bantering

Claire looks so much like Kirsten Storms it's kind of jarring, since it just brings back memories of the old Belle for me.

Ava is so annoying. Blech. She makes Sami during her Austin days seem sane. I can't handle this level of certifiable insanity. Make her go away, please. Yuck, I don't like this lady at all.

I groan every time I see Tamara Braun. I feel she doesn't fit on this show at the present time.

Would Olivia's journalism career be affected by the scantily clad cake routine? I still don't get why she's on this show -- I saw her anchor reel, and it looked pretty good (at least in the sense that she seemed to be a competent news reader). Why is she risking her career to look like an idiot on a dating/sex game show? (She's really pretty with a strong career at only age 23, so I'm baffled as to why someone like her would need or want to be on this show.) I'd rather have Olivia's career than Ben or any other Bachelor that's been on this show.

Hope's love life is moving so fast. Geez, even Nicole and Sami would take breathers when moving back and forth between men. The quick movement from Aiden to Bo and now to Rafe is a little weird to me, even by soap standards.

Ugh, Nu-Phillip's face. Bugs me to no end. I'm not even sure a hair-cut or SPF can save it.

John knows he can die if he donates his heart, right? It's not like donating a kidney since you have two of them...

Nu-Phillip needs SPF moisturizer. He makes Daniel look ageless.

I really don't get why the tv anchor quit her job to be on this show if she's already on tv. WTF. The journalism career probably would have taken her further to eventual "stardom", if that's her aspiration. The commercial pointed to him falling in love with two women. Is that why they brought Jason M to give him advice? Is that why he's on a cliff? Is he going to pick the wrong woman, dump her, and then get engaged to the other lady on the after-show?

Abigail: Do you really think I'm that desperate? Me: The writers must be trolling us. Roman doesn't seem that concerned about his son.

Well, hopefully Daniel was able to take his spray-tanning machine with him into the afterlife...

Where is this ethical concern for an actor when we're making fun of Dr. Dan the Tan Man? With Abigail gone, I'll probably be now making a lot of fun of Belle's glued-on helmet hair rather than Abigail's absence from the show.

I made fun of Nu-Phillip's face. So Abigail isn't the only one I mock on this show. I think I was way crueller in assessing Nu-Phillip's face than I was in remarking that KM might wind up on a reality show (that's what so many actors wind up doing these days, so I don't think it was that out of line or that odd of a prediction to make), but comments on KM get noticed more. It's possible I could be guilty of personal attacks, but if that's the case, I'm guilty of doing to other actors on this show too-- like Dr. Oompa-Loompa! And I'm pretty sure Nu-Phillip is going to be getting it from me once his air-time starts rivalling KM's.

I vaguely remember Kassie De Paiva praising JJ and Paige as being the next big couple who could achieve super couple status. But then JJ wound up in bed with Paige's mom and Paige got murdered. So I don't know if praise from co-stars means much on this show... I think KM does get along well with her co-stars and she seems to network well, so I can see why they'd praise her and whoever she's with as a potentially good pairing. They know her in a way that we don't -- if I knew her as a person and she was nice to me, I think it would be far more difficult for me to make fun of her like I do from a distance without knowing her.

I don't think Chabby are a bad pairing (if you forget the stupidity of the actual story, and just go based on how the actors work with each other), but I think BF's chemistry with Belle in her current incarnation has highlighted that he could probably be paired with anyone and make it work. What makes Chabby work comes down to him.

I think KM did a lot of speaking on Rob Wilson's behalf too -- like how he was frustrated with what the writers trying to the character until they turned him into a serial killer. I would probably characterize Chabby as a "good coupling" rather than as a super couple. So I agree that the former term works better in today's soap context. I'd probably watch KM if she did a fitness video. I think that sort of thing is what she excels at, and seems the most interested in according to her Instagram. I have a feeling we'll wind up seeing her in a reality show before we see her in a prime-time one.

I don't know... Abigail was always a liar. Maybe not a cheater in the strict sense of the word -- but she did lie a lot to try and cheat WITH, rather than on, people. Mansi is usually talkative about interpretations in her interviews -- not sure if a lot of them make sense when it comes to Abigail though, or if her interpretations match up with what shows up on screen. Maybe the producers have told her to just believe that Abigail is really a nice person with integrity or to forget what her character did to try and get with EJ and Austin. I did wonder if she is leaving the show though -- she said that this is the first time in 5 years the show is telling complicated, compelling, and real stories, and usually actors don't dis the previous writing unless they're leaving.

I think at first it came across as if Abigail was more concerned about her baby (at least writing-wise), but once Abigail stormed into the room to find Chad with Helmet Head it came across acting-wise as if she was more concerned with who Chad was sleeping with. So, yeah, dialogue-wise and in the writing Abigail is shown to have some concern for the baby, but acting-wise KM made it seem she was more concerned with Chad's sex life once she got a hold of him. So KM had help with the writing, but failed in the nuances part of showing Abigail's concern once she got Chad alone. A young MR probably would have done better with that confrontation.

The director should have instructed KM to say "You're married" in a crestfallen rather than highly judgmental way (the tone was really bad there). The line was kind of stupid for Abigail's character to say given her history, but I think there was an interpretive spin she could have put on it that could have made us better understand her disappointment at losing her love to the lady with glued-on hair...or, er, something. I just wouldn't have gone with that tone in saying that line...but I'm not an actress.

Abby has never had a problem going after married guys. And sleeping with a married woman is comparatively not as bad as what a "A DIMERA!!!!!!" (isn't that what everybody screams when they want to talk about how bad they stink?) is capable of. So it's clear why most people on the forums would be laughing at her. Even if you like Abigail and are a fan, it would be hard not to think "Pot meet kettle." Her penchant for married guys is Abigail's defining characteristic -- nothing else about her personality overshadows that glaring flaw like it does with other characters on this show. So even something as small as saying "You're married!" would naturally elicit a guffaw and a "what the hail, Abigail???"

Belle's hair bothers me. It looks glued to her head. She could probably look younger if they did something better to her hair. The way things are going with her hair, she's probably going to look older than Carrie (or maybe already does.) Has MM ever had good hair? I remember being annoyed by her short hair too. AS has gotten more fit and toned over the years (doesn't she basically have muscles and major ab definition now?), which I think has made her come across as more youthful. So I think that also accounts for why Belle is starting to look older than Sami. If Sami had remained frumpy and chubby like she was during her teenage years, Belle could probably pass for being the younger sister. But now that Sami is thin and has muscle definition, Belle and Carrie don't come off as the more glamorous sisters anymore, even when Sami wears the worst outfits of all time. Maybe Carrie does, but Belle with that glued-on hair certainly doesn't.

I think the fact that Belle has had a second affair on Shawn looks pretty dumb. The first one could probably be canceled out, but the second one makes her look pretty bad (just like it did with Carrie). A pattern of that kind of behaviour looks pretty stinky, although I'm not as offended by Belle or Carrie as I am by Abigail (who cheated on or tried to cheat with people more times than actually cheating on someone), and my only explanation is their acting isn't as annoying to me. Abigail is so annoying, I'm actually okay with Belle landing Chad, even though Belle is starting to look older than Sami (wtf).

Yeah, I paused before mentioning "in entertainment" as it does happen in real life, but in real life the guy usually has to have a ton of money to get a younger woman to be interested in him. Do I think younger women naturally gravitate towards older men as a general rule if they don't have money or don't look like Brad Pitt (or maybe used to look like...insert the name of any celebrity who used to catch a lot of women's fancy in his prime)? --- not really. Older men wanting younger, fertile women - yeah, sure, that happens a lot. A younger woman obsessing over an older man if he's not Robert Redford in that Demi Moore movie (and the younger competition doesn't look like Woody Harrelson) -- I'm not sure how often that happens. Even though Patch is handsome for his age, I feel I have to suspend too much disbelief to wonder why pretty youthful Ava is wasting her prime years obsessing over a 60 year old. Maybe if she merely liked him, that would be okay, as there are some couplings where the younger women genuinely likes the older man for himself. But...er... going full on bonkers like she seems to be approaching every time she sends eye daggers at Kayla? Does Patch have a lot of money stashed away somewhere?

No matter how well-preserved Patch might be, I feel as though Ava is too young to be obsessing over him. I get that the older man-younger woman scenario is a thing in entertainment, but still....although, oh wait, wasn't she obsessed with John too? Okay, maybe this is in character, but also built on a fantasy older guys in entertainment have...

Too many stupid questions pop into my head whenever I see Andre trying to unfold his plan: How does Andre know what the sexual capabilities of Chad might be? Why does he think sex could make Belle tell the truth about Sami's whereabouts, no matter how good the sex might be? How does he know whether Belle will actually fall for Chad? (yeah, I get that she cheats, but she didn't seem to offer a facial opinion either way when Abigail stormed in to yell at Chad). What if Belle decides she wants to focus on her law career more than anything else? What if Phillip gets to Belle first, and she decides Chad might be inferior in the bed dept (isn't that what happened with Shawn??) What if Abigail kisses Chad and he decided he likes what he's kissing, brainwashing be darned? I think the brain transplant storyline on Friends' version of DOOL where Joey was going to be implanted with Susan Sarandon's brain, and hence a new personality, made more sense to me.