te.

This should win:

Chuck Pratt is coming onto the show - I'm not sure if they're going to resume recaps for a bit though. ETA: sounded on them like they're going to resume recaps a bit and bring in Chuck a bit later.

Huh, I can watch that feed from Europe. At what time is BTG supposed to air? It might be early evening for me. ETA: it would air at 8PM where I am. That's certainly a decent time slot.

IDK, I've been re-watching Peyton Place lately and am in the middle of Rodney's trial for Joe's death. We know what happened, but what's far more interested is how it affects the entire canvas in one way or another. I guess that sort of tight soap umbrella writing really is done anymore. Plus I think they're also afraid if a storyline flops, it's easier if it's not all over the canvas. Then again, we recently had Body & Soul, so...

I mean, for someone who was essentially brought in as a Tootsie replacement and was incredibly flat in her first few months, I think Cantu has certainly proved herself. It's a shame her sister storyline fizzled out since it would've been nice for her to have a bit more family connections in Salem to solidify her on the canvas. Maybe Shawn / Jada could go long-term. Needless to say, I'm on Thursday and this show has really bad writing. I didn't mind them doing a closet-size Maison Blanche because I'm sure they steal spare change from the actors to fund the show, but if they're going to make us believe they now house several hostages in there... well, it's just lazy writing. I'm always fairly amused by these kidnappings which never seem well thought out by supposed "smart" villains.

Opening is fine, I'd just like a bit more "oomph" to theme. But maybe they felt like that would evoke too many comparisons to those 80s prime time soaps and being dated. At least it's not a complete buzz killer like the Generations theme as previously mentioned, lol.

Add that if you're going to go extra with expenses of a lot of people on set, would you rather go for a trial or a big party scene where people can actually interact with each other and not just mostly sit quietly in a courtroom set? I love a good soap trial, but from an expense point of view you don't get as much meaty material out of it necessarily for all actors.

CBS is killing it with the promotion. My only wish now is that other cast members but the Core Four start doing promotional duties in minor markets.

lmao - I just skipped to the opening credits and apparently they did not just need to title it "Secrets" (Salaisuuksia), but also felt the need to subtitle it "around Europe". In case we didn't grasp that I mean.

Oh I thought it was good to discern it - Salaisuuksia is the Finnish title if anyone wants to search for it.

That's from Finnish tv btw, not Swedish.

I mean, if this was DAYS that would literally mean nothing.

I don't mind unlikely couples, but I still don't get what exactly he sees in Leo. Again, it just seems like self-inserted fanwank courtesy of Ron.

God, that makes me sad how little has survived of these shows. I've always loved messy sibling dynamics on soaps and this certainly seems like one. Every episode from that 50s era has been a great watch.

It was Alexis's plastic surgeon, looking for an extra pay day after fixing Steven's face.

Oh, Hattie was jettisoned off with Body & Soul? Thank God. I tend to catch up on the weekends but good to know because that was one of the things I hoped for. Too bad she couldn't take Leo with her.

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).