11 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

LOL - I thought the same thing. Not to mention just a week ago, Blake was falsifying her passport to help get Cassie out of the country and they were both about to get arrested LOL. Hello, Cassie! I actually just looked it up and you could get up to 25 years in prison for that. I know 1999 was a long time ago now (ugh), but I bet it was still pretty bad.

Cassie was never one of the bright bulbs of Springfield, but did she never listen to Springfield gossip either? Lol. And it always annoyed me when characters said, "I can't imagine how you feel", after some catastrophe. Because usually, about six months before, they went through nearly the exact same situation. LOL.

17 hours ago, P.J. said:

I think of Nadine as who Reva might've been if Reva hadn't gotten the supreme break of marrying money and bewitching the Lewis men. I wouldn't call Nadine smart, but she had enough insight into behaviors to understand how to manipulate her kids and Billy.

I also believe that it's possible they were trying to create another Reva because they knew Zimmer was probably going to leave at the end of her next contract.

We make fun of Josh and to a lesser extent RN, but Reva would have never worked without Josh. The backstory, the star-crossed love--that's what made Reva bearable. You look at her early scenes and they're kind of like nails on a chalkboard. She was basically a cliche. But once it became about her and Josh, she became a real person. She rode that even after RN left the show for the first time.

Nadine didn't have that. She came across as a really awful person who ditched her kids and came back only because one was moving up the social ladder. She helped to make Harley's behavior more understanable, but for herself, I could detect nothing.

I liked Jean. She had a lot of presence and sparkle and she could be funny, too. They just never found a way to write Nadine to give her some depth. If you're going for creating a long-term character, you really have to do that. Some characters they go too far (I would say that happened with Blake, going from delicious manipulator to dull housewife) but you have to find the balance.

Any time I think about Nadine/Jean, I just think back to Megan McTavish's "memoir" and how (allegedly), Jean went to Megan asking for more story and Megan just thought "Nah, you're annoying, I'm just going to kill you" (paraphrasing). So funny LOL - I felt bad for Jean though.

That damn memoir is what got me to start watching GL last year, so I'll give it that

Every once in awhile, you would be reminded that Nadine had abandoned both Frank and Harley thus putting Frank in the position of parent to Harley. One particular conversation was Christmas 1992 where Frank goes to visit Nadine whose happily hosting Christmas for Billy's family and she happily tries to invite Frank to stay.. and he lays into her for abandoning him and Harley.

Ironically mid 1993 to mid 1995 was probably the only time where the show does actually try to give Nadine more layers... and seeing how Buzz basically strings her along gives the viewer a bit of insight into what caused Nadine to become the person she became after he was believed 'dead' in Vietnam.