Dandesun

I'm sorry, guys, I thought Kristen and Daniel getting it on was hilarious. Also, inevitable given that the way they've played every scene since her return was seconds away from rutting like farm animals [/GH's Lucky]. Also hilarious was Brady just hanging out for what seemed like forever as they rolled around on each other, grasping and clawing as if neither one of them has gotten laid in twenty years. "I really like you, Eric." Dammit, can Eve and Eric just have a fun fling? And then be friends with benefits afterwards or something? Come on! Especially with the weirdness that seems to be creeping in between JJ and Eve. Okay... so... Eve seems to not want much to do with JJ at all, keeps comparing him to Jack (I agree that Jack's absence here is keenly felt.) And I can understand that given that Eve never seemed to see the better parts of Jack so much as the swindling, mercenary side of him. That being said, it's frustrating as hell to have her focus on the rapey part of Jack since that was just the one time with Kayla, yes? He wasn't a serial rapist and he actually did suffer and pay some penance for that and earned the status of 'decent enough citizen' on his own afterwards. Jack was probably one of the last of the Daytime Rapists to actually not get it whitewashed, glossed over and forgotten and given this show's history with rape that seems very rare indeed, Meanwhile, JJ seems to be having horny thoughts about Eve and that's where it gets really complicated. I remain torn. I think it could actually be fun and twisted and weird in all the right ways IF they don't go down the rapey path right after and this show I definitely do not trust to do that. Eve's clearly the villain of this piece (this show is also not sly in regards that sort of thing) but I'd just rather they don't go that route period. And I'd like a pony.

So, I have to clarify something... The 'video' that Franco's evil eye took, that he keeps watching, has magically managed to capture video that the show camera has taken, right? Because in reality anything that was strapped to Carly's chest the way that eye seems to be would have gotten a lot of Sonny's moob shots during the sex. Which, let's be honest, would kind of be hilarious to play at a wedding but everyone is probably really glad that's not going to be the case.

I knew it had to be a thing. Nothing that weird could NOT be a thing! What was brilliant about it on the show was that it made it easy to have dialog going on without fighting against the club music. That being said, Terry and Rosa having a normal conversation while people in the background are jumping and waving... pool noodles?... to silence was, to me, a hilarious sight gag. Amy talking about Teddy's mesh underwear cracked me up, too. "Is it a medical thing? How do you even bring that up?" Also, I totally empathize with her new car. My car is closing in on two years old and my niece always sighs about how it 'still smells new' when she gets in... and considering that I am NOT a neat freak at all, I'm very proud that I've managed to keep my car in good shape for so long. (Yes, Jake, I have a Spy Car, too. I actually refer to it as a spaceship but... whatever.) "Captain Holt..." "...has a flair for the dramatic. Look behind you, Madeline!" Love it.

Isn't it just a matter of time before Sonny starts with the 'whoresluttramp' mantra and throws barware? Franco's just easing Joss in.

I still don't think that the Vickerman premiere warranted the sheer mind-blistering awfulness that was Nate and Deanna being blackmailed to do porn in the first place. That shit lasted forever and it was horrible. The premiere was funny, sure, but it wasn't worth it as far as I was concerned. What was worth it, was the Todd reveal... but that didn't have anything to do with the porn. And I'm still pissed that Ron squandered any interaction between Todd and Blair for a full three weeks after that scintillating kiss... Which is why I don't feel that getting too invested in this particular wedding bullshit is a good idea. Ron will focus on the absolute wrong thing when it comes down to it. He'll shove it aside or completely ignore what should be the fallout in lieu of, oh, Franco and Nina being nuts together or something. That's how Ron rolls.

Days did have a sex video played during a wedding... Marlena, who played it, was hoping it would keep Brady from marrying Kristen not realizing that she was playing a video of Kristen raping her drugged son Eric. All in all, what Franco's about to do isn't as all around awful as that mess. Sonny and Carly may not have known they were being taped but they we're both conscious and consensual about the sex they were having.

Show runners had a tendency to completely ignore Blair's influence on things. She so got screwed during that wedding... And Todd stupidly and stubbornly refused to see that he was set up for way too long. I don't even feel that annoyed about Ron trying to replay it... It's not the same at all and it never will be. He's one of the worst about dismissing Blair and it's fairy evident in how he writes Carly as well. As far as Ron sees, if he can have Roger playing a character that's "like" Todd (even if he's not) then he can insert any female opposite him and he'll be able to recreate Todd and Whomever... Because it clearly all rides on Todd. Jerk.

That would explain a few things.

Watching two characters I loathe tear strips out of each other's hides isn't very entertaining for very long. There's a moment of gratification... schadenfreude, if you will, but ultimately I would want more from the show than that.

Well, I am absolutely certain that there are people who are cheering Franco on right now. They either utterly despise Carly and wanted her beaten down completely or they may be members of the 'This Character I Love Can Do No Wrong Ever' contingent of a fanbase that, basically, every character/actor has. But I honestly don't believe that's the majority of the audience. I think Ron likes to think it is. I imagine that it's very easy to please the fans who are like that... because it honestly doesn't matter what happens, if they love a character or an actor then nothing the writers do will ever change that. Based on recaps, I think I know what they were trying to do with today's show... lots of these threads about Sonny, AJ and Ava being tied together from different corners. Anna and Dante are finally realizing that what they thought isn't correct, Morgan getting part of the truth, Ava being targetted by Nina, Jason existing, Franco ready to drop the bomb... I mean, I totally get what they're going for. It's just... this should have been done months ago. (Nina's part is totally unnecessary... as is Jakeson, really... he's just not connected to any of this yet.) But the execution is fucking awful which is a real shame because Ron used to be excellent at this sort of KAPOW!! episode. There's no real sense of urgency here... it's more of a 'Finally, this shit is finally out in the open!' sort of feeling.

I thought the exact same thing. I'm guessing they already knew that the shelf-life on Franco/Carly had expired when he started interacting with her and were just biding their time to blow it up for sweeps. It's been way too long that various show-runners have depended on 'Roger Howarth makes a woobie face!' 'Roger Howarth makes funny!' 'Roger Howarth is cute with kids!' rather than writing a solid story.

The OLTL 'Hell No' wedding was loads better. I mean, it kind of sucked for this T&B fan but a: Blair hadn't cheated on Todd b: She wasn't thinking of someone else immediately before saying 'I do' to him c: The way he talked about her shooting Max was actually kind of strangely sweet 'I have never been more proud of you!' But most importantly, it was the catalyst for Todd unloading every. single. secret. that had been festering in Llanview for at least a year. It wasn't just Blair shooting Max that he revealed but Rae being Skye's mother, Max not being a Buchanan, Ben being the actual Buchanan... and he enraged Asa into a heart attack which is always fun. What's more, he got tossed in jail for his own culpability in covering shit up. (Plus, the Llanview police loved to throw Todd in jail.) This seems like typical Ron... rehash something that had been done much better previously. Do the budget cuts make them go 'We don't have the funds to write new scripts! Get old ones from a different show!' Although it sounds like Joss is the best part of this 'wedding.'

In honor of Halloween, you can always see Kassie DePaiva as Bobbi Jo in Evil Dead 2.

It absolutely makes sense for Tony "The Mechanic" Stark... He's got an engineering mindset. "This doesn't work so I'm going to fix it. I'm going to build a schematic and get to the root of this problem and eradicate it so that the machine runs the way it should." That's just who he is... and one can argue that Howard was a lot like that, too. Never mind what a hot mess he is personally, you know? Steve is so different and I kind of love the fact that he's not this goody-good, idealistic Boy Scout who thinks that everything can be fixed if we just work hard enough or come together or whatever. I think he absolutely believes that people can come together and fight injustice and evil but he also knows that darkness just doesn't go away. He grew up bullied... he was orphaned (father fighting a war; mother a nurse -- both doing their part.) Steve doesn't like bullies no matter where they're from but he also knows that there are always going to be bullies. The Allies won what can be argued as one of the most just wars that were fought in the 20th century (something you really can't say about wars when it comes down to it) but Steve also recognizes that things were lost, too. It does get down to the differences between two men. Tony's a hot mess and Steve is the best of men, this is true. They both fight the good fight for very different reasons also. Tony did get into it because he hated seeing his weapons used against the people they were meant to protect. Steve just wanted to be useful. Tony's the hedonist and Steve has no idea what makes him happy... has probably never thought about being happy. That was a luxury not granted to him before the serum or after it, really. All he wanted to do was be useful to the world. But he is also a soldier. Tony isn't. Tony is the poor little rich boy who made weapons. Steve was the one on the front lines... willingly. Doing whatever it takes... seeing the brutality. I always loved Steve introduction in the Avengers movie... working on the heavy bag and constantly flashing back to war; crashing the plane; being dug out and still being alive. Those were his immediate memories. Tony had his own struggle with PTSD after the Avengers and let's not forget that he was taken and held hostage in a war zone. These two men have quite a bit in common, too... they're just completely different men in how they react and view the world. And that would be why they would clash. Their ideologies are just different. Which I love.

Seriously, what hitman explains the whole fucking plot to the victim? He's like the worst kind of comic-book third rater. "Excuse me, but I must monologue now for my boss... not for my own purposes. I'm just a henchman explaining the plan."

I couldn't give you a date, necessarily. But I would be enraged... enraged I tell you... at the 'anytime AJ's around Michael he never stops crying' bullshit. I'm a girl that has been around kids all of her life. Two younger sisters, lots of younger cousins, baby sat all the time... including the more 'challenging' families with finicky, moody, shy, what-have-you kids and no one ever cried constantly the way Michael did. Seriously, anyone who cried that much should probably have been taken to the doctor because it was simply not normal. Of course, it was Guza's first foray into the Jason Morgan is the Most Awesome Being in the History of Ever... and also my Mary Sue Self-Insertion Character! Whee! I would get so angry with that show that I would just bellow about the injustice of it all after watching it... as my family just gave me long-suffering silent stares and then carried on with normal life. And then one day I said out loud: I don't have to watch this shit! And that's when I stopped. Things would make me curious over the years... Brenda's various returns (I didn't watch the most recent one and am I ever glad... what the fuck was that?!); Jax and Alexis getting married; I did look into Jax/Carly because I simply could not believe that it was real and was kind of horrified to learn that they actually had real chemistry despite my continual feeling that it was a pairing that made no sense in any continuity. And, of course, when the OLTL characters first crossed over... but I knew where that was going from jump so it wasn't enough. Still, I needed my Todd/Blair fix. After she left when he asked her to marry him I didn't even tune into the last Blair visit... knew that wasn't going to be worth it. But I've never been able to find anything worth investing in to tune in regularly since the 90s.

God that's right... and me, like an innocent fawn, thought that Guza's return was going to be a totally awesome thing. (Again, AJ and Carly's friendship was very close to being the only thing good Culliton was writing in between Guza terms.) How wrong I was. What halcyon days those were.

The whole story had such good bones that it is an absolute travesty that it went so wrong so fast. Luke finding out who Carly was and then finding her up at this little love cabin Tony had set her up in and confronting her about it all... basically shredding all of her 'WAH! Poor me! I was adopted and my bio-Mom has a gigantic emerald ring!' by telling her that Bobbie was a teenaged prostitute who wasn't capable of taking care of her... that they were both so completely destitute as kids that they had to resort to that sort of life... that he'd play cards with the johns in the hopes of winning their money so they couldn't go upstairs and fuck his sister. I mean that shit was raw and that's back when Geary was still working at his role, you know? And then the way he put his hand on her neck and said he wouldn't blink about squeezing the life out of her right there rather than have her reveal herself to Bobbie -- that her long lost daughter was the girl shacking up with her husband -- except that she had her mother's eyes. That was seriously good stuff. I mean, breathtakingly good stuff. All the ingredients were there. Carly targeting Tony as a means of revenge but actually falling for him because he really was a good man (and, let's face it, Carly's got serious Daddy issues... it made perfect sense) while Bobbie was in the dark that this girl she had taken under her wing and been betrayed by was actually the long lost daughter she was searching for. Did Labine write all of that set up? I don't recall when the writers switched out... it was layered enough to be Labine (who I thought was wretched on OLTL but I loved her GH) but whatever... And then you had the stuff going on with AJ/Jason, the accident and both of them trying to rebuild their lives... remember when characters and storylines actually intersected? This is just one of the many problems the budget cuts have had over the years. Anyway... it was firing on all cylinders. But then... Guza. Seriously, Guza and Ron are just two very different but equally twisted mirrors into a horrible alternate reality.

Admittedly, I had far less of a problem with AJ making the threats due to the way Carly had completely gaslighted him. That was her own chickens coming home to roost. He was her friend. He was a real friend and she completely tanked him in order to hang on to her mother's husband. I know it's hard to believe the concept of Carly and AJ being friends given what ultimately happened but, at the time, theirs was probably one of the few genuine relationships on the show. Believe me, Jason and Carly were never remotely close until Guza returned and suddenly made them besties out of nowhere. AJ's anger at Carly was legitimate and she knew it which is why she was so desperate to latch onto Tony as a means of protecting herself. I'm trying to remember how the Carly/Tony relationship went south and I'm afraid I don't. I know I didn't much care for Tony suddenly going 'I'm taking this baby from you!' but it must have come from maybe finding out who she really was. Did Luke let it slip? I honestly don't remember that... I do recall Luke really trying to lean on Tony about ditching Carly, too, but the only thing I can think of that would have made Tony actively threaten to rip the baby from her was discovering her real identity, That had to have been it. And that fight was the one that resulted in Carly dropping Jason as the father and then running to him and telling him everything and he's all 'Okay. Sure, I'll allow you to lie around me and not offer up the truth in response.' It was all Guza and it went right into the shitter. What had been happening before was classic soap set up of AJ and Carly actually realizing they were meant to be... I believe Culliton was the head writer at the time and, again, Carly/AJ was one of the few things he got right unfortunately. I found the rest of the show deeply boring but was on the edge of my seat waiting for AJ/Carly to play out. But then Guza returned and it became The Jason Show. ::breaks things::

Has everyone seen the leaked footage of Steve ripping the log in half? Because you should. Also, Tony seems to resent that Steve doesn't have a dark side... uh, HELLO, that's kind of the point of Steve and what the serum did! (Although, to be fair... Steve responded 'Maybe you haven't seen it yet.' Which I like. It's such a Steve way of saying 'Don't piss me off!') For all that Banner's tagline during the 70s (I watched that show religiously back in the day) was 'You wouldn't like me when I'm angry' I don't know that we've ever seen Steve Roger angry. Annoyed, disappointed, irked, somewhat vexed... sure, all of those things. But legitimately full-on angry? Well... I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for that! Are the second skin shirts not enough?

There are few more worthy than Steve. I love that the MCU has gotten that right. I honestly feel that Steve Rogers is my favorite character in the MCU and that's a tough call with so many awesome characters.

Chris Hemsworth was hardly a household name when they cast him as Thor. That being said, it could be that they want to go with a big name in order to help counteract the whole 'female lead superhero movie' or whatever. Like stacking the deck as much as possible? I don't know. I'm happy, though. As much as things could be done with a Black Widow movie there's a part of me that wonders if they want to start the new generation of superheroes and don't want to put an established character into that mix. I don't know if I'm explaining it right. When they were building up to Avengers, I felt they were doing the right thing in establishing the Big Three -- Tony, Cap and Thor with their own properties. Yes, Hulk got a solo movie as well but, I'll be honest, I still haven't seen any of them and don't have any need to. (Nor would I be too eager for yet another Hulk solo even with Ruffalo.) Now they're in phase 2 moving towards phase 3 and they need to establish the points for the newer generation. By the looks of it, they're focusing on Dr. Strange (I am very excited about this, Strange has had his ups and downs but I like the magical stuff so that's me); Ant-Man; T'Challa and Carol. That's a very interesting mix. Magic, Science, Technology and Aliens. What's more, those four elements intersect through the various characters. I'm in.

Book!Ginny actually got a personality. Movie!Ginny seemed to have all of one expression the entire run. My unpopular pairing wish was Harry/Luna... particularly in the movies. They really had a good vibe to me.

Captain Marvel?! They better mean Carol! (See avatar icon.) Black Panther has been cast as well. Chadwick Boseman will be T'Challa. And the rest of that calendar... yeah, I'm excited.

Not to mention that what he did to her is still sexual assault. He drugged her, he got her naked, he took his clothes off, he climbed on top of her, he filmed all of it. It honestly does not matter one whit that he whispered to her that he wasn't going to rape her or hurt her or whatever he said. Everything he did was forced on her without her consent. If she had been awake, she would have been fighting him tooth and nail to keep him from getting anywhere near her. Oh, his penis didn't penetrate her? That doesn't make everything else he did to her okay. It was still horrible and he did it to hurt her and torture her husband as well. None of that was for anyone's good but his own. So his (and Ron's) continual glossing over of it (not to mention the Michael stuff) is completely unacceptable. That it's just par for the course for Ron, who thinks rape is a fucking joke and has never treated it with the seriousness it deserves... especially in this current climate when the concept of consent is constantly in the news... his treatment of it is on the same level of some of those god-awful Republican congressmen and their talk of 'legitimate rape' and shit like that. Franco sexually assaulted Sam. End of story. And the DVDs prove that.