YRBB

EPISODE 20: WRONG FOR EACH OTHER God, that title could apply to almost everyone in this episode! Anne coming back is such a wonderful little twist – too bad you pretty much figure out this will happen because the ‘Previously On’ heavily features her all of a sudden. Still, her visits every season are always fun and welcome (and this may be a longer one than usual). Anne continuously surprises characters on the show throughout the episode: First Paige and Tom, interrupting their sexy time, then Mack, and finally Greg. It’s a great episode for Nicollette Sheridan. Anne's return elicits a lot of fun, creative acting from Sheridan, and Paige is never funnier than when she makes digs at her mother’s expense: "He’s too young for you mother," she says about Tom, apropos of nothing. "Is this a PTA meeting?" she asks when she comes home to find Mack and Anne together. Sheridan’s cold beauty is never more on display than it is here. The episode somehow captures it really well – she’s an ice queen, but a very beautiful one. The interesting part, of course, being when we see cracks on that veneer: After Mack tells Anne all about dirty, filthy, stinking cop Tom, Anne gives Paige her full support in continuing to date him. Disgusted, Paige decides to leave Tom. Whether Anne meant her advice sincerely, or she very deftly reverse-psychologized her daughter, it is left up to our interpretation. This mother-daughter relationship is written with a lot of complexity – I particularly liked that little line of Anne's about Greg, "You used to date him, didn’t you?", knowing full-well that she did. If only this complexity was also given to, you know, people like Val. Danny just announces to Val that he’s talked to a lawyer about adopting the kids. Thankfully, Val isn’t all dewy-eyed about it (with these writers, you never know). Furious when Val wants to think about it, Danny takes the kids out, knowing Gary is on his way to spend time with them. Gary finding out about Danny's adoption plans prompts a wonderfully acted Gary/Val scene: Gary follows Val at the library, where she’s doing research, and you can just tell Val is shaken by the mere sight of him. Gary touchingly pleads that they finally tell the twins that he’s their father and set things right. For once, Val doesn’t defend Danny and finally, finally, Danny begins to crack. Hearing Gary brought up again, Danny loses it – he yells at Val, throws a magazine at her, and scares her. Seeing Danny freak out, and the horrified realization on Val's face, is so utterly satisfying. I never wanted to see Val in this situation, but the story has been so incredibly frustrating, it’s a relief that it’s all finally coming to light. The question is, how bad will things get before they’re resolved? Linda starts working at Sumner Group with a new outfit and a new personality. No, seriously, it’s like the writers finally figured out the direction they want to go with her and couldn’t make it more obvious. She is dismissive towards Eric and, when Michael rejects her, she loses it. Eric decides it’s time for him to go back to work and shares a goodbye scene with Karen. It’s really touching as he chalks it all up to experience and Karen pulls him in for a hug. I hope we get to see him again. Speaking of Karen, her talk show shenanigans continue: She’s getting great ratings and is starting to get recognized when out. A new associate producer, Jeff Cameron, is brought in, and there’s a lot of fun back and forth as he seems to manipulate both Karen and producer-from-hell Dianne. Later, we are shown Dianne and Jeff sleeping together and it almost sounds like all of this was cooked up by both of them, but earlier it was clearly Jeff that was pulling both of their strings. OK, I guess. I love Mack's dismissive attitude towards Greg: Following last week’s batshit insane ending (Robert, suddenly looking scrumptious and sexy, climbing into Greg's hospital room and injecting him with cameride), Mack tells Paula he doesn’t care if Greg suffers. Paula questions how those two were ever friends. Karen insists on taking Paula out so she can have a change of scenery. There’s a very interesting vibe in this scene: There’s something very … 90s about it. It’s also an amusing scene: Paula spills her guts out about being in love with Greg, while Karen is continuously interrupted with complimentary champagne, adoring fans, and requests for autographs. By highlighting the unusualness of Karen's situation so obviously, they manage to make it more palatable, more real. I could do without the silly, self-aware “Oprah better watch out!” lines, though. Paula soon returns to Greg's side, who still can’t speak. Well, no worries, Anne arrives with flowers and shocks the poor geezer into speaking once more! Poor Paula. Winner of the episode: Frank, who stops Tom and Mack's fight, and tells Tom: "You’re leaving. Bye!" with such sass. Oh, Frank. So funny. So succinct. Loser of the episode: Danny. Always. Always.

😍😍😍 That's great news! Thrilled she got another #1! I haven't listened to the album yet, except for Dancing, Stop Me From Falling, and Golden. I gotta do it soon!

Huge thank you for all the episodes, @YRfan23 Just fantastic!

@Taoboi Interview with Kylie Minogue before the album release tomorrow! I don't see the album being a particularly huge hit, but I do think I will like it. Can't wait!

Cute! Is it? Hmmm, the album's coming out in a week, so I think I'll wait....

You're welcome. They're easily top 5 most shocking TV moments, let alone ER! I just saw Benton's last episode. I didn't know it was coming, I wasn't ready! 😭😭😭 But they gave him a great exit (even if I'm not sure he would have won custody). The way they focused on him and Corday (such chemistry), that wink he gave her when he said "it's had its moments" and then that heartbreaking final scene with Carter.... Sigh. In one episode, they showed everything that made Benton so great. What an exit! The show is a little less rich without him. ☹️

I really like the point about Carter being a great choice for a drug addiction because he's one of the last people you'd think would have it. That's such great drama. It was the same way with Karen's addiction on Knots Landing. Such an unexpected development, and it made it all the better.

An oral history of Lucy and Carter's stabbings, with Kellie Martin, Noah Wyle, and the guy that played the psychopath that stabbed them. Really great stuff (shocking to see Martin now) and Wyle even admits at some point that he was an ass to Martin! Watch the video but obviously the article goes into much more detail. Fascinating stuff. I still get goosebumps. I just love that ER getting on Hulu is making it seem like the show is back all over again! Continuation starting in 3, 2, 1.... You're nuts!

Tobias Menzies! That's amazing!

I really am. I've done a couple more episodes since, and it continues to stun. The fog episode had me gasping for air! Really cool that it's providing you with a greater understanding of events and history you already know. I think that's fascinating and a tough thing to pull off.

Finally started this last night (first two episodes) and it. is. glorious!! They even made me cry an episode and a half into a new show, with characters we barely know. Amazingly produced, wonderfully acted. And Matt Smith's bum on constant display! What's there not to like?

Have you guys seen this nutjob (among a sea of nutjobs)??

OMG I didn't even recognize her until I read that part where you say it's Carole!

The series is reported to cost as much as $250 million! (for more than one season). Also, a handy little breakdown of what we know so far (minus the newest budget news). I'm dying to find out what they do with it. Some things I NEED: Filmed in New Zealand. First episode directed by Peter Jackson. I don't think that's it, although they might go down that road. With the tons of backstory available, they can literally adapt any part of it and keep the inventing stories at a low level. Then again, they might take these characters and just build their own thing. Whatever it is, I hope it's good.

David Tennant and Jennifer Garner a married couple on a show "about" camping? Boy, I'm having trouble picturing all this....

EPISODE 18: THE RIPPLE EFFECT An interesting episode that somehow feels similar in tone to the big, dramatic middle seasons of the show. The pace also picks up considerably. I wonder if it will last. We shockingly begin with Val going to Gary's ranch to tell him she married Danny (I still don’t get it). Amusingly, Gary questions why she felt the need to come tell him. Things get very bizarre after this (yes, even for the usual standard in this Gary/Val/Amanda/Danny story). Amanda runs into Danny while he’s picking up the twins and she’s picking up her last check, and she’s fascinatingly rude and dismissive. "Drop dead you slimy son of a bitch" is the nicest thing she says to him. Somewhere in there, Amanda kinda coughs/garbles, which must mean she’s crazy. Later, in what has to be one of the most ridiculous scenes in Knots Landing history, Amanda shows Gary her brooch made with a condom (….) and that was her way of telling him she wants to have sex. OK. They have sex. Then Amanda decides she’s leaving town and she’s gone! OK? Surely, this can’t be the end but Gary really takes it calmly. Just bizarre stuff. Thankfully, Karen actually does something productive for once and arranges a dinner party: Thanks to the fact that she invited Danny and Val and Pat and Frank, we get a three-part montage instead of the usual two. The dinner scenes are really good (and well lit, everyone looks fabulous). You gotta laugh at Danny turning on the bullshit charm to 200 and constantly making jokes everyone seems to hate but act like they don’t. It’s a scene that uses Behren’s lack of charisma to its benefit: Danny is putting on a huge performance that is hardly believable and everyone in the scene sees it (save for Val, dear God they’ve murdered her). The moment Karen makes her realization during coffee time after Danny slips with a comment about beating children is refreshingly melodramatic (the music made me jump) and it gave me goosebumps. I really liked her turning to Mack after everyone’s gone and telling him that Gary is right about Danny. Mack also makes a realization: For no reason other than the plot dictates it, he makes a comment about phone calls between lovers and both he and Paige realize Tom never called Paige from the airport like he said. Paige breaks up with Tom again and Mack, Frank, and Peggy realize that he is a dirty cop. Dobson does great in the scene where he confronts Arnie Zimmer and the man admits it was Tom all along. Meanwhile, Tom dodges Harold's blackmail effort with some blackmail of his own. I don’t buy at all that he found out about the Mexico stuff but the whole thing leads to a swift exit from Harold after he finds out about Olivia's money from stocks, steals it to pay off his debt, dumps Olivia, leaves town, and never pays Michael back. Wow. I guess that’s it? Funny how not one, but two characters in this episode quickly leave town. Greg being sarcastic, rude, and mean to the police is really fun! The show puts Michael to good use here when Greg asks him to find out what Mary Frances went into his computer for. Contrasting his behavior towards everyone else, Greg stops Michael before he exits his office and thanks him. It’s a very nice little moment. Turns out, Mary Frances is part of a subversive group, Oakman is involved, and Greg can’t figure out exactly what it was she was tracking. As Greg and Paula exit a restaurant at the end of the episode, Greg is shot! It’s all getting slightly ridiculous, but OK.

Interesting....

They've already announced the Part 4 DVD, out June 26! Here's the TVShowsOnDVD announcement too. I hope they keep this pace up!

If there was EVER one headline that would make sure I never tune back in.... Producers want to save Corrie by bringing Fiz and Tyrone to the forefront, making them the new Jack and Vera. Fiz??? Boost ratings???

I just saw this for the very first time (never seen TCBS) and I think it may be the funniest thing I've EVER seen.

So very devastating. Thought I'd do some light Friday night viewing. Charlotte Bellamy has got to be one of the best soap actresses that ever existed.

EPISODE 17: MY BULLET Val makes her one appearance to tell Karen that she and Danny eloped. The look on Lee’s face is great but then the writers turn our stomachs with the sight of Val and Danny in bed about to make love. What did we ever do to deserve this? Poor Val, indeed! Michael wants his money back from Harold for blah blah blah. Ugh, it all pretty much develops exactly like you’d think: Harold is paid a threatening visit, he’s desperate to get the money. He ends up asking Mack to loan him $13,000. Both Mack and Karen (who are dealing with goldfish drama) are stunned at this… and then proceed to lose about 60 IQ points each. I mean… neither one, not the wise busybody, not the former investigator, suspect something serious is going on if Harold is asking for that much money? It doesn’t even occur to them. A little coldly, they say no without even summoning him to ask more questions. It’s all because the writers need to get Harold blackmailing Tom with the secret of him being a dirty cop, of course, but I still didn’t expect them to give the MacKenzies the shaft for once! The opening scene is hilarious: Greg, back to his old self, has had enough of security meetings and bodyguards. He calls his security team 'police academy rejects' and Tom and Ricardo are 'clowns trying to do comedy'. (Well, in all fairness, Ricardo's jokes were wildly inappropriate for the situation and setting). It all goes downhill from there. Carlos calls Paige to ask her to visit Greg. She lies to Tom about where she’s going but he finds out when Carlos calls back to ask Paige not to come following Paula's unexpected arrival. Well, she’s his girlfriend, so…. The ensuing Paula/Greg/Paige/Tom interactions from this little misunderstanding are a lot of lighthearted fun, leading to Tom's confession that he’s in love with Paige. Her reaction – instantly melting and deciding they need to get condoms – shows it actually does mean something to her despite all her bravado. Things don’t end so nicely for Greg. He receives a visit from the shady Robert, who oh-so-subtly tries to take Mary-Frances’ notebook. Surprise: They end up hating each other. It is in this fun scene that the problem with having a talent like Devane on your show reveals itself: A lot of actors, especially the younger ones, can’t stand up to him, so to speak. Even if they have the talent, they lack the gravitas. But we’ll take the talented actor anyway. Things then really take a turn when Greg, drinking heavily, sees a vision of Mary-Frances (yay, more Stacy Galina!). How very Six Feet Under of him. But the true shocker comes when Paul Galveston shows up as well! Wow, I surely never thought we’d see him again. He does seem to be written entirely too overtly, speaking in a way I don’t quite remember him ever doing, but he’s dead, so whatever. These visits, of course, lead to the obvious question: Why isn’t Laura there? They may or may not have asked McCashin to return but, to their credit, they address her absence by having Greg say she wouldn’t fit in with them because she actually loved him. Well, OK, that kinda works. Greg indulges in his self-pity and literally tries to outrun his ghosts by leaving the ranch and paying the MacKenzies a late-night visit, but they kick him out. Greg returns home, where he ends things with Paula and continues to be tormented by the ghosts of his dead relatives (now that they make a point of it, wow. He really does have 3 major relatives of his dead). All in all, this is a little too on-the-nose for Knots Landing but seeing the actors and Devane's work help sell it. Strangely poignant is the Meg story: One of Greg's daughters is dead, the other one is about to learn about death when the goldfish she suckered Mack into getting her passes away. "The fish is dead," Mack deadpans to Karen in perhaps one of Dobson’s finest comedic moments. Touchingly, neither one can bring themselves to tell Meg the truth and they pretend the ‘fish doctor’ saved the goldfish. Meg believes them. "Thank God for the fish doctor," they proclaim, which would have made an excellent title for this episode. "There’s been too much death," Karen further explains to Mack in one of those moments where the audience’s thoughts perfectly meld with the characters’. After a night of heavy drinking, Greg realizes that Mary-Frances’ notebook is gone. As he stares at Mary-Frances once more, he asks what was going on with her, and she disappears, leaving him and us to wonder. This could be really good!

EPISODE 16: OUT OF CONTROL When the episodes begins – chaos! It’s all so shocking; hard to believe Mary-Frances is dead. I could rage about the Lechowicks wasting Mary-Frances within an episode of her return, but it’s all so surprising and captivating. Most of the episode, of course, deals with this unexpected event. Brilliantly, Jane Sumner also returns to the show (this time, played by the same actress) and, despite her relatively brief previous stay, her scenes with Greg bubble with the weight of the past. The scene in which Greg calls Jane but can’t say the words is particularly touching – some of Devane's best work. And, then, another twist: Mary-Frances was operating under an assumed name. Initially, I thought this death was connected to Oakman and that mess, but what if the writers are developing a separate mystery? Or maybe they’re making us think it’s a separate thing! Tom learns that Greg and Paige were an item. It’s perhaps a little unconvincing that he either hadn’t heard that or found out earlier, but it’s funny he becomes a little jealous and territorial. Meanwhile, unconnected to absolutely everything, Val and Danny continue their seemingly unstoppable gallop towards marriage. You’d think at some point Val would have something to say about Greg or Mary-Frances’ murder, but she’s not only a blind caricature, but a self-involved one too by now. I never thought I’d be annoyed by Val. Thankfully, Gary won’t give up and there is one amusing scene where both Val and Gary visit Pat and Frank regarding Danny (finally, the Williamses involved in something) but by the time Val and Danny are unexpectedly getting married, a sense of cold and dread is taking over me. I’m beginning to really resent this storyline. They’ve got to fix this. And, while they’re at it, I do wish they’d settle on how they want to spell Mary-Frances. They’ve had three different versions so far!

Thanks, Carl! I wanted to mention that Gary/Olivia scene but forgot. Once again, she reminded me a lot of her mother.

Yummy! Let me get bodyguarded! Aaaaw Oh, God. Oh, Lawd! One after another! So, now, I wonder: Could drinking have been the reason why this sudden recast happened? Did his firing lead to the drinking? Or was it a random event that went very, very badly?