Big Blue Plate

Dumb question but is Summer back permanently? I thought it was just a summer thing while her real show was not in production. Some weeks ago I wrote about how I thought show was well written et al. Now I'm back to wtf is going on? It all seems random and unfocused - if more character driven - I just don't really care about any of these characters. Another question, when does ED go? Did she finish taping this month and so has six weeks? I can't peg where her exit is.

Is Tessa out? I keep reading on another board she's been fired. It's a dumb storyline anyway... they aren't committed to it. Am I the only one thinks they're moving toward Kyle and Mariah? I keep seeing flashes of mutual antagonism that suggest chemistry. I'm talking off the charts chemistry, like Graham and Dina.

The only thing I can guess is they've got market research that shows Billy and Phyllis work. Although I doubt they've got the money for market research so maybe it's just Mal's imagination.

I read about the Summer/Phyllis ho down and then watched it... fell flat for me. Maybe the buzz was too big. There were some good digs but it wasn't the be all end all I was expecting. I have no idea why Summer hates her mother so much. It's a great angle, but I don't get it the basis for where she's coming from. I also thought Jaboat would sink, allowing Summer to go back to real TV at night and leaving Phyllis feeling Lilyesque.

^ you forgot the again.

Ashley dances like she can't stand up.

I can't stand that character or the face on the actress.

The shirtless stuff is making me laugh so hard... its just the feeblest excuse to get a shirt off... mind you Kyle and Dr. Nate are ripped for it but it's like Gregory Harrison in Fresno (for those who weren't alive when dinosaurs roamed the earth Fresno was a comedy satire two parter on CBS, sending up the soaps (night time in particular.). Harrison played a character call Torch and he was shirtless for every scene in both parts. It was hilarious.)

So I have a ton of unpopular opinions. I think the show is very well written right now - structurally - I am still ff-ing a lot but it is well done. Hillary's death has been well used. Very Bill Bell. Same with the silly Summer / Billy et al plot. It is being well used and stretched out a number of different ways. Phyllis and Nick didn't just do it and then become a super couple and get married the next week... they Mae a mistake and it's got consequences and is playing out. I even like the unexpected evolution of Nick. I think the actor playing Kyle has grown quickly into the part and is entertaining to watch. I guess after years I think the show has seldom been so technically together on a writing basis. This is what an old school soap looks like. I think it lacks a little magic, somehow, but it is proficient, believable (for a soap) and the details are integrated. Summer being trustfundless and Nick buying her off... that's thinking.... not JFP or MAB randomness. Still, I think the format is doomed, so all the shows are and that is why the magic can't be recaptured. The soap format is a very old lady and is quietly approaching the end of its life.

On the bright side, they let him wear a shirt to work.

By the of the episode, who hadn't Phyllis told?

I am moved to tears constantly and I don't like Hillary or Devonstar. But this is classic soapy goodness. If anybody else was alive when dinosaurs roamed the earth, perhaps you remember the death of Renata Sutton on Search for Tomorrow? Same vibe. I know the show sucks and there's so much wrong but this is what soap is supposed to be by my definition.

Young Nate, while lovely too look at, is being sexually exploited by Mal because no one wanders around with their shirt off that often. Well, Dina maybe, but that was offscreen back in the day.

Look at it this way... at least now Dina isn't the only sexual compulsive in town. Everybody's been getting laid like crazy lately.

Well, for once Lily is interesting. Too bad it's because she is a killer!

Sorry, I loved it. As much as I loathe Victor, that smug son of a bitch smile on his face... this episode was soapy goodness to the max. Just loved it. P.S. No one on the show is a real person.

McKenna Grace is the sweet, pretty, subtle Faith not the cloying, screeching, the sun will come out tomorrow Faith, right?

It's unbelievable to me because he took his university degree to be a chauffeur with no prospects of being anything else. And until recently, nobody talked about offering him anything else. From the start of those sentences I struggled to know what you mean, to be honest.

I saw chemistry between Culhane and Fallon before Jeff and then Jack arrived, when I saw more chemistry between them. So I think the problem is it's hard to go backward from good, better, best. The writing on the show feels kind of like a runaway train to me... it isn't thought through in some respects, while it is very carefully mapped out in others. Like the show seemed very Cristal focused in the first episodes, then she faded and it became (rightly in my view) the Fallon show. Blake never made any sense. The Colbys so disappeared for a few weeks while they established Alexis that it could have easily stayed that way. Where's Cecil? Does it matter? Ted fell out a window and it really looked bad. Then it stopped looking like anything. I also hate when they just cook things up for convenience... like Culhane suddenly having a university degree in communications. That's daytime faking left. I give them credit though, jaws do drop and cleverly. What I thought was the bad writing of the whole El Paso sequence turned out to be purposeful writing as the pieces of Alexis' scam fell into place. That Jack left the show to return to the embrace of his very wealthy family was no accident. He will be back - with his bags of money - at some point is my guess.

Sorry for above if there's empty spoiler and quote boxes... I messed up. I think Matthew being alive, if he really is as suggested upthread, I also think - but pure speculation - Steven and Sammy Joe's wedding is going to be a version of The Blake character is so interesting to me because he's such a bizarre character. In original Blake, John Forsythe was softened over the years (sickeningly, in my view) from the occasionally frightening, ruthless but self-made millionaire who was captivated by his younger second wife (perhaps because he saw in her the qualities he knew were lacking in himself.) This Blake is going from bland to worse but he inherited it all... he didn't have to sacrifice or risk to build what he's got - or shape or inform his character. So, really, this Blake is just kind of a sociopathic asshole who seems indifferent to Cristal as anything other than a possession/problem. Which is pretty hard to redeem. I don't see design here. I just see really bad writing that created one of the most unlikeable characters I've seen on a show in a long time - which wouldn't be a problem if the character were entertaining. But he isn't. He's just kind of a sociopathic asshole.

I think actual Adam with the right DNA is in fact completely dead. There can only be so many nine fingered men running around. Unless, Matthew is Adam. That would be awkward, and angry. If Matthew doesn't do anything criminal in the season finale (and since this is a spoiler speculation thread I am not hiding this:) and isn't resurrected for the purpose of doing a Matthew's return from the dead/Moldavia mash up, it might work... the conflict between father and son, with a little hey, I know yer missus built in. I also think to resolve any residual (albeit reduced) ick from Jeff and Fallon's cousin fucking festival, Jeff dies as the result of some variation of season ending cliffhanger violence. The character didn't really catch fire and I don't know where he has to go. If he doesn't die, when Dominique returns it turns out he isn't her son.... maybe Cecil sired him with someone else and Dominique raised him.... but I don't think they will let the Jeff Fallon thing stay creepy. It's rude. I also think Blake will be shot and his scenes in a coma will be indistinguishable from any of his work in any epsiode this whole season.

If they are going to go there, it seems like a great time to bring Jess Walton back for awhile. She links to the history, her character is fond of Jack and she's now mother to the only Abbott left who can run the company under that stupid bylaw. There are scenes to be written. Instead we'll get a brief scene between them acknowledging it at athletic club, probably near Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can't help but believe this will all turn out to be nothing, in the end. If Bell were alive I'd be thinking he's writing the Abbotts out for a new family... this is kind of family shattering, death knell story. But that's not what is happening here.

Prick is recovering from his stroke like I recover from a mild flu. I really love Mal's Battle of Network Stars approach to Sharon at home. No, really I do. #metits.

Actually I think it was someone upthread first... you posted just as I did. I have a hard time figuring this out because in my view they haven't yet made plain what Alexis' motivation is. Originally it was pure revenge, followed quickly by a rekindled love for Blake. No idea what this one is about, yet she's doing random stuff.

On reflection, this must be a red herring on Alexis' part... she's playing Jeff, the hater, to manipulate him into doing something. (After all, the season ender is a few episodes away and the hate storm heading toward Blake couldn't be more obvious. Plus we saw his gun in the safe. Anvils, anvils...) Tom did have an affair with the Colby mother, that's established in Tom's dying last words... seems unlikely Blake wouldn't know if Tom fathered a Colby, but most of all, Blake, scheme notwithstanding, did not panic fight the pending marriage between Jeff and Fallon. Even on a badly thought out show like this, no way they'd actually let a marriage go through that was incest. Plus, Alexis presumably had knowledge of that impending marriage through Steven... they'd been in contact for at least year. So hat's off to whoever said Alexis is lying... that's probably exactly what she is up to.