Zach's wife. It says volumes that after Zach was paired with Kendell she was his damsel in distress until the show ended. She was locked and vacuum sealed as an appendage to his drama. Never did Kendell have as many comas, injuries, nor was she so constantly and consistently victimized and in peril as she was when she was with him. So much for the strong, fiery, independent woman that they were trying to craft Kendell into back in 2001-2003. All this to say it would serve Kendell as a character to be wiped of Zach and all of his associated drama if this reboot happens. It would certainly serve SMG's Kendell better in being a fleshed out and fully realized character.

Zach killed the character of Kendell and the sexiness of the character. I get the idea that they wanted to pair her with a long-term love interest. She was the equivalent to Pine Valley's bicycle/welcome wagon for most male characters but tying her down for so long really killed the growth of the character, and the stories she had from 2004 until pretty much the end of the series. The weird thing is that there were pretty obvious exit pathways to end the pairing, so I have to think the network executives and hire-ups liked them as a couple. They could have easily paired Zach with Maria, Dixie, Greenlee, Liza, or a number of other women during that timeframe.

All of this. If they add in the Vegas/Buchannan's star crossed West Side love story elements with Jessica and Cristian, Joey's role as a priest, and a gay Billy Douglass storyline and this show ticks off all of the boxes for a crazy CW/FOX soap serial.

I really wish MTV would have played into the Zeitgeist a bit more with this series. Especially with the social issues and needed conversations that America was going through in the 00's and beyond. They really were pioneers tackling conversations around Racism, AIDS, the LGBTQ+ community, Religion, Politics and important issues that a lot of programs were afraid to talk about. It really felt like this show was highlighting and putting issues on the map, and forcing conversations and points of views on so many culturally important topics in America. It later devolved into Real Housewives-esque drama after around the early 2000's, and was basically just trash television not unlike a lot of other reality tv out there. But the potential... Real World really had the potential to be important tv and a real life study. It's kind of a missed opportunity and a bit disheartening that we could have had a hands on live experience of Trumpism on full display if this series had focused itself appropriately. They could have focused the show more on real life events and important socio-political-economic topics. Instead they decided to chase ratings, and throw away the weightier conversations and dynamics that made the show as ground breaking as it was. It really felt like after the Las Vegas season they were just chasing boozy adolescents who would fight all the time. It's kind of crazy to think that in an alternate universe out there somewhere MTV could have changed the television landscape and matured into a hybrid music/education/culture barometer/news channel that adapted and tapped into important culture moments and led conversation and water cooler talk. But instead it devolved into a worse and worse reality television network and is now no different from Bravo, VH1, TLC and everything else that isn't worth a cable package. There is such a void for a socially conscious television channel not unlike what MTV was in the 90's with Jon Stewart, Jenny McCarthy, Daria and Real World.

It's interesting to me that the family hasn't issued a statement on not providing Meghan with the mental health resources she asked for multiple times? The racism charges has huge implications, but there is something deeply unsettling about the fact that the BRF didn't let her seek help when she needed it. To me that is just as egregious and just as sinister. I would have wanted them to say something about that. The fact that they only mentioned the racism comments is telling. They don't see any problem with the fact that they refused to provide Meghan with protection and help during her time of struggle.

It may be helpful to understand what exactly it is you take issue with regarding this interview? Because right now, it's kind of a tough road to understand your point? Meghan's interview didn't go out of the way to place blame towards anyone in the royal family, in particular. The bombshell of racism and colorism aside for Archie, she mostly just expressed and talked about how she didn't have help, support, or security and protection from the royal family and that she dealt with suicidal thoughts. I don't see what in particular could be argued as defamatory to William and Kate? It seemed to me that Meghan was taking aim at the institution in question, not particular members of the family. It was clear she shut that down in the first few minutes with Oprah, that she wasn't going to individually single out everyone in the Royal Family.

Yes. The portions around mental health, wellness, and well being are another example of BRF not making the right choices in providing those resources and support. Especially during a global pandemic. Those are damning reports. Harry and Meghan saying they would have stayed if they gave her protection and support is really bad.

That is another thing I find interesting. They take it as a slight against the Queen personally more than anything else. Everything else is kind of ignored, they just see it as this young entitled couple being mean to Grandma.

I kind of disagree with this, at least in my opinion I feel that Harry and Meghan are the ones who are the underdogs here, while the BRF has often been seen as holding all the power. I really just listened to them, and I feel I was pretty impartial overall. If anything I think people are predisposed (in the UK at least) to hate Meghan. I really didn't care one way or another, until I started seeing the overt displays of anger by the British people about how Meghan was a terrible person who couldn't you name it (dress, be presentable, do her duty, care for others, do her bit to the royal family, etc.). That made me skeptical and curious, and I figured I would watch out of curiosity. As such I kind of disagree that everyone's minds were already made up. Even to this day we still get British tabloids saying that Meghan is doing "damage control" and is Beelzebub, and Harry is stupid for liking her. It's like they have a never ending press machine to drag her and him through the mud. There are still endless comparisons made to make Kate look better by comparison. The power play here was never in Meghan's favor. It isn't in Harry's either. If people like them, it's in spite of the media narrative and powerhouse PR of the BRF.

I disagree the colorism and racism expressed here is a bit of a game changer (at least in my view) in that it made the covert and implicit overt and explicit here. The UK as a whole tends to presuppose that they as a nation are beyond racism, and that classism is the problem, issue or culprit and that they are more advanced as a society than the US is. This chinks that particular armor. Especially when Oprah and Megan together hit on the topic concerning Archie's skin color. They know how damaging that information is. That's not something that I think the BRF will get away with. It's one thing to speculate, and quite another to have it confirmed in broad daylight like that. I agree with this, I think audiences will be unsympathetic to the fact that the BRF hasn't changed at all since Princess Diana 24 years ago. That's a long time to be on the "wrong side" of history. I've noticed more and more people from England coming out of the woodwork lately talking about how Diana was horrible, though, which makes me think the English are regressing and circling the wagons now that Harry and Meghan have left. I also agree completely that the British Royal Family serves a role not unlike that of the President of the United States, in that the BRF is a symbol of British pride and nationalism. I used to think it was a good thing to have a Queen in that it seemed there was a separation from pride from country (Queen) and politics (whatever political party you favor) instead of having them enmeshed in on another. In the US the President is a symbol of both nationalism, nation pride, and politics. In this a lot of American's view citizens not supporting the president as wanting America to fail. However it looks like now at least, the British Royal Family is protected in a similar way. There initially was a lot of talk when Meghan was first announced and married Harry, that she could "modernize" the Royal Family. It's interesting to note how that never came to pass.

I agree with this, I personally thought the finale was amazing for what it was but it could have used an additional hour at least, likely 2 for all that they wanted to pack into it. I think the pacing for the series as a whole was a bit off. They wasted 2-3 episodes on sitcom stuff, when what people really wanted was the House of M backdrop that came at the tail end of episode 3 and most of episode 4. When we finally got to the mythos of "The Scarlet Witch" as a concept, the series had a little under an hour left and it was over. I get that Feige thinks that 6 hours is the "perfect spot" for the MCU television series, but if that's the case, they need to space it out a bit better. "The Scarlet Witch" concept as a whole deserves at least 2 episodes in it's own right to really digest and grasp. If you integrate the Scarlet Witch mythos, the needed exposition, and include Agatha and Wanda's showdown, that's a solid 2 episodes. Wanda dealing with the outrage of the entire town could have been extended both her coming to realize she is hurting people, while at the same time bringing down her alternate reality and having to atone for it. Those beats alongside her losing her family -- that's an additional episode right there. Vision v. Vision and the resulting Sword drama is also another episode in itself, which is needed to really pay off the season. Darcy just disappearing was weird and the SWORD stuff overall just felt short-changed. Did anyone else get the sense that Wanda didn't really remove her kids from being, and that she just sent them to a pocket dimension somewhere to exist and she could just keep an eye on them? The series finale overall just felt very hopeful, which was such a strange contrast to the 8th episode, which was filled with despair. I totally got the sense that White Vision would come back to Wanda eventually, and that she could pluck her kids back into existence whenever she wanted to again. Agatha getting brainwashed was delicious just desserts as well.

This performance has peaks and valleys, portions of it are really sad, while other portions just seem overly done, had Lucci just picked one emotion instead of going all over the map I think this could have been a devastating reel. 00-:45 is a perfect encapsulation of loss :46 -1:26 psychological break / I'm not ready to say goodbye, anger towards anyone who will take her away from me 1:26 - 1:45 Mother is now alive and trapped in the coffin? Too many transitions. Had Lucci played one emotion straight or made one transition this would have worked. But she flips too much within too short of a timespan and it becomes overwrought.

I think we are talking about two slightly different things, you are talking a bit about audience reception (Black Panther and Captain Marvel, were much more popular and well received than Marvel likely predicted), and I am referring to network/executive focus, which scheduling and prioritization of which films go first is apart of. Spiderman having two films per phase is Iron Man level focus (he also had two films during Phase 1 of the MCU), that feels like he is being pushed above and beyond the other heroes, by MCU's leadership team. The only reason I mentioned this, is because I think it can forecast or project how the MCU will push "prized" projects in the future. As much as Feige claims that Captain Marvel will be the most important character moving forward in the MCU it just doesn't feel that way when we look at investment dollars and place them side by side dollars to donuts. Maybe they do want to invest (similar to them wanting to invest in Black Widow back in 2015 but no dice), but that investment hasn't actually happened, at least from what we can see. I just hope the MCU doesn't forget about the characters that got them here, and made it possible for them to purchase back the rights of the other franchises they previously sold off (X Men, Fantastic Four, etc.). That's my main concern with Phase 5, that they will pretty much forget the rich history they've developed because they got their new and favorite toys back, and are all too ready and keen to reset their stories, make a huge cash grab with their most identifiable properties and forget about the characters who made the MCU possible, and the Avengers as a larger concept. This could all be over speculation, but it does feel like the prioritized individualized characters and properties right now has been Spiderman, and for awhile. Sunsetting Captain America and Iron Man aside, they've been keen to promote Spiderman over Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Dr. Strange -- the base of the MCU Phase 4 going forward.

This is one of the television series I have literally no expectations for, as it feels like such an odd match up -- their time in Civil War not withstanding. For so long Bucky has been tied to Steve, that his story now seems to be a sort of echo or inverse of what Steve's original arc was. A man lost in time, that's suffered tremendous PTSD, and now is trying to live in a world that has moved so far past him, dealing with issues that are very much beyond him. All through out Civil War and even Infinity War Bucky just seemed so tired, and determined to accept his fate, however grime it was. He was so resigned in the fact that his life was not his own, and had all but given up hope it seemed. All in all it just seems odd that Bucky's story and narrative would not be tied with Steve's, considering Bucky is Steve's entire arc. It's an open slate on where he ends up at the end of this. Sam's journey is also a blank slate, so I guess we'll see how they mesh together, and how the MCU is looking to create a story around the first Black Captain America. Captain America was so important to Marvel's first 3 phases, but sometime during the middle of phase 3 that importance began shifting more towards Thor, the Galaxy based storylines and eventually zeroing in on Spiderman as the new base. He basically ended up eclipsing Black Panther and Captain Marvel, even though their initial films did better. He got 2 films inside of 2 years, in addition to his back-pilot/cameo in Civil War. It will be interesting to see if Phase 4 will refocus back to Captain America as the base of the Avengers (my bet is not, based on the films they have already announced). Maybe by Phase 5, Mackie will lead it, or if he will just be like an Ant Man equivalent now that Marvel has their properties back, and they will forget about their old toys in favor of the new.

Felicity was on Hulu not too long ago. They took it off, while I was mid-binge and I had to use the ABC app to finish it. But always good to see Hulu add more content.

Minshew's Kendell was still being formed her first two years in. It felt like she was chasing SMG's ghost, or trying to redefine the character in her shadow. AM's Kendell reached her zenith somewhere around 2003, with the Micheal Cambias storyline as a character who felt independent and fully realized, but it still wasn't quite the same. SMG's Kendell was a force of nature, AM's Kendell was a long lost dog desperate for Erica's approval. Once Kendell was "accepted" into the Kane family AM's Kendell ceased to really be a character. Anything past 2004, wasn't Kendell anymore, but a non-descript soap heroine that had Erica's DNA, and so she had to lead the show. The writing and narrative for Kendell also suffered from 2004 onward. Minshew was a romantic leading actress, I don't think she worked as a soap bitch much either, but that could have been because Budig had that market thoroughly cornered during her tenure there. If Llanview is a thing I would love to see Billy and Joey apart of it. The Vegas should also be a main stay of Llanview, if that's a thing. So much can be mined from Christian and Antonio. I also wouldn't mind a return or a revamp of the Christian and Jessica story, and their star crossed love story. That would likely play well with socioeconomic and class tensions and a grittier soap story.