Sandman

I agree the scenes in the truck were well played, but it still seemed a little too easy somehow. Maybe it was the suddenness of Sam's "I love you"? There was a certain "All better now" quality to the end sequence. Swarek's still a grudge-holding, closed-off jerkface, I think. This show still has the capacity to surprise me sometimes. I was not expecting Swarek to come up with an "I love you" just then. I was definitely not expecting the patsy guy to try to slash his own throat. (Don't police cruisers have safety glass?) I knew that the wife character had to be important -- they're not hiring Liane Balaban and not giving her something to do besides pickup duty at the clink.

So how big a fortune would I need to be heir to in order to pay never to see Kristen ever again? I mean EVER ever. No flashbacks, no ghost scenes, no fantasy sequences -- nada. I'm talking bupkes. Does anyone even have that kind of money anymore?

I thought Paige was talking about music that was on in their house -- music that her mother liked, rather than music she could perform credibly. I thought Jennifer's comment about "range" was dumb; but I guess we were meant to think that Eve can sing anything and everything, Gold help us. I couldn't even make it to the "Dun dun dunnn!" moment where Paige reveals her mom's picture to Jennifer. That's how boring I'm finding the show.

I thought it might have been Smith, too. But is it likely that he too was sitting way in the back, where Massey seemed to be stuck?

But it wasn't primarily about a love triangle with Jack, was it? Am I mis-remembering? I knew this bit felt off. Maybe Kate wasn't so much realizing that sex that time with Rafe was a mistake, but remembering how boring it was on previous occasions?

The producers and showrunners must know the genre is dying, and the fact that the remaining fanbase has a long and detailed collective memory is discounted; what matters is making whatever money remains to be made. The patience and loyalty of the audience isn't so much taken for granted as undervalued. Ken Corday knows perfectly well that soap fans are more likely than most to know the history of their show(s) -- he also knows perfectly well that the internet exists, with videotape evidence of the how the older stories ran. I'm not convinced he cares.

Mary Beth Evans has had to put up with worse than being a supporting player in Sami's endless drama. Hello, Kayla gets backburnered in favour of the monosynaptic Dr. Strippergram? Kayla has to prop up the relationship between Casey Diedrick's unwashed emo hair and Abigail the Vestal? They cast the role of Boring Ben twice to drum up interest in his alleged secret from his lacklustre past with his non-entity of sister, and Kayla can't get scenes that don't involve "Paging Doctor Exposition. Dr. Exposition to the Nurses' Station coffee stand, stat!"? I mean, really. Patsy Pease would look like a model of subtlety and decorum next to ravening harpies and professional victims like Kristen, Julie and Nicole.

This is why I don't understand how a show so badly written wins Emmys at all: if the viewership is left with only a choice between Boring Whiner and Whack-Ass Nutjob, how is that worthy of an award? I, too, have like Kassie de Paiva since she played Chelsea Reardon, but she's not anything like the Eve I remember. Why bring back a character, invent a rivalry with Jennifer that never truly existed, cast someone else completely unlike the actress who played her, only to have her "fall" for Dr. Leather McGropington? No, thanks.

The wedding clip showed Wilson but identified him as Massey playing Will Horton.

Yeah, whatever else was going on, Wilson has done nothing to Massey. It's unfair to suggest he's slighting Massey in some way. I think it's reasonable that he'd think first of congratulating his castmates.

I can't believe Martsolf won; Davidson was favoured to win her category, I guess, and I can't fault her commitment, but I still think Kristen's a disgusting joke. In my heart of hearts I suspect that the reason other cast members have seldom mentioned Massey by name since he left the show (or have sometimes referred to him as "the other actor") is because of an edict from the showrunners; I have no trouble believing that the switch in reels was not an accident. The whole Daytime Emmys operation sounds like a joke.

So Theresa must know who Paige is if they're related, right?

He's mentally whispering in Logan's ear during their game of hide-and-seek, right? I never thought there was any degree of compulsion there -- but now I wonder. I can buy the younger Xavier discovering an ethical code for himself in using his powers. Especially given the end of First Class; I think it's made fairly explicit that Charles held Shaw in a psychic grip that made it impossible for him to escape being "nickeled and dimed to death" by Erik -- but it's also implied that Charles experienced Shaw's death along with him on some level. I could see that kind of experience leading to Charles's reconsideration how (and if) he can he use his powers ethically.

The movie version of Charles is much less concerned with the ethics of controlling the minds of others than the comics version ever was, as far as I can remember. I don't believe book-Charles would ever have supplanted the will of another even to stop Magneto, but movie-Charles just turns the members of the Brotherhood into meat puppets the first chance he gets. (Even "freezing" people between one thought and the next seems kind of suspect to me, suspending all thought processes for the sake of movie exposition.) The ethics of mental manipulation become a plot thread in the story of Jean's transformation into the Dark Phoenix; Charles cautions her against influencing people (as she does almost immediately with Kitty Pryde's father, to make him more open to meeting the X-gang for the first time). Charles is shocked that Jean brushes his concern aside. This will never not be hilarious.

Only if it's chain lightning that manages to frizzle stupid Kristen and Julie, too, that hyperactive, hypocritical jerk. Ben, meanwhile, is bringing creepy new meaning to the term "sister-wife." When he isn't eyeing up Sonny, that is.

Nah. That was just guilt.

I'm sure Abigail thinks that "pushy" applies to other people; when she does the same things, she's being determined. (See the difference?)

Lil' Stoned Onion said he took some of Sexy the Shrink's (what's her name? Lanyard or something?) aspirin but he was "Pretty sure they're not aspirin"; from what I saw, it looked like they were stored in a generic analgesic/aspirin bottle. She clearly wasn't storing them appropriately, but he probably didn't appear to look closely at the tablets before downing a couple. Is it realistic not to distinguish MDMA from ASA pills? I have no clue. Paul is just stupid.

Smirky or otherwise, I think Massey did a good job at conveying Will's powerfully ambivalent relationship with his mother. I think it's actually quite in character for him not to defend his mother -- especially to another family member such as Abigail. I'm not saying it's admirable, mind you. But it was clear that OlWill loved his mother and was deeply frustrated and disappointed by her in nearly equal measure. Guy Wilson's version doesn't really seem to care that much one way or the other. I'm not sure having lines to read where Will specifically came to Sami's defence could alter that impression. Will's lack of initiative is and was a continuing problem that cannot be resolved by either -- or any -- actor, though Wilson's lack of a specific point of view does make it worse, in my view.

See? More manpain revelation for the Angry Onion! Could he just keep taking E, please? I agree he's more fun that way. I'm still laughing at the idea of Dr. Alien's gaydar being jammed on its "broadcast" setting. I half-expected Jordan to casually drop "Oh, by the way, I want to meet Rick next time he's in town" on him in the elevator. I believe Scott Wolf stopped aging sometime in 1999. (He's almost a decade older than Jill Flint.)

Did you not see how his office was being destroyed by a wild boar? Oh, the humanity! I'm totally counting it. Can a single episode go by without Tragic Consequences or Dr. Sexy completely ignoring the need for consent? Sisters squabbling? Can't get consent for a transfusion? Informed consent? Whatevs. Patient autonomy? Pff. Yeah, right! Just knock 'er unconcious! Because ... um, war? I'm guessing Mister Lil' Onion has Legal on speed dial every shift. Or he just has an open cell call going constantly. Is it "Ian" or "Ewan"? (Or "Owen"?) I've heard various reports.

Right? The recast doesn't seem to have altered that. He treated Nicole like a rapist. She's acting like a complete idiot, but Eric's in a poor position to hold an opinion on what either of them deserves, I'd say. Isn't looking like there isn't a thought passing through his head sort of business as usual for Rafe? It's more remarkable to me when he looks as if he might be experiencing cerebral activity firsthand.

It is to John. But so are most things. Nicole should avoid establishments owned by Bradys, Kiriakises, Blacks or Dimeras, on that basis. What does that leave her?

Whoops. Double post.

I'm sure Stefano had his own full-time forger on staff back in the day, along with the chimneysweep/smashed goblet collector and the under-parlourmaid whose job it was to polish fingerprints off the handguns, glassware and windows.