Aback

One thing the writers don’t seem to get is that we’ve come a long, long way from the roaring 80s when everyone was drunk on money and the American dream was selling like crazy. These days people hate the rich (well, not enough) because they’ve realized that you don’t get that rich without exploiting labour. So you’ve seen AOC sporting an ‘Eat the rich’ dress at the MET Gala and people like Musk or Bezos are now seen as diabolical hoarders, not as inspirational gurus any longer. In the meantime primetime has thrived recounting stories of everyday life. So… where’s daytime in all of this?

Everyone on this show is so understanding, conciliatory, always up-to-date with therapy speak... Call me old-fashioned but you need at least 1 conflict in an episode, a couple of characters disagreeing on something.

I like that they're framing it as 'anytime' as opposed to 'daytime', it's an appropriate evolution but the promo itself seems to mock the genre.

Thanks Jane. I have to say Christie comes across slightly annoying - the only one in the panel tbh - but she drops a few interesting tidbits here and there. Like she implies they had a couple of ‘bad apples’ on the show coming from other soaps, but they didn’t last long. Wonder who they were and if she was referring to Krista Allen? Her leaving the role of Taylor so soon is still an unexplained mystery.

This reminds me how pointless and random Hayley/Izaiah was...

Y&R's Mark Grossman was B&B's casting director's first choice for a Thomas recast but the role went to Matthew Atkinson, as per this panel: @janea4old thank you for sharing the link, so interesting.

Big agree. I adored it and no one was able to capture that in the decades after, on any soap. Her Jill's always come across as an insecure shrew. It's damaged the character and driven her to irrelevance.

Is it me or has the B&B app helped the show get a lot more classic clips on TikTok? Maybe my algorithm's shifted but it did not use to be like this.

That observation is spot on and also why I could really do without her. She adds nothing and reconducts everything back to her and those 4/5 milestones in her life.

They're unflattering but they fit Vanessa's role as a wannabe mobster madame.

OT but Tom Selleck would be the perfect Matt Miller now 🥺

Uhm obviously I was referring to the me too lawsuit and not sure why there's often miscommunication between you and me but this is what I meant: Moving on... They just HAD to throw their favorite anti-hero in the mix, just because. And another thing that irked me was Joey making a subtle reference to Bill's shaking hands, just to show he's always on top of everything and one step ahead. ANNOYING. He was catatonic for an episode and that's pretty much it. That must be the writers' concept of PTSD and the major consequence for the newly rebranded Red Market ordeal.

I thought the same thing! What a silly mistake... Most of all they were discussing something they should've buried a long time ago. Why is Mike so relevant... The lawsuit was months ago.

Very well said. And all these plastic, dreamy, ego-less men (Andre, Kial, Izaiah, Jacob) don't make for good drama. Was it? 'My first time was a mess too, just like yours' 'Really, dad?' 'Yes, it was with a girl... and I was gay' lmaooo That was involuntarily hilarious. Big agree. Derek did nothing wrong. While Greyson is a criminal. BTW I also dislike Greyson's terrible dye job and the fact he's never once smiled, apart from his first appearance. I can't stand Nicole anymore. She's uppity, entitled and insufferable. And she must be an awful shrink. Reminds me of my former boyfriend. Great songwriter and singer. Wouldn't post anything on Youtube cause 'they could have stolen his songs'. Never heard him on the radio and probably never will. If you want to do something with your life, do it, take actions. Otherwise do not complain about people 'poo-poohing' 🤷‍♂️ on your ideas on a message board.

I don’t understand for the life of me why someone who’s so passionate is not willing to e-mail their fan fiction/ideas or at least contact the writers in some way but would rather just share said ideas (quite thoroughly) on a message board. Also if one believes the writers come on here to steal story ideas buried in hundreds of discussion pages, well, that’s giving delulu.

Honestly I’m happy to see Wyatt. I’d love to see his dynamic with Will - not that the writers will be able to cook anything original. Shallow comment: Wyatt’s hairline is doing much better than I was expecting! He looks phenomenal.

I was more upset by Derek’s death than I expected to be. His character had actually improved a lot lately. He had finally become the one real thorn in Leslie’s side, and I also thought he had an interesting dynamic with Eva. So yeah, I’m genuinely sorry to see him go. He brought good vibes to the show. Now let’s hope Tomas is next. As for Ashley mourning Derek… those scenes went on forever. They were way too long, and more importantly, they exposed the actress’s limitations. She was just whining and crying with the same mannerisms and tics over and over again. It wasn’t moving at all. That said, I did notice something interesting in Ashley’s dialogue. The way she talked about Derek almost felt like a mea culpa from the writers themselves—as if they’d heard the audience feedback and folded it into her lines. It was like Ashley was suddenly aware of all the selfish, nonsensical, and ungrateful things she’d done. Or rather, the writers were aware of all the ridiculous choices they’d made her do. As for the rest, I’m still fast-forwarding through Joey’s scenes. And regarding Doug: I really hope he’s actually dead. I hate back-from-the-dead stories in soaps. Long-term, I genuinely think that trope has damaged the genre. So no, I’m not particularly eager to see him return—even though I would still choose Douglas over Joey a thousand times over. The cotillion scenes were fun. Honestly, this entire week felt must-watch to me. I also liked Friday’s episode. It had a kind of punch and weight to it that the show had been lacking for a while, so hopefully that means something has changed behind the scenes. As for the plasma storyline, it was objectively a failure. It felt completely inconsequentialfor Naomi and Jacob, who somehow come across as more annoying than ever. And I honestly don’t understand why we’re supposed to care about Lia’s future. We’ve had scenes between Marcel and Lia, but… why? Who even is she to us as viewers?

Don't forget the amazing Mike reference which they blatantly stole from you! And this past week there was also an Essence reference. Mmmmh. Up next will be the reopening of the Laura Peterson case™. You should ask for them copyrights! But do you read Ebony and Essence? I think the reason why Joey is white, or even exists at all, is because MVJ has the hots for the actor and has some PTSD-like affection for the Sonny character. And it's clouding her judgement.

Second-hand embarrassment with this podcast is HEAVY. I can’t believe how unprepared, out of synch and disengaged the hosts are. In an effort to speak to everyone aside from a specific soap fandom, they keep things so shallow and they steer away from what actually matters. Sometimes the podcast is about everything except soaps.

Is anyone doing God's work and archiving YT's "Y&R 80s Fanatics" videos into the vault? 🥺

Is anybody doing God's work and archiving YT's "Y&R 80s Fanatics" videos into the vault?

I don’t think writers should write according to viewers feedback. Famously viewers don’t know what they want or what they need and it’s the writers’ job to figure it out. Which is what Tracey’s been trying to do all these months: she’s done whatever she wanted. And she’s failed IMHO. And this is coming from someone who despised Guza’s ‘headline of the week style and initially appreciated TT’s input very much. As for ratings, Josh Griffith’s Y&R is still number 1 but will it resist the test of time? B&B is ‘growing’, but at the same time losing its grip towards international audiences (IMO) whose delay is increasing tremendously. So make of that what you will. Yeah it’s insulting and worrisome. BTW Izaiah’s characterization is all over the place. A few weeks ago, Jacob was teasing him about ‘philosophizing’ because of his training. But we’ve never ever seen Izaiah share a thought deeper than a root canal. We’ve seen him read a book in the dark Uptown light. We know Izaiah can’t stand his father because he wanted to read books as opposed to wearing a uniform. He was wearing sneakers at his brother’s wedding. And that’s pretty much it. But Lami’s shot in the opening credits is the coolest one, I’ll give him that.

After all these months I have to say Tracey’s impact on the show has been detrimental. I’ve downgraded the show to background noise and I FF through everything Joey and Vanessa. Sometimes I forget since I am so not paying attention and that’s when I catch things like Joey being this show’s Superman (gag me). If anything the show is teaching me a lot on how NOT to write for a soap (or any medium for that matter). Don’t write about topics you know nothing about and you’re not willing to research (ie Plasma theft). Don’t come up with stories that you don’t know where to place and have no clear, distinctive settings for. (ie Jacob being confined to a brick wall for months was ridiculous but at the same time where else should he have been? There’s no definite answer). Show don’t tell. When Naomi blurted out to Ashley that the bad guy was Lia it was so anticlimactic. Because we hadn’t seen any glimpse of Lia in that episode. It would have been a thousand times more effective if Lia was there, near the nursing station, and the scene would go like this: “Come on Naomi, tell me! Who is it?”. Naomi looking into Lia’s direction. Ashley turning around. Ashley being petrified at realizing it was Lia all along. This is a silly example but you get what I mean: let the audience put 2+2 together. I guess one could go on and on for hours, but for now I’ll keep ‘watching’ just in case it gets better. Random questions about the infamous Plasma storyline: is it me or literally nobody has mentioned “The Impaler” in weeks? Nobody has wondered about his/her identity. Everything has stopped at Lia. Is Lia a lesbian? How did Lynette scam her?

Golden Corral. We've seen her TV screen up there on ep #1. Dani was looking at old photos from her wedding to Bill. OMG I know! It always feels like a fly has landed there by mistake.

I have no problem with Dani and Andre’s fantasy scenes. They’re a classic P&G soap staple. Everytime I see Joey I am reminded I have an FF button. This time I forgot to activate it immediately so I caught the name of his sister. Oh God yet another new, unseen before character that will add nothing to the show.