Skin

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.

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.

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.

If Sarah Michelle Gellar comes back as Kendell I am watching. She was a Firestarter during her early years on All My Children, and a crazy powerful dramatic actress. Her Buffy, her Kendell and her Katherine are all iconic characters in their own right, and she excelled at playing the emotions for all that they were, and always went beyond the writing to make her characters work, shine and penetrate through to the audience. I'll take her over watery Minshew every day of the week, and twice at supper. Minshew could play romance but that was it. Her fake coughing crying fits and Vivian Leigh voice overs were weak tea, compared to what Gellar could produce at the drop of a dime, which was always insane given that she was a teenager at the time. I loved how much SMG's Kendell hated Erica, it made the show so interesting, and her seething, palpable rage was captivating in a way Minshew just never was. SMG's Kendell was Carly, before Carly was even a thing. I agree with this. Reboots are a huge thing nowadays, with Buffy and Cruel Intentions not being picked up Sarah doesn't have a lot of opportunities to land in terms of reboots. Crazy to think that All My Children would be the project to raise her back up to notoriety again. Everything comes full circle.

I'm glad I waited to watch this, rather than looking at each episode piecemealed. The show didn't really start to get interesting until the last few minutes of episode 3 with the Wanda and Monica tension. The show really found it's stride from Episode 4 onward. Elizabeth Olsen deserves a Primetime Emmy in the Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series category, stat. Like I don't care what Disney has to do, just make it happen. She pretty much single-handedly made Disney's service a thing, that's worth tuning into beyond their bad screen for screen remakes. Episode 8 was brutal, but also what this entire series needed from the very beginning. I really can't walk around from this episode without a burning hatred for Tony Stark and Tyler Hayward. Literally such awful people, and I feel it would be justified if Wanda hated them for what they put her through. That scene where Tyler gaslights her, is enough to make me want to push his head in. Literally every sentence he said was designed to trigger her. The behavior is just disgusting. Desecrating Visions body in front of her, telling her she has no say in how she can mourn him, and that his body doesn't belong to her but the government -- it brought up really bad themes of slavery to me. Just beyond unfair. But she maintains control the entire time. It makes me even angrier that he basically created Ultron again, by creating a sentient weapon. Showing how Tony continues to be a scourge on this earth. In the end of the episode, I was actually glad to see her reject the reality that life gave her, and just sort of create her own in sheer denial and obstinance. I would totally do the same thing. I stan. Wanda gave herself the life she deserved, and I don't really see a problem with that, even though what she is doing is technically "wrong" with the mass brainwashing of an entire town. It's hard not to see this story as a bit political, or at least a commentary on gender? Women are constantly told to keep their emotions in check and that they can't get overly emotional, Wanda has to hold back against someone who deserves all of her anger, which is deeply unfair and unsatisfying. The idea that Wanda has this conga-line of grief and she is still seen as someone who deserves to be put down, and is dehumanized when it's men who put her in this position time after time, just makes me seethe. Especially since she came into S.W.O.R.D. peacefully, listened to them, let them point guns at her, threaten her, and walked away without much fuss. It's also kind of wrong that everyone in the universe gets a happy ending but her? It's kind of cool that they are finally adding Wanda's powers into the MCU, her powers have always been a bit confusing and I feel comic book editors have never known how to describe them: she impacts probability fields, she has magic, she warps reality, she has telekinesis, she reads minds until she can't, etc. Her capabilities are monstrous, but I guess that will help scale Phase 4 effectively. It's hard to not see her as the strongest Avenger moving forward. Even Agatha seems to be completely out of her league.

That's condescending as hell. 🤣 I know what the MCU is setting up for (we all do honestly, they aren't being subtle about it), that doesn't change my opinion on the topic, nor do I think it takes any weight away from what I expressed.

I'm waiting for all the episodes to drop so I can binge this, because I have no patience for Disney's slow drip. That said I am crestfallen that Aaron Taylor-Johnson isn't in this, and that he's been replaced. I felt even in his one appearance in Age of Ultron that he had great chemistry with Elizabeth, and they really sold the chemistry of being close siblings who had been through collective trauma together their entire lives. Peters just isn't the same, and kind of ruins the dramatic weight of that storyline and damages the pathos of what Wanda experienced in Ultron and Civil War. But I guess it kind of had to be him, as the original version would have been too sad, and he would compete with Wanda's grief over Vision.

This is hilarious. We saw Carly give birth to Morgan in 2003, during that panic room storyline with Ric. I personally think there is a sliding scale here on the spectrum. I recognize that soaps overall, have to compete with quarterly ratings 'sweeps' numbers that command them to do something to bring soap viewers in which is why you get these 'event' storylines such as fires, storms, illness viruses sweeping the canvas, serial killers, and more. You have to find a way to get people to show up continuously every three months (February, May, July and November) for the all mighty advertising dollars. But honestly I felt soaps would try to accelerate this even more than every other month, and they were trying to do it weekly with all the Friday cliff hangers, then they would try to do it daily, then they would do it in almost every scene. You can't keep viewers on the edge of their seats in every moment of every episode, every week, until infinitum. At least not with lower staked stories (and especially if you don't bother to build them up with pay off - which takes time). As such they went with these outrageous storylines that almost pre-baked itself with so much drama that it was sensational but not at all realistic (possessions, time travel, supernatural elements, etc.). There are tons of soaps that are successful by being grounded in the day to day, but they also don't have the "burdens" that soaps do. Soaps have to create 200+ episodes of programming a year, while a lot of primetime series just have to fill 10-22 episodes within 9 months. Bridgeton, Grey's Anatomy, ER, Desperate Housewives, and so on are all soaps. Just different kinds of them.

The Justin Timberlake stuff is honestly disgusting, as it's basically the only reason Justin had a career to begin with. He hitched his wagon to a bigger star, and he was able to separate himself from the rest of the boy banders and create an image of himself as a "man" precisely because he had Britney, who at the time was the hottest and most popular female star in the late 90's and early 00's. Kathy Griffin also said while they dated Britney, he was a controlling presence in her life. It's really sickening to hear that the reason radio played his songs was because he shared details of their sex life during his radio promo tours. He used her name so many times during the promotion of Justified (most of the songs were about her, or at least he played it off like they were), and then again with FutureSex/LoveSounds during the campaign with What Goes Around Comes Around. It's really a shame, how he got away with stuff like this, and how anti-women the early 00's were. We can see the way he treats women is awful: Janet, Britney, Jessica Simpson, etc.

But why doesn't the president tweet, and complain about things? We need the sound bites for our 24/7 news cycles Psaki. 😩

^ Times have changed, as has their relationship to Britney Spears and journalism overall. Journalists are the enemy now. Society now understands that Britney is not someone to be vilified anymore, and now someone who people should have treated more kindly. I was a huge fan of Britney during 2003, but I remember a lot of people disliked her and hated her once she matured into a young woman. She was shamed for being too sexual and being too provocative (not unlike Madonna during her "Sex" era), and Diane Sawyer was just one aspect of that culture shaming her for it. Britney was constantly harassed for not being virginal enough, and being too sexual for her audiences, and she wasn't allowed to "fight back", because she had to be the good girl and take the scolding. It was more important for people during that time to shame a woman, than it was to ask journalist to adhere to ethical standards. Sawyer just embodied the cultural zeitgeist at the moment. That doesn't age well with where we are in 2021. So progress I guess?

Yeah, I just disagree. I personally find it hard to see the point behind the "I didn't get my ship", members of social media who at max represent a handful of thousands of people. The show is still in the top 10 of most watched series on Netflix, so if the finale was hated so adamantly I find it hard to believe it would still be streaming so highly weeks after the series finale. There's a difference between Game of Thrones finale and this one. Even with stan twitter going off it seems like the legacy of SPN is well intact. The problem with a lot of the Destiel twitter fan arguments is that they just do this all the time. Everything is a smokescreen to make their objections appear more valid. They did this time and time again through out the series of the show. Jensen doesn't like the Destiel ship because he views his character as straight the fans start a campaign telling everyone who will listen Jensen is homophobic, writers post a tweet saying they liked the finale, twitter fans dox the writers into deleting it, on and on. It's just very obvious what they are upset with. Misha is a cast member who has fluctuated from being a regular to guest star to recurring over the period of 12 years, because he can't find a job elsewhere. He will do and say anything he can to remain on the show as long as possible, so he gets a paycheck and can remain employed. He will feed the fans of a particular ship because it gives him relevance to appear on the show long past his sell by date. If you are going to look at extraneous sources of data and make them valid as an argument to what the canon text says, then you also have to look at the biases implicit within those sources. Misha will say and do anything that makes him more important to the series and show. Saying that he loves Dean makes his character more important and increases his profile because then he can have more scenes with one of the shows leads. If Misha is saying something it's his opinion. Honestly Castiel's "I love you" was said back in season 13, and it was said to Jack, Sam and Dean and it was taken platonically. Now all of the sudden his "I love you" is romantic, when the context is more or less that same - he said both phrases as he was set to die. If the "I love you" was supposed to be romantic, it could have been written as "I am in love with you" to be more explicit. I'm looking at the episode counts and screen time and again I just don't see it. The only actors who have more than a season worth of episodes are: Rowena (33), Mary (37), Lucifer (38), Jack (39), Bobby (68), Crowley (67) and Castiel (146). This is a show that lasted 327 episodes. Bobby was actually in the finale - but the rest of these characters were on the show for less than 50% of the time it was even on. Some appeared for only 10% of the shows episodes, yet the argument is they should have been included in the series finale. I don't see the point of having a bunch of extras who only lasted a few seasons here and there to bloat an episode that was only going to last 45 minutes or less. When the lead characters, who this show is about have the equivalence of 8 seasons more airtime and screen time then they do.

I heard the 2022 map for Senate is very favorable to Democrats. They should do all they possibly can to pick up seats because 2024 is going to be rough.

He's the most powerful player in the Senate now that Democrats control the house. He is the most Republican of all the Senate Democrats by far.

I would say even with Castiel's confession of love, that is a very specific way to view the scene in that what Castiel is referring to is romantic love instead of familial love, which is kind of the problem. Fans of that pairing refuse to consider or think about anything outside of a romantic or sexual perspective when it comes to their ship. Even when the show has told them time and time again that no, that is not what is happening here. I am all for a death to the author perspectives, artists don't have control over their work or how people interpret it after their art work is released. I am completely onboard with that, but you can't deny aspects of the work because you don't like it, then draw your own conclusions that don't come from the sourced text, and then get upset when your perspective isn't validated by the artists larger and more subsequent creations, just because they are not what you want it to be. That's not what death to the author is, that's you getting upset because your fan fiction didn't become on text television. The Destiel fandom has done this for years now. It's so tiring. I basically think even if the CW and SPN writers wanted to throw the Destiel fans a bone, that fan base would take that inch and ask for a mile. The writers never should have engaged them in the first place because they never were going to be satisfied. Cas tells Dean I love you, and they still want more. The writers tell them Destiel is not going to happen and the fan base ignores them. If the writers don't have Dean say "I love you back to him", the immediate reaction from the fanbase is the network, actor and show writers are all homophobic and it's a conspiracy! They've even latched on to foreign translations from multiple countries to say that the CW is homophobic and is silencing Misha and Jensen. It's cringeworthy. Regarding the show and it's content and the idea that supporting characters are important, this show has always been the Sam and Dean show, they are the only characters that have appeared in all 327 episodes. The first supporting character in the series Bobby, didn't come on the show until the back end of season 1. There was and should have been a focus on them in the series finale given that it's their show. It's right on the tin, and has been on the tin for years now. That fan base of a very specific ship just refused to see it.