A lot of us have commented about Alex Alegria as Tomas, but when I saw this posted on Facebook, it still made laugh out real loud.

24 minutes ago, MontyB said:

Happy...my TiVO was smart enough to record from WCBS's sister station WLNY, so I got to see the whole 200th episode with no inauguration interruption and boy, y'all did not lie.

That was quite the emotional ride. I'm expecting Lead nomination for both Davis and Tunie.

Bill's talk to Anita had me tearing up.

And of course, Haley had me chuckling. So damn selfish.

Good to see you saw it. Clifton had me in my feelings for sure. As did Karla 'Grown Woman' Mosley. That talk resonated more than I can say.

Also love the Anita/Bill moment as well.

And...that's Kristen for you. lol.

Well...if we are going to be talking romance going into the New Year...

NICOLE: Of course, my number 1 is going to be NUMBER 1. Given the problems the writers had with keeping her POV relevant post-Anniversary party, it's been nice that since the writing changeover to have more of it. That said...since it seems like her POV will be there going forward, I'm fine with a slow (but not too slow) build-up to a triangle between her, Carlton, and Kial. I can only assume it is going at this pace to be sure to set both sides (Nicole/Carlton, Nicole/Kial) up evenly. At least for now.

DANI: Already set up and good to go. Dani/Andre were the happy accident I knew they would be so I guess I'm back to ride-or-dying. Which other than that Andre's hiccup, I was a fan of since Chelesa's diva hair toss. lol. The story was too real life in the first place and the pairing has fire chemistry. And already has built in drama from Bill (his history with Dani, the investigation on Andre that I believe is still going on) and Kirsten Dimera Hayley. And while her story has been backburnered longer than I would like, it's good to see hints of the old internal drama Dani/Andre had been creeping back in.

KAT: I still say and continue to say that they are totally setting up Tomas's exit storyline with what is going on with him and Kat. But where will she land afterwards? I do like if this is leading to a Kat/Izaiah/Eva triangle in the future, they are doing the right thing by doing what they did with Bill/Dani in the first year: spinning the characters off in separate stories so the audience gets to know them individual before bringing the main plot thread back together. Kat's busy with Tomas and his social climbing, her relationship with her dad, and now her issues about her mortality brought on by the Anita news. Eva and Izaiah are getting to know each other and bringing out new sides to each other. And I found the comment about Carl Vati VERY telling about the future of Eva/Tomas aka NONE.

VANESSA: While I haven't liked how she's written since Doug's death and Joey/Vanessa becoming a thing, she does seem to be in a holding pattern of sorts. And I'm ready for the next shoe to drop in the Joey/Vanessa story whether it's SPS getting involved, Donnell/Deanna creating the next leg in the Doug's death arc, or something else.

TEENS: Well, off the latest synopsis, sounds like we are about to get stuff. As is, I had totally forgotten that Ty and Jessica still are dealing with the idea of how college will impact their relationship. Meanwhile, I expect some kind of story GOSSIP GIRLish for Sam's Colliton. That last appearance by Donnell was lackluster so I hope that if Deanna is going to put in an appearance, she picks up where he left off.

TED/SHANICE. Yeeeah, Ted's an idiot, but I've come around to them. And the fact that he FINALLY showed actual backbone with SPS in the 12-30 episode due to Shanice tells me there might be actually legs to a triangle there. Though I honestly don't see how. FINALLY, it seems the writers are not playing Ted like a straight man with a kooky woman, but like an actual guy who...okay is just stupid in the ways of women, but has some charm. And ego is his flaw which can make him compelling down the road.

Other than that, I guess I would like to see the actual coupled couples with some obstacle to test them over the next year. I know we are getting that with Vernon/Anita which is deserved. As for the others, I guess we will see. But I do wonder who will be our next happy accident aka Dani/Andre cuz I don't have anything off the top of my head. My bad...besides Marcel and Silk Press Sheila.

1 hour ago, Vee said:

Eva/Izaiah often feels like older people trying to write for sexy youths but being unsure of how far to go with it. Yeah, I think they got it on over the holidays but it still feels a bit afterschool special. The show has not had a problem with being quite explicit or raw with other couples, but here they seem gunshy - maybe because they want to sand down Eva's edges.

Very well put. For a show that presents itself as progressive and unafraid, they’ve really been walking on eggshells when it comes to youth sexuality. We’ve seen it with Kat. We’ve seen it with Eva. And don’t even get me started on Samantha. They seem reluctant to acknowledge that young people want to have sex.

The show definitely needs to get more serious about love stories but that’s hard to do when all couples seem to do is bounce from Orphey Gene’s to Uptown, and maybe rent a hotel room once in a while.

We got a bit of that progressive edge with Chelsea being in a throuple. Essentially, she was just a third that joined in with a couplez but it could have worked its way there. Although they did fail to REALLY go there before turning Allison into a stalker and rushing Chelsea into a stable monogamous relationship.

We also had an interracial m/m gay couple. They are quite buttoned up and heteronormative but still major representation for daytime.

While I do wish that Chelsea and Martin/Smitty were less "safe." It is what it is at this point.

However, I agree that Kat and Eva should be a little more adventurous and young in their sexuality.

I feel like the show plays the characters pretty safe. Even the more edgy characters are pretty normal such as Izaiah and Dani. Besides Dani being certifiable in the early episodes, she has been reeled in. Izaiah and Andre are supposed to be bad or playboy-ish and they are nothing of the sort. Not sure if Andre having feelings for Dani and Ashley was supposed to represent this, but it did not work as intended.

Ty is a nerd and I say that with love and Samantha has had her ho wings clipped. I don't see writers going down that route again.

Ideally, I would have loved for Chelsea to date around a bit. Men, women, couples etc. Until she actually fell in love for real.

Kat's saving herself could have been novel for 2025, but they killed that when they had her lose it to boring ass Tomas and didn't even make all that much of a deal for Kat. She was slightly worried she didn't enjoy it, but not at all worried she just lost her V which she wanted to protect to a man she likely doesn't even like that much.

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by GLATWT88

5 minutes ago, GLATWT88 said:

We got a bit of that progressive edge with Chelsea being in a throuple. Essentially, she was just a third that joined in with a couplez but it could have worked its way there. Although they did fail to REALLY go there before turning Allison into a stalker and rushing Chelsea into a stable monogamous relationship.

We also had an interracial m/m gay couple. They are quite buttoned up and heteronormative but still major representation for daytime.

While I do wish that Chelsea and Martin/Smitty were less "safe." It is what it is at this point.

However, I agree that Kat and Eva should be a little more adventurous and young in their sexuality.

I feel like the show plays the characters pretty safe. Even the more edgy characters are pretty normal such as Izaiah and Dani. Besides Dani being certifiable in the early episodes, she has been reeled in. Izaiah and Andre are supposed to be bad or playboy-ish and they are nothing of the sort. Not sure if Andre having feelings for Dani and Ashley was supposed to represent this, but it did not work as intended.

Ty is a nerd and I say that with love and Samantha has had her ho wings clipped. I don't see writers going down that route again.

Ideally, I would have loved for Chelsea to date around a bit. Men, women, couples etc. Until she actually fell in love for real.

Kat's saving herself could have been novel for 2025, but they killed that when they had her lose it to boring ass Tomas and didn't even make all that much of a deal for Kat. She was slightly worried she didn't enjoy it, but not at all worried she just lost her V which she wanted to protect to a man she likely doesn't even like that much.

I agree with a lot of that. Out of everyone from what we have seen on screen, the edgy one...ironically the voice of reason sometimes...is Chelesa.

The closest Andre came to being the player everyone said he was was how he was treating Dani on his date with Ashley. And I didn't like it one bit given how upfront both he and Dani had been right up 'til that point.

25 minutes ago, Aback said:

Very well put. For a show that presents itself as progressive and unafraid, they’ve really been walking on eggshells when it comes to youth sexuality. We’ve seen it with Kat. We’ve seen it with Eva. And don’t even get me started on Samantha. They seem reluctant to acknowledge that young people want to have sex.

I don't think they've been that prudish re: Kat or Sam, per se. While Kat waited to lose it which was a character choice, they've been very frank about them getting it on since given Tomas' whole hospital ordeal once they got hot and heavy. And I think the rest of the show is remarkably candid and edgy about sex with the other couples (including the sex education material with the two teenagers) more than most of today's soaps. I also don't think it frowned on Sam having sex, but instead indicated that the guy she was with bad news.

Yet for whatever reason they've played it very safe with Eva and Izaiah. That is what doesn't make sense to me when both are grown, experienced adults. Those two can and should be steaming it up more, but instead they get a lot of sexy wordplay and very earnest conversations, and not the hot and heavy intimate scenes that Dani and Andre, or Joey and Vanessa or Smitty and Martin (who got a couple fairly explicit scenes last fall), or even Jacob and Naomi (the most boring couple on the show) get.

I do think the show is very progressive in its regular depiction of Martin/Smitty (who have pretty regular heavy story, and are gearing up for a new one) or Chelsea/Madison (who may be in the wings for more) who are core couples and regularly featured. I found Madison to be a pretty artificial insta-love interest at first - they made it official faster than even most lesbian cliches - but they've started to flesh her out more, bit by bit. I just would like to see them become an actual three-dimensional unit, and Chelsea herself needs more work as is. I think they should lean into RhonniRose doing more screwball comedy tbh. That seems to be her best asset right now.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by Vee

1 hour ago, Taoboi said:

Good to see you saw it. Clifton had me in my feelings for sure. As did Karla 'Grown Woman' Mosley. That talk resonated more than I can say.

Also love the Anita/Bill moment as well.

And...that's Kristen for you. lol.

How could I not mention Karla Mosley. She has come a very long way from Guiding Light. I definitely see her getting an Emmy nomination.

2 minutes ago, MontyB said:

How could I not mention Karla Mosley. She has come a very long way from Guiding Light. I definitely see her getting an Emmy nomination.

Karla always put my teeth on edge on GL, and that sort of poisoned her for me re: B&B (a show I barely tolerate as is). But she's been excellent here. Especially in the last six months.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by Vee

20 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

I agree with a lot of that. Out of everyone from what we have seen on screen, the edgy one...ironically the voice of reason sometimes...is Chelesa.

The closest Andre came to being the player everyone said he was was how he was treating Dani on his date with Ashley. And I didn't like it one bit given how upfront both he and Dani had been right up 'til that point.

Yes, I did not love that moment. The way Andre framed it made no sense to me.

28 minutes ago, Vee said:

Karla always put my teeth on edge on GL, and that sort of poisoned her for me re: B&B (a show I barely tolerate as is). But she's been excellent here. Especially in the last six months.

Yes!!

2 hours ago, MontyB said:

How could I not mention Karla Mosley. She has come a very long way from Guiding Light. I definitely see her getting an Emmy nomination.

So much so. If you had me that the actress who bugged me as Christina on GL would turn into this actress named Dani that I live for, I would have laughed.

1 hour ago, GLATWT88 said:

Yes, I did not love that moment. The way Andre framed it made no sense to me.

Typical loser/player behavior. Thankfully he redeemed himself.

1 hour ago, MontyB said:

Yes!!

Very. The tour de force she's been giving if she does not get a nomination I will be LIVID.

Karla somewhat implied that GL wasn't her best work when she said she in the preview special that she "cringed" looking back at scenes from there. Before GL she started acting on a children's television which makes her evolution even more remarkable.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by ReddFoxx