HipOldBat

I agree. I doubt he has enough self-awareness to realize what's happening and/or how it looks to "outsiders". And, you know, maybe writers, like some weird fans, get caught up in CrazySoapLand too.

Yes, I agree - that is extremely weird to me. I'm sure this has been mentioned a zillion times in this forum, but Ron really is projecting a lot of his neuroses through the characters on that show, or through how he writes the characters. It's creepy to me.

This is why I quit going over there - they love Sonny and constantly defend him. Some even go so far to indicate that they love 'gangstas' in general, in real life, and I found that just too sickening to read. Anytime someone criticizes Sonny, 50 people jump in to catalog all those other bad characters and what they have done, which actually has nothing at all to do with the subject, which is 'Sonny is an evil thug'. Regarding Nina, they hate her because she has a mental illness. They hate Heather and Franco for the same reason. And they hate AJ not for being fat, but for being a 'weak alcoholic', which in their pea-brains is infinitely more damning than being a 'strong, tough gangsta' (the reason they love Robot Jason, too). So, in Facebook world, alcoholic/person with mental illness/person who doesn't use violence to resolve problems = bad hitman/thug/anyone who does anything violent = good

I know this wasn't the reason they did this - because they are too stupid to know this, imho - but children who have been exposed to, shall we say, adult themes at an early age, will actually behave like this. It's a sad reflection of shitty parenting. I would prefer GH not do things like this, for whatever reason. It's just ick.

If the writers are going to change Michael, I would much rather that he become super-cynical and angry (angrier than he is now), maybe a bit ruthless as a businessman, instead of an alcoholic. Ideally, I don't want MIchael to be either of those things, what I want is for Michael to take over/destroy/liquidate Sonny's businesses and become this Avenging SuperGood King of Port Charles, and Sonny is the guy dressed in rags on the street that Michael throws a quarter in his tin cup to, and.... Well, I know it's not going to happen that way. Michael won't be able to get payback from Sonny because Sonny can never lose, and everyone has to look down on Michael as an ingrate for everything Saint Sonny has done for him. Grrr.

I gave in and watched today's episode. I don't think it made a whole lot of sense to show Michael muttering to himself about punishing Sonny by messing with his businesses ("yes!" I thought), but then have him turn around and sue for custody of Avery. I get why the character did it, it just didn't seem to flow from his previous thoughts on how to make Sonny pay. And does this mean we get a new character, Michael's lawyer? Because obviously it's not Alexis (or is it?), and we haven't seen Diane in ages.... I am all for anyone who tries to hurt Sonny. I would just rather see his businesses completely destroyed than some lame custody battle, initiated by a character who didn't give a damn about that baby until now. Sigh.

That's great news about Wally Kurth staying - I really like that actor. I haven't watched the entire show since last Wednesday and I don't feel I missed much of anything. Tried catching up, starting with Thursday, but it's just so yuck watching Sonny and Snarly. I did think it was interesting watching Nikolas threaten Scott - not sure how I feel about him doing that. At least his character was interesting to watch. Can't they resolve the whole Luke thing before they get into yet another storyline (custody thing)? I wish they'd wrap it up and maybe have Luke self-destruct and leave PC (kill him off, cart him off, or have his head explode, I really don't care at this point), for good this time? I read TG's contract is up in April. I hope he doesn't re-sign.

What are they going to do now that Wally Kurth is going back to Days of Our Lives? Recast Ned? Just have him run out on Olivia?

My son has Aspberger's and has a degree in computer science. So, regarding Spin having this? No. Clinically, he doesn't fit the profile.

Meh, I am lazy and not that interested heh. I hope they got that other (Seattle) baby to the doctor, and that's all I am going to say about her. Whoever she was. She was sitting up and all and didn't look all that young, either. Just didn't seem like a good fit.

Thank you! As usual, you come to the rescue and answer my question. But wait! If she plays Avery, who is going to play Georgie? She's not going to play both babies, is she?

I don't know much about the Spinelli character, having not seen the show in a very long time - just know him from the Maxie pregnancy story. I don't like the weird way he talks. I don't know why the actor (or writers, or director, or whomever) makes the character talk in such a strange, forced way. I have 2 sons who are computer nerds and neither talk like that, nor did any of the computer scientists I went to grad school with talk like that. Is this an attempt at him sounding "intelligent"? It annoys me a lot. Way too affectatious. The character did have comedic moments, I think, but after his return I can't seem to recall any of them. And it's a pity they didn't bring Ellie back, as at least that character had a sense of right and wrong. I don't know, maybe Spinelli has a moral compass but from what you guys have written about his past, it doesn't seem so. I don't like Nathan with Maxie. Maxie couldn't even be by herself when she went on her spiritual quest or whatever the heck that was - she was supposed to use the time for personal growth, I guess, but came back with an obnoxious new-agey conman. She needs to be alone for awhile. Be with her daughter and get her head together. In fact, I wish that more women on GH would just, you know, be like regular people and not always have some tormented love affair going on. Even Monica, who is supposed to be a professional woman, has taken up with that idiot judge who, while he was probably right in denying custody, did it for the stupidest reasons. Ffs even Helena has a thing for fLuke or whoever he is. I hate it. There are women writers on GH, I noticed in the credits, so why don't they do a little better with portraying women? Does RC need to play out his neuroses and make all the writers fall in line with that? Just a thought.

The Seattle Georgie had some kind of illness, it seemed, as she was hiccupping or coughing or something. That did not add to her looks, so maybe that's all it was. The other babies are ok on the show but Avery! She's lovely. What child plays that part? Is she the baby of one of the actors/actresses?

Didn't TG say he wouldn't come back unless they wrote this Fluke thing? I think I read that somewhere... My unpopular opinion is....*whispering* I don't think Maxie's baby is cute. If I ran into someone with that child in real life, I would recall my mother telling me, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." OH, and I mean Maxie's baby on the show, not the actress' real baby, who I think is very pretty.

Wasn't she brought in during the last days of AMC? I'm not superstitious, but... I think GH has a lot of characters now already. Why don't they give some of the women a decent storyline that does not revolve around some dude? And, to be fair, why don't they write something for Mac or Brad? Wasn't Brad's dad a mobster....oh wait no. No more mobsters, please!

I am naturally grumpy :)

From what I've seen of the old Jason, I would be ok with him helping take down Sonny, but only if the deep-freeze and accident completely rewired his brain and he is appalled and tormented forever by what he's done - every time he remembers or when someone brings it up to him. But the main one to do it should be Michael (I was going to add Monica, but I don't think the writers have any interest in doing anything with her character except perhaps when Jake finds out who he is). It would be nice if a lot of people joined him in taking Sonny down, but I think that's a bit too much for me to hope for. I want Sonny to lose everything, and then have a psychotic break that lands him somewhere where we don't see the character for a good long time. And I definitely do not want to actually see the break, just have him go away - because we don't need any more scenery chewing and that would be the perfect opportunity for MB to ham it up, if he could remember his lines. Of course, he could just become catatonic, which would be nice because he would have to be quiet. I just want him on the back burner, for a change. And I would like, just one time, to see him pay for something he has done.

And from what I understand as to what Sonny did to Karen, I am enraged that he said that. Regarding Scott's mention of Laura's rape...perhaps the writers had him mention this in order to set up the final reveal about Luke - that he's a "bad guy" (to use Scott's words). That Luke's been a bad guy all along, he's not brainwashed, and so on. Don't jump on me about this, it's just an idea.

Well, this episode was a little more tolerable than yesterday's...but not by much. Snarly to Sonny: "You need me to change diapers and burp the baby but not for the IMPORTANT things." Yes, because Sonny is always more important than babies or anyone else, to Snarly. And...throwing Jake at Sonny as a potential love interest? Yuck, she is so full of herself. Morgan, Morgan, Morgan...really? Your dad's not a liar? And then trotting out the excuse that makes me want to scream - other characters do bad things, so Sonny gets a pass....other characters are 'not saints', so Sonny gets a pass...It doesn't matter! This argument pisses me off to no end! Since when does anyone get excused for heinous behavior just because someone else has done it, or worse? And most of the time when people make this ridiculous statement, the 'crimes' pale in comparison to what Sonny has done. I get it that he was trying to make the case that Ava murdered someone and shouldn't have custody but...Ava, as far as they know, is dead. So that's a moot point. And to bring that up to her daughter who is grieving is just the height of insensitivity. Kiki has bonded with her sister. I hope that character DOES sue for custody, and gets Michael to help. Then Morgan can hang out at Sonny's all the time and mope. He's supremely annoying to me now. Ah, the entitled Lulu. I think she is standing in for the fans who cannot accept that Luke is in his right mind. I didn't mind her going off on Scott, until the end when she threatened him. SHE is the public, so Scott should serve HER. Scott should let some Evil Queen out of jail so Lulu can find out how to de-program him, because of course Helena uses magick and Lulu needs to know how to break the spell. To hell with the threat Helena poses to the community, it's all about the Spencers. And, to hell with Occam's razor, it HAS to be mind control, and not Luke just being a horrible person. As for Maxie...I think she will say, if someone asks, that she "just couldn't lie to Nathan." If so, I don't have a problem with that, if it means the character is trying to redeem herself by not lying anymore. I can't fault her for being a bad liar, when she didn't really lie, she just avoided telling Nathan the truth until he confronted her. In Maxie's world, that's a big step towards her becoming a decent human being. All in all, I didn't mind GH today, and I am looking forward to Spinelli's return, to provide some comic relief.

*Applauds* Great post, well-written. As is your wont, excellent post! I really hope Jason becomes anti-Sonny. All the fans who complain that they miss the "old" Jason...I don't know, did they all hit trees with their heads too? Because from what you guys have posted here, Jason was as big a monster as Sonny, and super-creepy to boot. But yeah, I totally agree with you. Off topic a bit...love the conversations here. Most are civil, make sense, and are amusing to boot. So glad I found this site.

I tend to agree with you. I wrote about this before, the personality disorder thing. This is why they really can never redeem the Sonny character - he will never get help, and he has no insight, both which are typical for folks with those problems. That diagnosis has such a low percentage of success in treating it that we used to not even write anything about it in the chart (neither did the psychiatrists), because the insurance companies will not pay for personality disorder treatment. So every time any writer attempts to make Sonny look sorry for what he did, it just doesn't ring true. He isn't capable of empathy. As for Snarly, I am not so sure. She does seem to feel bad for the things she has done, at times (not often). She has really bad judgment but she usually doesn't deliberately shit-stir the other characters like people with borderline personality disorder do - she's way too busy thinking about herself. She also hooked up with Franco, and her being able to justify what he did because he had a brain tumor, while still (at times) wondering if she was wrong about him, tells me she doesn't see people in black/white terms. It's just such a pity she doesn't listen to what little common sense she actually does have. I tend to think of her more as the shallow, somewhat dimwitted garden-variety neurotic. Like I said before, I don't think soaps should try to "do" mental illness, because they get it wrong most, if not all, of the time. I have seen bipolar disorder portrayed in 2 ways in the media (tv and film): the "people with bipolar disorder are exceptionally creative" idea, and the "people with bipolar disorder go on rampages and kill people" idea. Both are inaccurate, as you pointed out. MB's claim that he helps people is based on "reminding people to take their pills", as he stated in his Fairman interview. Wow, big contribution, thanks ever so much. Neither he nor any other show are doing any favors for people who have mental illness, and they seem to actually do more harm than good most often.

He wasn't a model, either. Nowadays apparently you have to be perfect-looking to be on TV. GH mirrors real-life shallowness. This is also a frequent excuse Sonny's fans use to justify AJ's murder. I think it's really sick.

I think the people most vocal about this are the Sonny apologists. On FB they scream "AJ was a drunk POS" every time anyone says Sonny shouldn't have shot him. And, "AJ didn't raise Michael!" Completely forgetting how that whole mess came about. Maybe it's because it's late (midnight here), but I can't recall any character trashing AJ for drinking, except Snarly. And AJ was more of the "stumbling around" intoxicated person, whereas I don't recall Lee being that obvious with it. No matter what the reason, though, it's unfair to crap on anyone for that, in real life or on TV. I would have thought audiences had matured a bit more than that...what am I saying? I think I just need to go to bed now!

I think that's a terrific idea.

Yeah, because AJ had a substance abuse problem. Apparently that is a capital offense in CrazySoapLand.