xtr

31 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

When has Lola ever been interesting?  Just curious because from the little I'd seen, even under Mal she seemed like a total bore. 

 

The last time Chloe and Chelsea were on together, they were almost totally indistinguishable (cue the theme music from The Patty Duke Show) in the same manner that Abby and Summer seem too similar and never seem to have active, viable storylines when they're on at the same time.

 

I can certainly believe that Josh is writing Lola and Kyle in a manner that seems passive aggressive. It wouldn't surprise me if he were low-key trying to tank that pairing and then say "Oh well...I tried" with a shrug.

Once upon a time....lol.  IMO, in the very beginning, she was actually kind of likeable. And had some potential. When she first came on and was standing up for her brothers against Mia, who was trying to cause trouble for both of them she was okay. And when she clashed with Summer a little early on pre-Pursegate. She wasn't bad when she first admitted she was a virgin and had wanted to wait to sleep with Kyle.

But after Pursegate, the writing for  her character went into the toilet and down the drain. And she became incredibly sanctimonious, self absorbed and judgmental.

15 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

 

Yes on all of this!

 

I've repeatedly said I hated Mal's tenure, but he did the right thing axing Kevin and letting MCE leave. I was so thrilled. So of course they're brought right back under Griffith. 

 

I also think Mal did better by the younger characters, minus blah and blank Tessa (I guess there's a soap mandate that one half of a gay couple must be completely devoid of any personality or life to them) and the out of the blue Summer attempting to whore herself to Billy.

 

Also, Ana came on at the very end of his tenure, really (and at least he was smart to bring back Ana and Fen, who this regime has no interest in). I think he would have done more with both her and Fen. He was truly at least trying to put the YOUNG back into the show. Kyle was so much more interesting. Now look at him. Griffith sucks. (But I can often find things in hack regimes I liked or could have liked)

 

It's frustrating how soaps are so terrible at developing younger characters. I've seen so many on many of the soaps, and this soap, that were completely wasted in one asinine story after another. When their focus is on Kevin and Chelsea returning, we really do have a major major problem.

I know Mal had his issues, and some of his storylines were boring/dragged like the JT storyline. But I definitely give Mal the edge over Josh when it came to the younger set. Overall, they were written much better underneath him and had more of a purpose. With the exceptions being Tessa and Summer who he went off the rails with, by having her try and seduce and then sleep with Billy. Summer is being written better now underneath Josh, but I think he reset the character back to where she was before Mal wrote her very poorly. Tessa really is the only young person that Josh has written "better" than Mal.

Other than that the rest of them were written much better. Even Lola for a little moment there had some potential. Then pursegate happened and the writing for her went straight to heck. Now Ana and Fen are gone, Kyle is a groveling, constantly berated/shell of himself, who turns himself inside out to constantly please his controlling girlfriend. Lola is a disaster for all of the reasons that we've listed. And Mariah mostly exists to prop/cater to Lola & involve herself in every aspect of Tessa's career. With a couple of scenes with Sharon here and there. Kyle/Mariah don't have identities anymore outside catering/propping Lola/Tessa. And that's a shame because they are way better than the other two. 

26 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

While the writing for Lola is dreadful (what on earth is their goal with her? It's neither compelling or interesting and she comes off as terrible and judgemental ... are they deliberately writing her like trash because they resent being forced to write for her? lol) but I think a lot of the problem is also the actress. A better/stronger actress could maybe make some of it likeable and make Lola more likeable. But Sasha Calle plays her strangely. Just smug and entitled and almost obnoxious. I don't get the propping, but I blame Angelica. Calle would also play "bitch" so much better .... and it'd BE BETTER if they acknowledged Lola is a bitch. Which she is. But they don't. It's just so bizarre. 

I have seen some people speculate on Twitter, that Josh is writing Kyle/Lola poorly because he doesn't like writing for them as a couple. A little while ago, he literally wrote a plot where they were digging through actual trash and ended up with tomato sauce on their faces. And Lola told Kyle he was stinky. It makes you wonder lol. And they have been given a lot of other bad plots.  Maybe Josh is rebelling because Angelica is forcing him to feature Lola/Kyle and Lola a lot and he doesn't really like them or Lola. 

I agree Sasha doesn't portray Lola as even remotely likeable. I think that the writing doesn't make Lola likeable at all, and maybe Sasha is doing a very strict interpretation  of the writing for the character.  I don't know why they make her so sanctimonious and judgmental. Even towards her own family. And everyone having to sing her praises is ridiculous. Even Summer has to sing her praises, and she slept with summer's husband, called her an emotional vampire after she donated part of her live. And now she's blaming Kyle stuff that Kyle did in NY on Summer, who wasn't with him in NY. And who he admitted that he neglected when they together during that time.

And Even when she does stuff like commit adultery and constantly berate Kyle for who he is. Including his background, his wealth, his present and now his past. It's way too much and I don't know why the show thinks painting her like this is a good idea. She is insufferable and one of the worst written young characters and characters in general, I've seen on a soap. Josh has managed to write her even worse than Mal did, and Mal started to write her poorly around Pursegate. I believe that Josh could write her better, but he won't for some reason.

13 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

 

God. What an absolute shame. Both were SO well received!

 

And reading that Griffith interview ... lawd. LAWD. Fan favorites like Chelsea and Kevin? Seriously??? That's bringing the show back to being "iconic and recognizable"? LMAO. Please! I want what Griffith is on ...

I agree. As someone who wanted Fen/Ana from the beginning, it's sad to see all of the potential that was there for them being wasted. But show didn't care about what a lot of fans wanted. A lot of people loved Loren and Zach and wanted their characters together. And at the very least to get some type of storyline. I know many of people kept saying on Twitter, that they wanted them to bring Zach back and the show never did. Even though he had chemistry with Ana and I think a decent amount of chemistry with Summer as well.

Instead they shove unlikeable, sanctimonious, lethargic overpropped Lola down people's throats. It really is unfortunate, they would give that character awful writing & choose to focus too much on her. Over giving characters like Ana/Fen storylines.

Someone on Soapcentral said that CBS has a new survey up for Bold and the Beautiful. Maybe another new one will pop up for Y&R. If so, I am going to going to leave some comments about them getting rid of characters like Ana and Fen. And still shoving Lola and other characters down viewer throats.

48 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

This show is so bad. I swear Kyle and Lola have been having the same exact f.ucking scenes for 3 months now. Angelica, Josh, and Tony need to get a clue or get their asses fired for this sh!t.

 

This is is one of the big reasons people are tuning OUT of this show in droves. It’s so bad, it’s BORING as hell. It’s not even bad in the way the that “it’s so bad, it’s good.”

 

Griffith really wants to relive 2013 again, there is absolutely no reason for Billy to sudden get depressed over Delia’s death YET AGAIN. This is pure Griffith trying to write fallout for a story he never got to finish the last time around. 

kyle and Lola should not have been on today. Their presence was not needed on today's show. Especially Lola. Lola was extra smug on today and Friday's show. All she did was display an extra smug, sanctimonious attitude and blame her and judge her own brother for her being put into a coma.

Arturo shouldn't have cheated with Mia again, but Mia is the one that pushed Lola. And the only person that should be blamed for her falling into a coma. Yet Lola was talking down on her own brother and acting jealous of him. She was also talking bad about Sharon and on today's show blamed Summer for Kyle's behavior in NY. (Even though Summer had nothing to do with that.) Lola keeps judging and turning her nose up at people, and it's very off putting. And she's featured way too much.

The show could have done without Nick and Chelsea today too. And it looks like that might be a new stable set they were on today.

And Adam and his storyline has become stale and flat. He's not doing much of anything but threatening people and going around in a suit. And having people tell him he doesn't deserve to be a father to his own kids. He's not doing much beyond that.

And Rey (who is the only Rosales that I like) overreacted to Sharon and her relationship with Adam. Nick was acting like Sharon was doing really bad stuff with Adam, when all's she done is not despise him and listen to him a bit. I didn't care for the way he talked to her on today's show. 

According to SOD, the role of Zoey has been cast:

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/yr-casts-new-role-6/

Zoey will be tied to Kyle. There was a script floating around that had Theo bringing Zoe to some type of event. Him and Kyle will clash with Theo bringing her around. Phyllis will also inquire about her. Zoe is someone from Kyle's wild past in NY.

4 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

lol. WTF? Austin gets a webisode spin off? 

 

I'd much rather see the scenes they cut from the episodes.

 

Where's my Shelle and Claire webisodes? I want to watch her get better and watch them parent her. Not have them shipped off-screen!

If they ever bring back Claire along with Shawn/Belle, for another and longer stint that would be a good one to do. We could see them sticking by her side as she receives treatment in Bayview. She could even be shown make some friends/building some connections there. 

I like this idea and wonder who else they will feature on future seasons. That's cool that these storylines will complement other storylines on the show. And Days basically has a revolving door when it comes to a lot of characters leaving and returning. This could fill viewers in on what certain characters may be doing before they come back to the show for stints.

If Shawn and Belle were ever scheduled to come back for longer stints, it would be cool to see if they had one about what they have been up to off the show.

A good one to do would be with Nicole, if they ever decide to have the "real" version of her return. They could show what has happened to her after the explosion when she was away from Salem/believed to be dead. And when Kirsten was pretending to be her.

And another one they could show would be Steve/Patch and what he was up to on his time away from Salem. Since SN is coming back.

I wouldn't mind seeing at least some of Hope's siblings show up and her interact with them. RJ really has disappeared. He wasn't at any of the last few wedding ceremonies. Including the marriage of Hope and Liam that didn't go through (was interrupted by Wyatt) or the marriage to Hope and Liam that did go through. Or Hope marrying Thomas. He's young enough to where he should still be around/someone should mention him. But they haven't mentioned him in a while. He should be living in the Forrester mansion right there in the mix of things regarding this baby switch storyline. Especially considering that Hope, Thomas and Steffy are all his siblings. 

Bridget came back during Hope's last wedding to Liam and they interacted some along with the other Forrester Women. She also came back this past Christmas to spend time with her family.  Last time I saw Rick interact with Hope he did act like he cared about her and wanted the best for her. That was when he showed up at the wedding that she had to Liam (and when Steffy was pregnant with Kelly), that was stopped. That wedding was stopped when Wyatt told Liam about Bill leading him to think something romantic had happened with Steffy. Rick wasn't at the wedding with Liam that actually happened afterwards. (The one where Brooke and Taylor ended up having a food fight with cake.)

It's true no one talks about Jack. He's even younger than RJ and should also be around at least sometimes. They could have him split his time between spending it with Nick and the Logans/Forresters. I don't know if we will ever see him show up. 

And Little Eric hasn't been seen for several years and should be like 20 years old now. (Without Soras) He hasn't been seen or mentioned in a long time.

There really is a lot of potential storyline there if at least some of her siblings would arrive on canvas. But the show really only seems to care to focus on Steffy Liam and Hope and to a lesser degree Wyatt and now Thomas. And their parents fighting/worrying over them. But there are interesting things that could be done with other characters including Hope's siblings. 

9 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Another problem with these firings is that legacy characters like Fen, Ana, Scott, Noah etc become'damaged goods' to future writers  and are then forgotten completely , leaving holes in the canvas and potential untapped.

The same fate awaits Chance if the casting is off or the story tanks.

Although other factors do come into play as Summer and Abby could have easily been dropped also. Maybe being an Abbott or Newman earns bonus points...

Another thing I don't like is not only are they not giving these young people good storylines and are sending them, they aren't even getting good exit storylines. Or good reasons to explain their prolonged absences. Fen was sent on tour with one song that was a moderate hit, & they haven't talked much about him since. Michael and Lauren him mentioned him a little a while back and said that tour was a hard grind for him, and the pay wasn't that good. And Lauren encouraged Michael to support Fen's dreams. But that was months ago. Fen hasn't been mentioned since then, he can't stay on tour singing one song forever. It's like the show has forgotten he existed.

Ana has now being sent away to be with Jett is who is dealing with issues with nodules on his vocal chords. It's understandable she would want to be with her father, but that is not something that should keep her away long term from the canvas. (Though it probably will). Right now, her, Devon and Elena are visiting Jett, but they will come back without her. And I could see them giving some type of excuse of being around Jett. She could be essentially giving up her career as co-head of LP and being a producers at Hamilton-Winters in GC, by staying away. Even though they may say she's doing work for Hamilton-Winters, while staying around Jett. But they way they wrote her off was very shoddy.

Noah has been given the excuse of working for Dark Horse elsewhere, which is a better excuse/than what Fen/Ana have gotten. However it still would be nice if he were around, and he should have been brought back when his mother, grandmother and Aunt were on trial for JT's murder. And were sentenced to jail time. He should have been bought back then, if only for a short stint. But his presence could be used on canvas longer term and to help balance out the younger set.

Here are some upcoming spoilers from the Soaps Section of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:

Abby will get scared when Nate talks about long-term plans. Devon and Nate will talk Elena down after she loses a patience. Phyllis will try and make peace with both Jack and Billy, and Paul will give Rey back his job as detective on the police force. But Paul will tell Rey there is no margin of error for him. Billy will continue to struggle regarding Adam being around & Sharon and Jack will encourage him to seek help.

I wonder if Abby gets scared because Nate's long term plans are about having a family & she's not thinking about getting that serious anytime soon. Especially considering she has had several failed relationships. Maybe her and Nate will end up being on different pages about how serious they want a relationship to be. There is another spoiler that says that she will keep him on his toes. I wonder if she does something to keep him guessing about what she really wants in a relationship. Whatever happens, I hope she doesn't try and change Nate's feelings or make him jump through hoops for her. Also, I think it's interesting that both Devon and Nate will talk Elena down after she loses a patient. I think she is struggling with working as a medical professional again and dealing with death. She still feels guilty about not being around when her mom died, and not being able to save Chelsea's husband and now losing a patient is triggering those feelings. 

Also, I think that it makes sense that Rey will return to the police force. I think that makes a lot more sense than him working for unemployed Nick. He needs something to do especially now after him and Sharon have broken up. I do wonder if he will still try & help Nick find information about Adam or if that will be dropped/sidelined as he returns to work. And I read somewhere that there is a picture of Billy floating around talking to a psychiatrist  so it looks like he does take Sharon/Jack's advice and seeks help regarding his feelings about Adam and Delia. 

1 hour ago, Darn said:

What a waste. 

Absolute waste. They would have been great together and very pretty. Some pics showing what could have been:

It's a shame that this show didn't put them together or even keep them on in general. They could have done some interesting things with them as a couple and/or as individuals.

On 7/25/2019 at 4:57 PM, crc said:

Wow, poor Douglas is the latest to overoverhear the truth about Beth (he overhears Thomas saying that Beth is alive on the phone), and the latest victim of Thomas' threats (he threatens to go back to New York with Hope, leaving Douglas in LA if he "disobeys" him; when Douglas asks why he doesn't talk about mommy, Caroline, anymore, Thomas tells him because she's dead, etc.). Yep, he's going psycho on his own son now, at one point grabbing Douglas' arm violently.  I thought he was going to go complete "Mommie Dearest" on him for a moment.

57 minutes ago, crc said:

Just watched Friday's episode and I find it funny that little Douglas has more sense than any of the adults around him. He seems to be putting two and two together regarding Beth and Steffy's "Phoebe."  Liam, dumb as a box of rocks, is snooping into Flo and "her baby" and checking out Phoebe's adoption papers, and still doesn't have a clue.

 

 

The little actor that plays Douglas is doing a nice job. I like how he notices something is wrong with Thomas and is calling him out for his behavior. Even after Thomas threatened him and roughly grabbed him. The little actor is doing a nice job of showcasing how even though he and his character is very young, he knows something is wrong with his father's behavior. Douglas is a sweet little boy and loves Hope and wants to do right by her. He put her well being above his own, when he told her that baby Beth was alive, even after being threatened/mistreated by Thomas.

I think that Thomas needs to lose custody of him. Or at least be sent away for a while, while someone who is not doing evil things and is more stable. takes cares of Douglas. Maybe Hope will end up taking care of him when Thomas's is sent off to wherever he's sent, (prison or a mental institution.)

I thought that Tom and Livia were great together and I liked his friendship with Brooke. I enjoyed the way he supported her after she gave birth to Jamie and was having a hard time dealing with Tad during her marriage to him. And the stuff he was doing to her, when she was pregnant with his second child.

I am thinking about who I could put on this list. I'm going to say Aidan Devane, from AMC. He was a handsome, sexy man and wasn't the strongest actor but I thought his acting was serviceable. He had multiple pairings. He was mostly a good guy, until they had him lose it after he fell for Kendall and tried to keep her from Zach. Which ultimately led to his exit storyline. 

Also Windsor Harmon's Thorne on Bold and the Beautiful. He wasn't the strongest actor, but I liked his version of Thorne.

I'm going to try and think of more people. I feel like if this were a thread about females on soaps that fit a comparative description, I could come up with more names, lol. 

8 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Nick story is connected to Adam. And Lola and Kyle getting married is no story IMO.

Kyle and Lola have been featured a lot and Kyle now has storyline about his wild past in NY. He has become enemies with Theo, who keeps bringing up something that happened in NY. They have spent multiple episodes with Lola wringing her hands over it and judging him for it. And they are going to bring on a woman from Kyle's past named Zoe who is connected to his time in NY. In addition to bringing in Papa Rosales who Celeste has gotten back together with and Lola has issues with. I think they have gotten a ton of storyline. It's awful and not interesting, lol, but they have gotten plenty.

2 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

They gotta pay MS..lol....

Who does have a story though? Only Adam does and that's been told so many times already. No one else on the canvas has a storyline and that's because Griffith is an atrocious HW.

This show definitely needs more balance and needs to stop focusing so much on the same characters. Right now in addition to Adam who is featured way too much Kyle, Lola and Nick also have stories. Kyle and Lola keep getting ridiculous storyline after storyline handed to them. And Lola keeps having family members show up. Mama Rosales showed up (she left today but will be back) and Papa Rosales will probably show up. Someone from Kyle's past is also showing up.

Kyle and Lola's storylines are awful, and have been at the expense of the other young characters, who aren't shown nearly as much. Except for when they want to use them to prop Kyle and Lola (mainly Lola). Other than that they have been pushed aside or in Ana's case let go. Summer and Theo are getting some story, but they aren't featured as much as Kyle/Lola are.

Nick is also being featured a lot with this custody case over Christian and with Chelsea, who is also being featured a lot. And who was given a husband, and who has someone else from her past show up, in addition to her mother coming back to the canvas.

IMO, the show needs to feature other characters more besides these ones, who they are featuring too much.

26 minutes ago, ~bl~ said:

Is today her last tape day or her last air day? I don't get it either as Loren is talented. Maybe she outshines the faves so this happens.

I think that her last air date was yesterday, when she announced she was going to see Jett in the hospital. Maybe the video of her taping her last day, was for yesterday's air date.

I think her, Devon, Elena will go see Jett and they will come back without her. I think they will give some excuse about how she wants to stay with Jett, while he recovers and that will turn into a longer stay. And she won't be mentioned much again, after that. She might be allowed to come back if Devon got remarried, but I'm not even sure that might happen. 

Just now, BetterForgotten said:

Or they should smarten up and realize that Kyle and Mariah work better together than Lola/Kyle or Tessa/Mariah.

That would be great. But I doubt it will happen because this show continues to shove Lola and her boring, sanctimonious/overly propped character on the viewers.  But I would love to see Kyle and Mariah. I've always liked them together ever since they first interacted after MM Kyle's came onboard.

2 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

She she be written out completely, recurring is not enough for that failure of a character and actress (Cait Fairbanks). 

I think the show might keep her, but that she will rarely be shown. Right now her and Mariah are happy together, but barely shown. I think they might continue do that for the characters. Though, this could definitely end up affecting CM/Mariah's airtime as well. But maybe they will show her doing things like interacting with Sharon even more instead of interacting as much with Tessa.

I wonder if Cait may be the next one out the door. Her and Mariah haven't been shown that much at all lately. They have been shown maybe three times in the past three weeks. I also wonder if she will be put in the opening credits now. Loren was put in them, even though she was let go.

Speaking of Cane, I wonder what they end up doing with him, lol.  I put this in the other thread about Loren being let, go but he could have been a romantic option for Ana. Though that may have been to the disdain of many, lol.  He might go down to one episode a month like he did after they put an end to a romance with Cane/Victoria.

28 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

In retrospect, these racist assholes couldn't wait to wrap up Kristoff's death fast enough so that they could move on and focus on played out white characters, while further diminishing the black cast. 

 

They probably think potentially bringing Mishael back will be a solve for this, but the issue is much deeper than trading one black actress for another (they think all black characters are interchangeable). 

And what's even worse is that they got a nice boost in ratings, when the episodes surrounding Neil's death aired. I also believe they got a bump in ratings around the time that  Hilary was killed off and the Winters family was featured more during that storyline. Those scenes where Devon was confronting Lily at the penthouse (and there was conflict between them) was good scenes, and that type of drama helped the ratings. Yet they continue to all but ignore the black family and characters on the show and it's unfortunate.

Ana who a lot of people cared for is now gone. If they had kept her around and given her a love interest, that could have helped things. A lot of people wanted to see her with Fen and I think they would have had developed large fanbase if they had gotten together. Or they could have put her with someone else and that still could have clicked with viewers.

Nate has barely been shown, and it's finally starting to be shown a little more. He's a handsome man and decent actor and up until recently was largely being ignored. Elena is underdeveloped and needs more of a backstory. I believe they should give her a father.  Devon is written for somewhat, but hasn't been shown a lot either. Neil is gone, Lily makes rare appearances and the twins are gone.  They really do need to do much better by their black cast and viewers.

27 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

On a soap opera where love and romance are supposedly all the rage, it's ridiculous that a young character like that never went on one date her entire time on the show.  How long was what's her name Rosales on the show before she got a romance?  Has there been a recent character on as long as Ana, in her age bracket who did not go on one single date the time she's been on...on a soap?

 

Y'all can give Mal a pass but I won't.  Almost doesn't count.  He had time to send her and substitute Fenmore on a date but never did. Not even a bad date.  

 

IMO, neither Mal nor Josh ever cared about Ana.  Based on what I've seen and read.  Any writer who is invested in a character doesn't write for him or her in this manner.  But let's see how long they keep her in the opening credits...for optics. 

Y&R and how they write (or don't) for certain characters is what happens when you lack diversity in your writing room.  

I wasn't a big fan of Mal's writing, but I watch this show daily and I watched all of Ana's storyline with Mal and Josh. And I do believe that Mal wrote her much better than Josh did. She had more of storyline, and a potential love interest. I think that the Mal was setting it up for something romantic to happen with Ana/Fen, but it was dropped when it became clear he was out the door. She was developing a nice friendship with Fen, which I think could have turned into romance. Josh didn't give her anything like that and he had enough time to finish what Mal started, but he dropped it. I believe that if Mal had stayed Ana may gotten with Fen or at least gotten a love interest. And that is enough for me to give him some credit for that. Nobody else has to do that, but I will.

Mal's writing of the younger set was one of the few things he actually did well (minus Summer/Tessa) Ana had more of a purpose and a potential love interest. Kyle was interesting, even Lola had promise in the very beginning underneath Mal. Though he started to ruin her and Josh came in and wrote her worse. Once upon a time Lola was likeable, but then pursegate happened & then her character has been sinking every since. Josh managed to tank her even more than Mal did.

Mal also featured the Winters family more than Josh has. Now granted a lot of people are upset because he killed of Hilary (which is understandable) but he still wrote more for the family.

I'm not a big fan of his, but I will give him some credit for things, including the way he wrote Ana.

25 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Don't tell me that y'all believe that bogus story about not being able to come up with stories.  I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell ya if you believe that one.  

People should really listen to that podcast interview that KSJ did a few years ago.  He talks about Y&R's history of colorism.  It's really worth a listen.  

 

Josh is part of the problem but he's only one part of the triad of alienation.  Even when Mal was on, Ana Hamilton did not have one love interest.  Not. A. Single. One.  Even Mariah had her bland relationship with Kevin...hell, they brought her on lovelorn from Tyler, before they paired her with bland Tessa. 

 

Why did Ana, a gorgeous 20-something character never even go on a date her whole damn time on this awful show?? If it's anything other than her color, shade/tone, let me know...

I'll wait...

 

 

 

 

I think that the way she was treated had a lot to do with colorism. Josh never wrote her to be considered desirable to anybody and I believe that colorism had a lot to do with that. The way he wrote her was insulting, which caused me to call him out for that many times.

And though, I don't care much for Mal, but I do believe he at least at one point considered to pair Ana/Fen. Loren even said she thought they were headed in that direction with those two. Fen was the one that Ana spent most of her time when she first came on the show, (and also with Devon). Ana/Fen flirted and Ana was written to act a little jealous over Fen/Summer. I think that Mal was considering it, but it got scratched on his way out the door. And then when Josh took over, it wasn't even considered at all. Or any love interest for Ana for that matter. Josh wrote Ana worse than Mal did. Under Mal she was written as more mature & not treated as much like filler. Mal did give her more of a storyline but I think that whatever he planned to do with her/Fen and her secret was scratched, when it was clear he was leaving.

Josh regressed the character by having her act and be treated more like her teenager when she started agreeing with everything Tessa/Mariah wanted & was berated by Devon for it. I think that as a whole Josh is writing the younger set much worse than Mal did. I think that was one of the few things that Mal did right, was the way he wrote the younger set (the exceptions being Summer/Tessa).

Another issue I have in addition to the "we couldn't come up with a creative story excuse"  lies with the show saying they needed to free up money. Not only is the show bringing back/adding a bunch of unnecessary characters (like IMO Kevin, Chloe, Chelsea), but they keep adding new sets. Phyllis is building a new hotel that will include a new restaurant in it, that Abby will launch. I believe this will turn into a new, large and costly set.

Abby said she wants to expand society and Phyllis is already planning to build the hotel and restaurant and launch an opening for it. And IMO, it's not needed. Just like the Dark Horse set wasn't needed and hasn't been utilized much. These large, costly and unnecessary sets are not needed and that money could be used to help retain talent like Loren.