[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

I was thinking the other day that the show is really loading up on characters struggling with or recovering from addiction issues, now that they've gone there with both Brando and Sasha. Of course they spared Michael, who actually has a family history. God forbid we see him struggle with anything beyond the inferiority and weakness of those around him.

Question: Is Spinelli still in town? The last time I remember seeing him is when the attempt to cat-and-mouse Peter with a faked Helena resurrection failed. Did he just leave town after that?

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

18 hours ago, lala2 said:

Darn these COVID restrictions!!! I wanted to see that NAVA kiss! 

I love Nava! They quickly became one of my favorite pairings. In all honesty, I've wanted some form of Nava since Ava ran into TC's Nikolas on that airplane. I thought she had great chemistry w/TC and Nick Stabile's Nikolas too. Her chemistry with MC's Nikolas is off the charts, crazy good! They are great together. I loved the ILYs. And while I think they may be a bit soon - I don't care. I like them! They excite me, and there is not much I enjoy on this show. I am so happy Ava was honest w/Nikolas and told him the whole story. I hope the writers don't mess them up too soon. 

In interviews I've read (as well as a podcast with Burton and Anderson), Marcus Coloma always talks about how much he likes the actors he shares most of his scenes with: Ingo (early on), Genie, Becky, and he's been especially complimentary toward Maura West. He compared his two "leading ladies" by saying that MW is amazing in her ability to change emotions on a dime, while Becky has an effortless likability.  

Normally, I would just chalk that up to a newcomer being gracious, but he acts as though he really likes them, even when the characters are at odds. That chemistry with all of Nikolas's connections may be why he's fit in better than some other recasts. I liked him right off, and I was a fan of Tyler's Nikolas.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

I thought it was weird when Sam asked Carly what she told her kids when they were Danny's age. Sam was so enmeshed in the Sonny/Carly/Jason sphere for most of that time, but you'd think Carly was a much more recent acquaintance. I hope she isn't looking at the way Carly brought up Michael as a guide. He was ordering his mother out of her own home and asking Jason to kill people for him when he was younger than Danny is now. Then he got shot in the head.

I knew Carly wasn't going to be honest and remind us of that regrettable scene in which she told Michael that Jason and Sonny were like soldiers.

Franco's never really going to work for me, and I feel like the writers' need to push back constantly against the negative history of the character makes them write him in a boring, edge-less way, and it even inhibits the actor's performance. (Does he ever even raise his voice anymore? He has this "children's TV show host" sound all the time.) But William Lipton and Roger Howarth are good together.  

Talking of forgotten stories: When Liz and [Martin] had that interaction about his having been Franco's lawyer when Franco had Drew's memories, I really had to search my own memories. It's strange that I remembered Shiloh kidnapping Cameron, and Franco sacrificing himself to save Cameron, but I had blocked out so much that followed, and it wasn't even that long ago. I guess it didn't have much impact.

Edit: Lawyer character's name.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

I'm not a fan of any of Sonny/Carly/Jason/Sam (Jason is the one I'm most likely to enjoy, when he's interacting with people outside that bubble of four), but it's cool when people who feel differently about them, such as @gp1999, speak up here. I hope no one ever feels shouted down or that they shouldn't say anything.   

15 hours ago, Laur said:

Like, please go ahead and break up JaSam, but the writers could put a little more effort into the reasoning. This sudden change-of-heart came out of nowhere. Sam's been preaching the opposite vehemently since SB's return and just sold out Scout & Danny's ELQ shares just so she could live with him... I feel like it could have worked better if Danny had been seriously injured in the explosion at least (but even that assumes Sam cares about her kids which is never reflected on screen). It's just very dumb.

Come to think of it, all of Jason's major love interests post Robin have done this two-step, haven't they? "I know who you are and I can handle it / I can't handle The Life." We've had versions of it with Sam, Liz, and Courtney. Even when there's some event that causes a reversal, it never really feels organic.

Sometimes I think the only kind of woman who would work long term with Jason would be a lady mob assassin. Maybe they really should have pursued something with him and Ava in the "Patient Six" period.

1 hour ago, perkie1968 said:

And the other day, when Nikolas asked Laura about contacting Lucky, she gave a shake of her head and this hand waving thing and said they couldnt' wait that long to deal with the issue.  I'm not sure if it was in the script of a Genie-ism, but it really gave the impression that she was dismissing Lucky, that he can't be counted on to be there during a crisis as well.  

That's interesting. It didn't really register until you described it, but that rhymes very well with the way Laura acted a while back when Lucky came up in a conversation with Liz.  I can't remember what they were discussing, but it involved one of The Boyyyyz. (Cameron's kidnapping by Shiloh? Aiden's bullying?) Whatever it was, I thought Genie played the scene as if Laura were slightly embarrassed that her son was so little support to Liz and her sons anymore. 

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

7 hours ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

All soaps (I think - I don't pay attention to the CBS soaps) are going through ratings issues, but I think a big reason for GH's decline is because they turned the show over to all things Corinthii and made them not only the leads, but somehow, the moral center of the show. I think a lot of fans were disgusted and left so now most of what's left of the audience are Corinthii fans and people who have been watching for ages and can't quite quit the show.

Yes. Now I think they're trapped in it. There are only a few soaps left, and organized crime is GH's "lane," like it or not. I know there was a long and rich GH history pre-Sonny, but we're approaching the point when he can be said to have been there for literally half the series' life, and right at the center for most of that. Look at what even dissatisfied fans write on social media. I can't count the number of times I've seen people saying they don't enjoy the show as much lately, but when they give examples of the "good old days" they pine for, it isn't Luke and Laura on the run or a triangle for Alan/Monica/Rick.  It's Sonny's war with the Zaccharas or the Alcazars, or Sonny's romance with Brenda, or Sonny and Jason's big falling out when one was romancing the other's sister -- most likely what was going on when they first got hooked on it.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

11 minutes ago, TeeVee329 said:

It's a shame Port Charles' other journalists weren't given a chance to say goodbye to their golden star...

In the Port Charles journalistic community, it will go down as "the day the writing died." 

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

2 hours ago, gp1999 said:

He was trying to shoot Lorenzo because he thought he was torturing Carly and the bullet went through him and hit Carly people act like he shot her on purpose.

So he sees Carly in the classic delivery position and thinks she's being tortured, and he's fine with firing a gun at someone who's inches away from his pregnant wife -- no "Back away from her," nothing. The scene made him look awful no matter how we slice it, and the writing for Sonny in the weeks following did even more damage. He told Alcazar it was his fault because the bullet went through him, and when Carly had psychological changes (from his shooting her in the head), he made it all about him. We also had Jason yelling at Carly, "How much is Sonny supposed to take?"

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

1 hour ago, nilyank said:

It literally has been one night and everyone is ready to send her away. How about letting a few days to pass to see if brain swelling would go down?

It's a far cry from when Dylan Cash Michael was in a coma. Then, we got the whole story of Carly trying to will him into waking up, while everyone else tiptoed around because no one wanted to tell her the outlook wasn't good. I've probably exaggerated in my memory, but it seems like Laura Wright spent weeks asking people, "Don't you think his color looks better today?" (He was exactly as pasty-looking as he'd been for the last seven years.)

But a lot of these story decisions get made based on how long they have the exiting actor and what they want to do with the time.

[Small Talk: 7th Floor Nurses Station]

Has anyone else here seen a 2012 movie called The Place Beyond the Pines? I watched it last night. 

It's a two-generation epic spanning from the 1990s to the movie's then-present, with a lot of famous actors (Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Mahershala Ali, Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn, Ray Liotta, Bruce Greenwood) and story twists I won't give away.  

But to the relevant point, it's divided into thirds, and the last part is about two teenagers who become friends without knowing they have a connection, and then things deteriorate between them. The boys are named AJ and Jason! AJ is a privileged screw-up and substance abuser, in part because his pillar-of-the-community daddy has always been distant from him. Jason is a quiet loner who becomes interested in motorcycles and has his own, very different daddy issues. Jason gets a much more sympathetic characterization. Oh, and it all takes place in upstate New York. The GH echoes, which the writer was probably unaware of, were heavy. 

The movie is fairly soapy too, with its infidelity, paternity revelations, vendettas, and wild coincidences, Of course, it's more high-minded about its serious themes than a soap. It's an East of Eden-type saga. It's really good, although you have to be up for a long sit and the third act is not entirely satisfying (despite Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan holding up their end as AJ and Jason).

[GH In The News: The PC Press Club]

I don't know whether it was Carnes's idea or production's, but I do know there were internet rumors at the beginning of this year that Carnes was on the way out, and that Lucas would come out of his post-car-accident coma with a different face (either as part of the storyline or not). Maybe this has been on the way for a while. 

As it happened, Carnes stuck around for most of the COVID-disrupted year but was back-burnered so severely that he was falling behind the stove. Pretty much all I remember for Lucas after the Wiley parentage realignment and the goodbye scene with Brad was the one day he was snapping at coworkers and acting so unlike himself, and everyone was whispering about it. No followup on that.

[GH History Lessons: Because History is Always Repeating Itself]

On 11/25/2020 at 3:20 PM, Melgaypet said:

For all that the show flogs these sweeps stunts for ratings, I think the last time the show really had a real seismic shift (from one event, I mean) was probably Clink-Boom.

Loath though I am to admit it, S/C hate sex in 1999 changed everything. It slammed the door once and for all on Jason/Carly as potential romantic partners. In the same episode (in fact, one motivating factor for the S/C hate sex), they were establishing Jason's connection with Liz, which would blow hot and cold for decades. It set Carly on the path to being the central female figure of the whole town/show, through four actresses. And even though the S/C baby conceived that first time would not survive, it was the beginning of "the Corinthos family," love them or hate them.  

Even though it appeared at the time to affect only a few characters, I think it had farther-reaching effects than all the fires, earthquakes, monkey viruses, serial killers, etc., that pulled the whole cast in.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

13 hours ago, Pingaponga said:

Could someone explain to me the point of Dev? Why was he brought on the show? What did he contribute? Why is he leaving now? I didn't advance a plot or anything, so why did he even exist?

I'll add my two cents.  

In a purely practical sense, he had the same point as Juan, Zander, Diego, Logan, Oscar, Trina, and any other teenager/young adult who's shown up in town without an existing connection (that is, not a SORAS'd kid we've known since infancy). To give the young legacy characters someone new to interact with or fall in love with, and maybe to become a fan favorite with young viewers, which might be good for a small gain in a coveted demographic.  

Sometimes these characters settle in for a good long run, and other times they're gone quickly, even after they're inevitably revealed to be related to characters in town (or characters who used to be in town). Most of the ones listed above turned out to have some tie to a well-known Port Charles person, or else (as in the case of Zander) family members were brought on for them. Trina got both: a beloved former Port Charles stalwart for a father and a newly created mom.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

1 minute ago, Linny said:

Poor Cam breaking down over Dev was rough. Everyone else's reactions felt muted, which is weird, given the screen time he got. Liz truly needs to book an appointment for Cam with Kevin after the calamity this kid's endured. Glad we got to see Grandma Laura pay him a visit today.

Whatever Oscar and Dev left to be desired as characters to watch, they were Cameron's closest (really, only) male friends of his own age in recent years, and they both died. In a perfect world, that would get explored as much or more than the fact that they were a love interest and love-not-much-interest for Josslyn.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

Sam thought she was leaving a bunch of voice messages for Jason, but in reality, he blocked her number a long time ago. He was tired of the daily barrage of sleepy-voiced messages that were never about the kids (who were usually at the Q mansion anyway) or anything urgent. Mostly she was just monologuing about her mother, about Julian, about Valentin, about Peter, about Brando, about her parole officer, about whoever she hated the most in that moment. She would always finish with "Anyway, I was just wondering what you were doing. Call me." She was going to see him in person later that day anyway.

Then there were all the texts with pictures of her in stores, for example, holding up identical black blouses and wanting to know which one she should get.

So he blocked her, and she still doesn't realize it. She still calls and thinks she's leaving messages, but they're going to a filter. Usually she has forgotten about all the messages by the time she sees him. On the rare occasions she brings it up, he just says his phone died.

He came back to the Floating Rib when he heard about the explosion some other way.  

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

It was a pretty good post-disaster episode. But could it have been more of a microcosm of the show? Kelly Monaco confusing "frantic/concerned" with "obnoxious/shrill" at every opportunity. Laura and Mac reacting to Dev's death with the equivalent of "Ah, what a shame," and then barely taking a breath in before Laura jumps to "BUT WHAT ABOUT JASON?" (That was like meta-commentary on this show's inability to nurture a younger generation.) The Dev-corpse isn't even cold yet, and Sonny already is getting propped up by Carly for giving Dev the wind beneath his wings. I don't think anyone was concerned about Liz all episode. She just got up and around and went into caretaker mode. By the time they got to the hospital scenes, I wouldn't even have known Liz had been at the Floating Rib.  

But I'm totally on board with making my main concern how Sonny handles all this. I'm sure it will bring back memories of Stone and Morgan, those two other beautiful young men he could not save. Also, when it comes out that a mob rival is responsible for the explosion, that might bring Lily and their unborn child into it. He'll need so much support. And what about Josslyn? She's just now getting back to some semblance of a normal life after losing the love of her life, Oscar. I hope Sonny and Josslyn have an entire episode that's just the two of them talking about their pain. That would be swell.  

Carolyn Hennesy for MVP. I legit welled up a little bit. I'm glad the writers remembered the "Litigator of the Year" episode. The cuts back to the site of Alexis's stupid half-assed intervention really should have been dead spots with everything else going on, but they weren't, because once Sam was gone, the only bad acting was from Haley Pullos.

[Spoilers and Speculation: Clink Boom and Cheese Fondue]

I'm getting a "budget cuts" feeling from the show lately, and I'm thinking there may be more high-profile exits coming. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if "Liz has to decide whether to donate Franco's liver to Alexis" is a February story.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

I won't see the Monday show for a few hours, but if they're saying onscreen that Dev was part of the Corinthos household for two years, it won't work for me. Dev first appeared in the overseas part of the Dante/Sonny story in March 2019, and then he showed up in the U.S. the following summer. So, not even a year and a half.  

The other day, someone (Carly?) commented that Trina had been mourning her father for "almost a year," and I had the same reaction. Maybe it's easy to sell to viewers that it's been that long, because the production layoff and the pandemic have made 2020 such a weird year. But Taggert "died" in March, they had recently referenced all the usual winter things on the show in the weeks prior, and we just had people in Halloween costumes and then a whole episode about voting. So they're kind of stuck with "That was March and this is November."

[GH In The News: The PC Press Club]

GH alum Natalia Livingston (ex-Emily and ex-Rebecca), now an Atlanta mom of two, on whether she would ever return as one character or the other.  

https://soaps.sheknows.com/general-hospital/news/584545/general-hospital-natalia-livingston-interview-new-life-emily-return/

Whatever anyone thought of her portrayal or the writing choices, it really was a bad idea to kill Emily off.

[GH In The News: The PC Press Club]

Re:  "You're not wrong." It's worth noting that both head writers of the story in which Julian held the knife to Alexis's throat (Jean Passanante and Shelly Altman) are long gone now. That was in summer 2016. I can understand why DeVry and fans of his character wouldn't be in a mood to look on the bright side, but Julian did get a four-plus-year run following that, in which he did achieve some measure of rehabilitation. He became owner of a legit small business and was onscreen a lot, and he even had a civil, sometimes supportive relationship with Alexis. I'm neutral on Julian, and this is much more than I was expecting for him. In summer 2016, I thought all signs pointed to the character being either dead or shipped off to prison by November sweeps.

In related news, I'll never stop finding it funny when Google gets confused about two people with the same name.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

1 hour ago, Cheyanne11 said:

Valentin rightly says "I think we should be prepared for her to feel attacked no matter how we pretty up the words" and Sam takes that as him attempting to ruin things--"that's why I didn't want you here."  Sit down, you moron, pointly out what could go wrong (and DID) is how you prepare.  God, she's so stupid.

I sometimes briefly wonder if I'm being unfair, but Sam manages to be the less sympathetic character in any one-on-one confrontation with anyone. Brando, Valentin, Julian, Kristina, relapsing Alexis, anyone. No matter what cards she's holding, she comes out looking worse than the other person. Monaco's portrayal has become almost toxically unpleasant. The character is such a tiresome, condescending black cloud. And yes, that sentence originally ended with something other than "black cloud," but I'm erring on the side of caution with Forum Standards & Practices.  

I haven't liked her in a scene since she kicked Sonny into the hole while suffering from the cat-feces disease.  

Also, it's rich to me that Carly turns up her nose now because "everyone hates" some other woman. It used to be that she got her back up because everyone loved some other woman (Robin, Liz).

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

No, when Carly said "Not until about a week ago," she wasn't talking about the coke abuse; they were still on the Chase/Sasha fake cheating. She was covering herself by saying before a week ago, no one had really told her or included her in the plan; she just intuited it all ("You told me about the affair and it didn't make sense...I could see the way she still looked at you").

So that's her "out." She has deniability with Michael until the last week because no one had ever verbally confirmed her suspicions. As I recall, the scene in which Carly found out consisted of Carly saying what she thought was going on, and that she knew exactly why Chase and Sasha were doing it and she supported it, and Sasha not denying it. 

That kind of weaseling wouldn't mollify me -- God knows, when Carly is sure about anything else, she can't wait to broadcast it to anyone involved, whether she turns out to be right or wrong -- but it seemed to lower Michael's temperature a little. Eh.  

Cheap shot, but when they cut from Sonny to Nikolas and back, it's hard to believe there's only 15 years' difference between the actors. Coloma has great skin. 

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

10 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Hell, I did that yelling myself when Sasha was high as a kite and Chase, the POLICE DETECTIVE, couldn't tell, but Curtis, former cop. could tell, and pulled Nina aside and told her Sasha was on something. But Chase, the COP, just hand waved it as "ups and downs" because she couldn't deal with the consequences of her STUPIDASS plan.

I think because most of us like Chase, or at least don't hate him, we don't want to admit that he may not be very bright. Our major data point for his policing is that his whole career in Florida imploded when the world's most transparent murder suspect, "Janelle," had him eating out of her hand. (I'll keep it family-friendly by saying "hand.")  

[Spoilers and Speculation: Clink Boom and Cheese Fondue]

If I were a paranoid JaSam fan, I'd be reading cloud formations and wondering. Burton has been back for more than three years, and Jason and Sam have been nominally "together" nearly the whole time, but they've really had nothing. Neither actor seems into it. Monaco barely seems into playing Sam. Ned and Olivia have had juicier story in 2020 than Jason and Sam. Recent commentary on them by other characters (most recently Alexis, but others too) has consistently emphasized the negative, and it isn't just Monaco's limp delivery that makes Sam's rebuttals seem halfhearted; it's the writing too. On top of all of this, Jason is inching back into Elizabeth's orbit, saying he'll always protect Elizabeth and her boys. And they're apparently chem-testing him with Britt (who dislikes Elizabeth, and vice versa, so...if Sam and Franco lifted right out, they'd have another insta-triangle). 

It's easier for me to see other things they'd do with him than with her.

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

It bothered me how cavalier Jason was about sending Spinelli traipsing through Franco's medical records. I get it, the mob has its own super-hacker who can penetrate any firewall and find out anything with his magic computer, and Franco does have a history of manipulation and deceit. But it's one thing to have Spinelli "tap into the surveillance cameras" to prove that someone did or didn't shoot someone, and another to have these goons rifling through confidential databases with sensitive information. I just had to strike a blow for HIPAA awareness. 

To me, Swickard just looks like a guy in his late twenties who sometimes has facial hair and sometimes doesn't. I don't see any jarring difference, The only time I was really "glad" about him having facial hair was when he was a new addition and was overlapping with Griffin. 

[Episode Discussion II: The TFGH]

On 11/9/2020 at 12:00 PM, TeeVee329 said:

[REDACTED] had Kristen Alderson's face before she was everyone's frieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend Kiki.

I think the character's name was "Michael's Girlfriend," or, informally, "His Girlfriend." I remember Laura Wright saying it many times in the couple episodes right after KA vanished through the legal trapdoor.