It was!!! I feel like we speculated that for a good minute. Meanwhile, I was just happy Laura and her kids were finally coming home. Heck I was even hoping for a Nikolas visit.

2 minutes ago, carolineg said:

There was also the very last minute recast for arguably the biggest Lucky/Liz scene in JJ's entire return.

shivers

That backlash.

11 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

It was!!! I feel like we speculated that for a good minute. Meanwhile, I was just happy Laura and her kids were finally coming home. Heck I was even hoping for a Nikolas visit.

shivers

That backlash.

Yeah, I don't think we ever got to the "WHO" behind the JJ and Lulu returns so it still kind of remains speculation. I applaud whoever it was that made the choice because it was the right decision. The execution was just so poor.

6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

The execution was just so poor.

I suspect the poor execution was deliberate on Frank's part.

8 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Yeah, I don't think we ever got to the "WHO" behind the JJ and Lulu returns so it still kind of remains speculation. I applaud whoever it was that made the choice because it was the right decision. The execution was just so poor.

Yeah, we never did. I really would love to know who did. Because his/her power play was the right thing at the time. The execution was definitely poor. But we know why that is. Since the beginning of soaps, when a producer/writer do not like something or someone, it definitely shows on-screen.

4 minutes ago, Khan said:

I suspect the poor execution was deliberate on Frank's part.

Very.

Yup. I think it was very deliberate by Frank and once JJ pushed back he became a "problem" that needed to be basically forced out. It's a real shame for the Lucky/Liz fanbase that waited so long for them to reunite.

Not even a problem (even though I'm sure Frank saw differently). An actor who knew his character's audience way too well. Even better than the producer. So can't have that. Not my first pick of Liz's single suitors at that time, but even I see the potential in them reuniting...or triangled out...or embarking on an adventure which them with Cyrus and the killings briefly gave them.

But...Frank's gotta Frank.

1 hour ago, Taoboi said:

Not even a problem (even though I'm sure Frank saw differently). An actor who knew his character's audience way too well. Even better than the producer. So can't have that. Not my first pick of Liz's single suitors at that time, but even I see the potential in them reuniting...or triangled out...or embarking on an adventure which them with Cyrus and the killings briefly gave them.

But...Frank's gotta Frank.

It's difficult because there was a lot of rehab that needed to go into Lucky's character for him to be viable for Liz. He was basically written as a deadbeat dad for a decade. I think it's a tough challenge for these writers to give any nuance to Lucky. He has Luke's wandering/restless streak, but Laura's heart and it doesn't seem like they could balance that well? That's not an excuse. It seems like a writing failure and Frank didn't care enough to change course for Lucky. I assume JJ wanted Lucky to have that redemption and it was half hearted at best and dropped for long periods at worst.

So Britt knew about this unknown twin? side-eye

39 minutes ago, carolineg said:

It's difficult because there was a lot of rehab that needed to go into Lucky's character for him to be viable for Liz. He was basically written as a deadbeat dad for a decade. I think it's a tough challenge for these writers to give any nuance to Lucky. He has Luke's wandering/restless streak, but Laura's heart and it doesn't seem like they could balance that well? That's not an excuse. It seems like a writing failure and Frank didn't care enough to change course for Lucky. I assume JJ wanted Lucky to have that redemption and it was half hearted at best and dropped for long periods at worst.

I totally agree. Just from reading here while Lucky was gone and then before JJ returned, I remember how much of a hard sell it would be for Lucky to come back because he needed to be redeemed for his decades long absence. And I hoped that with Aidan getting recast and a story, that would be part of said redemption. Otherwise, a Lucky/Liz reunion would be a hard sell even if the actors still had chemistry (which of course they did). It's also why he was not my personal first pick of her three also-single suitors who were back. Out of the 3, he had the most work to be done on him to make a reunion work.

Nuance? These writers? What's that? hehe. They definitely couldn't balance it. The weeks he was out of town with Sidwell and Isaiah could have been cut in half and they could have worked on that when he arrived in PC. Instead of him looking for any excuse to get out of town once he arrived in PC, Lucky could have been dealing with that internal struggle on screen. You are totally hitting it on the head for a great conflict for Lucky (Luke's spirt/Laura's heart). It's only a shame that some folks bts were bound and determined to not make it work cuz they wanted to keep with 'factory settings' for a character that the audience (and someone higher up) wanted back for ages.