Michael

Kayla had a line about "moving the bachelor auction online" on Monday that made me guffaw. It just sounded so cheap and lazy. You mean the 7 people crammed in the Pub bidding on Chad didn't fully save the hospital? They're also acting like Maggie's $1 million donation makes a huge difference, but realistically, that's a dent in the budget of a hospital.

No, they aren't supposed to resemble each other, same as Ben and Alex aren't. I really liked the necklace stuff today. I agree that they could've had Tate hold onto this secret a little longer, but the confrontation between Julie and Doug did feel earned. Dare I say, I'm finding this to be a decent little story for the younger set. I like the level at which they're using Tate, Holly, and Doug at the moment.

I could see that working. There are certain things GG does well (sarcastic/snarky and Dad-Mode), and they don't use them nearly enough. I actually loved the scenes with him and Johnny, which surprised me.

I get what you're saying. He's been too overexposed and forced on us for years for it to work anymore, but this is the sort of character he should have been all along.

Yes! The first, Griffith-penned breakdown was... "just" a breakdown (I don't think they ever gave her a specific mental illness diagnosis). Mansi played that really well, though the whole show was way too dark. All the other, Marci-portrayed breakdowns were DID- or drugging-related. All of that was Carlivati.

The Necktie Killer, Abigail's breakdown, and Mansi's exit were all written by Griffith (parts of it credited to Griffith & Higley). Then, in fall of 2016, Griffith was gone, and Higley & Quan wrote Marci Miller's arrival as Abigail, the Chad/Gabi pairing, and Abby's stupid green-card marriage to Dario. Carlivati showed up in late summer 2017 and ended the triangle, reuniting Chad and Abigail. Billy Flynn got some of the better material of Josh Griffith's bleak DAYS run. The aspect of the Necktie Killer storyline that served as a Chad/Abigail love story was really effective. He also got that strange brainwashing/pseudo-pairing with Belle (Flynn and Martha Madison were pretty good together!).

He generally plays sarcastic or smug pretty well. He injects some life into it. They should've made Rafe a caustic [!@#$%^&*] heading up the Salem PD, without leading man storylines, and commenting on everyone else's idiocy long ago. I'll go a step further and say -- which I can't believe I'm doing -- that Galen did a nice job selling Rafe's love for Jada in those reunion scenes today. I like Jada fine, but I've never felt any kind of heat between them or attachment to them, but today had something that kinda worked. Go figure.

I kind of enjoyed that lunch-gone-wrong, too. This is the right "size" of story for current Days, with its budget limitations, to be telling. It was a little overly silly, and it's crazy that Amy Choi somehow doesn't know who Stefano DiMera was, but the idea of it and the scenes were fun.

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.