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Thirty seconds later, Molly made the mistake of using the word "alcohol," and TJ yelled, "KRISTINA WAS DRINKING?!" If Molly hadn't clarified that it was Josslyn drinking, I think TJ was going to make a beeline for Kristina to...who knows? Imprison her like Nikolas did with Esme, maybe. TJ is as quick to get agitated as Sonny is, but we have a story reason for Sonny. I have a hard time figuring out what they (both E-Trick and Chris/Dan) want us to think TJ's personality is. I also wonder how much this actor's delivery is responsible. To me, he always seems a little too intense about whatever the emotional state is.

I'll offer a counterpoint on Gregory. It's nothing against the actor, and it's nothing from which anyone should infer lack of sympathy on my part for ALS sufferers, but I'm not getting much out of this. It's a typical GH medical story of recent times: dreary, drawn out, and less about the stricken character than about someone in his orbit. See also Oscar's cancer (starring the astonishingly resilient Josslyn) and Mike's dementia (how will Sonny cope?!). Also, brooding Easton is my least favorite Easton, and "My daddy with whom I've had a troubled relationship is slipping away" is nothing if not a brood-trap. Finn goes down best when he brings the dry humor.

That reminds me of the Nixon Falls era, when we were getting constant cues, subtle and unsubtle, that we were supposed to see Lenny as a significantly older man than Sonny/"Mike," almost as if Sonny/Mike were the son Lenny and Phyllis never had. Mo is, in fact, younger than Rif Hutton...by three months!

"Astonishingly resilient" is the new "brave and strong and loves with her whole heart." (...not just a part of it!)

Yeah, he's always been big on the gesturing (although I don't know if I'd say it helps him successfully act). I first saw him as Ryan on AMC more than 20 years ago, and I remember his acting when the Gillian character was shot and it was hopeless for her. Some other desperate character needed Ryan to sign off on donating one of her organs (heart, maybe?), and he was all "No! I won't kill Gillian! She might come back to me!" His big move during that storyline—from the shooting through the formal grieving process—was to knit both hands together behind his head, elbows up in the air, and make drumming or massaging motions on the back of his head with his hands, while wincing. He was so OTT with this manic, caffeinated portrayal of grief that it defeated what should have been a sad story, for me. It started to get funny, then tiresome. I think it has to do with the scarcity of daytime dramas. If there were still, say, eight of them in production instead of four, some of these actors would be on other shows. That's especially true of daytime veterans such as West, Easton, Watros. Kelly, Setton, and Howarth, all well known from canceled soaps. Now there just aren't as many places for them to go. I get why they say yes to a regular gig, obviously. On the part of Frank V. and ABC, I think it's just about trying to hold on to what survives of the soap audience, with a point of view that a new familiar face or different face could make the show more appealing to someone. On the other hand, I do count 31 actors in this intro from 2000. Not that all of them were being written for regularly.

By now, whenever I see a guest star who's in the "beloved" category, I know Larry is (probably without bad intentions) going to do something he'll be hated for. He tripped Shaq during a game, accidentally, sending him to the hospital. He mocked Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's, but he was actually just miming playing a violin because that's the replacement present he got his girlfriend's kid. He disabled Lin-Manuel Miranda by shooting him in the mouth with a paintball. And he gave the Boss COVID. He's wreaked havoc across the worlds of sport, music, theater, and philanthropy!

Personally, in the Sarah Brown years and (to a lesser extent) the Tamara Braun years, I always thought the "Jason and Carly as BFFs for life" thing came off as sublimation. It was as if Carly was deeply in love with this guy, and she had accepted that he'd never have sex with her again or entertain the notion of a romantic relationship (especially after Sonny staked his claim), so "my best friend" is the declaration she could make. The vibe I got from Burton as Jason supported that. He was often impatient with her, and yelled at her when she needlessly caused trouble for herself. And there was about 20 times as much of Carly going to Jason for help as there was of the reverse, which isn't the way any friendship of mine goes. But then in the Laura Wright years, for better or worse, it did seem like more of a reciprocal friendship, which was a bummer. I'm a Carly hater, so I'll always prefer it when she's full of shit.

Yes, once the "Return of Eddie Maine" stuff ran its course, and what he knew about Nina's SEC tip became widely known, Ned went back in storage. As far as I can tell from a quick look through summaries, Ned has had one appearance since New Year's week: some ELQ-related squabbling with Michael in the January 17 episode. When he was last seen, Tracy was telling him that the new acrimony between Michael and Drew would only strengthen his (Ned's) position, and Ned looked pleased at that thought. I guess he then went offscreen to enjoy his stronger position. Since then, he's only been mentioned and discussed (e.g., "You let everyone believe Ned was responsible!").

Don't forget the polycythemia vera! I've seen this kind of thing before in long-running shows, both in daytime and in prime time—regrettably, usually with "strong" female characters. The character starts out one way, and then some combination of the writers' room, the producers, and the network decide that "beleaguered" and "emotional" are the character's best suit, even if few viewers feel that way. Then the weepy version of the character, if not the only one we ever see, is seriously overexposed. It's like, "Uncle! We get it! She can be 'vulnerable' too."

No matter who's writing or producing, the holy-hitman dogma never goes away. I can't help comparing the in-show reactions to Jason's return, to the reactions to Nikolas's similar 2019 return. Both guys were presumed dead for a few years, then turned up alive in Port Charles. With Nikolas, we were put on notice very early that one reaction would be "How could he stay away for years and make his loved ones suffer?" Some characters were still saying that after a period of years. But on Jason's behalf, Josslyn insists to Trina that there must have been a very good reason. And of the two of them, Nikolas is the one who wasn't implicated in a shooting as soon as he got back. However: This is the biggest improvement I've noticed. Several times per episode, I react to lines as having been especially good, even in "filler" conversations. An example is Elizabeth's (to Willow) about how raising teenage boys means digging for information, sometimes lovingly and sometimes with a pickax. The pacing is the other big improvement, specifically the new willingness to stay in one place longer and let the scenes breathe, instead of frantically cutting between different locations every 15 seconds.

Sonny can "count on one hand" the number of good people in his life, and Dante is one of them? That was harsh. I was trying to think of who the others would be. Michael is presently excluded from his affections, as are (related story) Nina and Dex, but I'd think he still had enough for two hands and more. Kristina, Molly, Laura, Anna, Olivia, Brook, Lois, Carly, Alexis, Sam, Brick, Spinelli. There are others he has a history of closeness with, even if they haven't had a lot of scenes together lately: Elizabeth, Stella, Curtis, etc. Not that I think all of those are good people...

This one is really testing my memory. They were definitely partners. It started well before the disbarment, though. Alexis either joined Diane's firm or they started their own in 2010, when Sonny "Pure Muscle" Corinthos was on trial for the murder of Claudia Zacchara. For a very brief time, Claire, the federal attorney who had a relationship with Sonny, was also their partner. From looking at episode summaries, she simply stopped appearing...right after becoming partners with Alexis and Diane. I guess someone at GH decided that three lady lawyers was one more than necessary. My recollection—which isn't worth a lot in this case—is that in the years leading up the disbarment, Alexis and Diane were back to being written more as close friends who had the same profession, rather than partners. So their being part of the same law firm may be something that just slipped away over five writing regime changes.

Michael's non-reaction to Willow's news of the Drew/Carly breakup was funny to me. To be fair, he did wrinkle up his face a little while saying, without expression, "Wow. Uh. Too bad," as if Willow had just reported that a play outing for Wiley had to be postponed because of rain. Then they moved on to discussing everyone's favorite topic of the last week, Jason. "Wow. Too bad" probably was a realistic reaction for a thirtysomething guy whose mom's boyfriend of a couple years has moved on, but Michael and Carly normally get so overwrought over each other's relationships. I think we can see the way this is going to go: a repeat of the "Drew the Superfluous" writing from 2018. if Spare hadn't already been used as the title of someone's memoir...

Ran over her kidneys! Stupid Drew. So dramatic.

We all know Soap World is weird and incestuous, but this is a little like knowing water is going to be cold and still being jolted when you immerse yourself in it. While watching one of the most recent episodes, following Dante's shooting, I was sitting there thinking about how many of Sonny's baby mamas were in the episode, most of them hanging out at the hospital, and how many of them got hugs from him. The scorecard: Ava: Baby mama, at the hospital, got a hug. Olivia: Baby mama, at the hospital, got a hug. Sam: Baby mama (stillborn), at the hospital, got a hug. Alexis: Baby mama, at the hospital, did not get a hug. Nina: Not a baby mama, at the hospital, did not get a hug. Carly: Baby mama, not at the hospital, did not get a hug. I think they're a good fit. I don't agree with comments that KSt is so far our of his league and the re-pairing is a punishment for her. Maybe one reason you're finding them fun to watch now is that her pairings in the interim have been mostly terrible. The reviled Levi Dunkleman, easy-on-the-eyes but granitic Nathan, Parking Lot Pete, and The Artist Formerly Known as Todd Manning.

I think it's standard practice for the defense in civil suits to request that the suit be dismissed, even when the judge is unlikely to go along. When the defendant is famous, whether minor-famous like Haley Pullos or major-famous like Lizzo (whose team tried the same tactic in the lawsuit brought by her dancers), this makes for good headlines ("[celebrity] ASKS JUDGE TO THROW OUT LAWSUIT!"), but I think it's just preliminary maneuvering. It can result in some individual claims within a larger case being ruled out. From the Burton interview: So...Swickard is a lot like his character.

Twenty to twenty-five years ago, Maurice Benard knew he was one of the "big fish in a small pond" types in daytime. He would give interviews to the magazines and talk about what he hoped would happen for Sonny, and he'd imply that fulfillment of his wishes would make him more likely to renew at the next contract. He was pushing for years to have his own mental-health condition written into his character, before it finally happened in the mid-2000s. Nowadays, there are three other soaps rather than ten, he's about to turn 61, and the most significant acting work he's done outside of daytime TV in the last 20 years was a bit part as a soap star (opposite Laura Wright) in a David O. Russell film. I don't know if he has the leverage he once had.

Tamara Braun seems to be the most polarizing of the four Carlys, in the sense that we all watched the same show but felt different things about her. I have frequently seen Braun praised for bringing qualities such as vulnerability to Carly, and I just did not have that experience when I watched her. Not for the greatest part of her time in the role. At first, maybe. Almost immediately after TB took over for SJB, Sonny threw Carly out for colluding with Roy DiLucca and the FBI to get him out of mob life. So the first impression most of us had of the TB Carly was a very vulnerable one. For a while, she acted as if she were having a breakdown, running around in her wedding dress and begging for another chance. (At least Nina at present is not resorting to the wedding dress.) But even before her place was restored at Sonny's side as mob queen, and she became the ranking female member of the Fab Four and BFF to Courtney, she was smirky, haughty, and (to me) usually insufferable. It started when she zeroed in on first Angel Ellis and then Alexis as women standing in the way of what she was due. I can't really speak for the TB Carly's Lorenzo Alcazar era, however. That fell in a period in the mid-2000s when I was still keeping up, but not watching with the same devotion. From seeing TB in other roles, including her other role on GH (Kim Nero), I don't think her Carly presented the most accurate picture of her baseline screen presence. I think it's just how she felt she should play this character, who was being written by McTavish and then by Guza/Pratt to come out on top most of the time, usually get the last word in arguments, and have her writing-room précis voiced out loud by other characters ("brave and strong and loves with her whole heart, not just a part of it," etc.). I think the same about Laura Wright, actually.

Sonny is—I want to emphasize, only in this one way—similar to Tony Soprano. That was an amusing running theme in The Sopranos. Even though he was in weekly therapy, Tony expected everyone from his wife to his mistresses to his criminal associates to (in one egregious example) his kid's therapist to be his sounding board about all the problems in his past, present, and future. He once even showed up at a friend's house in the middle of the night for, essentially, an unscheduled free therapy session. But when one of those characters was dealing with something serious, such as the death of a parent or a sibling, he'd say something like, "All right, but you gotta get over it." The Sopranos presented this personality in a more self-aware and better-written way, and when there were laughs, they were intentional.

I'd be with you on this, but we've all been on this ride so many times. For anyone who is introduced or reintroduced hating Sonny, there are three possible outcomes: (1) They'll get villain writing and will have a short shelf life. (2) They'll be ineffectual in opposing Sonny. (3) He'll save their lives or help them in some other way, and they'll come to grudgingly accept that he's "the good mobster" because he operates by a "code" and all that crap. Even Taggert was drinking the Kool-Aid 15 minutes after his 2020 return, which is something I hoped never to see. I know that soap enemies joining forces against a more immediate threat is a reliable trope, but still: blech. At least Jagger seems unlikely to fall in love with or have sex with Sonny, like Hannah, Claire, Ava, et cetera.

Drew Cain is funny and kind, and when he loves, he loves with his whole heart. (Not just a part of it!)

I don't think Morgan's coming back in the immediate future. If the show hangs on for another three to five years, either in its present form or on a streaming service, I'll be surprised if the Morgan death is one that sticks. I am already surprised he's stayed gone this long. It would be an easier death to walk back than some deaths they have walked back in the past, and it allows them to add another guy in his twenties or thirties who's connected to a lot of characters—most of whom have "most favored" status, whether we feel that way or not—and has immediate story.

It had not occurred to me before now, but the Ava/Sonny situation isn't 180 degrees from the beginnings of Carly/Sonny in 1999-2000. In both stories, Sonny and a woman toward whom he has hostile feelings end up sharing Sonny's living space for Reasons. Both have been disappointed in the outcome of their most recent relationship. (It goes without saying that in both 1999 and 2024, Sonny's immediate previous relationship soured over a "betrayal."). Over time, he gradually warms up to the object of his resentment. It's even taking place on what we're meant to accept as the same set (although the front door is now at stage-right and all that). The biggest difference is that the first time around, the woman (Carly) was being allowed to stay with Sonny because they had had their hate-sex first and she was expecting his child. Fortunately, Sonny and Ava played the pregnancy beat a long time ago. But really, even that part is the same—the woman gets in the front door because she's The Mother of My Child.

I agree. I remember this promo for a Zander/Elizabeth/Jason triangle during the summer of 2002, when Burton had just come back. I was still naïve enough to think that if they went to the trouble of making a commercial hyping something, and even ran the commercial in prime time, it was going to be a significant story. Ha. ALW's Courtney was the shiny new thing, and Guza and Pratt quickly wrecked Liz/Jason to facilitate Courtney/Jason (by some accounts because Brian Frons was all about Courtney/ALW). I'll never forget the scene of Tamara Braun's Carly telling Liz that she had had her chance and blown it, and now Jason was over her. Anyone who remembers the Tamara Braun Carly can picture the expressions and hear the vocal tone. She couldn't have been more smug about it if Jason had started sleeping with her. The Liz fans of that era really felt like Charlie Brown going trick-or-treating and getting a bag of rocks. Not for the last time.

Or praising her for it, if they're Carly fanatics. In the early-2000s heyday of SoapZone, the pro-Carly contingent treated Korte like the high priestess of their religion. Whenever a storyline was coming up that made them worried about their gal, like Sonny getting closer to Alexis, I'd see comments like "I have faith in Elizabeth Korte." They hoped she would eventually become head writer. I haven't seen much mention of this in the discussion, but Bradford Anderson is another actor who should be pleased, as Korte is a Spinelli fan too. I believe she once described him as a "truth-telling character" and said BA was an actor who was a delight to write for. (This was early-days Spinelli, who had nicknames for everyone.)