te.

Looking at it, they might end up pre-empting another week to ensure the new cycle of episodes start in 2026. I wonder if the show started airing slightly earlier than they expected considering the 200 episode order - maybe they had planned to start the show post-March Madness, but made the decision to put it earlier (without ordering new episodes). It'll be interesting if the new cycle of episodes has a 250 episode order or not. That would tell us if they're planning to continue pre-empting the show on the regular.

I mean, it's a way to tie Johnny and the other mid/late 20 somethings to the teen set that's inevitably going to go to university in the fall. Considering they've actually invested in new sets, I hope they can invest in a basic university set. It's been a while (a decade+?) since we've had proper university storylines.

I mean, she's not long for this soap either way so it's not an issue. I'd be surprised if she survives this kidnapping story.

The issue is that they're way more than six months ahead... more like 8-9 months at this point, ironically in part due to the early renewals which meant they haven't shut down for longer periods between filming "seasons".

To be honest, one of the biggest appeals for me with a new soap was that I wouldn't have to continuously bend the space/time continuum in my head to make some sort of sense of the timeline, but alas.

The thing is that they didn't need to go down this path if they planned it from the start (which I assume they did). Usually when soaps throw these sort of curveballs it's because they have a break-out character they want to keep and tie more closely to the canvas, or because there's new head writers / change of direction or because the previous status quo got stale and there needs to be a shake up. Either way, this sort of messiness happens on other soaps because they don't have the luxury of a clean slate, which is one of the things that Beyond the Gates actually has. It's the same with the ages being all over the place and the timeline making zero sense. I give more grace to other soaps on this because of said factors (it's decades of decisions that the current head writers have little control over), but when you have a clean slate and then it's down to choices because it's not done out of necessity. It just feels like taking all the wrong lessons from soaps.

I think the issue is her how they did it. Silk Press being revealed as Barbara's daughter at the six month mark isn't rushed, however, the whole "her adoptive mother (who is also dying!) coming back and revealing a big secret" was. It just sort of came out of nowhere and had no real emotional stakes in it, which is probably why I'd prefer for her to have known all along that she was Barbara's daughter (and again, it would further explain why she's there in the first place). It just came off as random and a bit too soap opera clunky with the coincidence of her having been an Articulette fan, just happening to meet Ted and then developing a revengenda against the Duprees. Since they likely knew all along she was Barbara's daughter, they could've done a better job with either setting up her estrangement with her adoptive mother or just that it's a part of why Silk Press has such a thorn in the side for the Duprees.

I fully expect that it'll be revealed that Rachel knows full well what she did. I expected her to push Marlena out of that window, lol.

Yeah and that's why it bothers me. I tend to give the show some leeway over the usual growing pains soaps have (ie green actors, production choices not always working out, getting used to the pacing and grind, some stories potentially changing as breakout stars happen). However, it feels like they're consciously starting to fall into traps that usually happens on other soaps because new headwriters and the consequence of running for decades - ie age issues between characters (usually caused by SORAS), timeline issues and random reveals to change the status quo. Again, maybe it's just my preference, but Leslie should've known Barbara was her mom since it would give her further reasons why she has it out so badly for the Duprees. The reveal for her should've been that there's a trust fund.

This is honestly my biggest issue with this... I don't get why they didn't go with Leslie always having known about this. It would actually explain A LOT, including why she seemingly have been so insistent on infiltrating this family and get revenge. It would certainly put a question in if Leslie actively went after Ted all those years ago and is pulling a huge long con.

They've been putting up Brookside on streaming, so I imagine this is also a way to promote and generate interest in that.

CBS had a period in the early 90s where they seemed to do short test runs of shows in the summer - 2000 Malibu Road, Freshman Dorm, Angel Falls and of course Northern Exposure, which actually did get a successful long run. To be honest, I would've ordered another batch of episodes of 2000 Malibu Road to air in the Knots Landing spot since it had an extended break in March / April. Angel Falls also didn't do too badly and could've easily had another batch of episodes ordered. But I suspect they were all in on Second Chances being their soapy Knots replacement.

Insane how many people in the comments are claiming it had nothing to do with the financial situation despite not knowing the massive decline in late night revenue. They'd certainly cancel more shows if they were doing it to curry the favour at the White House. I read a suggestion that the future of late night would be televised podcasts essentially since they can be produced cheaply.

I feel like we're severely lacking her point of view; I still can't figure out why exactly she felt like she had to fake a pregnancy. By all accounts they hadn't tried for children and failed, nor had Bill been making googly-eyes at Dani or anyone else. Usually when someone fakes a pregnancy there seems to be... a point? There just doesn't seem to be one for now, except to give her a secret that Ashley knows and to give Dani some points for clocking her faking it.

I fully expect the duration of this bookstore to last as long as Stephanie's new found passion for writing literary smut lasts.

Again, what was the point of this pregnancy sham?

Two episodes of Angel Falls (CBS, 1993) are on YouTube, though they were uploaded three years ago I've never seen them: 1.5 Lost Souls: 1.6 The Fall From Grace:

Well, no shame in putting yourself out there I guess. Though it'd be odd to see a Javi that suddenly grew taller than Leo.

I mean, I get in general when actors say that they aren't watching their own shows. If I was an actor, I probably wouldn't either! I assume some people just feel odd watching themselves, while I'm sure others are unbothered by it. However, once you get creatively involved... you need to watch the show you're making, period. How else can you understand what people found appealing about it in the first place?

Compare that to the Dexter franchise which seems to go from strength to strength with the three new series surpassing the previous one. They absolutely expected "And Just Like That..." to run for years, but they botched it. SJP admitted to not watching the original - which is fine if you're just an actor doing your job, but if you're going to step up to the plate you clearly need to understand the appeal of the original in the first place. Cynthia Nixon seemed to want Miranda to reflect her own life, despite it making zero sense in Miranda's case. Michael Patrick King seemed mostly into the whole embarrassment as humour thing, but seemed to have little ideas beyond that.

I mean, no songwriter is going to waste a potential hit record on a fictional daytime soap group. I'm just happy we got to hear some actual music from them - I wouldn't mind if they threw it up on streaming.

I think this is a classic case where the show really didn't think some things through. If we were talking about Diana Ross going to solo, she pretty much kept going in the Pop/R&B mainstream direction. The Supremes also continued to exist, even if it was at diminishing returns with each line up; Mary had some minor hits and so on. However, in Anita's case they had her go in a completely different direction to her girl group roots - jazz. I very much doubt that a lot of fans of The Articulettes would expect to hear her jazz stuff since that's miles away from the usual girl group pop and would sound out of place. And I agree with those that said it's odd how they limited Tracy and Sharon's personal lives for no reason. Sure, I think it's obvious that they'll likely be written out and barely mentioned again after this mess of a storyline, but basically making them props in Anita's storyline isn't good writing. Plus it's always good to have those sort of characters existing somewhere out there in the future.

Indeed. There's a lot of accomplished people who've never won an award in their life, so I'm not sure why they had to go OTT and have Anita be an EGOT, while also she's supposedly been retired from showbusiness for I don't know how long. The timeline in Beyond the Gates has to be the messiest thing and I'm just not sure why they made it so from the get-go. Usually soaps end up having conflicting timelines due to ill-thought out SORAS.

For all we know, Al Calderon could've left months ago in real time.

Oh I agree. Even if Brilliant Minds gets cancelled, it might lead to better things for him. I suspect that he'll leave DAYS and wouldn't go back until all other options tanked. Javi has hardly been a great role for him to show his acting chops, even if I'm sure he's happy to have had a reliable income. But we'll see. He might reason that if he can do both for a bit it'd help him build up a nest egg.