55 minutes ago, ReddFoxx said:

First some of you all wanted Jacob cheating on Naomi with Kat, now it's Smitty. Please, no cheating with cousins. The show has already made cheating the center of two storylines so no more is needed.

Sometimes viewers have good ideas for soap characters, but often it's pretty clear why writers are hired and don't listen to viewers.

1 hour ago, ReddFoxx said:

First some of you all wanted Jacob cheating on Naomi with Kat, now it's Smitty. Please, no cheating with cousins. The show has already made cheating the center of two storylines so no more is needed.

For the record, I said think Jacob and Smitty are 🔥🔥 together. I don't want them together, but I can fantasize. 😊

Edited July 19Jul 19 by MontyB

To be fair, Monty B said if he had the chance to rewrite, which means he is fine with the way things are. Jibre Hordges has had chemistry with all his screen partners, but the real reason for the constant fanfic is more about the lack of an affair happening in real time. It has already been said multiple times how Dani/Bill/Hayley would have worked better if we had seen it play out. 

 

Jacob and Smitty are both married to intolerable Dupree grandchildren and both of them are much better spouses to Martin and Naomi then they deserve.

 

17 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

as a viewer, i feel shortchanged by the lack of development among the richardsons. we’ve never seen them together as a family; no idea of what kind of relationship kat and martin had growing up —  with their parents, or each other — not to mentioned the grandchildren. 

True. 

17 hours ago, ReddFoxx said:

The character and relationship development has been done in blocks with the Richardsons having the least development as a family. Nicole has had more and better interactions with her nephew than with her son and as a matter of fact, so has Ted. The writers have dropped the ball here and will have to do a lot of catch up to develop those family bonds for the Richardsons. 

Accurate. To go even further, Andre is a character I feel gets decent enough screen time, but not enough time is being spent on developing his characterization. We know nothing about him.

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Oddly Nicole and her family seem more interesting to write, yet the writers seem intent on not featuring the clan as an actual family unit.. unless the lack of family scenes is actually to show that they're not a close knit family except on the surface?

Her family is vastly more interesting than Dani's family.

Thought it was just me. I agree. Too much time off-screen makes viewers disinterested.

17 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

but if this positions her as being the black sheep of the family because she sees through everyone else’s BS, it would do her a ton of favors.

And I would love it too!

Edited July 19Jul 19 by DemetriKane

Just finished catching up on the week and I thought it was impressive! I love how complicated my thoughts are coming out of it, the sign of good writing. I feel like so many of the characters involved handled this wrong and I can see everybodys point of view. I understand Nicole and Smitty's anger but I also understand why they weren't kept in the loop based on their reactions. I understand why Anita and Vernon did what they did but also that they could've handled it better.

Another thing I've really enjoyed over the months is the continuing theme of Nicole being left out of the loop on things. I feel like that is another complication I didn't anticipate from the beginning and it's making her relationships much more interesting than they could've been. She's Vernon and Anita's golden child and now this is going to damage their relationship. It would've been easy to make Dani the bad Dupree but they've done a good job of making all of these characters feel human and imperfect. I'm so glad Anita and Vernon aren't the wise elders dispensing advise over tea. This storyline has made Vernon grapple with his morals and moral failings. 

One element I do agree with yall on is that the Richardson family does feel under-developed. This all boils down to the fact that Martin should not be Nicole and Ted's son, he only makes sense as Anita and Vernon's. I'd love a twist where they say due to Nicole's infertility issues that Anita let her have Martin because she couldn't raise him due to her career or something. That could explain why they seem more like his parents than Ted and Nicole.

I also think that the Ted recast has 100% killed his character. When I look at the lack of screentime the recast has gotten, it makes me wonder if the decision came from higher up. It doesn't seem like a case where the writers wanted to take him in a new direction because they don't seem excited to write anything for him.

2 hours ago, Chris B said:

One element I do agree with yall on is that the Richardson family does feel under-developed. This all boils down to the fact that Martin should not be Nicole and Ted's son, he only makes sense as Anita and Vernon's. I'd love a twist where they say due to Nicole's infertility issues that Anita let her have Martin because she couldn't raise him due to her career or something. That could explain why they seem more like his parents than Ted and Nicole.

I agree that Martin shouldn't be Nicole and Ted's son, but I don't think a twist or retcon would work. That's not what this show is or does. I think they need to flesh out Martin's relationship with his parents instead of ignoring it as they've done for almost 5 months.

 

2 hours ago, Chris B said:

I also think that the Ted recast has 100% killed his character. When I look at the lack of screentime the recast has gotten, it makes me wonder if the decision came from higher up. It doesn't seem like a case where the writers wanted to take him in a new direction because they don't seem excited to write anything for him.

I have no idea what the show is doing with Ted. They've completely dropped the ball on that character, and I refuse to blame Keith D. Robinson, who is a good actor. It's as if TPTB said "OK, Now we have the actor we want, so we're going to change direction. But we don't know what direction to go in or what we want to do with him."

4 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Jacob and Smitty are both married to intolerable Dupree grandchildren and both of them are much better spouses to Martin and Naomi then they deserve.

I think Naomi's a great character and and that she and Jacob have a great marriage.

What are your objections to Naomi?  This is the very first comment I've heard any poster make indicating dislike of her.  Not saying you're wrong or right... just very curious why you think this. 

Edited July 20Jul 20 by janea4old

44 minutes ago, ranger1rg said:

I agree that Martin shouldn't be Nicole and Ted's son, but I don't think a twist or retcon would work. That's not what this show is or does. I think they need to flesh out Martin's relationship with his parents instead of ignoring it as they've done for almost 5 months.

I do agree with you that type of retcon wouldn't align with what they've been giving us. I think it's just that even when we get nuggets of the Richardson family, it just doesn't work for me. The only person I feel Martin has chemistry with is Kat and we rarely see them together. I do think Nicole and Smitty have a nice chemistry though.

44 minutes ago, ranger1rg said:

I have no idea what the show is doing with Ted. They've completely dropped the ball on that character, and I refuse to blame Keith D. Robinson, who is a good actor. It's as if TPTB said "OK, Now we have the actor we want, so we're going to change direction. But we don't know what direction to go in or what we want to do with him."

This makes me wonder if it was a situation where everybody wasn't on board because nothing about this screams that they got the actor they wanted or were waiting for. 

Tamara Tunie said she agreed to take the role as Anita provided BTG would give her the needed breaks to honor her many prior commitments from October 2024 through May 2025 .
(Link to tvinsider interview) on  BTG behind-the-scenes thread.

We have had many speculations/theories about why
Maurice Johnson was replaced by Keith D. Robinson  --
but Errol has said that none of the theories have been confirmed, so we just don't know why.

We know that the replacement time seemed to align with 13-week cycle, but that's all we really know.

I have noticed that KDR's social media shows both BTG and his music career, and he has been promoting his latest song.  
This is just me guessing (with zero knowledge) but I wonder if KDR had prior commitments as well and if we'll see more of him soon?
 

 

1 hour ago, janea4old said:

I think Naomi's a great character and and that she and Jacob have a great marriage.

What are your objections to Naomi?  This is the very first comment I've heard any poster make indicating dislike of her.  Not saying you're wrong or right... just very curious why you think this. 

Naomi was all poopy pants over Jacob having the nerve to protect his future/well-being by arresting Dani for shooting up Bill and Hayley’s wedding. The preview for next week has her hollering about how she’s a Dupree first and foremost, no doubt ready to defend her grandparents and cousin for covering up a murder for two years. The Duprees are awful people lol

Re: Martin as Vernon and Anita’s son. That definitely would have made more sense, and if they’d just established that he and Nicole have always had a super tight sibling bond, then everything with Nicole feeling betrayed about being out of the loop could still play the same. Especially since we’ve barely seen them as mother and son anyway. They could have also made him older so as to make him and Smitty believable as the parents of teens.

They might have benefitted from having another Dupree male child waiting in the wings-either a son or grandson  for Vern/Anita who could be mentioned and then come home for Xmas maybe and provide some new story material for the 2nd year of the show

Bill Bell did that with Lorie Brooks on Y&R and later the Forrester sisters on B&B and Days kept Bill Horton offscreen for several months after the debut.

They are doing that with Jacob's family and Vanessa's kids and we don't know anything about Smitty's family...

There could be a Dupree nephew brought in. Vernon's family hasn't been mapped out yet so he could be given a sibling that has a son.

8 hours ago, ranger1rg said:

Sometimes viewers have good ideas for soap characters, but often it's pretty clear why writers are hired and don't listen to viewers.

I hate fantasy writing.

I've finally accepted the wisdom of Martin being the Dupree grandson instead of the son.  When Nicole walked into the house at the end of Thursday's show and saw Anita & Vernon hovering all over him and patting on him, I laughed my butt off.  You could tell how incensed Nicole was that her (overbearing) parents had pretty much taken over the parenting of her kid.

Anita's lines were hilarious.  "You can stay here as LONG as you want, baby.  And bring the children!!  They can stay here too!!"

She acted like her world was complete, now that Sweet Baby was in her grandmotherly clutches.  She never once suggested that he take his ass home where he belongs.  "You're my HEART!" she cooed as she hugged him till she nearly strangled him.  

I think the (dark) humor of their entire relationship stems from the way they shoved Nicole & Ted aside and just took over Martin for themselves.