[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

16 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I should have said, he failed for me. He wasn't Lucky. Just as Yelly McYellerson wasn't Lucky. I think he was worse. But for me, neither had any characteristics that defined Lucky.

Same. They were calling him Lucky, and he was involved with all the people who were important to Lucky, but I didn't buy it. And I never found him sympathetic. Honestly, if they'd said one day during the "Lucky's addiction" story that he had overdosed, I doubt I'd have been able to squeeze out a tear. I would have been sorry for the characters in his orbit, but it wouldn't have had the impact of the '99 fire. He was just too different.  

If they had brought Greg Vaughan on in 2003 as a new doctor, like Griffin, or a new cop, like Chase, maybe I'd have warmed up to him. But for Lucky, no.  

Now, the new Nikolas reminds me I'm not temperamentally disposed to be unfair to recasts. I'm a Tyler loyalist.  As inconsistent as Tyler was in the 20 years (off and on) that he played that role, he was still the Nikolas to me. When it became apparent that the character was coming back, I wanted Tyler to play him. But I accept there may be good reasons that isn't happening, and I like this guy a lot so far.

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

9 hours ago, ouinason said:

 I think Liz's answer not to bother Lucky about Aiden being bullied would have been the same with or without him in their lives.  What would the point be anyway if they had called?  And... why didn't Laura ask the same when Cam was kidnapped, or they were dealing with Jake being programmed by Helena... which makes me kind of mad that maybe she thinks Lucky would care more about Aiden's issues than the other boys, which bugs me.  

I don't think it's a matter of his caring more, just the situations not all being the same.

At the time they were dealing with Jake's programming by Helena, everyone (including we viewers) thought Drew was Jason. So Jake seemingly had a father on the canvas who was involved.

Cameron was recovered from his kidnapping within hours. It's terrible that he had a wrong-place/wrong-time run-in with Shiloh and then saw his stepfather sacrifice himself for him, but the actual kidnapping didn't last long. It's not as though Shiloh left the country with him and he was missing over a long period of time.  

Aiden's issues are a little different.  Elizabeth was told by a teacher that she suspects Aiden is coming to a realization about his "identity." Other kids were calling him "Gayden" and ostracizing him. One of them was even a relative. Whether Willow and the kids were on to something or were way off base, there could be issues going on that could shape the rest of his life. And whatever the case, something was making him withdrawn, quiet, and fearful, and it was an ongoing thing we kept hearing about for months. It was more than "Oh, children can be cruel." 

But I don't want to dwell too much on what Lucky gets told or how culpable he is for lack of involvement with Aiden and the others. He's the kind of parent they're making him because he isn't on the show. If there's an announcement of a recast, he'll be in town and he'll get a different kind of writing. With Nikolas back now, maybe there will be a Spencer renaissance. (That is, the Spencer family. But, sigh, probably Spencer the kid too.) 

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

5 hours ago, Bringonthedrama said:

So to go from THAT to Laura telling him to have "fun" wherever he is in Africa, made me ask, WTF is this bullshit.  I believe she decided not to tell him that Cam had just been through a traumatic kidnapping. Lucky, in true character, would absolutely want to know about that and jump on a plane immediately to come be with his 'first born.'  Lucky really loved Cam. Instead, they're completely focused on the "lets do whatever it takes to get Franco back because we love him soooo much" bandwagon.  Cam deciding to get drunk at a school party is a clear sign that he's not okay and should have at least a talk with Lucky. A quick pep talk from Jason is not sufficient.

There is as yet no actor with whom to dramatize his jumping on a plane and rushing home. If they wanted to pull the trigger on a "Lucky rushes back to town" story, I personally think there have been many other events just as likely or more likely to bring that about than a kidnapping that went on for a day or so, from which Franco really ended up being the biggest casualty. What about everything going on all last school year with Aiden, who is much younger and even biologically Lucky's?  

Lucky is going to do and not do what realities of the current canvas dictate. While he's gone, they aren't going to have a scene with Cameron standing there saying lines into a phone and reacting to blank spaces into which we're supposed to put supportive statements from Lucky. 

Cameron is not completely without a support system. He has his mother, his brothers, his Aunt Hayden, Laura, several friends his age, and, yes, although we may not like him, Jason. While Lucky is gone, and Franco is thinking he's someone else, Cameron's onscreen support is most likely to come from those people. Even if Lucky were in town, or even if he were in regular communication, Cameron still might have got drunk at a Halloween party. Teenage misbehavior and angst aren't always a matter of someone lacking a father figure. Josslyn did it too, and she has both Jax and Sonny close by.  

Moving on, the new Nikolas has made a promising first impression on me. I know some people have commented that he's young-looking, but he's 41, a little less than six years younger than Tyler Christopher.

It may just be the way Marcus Coloma has chosen to play the role, but he seems to have done his homework. His acting style has a little of TC and a little of Jonathan Jackson too (when the latter was in Lucky's "pissy" mode). So I don't think I'll have trouble accepting him as part of that family. I look forward to the other reunions with the characters important to Nikolas, such as Liz and Laura.   

Nice touch with Jax, Nikolas, and Hayden all looking a little different in the flashbacks (mostly their hair) for the anti-Valentin cabal's first get-together.

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

The one thing I'll say that's good about the Kendra story:  they definitely found a young woman who could be the sister of the actor who played Kiefer. That was a long damn time ago, so we would have let it slide if there had been no resemblance, but someone must have gone to the tape.  

I agree on Becky Herbst being good in scenes with William Lipton, but when she was bandaging him up and they were bantering about her "kissing away the boo-boo," I got just slightly weirded out, because she's still so youthful-looking. Had I seen just that scene in isolation, I can't say my mind would have gone to "mother and son" as the relationship. She doesn't look much different from when she was patching up Jason after he was shot 20 years ago! 

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

When an awkward freeze-frame becomes the best "talking to Sonny" face imaginable.  

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

In behind-the-scenes tea-leaf-reading mode, I've decided that Chris Van Etten must like Rebecca Herbst and/or Liz.  People have whatever opinion they have on Friz, and I know that if people hate the idea of them and are immovable on that, then a Liz who cares about Franco cannot be a good Liz. But Friz or no Friz, Liz has been getting favorable characterization across the board in the last couple years, and she's been on a lot. She's not just in some dumb spoiler-loser mode, with occasional lip service paid to her being a good nurse and mother (with the mothering never really seen), as was the case with some other writing regimes. Her point of view shows up in the stories that involve her, and it's coherently and consistently presented.  The show now positions Liz as a character mature enough to have a young-adult son, while making good use of Herbst's gracefully-aging charisma. 

On the other hand, while I was never a Sam or KeMo fan, I feel a little sorry for her fans. Her material is awful. Worst "ride-or-die chick" ever. It's debatable whether getting Jason ever constituted winning, but it sure doesn't seem that way lately.  

On 10/26/2019 at 11:40 AM, dubbel zout said:

Given how Scott was basically pinning his entire case on Kevin's testimony, you'd think he'd have been sure to talk to Kevin after Kevin saw Frew. Regardless of who's technical responsibility it was to get in touch. But then he couldn't have been humiliated by his own hubris. Ugh. Such a dumb plot point.

That development couldn't have been telegraphed harder if the characters had been ending every sentence with "Stop." It was the least suspenseful TV courtroom reversal since Sue Ellen Mischke on Seinfeld was asked to try on the bra for the jury.  

[GH In The News: The PC Press Club]

If you ever want to give yourself a good laugh, stay away for a while and then read the last page of a thread here from the bottom up. I saw "I read Kim's book," not knowing that the topic was memoirs of soap actors. I had a brief moment of thinking there was some kind of dumb tie-in book written in the voice of the indifferently popular GH character Kim Nero, about her affair with Drew, raising Oscar on her own, finding out he has cancer, etc. That thought stayed with me just long enough for me to think such a book would be really bad and would sell about two dozen copies.  

Anyway, NLG's will probably be fun to read. I have not always loved the results when her unfiltered side has let loose on social media, but I do have some genuine respect for her, and I admire the career she has had. She was/is attractive without ever being a "glamour" type, and she had enough skill and personality in her performances to become an enduring fan favorite on her own terms.

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

On 10/18/2019 at 11:03 PM, tvgoddess said:

And wow, the horrendous acting in these clips. Roger ad libs way too much.

Yeah, but at least he's assured enough with the demands of the scenes that he can. Some of the others act as though it's the first practice run of pedaling a unicycle down a high-wire. 

I missed this show at the time, and watching this sampling, I thought the two who would do best on the stage are Howarth and, surprisingly, the other RH, Becky Herbst. I like her generally, but watching her in this flail-fest, I'm impressed with how focused she is. Budig isn't bad either in the brief bit there is of her.  

Billy Miller and Mo looked very trim in 2015.  

[Spoilers and Speculation: Clink Boom and Cheese Fondue]

The baseball bat scene, to me, was getting into that "Carly, Brave and Strong" period when Pruza and Elizabeth Korte were practically writing Carly fanfic. I found Braun's version mostly insufferable, through a combination of the original-recipe Fab Four writing (Courtney rather than Sam) and the way Braun played a tough girl. I minded her a little less when they put her with Lorenzo Alcazar. 

However, I have come to like Braun okay as an actress, because even though she does have some consistent mannerisms, her characters don't all seem like the same person.

[Spoilers and Speculation: Clink Boom and Cheese Fondue]

Braun had a previous stint on GH as Carly Corinthos from 2001-2005 and again in 2014.

Eh? The 2014 was more stunt than stint, if it was just that day they had the three Carly actresses divvying up one episode. If I had read that without knowing better, I'd think she really had come back for a significant period while Laura Wright was out of action.  

I don't know how to react to this news. I liked Tams in the role, but the direction Kim has taken has made the character impossible to care about or miss. The big takeaway is that General Hospital can't keep doctors.

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

16 hours ago, Annamz said:

I just started watching Lost with my husband who raves about it. I'm barely on the middle of season 1 and don't remember seeing her? Looking forward to it even more now. It's a very good show so far. 

15 hours ago, Ladyrain said:

No, I don't think she was on in the beginning seasons.   I can't remember which seasons, but I'm pretty sure it was later on.

Watros first appears in season 2 of Lost. She plays Libby, one of the characters who had been in the tail section of the plane and thus were separated from the characters we had met at first.  

Spoiler

She and Michelle Rodriguez, who played another "tail-away," were abruptly let go as series regulars despite being in the middle of what seemed to be significant storylines. ABC swore that it had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with their both being in the news for drunk-driving arrests on location. But they both returned for a few episodes in the later seasons.  

14 hours ago, BlancheDevoreaux said:

Why with Finn, Hayden, and Anna? Finn is boring with Anna. Finn is boring with Hayden. Some triangle with them will be extra dull.

If those are the choices, I do prefer him with Hayden. Rebecca Budig really is not all that much younger than Michael Easton, but she "reads" younger, and he needs that. He works better as the older member of a couple, in my opinion.  

I've seen some complaints that the cast is too large and needs to be trimmed, and I agree. The combination of the large number of characters needing to be serviced, the heavy screen time for a chosen few, and the short scenes General Hospital favors keeps relationships and connections from getting traction. How long has Chase been on now, most of two years? When he was eyeing Hayden and Finn and having some troubled reaction, I couldn't remember why he cared. I even tried to remember if he and Hayden had had some history. Then I remembered that he's Finn's brother.  

Unpopular opinion: I thought Watros did okay with Nina's reaction to the Sasha reveal. In the things-are-going-well scenes, she definitely plays a more subdued, less manic NIna (thank heaven), but the wracked vocal quality and moans/grunts worked for dormant craziness fighting its way to the surface. One of the legs of the table on which her new life rests had just been knocked out. And there may have been some rage in play too, because Girl Reporter was vindicated for wrecking the wedding. 

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

1 hour ago, statsgirl said:

Classically trained singers have language coaches to teach them to sing without accent in the main classical music languages: Italian, German, French and English. Jessye Norman trained at Howard University, the Peabody Institute and the University of Michigan. If she wanted to lose her native accent, there were a bunch of trained professionals to help her.

But she didn't just "lose her native accent," she acquired a completely different one. That isn't something trained professionals in the music world have time to help someone do, and it isn't a typical development for classical singers from the South. Most of them (when talking in everyday life as "themselves") still sound as southern as they ever did.

Norman claimed she was just a good mimic, and it isn't a stretch to imagine this kid has a similar talent. I'm relieved the actor isn't still being asked to fake a Turkish accent, or play a long, slow, subtle process of losing one. That would be more distracting to me.  

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

16 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Why wouldn't he? Some people have a good ear and are excellent mimics.

This. Check out any interview with the recently deceased classical singer Jessye Norman. She was born in Georgia and educated here in the States, but just a short while after living and working abroad (in her twenties), well...let's just say she didn't sound like the rest of the Norman family. You'd see her interviewed by an English journalist and she'd sound at least as English as the journalist.  

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

I don't know if the thinking behind the scenes (add your own snarky interjection here) was ever that there needed to be a "reason" for Donna Bifida. The show long ago made the Benard and Wright duo its tentpole couple, and the pregnancy at least kept them busy and gave them nominal reasons to be onscreen together in the various stages. Do they want another child? Is it safe? Carly's blood pressure. Carly can't have stress. Jason has to keep her calm, because he's the only who can! And now there's this foreign kid living in the house! OB visits. Ultrasounds. Uh-oh, medical angst. What if the worst-case scenario happens? C-section. Happy ending with goo for their fans, who are scarce in these parts but probably think they were "due" another child after losing Morgan. 

Now that someone above mentioned it (sorry, it was the previous page and I'm being lazy), Valentin is kind of marooned without other Cassadines. He's literally a place-holder. He gives them a reason not to repurpose the Wyndemere set while other Cassadines are MIA. 

On a potential Kim WTD story: Just please, not some story where it's Julian's baby, and Kim knows this but switches the paternity tests to make it Dranco's, and someone else at the hospital is in on the secret. Too much of that. 

I thought Terry was well used in those scenes with Kim and Dranco, and also looked beautiful. 

I like the character Chet and think that Actor Van Etten seems like a really swell guy, and I thank him for his service (tm Curb Your Enthusiasm), but...while he's okay as sort of a Coleman for the new decade, and he was okay as Nurse Amy's plot-point brother, I don't think I want him in a love story with someone. His acting isn't really there yet. 

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

8 hours ago, rur said:

He released an album earlier this year. I suspect the song was from that, and that it might be original.

Yes. It was "My Dear," a track from his album The Apple Tree. Some of the songs are standards ("That's All") or pop covers ("And So It Goes," "The Book of Love"), but in an interview with one of the soap rags, he mentioned writing songs for it. So I assume others are his own compositions. This may be one of the originals, as I don't recognize it.  

[Spoilers and Speculation: Clink Boom and Cheese Fondue]

I was wondering the same, @Peppermint Patty. Maybe some kind of ripped-from-the-headlines #metoo story involving Joss, with other characters taking sides? 

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

So is this a false alarm, or is Bifida Corinthos really going to be born in a non-sweeps month? 

Wasn't there an FV quote a few years ago (when Drew was still "Jason") that any time you put Becky Herbst and Kelly Monaco in a scene together, it's going to be "dynamite," and there will be a passionate response? I think they just like to make one or the other character look like a meddler or a bitch to keep the fan bases talking.  

I'm a few days late, but...oh, Bobbie. No more involving her in front-burner stories, please. I'm sensitive to the difficult decisions female actors in TV and movies have to make as they grow older, but it was hard to witness the contrast between her distressed line readings and the near-complete facial immobility.  

On 9/27/2019 at 3:07 PM, statsgirl said:

Enough with the Oscar mourning stuff!  I get it that Joss will never forget him, nor Kim. But frankly I am so over Oscar, I wouldn't care if I never hear his name again.

"Josslyn, have you discussed your feelings with anyone?"  Yes. Everyone. Endlessly.

On 9/28/2019 at 5:31 PM, ciarra said:

Is Oscar still dead and is Joss still sad about it?

It's this close to completing the trajectory from boring to annoying to funny. The character was such a dud, but there have been more scenes of grief over him than there have been for beloved legacy characters. We're hearing his name as much as we did when he was what passed for alive. (Because let's face it, the energy level was so low that they should have made him Sam's long-lost kid. ) Now when Joss mewls something about Oscar having died, I catch myself saying out loud, "Five months ago!" I hope I wouldn't be this impatient with it if these were real people, but... 

I still like the Cynthia Watros version of Nina better than the Michelle Stafford version. She's very different, but she seems like a real person. I kind of care now what happens to her.

Actor of the Week was definitely Maura West in Ava's scenes with Neil.  

[Spoilers and Speculation: Clink Boom and Cheese Fondue]

Chloe Lanier and Coby Ryan McLaughlin have had more chemistry in those few scenes in the prison than she managed in years with Chad Duell. I don't know how their story is going to turn out, but an orange-jumpsuit-tearing sex scene somewhere along the way might be amusing.   

[Another World - General Discussion]

On 9/12/2019 at 3:26 AM, MsTree said:

Interesting clip...and you're totally right. His acting (and what seemed like a bad attempt at an accent) was on par with a soap parody.

He was almost as bad over a longer duration when he played Stavros during the "Endgame" story in 2001. The character had to be unthawed from frozen status for the story to begin, and some people on boards were calling him "The Ice Dork." Oh, memories.  

The only redeeming feature was Constance Towers's performance as his mother, Helena. She really committed to what seemed a mother-on-son crush. I'll never forget her stroking RKK's naked chest while making little ecstatic-cooing noises.  

On 9/12/2019 at 3:26 AM, MsTree said:

OTOH, I watched the entire 4:50 minutes, and now I need to know what the outcome of that story was 😂 

Did (Stavros?) succeed with the implantation? Did the pretty blond (don't know the actress' name) have his baby? Enquiring minds need to know the end of this 6 year old storyline😄

The pretty blonde is Lulu Spencer Falconeri (Emme Rylan), daughter of Luke and Laura. Yes and no on whether it worked. It didn't seem so at the time, but years later they revealed she had had a daughter as a result of the embryo-implantation hijinks. But the father-donor was not Stavros, but another Cassadine, Valentin, who is one of the show's villains now. He's played by the guy on Seinfeld who would go into a trance when he heard "Desperado," if that gives you a face. You should come and enjoy/suffer with us! There aren't many soaps left; we have to take what we can get. Ha ha.  

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

What I hate most about the Josslyn story, besides that I don't find the character inherently very interesting, and characters I can't stand are never going to be far behind her, is the way they just pound us over the head with every major point. How many times does it get repeated that she's still grieving? That the issue with her not wanting to be at school is that Oscar isn't there? That she didn't return Carly and Jax's texts? Every segment is like a writing-room white board with the story points on it.  

I don't like to go overboard with criticizing younger performers, but I think part of the issue is that EMc isn't up for much heavy lifting with subtext. So they're constantly explaining and accounting for Josslyn in dalogue, and I hate the way the other members of the teen set have to be her satellites. At least Cameron has the story with Franco/Drew, and whatever issues I have with that, I enjoy him much more in that part of the show.  

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

On 8/31/2019 at 5:07 PM, dubbel zout said:

Good grief. It's hardly taking advantage of JJY, but I'm glad we're seeing more of him. 

I'm not glad when Felicia is in the scenes. I thought Wes Ramsey was going to take the bad-acting trophy for Peter's pleading with Maxie in the dream (I usually don't mind him, but that was bad). Then...nope. The veteran snatched it away. I get that they have to show Felicia occasionally, but they should at least keep KW's lines short so she can't get "creative" with her delivery. That monologue about all the changes she's implemented at the Floating Rib was like a crime against human speech.  

I don't have much else to say about Friday's episode. I think the part I liked most was Scott and Liz conspiring, just because we don't get them in scenes very often.  

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

[NM} 

[Spoilers and Speculation: Clink Boom and Cheese Fondue]

Sonny and Carly really are looking spent. They're as close to leads as anyone on the show can be, and the writing ideas for them are pregnancy and renewing of vows. So, more or less what their story would have been 15 years ago, except she's another actress and he needs more hair dye. Their other recent stories have been reacting to their elderly parents' health problems (new, but not exactly exciting), his mentoring a teen who wants to get into the business (done, done, and done), and her stint in a mental institution (an every-decade thing). 

[GH In The News: The PC Press Club]

On 8/20/2019 at 12:52 PM, ulkis said:

Re: Michael Knight, I like the guy but I would rather have had CamMat because he'd at least give a hilariously awful performance.

That brings back memories. I haven't thought about him in years, because I never had more than a few helpings of AMC from the soap buffet. (Back when there actually was a buffet.) However, I was around for the whole arc when Gillian died, and CamMat's portrayal of grief was making that electric-cattle-prod face while putting both hands behind his head and massaging the back of his hair. 

[Episode Discussion: TFGH]

I'm trying to recall if I've ever enjoyed any "renewal of vows" on a soap, ever. It's what soap writers resort to when there's no couple on the canvas appropriate to actually get married, but they think viewers are panting to see someone, anyone, go through the motions of a wedding. It does seem that Sonny and Carly have renewed their vows more than once before, but then, they've also been separated and divorced a lot, and after a while, who can keep track.  

I actually am enjoying the Franco-as-Drew stuff, but that was a busy episode Friday. Way too many characters and settings. Elizabeth/Cameron, Sonny/Carly/Sam, Josslyn/Dev, Franco/Jason, Hayden/Finn, Monica/Drew, and oh, just for the hell of it, here's some Willow/Chase. Not only that, but they were talking about every story that's going on right now. We were getting Sasha flu updates, "Can Willow handle being in a relationship with a cop?" and a recap of Mike/Yvonne, besides the flash-drive news that was the main story. They kept cutting to another location, we'd hear two lines, and then off to someone else. Frenetic.  

I too was wondering why we were seeing Sam catching Sonny and Carly up on the Franco/Drew business. They barely care about Drew and they can't stand Franco. Sonny sort of likes Elizabeth, and Carly hates her less than she used to, but Elizabeth and her kids aren't very important to them. So I didn't get it. The way Sam was building it up, asking them if they knew the rest of the story, it was as though they had a stake. I guess they have to make a pronouncement on everything.