BTG: May 2025 Discussion Thread

[janea4old]

a reference to a mystery character on Y&R named "Aristotle Dumas" who has been discussed a zillion times in the past few months but never seen.  Not mad at the character.  Mad at Y&R writer Griffith for the annoyance.
Mentioned to point out the annoyances of Y&R in contrast to enthusiasm for BTG.

Edited 11 hours ago by janea4old

[Contessa Donatella]

I would submit to you that she doesn't need any more excuses, not when it comes to Bill. But, I am one fan who thinks Bill isn't done with Dani & also the reverse is so. Those two, IMO, are locked in some kind of toxic but  irresistible vortex. I'm not saying we're going to have scifi. Just the personality kind of vortex.

OH!!! Thanks. I don't do Y&R. But I totally understand anger even frustration with Josh.

[Gatecrashers]

Nahh, Bill is through with Danielle, but I am getting so sick of her "all about me" attitude, so I am here for his shade.

[Chris B]

Ashley and Derek have been so isolated that I need the show to develop something, anything to justify their presence. It's not that I think Joey being her father will be the greatest story ever told but at least it would be something and connect her to more characters.

I just need the show to move forward with them. Out of all the characters, these are the only two with no storyline/development. We have recurring characters who are better used with less screentime. If the show is going to keep them on contract they need to do something with them.

[Soaplovers]

If I were to cast a Soap Opera veteran as Jan.. I would have picked Krista Allen (of Days and B & B fame) since she did move to the Atlanta area in late 2023... and knows all there is about the Soap opera way of filming.  And I could see her playing Ashley's mom.

[Paul Raven]

I really don't want to see some old P&G actors on the show. To me Lindstrom and McLain have brought nothing special.

The show needs to find new talent, so it has it's own identity,which overall they have.

Timon, Tricia, Ambyr are breakouts. Most of the others are fine .We all know the exceptions.

[Taoboi]

Oooo. I like the current actress, but that's a pretty great choice.

[Chris B]

That would've been a good pick! She was great on B&B and like you said, she's already in Atlanta.

[AbcNbc247]

Wait, what?

So, Martin’s not running for President anymore? Just like that? 

I didn’t expect this storyline to be long term but I would’ve liked to see it play out for a little while longer, or at least until Martin’s secret was revealed. And definitely not fade out with a whimper. Sort of like Naomi’s lawsuit against Bill’s firm; what was the point of it all if it was just gonna wrapped up so easily and (probably) forgotten about? 

Eva is still the breakout character though. I’m looking forward to seeing where she goes from here with everyone, especially if the twist that we’re all suspecting turns out to be true. 

And I did find the gambling storyline interesting finally, now that we know Joey’s endgame. I’d like to see it play out and to see what happens to everybody involved in it. 

As for Derek/Ashley… I wonder how it would’ve played out if they actually had cast Mike Manning as Derek. Yeah, the writing isn’t there but I imagine that Derek would have more of a personality lol and I also imagine that it would’ve made Ron Carlivati’s head explode

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Ben Gavin did look hot though 

[Soapsuds]

I haven't had a chance to view the interview, but I'm glad Mike didn't get the part of Derek.  Derek is a badly written character.

Any Ben Gavin screenshot from yesterday's show?

[AbcNbc247]

Maybe if there had been a good close up or two

[janea4old]

Randy (Doug's friend who works for Joey) -- Joey told Randy weeks ago that Joey's plan was to get Doug into so much debt that Doug would be forced to get Vanessa's real estate holding turned over to Joey, to use for money-laundering.  That's been the plan all along, which the viewers knew.  The only thing new is that Joey finally told Doug this.

I think Joey is written badly.  I also think Jon Lindstrom is doing "Now I am going to act menacing".   But I don't really feel the menace.  It's too overdramatic and it doesn't feel like a real person.  Jon is a fine actor on GH, so I don't know what's happening here -- the entire BTG mobster premise is badly designed/written.  I don't know if Guza pushed for a mobster storyline?  Or did Jon?  (Jon wrote a novel about Hollywood mobsters).
It just doesn't fit.  It feels (to me) like this storyline for Jon was just shoved onto the canvas but it doesn't fit all all.

Monday's scene of Mona coming into the "casino" to check up on where Leslie supposedly lost money in the slot machines -- and Randy explaining to Mona that there are no slot machines, there is nothing but the card room.  I had to laugh because they had characters comment that it's just a card room and not a casino -- the show is now acknowledging that there's nothing there.  If they are going to do this, then have it make sense for Fairmont Crest residents to visit a high-end glamourous casino, and not a random room with one table.

So what money is Joey laundering? A while back, Joey told Vanessa that he knows about her sexual philandering because owns the escort service that she'd been using.

But I don't care...  I'd just prefer that the entire mobster storyline go away. 

Edited 6 hours ago by janea4old

[watson71]

And that area of the DMV has a high-end glamorous casino the MGM National Harbor. 

[Planet Soap]

Yes!!! Mona feels  like one of my aunts, love the way she carries herself. Loved seeing Eva pop-up at the gambling place. 

Monday was all around good soap. Can't remember the last time an entire episode held my interest.  Loving the fallout and reverberations from Ted and Shea-Butter Sheila's affair

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.

Tricia Mann Grant is 90s early 2000s quality FINE.

As nice as it would've been to see Anita embrace Eva, I'm glad she didn't because we can squeeze a lot more years of conflict out of Eva, Leslie and the Duprees.  

Lauren & Sheila, Viki & Dorian, Katherine & Jill all gave us good conflict for decades. Hopefully this follows suit.

I understand the concern. Right now there's an issue of quality of black representation on shows more so than quantity of black shows. I'd like to see more predominantly black sci-fi, legal, political, supernatural or medical dramas over the typical who is sleeping with who.

However, this is a soap, and this is what happens on soaps. White soap characters do these things all the time, but have the luxury of being seen as individuals, not representations of their entire race.

Husbands/fathers like Todd Manning, Victor Newman and Asa Buchanan cheat, lie and swindle all the time but aren't seen as a commentary on white men. Black characters like Ted and New Dollar Bill should be able to do the same.

Edited 3 hours ago by Planet Soap

[Maxim]

As I've said before I don't believe the fact that both sisters have cheating husbands (one in the past, one more recently) is a coincidence or anything random. It's pre-thought and pre-planned and the message is clear. Cheaters can be found in all shapes, forms and sizes. Some do it in the most blatant way, they are known serial cheaters and their wives know of their past hook ups (as Dani has already said... she was willing to forgive Bill for his previous mistresses... till Hayley came) and some are more masterfully disguised in the image of the perfect husband. The fact that Dani was jealous of her sister Nicole's happy marriage in the first episodes was not a coincidence. I knew it the first second I heard it. It made me wonder and think what is beneath Nicole and Ted's picture perfect life. The show painted two very different sisters and then gave them the same crisis. It was intentional and dramatically focused on how these women acted after that... How they kept or did not keep their dignity. The contrasts and the similarities are not random. They connected the two stories very well. Telling us that beyond the gates there are secrets... lies and betrayals. And sometimes the happiest ones have the biggest skeletons in their closets.

Is all of this a cliche? A soap opera serial cliche? Yes. Does it still work? Yes. And did we need to start with something that is more universal and easier to stomach by the mass audience? Yes. This is only the beginning of the show in terms of stories and themes. We will have years ahead of us to explore different aspects of these people. The first couple of months it had to be a classic sex and betrayal story that makes more people hooked. It's universal.

Again. Nothing so far about both husbands being cheaters is coincidental for me. It's too early for that.