Asp Burger

Joss is brave and strong, and when she loves, she loves with her whole heart. Not just a part of it!

They're a Sam/Patrick rerun. That was another relationship that just seemed to be happening because both parties' previous love interests weren't around anymore. No momentum, no strong foundational story (like, some dangerous thing throwing them together), and just so-so chemistry. If and when they break up, I wonder if she'll needlessly use his full name when she talks about him, like she does with Patrick. "When I was living with Dante Falconeri..." I don't even mind them, but it's hard for me to remember the content of a Sam/Dante conversation. Like, ever. The only scene of theirs that really stands out is the one in which he was coaching her on her batting stance for softball and there were sexual undertones. That isn't to say this was even a good scene.

Kidding aside about how it looked like a date, the Dex/Sonny dinner further emphasized for me that a Jason return isn't necessary or desirable. Presumably, as long as there's a Sonny, he's going to need a major underling/enforcer/male talk-to, and there can only be one at a time. (Remember the speed with which Zander was kicked to the curb in 2002?) Dex is better in that role now than Jason would be. He's younger, more of a blank slate, thus less predictable. Except for Carly and her brood, everyone besides Sonny that Jason had a vital relationship with had died or had become peripheral in his life. Whether you were Team Liason or Team Jasam 15 years ago, both were over. Jason/Britt, obviously, has been foreclosed too. Most of the Quartermaines are gone. Monica's never on, and probably will go for good if and when Leslie Charleson officially retires. Jason's kids are never on either. If this story develops with Dex ultimately becoming Sonny's loyal right hand for real, there's more potential there. I know Steve Burton's diehards will never stop hoping for another return, but the show is well set up now without him. And he may not be worth the expense. His last departure didn't exactly cause plunging ratings. (The ratings weren't great before, and they remained not-great after.)

I liked Ava's apartment, the one she had for years (where "Liv Jerome" had her tied up). It was one of my favorite GH sets. The gallery is another one, so I'm generally happy to visit Ava World. But I don't see Wydemere going anywhere, especially with Spencer and Victor still around, and Ava now playing mistress of the house. At least we will still get the amusement of a character (say, Sonny) being at Kelly's and deciding to go to Wyndemere, and then walking in while a conversation between two other characters at Wyndemere (say, Victor and Spencer) is still going on. There's all this lip service paid to its being on an island and a launch being necessary to get there, but it takes as much time to get there as it takes me to get to the sandwich place down the street.

And if she's so anti-mob, she should have some issues with Mom as well, since Carly was practically running the thing during the Nixon Falls period, and it wasn't even her first time subbing for Sonny at crime-boss meetings. That was going on way back in the Tamara Braun era, before there was a Josslyn. Oh, that's right, (1) it was Nina's fault for keeping Sonny from his family for nine months, and for the parts that can't cover, (2) Sonny ruined Carly's life, and she spent years making excuses for him and looking the other way.

She had been asking him to let her use the club for her high-stakes card games, and he had been refusing, but then I think he wanted to get his mitts on Marshall's sealed arrest record, and she said she could get it for him under those terms. If that's all he got out of it, it doesn't say much for his deal-making, does it?

It's remarkable how long they were a thing, and they're already fading from minds. I would hardly believe it myself if I could not see the dates in cold print. They met in May 2021, had their first date in September 2021 (Carly and Jason's wedding), and broke up 15 months later, in December 2022. There were a few kisses and many bland conversations, but I can't recall even the threat of a real story for them as a couple. Even for present-day GH, which doesn't do romance well, they were historically inert. I wonder if one or both actors weren't into the pairing.

^ Maxie and Austin were the above scenario, but with all the chairs taken, so you had to stand, and all the worst hits of the '70s were playing.

I don't know anything, and the current regime has been good at keeping departures under wraps (unless an actor dismissal was big news in special circumstances), but Howarth's Franco character bit it in early March 2021. Two years left on the contract at that time, maybe? "Rather pointless" is a good way to sum up all things Dante and Sam. I don't mind them, but they always have seemed like "long-term parking" to me, because neither of them has a better possibility in town at the moment. I mean that's how I believe the writers feel about them, not the way the characters feel about each other.

I read an interview with Adam Huss a few days ago. An interesting detail in that he had auditioned unsuccessfully for both Nikolas and Shiloh. I guess the current policy of GH is to keep names of the runners-up handy if they need a fill-in or (in the case of Trina) a permanent replacement.

It's the Tan O'Malley.

Brook Kerr is a bit Rebecca Herbst-like in her vulnerability. So even if Portia deserves to take verbal lashings, I'm probably just going to feel bad for Portia, because she'll be playing the reactions like "Look, I know I suck, but can you ease up?" It won't help that Curtis's smug ass is going to be one of the inquisitors. I did like Curtis once upon a time, but he's slid.

I know. They look like a cake ornament. Also, the Wiley actor appears to be leaning so as not to be obscured by Brook Lynn. It's hard to photograph 50+ people, but parts of this needed a little more fine-tuning.

Imagine how cluttered it would have been if they had included everyone we're seeing semi-regularly. Gladys. Linc. Blaze. Mason. Cyrus and Martin. Yuri. Brick. Phyllis (I guess it's been a while since she aired). Everyone's kids.

I thought TJ had a hand on Molly's arm, and Kristina was sitting with them. Lipton/Cam's placement is kind of odd. The only time I can remember him even having a scene with anyone he's near is when he was there for Stella's stroke.

Terry's on the ladder.

Thank you, jbst. Jane was the last one stumping me. I was trying to go through process of omission. I knew she wasn't Gladys or Monica or Heather. Cody has made so little impression on me that it took me a while to recognize him too. That isn't my favorite coif for Maura West.

The anniversary photo is within this article. You can click to enlarge, but if you're like me, you still will have trouble deciding who a couple people are. https://people.com/tv/general-hospital-alums-and-newbies-gather-for-epic-class-photo-60th-anniversary/

I agree with this, but he's also in a supporting role, which is a rarity and maybe a nice change for some of us. The parts of the story that are really about him (this dangerous deal, the traitor in his organization) have been slow-moving background. Most of his scenes lately are supporting Nina, counseling Spencer, trying to be nice to Josslyn, trying to be nice to Michael and Willow, trying to coexist as exes/parents with Carly. He's almost a male Laura lately: getting a lot of air days, talking to a lot of characters, but it isn't really about him. Many of those calling for a return to pre-Nixon Falls Sonny want him back with Carly, and I'll never agree with that. I wasn't an S/C fan at any point, but at least when Sarah Brown and Tamara Braun played Carly, I could see why they had fans. Benard and Wright just never had it that way, and reuniting their characters was lazy. I was on the barge at the time, but wasn't she with Johnny Zacchara for a while too?

Beyond the paycheck factor, actors aren't as sensitive to bad writing as fans are because the actors experience the show from the inside. Their heads are full of "intention" as much or more than execution. This is especially true when the actors have input into the direction of the show. All three of the returning female stars from SATC are executive producers. They clearly had a lot to say about the choices made with their characters. But yeah, for someone like Corbett or Eigenberg, it's probably just a well-paying gig, and maybe a nice reunion with people they enjoyed working with before and like (if such is the case).

Same. I remember the days of "The Lulu, The!" (Simpsons reference) at TwoP. She got terrible characterization for a while after the SORASing, while being on all the time and always in big stories. But I came to like her more when Dante entered the picture. I did find JMB much better than Rylan. At least I could feel strongly about whatever the character was when JMB played her. In the Girl Reporter/"Muh daughter!" era, she was just bland. Same, again. I had high hopes for this new Nikolas, because I'm inclined to like the character, but he was just degraded into a combination of sleaze and idiot, and I think it affected the actor's performance. And as @nilyanknotes, that really started in Tyler's last tenure. Maybe Frank just doesn't like the character, no matter who's playing him. The comparison to the writing for Julian was on the money. I watched Adam Huss more carefully in this last episode, because I've been seeing positive comments about him here. I don't think he's a bad actor, necessarily. He's fine for a fill-in, and he's better in this fill-in stint than he was in the earlier ones. He just doesn't do anything for me. If there were an announcement that he'd won the role long term (such as that could be called a "win," see above), I wouldn't expect to care about Nikolas's stories. I did think Coloma had some charisma through it all, and he had good chemistry with his love interest and the actors playing those close to him. But he had the least with NAC. While I liked both of them individually, I never really bought them as a father and son.

I hate that cow-eyed open-mouthed look that is Josslyn's default face when expressing how put upon she is. They try to sell her as a brave-and-strong chip off the old block, but what they write and what McCoy acts is a lot of whining, between outbursts of self-centered bitchiness. We talk a lot about how she's a Mini-Carly, but to get more specific about it, she's a young Carly who already has everything and doesn't need to hatch schemes to claw her way up.

It was even (perhaps accidentally) good continuity from way back, in the Coltin Scott Mellencamp period of Nikolas. Nik's girlfriend of the time, Gia, was driving under the influence with Elizabeth as passenger when she ran a red light and plowed into SWSNBN. Elizabeth had a head injury and couldn't remember the accident, and Nikolas moved her into Wyndemere, allegedly to "recover" but also so he could influence her memories and keep her on the same page with him and Gia in their untrue version of how the accident happened. Elizabeth was furious with him when she finally remembered; it caused a big rift between Lucky/Liz and Nikolas/Gia for a while. That story seems pretty low-stakes now, and it even did at the time (all that paying witnesses off, burying blood alcohol tests, and gaslighting your friend over a car accident in which no one even died?), but 20 years later to the month, he's still manipulating amnesiac girls.

I hope for something like this, because I'm enjoying sympathetic Esme. My fear is a storyline in which she gets her memories back and is as malicious as ever, conceals it from everyone, and keeps milking the condition so people will be nice to her and she can manipulate them. (DOOL's Sami Brady story from the late '90s, when Austin backed over her with his car.)

There was a very brief one (not a girlfriend, but a date) I thought was promising, named Francesca. She had a bit of fire to her. She was opinionated about music and was trying to get Droopy Dog to listen to...Hinds, wasn't it? Nelle, who was pregnant at the time, did something to sabotage their date, and Francesca told Michael she wasn't up for whatever complicated things were going on with him. Then the character was trotted out briefly for use as corroboration in the #metoo story with Kiki's doctor boss, and never seen again.