slayer2

Yes, if this were a show that took crime seriously that would play out very very badly in the courtroom.

Yeah I have to wonder if Heather was the hook the whole time myself. The minute it was revealed Esme was her daughter I knew they would make her the Hook but this reminds me of that Arrow storyline where they teased it for a season then randomly killed off the Black freaking Canary! I think the writers dug a hole and waited until the last minute to shove someone in it. Tbh it kind of feels like they forgot about the plot entirely for a little while. I agree that there are some phenomenal older actors on the show. I'm particularly thrilled by Jeff Kober, it was exciting to see him pop up here having witnessed his work in the Buffyverse. I really enjoyed his prison scenes with NAC and Charles S.

It seems to to me that Dante is nearly related to just about everybody somehow and yet he still seems to behave like a judgemental ass and treat the entire town like utter trash from all I've ever witnessed. Quite a feat!

Did Zander end up being Frank's long lost son making Cam his grandson or is that incorrect? On another note I made the mistake a few days ago of watching a few scenes from the return of Jagger and Karen when Stone tells Jagger he has A.I.D.S. I'm not sure why I thought I could just watch that and go to sleep. That was a very sad evening.

Can someone explain the breakdown of the Cassadine lineage from Greek to Russian. It would seem Spencer has Greek on both sides since I think Mike was supposed to be Greek but how is Nikolas Greek and Russian? Is he a Greek Prince or A Russian one?

Whoops, didn't realize there was one.

I'm saying!! His contract has one more year on it and if their plan is to have him doing (however brilliantly) soliloquies at the Wyndemere wall and cooing over a baby for the next year I don't see him sticking around. He's already won an Emmy and although it's his first job a 3 year contract feels like a long time to a 23year old. That was a year and a half wasted for nothing.

I could see that point a few months down the line perhaps however as someone who has (unfortunately) had my life retconned and still isn't particularly close with the "new family" I think it was out of line for Curtis to expect this right away. Time to process should be the minimum IMO.

I feel like you may be missing my point. It's certainly nice for you personally if you are unconcerned about representation however the fact remains that it makes a fundamental difference to how Black people and Black Women are received and perceived and it always had. I assumed you weren't Black because being a POC and being Black are not the same, hence BIPOC. There are certainly people who don't wear makeup and aren't sexually active however the point being in soap operas that's not the case. Historically a female character's sexual viability is denoted on soap opera's by her wardrobe, make-up, hair etc. And I have noticed Trina's beauty and femininity downplayed which does not bode well for her romantically. By contrast Gia (who was played by a bi-racial actress) was a supermodel who was frequently seen in beautiful clothing, dolled up and very much comfortable displaying her sexual interest in Nikolas, she was not infantalized by her parents (brother really) and when he attempted so she pushed back. She had a career and a deep romance that didn't take a year and a half to build, she was treated like an adult and allowed to behave like one in romantic situations. It's fairly certain that the brakes are constantly being pumped on Trina's romantic life and as Sean Kanan pointed out (before he was unceremoniously axed) that's the kiss of death on a soap opera. You are only as good as your romantic viability which is why you will frequently see soap actors testing with scene partners for possible chemistry. There is no good reason for Trina to be 4 years on a soap in a YA storyline longing for a guy who has also been in love with her for over a year and a half. No good reason. I see what @CeChase is saying regarding it potentially being an attempt at sacredness however I also agree it's a fine line and they are very much straddling it, about to fall off. I certainly don't think the show is purposefully making these choices however when you haven't much experience with BIPOC characters unless they have specific input and/or support from BIPOC writers in the writers' room (I think Michele Val Jean was writing when Keesha and the Wards were around) you will inevitably be ill-equipped to manage it and sooner or later you're going to hit some tropes.

You can be a POC however it's an entirely different kettle of fish to be a Black Woman consuming media. Racism, specifically anti-blackness is systemic and as such it's in everything, everywhere, all the time, it was quite literally designed that way. Media in particular plays a very insidious role and soap operas, in the beginning were positive examples of cultural shifts however things really haven't progressed since the 90s. One only has to look at GH now compared to 10 years ago, this is the first time since the Wards that there have been prominent Black families on the show and they are literally the only example of alleged "diversity." Sonny being a Latino character is a happenstance of them acknowledging the actor's heritage with respect to how much space he takes up on the show but there are no prominent Latino, Asian, or South-East Asian families in 2023 and the character's father is Greek. None of his children openly embrace or speak of their Latino heritage either. There are no LGBTQ characters save for one Transgender Woman who unfortunately, is treated more like a dayplayer and Brad Cooper who has been little more than Britt's bestie of late. They showed some progress with Night Shift but that show dissipated and there hasn't been much since. There is no excuse for a young character on a soap to be on a show for 4 years with no definitive love interest. Spencer and her have been dancing around each other for a year and a half and she was still told to "go slow" the character is not treated the same way romantically as other characters her age on the show. It's certainly easy to dismiss it when you aren't Black and aren't paying attention however when you grow up watching TV and often see Black Women poorly represented and when you you frequently see tropes like this left, right and centre (and can cite many other soaps and examples but won't do that here) you simply don't have that luxury.

Yeah, I don't really understand this reasoning that ImposterNik and Liz hiding Esme is why Heather was killing people. Heather is crazy, she was killing people out of revenge it had nothing to do with whether Esme was lost or found. And frankly I find it bizarre people are even upset that they "kidnapped" Esme. She was getting good care and 3 square meals a day which is more than what she would have gotten in prison which is where she would have been if she wasn't locked up at Wyndemere.

I couldn't understand why Curtis would show up to her room and the first thing out of his mouth is not "How are you doing?" Or "How are you dealing with this?" But trauma dumping about his addiction and what HE is going through. He didn't once ask her what she wanted or how she felt. By comparison Taggert immediately consoled her despite his own pain and reassured her. And what was that "I don't want that to change" line from Curtis about Taggert and Trina loving each other like father and daughter? It won't change, you self-centred Milk Dud! Whether bio or adoptive a father's love is a father's love. Yeeesh!

Yes Curtis, because what Trina REALLY needs right now is for you to trauma dump all over her. Throw the whole "father" away.

This exactly! Thank you! They are working overtime to desexualize and infantalize Trina and they were doing it with SM's Trina as well. The fact that she was on the show for 3 years and only had one kiss? Meanwhile Joss is on to her second sexual partner (even when she was still with her first) it's very disturbing and alarming. They did the same thing with Keesha. A very chaste and boring sexual experience for her and Jason's first time and I'm pretty sure I never saw them have sex again nor did we really see her and AJ be intimate (even though I couldn't stand BW's AJ). The Black girls and women on this show get the side character treatment like no other soap opera I've seen. On B and B although they did the same thing to Dayzee, Maya had experience with Rick and Carter. OLTL's Evangeline is probably the most exciting I've seen on a soap for a BW with Cristian but most especially John. Wasn't FV an EP on that show? I fail to understand why FV is perpetuating this harmful stereotype of keeping the Black storylines separate from the White characters and why Trina being on the show for 4 years hasn't had sex and the moment she gets even remotely close she's told to slow down by both her partner and her best friend. The framing is disturbing and while I understand Spencer's reasoning, having Joss echo similar sentiments days later while she is simultaneously screwing the life out of Dex raises a LOT of alarm bells.

Oh I didn't say that, I just quote-tweeted it. I agree with the OP though that Genie is a fantastic and giving scene partner, always listening which is the key to a great actor.

I would love to see Trina confront both Esme again and Heather. Esme in particular, the below was a favourite moment. I would also like to see her in the beautiful, bright, soft colours she was wearing in summer, the wedding dress was a nice start, maybe wardrobe will pick up as winter concludes.

She was so present with him. Incredibly authentic moments.

Thank-you!! It's been driving me nuts. Especially as someone who had next to nothing at my disposal in a small white town until Iman Cosmetics came along. Now I have favourite shades of red in just about every brand, there's no excuse for them to not allow her to play with lipstick colours and brighter, more sexy clothing. It really feels deliberate and it's annoying. I'd noticed is with Sydney as well although with Sydney it was even worse in terms of the horrible wardrobe they saddled her with which is crazy because Sydney is also gorgeous and takes a lot of fashion risks as well. Tabyana as Trina has a least had some cute outfits more recently, maybe because they also noticed, as you mentioned, how fashionable she is on instagram. I really do wish they would treat her like a romantic lead makeup, fashion and script-wise because the infantalizing and dressing her down is beginning to disturb me.

I think CD is a fantastic actor, it's always been the writing that's the issue for me.

Yes, from the brief time I've been back I've noticed an oversaturation of characters on this show that seem to make it incredibly hard for the writers (and surely the actors) to keep the stories straight. 30 second scenes twice a week is crazy. Especially when you see it with vets like Anna Devane and Kevin Collins. Wild times. It also really ruins the momentum and fuzzes up the progress. Case in point, Trina went to visit Spencer at the prison after discovering he believed in her the whole time and asked him if he wanted to start again and he rebuffed her after discovering she went away with Rory. There were some good in-depth scenes there but they ended up amounting to nothing when the next time they saw each other Spencer was asking HER to start again and Trina was holding him off. It was a complete role reversal between the two of them but zero in between narrative to explain it. I think with so many characters it really bogs down the narrative and then stories like The Hook Killer, being completely ignored as everyone wanders around Port Chuck without a care in the world when there's a serial killer running amuck, don't help. They have so many storylines on the go that don't feed into each other that they can't even resolve the Hook properly. Wouldn't Trina want to confront Heather? Wasn't that Brando guy related to Sonny? What about Liesl and Britt's friends? It seems a bit careless to me.

I tend to give her grace because I don't recall seeing her or hearing of her in any major storylines like Lexi Ainsworth or Lindsey Morgan's Kristina received. Whenever I saw Haley in a storyline she was always written very Pollyanna and not given many layers or room to make mistakes. I don't find the actress who plays Jordan to be "horrible". I do think she's incredibly one note though, in the same way I found Marcus Coloma to be, and while I wouldn't say neither of them can act they, IMO, aren't giving anything. It's just kind of flat for me. I truly believe most soaps tend to write to what they *perceive actor's strengths to be. Perhaps due to the fast pace of the medium they don't think they have time to wait for people to improve or to throw out options and see what clicks in storylines and/or characters so they end up following through with whatever they believe the actor can carry. Perhaps we would get an actual storyline for Jordan with an actor who could carry it but it doesn't seem like this one (much like MC IMO) is compelling enough to carry it. That's a shame because I'm pretty sure she was played by that fantastic Canadian actress prior to this who is doing quite well on her show here in Canada. In a similar vein I wish they'd give Curtis' story back to Taggert and Real (another Canadian find). I've always found Real to be incredible and always wanted more from him on screen and sorry to say but DT is giving me nothing.

Strengthens my belief that they should have had Spencer and Trina have grief sex. It should be happening right now. Telling someone to "take it slow" when there's been a year and a half of build up means you're treating the character with kid gloves. I saw them do this to Bonnie on TVD as well and it's disturbing. I've yet to see GH really give a Black female character a healthy sexual life. Even Keesha was incredibly chaste. In terms of being small in stature that may play a role as it took them a while to be make Robin sexually viable but they did eventually with Stone, Jason and Patrick. I tend to think that was more due to them having grown up with her as a child actor as Vanessa is about Tabyana's size and Brenda was very much sexualized although they did infantalize her quite a bit. I actually have quite a bit to say about this because I have been lamenting Trina's lack of lipstick for awhile. She has an incredible body and beautiful skin that a lot of colours would look lovely against. There is a disturbing trend on soaps to downplay the beauty of Black actresses on the show (the do this to Elena on Y and R) I can't for the life of me understand why someone who is deeply in love with a man and is finally starting to date him wouldn't be allowed to wear a nice red lippy or a red dress. Red is stature on soaps and TV for the sexual viability of women. If you noticed Brenda, Joss, Carly all wearing a red lip when it was time to pair them up. The chaste, muted pinks are a choice on the part of the makeup and wardrobe team and I don't like that.

I hope the same but I'm afraid that the show has decided that NAC's niche as Spencer is blaming himself and feeling generally awful. There's no other reason for a year and a half of pining over both Trina and Nikolas to have one storyline move at a glacial pace and the other have no resolution whatsoever. I feel like all they're going to give him is angst, which sucks. The more you dig into the Spencer/ImposterNik/Ava storyline the more miserable it becomes as Spencer will find out he's dead, then find out Ava was involved then find out his father never pushed Esme and he only admitted to it to exonerate Ava and then everyone will want Esme to raise her baby and be free and on and on and so forth and it just gets uglier and uglier for him. The only bright spot is Trina and they only see each other a couple times a month so *sigh*

Yeah but that's the writing and wardrobe. I liked the dress, I have a dress sort of similar (in my 40s) however since it was a bridesmaid dress it's unlikely that Trina chose it. From a narrative perspective it makes sense from Portia to select a princess-y dress given that Portia is very girly and sees Trina as her little girl. I don't personally feel she's spoiled for wanting answers from her mother, especially since her mother was given the opportunity to come clean about the possibility of Trina being Curtis' daughter when the affair came out. It's also par for the course for characters to publicly address their parents' and their deceit on this show. I think Trina has a lot more right to be upset about something that directly affects her than Michael and Joss being angry at Sonny for not choosing Carly. I certainly don't think Stella helped matters by vaguing it up and being alarmingly cryptic when they went to see her. If someone was responding to me that way my anxiety would skyrocket.

Yes, it feels like the people who write Joss and Carly change daily because they often dole out really sound advice however it's advice they themselves have NEVER taken. Trina should try moving quickly for a change. Girl, hasn't had a chance to be a teenager in some time.