Michael

The fact that he's still there and not even suspended is grotesque.

I think it's pretty natural to want to make sense of stuff like this, especially when we see these people on our screens every day. And there's a relatively respectful way to speculate without being crass ourselves, tagging actors in tweets, etc. So I hear you!

I feel a little icky speculating on such upsetting situations for the victims, but I'm pretty sure (based on a lot of context clues) that the actress in the love scene is Martha Madison. She wiped Days from her socials a few months back and seemed to be going off-contract, and it didn't seem to make any sense.

Absolutely ridiculous this was allowed to go on for so long. This has been known for years. Corday burying his head in the sand is disgraceful.

This has been a long time coming.

I guess they felt they needed to address it in *some* way in order to bring those characters back to the show, but yeah, your explanation probably makes a lot more sense. Do we even know for certain if the Kevin who's on GH now actually has a daughter named Livvie, or was that all erased (or "erased" by the magic ring) during Ron's revisit of the PC stories?

I completely forgot about that aneurysm thing (which never got resolved, right?)! Good grief. Were Johnny and Allie born when John was briefly "dead" in 2007? That might've tainted Sami's judgment when she named the kid, LOL.

They've gone back and forth sooooo many times. In 2002-03, Sami had gotten to a good place with John, and then JER returned and she randomly hated him again. The way I see it now, it doesn't take much for something to re-ignite her fury at him -- like when she caught him and Paul "digging up Will's grave," but after Marlena got shot at the wedding and almost died and Belle was foaming at the mouth to pull the plug, Sami and John seemed to have gotten to a better place.

As always on Days, there have been some, uh, follicular choices going on there.

Thanks for the explanation. I think I tried to read a recap once and my head started to hurt. I remembered Stephen Clay being a part of the original vampire stuff on PC (he was a rock star or something) -- it's a shame they couldn't tie it all together in a more cohesive way. That kid who played Rafe Jr. was awful, LOL. And killing Alison that swiftly was so bizarre.

I think the way they introduced Alex -- even apart from the casting, which obviously irritated many people -- was just way, way too heavy-handed. I know they wanted to set him apart from Ben, but the wardrobe, the glasses (and the constant chewing on them), the lounging-around-in-his-great-uncle's-living-room-naked-with-Sloan... it just all felt very "Look how much this COOL GUY loves SEX!!!!" to me. Add to that the limp, forced pairing with Stephanie -- which entailed him bumping into her once, becoming "besotted" with her (which looked more like stalker-y obsession), and then him having to learn the basic concept of sexual harassment -- plus the inconsistencies about his upbringing, which have made it tough to get a handle on the guy because we're unclear on whether Adrienne raised him, if he was ever close to Anjelica, whether or not he and Stephanie were raised as cousins, etc. And I hate this forced rivalry with Maggie and him having to call her "Auntie" every 30 seconds despite never having met this woman before last summer. Basically, I think the ideas work when you articulate them the way that you do above, @j swift, but I don't think the execution has lived up to that very often.

Thanks! I have the haziest memory of watching Lila's funeral and them being there, but that's all. I'm almost tempted to do a deep dive into the follow-up that GH did in 2012-13, but also... scared.

Love reading all the recollections in this thread, so thanks. The entire 'book' era of PC becomes a blur to me after the first 3-4. Didn't Lucy and Kevin appear on GH like a year after PC ended for Lila's funeral? How was the continuity from PC handled at that time?

The backstory of that family has always been perplexing, and they never explained why Taylor was using Raines when we first met her. It would've made more sense for Nicole to be using a different name than her whole family, but Nicole, Fay, and Brandon all used "Walker." I guess the real answer is that it was cobbled together as they went along.

It's supposed to be the "Salem River," right? Which is a long-established thing, but on this show, I assume their definition of "river" is about as accurate as their definition of "townhouse" (that place is a condo at best). Basically, there's water somewhere.

Yeah, they could really use a bar a la the Cheatin' Heart or a café like Java Cafe or Dot Com (but, uh, update the name either way). I'm glad they're using the Bistro a little more, but a fine-dining type of place has been missing for a long time, too. Everyone's always slurping down chowder at the Pub or eating at that one table in the Town Square.

This person isn't Sasha or Willow or Esme or Molly already?

I thought nuRHONY worked much better than I thought it would. Yes, it's a different show than what we had with the OGs, but that makes the transition easier in a way. And the cheese fight was funny to me -- the fact that the rest of them were sitting around laughing about how insane it was, and then even the women involved wound up laughing at it, went a long way. If they harped on this for an entire season, I would lose my mind. Brynn could be fun as a pot-stirrer, but she's giving me Kelly Dodd energy in terms of eventually becoming too unhinged to be on the show. I agree that Jenna could have worked as an addition to the prior cast.

Koslow and Rinna definitely do come off more like sisters than mother and daughter, LOL.

In an alternate universe where the show wasn't littered with recasts of various talent levels playing characters who exhibit little or no resemblance to their prior selves, I could actually see GT as Sami more than as Billie. The age thing would bother me with Billie, I think, even though I know GT was really young for Phyllis, too. But we just saw Lisa Rinna (who's 60) as Billie in 2021. Gina isn't even 50 yet. It would feel glaring. Actually... GT as Cassie?

They've dropped the ball really badly with both Holly and Parker. Does Nicole even remember that Holly's lurking somewhere around that DiMera mansion? I know it's tough to use child performers much, and I suspect they're keeping Parker's age vague on purpose, but it makes Nicole and Chloe both look so awful.

They need a Philip for the Victor tribute stuff. I thought he grew into the role all right toward the end of his 2015-16 run, and this is one of those times where it's like... I'd just prefer to have the character involved in some capacity.

Well deserved! I sorta agree with Andy that it's befuddling none of the RH shows have ever received a nomination -- but we know the stigma that "trashy" reality shows carry. This kind of feels like a barrier being broken down, if nothing else.

I can see what you mean there. There's just such a weird disconnect for me -- I just don't pin that on Rikaart, who I think is doing a good job with the material he's been given, and it isn't his fault he isn't 28 (or doesn't look it). Once they decided to make Leo more of a regular thing, I don't know why the writers didn't adjust accordingly. They could totally have written into that! It always felt odd to me that Will and Sonny were mixed up with this dude was a good 10-15 years older than them, and that was never an issue, but Leo being with Craig was SUCH a scandal. There's actually a bigger age difference between Zack Tinker & GR than there is between GR & Kevin Spirtas!

I don't think Leo is unlikable because of GR's performance. I think he generally does a good job with what he's given. It's just largely Too Much of what should be a very, very supporting character, and they've done too many fake-outs where he seems to learn a lesson and then regresses with no explanation. And it irritates me that they seem to craft entire scenes and scenarios around giving him these pithy one-liners that would largely be funny in isolation but feel like they come at the expense of solid storytelling, characters I care about, or even basic logic. Of course, there's the larger problem that they don't know where the line is with him hitting on every straight man he comes across. It's one thing for him to make a comment to Gwen about how hot Xander is, but the constant sexual harassment is a bad look. One thing that I struggle with, with GR in the role, is that he's very clearly a guy in his mid-40s. It seems like Leo was conceived and introduced as someone who was supposed to be, like, 28, and they still write him that way. But I'm sitting there going, "This man is 45 and should know better." That factor aside, I don't think the casting is an issue with Leo.