Aymery

I've long said that RJ should be bisexual, which to my knowledge none of the soaps have done with a legacy character. But the internet backlash (by a very vocal group) against Brad Bell's only attempt to cast a queer character probably put paid to that. It's not just a B&B problem, all the soaps seem to have backed away from gay characters in recent years. I guess they decided that appealing to a younger, more accepting audience is a lost cause so they will just try holding onto their established conservative fanbase. (I've also seen speculation that it might hit a bit too close to home for KKL given the incident involving her RL son, so perhaps Bell wants to be sensitive to his veteran actress.) When you think about it, RJ is really the most wasted legacy character - considering he's the only child of a supercouple that has been in the making since Day 1 of this show. No one else on this show can claim that. So it's a mystery why their one and only attempt to give him an "adult" storyline was so lame (the forbidden romance with Coco Spectra). If it had been with Sally's great-nephew Cole then maybe it'd be something. (Ironically, the actor who played teen RJ is on Love, Victor - doing a pretty good job as the dorky, straight BFF of the title character. They've announced its upcoming third season will be its last, so maybe they can get him back and bring over some of the LV fans who'd probably want to see him in a gay romance?) Actually, if you think about it, with the current returnees (Deacon and Sheila), the time is ripe for the return of two other legacy kids: his son Little E/D and her daughter (allegedly by Massimo, and therefore Ridge's little sister) Diana. And instead of violence, there could be good old-fashioned seduction for revenge: perhaps Little E sets his sights on former stepmom/aunt, Bridget. Or Steffy. Or RJ. A good old-fashioned mystery: Massimo disappears, presumed dead. Diana wants her share of her father's fortune. That could bring back Nick and Jack. The presence of Jack, the child Brooke completely ditched, could be the spoiler to her attempts to rekindle Bridge. Remember, Ridge actually forced Brooke to choose between him and the boy. (And she, like the putz she is, chose Ridge.)

Maybe he'll be the middle of a triangle between Brad and Britt, straining their friendship and winning GH diversity accolades for having the first bi male regular on daytime. (Frankly, Brad needs a new love interest more than Britt, he has literally no one to date.)

I didn't start watching until after Clayton's tenure so I only "discovered" him in the classic episodes they've been uploading for the past few months. And wow, he was beautiful. I cannot believe Caroline, to whom he was devoted during their marriage, actually left him for his cheating, rapist brother. He and Brooke colluding should've been the lead-up to a romance between them. One funny thing I observed from the Winsor Harmon interview for his return - he talks about wearing Speedos, and I do remember his Thorne wearing them, but Clayton's Thorne hasn't, despite numerous pool scenes. I figured it was meant to showcase Ridge as this sexually confident uber playboy in contrast to his little brother, but maybe it was Clayton's personal choice. (Not sure why, the man looks damn good in and out of clothes.) The less said about IR (in every aspect, not just his short stint on this show), the better.

I guess a mother killing her own son is ground-breaking for this soap, but the loss of Finn (a character who was never fleshed out, and one of Sheila's FIVE children) is not. He never really met his potential as a character, and the most interesting member of his family is the one the show never bothered with: Li. I wonder if she will return for his funeral or be relegated offscreen, too heartbroken by grief at losing her only child in such a violent manner.

What do people think this big game-changer that's supposedly coming up next month will be? A load of hot air over nothing, or something genuinely ground-breaking?

Well, I'd have thought it was awkward enough that Allie had sex with Tripp after his brother raped her and she falsely accused him of the crime and threatened to shoot his balls off. Anyway, on this show having sex with someone and then their parent is practically a rite of passage. I'd say Nicole with both grandfather and grandson (Victor and Brady) was far more egregious, or JJ with Paige and THREE of her relatives (her mother, aunt and half-sister). That's probably the record, but Gabi's worked her way through four Horton men (Will, Nick, JJ, Eli) and at one point I honestly feared she was going to land Lucas too.

So the infamous "love in the afternoon" softcore scene returns after two years of the pandemic - maybe even longer - and it's Carter and Paris?! Seriously. Still think Katie/Carter had so much more potential. Please don't let Brooke take Ridge back this time. Let him beg forgiveness once he finds out the truth about Sheila's crime, but let her firmly shut him down. I know, I know - it'll never happen. If Brooke has a new man by then, she'll drop him so fast once Ridge comes crawling back. I want Bridge over and done with, for good this time. TK obviously has no interest in the pairing and there is no history there with him in the role instead of Ridge. They don't even have their son RJ, an actual child (or at least he was still only 17-18 the last we saw him), onscreen to root for their reunion the way the grown-ass Taytots, both parents themselves, are for their parents'. Next, I want Sheila to find out about Taylor being Bill's shooter. Let her torment Taylor and the Taytots with that knowledge.

I think Tripp should bang JoDevil - who seems up for it if his antics with Craig were anything to go by - and then tell Allie, "well, we've both gotten same-sex dalliances with people we don't love out of the way, now let's get married". And watch Allie's head explode. Because we all know she would never accept a boyfriend who's had sex with other men (her own twin brother!). Failing that, there's always Grandma Kate. In all seriousness, I think this should be Tripp's opening to a darker path instead of being all goodness and light which has made him an incredibly dull doormat. This is not what one would expect of Ava's son or, for that matter, Steve's. I think they should have more clueless idiots - including Steve and Kayla - take Allie's side in her latest transgression against him. Maybe that'll be his tipping point. Can he get with Kristen? Bonus points for riling up Ava.

Well, hopefully not Tripp ... last I checked, his and Gwen's fathers were brothers. I think it was a missed opportunity to not have Tripp respond to Allie's confusion over her feelings for Chanel with - "oh, that's okay, I'm bi too." And have Allie deal with that since bi men are always suspected of being secretly gay. That might just have made Tripp more interesting than this vanilla dude who simply exists to be cheated on. They could even have tied it into why he fought with his adoptive dad, if Silas had walked in on him and another boy. And when Allie dumps him for Chanel, he can unleash his Ava side on her and target her brother Will for seduction. (They'd make a gorgeous couple.) Abby's murder is going to be awful. I've grown to like MM in the part (far more than KM). And then neither her parents nor her brother will be a big part of the story - seriously? I wish the show wouldn't be so shortsighted. It's the one thing I thought Ron was smart enough to steer clear of. Previous showrunners did this before, killing off legacy Hortons like Nick and Will - it's always a poor decision. (At least Ron resurrected Will, although he gets to live offscreen because someone *cough* Ken *cough* has it in for him since he came out.)

Personally, I think it would have been better to make Craig bi so as to not invalidate his entire love story with Nancy. A couple married for 20+ years who fall out of love and the husband eventually realizes he has feelings for another man would have been a good story. Although having most of those story beats play out offscreen does not do it justice. I also assumed Abby's reaction (or lack thereof) to Kristen pulling a gun on her was due to the sedatives she was on. Is the big twist that Sarah has had a baby? Because the shocking! reveal that she was on the island would be no surprise to anyone since we were told upfront, months ago, that she was being shipped to the island? I was sure that was why they filmed her from the back and then when she turned around she would be sporting an enormous baby bump, but nope. Can someone remind me why JoDevil wants Gabi? Does he not know she cannot carry a child to term? He would've been better off taking the guise of Chad (who's fathered 4 kids) and impregnating Abby (who's given birth to 2 kids). For that matter, why not have imitated Ben and impregnated Ciara in the first place?

I agree with Esme's schemes lacking proper planning and follow-through; is she just another incompetent villain or are we supposed to attribute it to some mental illness that she seems to be medicating (obviously without much success!)? She's the obvious candidate for the leak of any Cam-Joss sex tape even if she is using a burner phone, so you have to wonder about her motivations. Arranging for Cam and Trina to end up in a compromising position would have made a lot more sense, or even - as some have suggested - seducing Cam herself, getting pregnant and passing off his baby as Spencer's. Instead we get high-and-mighty Joss coming down hard on Esme. OF COURSE mini-Carly found bitching out another woman to be sexier than foreplay so she boinked Cam immediately after. Chase was changing out of his gown with the door closed when Brook Lynn barged in and he got his clothes on almost immediately as soon as she came through the door (too quickly for my tastes!). It was less gratuitous than the scene some years ago when I remember Tracy barging in on Nikolas (then played by TC) who, for some reason, was lying around in his skivvies rather than a gown. And let's face it, if someone had JS's body, I don't think embarrassment and immediate cover-ups are really necessary. I'm more surprised Epiphany didn't walk by and recruit him for the next Nurses' Ball strip act. Speaking of which, is the Nurses' Ball extinct? We never got to see one last year.

I'm watching some of the 1987-88 episodes now. It was a totally different show back then. I've always felt more affinity for Brooke and the Logans (although when I started watching, only Brooke was left as a regular) but jeez, the Forresters were really terrible people. I'm amazed how much of a jackass Ridge was, yet somehow still manages to be more appealing than Thorsten Kaye's version. As for Stephanie - well! Far from her nastiness being brought out by those evil Logans, she was already quite a piece of work. And the sainted Caroline, ping ponging between two brothers and flirting with Ridge even after marrying Thorne - oy vey! The Logans, on the other hand, really convey a sense of family - it's a shame that was lost and not really recovered when the show eventually brought back all of the Logans as recasts. Also, in one of the 1988 episodes, Ridge is overseeing a swimsuit collection (including a leopard-print number) which puts paid to Stephanie and Taylor's repeated assertions over the years that Brooke, through her Bedroom line, was solely responsible for lowering the dignity of the Forrester brand from classy evening gowns to lingerie that, frankly, was less revealing than some of those bikinis Ridge and Margo were working on! I never knew that about Bill Bell, Sr toying with Kristen potentially being a lesbian but I don't think we can solely fault 1987 for the lack of follow-through when it's 2021 and B&B still has not a single gay man in the fashion industry. I guess they are still running scared of the backlash prompted by that casting call for a bisexual Latino named Christian a couple of years ago, when certain quarters took issue with the character's name. All Brad Bell had to do was rename the character Chris or Carl, but instead he dropped his one opportunity to introduce both a queer male and a Latino - you know, who make up half of LA's population and are still totally unrepresented on the show set in the same city?

I watch this stuff and laugh helplessly. I just cannot reconcile this being held up as the golden heyday of the show, yet any time writers go in for camp today, they're met with endless criticism for camping it up too much. Certainly nothing Ron Carlivati ever did matched up to the ridiculous level of camp in this clip!

I have zero sympathy for Quinn. She boinked Carter, multiple times, and he's still employed by FC, but she wants Donna fired for some flirtation? Girl, take several seats. Donna, unfortunately, is a doormat. She deserves better than Eric. Has she forgotten how badly Eric treated her after moving Stephanie into their guesthouse, handwaving her role in drowning Donna's Alzheimer's-stricken mother in their pool, and then falling out of love with her because she put on weight? Quinn is getting away with a LOT. Taylor made interference in someone else's relationship her mission since day one, so Steffy doesn't fall from the tree in that sense. Nor is there any need to attribute her antics to the Logans. The Forrester name is hardly a badge of honor. Every single one of them has lied and/or cheated on their partners. Eric and Ridge started the show as playboys, despite one being married and the other engaged, while Stephanie was passing off Ridge as Eric's child despite knowing there was a chance he was Massimo's.

And how many of those divorces were due to Brooke actually cheating? Heck, one time Ridge ditched her because she exchanged text messages with Deacon about their own daughter (although I'm not sure that counts as a divorce since they didn't file their marriage certificate). Eric has had PLENTY of reason to divorce Quinn; he just hasn't taken them, not even this time when she repeatedly boinked his 'friend' Carter. It speaks to how desperate he is, rather than being an indicator of how strong and stable their marriage is; it certainly does not say anything about Brooke's faithfulness to Ridge. Like I said before, it's Brooke's other husbands (Eric, Thorne, Grant, Nick) who can complain about her faithlessness. Not Ridge. Is it intensely hypocritical of Brooke to cast stones at Quinn for her adultery on Eric? Yes. But Brooke's affair happened literally decades ago - and ultimately, Eric was Bridget's father. Since then, Brooke and Eric have achieved the kind of amicable relationship most divorcees would dream of. They are parents and grandparents together, Brooke is now his DIL, and Quinn is a truly evil person. It isn't wrong of her to be concerned for Eric and to want Quinn out of his and their family's lives. It should be a similar dynamic to how the Forresters and Logans responded to Sheila.

When were all the times Brooke cheated on Ridge? Brooke's affairs, numerous as they are, usually have Ridge as the "other man", not the victim. In the three and a half decades since Bridge became a thing, I can only recall three instances when Brooke cheated on Ridge: when she thought he was dead in the furnace, when she somehow mistook Hope's masked boyfriend Oliver for him, and when Bill randomly kissed her. None of those situations really fall into the same boat of Quinn carrying on with Ridge, her adultery with Carter, or her thirsting after that hot gardener/masseur, all of which occurred in the course of a 5-year marriage. You're right: it's not even close. Quinn has been stepping out on Eric at a practically annual rate, whereas Brooke and Ridge has been once a decade. And frankly, until Brooke repeatedly rapes someone like Quinn did to Liam, she will always be morally superior to Quinn.

Any idea if it's an onscreen appearance for Chandler Massey, or just an offscreen phone call? I really wish he and nuSonny were part of the main show (or had their own spin-off). Addie died almost half a century ago in real time. And since then, Doug has, for the most part, been with Julie. And I doubt Doug considers Steve to be his "son" in any way, shape or form, because that would mean he's spent much of the last half-century married to his own "daughter". I can see where people are going with the tone-deafness of the Oak Alley visit, but it makes zero sense to cancel the entire New Orleans storyline because of the damage from Hurricane Ida. By the same token, no shows should film or set any stories in New York either. One thing they could still try today is Shawn and Belle having empty nest syndrome since Claire left, and deciding to become foster parents. That's a great way to bring in a revolving cast of teens, do something topical (which was well-received on The Fosters), potentially inject some diversity into the cast, and expand the Brady clan by having them formally apply to adopt one or more of the kids down the line. If they hadn't left it so late, it would've been interesting to have the kid be Tyler Kiriakis, and instigate a battle for the boy's custody with Philip. (Of course, they would only learn this later on, after they've bonded with the boy.) It could still be Philip's kids from a one-night stand, whose mother abandoned him. Or Lucas's son by Autumn, his one-time fiancee from Hong Kong. Or Eric's from his pre-priesthood days. So many possibilities.

I didn't see Brando looking uncomfortable once he started stripping. Yes he was nervous beforehand about performing in front of Carly and other people he knew, but once the strip act started he seemed fine (although his dance moves were not). Same with Milo - the actor didn't convey any discomfort once he started stripping; rather he was enjoying the attention, and what he didn't enjoy was Kate (or rather, her alter) cornering him afterward while he was still half-naked and trying to seduce him, on the eve of her wedding to his mob boss. Personally I thought it was a fun little scene, loved the comedic setup with Dante, and the pay-off, plus Brando looks great in his undies. Too bad it's probably just a one-off - unless they can arrange monthly bachelorette parties for the women of Port Charles. Or if they develop it into a male escort storyline (but who would be Brando's clients?) or have Sasha wrangle a modeling contract for him.

No surprise they have forgotten that since, as far as I know, Doug only has one son, Douglas LeClaire. (I'm not sure how much of a role Doug has in Douglas's life, anyway - wasn't he raised by his stepfather?) Unless you're counting his late stepson David. Hope does have another brother Steven, but he is Doug's brother-in-law. Well, the whole blanket baby thing is due to Covid. We can hardly blame the show for that. Most parents wouldn't want to expose their infants to that kind of risk. Agreed that Thomas and Charlotte have been underused, but Rachel has been a part of a major plot involving her parents in the past year, albeit offscreen - again due to Covid. Babies help set up the next generation. That's their primary purpose, and they rarely drive story themselves until they are older (except to be the subject of a kidnapping, baby swap, paternity debate, custody suit, childhood illness or accident). That's always been the case. If characters like Ciara, Will, Claire, Theo, Abby - heck, even Sami or Hope - hadn't been babies at one time, they wouldn't be driving stories years later. Of course, we can question whether or not the show will last long enough for these babies to turn into tearaway teens. But that doesn't negate their necessity. That being said, I would prefer to have Shawn and Belle expand their family, either through a messy surrogacy (imagine Sami as the carrier!) or adoption of a kid they met on their travels in Asia (which would increase the diversity of the Horton-Brady clan). Bo Brady III - Trey? - would make more sense as Shawn and Belle's son than as Ben and Ciara's.

Yeah, I think Ken's proven to be the major obstacle to this show ever improving. Through multiple changes of head writers, he's always stuck his oar in and seems to have very set ideas of what the audience (and his long-dead parents) want for the show. For evidence, look no further than the mistreatment of Will Horton, a popular, ground-breaking, legacy character. That is ALL Ken.

They also used to have an enormous terrace/pool set below the living room, where I can remember many scenes taking place. I was reminded of it last week when GH made a big deal out of their new "hotel rooftop pool" set which appeared in practically every episode since its introduction with every character congregating there, including the rich folks who should have private pools of their own. I was like, pffft! B&B had their own, larger pool 30 years ago. In fact, I can even remember ATWT - not exactly known for being a big budget soap in its final days - having a Snyder pond, where hottie Aaron inexplicably stripped down to swim. Ah, those were the good old days. When was the last time we saw the Forrester pool set? I remember when Stephanie left Beth Logan to drown in it, the set seemed to have shrunk as well.

Just getting caught up on the episodes and I have a whole bunch of observations: They are going to make Chase into a mopey loser who pretends to be disabled to keep Willow married to him, aren't they? Austin is totally going to be the next in line to blackmail Michael over his tryst with Chase's wife. I don't have anything against Millow. And I've always found Chad Duell cute. The endless jokes about his looks and physique are not cool. Still no Lucas at his one-time son/now great-nephew's birthday party, even though last Christmas he was supposed to take on more of a presence in Wiley's life. I haven't forgotten about Valentin's origins, especially his sins that played out ONSCREEN, and no amount of sweeping it under the rug will change that. Speaking of stuff that took place onscreen, I just cannot believe they are retconning two different plots (Hayden's shooting and Willow's relationship with Harmony) concurrently. I like nuSpencer, and he has a nice vibe with Trina - she is totally going to be his Achilles heel - but do they really have to write him as so creepy? It was one thing when Nicolas Bechtel was playing him, because he was hard to take seriously, but this guy towers over everyone in the cast and makes Spencer a lot more intimidating, especially since we in the audience know the lengths he's gone to, including terrorizing his own little cousin Avery. Are they building to a body image issue with Cameron? He's always keeping his shirt on at the pool. At first I thought it was just his age because the teen actresses were also in wraps but they've since been in their bikinis while Cam stays fully clothed. It'd be something different to explore and a first for American soaps with a male character, if I'm not mistaken. Finn and Liz don't interest me in the slightest. A great big Fizzle, if you will. I enjoy both characters separately but not together. Just once, characters of the opposite sex can be friends without getting romantically involved. All the Black actors/characters being fenced into scenes by themselves remind me of Y&R's Winters Wednesdays. Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled to finally see a soap pay more than lip service to racial diversity but there's a reason why that usually goes hand in hand with inclusion. This doesn't feel like it. Can they just cut the damn cord with Curtis and Jordan already? Either they're on or they're not. I really hope Trina isn't Curtis's. Especially when he's sat right opposite Shawn who had that exact same story play out. Get some originality, for crying out loud. Can Sasha get Brando a job as a spokesmodel? I feel like it's a better fit for him than bodyguard/mob hitman.

Well, there was that time Sheila absconded with her first baby Mary Warwick, and returned with Mary as 18yo Erica Lovejoy, only 4 years later. Enough time for her to have had Finn and pawn him off on a complicit Jack and unsuspecting Li. This would make Finn the second of her five (!) children, after Mary but before Diana Marone and the Fisher twins, Daisy and Ryder. I am really not thrilled to see Kimberlin Brown back. I can only assume that Brad Bell (whose wife is an Obama appointee to various offices) must believe that Brown is going to bring back lapsed viewers and is holding his nose in hopes of reviving the show's declining ratings. Why he thinks that, when her last return was a dismal failure, is beyond my comprehension. In her time away, she's only grown worse. As others have already mentioned, there are plenty of other characters who could've been Finn's mother.

I'm not sure what it is Brooke is supposed to have done to Steffy in this latest escapade. Yes she commented that it's a plus point Steffy will no longer be mooning after her daughter's husband, but the way people are carrying on, you'd think she'd expressed unhappiness that Steffy had found a man who loved her, and only her, and they'd gotten engaged. On the contrary, today's episode had Brooke looking genuinely excited over Finn and Steffy posting their wedding announcement. It is a huge contrast to how Steffy usually reacts to happy news about Hope - where her default approach has always been to go after the man in question just so she can destroy Hope's happiness for supposedly enjoying more of Ridge's attention growing up (which, of course, NEVER happened except in her mind that's been brainwashed by Taylor's endless, largely baseless anti-Logan rants over the years). So who do we think is Finn's biological mother? I agree the dad is definitely his bio-dad, and Li seemed to have no reservations about the social media post so she's not in on the secret. I found it odd that Finn's own mother calls him by a diminutive of his last name, instead of John (or Johnny). And on that note - come on, show. These are the same folks who gave us names like Ridge and Thorne 30+ years ago. You really can't come up with anything better than John and Jack? Really? Especially when you already have a John (Eric's brother) and two Jacks (Steffy's grandfather Hamilton - not Hayes!!! - as well as her brother/cousin). Is Finn the second John Finnegan? Jack is itself a nickname for John.

Yeah, we really have to be careful what we wish for. I've wanted Brooke to get back into business (or chemistry) for the longest time, and they've never accommodated my wish. And now, of course, they would do it under the worst circumstances possible - one mother trying to steal a job away from another who's nursing a newborn. Seriously, Show. Can we give Brooke a medical storyline? I think she's the only character who's made it this long without ever having a medical issue. (Well, unless we count the blink-and-miss alcohol addiction and the literally "missed" miscarriage of Bill's baby.)