te.

Great! I was hoping for something like this.

Thomas Calabro coming to Heather saying "So you're the soap person" and her replying with "... and now you are" 😂 We've sort of gotten hints over the years that he took himself way too seriously as an ac-tor at the beginning of the show. I'm a bit peeved they're releasing this in two parts though, but I can't wait for the next episode.

Maybe, but I feel like the poison biscuit thing wasn't as big of an umbrella story arc where you had large parts of the cast involved with it for months. I remember it as being quite short time spanwise at least. With the Body & Soul thing you had people who literally started caring for it for months only to... wrap it up in an episode. Maybe you're right and it's just their awful pacing and planning that's showing rather than Peacock / Corday wanting it wrapped, but that's how it came across in the writing. Someone put their foot down and said end it. My other theory is that he was told plenty in advance that his contract wasn't going to get renewed and he just devised this Body & Soul garbage as a metacommentary. The writing for Kim Coles came off very much like him being pissed at viewer feedback (you think you know better than me!). Either way, I'm glad it's done, though suddenly I fear what might be coming in the next two months. But hopefully they told him that he had to transition the show into the new headwriters and we'll mostly get a game of stale mate. Though suddenly I fear the suggestion that Rachel Blake will just be Peter Blake in latex drag. ETA: I think with Body & Soul moving from Salem, it would be a good time to say goodbye to Hattie at least. Have her move with production and take Leo with her. And some other useless characters.

News segments about two lost movies (from the linked NBC Heart of Lincoln above and then First Degree from CBS News):

Wow, did a Peacock exec finally wake up and wondering what on earth the garbage they've been putting out is? It's incredible how they just wrapped everything up in one episode basically. I've never been fully convinced that Ron got fired over the Body & Soul stuff, but I'm starting to become a true believer, because that was some "wrap this [!@#$%^&*] up now" writing going on.

Now would be a good time for Fox to get into the soap opera business! Just kidding. Kind of.

TBH, considering the complaints US daytime soaps get when they deviate from the standard look of other soaps I'd say it's one of the things I don't think they should take a gamble on. I'd assume it looks in line with Y&R and B&B, hopefully a bit better. Maybe they can start experimenting a bit when it gets established as a show.

Oh yeah, if people missed it - "Rita Lesley" was the name of Krystle's doppleganger on Dynasty hence the irony of her tasing Rafe.

I think what people are complaining is the nature of episodic television - ie a tragedy can happen in one episode and then you sort of have a happy-go-lucky episode next and all those things that happened in the previous one are all but forgotten and rarely do we get a follow up. But on the other hand... episodic television makes for great streaming. You can sort of tune out when something doesn't overly interest you and go back in when something does. But it's something that I suspect will be an issue today. I cannot see today's audiences tolerating a new production that's so openly and brazenly not adhering to normal serialization. Some of these episodic episodes play out during a couple of months from memory, so in my head I've always imagined that the shorter stories happens in-between those episodes that has a longer time span (if that makes sense).

Ultimately, it comes down to being interested in your characters and the story you're telling. Again - if they are going to go for some inclusivity in this adaptation, then it needs to do more than just check boxes. As you said, by all means - do change Charles to black and Caroline to Asian with blasian children... but then you have a different product to what the books were in the first place as the surrounding world would certainly react to such a pairing at the time. Of course, the original show is criticized for being too cutesy and glossing over hardships of the times, on the other hand does anyone really want to watch an ongoing tv show about how horrible and rough life was at the time? Maybe as a miniseries or a succession of movies at most. But even today I'm not sure we want full-on realism.

I'm catching up on the last two weeks now because I got curious about Rachel Blake / "Woman in White" resurfacing and wow, when people say the show is awful at the moment is an understatement. Body & Soul is completely eating this show up alive and it doesn't even make sense why these characters are so invested in keeping it going. Why on earth are all these working professionals moonlighting on this show? Why are people who've never had an interest in acting doing the show? Also, the Javi / Leo relationship really does not ring true does it? Not because Leo and Javi can't necessarily be together but... it just comes of as a wish fulfillment from a certain head writer. Leo is an (immature) gay man in his 40s and this young hot stud is just willing to drop everything to be with him... for reasons. Then you have all other characters propping up how great Leo is despite him having done terrible things to most of them... Again, Ron is Mary Sue-ing this so hard. I often feel when fans are complaining about the show being horrible they're often being hyperbolic, but April really can't come fast enough at this point. If there was ever a time to do a time jump and start with a blank slate, now is the time. The shows needs to be rebooted hard.

I think it's just a random extra to be honest to introduce "the caregiver". I suspect she won't have much function on the show beyond that, but I might be wrong.

Oh, I agree that it's just become the latest buzzword at this point for conservatives to point fingers at if they don't like something. With that said - of course it can be criticized as lazy box-checking, just like older shows had to go through with meddling executives. And sometimes it does have merit - the latest Dragon Age unfortunately has some of the laziest writing I've seen and thus justly flops (though people will blame it on being "diverse" instead of what it is - bad writing). But that's another topic for another day I guess. Perhaps. I'll admit I've never seen much of Gunsmoke and in my head it tends to blend into the bland westerns that were so popular during the 50s. Maybe I should give it a shot some time.

I think the issue is that people talk around each other and no one is ever able to define what exactly "woke" is. Is "woke" being progressive? Is "woke" Satan in sheeps clothing? Or is "woke" just another word for executives meddling and not letting the creatives be creative? Ultimately, I suspect both grievances come from the last part - in the past executives tended to meddle in trying to limit everything, which forced them to get creative with getting issues close to the heart into the shows. On the other hand, a check list of things that need to be fit into a production - even if you agree with them - isn't much better and can lead to lazy box checking. As for the reboot - I think those that are nostalgic for Little House On the Praire aren't going to check it out because why? You can't recreate the "vibe" it has because it was produced in a different era. Those that want a tepid safe watch will go and watch "When Calls the Heart" or some other Hallmark production. Those that want a realistic depiction will just watch one of the movies. So who is Netflix doing this for, besides noticing that it's been accumulating streaming numbers? Gunsmoke has by the way been racking up streaming numbers too, so maybe that's next?

By your logic a lot of old shows wouldn't be reran at all since residuals (or rather lack of them) have been an age-old story. Ultimately, they knowingly signed contracts at the time that limited their residuals - they didn't sign contracts stating that they would get that and end up not getting it. Should all old shows just conform to the latest deals SAG makes or not be shown at all? At the end of the day, the option is to let it rot in the vaults.

I mean, Carol Roux and Ann Wedgeworth were both moved from Another World to Somerset. Plus, I'm sure there were other experienced soap actresses on the show that might've felt sidelined by younger talent after being promised bigger things when signing.

I love it - I was just saying I wanted a bit more character focus. I will say that some moments are on the cheesy side of things I also think that I already know that I'm going to hate the influencer storylines and just roll my eyes so hard at it, but I guess it's realistic these days 😂

Most importantly - "Mary Sue" is a character who is the writers self-insert.

The issue is that Ron seems to be Mary Sue-ing himself into Leo which means that somehow, everything Leo does is forgiven and is ultimately right. And Mary Sue-ing yourself into the story is always horrible writing.

I think the issue here is that I don't really see a way to market this as something else as a soap - because it's what it rather shamelessly is. In addition, part of why Beyond the Gates happened is likely because soaps do well for their cost on streaming (which the continued renewals of Days of our Lives and Neighbours seem to indicate), especially compared to shows like The Talk that probably has very little rewatch value beyond their initial airing. If there was some sort of twist to it - let's say like Edge of Night where there's a crime case that's being used as an umbrella story - I could see them focusing on that element to set it apart from other soaps. But here I don't really see it - in fact, the most unique element is that it revolves around a black family and they're already doing an ample job at promoting that to appropriate outlets. Another part of why this show happened is after all because CBS noticed strong demographic numbers from African-American females. But other than that - go broad for the soap audience, especially the lapsed one that might've fallen out of watching their daily soap and wants to try get into something from the ground floor. The one thing I'd like them to do though is "character" ads to introduce storylines and character motivations more:

I think it's pretty pointless to try and appeal outside to people who don't enjoy soaps at this point to be honest, especially as it's not attempting to be anything else. If it had some sort of special "twist" to it, it might've been worth pointing out, but this is pretty standard soap fare. I think the most important thing would be to get lapsed soap viewers to check this out from the beginning.

Just saw this curiosity:

11am Leeza 12pm Sunset Beach 1pm Days of our Lives 2pm Another World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997–98_United_States_network_television_schedule_(daytime)

Yep, her hair was literally falling out. She also never really seemed into the Hollywood lifestyle and fame.

Eventually, I'd want an aunt that's introduced as "having toured in Europe in the 70s and 80s": But then again, Ron is on the writing team so abort abort, he'd turn it into a campfest in a bad way.