te.

They could've gone two ways with Ben - either have all his crimes blamed on him being hypnotised into believing he did them or something by Jordan and having him absolved from being a serial killer OR they could've still done the murder mystery post-time jump with Ciara frantically trying to clear his name only for to find out that he did do it and he hasn't changed. Ben's executed and heartbroken, but defiant, Ciara leaves Salem until they can find a decent recast or Konefal is able to commit to the part full time.

At one point you just need to decide that you're not going to undo anymore deaths no matter how tempting it is. They can't change past decisions, but they can control future ones. I mean, they could've brought back Addie in the 80s to create a storyline for Doug/Julie and wouldn't Hope have been thrilled to see her mother back? But thank God they didn't.

Not every mistake should - or needs to be - fixed. Soaps need to start moving forwards, not backwards.

Bo's death should be permanent, just like deaths that aren't consciously ambigious need to be. Sorry "Bope" fans, but soaps need to make deaths matter.

And a few hours after I said this, in comes the Peacock announcement along lol.

I agree that technically all characters can be recast (hell, they recast Mikey Horton), but also that sometimes shouldn't really be attempted if the audience identifies an actor too closely to the role and a new character could fill the role effectively. "Iconic" characters with long-term portrayers should only be recasted if there's a need for them on the canvas that can't be explained with an off screen absence (which is why I'd accept a Hope Williams Brady recast at this point as it's just odd having the character off canvas as they have to make up more and more forced reasons why she isn't there - well, it's either that or kill her off).

It's mostly down to it bouncing around the schedule - it started out on Saturday 10PM (2x01-2x07), then to Sunday 10PM (2x08-2x15), then to Friday 10PM (2x16-2x24).

The season premiere of the 84-85 season was on October 4th, so it wasn't on in week one of the season.

I think bringing on Anne full time was fine. I did like that instead of trying to create another Abby they just sort of spread out facets of her personality into other characters. The writing obviously could've been better in the last few seasons (Latham's were running on fumes with the Waleska story, which was just Thrillin' Jill Pt 2 except not thrilling; trying to go gritty with new writers in season 13 was a mistake etc), but that's another issue.

Easy @Vee, doesn't come for free (she's a real lady) Does this mean Spice Girls lied?

Claire should've been Belle and this Belle should've never existed. The Tom Langan onslaught of teens in the late 90s/early 00s was such a mistake tbh.

Next, the devil will do something truly evil. Like changing the places of the forks and spoons at a dinner party. How will Salem ever cope?

Another factor that I think played a part in this is the fact that soaps doesn't really seem to do a lot of storylines based in generational conflicts anymore, which seemed to be the bread and butter of the 60s/70s. Maybe it's because of what someone said - the conflict between boomers and the generation before it was so big because of the differences in growing up while the following generations have mostly gone on to having more wealth and comfort. So the same conflict just doesn't exist in the same way it did in the 60s when it was literally ingrained in Alice's personality as opposed to some on-going storyline that was set to be resolved at one point.

I think a lot of the harsher qualities of Alice's personality had were toned down as she became more and more of the wise grandmother type who'd only appear occasionally. If you read some of the older recaps - especially those from the 60s and 70s (but also sometimes in the 80s) Alice can come across as bordering on overbearing at times.

She's such an immoral hussy that she steals doilies off grandma's table.

I've been watching Dark Shadows for the past two years or so, and one of the things that's interesting is how they stage things. It's obvious that they spent a lot of the time thinking outside the box rather than inside it. Even if budget is an issue, they're also being lazy about it these days.

"Relax, Big Daddy knows how to handle this ride!"

I think Angela's hair was more or less what Jane Wyman felt comfortable in - even in the years after Falcon Crest she kept the same styling, albeit blonde/grey instead of the red.

My first thought was that they're filming New Years already.

It's from a channel that specialises in collecting old television footage on 16/35mm film so this episode might be rare. Look at the styling on Meg! You can really tell that she's the evil hoe sister.

Yeah, that's where I'm at with DAYS at the moment. I might have to take a few weeks breaks from watching it (I have a lot of work coming up anyway) and hope it improves by summer.

By all accounts most, if not all, of the run is available and frustratingly, they keep proving it by throwing these scraps at us.

Free ad-supported tv.

They were around 21-22 minutes, which I think is an alright length. I've started watching Dark Shadows during the pandemic and in all honestly, watching it when I'm eating breakfast/getting ready is perfect. If they ever do another attempt at a daily soap on streaming I think it's a good length - it all depends on what you do with the time really.