BTG: March 2025 Discussion Thread

[AbcNbc247]

I definitely appreciated the messiness of yesterday and the effects that could have across the canvas, particularly on Jacob and Naomi, since he’s a detective and didn’t call it in. And on Chelsea and Martin/Smitty as well. Hopefully, they play every beat and the effects of this play out for a long time. 

I had mixed feelings about Anita vs. Dani though, since Anita was the one who pretty much forced Dani to go the wedding in the first place. 

And yeah, in the terms of the acting, Brandon Claybon is still the weak link in the cast. To the point that if I had the choice to pick an actor to replace, I’d pick him without a second thought. 

[Paul Raven]

I was referring to Bill's house not the haircuts.

[Maxim]

Agreed. I am giving him a little more time... But so far... it's not working.

Overall... I wonder... after such high octane starting period how they are going to continue pace and storyline wise in the coming weeks. We definitely need to cool down from the Mommie Dearest madness. I think Silkpress Sheila should get more attention now in the coming weeks. People are wanting her, craving her.

On the contrary... I am seeing Dani fatigue on the boards and people stating they want a break from her... And I understand them. But I also... For very selfish reasons... just now started getting to really bond with her... So I need her also. The moment she pulled that gun and started humiliating herself and her family... She won me as a fan. I am looking forward seeing her unravel even more... And then hopefully she'll be on the path to transformation. Reinvention. I know Dani has it in her. And Karla is definitely capable of other nuances.

But overall - Brava.

The show has set high standards for itself in terms of drama, so I'm interested how long they will keep this going. This is a compliment to everyone connected to the project. They've delivered a lot of thrills in a very little amount of episodes so far. And in this day and age... this is exactly how I imagined it to be. Even better. Because modern viewers need instant excitement and... won't wait months or years just to get on the ride. Buuuut it's also not tik tok level of fast. Which I am grateful to MVJ about. No, it's just modern.

For example Bold, whose first classic seasons I've now re-watched more times I can think... Got to THIS level of drama... probably when episodes were in the 3 digits numbers already. Before that it was veeeery slowly building. I am not saying that BTG is doing this too fast or early, don't get me wrong, I'm just saying... It's incredibly different modern approach and we'll see how well it goes. It's almost primetime like.

I also can't wait to see the ratings for the first week... And I'm sure I'm not alone in that. I have a good feeling

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[EricMontreal22]

It IS refreshing to see the white characters primarily serve the "best friend" etc role--I feel kinda ashamed admitting this but for me, it's one of those things I had never really thought about until you see something different.  If that makes sense.

Dani and Pamela at the bar REALLY was a waste I think--I know they want to have a lot of action right now, but I think Dani could have cooled her heels at the bar a BIT longer before immediately going to her family (but at least Pamela acknowledged that very fact in her dialogue--pointing out she hadn't even had a drink, etc.)

I'm catching up on what I can on ALL the talk here about the show (I only got caught up on Sunday) and I get the sense people are mostly really loving the sets.  I'm really on the fence about them--they just don't feel at all lived in to me yet (and true, for some of the characters I suppose this makes sense but you can look like you have a rich house but still one that is a home.)  THAT said, I haven't liked the sets on ANY of the US Daytime soaps in well over a decade (WELL over a decade) and by those standards I mostly like the sets...

[AbcNbc247]

Agreed.

6 consecutive episodes for any character is a lot. 

[EricMontreal22]

I've been out of touch about a lot of the creation of this show--I knew that Guza was on board as co (or associate?) HW so wasn't surprised to see his name today just below MVJs but did do a double take when I saw Ron C's.  Honestly, I paid zero attention and knew nothing of his writing before he became a HW at OLTL so I don't know if he has a good rep for breakdown writing or anything (to use an example, I think very very lowly of Jean Passanante as a HW but she had a stellar reputation as a breakdown writer, notably I think during the first Gottlieb/Malone era at OLTL--so much so that she was the main teacher of how to do a breakdown when ABC had their daytime writer training program.)

I suspect last week was largely the sample scripts too (adjusted of course.)  Didn't one interview with MVJ say that because there hadn't been a new soap in so long, MVJ had no soap bibles to use as examples (which seemed odd to me given that I actually have copies of a number of classic soap bibles) and so didn't create a traditional one if any?  At any rate, I believe the main technique with soap bibles was to provide, alongside them, a certain number of daily breakdowns as well as the first week of scripts.

Will they use her longterm as a viewer recap character?  Obviously her gossiping in this episode didn't really serve that function I don't think, since anyone tuning in for the first time today wouldn't have any idea who any of the names were, but Agnes Nixon used to always talk about "recap characters" who are largely there to have conversations explaining what viewers who missed a week might need to know.

100%  Now Erica pulling a gun on someone in a PRIVATE situation she set them up in might make sense, but otherwise it's not an Erica move at all (even in her substance abusing phases...)

[EricMontreal22]

I fully agree with all of these points (and have to say yes again about the men's haircuts--  I know it's much harder with men in general to do, but when each of the female characters seems to have such a distinct "take" to their hair, so much so that you can almost identify them by their hair alone, and of course the women also have relatively distinctive clothing looks, the men--especially when all wearing the same basic suit for a wedding--are much harder to distinguish.)

They really should have decided against the baby in the elevator plot.  I get that it was to have Ashley and Andre share an experience, but not only was it hackneyed, it was too soon for those characters if they were going to do it at all.

I still want more of a sense of how Ashley knows these various characters (like did Andre even know her before he got back from Belize or wherever--actually I still have no idea why he was scouting the hospital--repeatedly--for photo locations anyway when Nicole's practice isn't there...)  She doesn't seem to have come from money whatsoever, so where's the connection especially given they apparently double date at that bar regularly?  Sure these are plot points that normally I'd sayyou can slowly reveal--but if you're going to do that, then don't throw the character into islanded random storylines beforehand (it's late, I'm not sure I'm even making sense anymore

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)

[Vee]

Yes, I've never forgotten how much credit people on the inside give Passanante for breakdowns and certain storylines she supposedly heavily worked on (like Bianca on AMC and I think something else I've forgotten). I think she's one of the worst HWs of the modern era and I cringed any time I saw her coming, but I don't deny that skillset.

I don't remember Ron's status at OLTL pre-summer '07 and I am too tired to check. I do know he allegedly dialogued all the Asa funeral episodes himself as he took over, and those were very, very good. I always thought he was on dialogue but he could well have done both. Regardless, I don't have a problem with him on breakdowns presently because he is a trained hand. And while I feel his skill for dialogue has seriously degraded since the early days at OLTL, breakdowns are breakdowns. They may contain some of his choice ideas for dialogue or may not - parts of today reminded me of one of his sweeps event monologues - but I thought the wedding showdown was very good nonetheless. But I give the most credit to Lynn Martin, the dialoguer.

[te.]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that people are wild about the sets themselves, but more the fact that we have a lot of them, they're somewhat distinct from each other and none of them really looks cramped. I do think they probably did stretch the budget with doing so many sets that some of them are probably a bit more on the basic side, but then again that can be fixed as the show goes along. 

 

If I'm going to guess - she knows Naomi because Naomi's husband is a cop and Ashley's long term boyfriend is a firefighter. Naomi is also the one in the family who chooses to live outside "the gates", so it makes sense she'd have more blue collar friends. There also seemed to be some common ground with Ashley's mom knowing Nicole's Majordomo (?) Mona.

[Maxim]

That's actually a great possibility. 

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I am just drawn to her and find her incredibly charming. The girl just has IT. Some of the more "main" (not the core 4 of course, they are all pearls in my opinion)... have less charisma and presence. 

Today even though I have business out of town and will have to travel... I'll be rushing home to get back till 20:00 (when it starts here in Deutschland).  

Counting the hours unintentionally. When I look at the clock... it's not just 13:00... it's 7 hours till BTG in my mind!

Yup. I think she needs to call it a day and go for a relaxing spa afternoon (since psych evaluation is not on the table for now) while we focus on others.  

[detroitpiston]

Looks like this is the first episode with the full writing staff in place. I will say I like seeing Guza in the credits of a soap again.

Dani pulling a gun out at the wedding and holding Bill, Hayley and the room hostage made for a lot of camp but I enjoyed it and I’m glad it wasn’t a dream fake out. They did a great job pushing Danielle (I kind of wish they’d call her that instead of Dani) to her wits end that I can buy all of this. Bill and Hayley are terrible for doing all this flaunting and Vernon and Anita were wrong for forcing Dani to go to protect Martin so my cape is willing to fly for Dani just a tad.

I do think Bill and Hayley have won yet another round since they got everybody to attend, still got married and moved in and ended up making Dani lose control publicly.

The Dupree family scenes post mortem at Anita and Vernon’s house were the best part. Loved the tension with Anita and Dani, it gave so many layers to the overall family dynamics since we got to see not only how Anita and Dani react to each other but how the rest of the family intervenes and are treated for attempting to do so (Naomi, Martin and Nicole).

The Dani and Nicole sister scene was sweet and the tension with Naomi and Jacob over the whole situation and the Martin and Vernon side eying Jacob as if they’re ready to handle him at any moment is a good set up too, this family is willing to cross lines. Lets see if Jacob keeps letting them punk and use him.

Chelsea live streaming the whole thing was funny and good use of modern tech for story. I’m curious how the family tries to clean this up with the press conference.

Leslie and Ava are great as an unhinged vengeful duo. They are already giving Eva outs by not having her realize Leslie ran Laura off the road. I’m ready to watch this attack on the Richardsons unfold.

I’m putting Andre in the same pot of “needs to be recast” as Martin and the unexciting whites Ashley and her boyfriend. That elevator baby delivery was painful to watch, the gossiping nurse outsold everybody in the set of scenes. Get somebody taller with more gravitas for Andre, call Victoria Konefal or a young Tiffani Amber Thiessen type for Ashley and just kill the white boyfriend off.

Cady McClain is doing that Cady thing and a little too mannered and dramatic but this is what they envisioned for the Pam character so I’ll go with it. I will say I bought Vanessa more as Dani’s bffs than Nicole’s but whatever

Curious where the show goes from here as the cast and crew get their sea legs

[VelekaCarruthers]

The show is being covered by BBC news!

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8r0513n5vo

[Rmodelboy]

I'm not seeing the Martin is so bad that he needs recasting like others are.

Now it could be my bias because I think the actor is handsome ha, but I feel like he's playing it exactly how we're supposed to see the character right now.

 

 

[detroitpiston]

His line reading is verging on worst of the lot for me (“Sometimes the ANger just BUILDS and boils over until you just don’t have a choice” was so

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) and he has very little screen presence to make up for it. The fact he’s given what feels like the most focus of the grandkids makes that a hard watch for me, hopefully he improves as the weeks continue but I wish they had cast a more experienced actor

[Joseph]

So it's safe to say that Eva doesn't know the lengths that Leslie/Dana is willing to go for their revenge?!