Michael

I skipped all of last week (02/10-02/14) and just watched Wednesday of this past week. It's been about 17 years since I full-on skipped a week of Days. It doesn't feel like I missed anything.

@Cheap21 Exactly! She got so caught up in her mess of stupid lies that she malfunctioned and shut down. She totally overplayed her hand this season, and it blew up in her face.

I've gotta say... I felt like the Potomac cast had interesting, organic chemistry in Part 2 of the finale, without Karen there. It changed the entire dynamic. Still don't need another season of Mia's insane tangled lies or a Who's the Daddy storyline for Jacqueline.

I thought Gizelle had a solid "in-between" season where she wasn't the main focus. It's similar to what Erika is doing over on BH right now. It's not sustainable as a long-term note, but I think it behooves these 'wives sometimes to just be a part of the cast and support other storylines. I do agree that both of them need a new direction or new "era" moving forward if they're to continue. And Britani was great Friend Of casting on SLC. I don't want or need her as a main HW either, but the chaos and delusion she brings as a Friend is fantastic. It gives the other women something to play off.

Race, the fact that her mother and his father have been feuding for the better part of a year, Chanel having been with his sister, Johnny's lack of career... nothing is an issue for them for longer than two weeks.

They’ve skipped over so many potential stories for them. It’s insane.

The new Sophia doesn't seem glaringly bad to me, especially considering that she got thrown into some heavy storyline mid-stream, but she definitely isn't showing that pop that the previous Sophie had yet. I don't know that the character would've been elevated if this actress had been playing her from the get-go.

I wonder if his role is actually "being kept under wraps" or is just a small role.

After swearing off nuRHONY out of boredom a few months ago, I checked out the finale after all the buzz. Whew. Brynn is so deeply damaged. It was fascinating to watch the others realize how Brynn had twisted the narrative and then witness Brynn's nonchalance the next morning. And I thought it was compelling how the other women wanted to hold Brynn accountable but also recognized that something deeper was going on with her. I'll tune into the reunion. I don't think Brynn could have a future on this show, but seeing her take accountability would be nice. Ubah fights dirty, but not THAT dirty.

Awful, awful news.

I wanted to love it, I really did. It's just so lifeless to me. And I agree with the comments unthread about Brynn. She is doing too much and it feels forced and fake. @Cheap21 -- great assessment of Potomac. There's so much potential in this cast, but everyone is shrinking away from telling their authentic stories (even Mia, whose story is out there but then keeps adding a million things on top of it).

Karen won't open up, Ashley has nothing going on, Wendy is too busy telling us she's 40, and Mia has basically eaten the show alive. It all DOES feel like it's for shock value -- and the women always react with shock, surprise, and/or disgust, so it gets an on-camera reaction. If they just stopped reacting, it would probably die down. I find Stacey to be good casting, and her outlook on life is strange in a way that I think could work for a HW. But she's a quieter presence and is getting buried under all the Mia chaos.

Ha! I remember it was like… Gina Tognoni’s Kelly, James DePaiva’s Max, Robin Christopher’s Skye, apparently Eve, and god knows who else. What an unhinged storyline. Can anyone confirm if Skye or Rae were even mentioned when Myrtle died on AMC?

I like Jenna but I don’t really like her as a Housewife. I had trouble coming to terms with that. I think a lot of these women are decent Housewives casting, but something ain’t clicking.

That's a pretty accurate description of how I was feeling about it, too. I was so deeply annoyed when watching that I finally had to be like, "...why are you doing this to yourself?"

Thanks for finding that! From the way it's worded, it sounds like NBC might've "just" put pressure on JFP to bring him over to AW, rather than being contractually obligated to do so. Sandra Ferguson/Robinson also did a stint on Sunset Beach as Jade (kind of a fun role), subbed for KKL as Brooke on B&B briefly, and had a deeply stupid role on Days in 2008-09 as a psychiatrist obsessed with John when he was regaining his memory after returning from the dead as "RoboJohn."

Thank you! They did that with Eve, too?! It always made me laugh how Rae knew she'd had a child but didn't seem to have any clue what decade said child had even been born in, let alone its gender, birth date, or anything else.

Deep cut here, but does anyone recall what Linda Dano's Rae did when she appeared on PC in 2000? Was it more of a cameo to get her to hit all four ABC soaps, or did she have some story? I remember her on the "big three" all too well, the way they twisted history and backstory to cram her in on those, but she doesn't seem to have had any footprint on PC at all. I'm loving this conversation, btw! I don't have a ton to add, but it's fascinating to read.

I gave up on RHONY but figure I can always go back and binge once the season is done. Is it seeming worth my time? Mia's chaos is eating Potomac alive. I thought the season began pretty strong, but it's almost comical how every episode lately just devolves into Mia and Jacqueline revealing some other unhinged aspect of their shared sexual past. RHOBH feels very watchable right now, but I'm getting that usual mid-season fatigue from there only being one storyline. I am loving Erika's role this season, though. She's both a supporting player and the fulcrum of the entire cast. It's a good, redemptive look for her.

Has this been confirmed? I ask because it's the production company who contracts and pays the actors, not the network. Sony/Corday would've had a contract with RKK for DAYS, and his AW contract would have been with P&G. The network licenses the shows to air them but doesn't pay for production.

It’s also been established that she doesn’t cook!

I suspect they're just not going to address the Steve part of it, or they'll throw in that he didn't actually know the purpose of the mission and had to be kept in the dark, or something that won't really make sense but they see it as tying up loose ends. This story is so overly complicated and nonsensical that I'll just be happy to be done with it, although the fact that Cat & co. are Konstantin's grandchildren remains insane and something I struggle to process. Totally agree about the Stephanie/Philip/Sarah business. Why did Stephanie and Philip have to be rekindling their relationship in order for her to overhear what was going on? One thing I haven't enjoyed about the last few years is that they overload everything with so much plot that nothing gets space to breathe. I sort of like the idea of Sarah keeping this from Xander, but it doesn't feel super-motivated, especially with how she was crowing to Stephanie about how Xander has changed (how and when has she seen evidence of this?!). Kate doing some heavier manipulating would've done wonders here.

💀

You mean... THE FENCE? 😄

I know hindsight is 20/20, but I wish they'd just had John be away on a mission, and Marlena's in Salem but occasionally offscreen visiting him. Later on, we can find out he died during the mission or suffered a stroke or whatever they land on, but months of this when they knew the actor was terminally ill feels like very poor planning.