BTG: February 2025 Discussion Thread

[BetterForgotten]

You can skip to 27:50 in. Some interesting things Karla mostly said about the production:

- The lighting was being shipped from Germany and was delayed, so they had to start filming the first week without all of their proper lighting equipment in place. CBS wouldn’t delay production further. 

- Because this is an Atlanta production, much the crew, the camera people in particular, had never done or shot soaps before. They said some woman came out of retirement and trained them for the first month and a half or so (they didn’t say who exactly this woman was)

- They had some catch up to do as the crew adjusted to the pace and unique nature of producing daytime soaps. It was not 17 episodes exactly - just scattered scenes across what felt like 17 episodes, since they like the other soaps, shoot scenes out of order. It was a lot to do but they got through it

- They estimate filming 5-7 episodes a week now, which is on par with the other soaps 

- They estimate they’re 12 weeks or 3 months ahead 

- They feel like the learning curve is over and they’ve settled into a normal rhythm now 

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Edited March 1 by BetterForgotten

[Vee]

Frankly I don't think they have the room in the current landscape to move that slowly in a first week. They needed to make bold moves out of the gate to get eyes on them, and they did plenty of that in a first week. It wasn't nonsensical or rushed like other shows, it felt like it flowed organically out of an preexisting situation to me.

Slowing down and bedding in can come once they've hooked people in these first couple weeks. Then it will be time to hit hard for May sweeps, which it sounds like they plan to do.

[BetterForgotten]

Yeah, like it or not, this show was developed with 2025 sensibilities and viewing habits in mind. It’s the first daytime soap to launch on streaming as well from the beginning. They know a great deal of folks will likely be binging this and they had to have some immediate hooks and expedite some of the pacing to keep initial interest up. I think it’s all intentional and while they respect the genre, they intentionally do not want to follow a lot of the existing format from the other/legacy soaps. 

I am sure some things will settle over time - but we need to give this new soap a chance for a few months to see how things are unfolding. 

[te.]

To be honest, I thought one of the biggest issues this week were Ashley's scenes - not necessarily because of Jen Jacob, but because a lot of them ended up saying nothing else but that she's a Nice Nurse Who Loves Nursing (when she's not breaking HIPPA) and it ended up breaking the flow. They felt clunky and I get the feeling they wanted to get her character in this week, but had no place for her in the story yet. It started to come together at the end of the week, but a lot of that felt like they could show, not tell with her character. I could've done without the majority of her scenes and had her come in more subtly, maybe in connection with Laura's accident. I think that time could've gone to smooth out the exposition scenes. 

Edited March 1 by te.

[Vee]

I won't reiterate my commentary about needing to recast Ashley. She and Martin are the biggest problems for me right now unless they quickly, hopefully improve (Martin being #1), because as others have noted characters like Derek are disposable. Then again, so is Ashley.

[1974mdp]

Oh, wow! I missed the part where Ted's brother was a twin! That could be super twisty! And, Ted's long-lost love child! I'm super interested to see where that's going.

I loved the cliffhanger and then gun at the end. Super campy and soapy, and I love it!

Martin was a little better today. Maybe the actor is starting to settle in a bit more.

Of all the Dupree grandkids, Naomi is my favorite so far.

Ashley's elevator and pregnant woman drama should have been her first episode IMO.

[te.]

I'm going to be nice and say that I thought it started to come together a bit for her in her and Naomi's phone call because she came across as human having an actual conversation. I'm just not sure how much you can do when every scene you have is clunky variants of "I'm a nurse", "I'm a newly examined nurse", "nursing has been my dream my whole life", "screw it, here's confidential patient information", etc. I half expected her to yell out that she loves kittens at one point!

[1974mdp]

Oh, I LOVED this side-eyed look from Anita, and how they all sat back down.

OOOO...ITA. They should have brought in Ashely right when Laura was brought in for her accident. Ashley's first few episodes felt so out of place with the rest of things, and frankly, a bit boring. I wonder if some of including her was just them wanting to show some diversity in the cast. Her boyfriend...I can't remember his name...seems to just be generic handsome dude.

[dc11786]

I think that there was a missed opportunity in not making Hayley and Ashley friends through their association with Naomi. Both women (Hayley and Ashley) had access to Fairmount Crest, but were not a part of it. That gives the women are fairly unique connection as outsiders who experienced the life but weren't working in it. I think having Ashley torn between Naomi and Hayley over whether or not to go to the wedding would have grounded her more in the main story of the week. It would have also had Hayley win Ashley back over before the end of the week. It would have also given more dramatic tension to the "fall asleep scene" because you could play Ashley hiding her forgiveness for Hayley from Naomi. The new job also could have been Ashley's very quick reason not to attend the wedding. 

With this connection, you could then play a potential Jan / Hayley relationship with Jan knowing that this young woman has almost no one in the world. It would be through Jan that I would connect Leslie and Hayley (Eva would have done the hair for Hayley for her wedding with Leslie's crazy self coming in to watch the wedding from the shadows). With this, you could play the beat of Dani/Nicole learning that Eva has a connection to Hayley and playing the Dani erupting and demanding Nicole fire Eva (which obviously she wouldn't). Eva offering to leave, which endears her more to Nicole. 

I'd also focus on some of Mona's reaction to all this playing out because I get the sense that Mona is more onto Leslie than Leslie either knows or wants her to be. I could see Mona learning from Jan in passing that Leslie had come with Eva to the pre-wedding hair appointment at the country club and starting to deduce that Leslie is up to no good, but not completely spilling the beans to Nicole. Then, Eva learns that Mona has started to catch on and Eva starts to sabotage Mona's work in order to create discord between Mona and Nicole. And so on and so on. 

Regarding the Martin / Smitty situation, I think it will be nice to see more of the domestic situation play out with the kids and Martin's career. I think it would be smart to address the parallels in Smitty's situation and Dani's; both individuals sacrificing part of their identities by ending promising careers they loved in order to support their husbands and families. Dani's last fall, as Martin and Smitty are on the verge of trouble in their own home, should be the catalyst used to push Smitty into reviving his career. I will be interested in seeing the men as fathers to their teen children. I also think we rarely have addressed adoption of older children which I think is a nice bonus. I don't think Claybon and Manning have enough built in chemistry to play the crumbling marriage this early and I would put them on a quick reconciliation path to have them court one another again in order to naturally build up their relationship again. I would also address how both men recognize that becoming parents has adjusted their relationship and how they are more parents than husbands with a desire on both their parts to refind the love. I think that would be a more comfortable space for the actors, but possibly not production. With Smitty back at work, I would also have Martin spend more time at the gym with Diego and let things play out as they will with Diego and Vanessa presumably. 

I don't know if anyone else picked up on it, but when Bill was recounting his first meeting with Dani, the mutual connection was former football player Wayne Maddux, who was the man Bill helped in the first episode. 

I imagine Jacob and Naomi will be caught up in conflict involving Martin's involvement in a murder with Jacob being tied to the police force investigating it and Naomi acting as Martin's lawyer to keep him from getting off. With Jacob presumably then focusing on Laura's accident, I could see them triyng some Laura / Jacob forbidden connection with Naomi eventually cozying up to Kat's boyfriend, the lawyer from her father's firm, Tom. 

I'm most curious to see how Leslie manages to continue to infilitrate the Richardson clan. I think Leslie and Bill as partners and crimes would be delicious and an eventual stand off between Dani and Leslie is a must. I am glad they revealed that Eva is Ted's daughter early because it will give more weight to Eva's plotting within the Richardson home. I also wouldn't hate it if Leslie and Eva's lie wasn' t partially true with Leslie having switched Eva and Kat at birth.  

The Dani stuff was more diverse at the end of the week which helped endear me a bit to the character. Begging Bill to come back to her was a wild twist I didn't see coming, but felt it made a lot of sense. Bill playing Dani before twisting the knife in her back was ruthless. Durrett brings out something in Mosely that makes Dani accessible to me. While her hatred and anger is justified, it is exhausting, but at least that seems intentional on Val Jean's part rather than the typical a character annoys you because the writer is out of touch. Dani is very well constructed and is driving story as a result and kept the first week moving, but I will be interested in seeing more quieter moments interspersed into the chaos for Dani in the future.

The award video was a smart way to drop backstory without being clunky. 

The first week was well played for a first week with lots of action and lots of backstory. I'll be interseted to see what comes next. 

Edited March 1 by dc11786

[Contessa Donatella]

THIS, totally this!!!! Anita, you go, girl!!!

LOL! I just refer to him as Ashley's bf, period. And, BTW, some GH fans have dubbed Ashley to be "the Willow character" which I guess is nothing but them both being nurses, both seen in scrubs. 

[titan1978]

I was impressed by Karla on Friday, she got to do so many different things in one episode. When was the last time a woman on daytime got to do so much in one show?

Leslie and Eva are absolutely fun to watch and I cannot wait to see what wickedness they are up to.

I agree the pace has to be brisk because it’s hard to hold onto eyes these days. What made me happy was there are several already well established characters even with the pace. There are green performers, that’s true. I hope they settle in. Like many have stated, Martin bothers me only because so much hinges on his secrets. I hope he settles in and has some layers. I didn’t really see much of Mike Manning on DAYS, but I do think he seems much more comfortable playing his role. He is more used to the filming style though.

 

[Cheap21]

I can see that but Im sure there's a reason for it. There's still alot of mystery here and we dont know the whole story. We do kno that the two women are scheming and have an agenda which they at least seem to believe in

[Contessa Donatella]

Love hearing someone else liking my girl Dani!!! KaMo is really knocking it outta the ballpark!

Remind me. Do you not like clips, or are you able to get things out of just clips? I ask to see whether to seek out clips of him as Charlie where he did an excellent job with an interesting character who initially is just a personable good looking guy but then you find things out about him, etc. & he even was good in the fairly dreadful demonic possession 2.0 Ron's version.

[BetterForgotten]

It was speculated MVJ was one of the writers super upset when Brad Bell got rid of the Avant’s and demoted Karla at B&B. She very clearly wanted Karla to front her own soap, and it’s clear she’s partly writing this as a star-making machine for her, at least at the beginning. 

[Liberty City]

105 pages for five episodes. That's power right there. That's a soap that engages its audience.