2 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Michael Filerman meddling, bringing in EP’s/writers lacking soap experience (John Surnow of Miami Vice and The Equalizer for FC, John Romano of Hill Street Blues and yes Cop Rock lol for Knots. How did Romano convince Filerman and/or Jacobs he was a Steve Bochco prodigy again?), killing off popular vixens (Melissa on FC, Linda on Knots), the shows littered with new characters with zero potential and who no one cared about, character damaging plots (ie Richard kidnapping and gaslighting Angela, Claudia being responsible for Steve’s death), and desperate rewrites in vain to correct course.

Wasn't the Claudia story done by the previous showrunners?

11 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Wasn't the Claudia story done by the previous showrunners?

The final episode of season 12 was such a tonal shift that I feel like the new showrunner had to have had some say in it. Not just the shift to the Steve story but Karen the vigilante was so strange.

32 minutes ago, Chris B said:

The final episode of season 12 was such a tonal shift that I feel like the new showrunner had to have had some say in it. Not just the shift to the Steve story but Karen the vigilante was so strange.

You may have a point. The Karen story was insane and they did carry it on for a few episodes. The Claudia story I'm less sure on because they seemed to try to backtrack almost immediately, taking her from a cold bitch to a suicidal victim.

On 10/27/2025 at 12:32 AM, Vee said:

I do think Patrick Petersen grew up to be uncomfortably hot, and a lot of people knew it. They wasted him not doing more, and I do look fwd to seeing his future years on the show. For me personally though I think the late Steve Shaw was cuter and considerably underrated, albeit at best 'naturalistic' an actor. Sometimes he could do really well as he got older, sometimes not, but he was always genuine. That counted for a lot with the kids on the show.

I started watching as a teen around season 10, and I had the hugest crush on Patrick Petersen. Even then, I found it perplexing that they couldn't come up with more for him to do. I feel like the show had a hard time, besides Nicolete Sheridan, in grooming the younger generation for big stories. Michael, Olivia, and Eric were all positioned to attract a younger audience as the years went on.

17 hours ago, Khan said:

Yeah, S13 is a real bitch is to get through. None of the stories that the new team introduced worked, characters like Claudia, Paige and Kate didn't sound or behave like themselves at all; the Brian Johnston storyline spun so out of control that I still can't make heads or tails of it; and the biggest sin of all: wasting Marcia [!@#$%^&*] Cross.

As @DRW50 says, it's a blessing in disguise that JVA/Val was virtually ignored the entire season, lol.

One of the biggest headscratchers was building up the character of Steve Brewer as Claudia's son and as Greg's brother/nephew. So much potential, and then they just randomly killed him off.