DisneyBoy

Kristen did. He's "mind-bendingly virile" remember? Wait - is that different from macho? Whatever. She knew he was allll that! And Brady also beat up Eric and John over her.

Consider yourself lucky to have missed Mansi's take on the character. She started out alright but then just became insufferable and entitled and super super smug. See, that's kind of where I thought the character would be now. I mean she hasn't exactly been stable this past year. Wouldn't an ordinary person take stock of that and ask themselves if they are a darker person than they thought they were? Abigail played an active role in all of the terrible stuff that happened to her. Yes, she was victimized by Ben to a large degree, but she also made really drastic choices and lost control of her life to the point where she had to run away after setting a building on fire. A building with sick, vulnerable people in it. I absolutely do not get that from current Abigail. The writing is all "she was traumatized and now she's just trying to hold on to her marriage!" It sweeps under the rug so many of Abigail's character traits that it's hard to get invested in what's happening right now. And what's sad is the writers would be having so much more fun if they built on the reality that Abigail might be kind of dangerous or not yet fully healed from her traumas. Think of all the different ways they can play that! They could have even had Chad admitting to Gabby that he'd had some doubts about his deceased wife's mental state before her "death"...while still-alive Abigail was listening in! That would have been so much fun. But no, let's make this new version of Abigail meek so the audience won't hate her as much as they did the previous version. The worst I can see Miller doing is having a crying fit and passing out on the floor. Kate Mansi's Abigail? Who knows! The girl slapped Sami Brady after sleeping with her husband! I'm just telling myself the new Abigail is heavily sedated. I think she said a while back that she was on meds now on a regular basis, not that the show ever references it.

I'm glad I'm not alone. Billy felt like an extension of the character though. It helps that the writing was decent, and made him a bit bitter and a bit mysterious after being off the canvas for so long and in the aftermath of taking a bullet for his brother only to end up having his brother betray him. I believed when Chad came back that he would want to be more of a businessman, take his life seriously and in some way outshine EJ. Besides, once we knew Stefano had a new young son, it was only a matter of time before he moved into the family business. Billy Flynn works best when Chad is a businessman. I really can't picture his version of the character being anything other than that, whether a model or a grocer. In this case however, I would have expected Abigai regardless of who was playing her, to return either being someone much more self-aware or someone much more emotionally messed up. Marci got to play the messed up part a bit at the beginning but she played it as fragile which wasn't an interesting contrast to who Marci seems to be. I think of Kate Mansi as a bit Alpha and driven and maybe even a bit mean, without knowing her personally of course. Marci reads as soft and easygoing. I could picture her sitting next to a faun in the middle of a forest, smiling peacefully. To see her Abigail broken-down in the fall might have picked up where the narrative last off months earlier, but it doesn't feel right. She didn't seem healed after all of those months with her grandmother nor did she seem driven to get back with Chad and her son. If anything she kind of seemed beaten. Am I making sense? Basically Billy Flynn stepped in to play that the type of Chad I think made sense at that time in the show. This Abigail seems like we skipped a step somewhere. That maybe she should have been the next recast after the current one. I can't think about this anymore. It's making me even more bitter, LOL. I do agree that it can be difficult with recasts though. I remember when Robin Christopher took over for Alicia Coppola as a Lorna on Another World. That one was tricky even though both were great actresses. Coppola was fierce and intimidating and angry and driven with a deep well of emotion behind her steely exterior. Christopher had a very different look and seemed much more in touch with her emotions and much more personable even though she was still thorny. It took a while to adjust to the idea that this redhead had the same history as the raven-haired woman we had gotten to know but I think Christopher did a good job building a bridge between those two interpretations. Again I think Miller is doing wonderful work but I'm just left wishing the show would have forced her to play up the bitch a little bit more in her Abigail so I could still feel like this was old Abigail in the process of dealing with her mistakes and her fears.

If they're smart, they'll skip the EJ stuff and focus on Will. This is great news! Hope Eric is still around by then...

Do not let that movie ruin anything for you. Maleficent was a mess and a vanity project and a cash grab. Sleeping Beauty is a masterpiece. Love it and forget everything about the Angelina Jolie.

At this point, a year ago... Edit: Apparently they will be filming an Eric lookalike in the first shooting day following Nicole's departure... A new casting call has went out for an Eric Look-Alike to tape on Friday, April 28 ... Ari Zucker's contract ends April 27, so this would be the first tape day after that.

I have no clue what either of them are even studying...

Yipes. Yeah no. Sorry cuz! See? These were the comments I knew were coming down the pike after the initial buzz and hype died down. Nothing against people who like this movie but why is it folks always swear something is great even when there are plainly visible problems? I could see from the trailer that he probably wasnt a great choice... Sorry. I'm just so annoyed that word of mouth is so unreliable these days.

Waitaminute - Sherri Anderson's husband from ER...Harvey Bullock from Gotham...is a sex symbol? ...okie dolk. Learn something new every day!

Jane Krakowski killed it in a Chorus Line inspired audition on the last season of Ally McBeal...in probably the only good episode from that season. And I can't find a link.

Still a cop-out, if you ask me. Reminds me of Luke and Lorelai standing beneath the chuppah on Gilmore Girls, but never actually, you know, getting to marry under it. No payoff.

I'm posting this in the Bitterness Thread because I'm really frustrated about the situation with Abigail. The recasting of the character was absolutely the right move - Kate Mansi was smug and entitled and not a very good actress and I couldn't bear to watch her for one more minute - but Marci Miller is so different that I almost feel like we're being robbed of the Real Abigail. Which makes me kind of crazy because I didn't even like the real Abigail. Maybe it was the way they wrote Mansi out. We got to see her go crazy, which was frankly the most fun I had with the character in years, but then the way she left made it clear she was really unhealthy. Now we have Miller back as the character and she did fairly good job of playing fragile and emotionally unstable or mentally unstable last fall, but it just doesn't seem like her character has done the work to get healthy again. It just kind of felt like she hoped no one would hurt her feelings if she came back to Chad and picked up where they left off even though they never really left off anywhere because by the time they were getting married original Abigail was already losing it. I don't believe for a second that Marci Miller's Abigail climbed Mount EJ (as you all so vividly like to put it) and I don't believe that she drugged Austin and I don't believe that she ever dated Ben for a hot second. It's like the entire character's history no longer applies to this new version even though I know they're trying to make this version pick up where the last one left off. I like this new Abigail and I sympathize with her and that's really frustrating. Her having to walk away from her marriage because Chad seems more interested in Gabi should be a wonderful victory for us the viewers after years of watching Abigail always win in every situation regardless of how badly she acted. It doesn't feel that way. I, like some the rest of you, would be thrilled to see Kate Mansi's Abigail have to realize she isn't the hottest person in the room and her husband wants to stray. I would also like to see her broken down after having made terrible decisions like lying to Ben and inadvertently being responsible for his murders (in a way) and kidnapping Thomas and trying to run and setting the mental hospital on fire and faking her death, etc. Kate Mansi as Abigail pulled a lot of shit and I don't feel like she's been called out on it. ...but at the same time I almost don't want this new Abigail called out on it because she's a nicer person. But I do want her called out on it! Do you see what I'm getting at here? I feel like we never got to see Abigail get the comeuppance she so richly deserved but now this storyline is kind of giving us that but with a completely different person that we don't have any reason to hate. And it would have been even better with Kate Mansi because she actually seemed to have chemistry with Billy Flynn. And I used to feel badly for his Chad because it was clear Abigail was ruling the relationship and was so unstable you wouldn't ever want to contradict her. With Miller I feel like Chad has a much weaker wife who's more sensitive and easy going so he's free to walk away and that sort of makes Chad look like a bit more of an ass. So now I like Chad less! Marci Miller would have been a great person to play Abigail let's say in the beginning of the Ben storyline. I think she would have been able to sell us on the idea that Abigail actually saw something really wonderful in Ben and on some level couldn't help but gravitate back to Chad and then lie about it. I might have been able to sympathize with Abigail even because I think Marci Miller would have been able to make her sympathetic. And if they had Miller for the whole Necktie Killer business then we might not have had the Abigail goes nuts storyline that followed to write out Mansi. So hypothetically we wouldn't even be in the situation we are in now. I guess I'm just really frustrated and bitter that the thing I thought I always wanted - a better actress playing the part and the writers making adjustments after so many years of Abigail being an unlikable trollop - can't be enjoyed because Kate Mansi's time with the character has so set her course. I want to see Abigail go through months of intensive therapy and browbeat herself for being so self-centered and such a two-timer but I don't want to see Marci Miller do that. So I'm just bitter. Is anybody else in the same boat?

Shouldn't they be keeping a LOW profile and wearing disguises if and when they go out?? Everyone seems to know they're fugitives in Canada...the RCMP would be cooperating with the US in a search. When a kid's life is at stake - and who is to say Nicole, as far as they know, wouldn't kill the kid? - they pull out all the stops. There would be no dinners with neighbors and "building a life" in this situation. And Brady is a well-known businessman from years of working at Titan. This is all so contrived.

Birds of a feather...

Oh yes. Not immediately after, mind you, but still waaaay too soon. And they played it up as this heroic moment for Clark to finally be taking action against the villain of the season, General Zod...but the thing was Zod started building those freaking towers like nine episodes earlier and Clark for no reason just waited until they were fully built and probably inhabited to blow them the f up. Whoa, whoa, whoa - I love Under Your Spell. And treacle is delicious. And thank God I'll Never Tell is wonderful. The Spike song I hardly remember. It's Rest In Peace isn't it? Yeah, I could live without that one.

Anyone else watch and enjoy Canada's Road to Avonlea?

If Blanche survived, I'd be very surprised. She was dehydrated, beaten, barely able to move and left out in the sun on a hot day, dressed in black.

Yeah, if Will comes back I'd definitely rather he not want Sonny anymore. Their connections to Paul are too squicky (is that a word?). Let them both move on. I wish the show had filmed a flashback arc of PaulSon back when they were first a thing and Paul was an athlete. Like maybe them at a baseball stadium or them avoiding being seen by his mother or something (if they can do it for Chad and Gabi....). I think we got one scene of them in bed but it felt perfunctory. I just never believed these two had real history. Paul is an okay character but every part of his history retcons someone else's (Sonny and John).

Preach. But as much as I enjoyed Marlena putting Victor in his place (and honestly I still didn't find that scene especially well written but hey - I'll take my kicks where I can) it shouldn't have even been necessary. I don't see why Victor would hate on Eric so much. Especially after all this time. If this was still 2016 I would have no problem with a scene of Victor ripping into Eric for jeopardizing Brady's life and inadvertently killing Daniel but this is a whole year later and Victor hasn't so much as said one word about Eric since the accident. It feels contrived. Does anybody else feel like we're picking up all of the story beats that were being developed a year ago? Maybe that's because of the Dena Factor but it's getting really weird. Eric is being judged harshly for the accident that should by this point be in the distant past...Joe is finally having to address murdering Ava...Abby and Chad's marriage is falling apart just as they are taking vows... I'm not saying I like the new threads any better but these feel like they should have been dealt with already. I started to get that same feeling I used to get during the Father Eric scenes from a few years back, where his self-sacrificing humility and obsession with doing good made me annoyed. It's like the show doesn't know how to write him except as this weird good guy robot. And having Marlena there basically giving him a therapy session because she's so concerned about his emotional welfare just makes it all worse. I had to side with Victor a bit when he pointed out how Mommy was trying to protect her poor baby boy. Eric shouldn't need defending like this. When Eric came back with the edgy haircut and the slightly new attitude I thought we might get something more out of GV this time around. But it really seems like the producers are determined to keep him in this little box. The man is at least 40 years old! He's had a love life, he's had ups and downs, he's dealt with addiction, he's been to jail, he's been a priest, he's been raped, etc, etc, etc - can we please stop writing him like he's some alien that just came down to earth to make the world a better place? I feel like Eric barely registers as human. At this point I don't even know if the guy uses the bathroom or watches TV. I'm sure the actor can give us something more natural than what he's giving us, but the writing probably is pushing him back in that same direction that made Father Eric kind of insufferable and artificial. I wonder if this Eric and Nicole business is going to go anywhere satisfying or if all it will amount to is her begrudgingly forgiving him. Tripp is fine. Like him. Retcon his parentage and he's viable. ...does anyone else really miss Theresa and JL's snarky, refreshing deliveries? The show barely has a pulse anymore.

...why? Because Theo liked Ciara first (which never seemed to bother Claire last year)? Because Ciara regularly gets more sympathy from everyone in town (with good reason)? What exactly does Claire envy about Ciara? Claire's got the better life by far... This storyline stinks.

So many episodes of the 5th season of Ally McBeal come to mind right now: the one with the vibrating massage chair that gives women orgasms... the one where Ally finds out she has a long lost daughter... but I'm really going to have to say the hundredth episode of the series, which featured a man who was ill and building himself fake bird wings so he could fly off the roof of his cottage across a lake, was the last straw. And this was supposed to be really beautiful and magical and emotional and serious...but when the man actually jumped off his roof and started flying over the lake in what I imagined was a very expensive shot to pull off, all I could do was sit there agape at how monumentally stupid the whole thing was. The visual itself was hilarious and dumb but then on top of that he, of course, ended up dying as soon as he accomplished his task, forcing Calista Flockhart to reenact her shrieking over the body of a dying loved one schtick from the episode where Billy died in season 3, which was one of the most emotional episodes of the entire series. So in addition to being a completely stupid and cheesy stunt, I felt like they diminished one of the best moments acting-wise in the entire series by having Ally repeat it with a virtual stranger. And on top of that, the whole trying to fly idea had been done I think in the first season, with an old man who was trying to escape from prison by making a trampoline out of small elastic bands. What can I say? I really cared about this show. The 100th episode just felt like a mocking parody. Of course they also did a thinly-veiled tribute to 9/11 episode way too soon in which a town lost a bunch of firefighters and wanted to hold a parade to honor them at Christmas time, except the city officials thought it would be too morbid or something. The episode also featured the return of Josh Groban's character Malcolm, who we suddenly learned had a pastor for a father (even though the previous season he had been singing for a choir with a completely different pastor) and who also apparently had a mother who got murdered. The collision of those two plots was super heavy-handed and schmaltzy. That fifth season was such torture. On another note, Justice League Unlimited did an entire episode in its last season where a bunch of heroes participated in a parade only to then require the help of a random young boy who operated a construction crane to save the day. It was so stupid, like the Power Rangers movie or something. I really hate it when shows make it seem like random kids can work all sorts of technology and save the day and "be heroes too!" Tacky and corny. JLU was supposed to be a better show than that. Oh wait - Smallville! Smallville always wins in the WTH category. How about the season 9 episode where Clark blows up twin towers in the middle of Metropolis with his heat vision? Or the season eight 8 episode where Lana burns off her skin to have synthetic skin that will give her superpowers? Or the following episode where she becomes a kryptonite-powered martyr, and pulls a floating Jesus move? That show...

Just you.

If Dena goes there? Wow. I can't imagine what the reaction would be but...I know I would be livid. Why revisit that total bomb of a storyline that was in such exceptionally bad taste? Did she or Ryan write the rape?

Were the Theo/Claire scenes today any good? Or was there zero chemistry? ( I think they might be this year's Belle and Phillip)

I wonder if the Brangelina/Jennifer Aniston triangle will be fodder for a good season of this show. Obviously it's way too soon for that to ever happen, but I feel like it's the only modern day version of the tragic romance that really captured the world's attention since Di/Charles/Camilla. And I'm not really sure that Jennifer Aniston is especially interesting so maybe the story wouldn't really be anything more than all Angelina all the time.