Aymery

Well, since it's getting a lot of hate here, I have to speak up and say that I for one appreciated the Magic Milo act. Yes the dancing was cringe-worthy but that made sense in the context - none of those guys were professional dancers, least of all Michael. It was meant to be a goofy production thrown together by a bunch of amateurs (mob enforcer, businessman, doctor, etc.) from a small city who agree to publicly make a fool of themselves for charity - it was never going to be a slick, perfectly-choreographed production where all the guys are buff and tanned. I certainly wouldn't turn down the eye candy on offer and thought it progressive to showcase a variety of body types and sizes. Intentional or not, Chad Duell's portrayal was in-character for Michael; he wasn't comfortable being there but he's soft-hearted enough that he conceded for a good cause. (Of course, he could just as easily have made a hefty corporate donation on behalf of his family company ELQ, but I also believe he is dumb enough not to realize that!) Honestly, Magic Milo, along with Dr Obrecht's musical numbers, were the highlights of the resurrected Nurses' Ball for me, and the decision to omit one or both the last couple of years has essentially negated its appeal to me. I knew from the outset there was little hope that the ball would relive its glory days as a "talent night" for the extended cast - most of the current cast apparently aren't sporting enough to perform on stage - and the original focus of the ball on HIV awareness has dwindled away to nothing.

I don't think the show has ever been in a worse state than it is today. There is absolutely no balance, the show tends to fixate on one story at a time and everybody else on canvas talks about that one story. And that one story almost always comes back to the Hope/Liam/Steffy love triangle that should've been put to bed years ago. None of the actors have the ability to carry it off. Meanwhile, they've all but gutted the entire lineup of legacy children: Phoebe, Ally and Caroline II were killed off; Thomas has become a psycho; Steffy and Hope are unbearable; Rick, Bridget, Zende and RJ have been written off unceremoniously; while Little Eric, Jack and Dino practically don't even exist. Why do they briefly hire (and make a big announcement) of supporting actors being put on contract and then do nothing with them before taking them off contract? In the last few years it's happened with bizarre regularity. They have so many opportunities to diversify their cast and storylines but every time they seem to back away from it. I remember when a casting call went out for a bisexual guy, but it never materialized, presumably because of the more conservative international markets in which B&B (still?) airs. That's a flimsy excuse but it's better than whatever reason they've cooked up to justify having an almost-entirely white cast in a city as diverse as LA. Right now there's only Zoe who's non-white; I can't remember the last time there was a Latin or Asian-American character. Kristen and Tony could've adopted more kids, no? Or for that matter, Rick and Maya could apply to adopt and wind up with a teenager - instant drama. B&B won a lot of praise on the rare occasions when it delved into social issue-led storytelling like homelessness and cancer. Why not attempt one of those again? Y&R has just launched a breast cancer storyline, in addition to Alzheimer's disease (which GH is also exploring). Homelessness is still topical, especially in the LA area. Is it that difficult to write a follow-up to the Skid Row stories? Brooke was supposed to be involved in that as part of Stephanie's legacy. It would be a much better story if she were to take a homeless teen, be unable to adopt him/her because of her past (losing custody of her kids) and having Rick and Maya step in. If the kid wound up on the streets due to sexual orientation, there would be so much story to tell there. Hey, this being B&B, it would not even merit an arched eyebrow if it were a boy who falls in love with his (adoptive) uncle, RJ.

I certainly don't miss Summer, a dreadful retcon who was totally surplus to the requirements. If they needed to give Maggie an onscreen daughter and wanted to cast Marie Wilson in the role, why not make her Sarah or Melissa? I would however welcome the return of some of the legacy characters born onscreen whom we've never seen as adults: Andrew Donovan IV, Alexander and the Kiriakis twins. I think everyone else has shown up at some point: Jeannie Theresa Donovan, Sonny Kiriakis, Jeremy Horton, Nathan Horton, Scotty Banning ... Speaking of Steve Olson - didn't he have a son? Nobody ever talks about them in connection with either of Steve's sisters who are both still onscreen. Julie was on her deathbed; her only son died; Hope's husband died - and those are just the tragedies that befell Addie's branch of the Horton clan in the last few years - but not even a passing mention of Steve. Actually thinking about this ... the Horton and Brady names are going to die out at this rate. Unless it becomes more common for women to pass their last name to their kids, because I don't think there is a single boy with either last name. Among the Bradys, Kim and Kayla's children have their husbands' last names; as do Roman's daughters; Eric, Rex and Shawn-Douglas each have only 1 daughter. Frankie and Max might as well not exist. Among the Hortons, Tommy and Mickey only had daughters; Melissa's son has the last name Horton but he has no children that we know of, nor is it likely they will bother to give him one. Addie's children are Olsons and Williams. Marie's branch of the family tree is doomed to extinction with the murder of Nick, who in any case was a Fallon. That leaves Bill, whose daughter's children are surnamed Deveraux, Mike's only son Jeremy has been forgotten about, and Will probably won't have a son even if they eventually get around to giving him another child.

Wouldn't it have made more sense for Sarah to name her baby Michaela if they were going with Mickey as a nickname? How do you get Mickey out of Mackenzie? Anyway, any spoilers on whether she really is Eric's baby or if Xander swapped her with Brady and Kristen's? Poor Eric is one of the few legacy characters who's been denied a child of his own; it's just cruel to give him a child now only to make him hand over the kid to his freakin' rapist and his stepbrother who is already a father (to Tate).

Well, Xander actually has form - he did shoot Marlena and nearly killed her, among a laundry list of crimes he has committed for lesser reasons. So it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that he would kill Jordan (a known murderous nutjob who's threatened the life of his cousin Ciara) if Victor dangled a cushy CEO job in front of him. The only line we know Xander won't cross is sleeping with another dude - and ironically that's the only act that wouldn't be criminal in nature.

I only hope (but don't have high expectations) that Lucas gets a nice new romance once Brad's deception is revealed. Maybe Laura's brother Ricky could come back as a doctor? He'd be Liz's cousin too.

Bit late with the comment but am I the only one who noticed that Thomas started again on his anti-Logan vendetta right after we were told that he is getting counselling from Taylor? Sounds about right. Who else has never had any qualms about abusing her professional credentials to further her own agenda?

It sounds like they are killing off Thomas (or at least making it seem like he died - after all his dad survived falling into a giant flaming furnace without so much as a minor burn.) They seriously lack sense if they think this is a good resolution to Thomas's reign of terror. As much as I dislike the Tridge brats, killing another one at the hands of another of Brooke's children is a terrible idea. It will ignite the Tridge fanbase and not in a good way. They already think Hope is worse than Thomas who drove a teenage girl off a cliff to her death, torments his own son and stalks the woman he claims to love.

I'm not sure why you think that. Tyler Johnson who plays Theo is 33 (and couldn't pass for under 30) while Marla Adams who plays Dina is 81. That's only 48 years between them; which is about right for a two-generation gap and not a three-generation one. (I'm the eldest grandchild and both my grandmothers, who admittedly became parents in their mid-20s rather than late teens, were both over 60 when I was born.) Yes Dina had Eric at 18 or thereabouts, but Eric and Eric's child (Theo's hypothetical parent) would also have had to be teen parents for Theo to be Dina's great-grandson. It's perfectly plausible that Eric had Theo when he was about 30.

If only we would be so lucky.

I thought the current ranch set emerged from the JFP era when Sharon burned it down during a bipolar episode. I did notice a reduction in EB's airtime but as far as I was concerned, it was a welcome one - the character is too damaged (from previous headwriters' tenures) to be a viable lead, much less romancing women a quarter his age. And it's not like Mal didn't let him play the hero and 'rescue' Nikki, or broke them up. Doug Davidson has a valid reason to complain - EB, not so much. I think Mal's biggest problem was he failed to adapt to American audiences and placed his bet on the wrong two horses (JT and GT as Billy & Phyllis).

Haha. I kind of feel it's part and parcel for soaps to be divorced from reality, and B&B with its incestuous partner-swapping certainly takes the cake, but this baby switch plot abandons any and all semblance of reality. Thanks for the intel on how little Eric wound up in boarding school. I did catch sight of him on Y&R and was amused that he was depicted as younger than Kim Matula's Hope who was appearing on B&B concurrently, when she was his much younger sister. Hope shouldn't even let her baby go by the name Phoebe, let alone leave her in Steffy's custody. Hope's been robbed of her child, who Taylor is about to procure for Steffy through an illegal, black market adoption. There is no reason for her to leave her with two women who hate Hope and her family, especially when one of them already declared herself unable to rear Brooke's biological son.

I still think Ingo R would've worked as a Nick Marone recast - along with his son Jack, aged up to his teens and becoming the source of a more logical tug-of-war between his mothers, Taylor and Brooke. Nick would fit the bill perfectly since he also has a brotherly rivalry with Ridge and pre-existing relationships with both Brooke and Katie (and that would've saved Thorne from turning into the latest guy who's bedded all three Logan sisters).

AMC and OLTL bombed when they transitioned online and I'd hate for history to repeat itself.

Anyone know what was the deal with the first SORASed Cam who appeared in a couple of episodes before being abruptly replaced by the current actor?

The whole baby switch is poorly conceived with plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. B&B has never been hyper-realistic but this plot is especially ridiculous. The story where Morgan made Tridge believe toddler Steffy had been eaten by a shark while she raised her herself, was campy as hell but gelled so much better. Morgan even had a better motive for coming up with that scheme since Stephanie and Taylor, between them, were responsible for her losing both of her unborn children by Ridge. Technically that wasn't a baby switch since Steffy wasn't a newborn and Tridge weren't handed the corpse of someone else's child; the only true baby switch B&B has done in 30+ years was Tawny Moore swapping stillborn Eric III for Becky and Deacon's son. I really do think that boy needs to come back, but not as a manny - too similar to the Erica Lovejoy plot, although even her insane SORASing was easier to stomach than this story! I'd have Eric return under an assumed name (Deacon Jr, DJ?) to wreak havoc on Rick and the Forresters since they basically forgot all about him after fighting so hard with Deacon over his custody. (And finally none of them, not even Amber, who apparently regained custody at some point, could be bothered to look after him.) Maybe have him seduce Maya away from Rick - that could be why they broke up.

Why is it that only daytime's sole openly gay headwriter who is subjected to comments like this? The straight headwriters of the other soaps are also not averse to trotting out shirtless men as eye candy (just this past year, both Y&R and B&B made their newest hires play models wearing very little) and at most they're accused of wrongly assuming this is what the audience wants to see. And when the women strip down to even less than Rex, JJ or Xander were wearing today, there are zero comments about lecherous Brad Bell or Mal Young salivating over them.

I have the bad feeling that giving two infants the same name is a lead-up to one of them dying. Seriously why two Elizabeths? Beth Logan was not really a core character; maybe during the show's very early years but she was absent for many years afterward and when she returned (recast with Robin Riker), she was hastily written off in another death caused by Stephanie with no consequences. (I could not believe that Brad Bell, whose own father suffered from Alzheimer's, would marginalize the disease in his writing for Beth and give her such a crappy ending.) Am I right in saying Hope was the last time this show gave a newborn character a truly original name? Most of the babies, before and after, have been named after other characters. The only ones who were not are Mark Maclaine, Thomas, Phoebe, and Aspen. If they MUST reuse Logan family names, they should've named Rick's daughter Helen after Grandma Logan - he would've known her since she didn't die until after he was a teenager. I would've loved if Hope had named her daughter Dominique after Nick but obviously he has been MIA from her life for years now. I keep thinking that Reese will lead Taylor off the wagon and take advantage of a drunken blackout to frame her for a crime involving Hope/her baby, so he can demand hush money from her.

Unfortunately TK's Ridge oozes sleaze in just about every scene, especially with younger women but even in the scenes opposite Judge McMullen. RM's Ridge did his own fair share of sleazing (what with committing multiple rapes) but somehow his portrayal didn't come across as this much of a dirtbag. With TK, I feel like every woman who shares a scene with him must dash for a long, hot shower directly afterward. The way he leers at his own daughter makes me uncomfortable and wary that we're going to get a baby-swap story (the real Steffy having been switched for a fake when Morgan kidnapped her) just so he can make out with another one-time daughter a la Bridget. (Although I'd love that baby-swap for its effect on Stuffy when she learns she's neither Forrester NOR Marone. Hah!)

Xander sure seems to do attract the crazies. First Zoe and now Emma apparently has a history of bunny-boiling. The show's attempt at gender equality by including male models in the Intimates collection falls flat on the first outing - the women have everything hanging out while Xander shows less skin than he would on the beach. Do they think B&B's audience is primarily composed of straight men and lesbian women? I really hope they will break Bridge up for good but they seem intent on cycling back to that well every few months or so. TK has no chem with KKL and he has turned the character of Ridge into an abomination. I get that Ronn Moss left under a cloud but Brad Bell seems to have hired TK as his recast with the sole purpose of dismantling everything the character represented for the first 25 years of the show. RM was no great shakes as an actor but he made Ridge work somehow - all of his romantic pairings were popular and he was portrayed as the show's hero despite his playboy ways. Now both the writing and the acting make Ridge out to be a prize jerk with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Ingo R is woefully miscast and the character of Thorne just doesn't work anymore. I still say they should've let Winsor Harmon stay on and make guest appearances off-and-on for weddings and funerals (instead of making Thorne the latest character to bed all 3 Logan sisters), and cast IR as a new Nick instead. They could still played out a rivalry with half-brother Ridge as well as a romantic past with both Brooke AND Katie. He had children with both women, although Katie miscarried, plus an established background as a stepfather (Thorne never got to play that role to his own half-brother and -sister as they were in their late teens when he had his short-lived marriage to Brooke). Now that Taylor is back, it would have been a good time to reintroduce Nick's surviving child, Jack, as a teenager, taking both her and Brooke to task for not giving a damn about him all these years. He should've been a lucky kid with two mothers - one bio and one surrogate, both of whom had loved his dad - yet neither of them was willing to mother him. And maybe the return of Marones (who don't go by the name Forrester) could've given Sheila a story - whatever happened to her daughter Diana who was allegedly Ridge and Nick's half-sister via Massimo?

She should be 48, but the show is deliberately fudging how long Thorne and Katie have been in each other's orbits. I raised an eyebrow when they repeated (in separate scenes) that they'd known each other for 25 years when it should more than 30 years since the show premiered in 1987. Back then Katie was already in her late teens - even ignoring the fact that more than that time has elapsed within the show for Rick to be as old as he is when he wasn't even born until 1990. But then again, Brooke was just pregnant by Bill a couple of years ago when she would already have been in her 50s, so never say never. I don't actually mind original characters Katie and Thorne having another kid together or apart (especially Thorne since his only child was wantonly killed off). They can always adopt like Kristen if it's not possible biologically or they could make the next big drama about Brooke or someone offering to carry the child to term before becoming attached to him/her like they were going to do with Raya/Nicole before it was abruptly terminated. I was thinking when I saw Xander with his shirt off last week that he should be the one modelling underwear since he has a better body than those two guys they hired and sure enough, this week he's been hired. No doubt little miss Emma will be glowering like thunder while Zoe hangs off Xander while both are barely dressed for an Intimates photoshoot.

I give it a month, tops, before this whole thing blows up in Brad's face (and Julian's too) so the show can break up the gay couple to whom they barely gave any airtime since Ron Carlivati left. The only way I'm going to accept any of this crap is if a heart-broken Lucas goes to seek solace from his old med school buddy Griffin and they wind up sleeping together. I'd be willing to forgive a LOT if that happens. Onscreen.

Casey Moss is so very handsome. Why don't they give him more romantic stories?

Val was there - I guess that counts as a hospital colleague? So were Kayla and Jennifer, but obviously they were there more in a friendly capacity than as co-workers. Hope opted out of the party because she's upset with Marlena over her decision to certify Ben sane - not because she was busy trying to find a semi-legal way to run Ben out of town (of course that may be what she did with her time). It's petty to put decades of friendship on ice for that reason, but she obviously expects Marlena to behave like her and allow her personal feelings to get in the way of executing her professional duties. No wonder Marlena asked Kayla to be her Matron of Honor instead of Hope! Eve's presence at the party also confounded me until Brady walked in and went up to her. I guess Claire got the responsibility of organizing the bachelorette party since she's Marlena's closest, onscreen female relative (Belle didn't appear on the scene until later). I wish they'd let characters/couples who are offscreen have normal lives - date other people and have children. Did Noah have to be sick again? Why not say Carrie's heavily pregnant with her and Austin's second kid so she can't fly? The same for Belle and Shawn - they've been together for ages offscreen (going by Claire's age, 18-19 years), so why don't they have another child yet? I know Belle has problems carrying a baby to term, but it's crazy to believe that, in all that time, they wouldn't have explored either of the other options available to them (surrogacy/adoption). It would be so easy to populate the family trees when characters are offscreen and bring them on later (as teens/young adults), instead of EVERY baby having to be born onscreen, in some traumatic situation, usually somewhere other than the hospital. I find Susan dreadfully cringe. I know this is how she's been for most of her tenure, and it's not a knock on Stacy Haiduk (who I think has commendably played the role very much as Eileen Davidson did) but this kind of 'zany' character is hopelessly outdated and no longer funny. I hope Stacy Haiduk, who was very impressive when she played a dual role on Y&R, has more story as one of Susan's alter-egos so she can show off her acting chops. Paul and Will's dialogue about the latter's hands was a little risque - I didn't think this show would go there given how they've watered down all the other scenes of intimacy between their gay couples. A few years ago, when Guy Wilson was still playing Will, we'd have SEEN what those hands were capable of. Well, maybe not exactly, but the Will-Paul affair love scenes were smoking hot. Ron can write it (he did for Lucas & Brad on GH) and Christopher Sean can play it, I guess the unknown quantities are the network execs and Chandler Massey. At least he's not as awful as Freddie "Don't get too intimate, I'm straight AF" Smith.

Katherine's will was one of the WORST writing decisions ever made on the show. Her fortune originated from her first husband, Gary Reynolds - she inherited it when he died while their son Brock was a minor. The original backstory was that Brock was dissatisfied by her remarriage to Philip II and subsequent renaming of the Reynolds Plant after Philip. So the "Chancellor fortune" is actually the Reynolds fortune and should go to Brock and his heirs - his daughter Mac and her two children. I understand that neither Brock nor Mac wanted a large inheritance but when Katherine died she already had a great-grandson via Mac, whom she could - and should - have named as her principal heir given that her fortune originated with his great-grandfather and she had no idea if he - unlike his mother and granddad - might have an interest in his familial legacy. Katherine was left looking like a despicable witch when she bequeathed a paltry 10% of what was Gary's fortune to his only child and grandchild, while the vast majority (50%) went to Devon - her grandson via the bastard son who was born when she cheated on Gary with the judge! Did any of the writers even consult the backstory of these characters before they dished out Katherine's assets?