The Genoa City storylines are going through normal human storylines. The comfort and improvement in everything about the show has been boldly apparent over the last three months.

Social issues have been *very* difficult to discuss or *not* discuss in any way. People are afraid of offending, being offended, being disrespected.

Thus it has been noticeable to me, and may it is just me as a 13 year viewer, that the effort gone into continuing to keep an hour a day show going, a show requiring 37 minutes of pure writing from a blank piece of paper, has been tremendous.

CBS® is the sponsor of the greatest show on tv now and the best ever on high level New York City power players, BILLIONS®. Thing about Billions: when a writer is stuck for a word they seem to find a curse unusable on daytime tv. This makes daytime tv writing not onluy more laborious by a factor of at least 20 (5 shows a week, 52 weeks a year minus a few holiday college bowl and hoops games) , as miny series as the great Madmen®, DEADWOOD®.

Anyway, this episode got me thinking about the classic Dr. Phil quote, “every situation needs a hero.” Here, we have a fascinating set of potential storylines with many characters angry at each other barring Victoria and Billy, Mariah and Tessa. Wee see everyone else’s unhappiness. Notice the paradox: the more a character tries to find happjness in and of itself, it does not work. What works is finding a place for someone in the world. Hence the center of the storm: Victor trying at first just to make his family happy. After all, there is no money to worry about and Victor could easily retire on money that were it real would rival Jack Welch or contemporary Ferdinand Porsche. He cannot force Adam to be happy, nor can he force others to feel happy around him. Having seen this, we will see if Adam finds a place in the world – what Victor Christian Newman would always say is the number one thing in establishing the family: a loyal, hard-working, compassionate role in the world.

It leaves me with a feeling of having watched the characters in the fictionalized (is that a little redundant? Better safe than sorry! People are delicate.) yearning by a town for a person with a heart of gold. Victor realizes that he cannot serve that role; rather, as Neil Young does as he finds the song here, enter the extra sugar fake syrup: the heart of gold *within themselves* – all of us. It is a very inclusive show! Then again, how many can’t miss players are gone in a year? Applause to the writers and actors especially.

Speaking of which, the music in the background scene where Mariah is talking to Tessa is fantastically great. I watch the show with noice cancelling headphones on cbs.com and the cbs app. The headphones because great sound makes the show 3x as great for me. I’m an accompanist more than an attorney at this point, and I was nicely surprised by the guitar playing and orchestral harmonies on what sounded like probably a top keyboard. Is that therir theme? I hadn’t noticed.