UKBoi

All of this is so true, they really haven't done enough to make Chelsea a lead the way they have with Kat and Eva - and yes, I understand they probably really wanted to build the Kat and Eva rivalry so the sisters reveal had extra impact and also to mirror the Nicole/Leslie drama, but Chelsea could be doing so much more - she is a famous social media influencer and model, her relationship with Dani as they start to switch off from the momager/client dynamic and try to find their groove again as just mother/daughter without having work in common; she's also bisexual but there are no young female or male characters on the canvas that she ISN'T related to except these odd bit players like Craig and Alison; again having Doug and Vanessa's kids on the canvas would be great (boy and girl twins, both with feelings for Chelsea). If they weren't rushing through plot lines then perhaps Chelsea and Madison bonded when Bill was in hospital, maybe Naomi was being that bossy af relative telling the doctors how to do their job and Chelsea, as the buffer between Dr. Madison and Naomi, started to fall for her father's doctor, or maybe they met beforehand at that awful lime green bar and hooked up, only for Madison to be treating her father a few days later. I could go on and on with this show, there's SO MUCH potential and while it's still very enjoyable, there could be so much more being shown and happening to further the stories and give them more impact when they reach their inevitable climax.

The set choices continue to baffle me. For example, they gave Andre an apartment set, why not establish it's some luxury condo development downtown and Joey also lives there, redress the set to give Joey a bachelor pad? Or that awful bedroom that's our only representation of Jacob and Naomi's home could just as easily be redressed as a bedroom for Joey. And Doug and Vanessa are, I'd say, more important to the canvas than ASHLEY, why don't they have a home that we see?

Annoyingly, we don't have any of the US soaps available readily in the UK, I never understood why. We used to get Sunset Beach (HUGE, I think more popular here than in the US), B&B and then very briefly DAYS when SUBE was canceled (aired from the Bope wedding when Gina was impersonating Hope, through to the Coronation Massacre). We also very briefly got GH for a while on the ABC1 channel but again quickly dropped. I believe the only one currently available is B&B on PlutoTV but nothing mainstream. I did have hope when DAYS went to Peacock only, and with BTG on Paramount Plus, but my emails to both streamers were ignored (we have Paramount Plus here, and Peacock sits within NOWTV streaming service too). BTG not being available here isn't surprising.

I do think Chelsea could have been off canvas at the beginning, establish her as an often mentioned but never seen supermodel; perhaps her and Dani have a frostier relationship because instead of quitting modelling, Chelsea in fact left her mother's management behind to spread her wings further and take her career to the next level which means when she does eventually appear there is TONS of story to be mined with them. Naomi, I think, is necessary, just because they have the aspect of her and Hayley being former besties and the way Hayley weaselled her way into the fold with the family, as well as the Naomi/Bill rivalry if they'd done more with the court case storyline and spent more time exploring Hayley/Bill, Hayley/Naomi and Bill/Naomi and the relationships between them all; I think this is the issue with them doing the slower, more character based storytelling is they aren't really exploring the dynamics between the characters and really mining those relationships. And THEN adding Dani into the mix, exploring Naomi's own guilt bringing Hayley around her family, Dani's relationships with all 3 of them, there's much to be told that isn't being. Martin absolutely should have been Vernon and Anita's son, it's how he's being written anyway, and we could still have had everything else remain unchanged with Smitty and the kids; it would also make the ages of Samantha and Tyrell a little more believable as the grandchildren of Vernon/Anita instead of Nicole/Ted. Then that gives the option of another Richardson son, perhaps off screen, to bring more story options for the future.

I definitely agree with you on that. And age wise it would have made more sense for him to have perhaps been a later in life pregnancy for Anita; the “boy” she always wanted to give her husband to carry on the Dupree name; there could have been some inbuilt resentment from Dani and Nicole AND it would have given scope for Ted and Nicole to have another son who’s more age appropriate to be the child of those actors

My question was basically is Dani the only character to have a bedroom? And then the response was Jacob and Naomi ONLY have a bedroom as their set .

Oh I forgot about this! I actually don’t understand why they don’t have Jacob and Naomi be neighbours to Ashley in the same building and just redress the same apartment set two different ways. The more I deep it, so many of the set choices just don’t make sense.

Bill and Hayley’s living room set should be redressed as their bedroom. We’ve not seen their gorgeous circular entry way set since the first week? Why not utilise that more and build them a living room off those double doors? The hotel room also doesn’t have a bed? Does only Dani have a bedroom?

I didn’t know if you were being serious or not for a second 🤣 I really feel like the way they’re mixing up who’s interacting with who, a couple of changes to the overall look (lighting, camera angles) and a few actors having changes in hairstyle etc (Naomi and Nicole are the first that comes to mind), there may have been a break in production before this week’s episodes were shot and they’ve reassessed a few things (in particular I noticed the lighting has improved and a lot of my gripes around the makeup - particularly on some of the female cast has also improved - two things which go hand in hand), perhaps some episodes have been edited and moved around to still give the Friday cliffhanger which is why Derek and Ashley were edited out of an episode they were slated to appear in etc. Regardless, this week has been excellent and I’ve noticed the actor who plays Martin is improving and Hayley too - especially given how poorly the Hayley character is written and how her personality / motivation changes from scene to scene.

I’m sure they said something about not being able to film outside the studio due to noise from airplanes disrupting it. A shame because Assembly Studios has 3 full outdoor backlots of different city streets that I’m sure BTG could have utilised to look like downtown DC etc. Maybe they will once the crew is more experienced in shooting at the pace required for a soap opera. It looks like from next week’s preview there have been some changes to lighting/direction as well as some changes to cast appearances (new hairstyle for Naomi, Nicole etc), Ted recast etc suggest maybe there was a break in production and some changes were made? This could also explain - if I’m really overthinking it - the last few weeks being where Cady McClain, Jon Lindstrom and even the actor who played Culhane in Dynasty, shot some scenes that were inserted into earlier episodes which I’m sure Karla Mosley said happened shortly before the premiere (not specifically with those actors, but that there were some reshoots inserted into earlier episodes)

Idk why but I get big Danielle Staub vibes from her

Imagine a story where Dani joins a fictionalised RHOP equivalent to try and restart her career, only to fall into a Karen Huger DUI situation…and then in a Shannon/Johnny J/Alexis situation, Bill pulls some strings and gets Hayley cast on the show too. Although I shouldn’t really put that into the universe while Ron C is involved because we do NOT need another Body and Soul taking over the show.

All I see when I look at this man is the party planner who told Sheree “you need to watch yourself before you get checked” on RHOA

Which would make Hayley Ted’s daughter and Kat and Martin’s half sister?? Wow that would be a PLOT TWIST

She really is! How on earth is that her logical solution… even Anita reminding her it was Hayley who got the charges dropped is big. I have to wonder if they’re going to go down the Hayley redemption route, I hope so to be honest. And then an epic Bill/Hayley divorce.

It would have made more sense for her character to have been friends with Nicole, especially as I’m sure Cady said her character is the owner of a spa, that could have been some sort of medi spa that’s housed within Ted’s private plastic surgery practice and involve her in whatever story is coming up with Ted, Silk Press Sheila and Nicole.

I couldn’t find it on Pluto in the UK. I’m really sad Paramount Plus didn’t carry it for us same/next day, same with Y&R and B&B

I still think Cady was added to the cast later and then they back shot some scenes to insert in and that’s why she’s suddenly Dani’s BFF when other scenes would have us believe Vanessa is Dani’s best friend and that’s why they seem to have more chemistry. I also think the scenes with Jon Lindstrom were added in later, as if they realised when reviewing the first few weeks of footage that they needed to add some other characters to beef up the cast.

I do feel that while Martin / Jacob / Andre in particular all have similar haircuts and facial hair, it’s not unrealistic that men of that age in that area would have the same trendy style. However I have noticed in how they dress the men; they have given a lot of detail to individual styles so far to reflect their personalities. Martin dresses a lot more preppy/conservatively even in his more casual outfits with the Telfar jacket and chinos for the country club, Andre they dress a lot edgier with more black in his wardrobe and leather, very All Saints / Saint Laurent vibes to his outfits. The contrasts are there, just not as strikingly different as the females; but this is to be expected with menswear. I really feel their wardrobe department are doing a stellar job of giving each character their own unique looks to reflect their personalities.

There was also a lot of this with Dani/Jacob “mother in law” “son in law” laid down thick. I recently was rewatching Sunset Beach from the beginning and they did a much better job of showing how everyone was connected in a more natural way instead of this heavy explanation that, like you said, brings the scenes to a thud. Granted, SuBe wasn’t based around one big extended family where they really have to show how everyone is connected but surely there’d be a better way! I keep thinking back to Wendy Williams as the gossipy tv host on OLTL, something like that to almost narrate under the guise of this prominent family, or the way they have the gossipy nurse, there could also be an upstairs/downstairs type of situation with perhaps a new member of staff at the country club being shown the ropes and given the full run down by an OG Fairmont Crest staffer, just little scenes to help us link people together while letting the main characters focus on the action without taking their feet off the gas to tell us who their mother in law is etc.

Definitely. First of all, the man is BEAUTIFUL. For research purposes we need him shirtless asap. But also, I have to wonder if part of the reason he's coming across a little stilted and wooden is because he's trying to play up how reserved and uptight Martin is and is just overdoing it.

This set was so disappointing, and I've LOVED all the sets so far (even though they all look TOO pristine and almost clinical, but I guess as time goes on they'll build on them and work on thing), they have the lovely round foyer with the double doors and marble floors and then they go through the little random door that I thought would be a closet instead of the double doors that would lead to the living room. Then the living room doesn't seem to be in the same house, stylistically. It looks small and dingy and I'm not sure why there's a tiny dining table in the corner when this is supposed to be a mansion within the gated community? If anything this room would make more sense redressed as their master bedroom and give them a living room off the double doors, but I do get that the design choices are probably supposed to reflect Hayley's style (going by her outfits that we've seen so far) and interestingly, Hayley's fashion and interiors taste doesn't seem too dissimilar to Dani's, which I have to suppose is intentional.

I have a theory that the original plan was for Vanessa to be Dani’s BFF and then they got Cady and switched plans to give Cady’s character a link to the Duprees - Cady’s presence so far seems very shoehorned into things as if it was filmed and inserted later on - Karla did say in an interview there was a bunch of new material shot later and inserted in so the scenes with Dani and Pamela could have been some and then the scenes with Nicole and Vanessa - one thing I’m not vibing with so far is the HEAVY exposition of how each person knows each other, I get they’re trying to establish the connections between characters but they’re laying it on a little too thick.

If I’m not mistaken, we found out in episode 3 or 4 that Ashley’s mother cleans some of the houses of the Duprees. The mother could have been introduced during that scene at Nicole’s house and them discussing Ashley’s first day at the hospital even as a little throwaway line before we see Ashley and Derek for the first time in that scene in their apartment, it would have linked them in easily. But this is minor nitpicking, I think they did a great job of introducing us to the world of Fairmont Crest and all the key players while keeping plot moving.

Rinna would actually have been a good Taylor. Kristian Alfonso also.