DisneyBoy

Yeah the gender-bending probably wouldn't have flown comma even in the 80s. I could only imagine the outrage if a film like this was released today nevermind with a gender-swapping lead character!

I caught the very end today and was stunned to see Deimos just being carted off after so many days of filler. That was sure fast! And why exactly does sonny get to be all smug about catching him? I guess I'll have to watch it and find out, but I'm not looking forward to it... Yup.

Yeah, I saw that video but this was something different. This is an older guy doing an audition for an Elvis impersonator. There's no way the gentleman that was auditioning in this video was auditioning to play EJ.

This audition scene makes it sound like the characters are taking a Halloween trip to Memphis to shake down an Elvis impersonator for info on a Dr who may have brought Stefano back to life. ... leaving me to wonder when the characters started thinking he was dead again since at the moment he is supposed to be alive.

I just skimmed through Monday's episode and could not believe the venom casually spewing from Nicole's lips. I really hope Arianne appreciates having the writers deify her boyfriend because it has completely killed the character for me. I used to enjoy Nicole and her sassiness and looked forward to someday seeing her reunite with Eric. Now she can just shut up and go away. In a strange roundabout way I almost feel like this is being done to prop Jennifer Horton as Eric's new one true love. I know Nicole and Jennifer have always hated each other. Was this done to tilt the odds in Harpy's favor? It used to be one Daniel reference a week and now we're up to three per episode. I wonder what the behind-the-scenes chatter is like at the show when a character that's been so insignificant in the show's 50-year history is getting brought up every five seconds in the scripts. Do they laugh? Do they secretly hate on Shawn as we sometimes do? Liked seeing Claire hug and get protective over Ciara for a change.

I'd just say rude. No, I don't read fanfiction and no, we don't have anything to say to one another.

We got to see Paulson kiss? Again? That's like, twice in two weeks... Hmmm....could it be that Ron reshot scenes to show them being more intimate? I have a hard time believing Dena would suddenly care...

Bummer. I was hoping after Nicole went back for Eric that she would calm down and appreciate what he had done for her. I'm surprised VJ wasn't able to cry. She's normally good for that at least

Bummer. I was hoping after Nicole went back for Eric that she would calm down and appreciate what he had done for her. I'm surprised VJ wasn't able to cry. She's normally good for that at least

I missed the Doug and Carol days, but I can tell you I was massively annoyed when Shane was abruptly written off the series and his character Ray left as a dangling carrot for Neela, her OTL to eventually reunite with by the end of the show. What annoyed me so much was that we were just at the beginning of seeing them potentially become a couple. They had not dated for several years and then broken up tragically - they had simply been roommates who discovered they were attracted to one another. That's all. If we had seen them date I would have been fine with them reuniting at the end of the show but Neela never actually dated Ray nor would it have made sense for her to move to some other state to be with him out of the blue. I guess I'm just pissed off that because the series lost Shane we were robbed of seeing that second chapter of the story - the middle. The middle is important! So while I was happy to see him come back in the final season I felt like they had fast-forwarded through the whole part where they learned how to be a couple together and instead just made him into this magical Prince Charming would fix all of Neela's problems. I don't know if it's UO but I will say it anyways - the show really mutated Neela into some leading lady that she was never meant to be. I know the writing in the final seasons left a little to be desired but I preferred Neela as a kind of dorky ambitious med student trying to figure out her life. With Gallant, even though that storyline was rushed because they only had him available for certain episodes, I at least felt like I was seeing the same girl who Abby had become friends with. By the last two seasons of the show, somehow all of these men were chasing after Neela like she was some babe and she was acting stern and unlikable. Just because they give a character more screen time doesn't mean they need to turn her into a generic "who's my boyfriend now?" leading lady. I wish we'd kept some of the dorky Neela. Did people like her character much in the last seasons of the show? I guess I can also count myself among the camp of people who found Abby a little grating near the end. She also seemed to mutate a tiny bit into some super desirable LL. I still remember how Lucian asked Abby to sleep with him before a surgery that could make him impotent. And then there was her boozy affair with Stanley Tucci's poorly conceived character. Weird.

June 2 - Victor gets his brain back for the first time in months and Jade illegally tapes Claire and Theo in bed, becoming worse than we thought possible. Fixed that.

Interesting to hear the perspective of someone who was there at the time. I only started reading some of the post-crisis Jason's issues in the last few years, and I actually found him to be really refreshing as Robin. I like that he had his own mind and challenged Batman and was passionate enough to be impulsive rather than some perky subordinate. I guess this goes more into a discussion of the comics than this thread would allow, but the stand-alone issue where Jason encounters a serial rapist who is the son of a delegate and therefore immune from prosecution and decides to take matters into his own hands is really chilling and compelling. I think it would have been a much more satisfying storyline if they had actually fleshed-out that idea over the course of another two years worth of issues and had Batman and Robin kind of be at odds, with Batman wondering how to reign-in Jason's impulses to take matters into his own hands. Instead, it seems like they just wrote Jason off within the next year and heavily publicized it to give people a chance to knee-jerk react to this new take on the character. If they'd had confidence in their idea of a dangerous Robin on the brink of total vigilantism while still wanting to do good, they could have built up the stakes higher before offering people the chance to decide if he should die. I think it speaks volumes that they eventually did bring him back as the Red Hood even though they swore up and down they never would. Jason had character. I'm glad he wasn't part of the DC Animated Universe because he only would have made it dark and soap opera-esque, but he's a character I still would like to spend more time with. A shame the comic books kind of went crazy the last few years. I also completely understand that DC needed to listen to the fans after shaking everything up so drastically with the Crisis. Maybe keeping Jason Todd around for too long would have hurt sales, but it's interesting how valuable a character he's become to the overall mythology of Batman by virtue of the fact that he didn't tow the line the way Dick Grayson did. But back to the discussion of the movies! I love Burton's everything. He got so much of it right it's easy to overlook the few missteps. Yes, I wish Gordon had had a young daughter who was a redhead and that he had more of a relationship with Batman, but thankfully the Animated Series made up for that. Batman Returns is just brilliant in my mind and I love it more and more with every passing year. Talk about differentiating from the comics but somehow getting it all right in spite of the differences. Don't get too hung up on the cats in the alley - as far as I'm concerned it was the awnings that slowed Selina's descent and saved her life. Burton's Penguin is a grotesque thing of beauty and probably one of my favorite if not the favorite character he ever created. It all makes so much more sense to me then the preppy polished guy who happens to waddle and loves umbrellas. I completely agree that he makes me uncomfortable and I can understand why other people can't stand him, but Danny DeVito's performance is brilliant and heartbreaking and campy and creepy and does as much for the movie as anything else. Michelle Pfeiffer is obviously the scene stealer, but I don't think the Penguin has ever been as interesting a person as he was in that film. The fact that they conceived of him as Max Shreck's brother at one point just put everything into perspective. He's basically an alternate version of Bruce Wayne, but I just love the way the characters each reflect aspects of each other and how they're all the victims of misfortune and corruption. You can tell they thought through everything very carefully and I really appreciate and respect that. Since we are also discussing animated films, I'm curious to know people's thoughts on Return of the Joker. I remember thinking it would be a bomb when it was first being discussed - I even remember the first rumor being that something would cause the Joker to physically crawl out of his grave like a zombie - but it now stands as one of the most daring films Warner Brothers put out with Batman in the title. I found the flashback sequence very hard to watch and a little difficult to reconcile with the more subtle tone of the Animated Series... but it is smartly written. I never completely loved Batman Beyond as a series but I really enjoy the production design in the movie, which is filled with great colors and set pieces. The new Jokerz are memorable, but the overall story structure of the film...leaves me... dissatisfied? I guess I'm still uncertain about it. My favorite of the animated Batman films is still Sub-Zero, which has a straightforward story, yes, but takes its time establishing the characters and making you care about their relationships (Dick & Babs anyone?) You don't feel like you jumped into the middle of a story and all the producers want is to excite you with explosions. They set it all up for you nicely. I found the film moving and gorgeously animated. Great score too. It's a shame it often gets overlooked in favor of more high-octane Batman movies. I gave up on the Nolan films after The Dark Knight. Way too serious and self-important. Jack Nicholson is and forever more will be the Joker. If I could somehow combine Jack and Mark Hamill into one Joker, that would be the ideal package for me. I love Michael Keaton and Kevin Conroy equally, which is kind of amazing considering I'm usually an either-or person. I can't just choose one over the other this time.

Ok, so technically this was a TV miniseries, but it's essentially a movie one can buy on DVD now and will forever more be regarded as such....so...let's discuss it here! I've always enjoyed Arthurian lore and this reimagining from the wizard's perspective really wowed me back in the day. Still does. Great cast, great score and wonderful stripped-down-yet-still-eye-catching production design. The effects work fine and I really like the Lady of the Lake/Queen Mab dynamic. Martin Short's Frik is fun too. Probably the only weak spot is the aging makeup for Arthur, who looks a bit too young throughout. Of course, I guess he's supposed to have died around the age of 35 right? Perhaps an actor with a different face/physique could have sold his 16-35 years old transition better. In short, this is not my favorite take on Arthur, but it works well enough for the story. He's supposed to be a bit out of his depths and his not-quite-leading man quality makes him stand out from the more manly macho types around him. Did you know the great actor who plays Mordred was an 11th hour recast well into filming? You'd never guess...

Nope. A writer's job is to find a way to justify things when thrown a curveball so that the story can move forward. When Linda Dano took a leave from Another World to get a facelift, the writers could have simply ignored the fact that she suddenly looked younger or they could have written it into the show...and that's exactly what they did. Her character fell through a skylight, was scarred and then had surgery. It would certainly have been easier for Felicia to just leave Bay City and come back saying she felt refreshed but that would be ignoring the elephant in the room. As I said a few months ago, when Alison Sweeney we leaving the show due to maternity leave, they concocted the whole story where Sami disguises herself as Stan to allow them to keep the character on the canvas and simply hire another actor to play her. Having an actor suddenly become unavailable is a problem but Days Of Our Lives films six months in advance. When they were airing John's final fight with Orpheus back in November, was it, Drake was already back on set. Meaning, before that episode aired they could have filmed a scene of John recuperating in the hospital after freeing Marlena from her burning coffin and then inserted it into the episode to give it better closure. Heck, they could have even shown him getting the call that his mother was ill and flying out to see her before the holidays. Instead all we got was Steve and John breaking down the door and John running off camera apparently into a black hole because he simply vanished. They had so much lead time to work with that by the time Drake was back on the show they could have figured out how to retroactively add him into the storylines he was otherwise conspicuously absent from, like the Prague/Stefano debacle. Instead, all we got were some vague comments from Marlena about how John is looking after the mother he barely knows and then how he's on some mission. And then when he finally does return Marlena has to mention it to him in passing that she almost got kidnapped by Stefano again and all he says is "well of course you didn't - atta girl!" Sorry, but I will NOT cut them slack for being so damn lazy with their male lead when they had every opportunity to have this make sense. They just don't plan ahead. Bo didn't have to be an absentee father for years if they had just figured out a way to have him off camera for a long time. They also didn't have to give Caroline a miracle cure for Alzheimer's, especially since they knew she wasn't getting any younger and the character would need to have to be written out within a span of a few years anyways. I get that the actress didn't want to have to play that storyline, but they could have downplayed it. People live with Alzheimer's for a very long time. They could have had Caroline on some magical drug concoction that slows her decline. Instead they invented a drug that not only cures Alzheimer's but gives people mystical visions?! That's ridiculous. I realize this is a crap show at this point but I will not excuse the laziness of the last few months with regards to John's absence, which is the type of thing executive producers should be able to roll with.

Eric Marstoff did a better job today of seeming fatally ill. The makeup helped too. I found John's return a little anti-climactic. We've heard him say these things before about how he's going to start putting his family first and how nothing else matters etc etc. When Dena did that for the 50th anniversary I was curious to see what she would transition John into if he wasn't going to be Mr. Super Spy anymore. Instead he's been up to the same old things with the ISA and I'm not going to fall for it again. I'll believe he legitimately retired once we've gone three months without him acting like James Bond. (And yes I know Drake wasn't available for filming but a better storyline could have been concocted. I'll try to make this the last time I beat that dead horse.) Whoever said Tripp looks really nice when he smiles was right...but then I think everyone on this show looks better when they smile and yet the writers refused to allow them to do it very often. I'm glad Nicole went back for Eric but I could have used an additional scene of her talking to herself in town about how badly she treated him and how she has to try and make it right for Brady if for no one else. Instead it just seemed like she was on the plane making a generic facial expression and then running up to a random police officer like a 12 year old girl who lost her puppy two minutes later. It was weird. Where exactly was the plane? I assumed it was hidden away on Xander's island, but if it's on the mainland both Nicole and Eric would have had to take boat rides to get to and from the island. If that is supposed to be the case it would drastically impact Nicole's decision to go back for Eric... These writers really aren't good at milking the drama properly are they? At least not when it comes to Nicole. I finally cracked and started laughing at Joey's terrible acting during the dream scene with Jade. That is how you deliver a line when your character has apparently just lost his mother? Okay then :) All in all I really wanted more time with the Xander storyline. I missed some of today's show but the spoilers said that Eric and Xander would rehash their history together. Did we get that or did we get any flashbacks or were those scenes cut?

She and Joey are on their way out, I believe.

They've been known to use old scripts to cast new characters. I'm hoping that's what they've done here. It would be a big mistake for them to try and recast EJ. I really think James coming back for a short stint and getting killed off more appropriately (as in not by some random character) would be more fulfilling in the long run. Plus his biggest relationships in the show were with Sami, Will, Stefano, Kristen and Nicole, none of whom are on the canvas anymore or will be by the time he hypothetically gets back. Honestly I just find EJ tired. His character was basically circling the drain those last 6 months. Was he a good guy or a bad guy? The show never really figured it out but at least I think in the end everyone was able to pick the side they thought made the most sense. Those who believed he was Sami's perfect soulmate got to have their cake and eat it too when they made up. Those of us who felt he was slime got to see him engage in nasty criminal activity and get shot for it after cheating with Abigail and having his ass handed to him by Kate and Sami. Everybody won! We even got to finally see him with his mother, the delightful Susan Banks Crumb. What more is there to say? If they do want to bring him back I hope they wait for Eileen Davidson to be available for that storyline. I kind of hope the show moves away from the way they've used the Dimera's these last two decades. It really is time for the show to shift and grow a little bit. Once we start exploring Chad as a possible bad guy there will be nowhere left to go. Andre is serving no purpose and is a completely useless character at the moment. Unless Peter were to return or Celeste I just don't see the point in trying to keep up this illusion that the Dimera's are the worst people in town anymore or the most powerful. Brianna doesn't exactly look like Hope but there is a vague sort of similarity about her. Mostly I just hope they go back to the sweet but spoiled princess take on the character that I found so delightful right up until the 50th. I would really appreciate a capable actress over one who just looks the part. As for Sonny, I hope he and Will have an amicable parting of the ways and that he goes off to cleanse himself of the messy three-way relationship he found himself in the middle of these last few years.

Ding! Ding! Ding! I completely agree. I fanwank that Nicole paints Tan as perfect to allow herself to feel better about not pursuing things with Eric. I think she might have felt it was too complex with Eric and Dan was an easier choice.

You are not the only one with those opinions! I totally thought Lana and Lex worked better as a couple and that I actually saw some spark in her character when she was with him. I think everybody has a relationship like that at some point in their life when they get together with someone they know they shouldn't be with and that just makes it all the more exciting. I definitely saw some of that going on with Lana and Lex. Chloe and Clark will always be the true romance of the show for me. Even in season 8 when the producers had far moved past Chloe and Clark as a potential couple, they still couldn't resist dropping hints and playing up the possibility of them eventually getting together because they knew it had inadvertently become the backbone of the series. Out of all of the romances they tried to plot out for Clark, the only one that felt subtle and natural and earned was his relationship with Chloe. As you perfectly said, everyone else was with Clark because they were "supposed" to be with Clark...not because it felt organic to the show. I would have much preferred it if Smallville's version of Lois ended up becoming Cat Grant and staying with Oliver Queen. Those two had terriffic chemistry. (Lord Almighty, Smallville should just be retitled Wasted Opportunities)

I know, right? But is it really any better if they resurrect him and then have him disappear in the span of a month and a half? He could end up spending almost all of his screen time dealing with the Sonny/Paul bullshit. I really thought they were smart enough to bring him back as a full-time character... Nobody wants to watch the Lani, Eli, Tripp, Claire and Theo show, no matter how much more affordable they are...

I just started watching this - albeit a really cruddy lo-res high-pitched YT version - and I'm loving it much more than the movie. Travolta traumatized me so seeing Harvey is delightful. Surprised I'm not loving Cheno yet though...she's doing her usual thing and its...okay. Edit: So, I finally finished watching the whole thing and I definitely enjoyed it more than the movie. It felt really short though. Did it cover the full two acts of the Broadway version? Maybe I was enjoying it so much it just flew by but it definitely seemed shorter than two hours. I do agree that the guy who played Linc didn't really have any chemistry with the gal playing Tracy, and that becomes more and more apparent as the show goes on, but I felt like they were having so much fun it didn't really bother me. I definitely wish Cheno had had more of an opportunity to play the villainess. I don't remember her character in the movie being invited to join in the final chorus of You Can't Stop the Beat. Did that also happen in the original stage show? As someone else said upthread, I have also never had much to say about Jennifer Hudson. To me, there will only be one Effie and that is Jennifer Holliday. All others come a distant second, so the hysteria over Hudson's performance in the movie felt a little artificial to me. She did a good enough job but I didn't love it. Course I didn't love the movie either. I was really pleasantly surprised by her take on I Know Where I've Been here, to the point where I found myself questioning how much of it was actually live and how much of it was achieved via technical wizardry. I have never heard her sing that well. I have trouble believing it was completely live. I do, however, feel that her weight - or rather her weight loss - was a bit of an issue. That whole first number was about being a plus size woman and she clearly wasn't. I won't begrudge her her health obviously but they probably should have padded her out a little bit. Harvey Fierstein gave me the feels in that last number and I'm so, so glad he was part of this production. All of the cameos were bang-on too... Except for Rosie O'Donnell. When she showed up I assumed she was playing a lesbian gym teacher, but then she made that weird comment encouraging the boys to take a shower so she could watch and I was like ....!?! Ariana Grande wearing her traditional outfit in the finale didn't stick out as much as I thought it would. Maybe I was just willing to overlook it cuz I was having so much fun. In the movie, didn't they give more closure to the kooky father's ambitions of having a successful gag shop? I also feel like Edna gets to show off that she designed her own gown in the finale in the movie and that helps kickstart her career as a designer. In this live production I didn't get that from either and I'm not sure why. Did I miss some dialogue?

I'm sorry but if Tripp can't see that the girl who just got free room and board AND tuition is being petty, he's an idiot. Also, after hearing that recap of Ava's crimes, who wouldn't understand why someone finally killed her?

Um....?

More spoilers So Deimos survives the trip to Greece? When will the sucker die!? Glad Hope at least is around on Friday to see Ciara off... Hmmmm.... considering the way the Ciara/Claire rivalry was just starting to amp up last week with the scenes with Victor, do you think maybe Ron took a look at the crap that was to follow and decided to cut it out of the show completely by filming a new farewell scene that he could insert ASAP? I somehow doubt Ciara was going to be deeply involved in Hope's other plotline with Deimos because so many of the teen scenes have just involved the teens dealing with each other. Maybe that made it easier to cut the last month of Dena's damaging Theo/Ciara/Claire crap out so that Ciara could leave the show faster. That would probably involve shooting a few new Claire/Theo scenes to cover for her exit, but I guess what will really be the proof of whether or not this was an 11th hour change will be if Claire/Theo subsequently vanish into the background for a while because all of their previous material involving Ciara and Claire would be rendered unusable.

Not a bad idea, Kitty... but it is kind of stupid how Dena keeps making the heart somehow capable of completely changing someone's personality or affecting who they are attracted to. It's like she's an 8 year old girl who doesn't understand that the heart simply pumps blood throughout the body. I can't believe it's going to take another week for Nicole to realize her petty gripes don't matter and that she needs to work with Eric. Let's start placing bets on who actually kills Deimos off. I'm going to guess that it's Xander. I don't know how long the actor is staying on the show, but I'm willing to bet the producers don't want to have another main character be guilty of murder even against a villain like Deimos. The show will probably try to make it look like Sonny is responsible since they are going out of their way to show him becoming more "mean" (ha!) and carrying a gun around and telling everybody how much she wants Titan. Gabi will probably also be implicated in the investigation as well as Eric since they are both ex-felons and murderers. Xander just makes the most sense since I don't think he's staying on permanently, and Dena went with the most obvious choice last time she played this game (Ben). Personally I would love for it to be Victor but I don't see that happening considering how softly he's been written the last few years. Your thoughts?