9 hours ago, ReddFoxx said:

I spotted Demetria McKinney in that video (she plays Janine on Tyler Perry's House of Payne).

And almost a FT Housewife before Claudia Jordan snatched her peach on RHOA. hehe.

I liked Demetria.

12 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

speculation...what if Doug is alive AND that is Nicole's patient?

ooooh!!!

Knowing Nicole, she had probably arranged something sexy with some new doctor from the hospital.

In some weird way the show treats its main family like a sitcom family from the 80s.

BTG has so many great things going on. This episode felt like a classic soap opera. I am glad that the early black B&B/telenovela "camp" is gone, but it needs something new to make the show really great. A new EP? A new co-HW? Something.

1 hour ago, Sapounopera said:

BTG has so many great things going on. This episode felt like a classic soap opera. I am glad that the early black B&B/telenovela "camp" is gone, but it needs something new to make the show really great. A new EP? A new co-HW? Something.

I agree. I think the show is "almost here" to be great.

For me, pacing has often been the problem, and I stopped watching it daily because I found I could keep up watching only once or twice a week. While not perfect, I feel compelled to watch GH every day as the stories move faster with more "big beats" and twists in the middle of stories.

I feel like the show needs a couple of real shockers of twists to perk things up. Derek dying wasn't a big deal as the actor was already off contract and never really took off to begin with. Imagine if someone we actually cared about died. That would have shaken things up in a good way!

Hayley's plan to kill Bill stalled months ago with nothing really happening. The hospital story never pulled me in. I feel like Anita's cancer story was well-done and important, but it felt like it dominated the whole show for so long.

Deanna is a spitfire that the show needs full-time. She would need a dynamic love interest that I don't currently see in the cast.

Something big needs to happen with Hayley's plan. Dani and Andre need a good conflict. Nicole being all wishy-washy with men isn't doing it for me.

Dana/Leslie needs a new story point. Imagine the fallout if she had been ANITA'S DAUGHTER that she gave up to keep her singing career going. That could have had ramifications for years.

That being said, the past week pulled me back in. I just want the show to keep up the momentum!

I had a feeling Derek's fate was sealed when, after hardly seeing the character, all of a sudden, he was in the thick of a storyline that was destined to culminate in some sort of bloodshed.

In Season 1, I was thinking that Ben, Jen Jacobs and Alex Alegría should all go recurring but it appeared to me that, when paired with actors other than Jen, Ben seemed to have improved and was performing well. I actually thought he had forged way ahead of Alex, in terms of how much he had improved and his screen presence overall. Oh well. Good luck to Ben.

And yes, I glimpsed those closing credits when I watched last night. Sigh. Whether it's a retcon flashback, fantasy or a real time "reunion", I wish we could actually have room for total surprise, I guess those days are in the past?

1 hour ago, Sapounopera said:

BTG has so many great things going on. This episode felt like a classic soap opera. I am glad that the early black B&B/telenovela "camp" is gone, but it needs something new to make the show really great. A new EP? A new co-HW? Something.

I vote for switching in some writers. I really enjoyed the last 2-3 episodes but the fact remains that Anita's BRCA storyline has been the only storyline so far that has had a genuine story arc. The Hayley "Kill Bill" storyline is in a holding pattern and up until the last two days of the plasma ring story, it's been a mess and some characters who are supposed to be intelligent, consistently making decisions that defy logic. It would be great not to have to wait for the next big event or health crisis to get some satisfying storytelling. Since Season One, almost all of the least experienced actors have shown so much improvement. It's time to give everyone more complex stories. Interestingly enough, some ideas have already been seeded in the first season but, for whatever reason, haven't yet been pursued.

13 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Since Season One, almost all of the least experienced actors have shown so much improvement. It's time to give everyone more complex stories. Interestingly enough, some ideas have already been seeded in the first season but, for whatever reason, haven't yet been pursued.

I agree. It almost feels like the show has been in some sort of holding pattern for the past six months ago for some reason. Were they waiting to see if they got renewed?

14 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I had a feeling Derek's fate was sealed when, after hardly seeing the character, all of a sudden, he was in the thick of a storyline that was destined to culminate in some sort of bloodshed.

In Season 1, I was thinking that Ben, Jen Jacobs and Alex Alegría should all go recurring but it appeared to me that, when paired with actors other than Jen, Ben seemed to have improved and was performing well. I actually thought he had forged way ahead of Alex, in terms of how much he had improved and his screen presence overall. Oh well. Good luck to Ben.

And yes, I glimpsed those closing credits when I watched last night. Sigh. Whether it's a retcon flashback, fantasy or a real time "reunion", I wish we could actually have room for total surprise, I guess those days are in the past?

I vote for switching in some writers. I really enjoyed the last 2-3 episodes but the fact remains that Anita's BRCA storyline has been the only storyline so far that has had a genuine story arc. The Hayley "Kill Bill" storyline is in a holding pattern and up until the last two days of the plasma ring story, it's been a mess and some characters who are supposed to be intelligent, consistently making decisions that defy logic. It would be great not to have to wait for the next big event or health crisis to get some satisfying storytelling. Since Season One, almost all of the least experienced actors have shown so much improvement. It's time to give everyone more complex stories. Interestingly enough, some ideas have already been seeded in the first season but, for whatever reason, haven't yet been pursued.

What ideas do you think were seeded in the first season? Asking because I have a LOT of storyline ideas for this show haha. I agree with your thoughts — I love the show but it’s not going to be great unless SOMETHING changes. The storylines don’t seem to have many twists and turns like on classic soaps. Where’s the big storyline that encapsulates over two years of the show that keeps us glued to the screens? Leslie COULD have been a big bad villain like Sheila on Y&R/B&B but she’s gotten too cartoonish as she’s backed away from causing any real trouble (booking a bunch of wedding venues to spoil Chelsea’s wedding day is NOT what I call a “supervillain” move).

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Romalotti
Punctuation

3 minutes ago, Romalotti said:

Leslie COULD have been a big bad villain like Sheila on Y&R/B&B but she’s gotten too cartoonish as she’s backed away from causing any real trouble (booking a bunch of wedding venues to spoil Chelsea’s wedding day is NOT what I call a “supervillain” move.

I agree. I guess they had to tone down Leslie to not write her into a corner, but it left the show without a real good pot stirrer.

I'm curious on what the function of co-headwriter is on BTG. I ask because someone had posted an interview with Kay Alden in the Y&R board with Alden stating she and the other writers worked to implement the ideas of Bill Bell. I also know when Nancy Curlee was co headwriter on GL with Pam Long..they did a 50/50 split and would collab on ideas for one anothers 50/50 split.

To me, it seems as though the co-headwriter is responsible for pacing..but that's just a theory. It could explain partly the holding pattern some of us have mentioned. Since we've had the co-headwriter change over the last 6 to 7 months..and some of the stories have stalled.

I also wonder if the Hayley plot line has stalled because that had been run by the previous headwriter?

Lastly, I wonder if MVJ is hindered somewhat by all the hands in the pot? When looking at the first five episodes that were written by her, we saw tensions between Dani/Nicole, saw Vernon infantizing Dani, saw Anita look with a mix of jealousy/concern when Vernon coddled Dani, and the whole Dupree family mantra had a detrimental effect on Dani in week #1 because instead of her going to Paris to clear her head and not be around Bill/Hayley...Vernon had an edict that ALL Duprees had to be at the wedding.

Since then, the family has become all 'Dupree strong ' with little to no conflict. I want that 1st week element back for the Duprees.

Writers:
Sara A. Bibel
Skyy Sandifer

Director:
Anthony Pascarelli

42 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

Lastly, I wonder if MVJ is hindered somewhat by all the hands in the pot? When looking at the first five episodes that were written by her, we saw tensions between Dani/Nicole, saw Vernon infantizing Dani, saw Anita look with a mix of jealousy/concern when Vernon coddled Dani, and the whole Dupree family mantra had a detrimental effect on Dani in week #1 because instead of her going to Paris to clear her head and not be around Bill/Hayley...Vernon had an edict that ALL Duprees had to be at the wedding.

Since then, the family has become all 'Dupree strong ' with little to no conflict. I want that 1st week element back for the Duprees.

I forgot that element of conflict the first week in Vernon and his "babying" of Dani and her conflict with Anita. There was also more conflict between Nicole and Dani. Since then, the Duprees have become the "perfect" family with no one causing trouble within the family. They need a new person to come in and be messy!

4 hours ago, Taoboi said:

But going back to speculation...what if Doug is alive AND that is Nicole's patient?

I'm sorta speculating the same thing.

When Nicole hauled her (beautiful) ass out of that debutante ball in such a hurry, it was obviously a Big Important Plot Point. At FIRST, I thought it had something to do with LYNETTE, as we'd just seen Big Bill interrogating Hayley about her past in Philadelphia.

But after seeing Wednesday's closing credits, it seems Nicole knows more about an "earlier disappearance" than we'd thought. That particular gentleman had previously consulted with Nicole about his addiction issues, as we already know -- and she made a BIG POINT of reminding Vanessa after the funeral that she couldn't disclose anything she & Doug had ever discussed about addictions.