1 minute ago, Vanguardian53 said:

Izaiah Hawthorne is another character that needs to be worked on. I don't sense the former badness that everyone accuses him of. I know he's supposed to be reformed but still. And maybe that's a mistake. Both Hawthorne brothers are do-gooders. There's no drama in that.

I feel like they are trying to make them the modern day Winters brothers, and it ain't panning out. Both of them are boring. Love them, but they are boring. Jacob's cop story totally fell to the wayside. I take it b/c MVJ didn't want Joey on the canvas so fast after it became apparent that Joey/Vanessa had chemistry. If they toss Izaiah in Hayley's orbit and put Hayley and Eva at odds, that might make Izaiah interesting.

33 minutes ago, MontyB said:

Agreed that Tomas is very saccharine. It was glaring today when he was talking to Kat. I wanted to reach through the TV and put an energizer battery in his back.

Again, he should've been made an unapologetic, social climbing sl*t.

I think the show's primary issue is that we have half the characters being characters who we love. We have a small fraction (Eva/Hayley/Leslie/Joey) of characters who we love to hate. But we have a fraction of characters who we just hate (Tomas/Ashley/Derek/Izaiah) because they are underdeveloped.

2 hours ago, Vee said:

Did we point out Colby going by "Colby Natasha Nixon" now in the opening?

Her full name was Colby Natasha Muhammad, but she used Colby Muhammad in the credits and Colby Natasha on instagram.
She got married in June (Link) and Nixon is her married name. Yesterday in the closing credits she was listed as Colby Natasha Nixon.

Please, BTG, just fire Tomas. Dude went on and on and on about how Kat had been his "person" to go to with his problems (what, his broken dick? 'cause I don't recall him ever having a problem...) and whine about how she wouldn't let him be there for her. Ten minutes later, he's complaining to Jacob (who I can't recall him ever meeting...but whatev) about how "too independent" Kat is and hard to get to know.

I think all Kat's problem has ever been is that she senses his potential dumb assed-ness and knows she's gonna regret ever getting his number.

And whoever wrote the dialogue between Dana and Marcel---needs to go back to Skinemax. Or Hallmark. Because it was painfully painfully awkward and the opposite of banter-ish.

-- I feel bad for Ben Gavin. He wasn't great, but he had improved. It's not his fault that Derek was a poorly-conceived character from the jump.

-- Still, it's hard to believe this show gets rid of Derek but keeps Tomas. And Ashley.

-- Kat needs to be alone so she has time to process everything? Uh....ok. I know it's in character for Kat to be selfish, but to this extreme? She doesn't think of anyone but herself -- not even Anita.

-- The cancer storyline has been done well so far, but there's a danger with these issue storylines that they become too heavy/too much. I hope the writers navigate this properly so we don't get lectures and sadness every day. Threading that needle isn't easy.

-- Leslie and Marcel hitting the sheets? Interesting, maybe, but there was nothing sexy about it.

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Who is the heck is writing Joey Armstrong as some sort of sexy lothario? Nothing against Jon Lindstrom but it is unbelievable that Joey is as magnetic as the writing would try to convince us as being. It's also diabolical that we are going to see more of this character who uses Black men as brainless muscle to be ordered around. Not to mention, how Armstrong is portrayed as some sort of omniscient, omnipotent force who has all the agency in every situation, except with his new bleach blonde kitten Vanessa (they're both trash, at this point). Someone needs to challenge Armstrong's dominance.

Thank you for this. Others can celebrate Lindstrom's addition to the open, but I won't. Give me Shanice or June or anybody else who isn't a white guy using POC to get rich. I despise the character.

I noticed in the closing credits yesterday that character names were changed, to show some maiden names and nicknames.

Changes as of January 2, 2026, don't know if they'll last...

old: Hayley Lawson
new: Hayley Lawson Hamilton.

old: Nicole Dupree Richardson
new: Nicole Dupree.

old: Dani Dupree Hamilton
new: Danielle "Dani" Dupree Hamilton.

old: Anita Dupree
new: Anita Williams Dupree

old: Dana Thomas
new: Dana "Leslie" Thomas

old: Bradley Smith
new: Bradley "Smitty" Smith

old: Katherine Richardson
new: Katherine "Kat" Richardson

old: Ted Richardson
new: Theodore "Ted" Richardson

1 hour ago, ranger1rg said:

-- Still, it's hard to believe this show gets rid of Derek but keeps Tomas. And Ashley.

Well, I think all three are equally bad. But Tomas is the only one with strong connections to the core-family. And Ashley seems to be a personal fave of MVJ, plus Ashley has tangental connections to the Duprees. So that leaves Derek as the expendable one. He has nothing but a a friend or two and a weirdly troubled romance with Ashely to leave behind. No relatives, no work colleagues (aside from a few under-fives who show up occasionally), and no relationship to any of the important storylines from the first year. If TPTB wanted to axe one of those three, I think Derek is the obvious choice. Just my opinion.

3 hours ago, Vanguardian53 said:

Izaiah Hawthorne is another character that needs to be worked on. I don't sense the former badness that everyone accuses him of. I know he's supposed to be reformed but still. And maybe that's a mistake. Both Hawthorne brothers are do-gooders. There's no drama in that.

Thats the point. He was a troubled youth. He's since gone to college, and grad school and his days being a teenage bad boy are long behind him. The only one who has an issue with him is Elon and that seems more to do with him leaving town and not following in the family's footsteps

And I disagree that both brothers are do-gooders. Jacob is a boy scout that must follow the law and do right at all turns. Izaiah seems more relaxed

Edited yesterday at 04:19 AM1 day by Cheap21

17 minutes ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Well, I think all three are equally bad. But Tomas is the only one with strong connections to the core-family. And Ashley seems to be a personal fave of MVJ, plus Ashley has tangental connections to the Duprees. So that leaves Derek as the expendable one. He has nothing but a a friend or two and a weirdly troubled romance with Ashely to leave behind. No relatives, no work colleagues (aside from a few under-fives who show up occasionally), and no relationship to any of the important storylines from the first year. If TPTB wanted to axe one of those three, I think Derek is the obvious choice. Just my opinion.

Yeah, I think we're STUCK with Ashley for a while, as she's been more integrated into the canvas than Derek ever was. Hopefully, we'll see better writing for her, and hopefully she'll take an acting class or two.

I think the show made the wrong choice keeping Ashley over Derek. Derek had chemistry with almost everyone, everyone other than Ashley, whereas Ashley I don't know.

And Thomas certainly should be dumped or recast.

Given how much the writers love Joey, it's not surprising to see him in the opening credits. What I don't understand is why they had to make him so dark. He is responsible for two murders so far. I'm guessing he's not going to pay for any of that this season..

Joey is a finite character. But I have no problem with him being in the opening. Or with cutting Derek. Hopefully the first of several.

Its the nature of soaps to have comings and goings. BTG kept it's original cast intact for the 'season' but inevitably there will be movement.

Also budget wise they need to keep a lid on things.

Doug was killed off, Isaiah arrived. Kial appeared, Derek was demoted.

I kind of feel after the show hooked Eva/Tomas up then he tossed her aside, he seemed to have lost the one aspect of his presence that worked.. his connection and rapport with Eva.

I wish the show would pull the trigger on him being a social climbing player because the way the actor is playing Tomas is a low key player trying to pretend to be the perfect boyfriend. The writing and his performance seems to be clashing.

With Ashley.. Jen Jacob isn't a bad actress and seems to play Ashley with an edge that isn't in the writing for her character 90 percent of the time. The only time where the writing and the acting come together was during that brief time she was onto Hayley and the two had that exchange at Uptown. She and Hayley had a good rapport during that exchange... but since then, the writing seems to want to portray Ashley as a Mary Sue when the actress has more back bone that conflicts with the writing.

Derek always seemed to be a throwaway character to MVJ and co so naturally he was the first individual downgraded.

I still think Chelsea and Madison should be written off/downgraded as well... since it doesn't seem as though the show really feel motivated to give Chelsea any sort of focus/story unlike Naomi and Kat.

I think they might have benefited by having some of the Duprees off-screen at the start so there would be fresh characters waiting in the wings. Y&R did that with Lorie to great effect.

There were a lot of family and connections to sort out initially and some stuff got lost along the way. So maybe Chelsea or a male son of Nicole could be off-screen for a while.

4 hours ago, Cheap21 said:

Thats the point. He was a troubled youth. He's since gone to college, and grad school and his days being a teenage bad boy are long behind him. The only one who has an issue with him is Elon and that seems more to do with him leaving town and not following in the family's footsteps

And I disagree that both brothers are do-gooders. Jacob is a boy scout that must follow the law and do right at all turns. Izaiah seems more relaxed

OK, but now what? Like someone perfectly stated, he's part of that league of characters who are "JUST THERE." There's nothing about him that's standing out and I don't think some roll in the hay with Eva counts.

Edited yesterday at 08:41 AM1 day by Vanguardian53

7 minutes ago, Vanguardian53 said:

OK, but now what? Like someone perfectly stated, he's part of that league of characters who are "JUST THERE." There's nothing about him that's standing out (other than the hair) and I don't think some roll in the hay with Eva counts. To me, he and his brother are still looking more like one and the same than anything else, and it sours the potential much needed dramatics in my opinion.

Edited yesterday at 08:49 AM1 day by Vanguardian53