BTG: February 2025 Discussion Thread

[marceline]

Okay, I’ve banked all last week’s episodes. I made a quick necessary trip to the dispensary and I’m wading in now. IN ‘lol you all in the March thread.

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[te.]

Yes, and of course I get it. There's inevitably a lot of bad faith discussions about it ("woke", "DEI", what-not), but that of course isn't my point. I think that if you've been walking in an absolute desert for 25 years and the best source of water have been muddy puddles, of course getting a fresh drink of water is going to be the tastiest thing you've ever had.

Is it though? I don't know, but for me the dust usually needs to settle before I give a fair judgement of it. Add that I wouldn't want to sell this as - "the best first week in soap history" - to anyone who've never watched soaps.

Then again, the first thing I'd remind them is that daytime soaps are marathons, not a sprint.

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[Maxim]

That's why I said "best week of all the shows I've personally seen". There is no way I can make an assessment that would sound like "in history". I am only 30 years old after all. 

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[Planet Soap]

I agree. 

[Soaplovers]

I'm glad Guza will be helping with Head-writer duties since I don't know if MVJ will be objective enough to lead her own creation long term without some oversight and honest feedback to improve the product.  

Also, I've seen other soaps when they debuted (B&B, Generations, Sunset Beach, Port Charles, Passions, and now BTG), and I think that BTG was heads and shoulders above Passions and Generations in their first weeks/episodes... but it picked an odd place to start the story at least compared to Port Charles and Sunset Beach.

With that said, the only things I would have done differently was to have held off on the Vanessa role playing snippets until week #2, and also chosen a better way to introduce Ashley/Derek other then a random scene in their apartment that was disconnected from the other parts of the canvas.  

And I would have cut out one of the Hailey groveling scenes, and maybe saved the Dani/nephew hook up for a bit later.  Maybe after the Bill/Hailey wedding instead of before it.

Port Charles had the benefit of a two hour Sunday night movie that aired the day before it debuted on the daytime lineup.  It had a hostage situation, you got to know the interns, and the person holding the interns hostage read snippets from their files that gave the audience some backstory.. plus kick started some stories that carried over onto Monday's story (the aftermath of the hostage situation, plus the Scotty/Lucy/Kevin story getting some focus).

Perhaps BTG could have had a tv movie that aired the night before? 

Or maybe that wouldn't have worked since tv movies haven't done well on network tv in awhile.

 

 

Edited March 1 by Soaplovers

[Taoboi]

Yay!!! I can't wait!!!

She has more presence. 

 

 

I feel like if Mona is who I think she is, Leslie will try to kill her, but death...won't take.

 

 

I feel like if Mona is who I think she is, Leslie will try to kill her, but death...won't take.

 

 

[Sapounopera]

Some thoughts before reading your posts:
 

I love how Dani's energy is different when she talks with a man. Whether it is her father, Bill or Andre.

I feel that I have been watching Dr Nicole for decades.

Anita's look when Vernon stood up at the wedding. 

The idea of Martin and Smitty having 16 and 17-year old kids is beyond stupid for many reasons.

BTG's first week made all the other soaps look tired, bored and boring.

Not that crazy about the last scene with the shooting. It felt like something out of B&B or PASSIONS. But I guess it's a new show and they need to keep people hooked. 

Bill is HOT and Hayley -not the actress- is annoying in a new Real Housewife way.  

I don't mind Ashley, but I still don't understand why we are supposed to care for her. 

The makeup on the ladies is amazing. 

MVJ has done an amazing job introducing us to a brand new universe. After five episodes I feel that I know these people and care for them. 
 

[Maxim]

He really IS. I love that I'm not the only one thinking this. That man has LEADING qualities in my eyes. And I agree about Hayley - she annoys the hell out of me. 

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[te.]

TBF, I don't think you can really compare these shows against each other, mostly because producing a soap in 2025 is entirely different from doing so in 1997 or 1988. Budget, demands and what "the suits" want is completely different. "Beyond the Gates" had to deal with an entirely new to soap crew as an example. Plus I feel like some of the weaknesses were probably network mandated - ie giving Ashley / Derek a story despite them not having a logical place yet because they want to make sure the audience know there's a white couple in there too. 

[Sapounopera]

Bill is hot and fascinating. Such a presence for a new show.

Hayley is so annoying and I don't buy this naive act at all. 

[Contessa Donatella]

I tend to be leery of Guza, although I do credit the fact that he gave the revisitation of Luke raping Laura to MVJ to take & run with it. And, of course, he took Carly from the page (Labine) to actual existence.

Our descriptions are so different!!! My highlight was the use of the 3/4 inch "hardware" drill for ad hoc brain surgery which you didn't even mention. LOL 

[Maxim]

Sorry, but people are comparing works of art made thousands of years ago... to new ones. Finding parallels and differences. I think we can risk it and compare a soap opera produced in 2025 to an older one. LOL. That comparison could be even more crucial taking in mind the differences in time, social themes, budget and etc. And yes, you can also compare the level of joy something gives you... for example if I compare BTG's first week to Sunset Beach's first week... in terms of how much I enjoyed it as a viewer... I can say I think BTG did better in my subjective opinion. There are subjective criteria that every person has that they can use to compare things. 

I also have one other one - how binge worthy something is. And baby - BTG is VERY binge worthy. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Yabbut, that is also a smart thing to do & these people have made a great many smart decisions as far as I can see. 

[BetterForgotten]

BTG is the first daytime soap to premiere during the streaming generation. That show is designed to be binged and steamed as much as it is to be consumed traditionally. 

[Taoboi]

 

I really agree and love these.

 

I thought one of the best things they did this first week was to take what I call the Warren Ellis approach to writing. And what he does is drop readers into his worlds with very little explanation except for what is necessary. He trust the strength of his writing and the readers' intelligence to figure out the plot of the story and go along/roll with his (very often) wild ride, introducing characters' personality, character development, sharp dialogue, innovative ideas, and well-paced plots. Could it be a lot? Yeah. And then sometimes it was over quickly, with the readers wanting more. 

 

I never felt lost watching this first week. And if I had any questions, people online and MVJ was very quick to have family trees posted.

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 Because let's be real, it was a lot of people to keep up with. And we STILL have not gotten to everyone yet. And I loved the technique that while we had a strong A plot, the majority of the other plots sprung from that plot. And there are subplots that I suspect ARE related to the main plot or B plot as well. It only APPEARS to be disconnected. Let them cook.

 

To be fair though...I do love slow burns. And at one point, soaps were exactly that. Perhaps it is because the tv landscape has changed so much that people do not have that patience. Or perhaps people are so burned out to have patience due to the other current soaps not being able to plot and paced as well as this first week, coming off as the stalling some of the current shows are clearing doing. And that is just a sign of those writers not knowing what they are doing or just interference. For now, BTG does not have interference and clearly appears to know where they are going. So I can trust the journey, just like readers of my own stories...who yes do have a problem when I start my stories with slow burns, but also stick around due to me using the aforementioned Warren Ellis approach. 

 

Is it perfect? Nope. But has it been well done? I would say yes. Like I said the other day, I haven't live-posted about a soap in ages. And the fact that I would even want to (and also taking forever to watch this week of all the soaps lol) is due to how well done this show has been. In only its first week. Now I fully expect Week 2 to slow down from this, but I feel this first week was well done and hit the notes it needed to grab the audience's attention. Real conversations. Real connections. Messy situations. And today's audience can and do live for mess...even first time soap watchers and ones who haven't watched in ages are tuned in. It has great buzz.

 

To paraphrase from the show INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE...let the tale seduce you.