Cat

Omg you read my mind! That is exactly the space filler I was thinking of. Usually it's a 1 minute scene involving Liesl Obrecht running into a random character in the hospital corridor. "Ahhhhh Ccccarly Corinthos! Who are you checking on in ze hospital today, hmmmmm???" Followed by a close-up of Carly's guilty-looking face and DUN-DUN-DUN music. its lke being mugged by Joey Tribiani's Soap Opera Stare. And the 10-second, next-day preview, stuffed with 5 different scenes coming at you at the speed of light? It's a wonder that hasn't triggered any epileptic fits.

The dialogue was top notch. As @Vee pointed out, the breakdown writers at the time were the best in the business and knew how to bring in multiple layers for Guza to tease open again at a later date. I think GH had a strong production team, left over from the Riche days, who knew how to run a show and never leave it flagging. I like GH today, i guess, but the shortness of scenes gives me whiplash sometimes. It's like soap as written by Twitter: 200 characters or less per written scene. The lighting and dark neutrals gave GH this shadowy feeling of Port Charles being this murky northern city where most things take place at night. And Tamara was IMO a compelling star. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Not as virtuoso an actress as SB, but she had a certain inexplicable IT factor which made her a natural leading lady.

RHOM I know people must be in shock at the VPR news that exploded today -- I don't even watch the show, but gotta give it to those milennials for likely reinvigorating Bravo"s future ratings-- but I wanted to give props to Miami which is almost single-handedly keeping Peacock afloat. A perfectly judged finale. Marina, as we all knew she would, dumping Lisa for her precious son Lenny. His new paramour is also Russian, so I guess that works for her. Julia & Martina on a loved-up date was poignant given what we now know is Martina's cancer diagnosis. Adriana meeting world-famous producer Emilio Estefan... my jaw dropped. He is legitimately HUGE. I only know Fiyah and the Miami theme song in her repertoire, but they are both great songs so I have hope for the one he will produce. This is a great cast so I hope Peacock doesn't dump anyone. Some unkind people on social media have advocated for Julia to go, but I really hope she doesn't. She brings kindness and a quirky normalcy to the show. I'm still not convinced Larsa and her pot-stirring is the be-all. What other SL did she have, apart from her grey skyscraper apartment? Marysol looked so petty not accepting Adriana's apology. Alexia, I can understand. But Mary Sunshine has always had one eye on what she thinks gives her leverage on the show.

I used to rag on Guza's GH so heavily back in the day on this very board! Rewatching this clip now, this looks like high-budget and tightly-plotted compelling drama. Tamara Braun in her dark-hair-kissing-on-Lorenzo phase (my favorite TB era) looks gorgeous and Kelly Monaco has never looked more fresh-faced. I am in awe of the expansive multiple sets.

Oh $hit After outsmarting his ex-wife on the pre-nup front, Demon Darby is going out of RHOP with a bang. I imagine the judge would throw this out based on 'this is what you sign up for when you do reality TV.' In other news, Gizelle's uterus is now suing Candiace for defamation after she called it "dwindling."

Queens of Bravo posted before me, but i didn't even know about it til this morning 😶‍🌫️ But yeah, looks like lots of people figured Drew was trying to beat Ralph to filing. And thought of the Paris Hilton meme.

Ugh! Lots of people at my office here unwell this week. Feel better, Taoboi! A pic from Happier Times:

Drew knew he was heading to file, so she grabbed her assistant's phone and, pretending to be said assistant, texted him to meet her right away "cuz i rly need to tell u something important." Thinking he might be getting some, Ralph made a quick detour away from the courthouse, allowing Drew to: Right? Even if she beat him by an hour, it feels like this divorce was his impetus from the get. She may not have wanted to be seen as the one who got served divorce papers.

"God knows he's not perfect" --- to say the least! I feel bad for her that HE filed first, and it feels a bit Lennyesque -- like he has someone waiting in the wings. Ralph on his way to Tampa now:

Please tell me RHOA is currently filming.

RHOP Gizelle showed her true face last night and it was ugly. She told Wendy she hated her how many times? Even to the point of co-signing Wendy's assault. And then playing dumb with Candiace about what colorism means in the context of the show. Petty and embarrassing considering her family's history advocating for civil rights. She is awful and I'm hoping she doesn't return next season. What does she even bring? Andy had to twist her arm to get her to talk about her children/the operation. She expected him to give her a pass, and that is so reflective of how she operates on this show -- she is used to Production letting her skate by. The irony is not lost on me that the women with husbands who engage in predatory behaviour try to pin it on the husbands that don't as a deflection tactic. Karen was mostly silent apart from her great insertion in the colorism discussion. She seems very over the show and I wonder if she'll even want to return next season. Wendy talking about the assault was heartfelt. Mia just lies for the sake of it. A really good reunion episode, I thought. Candiace laid out her points so well, and I'm glad Andy held Gizelle's feet to the fire.

In all our Westen societies, for women especially, beauty is associated with youth. But because Miami is hot, humid and beachy, with a sexy-sophisticated LatAm ambiance, that beauty is perpetually on display in a sexy swimsuit. Like Dr. Nicole, she is an anesthesiologist with a body that is the most gorgeous I have ever seen on any HW ever. Part of that is the weather and lifestyle.

I felt bad for Adriana. She's in a funk right now, and wanted Alexia to empathize with her, and Alexia doesn't want to know. It must be hard to be in your 50s, alone, feeling like your life didn't work out. In a city like Miami, where women's value is built on a premium of youth and looks. She is obviously thinking about how she will support herself in those conditions. Is she viable as a partner? is she viable as a hire in the art world at her age? Adriana is asking some of the questions I, in my late 40s, am asking myself -- but coming up without answers. To feel abandoned by your friends rubs salt in the wound. Honestly, I was feeling for both Julia and Adriana during the episode -- even though Adriana lashed out and said an awful thing about Frankie in order to hurt Alexia. And her foot was not broken! So she brought this on herself. But Alexia, Marysol and Larsa needed an excuse to hate and ran with the opportunity. They will be looking to exclude Adriana from the group from here on in. But after this episode, can we really keep Adriana and Marysol as only FOHs? They dominated the episode, especially Adriana. And her new song really is FIYAH. Interesting what you say about Alexia being a beta thinking she's an alpha. She swept into that restaurant leading the pack looking like an alpha. IMO Alexia is the alpha and Marysol does her dirty work for her, but I will be looking more carefully now to see if Marysol is really running the show. Was great to see Lisa with Lea Black dispensing wise advice. I would love Lea Black back on the show. I think she adds another element. I knew Marina would pick her son when push came to shove. I think her sympathy is with Lisa overall but I bet Lenny threatened to not let her or Peepaw see Logan & Elle, so that's why she's changing her tone. I think those grandkids are everything to her.

I cannot wait either! I've been looking forward to RHUGT 3 since BravoCon. But first, a few bitchy comments: I can never recognise Whitney in Bravo photos anymore. She is that generic-looking! Why do they keep putting Gizelle centre stage in that photo and in the trailer? Is she the narrator? The new Bethenny? The trailer reminded me why nobody misses Leah. I loved Candiace questioning Porsha about the marriage. You could see by the look on Porsha's face she didn't like it one bit. This is why she left RHOA and won't film with Bravo -- she doesn't want to answer any questions relating to that mess. I got the ****ing chills [(c) Whitney] when the Thai handler called them out on the fake scripted stuff. This really hits home given the turmoil Bravo has been having the last few years and with Robyn most recently.

Right, what would that look like? The current audience, ageing as it is, is not about to stream Y&R if it's going to be All Change. They will stream if they know EB, MTS and PB are going to be part of the new version. Otherwise, the show wouldn't be recognisably Y&R. These and a cluster of other stars, represent the last link to the 'old' Y&R that viewers loved.

I was just coming on here to say the Y&R writing team has been replaced with Josh + ChatGPT. I find this heart-breaking. Soaps need a writing team, even a small one, so a HW can bounce off ideas, or bring in different writing approaches, champion different characters and SLs. I know the budget is nil and asphyxiating the show, but that's when you need the writing to deliver on the character level. It needs to be compelling despite the slashed budget. But I'm not sure any soap, let alone JG's Y&R, has the kind of 1970s creative ingenuity, where Daytime EPs, HWs and crew seemed to make silk purses from sows' ears almost daily. Whatever my personal view of soaps these days and Y&R, I feel awful for breakdown writers like Sara Bibel, Simone Hawthorne, Susan Banks, Natalie Minardi Slater, et al, all for whom Y&R was a labor of love -- at a time when my own belief in the genre has fallen off a cliff. Their dreams of turning the show around and giving it life have been irrevocably dashed. They likely will never return to Daytime/Y&R as they pivot to more viable other genres. This is a no-turning-back point for Y&R IMO. It has been largely unrecognisable the past 10-15 years, but now it is going to be worked into the ground. I'm wondering if, in a copycat move, it will be reduced to a 20-30 minute show and moved to CBS's streaming service.

I can't either! I think you are going to be energised by this great season. Entertaining, funny, dramatic. It has restored my faith in RH. And I love that Lea Black is back for a brief visit. One thing about Lea: she has a lot of common sense.

RHOM Lea Black is back! ...with a coffee table full of her beauty products, LOL

The beauty of this RHOP reunion is the other women refusing to tip-toe around the fakers and ready to call them out (unlike, say, RHOBH). The way Candiace excoriated Ashley re: the non-prenup and "decorations meant to distract you" was a thing of beauty. ~chef's kiss~ Candiace used her wordsmithery for good. I assumed for a long time that Ashley was smart, playing the long game. She is not and exposed her own embarrassing laziness & stupidity. She's so busy trying to smear the Bassetts with lazy lies, she forgot to work on her actual future. Cryptkeeper Darby now has her on a very short leash begging for scraps. Candiace also destroyed Gizelle and I hope this continues in the next episodes, because production seems to be, yet again, in protection mode over its precious queen. That 'unseen footage' (Gizelle reading some nothingburger text from Chris)? A poor effort, even by Gizelle and production's lazy standards. The extended opening clip from the podcast was telling, though. Gizelle egging on her equally-dumb BFF "on the PAY TREE ON" is not a good look for one of The Faces of Bravo. Also, Gizelle offering to sleep with Andy when he turns 60. 👀 The desperation in that clip! This must be her way of 'securing the bag.' Karen yawning when Robyn was talking about her 'wedding.' ☺️

Adriana is hard to like sometimes because she's not engaged in a popularity contest to be the most adored by the audience. I like her a lot and always have, but I know she's messy, can be mean, and isn't universally beloved. Alexia may even have a point about her always being miserable and playing victim. Adriana was totally playing up the "disability" and having to be carried around by the boat crew. LOL That being said, Alexia and Marysol are not good friends to Adriana. They were around when she was dominating OG RHOM and when she was married to Frederic, but when her life began to unravel and she got divorced, they were ghosts. Adriana's unhappiness stems from being friend-dumped, and for that I feel empathy. She is still clearly wounded from her divorce and this. Sometimes friends are there for a reason or a season, and Las Cubanas are in the latter camp. The impression I've gotten this year is how superficial and arrogant these two actually are. They've been Larsafied. And the rest of the group is like 🤷‍♀️wut? You think you're better than us? How? Adriana is better off forging friendships with the newbies -- Julia, Nicole, Guerdy, Kiki. The Frankie comparison wasn't great, but I also don't think it was as bad as some pearl-clutchers out there think it is. Alexia reacted because she somehow blames herself about Frankie's accident deep-down. Adriana knew Frankie would be Alexia's pressure-point, and she went for the jugular. RHOP I haven't watched the (had to be re-edited) reunion yet but.... this fool. Monique? Wow. That would be a blast from the past. I assumed it was Bravo trying to manage perceptions (as you point out) and maybe have more people tuning in to boost the overnight ratings. Maybe the network is nervous because Robyn inadvertently made everyone question the authenticity of this entire season + reunion with her podcast/Patreon push. Not a bad premise at all for giving scammers a work mandate in prison to go towards paying those they scammed. Not that Jen Shah will be able to work off the $$$$ owed and any lawsuits, I don't think. But it's a start. She clearly thinks she'll be spa-ing it at 'camp' like Teresa Giudice did, 'writing' a book, etc.

Been thinking about your post this week in light of the first two episodes of the new season. It does feel like we are coming to a once-and-for-all face-off between Teresa and the Gorgas before Bravo decides to close the chapter on this family feud. However, having seen the ratings, including the +2 day ratings -- RHONJ is delivering the eyeballs that might make Bravo pause and view the rivalry as still having legs for the foreseeable future. My feeling, like you, is that production knows which side their bread is buttered: the Gorgas are toast. Teresa pulls in the bigger fanbase, and the Gorgas will never be able to live down their self-serving betrayal of S3. It was seen as a bridge too far, even by RH standards. For this reason, and because I enjoy watching the Giudice 'dorters', I've been Team Tre. But I can also understand how difficult it must be to handle Teresa. She will never forgive or let go of this S3 betrayal. Even when she says she does, she still expects the Gorgas to back her up in all things and never criticize her. This has been the case since S1. Teresa cannot hear criticism or accept blame. This is hard for the Gorgas as their whole raison d'etre on RHONJ has been to go against, or stand up to, Teresa. They, also can never accept blame for their part. So it's an impasse. I'm specifying the Gorgas here because while Melissa has gotten the bulk of fandom hate (and I don't doubt her desire for fame and her ability to influence her husband to get what she wants) I don't think we can rule out Joe's own deep desire for fame and the cameras. He eats it up as much as Teresa ever did, and is even more of a drama queen than Melissa and Teresa combined. It's clear he is spearheading this latest S3 redux. It is telling how he highlighted Joe Giudice as being the bad seed behind the Joe-Teresa-Gorga family fallout. I don't doubt the assholery of Joe Giudice, but he is not some Game-of-Thrones master manipulator. Joe Giudice did not drive Nonna and Nonno to an early grave -- the feud between Teresa, Joe, Melissa and the Wakiles did that, and so did Teresa's jailtime. Joe Giudice embarked on massive fraud with the blessing of his wife who wanted to be on TV, but I have a feeling amongst this cast, in Jersey, these kind of shenanigans may be more common than we might think, lol. So for Joe Gorga to now put the 'bad seed' title on Louie? Sigh. Look, it's clear Louie is pushing some MLM schemes (see, this is what I mean about the NJ cast), but the problem between Teresa and her brother & SIL is not Louie. It is Teresa and Joe and Melissa. But none of these three will ever take accountability for how their feud destroyed three interconnected families (Gorgas, Giudices, Wakiles). So what is the future of RHONJ? Well, I think production is betting on Teresa and eventually letting the Gorgas go... unless the feud enters a new dimension and the ratings back it up. It is ironic because I've always felt Teresa might prefer to spinoff on her own show with her and her family. She is close with Jennifer and connected to Dolores, but they too feel like her handlers sometimes. Sometimes Teresa appears more islanded and a homebody. The Gorgas are much more social within the cast. The real unspoken is how important Marge is in the cast. Love her or hate her, Marge is an activator. She knows everything about these women, all their secrets, gets scenes going, stirs the pot, and basically drives story. Whatever the next iteration of RHONJ will be, she is going nowhere. IA that Jennifer vs Dolores is not the rivalry they think it is. If anything, Jennifer vs Marge (or even Jennifer vs the Gorgas) has more meat. I love Dolores, though, and hope she stays. I feel she grounds the show and has history with past, current and future HWs. She is in the thick of it. Totally agree with your points about the ABCD-fication/youth-demoing RHONJ. After Episode 2, I am starting to go lukewarm on Jenn Fessler. I liked her on Ep. 1, but felt she was doing too much in Ep. 2 with the eating and mozzarella. It reminded me of her ex-BFF Siggy. Carlton Gebbia Rachel, I still have no opinion on. But I am really starting to love self-deprecating Staten Island Danielle. @Antoyne I gave you wrong info about Marge's former BFF who tried to sell her out on RHONJ. I thought that friend was Jenn Fessler -- it clearly is not! Marge explained it in episode 2 -- it was some chick called Laura who Marge managed to get cut from most of the footage. And speaking of left on the cutting room floor.... production is clearly trying to cut around Jackie wherever they can, and Jackie is not having it!

In Real Housewives-social media ecosystem news -- NBC Universal have been officialy deleting Tweets and shutting down IG accounts relating to RH commenters, a number of whom (like QueensofBravo, LovesAndyC and Jay's Reality Blog) are pretty much officially blessed by Bravo and NBC to cover the Bravo shows. Didn't LovesAndyC write the officially-sanctioned-by-Bravo Diamonds & Rose book? They even get first look at season openers and other tidbits to further the RH marketing drive, so this sudden coming-down-hard on the bloggers' Bravo content is unexpected. At first, posters wondered if it was related to RHONJ, since the season just started, but this weekend, it turns out a lot of the deleted posts relate exclusively to RHOP. I have no idea why, but tonight is the first episode of the reunion. In RHOSLC news, Jen Shah has quietly and without fanfare turned herself in. Just kidding! The self-serving narcissist is still addicted to the attention and couldn't leave without posting a statement:

"Love is love." Shout out to whoever gave Yolanda Hadid & David Foster the couple name 'Yolavid.' "My king!" Posting this criminally-underrated love anthem, on this day of days. How on earth did their love not last?

Happy Valentine's Day, RH thread. This goes out to all my fellow singletons: They were offscreen BFFs, and Marge recommended her for the show. She came on and apparently tried to sell Marge out to Jennifer & Teresa. Starts at the 13.35 mark.

RHOM The scene where Julia told Guerdy about her plan to adopt, and then Nicole came over to join them andsit on Julia's lap, was a sweet moment. I really like the newbies' fledgling friendships. That scene was intercut with Alexia and Adriana talking about where did their OG friendship go? Great editing, and great callback to an answered question I've had since the reboot started airing. In some ways they are alike -- perhaps too alike to be friends at the moment. Anyway, both scenes ground the show beyond mere real estate porn. As @NothinButAttitude said, another 10/10 episode. Another thing I realised: I barely noticed Marysol wasn't there and didn't miss her. This group of personalities can carry the show. Her absence actually allowed Adriana a little more space to reveal herself, including the fact that her second husband also left her for a new woman. Kiki is crazy gorgeous. I love her diamanté head piece. I love her hair. I love how she dresses with exquisite class, taste and flair, like a jet-setting movie star from the late-60s.