7 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

I think it was guilt on Vanessa's part that motivated her to want to protect her daughter Dinah, even though she had gone off the deep end and murdered someone. Was Vanessa wrong to protect Dinah? Absolutely. Did I understand her motivation for protecting Dinah? Absolutely.

That section was probably the most in character Vanessa had been written in for a very long time. I always thought she and Matt were only bought together because of physical attraction and naturally should have drifted apart long before they had a child together... but the Matessa fans were hella creepy like the Jeva and Manny fans were during this period of time.

It’s been said before, but I actually like the Matt/Blake chemistry and choosing the nuclear option of them hooking up and blowing up both Mattessa and Bloss in one fell swoop would’ve breathed a lot of life into the show.

I was watching the Locher Room with Liz/JVD (sobs) and JVD says Bloss were only supposed to be a fling but their popularity made it go longer-ultimately I don’t feel like that was the right choice either.

Edited February 1Feb 1 by GL95

31 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I'm sure McKinney is a great guy. But he's utterly interchangeable with the rest of the himbos of his era. Most of the Harts, Reva's legion of guys she's willing to slum with while pining for Josh (Island dude, DrWannabeStudly, Richard and his clone Jeffy), Cassie's ex and whatever Dinah dug out of the trash.

LOL...this has to be the funniest and most accurate description of the men during this period.

33 minutes ago, P.J. said:

(in case it's not been apparent to you in the Reva-as-soccer mom costuming years, Vanessa is a clotheshorse. She didn't do denim. Ball gowns and furs were her weapons, and for a while, no outfit was complete without her hat and gloves.)

Agreed, none of the women were dressed (or written true to character..) Reva got it just as bad as the rest as she woudl NEVER want to be dressed as a soccer mom...(I imagine her still holding on to her big hair and shoulder pads from hey day and looking ridiculous) Nola dressed as some drab waitress...ugh.

13 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Thank you for alerting me. The clip is kind of blurry (and so is my old computer monitor, LOL), but I don't believe that's Bill Bauer in background.

Still, I appreciate your efforts!❤️

I was looking at it on my phone, I probably should have checked it out on my monitor. Sob, I was so sure.

9 minutes ago, GL95 said:

I’d had the thought if they really wanted a brief age gap fling plot with Vanessa a rivals to lovers plot with AM at least would have had decent fallout potential. I feel like AM would be putty in her hands if he’s shown the tiniest bit of affection/respect circa 1992-94ish. (Kind of like Dinah/Cassie/Hart later on I find AM being used as a prop for Frank for nearly two years to be really tiresome. His hot mess period could’ve been a lot sexier haha)

This is where we once again slam up against the problem with SORASing kids on soaps. Vanessa was there when he was a BABY. This is why Blake sleeping with Alan was so gross to me; I remember him being around when she was a LITTLE GIRL.

I know that's not even the worst thing--that has to be AM being interested in Marina when for a good amount time he thought she was HIS kid. But long-time viewers I think would have had a problem with an AM/Vanessa hook up.

40 minutes ago, P.J. said:

(in case it's not been apparent to you in the Reva-as-soccer mom costuming years, Vanessa is a clotheshorse. She didn't do denim. Ball gowns and furs were her weapons, and for a while, no outfit was complete without her hat and gloves.)

Oh, so true--showing up and Ross's wearing only her fur coat, wearing black to Ross and Carrie's wedding. Her big hats made her the focus of attention everywhere. It was a fantastic character trait.

Edited February 1Feb 1 by DeeVee

4 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I was looking at it on my phone, I probably should have checked it out on my monitor. Sob, I was so sure.

This is where we once again slam up against the problem with SORASing kids on soaps. Vanessa was there when he was a BABY. This is why Blake sleeping with Alan was so gross to me; I remember him being around when she was a LITTLE GIRL.

I know that's not even the worst thing--that has to be AM being interested in Marina when for a good amount time he thought she was HIS kid. But long-time viewers I think would have had a problem with an AM/Vanessa hook up.

If you want to feel very squicked out, the Marina paternity was decided by a supposedly definitive sonogram with no paternity test haha

Basically Vanessa should be 16 years older than AM since the retcon makes AM/Dinah the same age, but you do get into what timeline do you believe. Obviously AM dating Dinah in HS adds another layer on there but the show doesn’t shy away from those things.

Edited February 1Feb 1 by GL95

9 minutes ago, GL95 said:

@P.J. The Matt/Vanessa relationship rollout was just really boring to me. Since Matt wasn’t on the canvas before and the Reardons are pretty much gone, the fallout is just really meh. They even brought him in post custody battle. What’s wild is the period in I believe mid to late 1995 where Matt is somehow involved in every major plot line. He’s Josh’s confidant, in the middle of Blake/Dinah constantly then Blake/Ross/Amanda, is at the boarding house with Lucy during much of the Brent/Marion plot….

I’d had the thought if they really wanted a brief age gap fling plot with Vanessa a rivals to lovers plot with AM at least would have had decent fallout potential. I feel like AM would be putty in her hands if he’s shown the tiniest bit of affection/respect circa 1992-94ish. (Kind of like Dinah/Cassie/Hart later on I find AM being used as a prop for Frank for nearly two years to be really tiresome. His hot mess period could’ve been a lot sexier haha)

Uhm, Vanessa had been engaged (very briefly) to Alan, and A-M had dated Dinah. Vanessa was on the canvas when A-M was born. Not to mention, they'd been bitter rivals for the Presidency of Spaulding in '91-'92. So that wouldn't have worked for me.

They obviously threw **** into plots to figure out what to do with him. It's kinda telling that none of that worked, and Vanessa got stuck with her short term fling.

14 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

I think it was guilt on Vanessa's part that motivated her to want to protect her daughter Dinah, even though she had gone off the deep end and murdered someone. Was she wrong to do it? Absolutely. Did I understand her motivation for doing it? Absolutely.

That section was probably the most in character Vanessa had been written in for a very long time. I always thought she and Matt were only bought together because of physical attraction and naturally should have drifted apart long before they had a child together... but the Matessa fans were hella creepy like the Jeva and Manny fans were during this period of time.

When she was freed of ****, and interacting with the core she'd interacted with for years, yes, she was more Vanessa to me. (I know I make it sound like she's written like an alien at times...lol)

And I totally got the guilt she felt over Dinah. That added to how Henry had continually given her the patience and understanding that she needed, was why she never gave up on Dinah. But **** never really got that. ICAM that ***essa was physical, which got rewritten like Pygmalion, with poetry reading nights explaining what they "really" had in common. RME. Puh-leaze. I can almost picture ****'s lips moving as he tries reading Longfellow or Whitman.

It's funny to me that by the end, they had to do a soft reboot on **** and turned him into Dinah's sounding board to keep him relevant.

18 minutes ago, GL95 said:

I was watching the Locher Room with Liz/JVD (sobs) and JVD says Bloss were only supposed to be a fling but their popularity made it go longer-ultimately I don’t feel like that was the right choice either.

Oh, I believe that. Even if Sherry had stayed another year, I think Blake and Ross would've quickly turned toxic and not made it to the alter. In @alwaysAMC recaps, I find myself disgusted by Blake in her affair with Ben. That really should've been the absolute end of them.

2 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Oh, I believe that. Even if Sherry had stayed another year, I think Blake and Ross would've quickly turned toxic and not made it to the alter. In @alwaysAMC recaps, I find myself disgusted by Blake in her affair with Ben. That really should've been the absolute end of them.

Of course they wanted to do the pregnancy plot, but the Dinah and Amanda plots were basically the exact same thing: Ross is blinded by a manipulative woman and Blake takes increasingly drastic steps to get Ross to see it, and Ross basically blames her for the entire situation for a very long period. Ross during the whole Amanda plot drives me insane-he’s practically gaslighting her by the time he almost cheats. I hate the dynamic where Blake does something even worse so now they’re still in Ross/Good, Blake/Bad territory.

21 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

LOL...this has to be the funniest and most accurate description of the men during this period.

Agreed, none of the women were dressed (or written true to character..) Reva got it just as bad as the rest as she woudl NEVER want to be dressed as a soccer mom...(I imagine her still holding on to her big hair and shoulder pads from hey day and looking ridiculous) Nola dressed as some drab waitress...ugh.

God, watching the '80's is like night and day. Reva never really regained her fabulous wardrobe after the affair with Kyle. As soon as Josh returned, her entire wardrobe took a dump.

19 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Oh, so true--showing up and Ross's wearing only her fur coat, wearing black to Ross and Carrie's wedding. Her big hats made her the focus of attention everywhere. It was a fantastic character trait.

OMG---that outfit she wore to Ross' wedding is HILARIOUS. She looks like she stepped out of a Paris showroom into this simple little wedding wearing this headpiece from a Audrey Hepburn movie. Wardrobe really started drifting away from hats in the eighties, but Maeve always looked so elegant in them.

11 minutes ago, GL95 said:

Of course they wanted to do the pregnancy plot, but the Dinah and Amanda plots were basically the exact same thing: Ross is blinded by a manipulative woman and Blake takes increasingly drastic steps to get Ross to see it, and Ross basically blames her for the entire situation for a very long period. Ross during the whole Amanda plot drives me insane-he’s practically gaslighting her by the time he almost cheats. I hate the dynamic where Blake does something even worse so now they’re still in Ross/Good, Blake/Bad territory.

Well, it's also redundant writing (the poor stupid man with a manipulative deceptive woman), but there's also the fact that Ross was always drawn to women with a wild side. Sure, he wants to want the simple, naive types like Evie Stapleton and fragile, broken Amanda (early '80's version) or even Trish Lewis....but he keeps going back to bed with the Vanessa's, Calla's and Blake's of the world. (God knows what he got going to bed with Carrie...eeeek)

I’m up to some of Maureen’s last scenes and it’s heartbreaking watching Bridget hug her goodbye knowing what’s coming. Killing her just after the holidays was actually pretty shrewd because the somewhat over the top Maureen is the heart scenes don’t feel forced or out of place. There’s a lot of emotional scenes that don’t feel heavy handed between the plot lines and the holidays, but you can see the groundwork being laid knowing what’s coming.

One of my favorite parts of this 1990-1992 watch has been teenage Bridget. I liked her as the boarding house young mom but seeing her full story really has been an enjoyable gap filler.

10 minutes ago, GL95 said:

One of my favorite parts of this 1990-1992 watch has been teenage Bridget. I liked her as the boarding house young mom but seeing her full story really has been an enjoyable gap filler.

I was SO impressed by Melissa Hayden back when she first aired. As awful as the later years of GL were, they did find some incredible young talent: Matt Bomer, Aubrey Dollar, Laura Bell Bundy, Bethany Joy Lenz, Tom Pelphrey (I'm sure I'm missing some) who went on to have very substantial post-soap careers. It's always been a mystery to me why Melissa wasn't among them.

4 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I was SO impressed by Melissa Hayden back when she first aired. As awful as the later years of GL were, they did find some incredible young talent: Matt Bomer, Aubrey Dollar, Laura Bell Bundy, Bethany Joy Lenz, Tom Pelphrey (I'm sure I'm missing some) who went on to have very substantial post-soap careers. It's always been a mystery to me why Melissa wasn't among them.

Hayden Panatierre/Brittany Snow too. Sharon Leal had a nice primetime run even if Dahlia was forgettable, plus Nia Long too. The younger set casting in the 90s/200s was incredible.

Watching teenage Bridget and her manipulative/devious side makes me wish that they'd tried putting Bridget at Spaulding for awhile-it would be easy enough to write in that it's something Maureen had suggested. (Or of course my mythical Thorpe Enterprises definitely has room for Bridget which Roger would be for as the mother of Hart's kid.)

Edited February 1Feb 1 by GL95

1 hour ago, GL95 said:

One of my favorite parts of this 1990-1992 watch has been teenage Bridget. I liked her as the boarding house young mom but seeing her full story really has been an enjoyable gap filler.

This, along with Peter's custody battle, are what I'm really looking forward to when I get back to this era. I loved Bridget and thought they handled her exit horribly. One of my biggest pet peeves with GL during this time was how they ditched Lucy/Bridget's friendship. They were so close when Lucy was at the boarding house and Brent raped her, but then once she got happy and AM/Lucy got to finally marry, they didn't even invite Bridget to the wedding and we didn't even get goodbye scenes between them? It just made no sense why that friendship randomly got dropped. Did you feel the same back then when you watched?

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

Oh, I believe that. Even if Sherry had stayed another year, I think Blake and Ross would've quickly turned toxic and not made it to the alter. In @alwaysAMC recaps, I find myself disgusted by Blake in her affair with Ben. That really should've been the absolute end of them.

I'm honestly shocked the Ben/Blake relationship has gone on this long, and I still don't know how Ross will be able to take Blake back after not only the Rick/baby lie, but then THIS with Ben? I mean, I find Blake's forbidden attraction to Ben pretty steamy and fun, but she really makes the dumbest decisions sometimes. She doesn't tell the truth when Ross gives her the space to do so guilt-free... she just can't do it and then gets herself in more trouble later when the truths are forced out.

I don't know how Ross/Blake get back together, or when... I'll guess maybe they come together when rehabilitating Holly post-Nursery Rhyme story. Or I guess Ben eventually leaves, so once he's gone, there is no distraction for Blake. In my current watch, it seems like they've totally dropped the Ben/Selena history - or at least they haven't discussed it in months now - so maybe if he ends up being Drew's father, he'll get into their orbit and leave Blake. We'll see! (I know y'all know haha).

2 hours ago, DeeVee said:

I was looking at it on my phone, I probably should have checked it out on my monitor. Sob, I was so sure.

Awww! Don't get stressed; you were doing your best to be heroic! And even on my 15-inch laptop monitor, the video image was blurry; on your phone, it must have been significantly worse!

2 hours ago, DeeVee said:

This is where we once again slam up against the problem with SORASing kids on soaps. Vanessa was there when he was a BABY. This is why Blake sleeping with Alan was so gross to me; I remember him being around when she was a LITTLE GIRL.

I never got over Christina/Blake boinking Freddie/Rick. Like Dani Andropolous and Craig Montgomery hooking up, the very thought made me livid and nauseous.🤮

2 hours ago, DeeVee said:

I know that's not even the worst thing--that has to be AM being interested in Marina when for a good amount time he thought she was HIS kid. But long-time viewers I think would have had a problem with an AM/Vanessa hook up.

Vomit ad nauseum!