te.

I definitively think that Ari was sidelined because Doug III kind of turned out to be a flop that got written out quickly. She suffers the same problem as Cassie before her - related with far too many people in town, so they basically need to introduce a new love interest specifically for her. Add that they mostly seem to be adding new characters in their late 20s or in their 30s and Ari's just in an odd spot.

Add that the "quirky" parts of it (ie the weekly steam bath that was dumped eventually and the "flashbacks" to their younger selves) were more cosmetic than anything. I guess in the early seasons it was a tad more wholesome than it became later on, but that's not really an argument against it being a soap (though I suspect it might have to do with the rise of Melrose Place?).

Also, not having a proper rival family meant not having a proper star-crossed lovers type of story. Eva's out on that since she's related and so many Duprées are females (yes, I know they could do a lesbian story but still).

I assume it's a bit of a catch 22. They probably want to get more white viewers as they've already got the black demographics into the show. So they're trying to see if adding more white characters will help with that (hopefully not while marginalizing the black characters).

TBF, in the past soaps used to this with new characters where they were slowly introduced. I don't mind it if they're doing it with Liam rather than rushing in and burning the character out on the audience. I still suspect he'll turn out to be Mike's kid and will tie into Jeremy.

I've been watching Sisters lately and it's easy to sometimes forget how soapy it actually was, especially with the insistence at the time it was a "drama". It's very much a soap with that early 90s quirkiness they loved to add onto shows back then post-Twin Peaks.

I think that was an overall Lorimar issue outside their main casts. Or rather, they casted a lot of bland actors / actresses that were forgettable - Dallas and Falcon Crest also had this issue compared to Dynasty, which did seem to get casting right, or at least memorable, even if the writing wasn't the best. I think a lot of that had to do with Aaron Spelling being willing to take bigger swings while the Lorimar soaps preferred to play it "safe".

I think it's hard to tell how this will affect the show since they're 10 months ahead at this point and if they were just fired, I'd assume they'll still have a few weeks of filming left and wrapping up their storylines. So it's roughly a year (!!) until we see their exit; it could very well be that their storylines have (for now) reached their natural conclusion and they have other young couples filling up their space on the canvas.

I thought this was a nice piece for anyone curious about ms Franklins albums: https://open.substack.com/pub/bestmusicofalltime/p/aretha-franklin-albums-ranked?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=6gk3r6

Found this on Reddit. If anyone tries it, lemme know:

I think Kristen and Peter were meant to be fairly close in age (like two years max), so I didn't think a younger / older sibling dynamic was ever established.

Probably the cost of having it set at a ski resort plus it sounds kind of Love Boat, but with snow (not the fun kind). Or maybe a more expensive Hotel. Either way, it sounds more episodic than the soapy Fox 90s.

Tbh, the previous Jeremy's run was so brief that I'm completely fine with them glossing it over and rebooting the character. They've acknowledged his past and him actually changing for the better seems fine to me. There's been far worse on DAYS where the character didn't even get a lengthy hiatus and recast.

My Queen Kylie is always trying to get a Christmas hit, so spin it: