te.

Interesting. Does anyone remember his occupation? Could he be a professor at Salem U?

Also, here's them singing "Shook" acoustic: And Hole in the Head: Why do people like 1.0 again?

They've released SHOOK and WEEDS since then: SHOOK is the massive pop anthem: WEEDS is more of a taster: If I were to compare WEEDS to anything it's GOLDFISH by ms Siobhan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7d5iB7VO9Q

I can't be the only one seeing how she's playing coy and telling on everyone but herself? Or am I delusional and think way too much of the writers?

It can't be just me thinking that yes, Rachel knows exactly what she did and she's a little sociopath?

Starting to catch up on the last two weeks and I'll have to say that Belle has been so enjoyable lately. It's a shame Sami's not her to slap her up.

I agree - I just can't see them sit idly by and just do nothing. It likely has about zero presence on streaming or other avenues that could bring in revenue, so unless they're just going to let the slot eventually go to affiliates they'll have to do something.

ABC really needs to do something about GMA3 at this point.

"An widowed anthropologist finds new love with a woman who suffers from psychological abuse by her husband, who is also involved in human trafficking." Da [!@#$%^&*] is even this description?

I can. There just wasn't much happening overall. It was like Darren Star had gotten so burnt by the Central Park West fiasco that he decided to write something incredibly bland with a bit of sex thrown in due to the Sex and the City success. You could tell that Fox seriously struggled to market the show too as there just wasn't material to really create anything exciting from. It's a shame really, because I do think it had the potential to be a good soap if they had gone all in on it. Of course, there was also the car crash that was Titans on NBC that season, which seemed to go in the other direction and just be full-out trash to the point of caricature but none of the things that makes prime time soaps compelling.

What, we're getting dorm rooms? The show has truly gone crazy with spending!

100%. I think this story can work as a fast-paced and attention-grabbing "campy" storyline for those with shorter attentionspans, while hopefully they can slowly develop some of the other storylines in the background. The biggest issue is that they keep missing beats, so doing these short-term things while properly setting up A-, B- and C-storylines to peak might be a solution for now to avoid viewers getting "bored".

I'd argue that we're seeing the new material, even if it's still largely about tying up storylines from Ron's run they're still making their own choices to them now (ie Rachel being the shooter). I don't think the show is perfect right now by any means, but I'm looking forward to it and it does seem like they're trying to deepen the relationships on the shows rather than the shallow merry-go-around than Ron did (though why on earth they keep propping up Leo is something I'll never understand, but I assume they see him as the "comic" relief that DAYS often historically has had).

Yeah, I suspect that CTV might've not been able to air it until September (when a new "season" traditionally begins), so the CHCH deal might've always been a temporary thing. It makes more sense for it to air together with B&B either way.

TBH, if they're going to have some sort of "umbrella" location to bring characters of various ages together I wouldn't mind a proper uni storyline to last a few years. You could always bring in some other characters in various positions in a way that wouldn't necessarily feel contrived as everyone suddenly wanting to be actors or get into producing a soap opera.

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.