Michael

I still can't believe they aired that story. Whew. They actually *did* have Lani address being a Black woman who was also a police officer. This was perhaps in the year before she left -- I can't recall the full context, maybe she was talking to Chanel? It felt a little like a "Ah crap, we need to address this somehow," but it was nevertheless one of the more interesting things they ever gave Lani to say just because it vaguely made her seem like a real person for a scene or two. It never came into play in a larger way.

Thanks! I'm gonna have to dig into this a bit. I had completely blocked out the entire Jason Olive "Frank" era in the early 2000s, too. Was there even anything to connect Cornelius's Frankie to that earlier iteration? He had something to do with Mia, maybe?

I never knew that about Frankie Hubbard's (re-)re-introduction and him not having been that character at first! That reminds me of how Days had Theresa and Paige cross paths several times, because of their mutual connection to JJ, but at no point did they recognize one another, despite soon being revealed to be aunt and niece (due to Theresa's half-sister Eve being Paige's mom). Paige was definitely not going to be the daughter of Eve Donovan when she first arrived. They never did much of use with Paige's retconned Hernandez connection, either. I do think Gabi as a character holds an interesting spot on the Days canvas, but as @dc11786 points out, it's more her potential than what's been done with her. They haven't done nearly enough with her, Sonny, and Will in the past few years -- they throw in a mention here and there, rather than letting their stories all bounce off one another -- and tossing her into these nonstop, half-baked CEO wars hasn't exactly helped the character sing. (I remember the rumor that Josh Duhon, who was just coming off GH at the time, had auditioned for Will. I originally thought they would pair Will and Melanie, too, just based on Basic Soap Math, but the decision to cast Dylan Patton really solidified Will as being about 15 at that time. There was also that weird jockeying of "Which one is Carly's kid? Melanie or Mia?" that seemed to bring onscreen the tension in choosing one of those characters to run with.)

I'd put Gabi Hernandez in this bucket, too. She was a random, nondescript younger sister of Rafe and Arianna who was brought in to fill out the teen scene with Will, Mia, and Chad. She just kind of existed until they hit on the pregnancy and the pairing with Nick Fallon, which elevated her to a lead. When the first Gabi showed up in 2009, there's no way I would've thought the character would still be around in 2023.

That absolutely reeks of Tech People coming in and "innovating" in a way that flies in the face of not only tradition and decency, but also the legal agreements that these companies have with the WGA and DGA. Ridiculous.

Yeah, if SAG-AFTRA's board moves ahead and authorizes a strike, actors can't work on signatory productions. Everything's going to shut down, daytime included.

Addiction is a disease. Certain people legitimately have their brain chemistry and receptors revamped by substances such as alcohol. Yes, it's a disease where one of the "cures" is to make the decision not to drink anymore, but it's a chemical disorder on a biological level.

Yikes. This type of recklessness is inexcusable.

Doug Davidson found shaking

Daniel and Summer are both dead, so I'm fine with them being mentioned as long as we reinforce that they are DEAD DEAD.

I'm in the WGA. I don't want to be out of work, but we need this strike. It's become almost impossible, with all the loopholes and trickery the studios have been using, to string together enough work to live even a very regular middle-class life in Los Angeles.

Would actually be cool if they had him playing Tommy Horton, returning to the family home (to explain where the hell he's been for 40+ years) at the end of his life.

I'm finding RHONJ exhausting. Every episode, it's Teresa vs Melissa/Joe, plus Jennifer and Marge going at it over the same [!@#$%^&*]. I like Danielle, but I'm already so sick of the word "arsenal." Nothing changes, no one learns or moves on, we just keep repeating the same sh*t every single week.

I mean, it was Rafe's house and she cheated on him, so I can't imagine there was much hope of some settlement or her getting the house. But she's a damn executive at Basic Black! Invest in a condo instead of schlepping poor Holly from place to place.

Those are some big-ass walk-in showers they've got attached to the bedrooms above the Pub. I would've expected a tub with a curtain.

Sarah Buxton also had that brief stint as Nicole's ex-porn associate, "Crystal Galore," in 2004. I think she was part of that kung fu fight Marlena got into when she was in prison for being the Salem Stalker (good grief).

God bless whoever keeps putting Chad in those tucked-in polo shirts. At least he gives me a reason to keep my eyes open while I try to slog through this show.

Yeah, I don't think it's supposed to literally be that someone is standing there for a minute or more completely silent while they recall a previous moment in perfect linear fashion. I can think, "Oh, I got in a fight with my friend yesterday" and sort of... remember the whole thing without having to go step-by-step through it mentally.

I thought today was relatively watchable, too. Totally agree on the biscuits! LOL. I liked Sloan telling Eric off. In general, I like what they've done with them. It's the most interesting side relationship they've given Eric away from Nicole. It's not a long-term thing, but they've hit some decent character beats. I was howling at EJ barking about Melinda, "This... this... civil servant!"

I will literally never know the difference between Willow and Sasha. It just will not stick.

It's jumped out to me how they keep saying "Uber" instead of "rideshare app," too!

This is awesome!

Kassie did some very strong work during her time as Eve. The writing was generally just not there, and they had no vision for the character. That said, the way she was brought on, it made sense for her to have hardened this much -- I don't think it was the most enjoyable thing to watch, but Eve had had a rough life. It felt like a legitimate evolution of a character who hadn't been seen for 20+ years, but people don't usually watch soaps to see a completely new iteration of a character they once enjoyed.

That was my original impression, too. Aside from how long it took for anything concrete about Jordan's past to come out -- remember we had that whole interlude with her old roommate, Sheryl, too? -- the part that never worked for me was how Kate Roberts, who had gone through something so similar with Curtis, not only dated Clyde but took his side over Jordan. I know Jordan encroached on Kate's territory by getting with Rafe, but it made Kate seem both heartless and stupid to side with a man who had done to Jordan exactly what Curtis had done to Billie. One good thing Ron has done is address that dangling thread by having Kate own how awful it was of her.

Ooof, definitely. DAYS was surprisingly strong from fall 2012-fall 2014. I mean, there were duds -- the Jordan story, early Abigail/Ben, the weird disregard for John, Dannifer -- but there was a lot of good stuff going on. The Brady/Kristen and Nick umbrella stories were highlights in particular. Then Sami and EJ left, and we were left with a huge focus on Serena and that damn elephant statue, plus more of Jordan's crew. Things didn't improve until Josh Griffith took over the following summer, and we all know how that turned out...