Episode Discussion II: The TFGH

[Daisy]

last week
Joss to Carly: I HAVE TO LEAVE PCU, I FEEL EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT ME AND JUDING ME.

This week
Joss to Cam: "Why do you care what people think?"

Also: Cam - 2 days ago "I don't think we should be so open with this."
Joss: "yes we do, we're not hiding."

Today
Cam: we don't have to be in the spotlight,  Joss"
Joss;"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT BEFORE."
Cam: "I did."
I would have paid good money had he added "but you never listen to me."

New Trina ( :( ) looks more like she could be Jordan's daughter than Portia's. she probably had first day nerves, it took NC a few days to take over the role. but she is hopping on a moving train, so hopefully she is capable. 

(and i will have to say i love how Portia is all "STAY AWAY FROM CASSADINES." but is aokay with her child being BFFs with a mob princess. shut up)

Dante is dumb if he thought he could take lead on this case (and considering that you know who his father IS, i'm actually more surprised this doesn't come up more often). 

Again. this is a crazy world where Sonny makes calm, collected sense. "Why is it your business that your father has a sealed record." and Curtis with his dumbness self "He lied to me." no. he didn't. (well other than being dead LOL).  

Why. Why are they doing this to Esme? shooot. :(

[dubbel zout]

1 minute ago, Daisy said:

Dante is dumb if he thought he could take lead on this case (and considering that you know who his father IS, i'm actually more surprised this doesn't come up more often)

It does come up pretty much every time someone in his extended family has dealings with the law, and usually the commissioner pays lip service to conflict of interest and then ignores it and lets Dante investigate anyway. His family is probably responsible for at least 50 percent of the PCPD's workload, so it's inevitable he'd have to work on something related to them.

[Ambrosefolly]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

It does come up pretty much every time someone in his extended family has dealings with the law, and usually the commissioner pays lip service to conflict of interest and then ignores it and lets Dante investigate anyway. His family is probably responsible for at least 50 percent of the PCPD's workload, so it's inevitable he'd have to work on something related to them.

I remember when the Zaccharas were the mob family du jour. Anthony commented how Dante should just change his last name to Cornithos and be done with it with all the favors he ended doing for Sonny and his progeny or as Sonny usually told Dante when he needed Dante to look the other way  "to pick family or his badge." That is the thing with this show. It never really states how corrupt, even formally moral people, become because of those assholes. It is often the villains that point it out. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Ambrosefolly

[30 Helens]

15 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

But honestly, having Carly say no more than "There are times I could have taken the high road and I didn't"? That makes it sound as though Liz was always tormenting Carly, and Carly just responded in kind. Carly always was the aggressor. 

Yeah. Even this Carly fan threw some serious side-eye at that line.

I get the sense that they’re trying to soften Carly somewhat, just as they’re doing with Sonny. The detente with Liz, being supportive of Britt rather than jealous and hostile… lately it’s felt like the writing is steering towards a kinder, gentler Carly. But none of it will work unless she owns her past shit. 

I’m appreciating the current evolution of Sonny— it’s making me enjoy a character I haven’t been able to stand in years. I would be interested in seeing a similar path for Carly, but they have to do it right. (And, P.S., the Drew pairing is not helping.)

[threebluestars]

I agree that Sonny is more interesting to me now. He has some new layers with the "Mike" addition - sort of like bringing out the "what if I hadn't gone into the mob" person. Which I like, because I hate all the mob stuff.

NuTrina I will reserve my thoughts on, just like I am with NuJordan because I think it takes a few weeks for an actor to really settle in with the character. I just hope Trina keeps her backbone because that was my favourite part of her character. I am also waiting for someone, ANYONE, to point out that ONE HOT TODDY DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. I mean, they're in college ... they should have a clue,

I hope Esme is faking pregnant because I can't see Ryan okaying that as the plan unless Esme using it as a plot to get close to Nikolas to break him and Ava up is the plan lol.

 

[Daisy]

4 minutes ago, threebluestars said:

I hope Esme is faking pregnant

she was. when she left the apartment she had a poop eating grin on her face

 

4 minutes ago, threebluestars said:

, ANYONE, to point out that ONE HOT TODDY DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. I mean, they're in college ... they should have a clue,

that doesn't really mean anything.i never drank when i was in school, so if i decided to partake in a hot toddy and it hit me like a truck, i would figure that's how it worked because why would I think different? (or even if i did drink - if all i drank was like beer and someone gave me champagne and i react different  etc etc). 

I get that most teens booze and sex it up but not all do so  Trina not knowing isn't this big red flag for me.

[Katy M]

4 hours ago, statsgirl said:

Dew has a higher moral base in theory, and BM's Drew had, but this Drew is not letting Carly steamroll over him,  It does Carly as a character no favours.

Yes, that's why you need BOTH characteristics.

[jsbt]

NuTrina is pretty solid, and adorable with her family. I was impressed.

[Cheyanne11]

Joss is insufferable--just like her mother.  It's her way or she lashes out.  I have zero faith she'll stand by Trina with this framing, however, if she does it will only be because she will uncover the truth--probably at great personal/physical peril--and then she will be the hero and everyone will want to throw her a parade.

[TVbitch]

OMG with the Joss genuflecting. First, Cam having to dismiss his own feelings cuz Joss reminds him every five seconds that this is by far so very much totally worse for her!

And Trina: Remember when we were at Kelly's and you said order the burger but I ordered the grilled cheese. Well, you were right, Joss! But I didn't listen to you! You were trying to have my back, but I just did my own thing! I'm so stupid! I should have trusted you! Everything you think and say and do is always correct. Can you ever forgive me?! 

[ffwbe]

1 hour ago, Cheyanne11 said:

Joss is insufferable--just like her mother.  It's her way or she lashes out.  I have zero faith she'll stand by Trina with this framing, however, if she does it will only be because she will uncover the truth--probably at great personal/physical peril--and then she will be the hero and everyone will want to throw her a parade.

See I think they’ll have her believe Trina but only because they want her to be right. Kind of like how they making it seem now that she was the only person who saw through Esme when no one except Spencer was being snowed by her. She’s still coming off unlikeable and having Trina apologize to her did her no favors.
 

Joss is also dismissing Cam’s feelings. I get that women are more negatively portrayed in scenarios like this but that doesn’t mean Cam wasn’t also hurt by this and she keeps acting like her feelings are the only ones that matter and that he should be fine since the trolls aren’t attacking him but he clearly isn’t. His privacy was also violated and he wasn’t the one continuously poking at Esme like she was which I really thinks she needs to acknowledge. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by ffwbe

[Ambrosefolly]

1 hour ago, TVbitch said:

OMG with the Joss genuflecting. First, Cam having to dismiss his own feelings cuz Joss reminds him every five seconds that this is by far so very much totally worse for her!

And Trina: Remember when we were at Kelly's and you said order the burger but I ordered the grilled cheese. Well, you were right, Joss! But I didn't listen to you! You were trying to have my back, but I just did my own thing! I'm so stupid! I should have trusted you! Everything you think and say and do is always correct. Can you ever forgive me?! 

 

1 hour ago, ffwbe said:

See I think they’ll have her believe Trina but only because they want her to be right. Kind of like how they making it seem now that she was the only person who saw through Esme when no one except Spencer was being snowed by her. She’s still coming off unlikeable and having Trina apologize to her did her no favors.
 

Joss is also dismissing Cam’s feelings. I get that women are more negatively portrayed in scenarios like this but that doesn’t mean Cam wasn’t also hurt by this and she keeps acting like her feelings are the only ones that matter and that he should be fine since the trolls aren’t attacking him but he clearly isn’t. His privacy was also violated and he wasn’t the one continuously poking at Esme like she was which I really thinks she needs to acknowledge. 

Of course Joss is dismissing Cam's feelings. Just like Michael dismissed Chase's and Morgan's when he took their girlfriends/wives. I love that Carly's narcissism and solipsism has transferred so successfully into all of her kids. For f*ck's sake,Calry wouldn't allow Jax to appoint his best friend Alexis as Joss' godmother because Alexis "didn't like her" but insisted that Jason be the godfather, despite Jax and Jason relationship being even more hostile.  I usually can find some charm in all teen couples, but what the hell does Cam see in Joss? Ever update I get on them just shows what a selfish witch Joss continues to be. Lord knows I hated Franco and Friz and how easy they made the "happy family", but why was it so not understandable that Cam might think that Jason killed Franco? And then he had to genuflect to her when it was revealed that Franco was the one person Jason wouldn't kill. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Ambrosefolly

[Tenshinhan]

This new Trina actress seems to be naturally soft-spoken, not at all like Mikayla was.  Normally I wouldn't mind, but it seems like they are attempting to write Trina into actually believing that she was the one who filmed Cam and Joss.  I think that the way she was singing Josslyn's praises today might be a dark omen for what's to come.

[Grinaldi]

NuTrina seems capable. But I wish the recast could have waited a little bit. Could use some of Mikayla's "Oh Hell No" energy in this part of the story.

I have to agree with the folks seeing improvement with Sonny. I'm not sold it will stick but I'm intrigued.

Why is Joss not being positioned as a villain? We're finally seeing some growth from Carly but now I have to put up with her mini-me being propped all over town? I had some sympathy for Carly as she was clearly traumatized by her childhood and came on the show as a vengeful striver which is a favorite archetype. But Joss is giving the same energy Carly did at the height of the "loves with her whole heart" era that drove me from the show. There is nothing in Joss's backstory or characterization that gives her the watchability or fun of early Carly.  

I think the original plan years ago was to have Emma as the good girl in this group with Cam as the good boy and Spencer and Joss as the naughty ones. Now they have slotted Joss into the heroine role and that is NOT the energy this character or this actress is giving. 

I am of course in her side in this revenge porn story. But that's intellectual, not emotional. I don't feel bad for Joss per se, just any woman in this position. I missed the whole Oscar story so maybe I missed some work to make her rootable or sympathetic.  But it ain't showing up in the bossy narcissist I've been watching.

It's also bad writing from the grand perspective. Sonny and Carly should have created at least one monster.  And while many may agree that they did and his name is Michael, neither the SLS or Joss are being coded as villains.

This show has been addicted to the Big Bad brand of villainy for so long that they can't write a Dorian or a Phyllis or even an Erica - the complicated villians, situational antagonists or shady but not evil characters that drive the best stories. (This is obviously what Carly and Sonny both should have been all these years)  The closest characters we have to that archtype now are Liesl, Ava and Valentine who all came in as Big Bads, cold blooded killers, but their actors were too charismatic to kill off. And there are a few other scoundrels around like Brit or Scott. But they have been softened or are not driving story. (Nickolas is too comically bad at scheming to count here)

Basically, I need this show to stop plotting every umbrella story like it's a season of Buffy. You're a soap opera. Be a soap opera. 

And let Josslyn Jax be the bitch she was born to be. And make Carly deal with that failure. That is a great story. Especially if you pair it with Micheal being confirmed to be -- and treated like -- the abusive prick many of us see.

You fucked up and made monsters your heroes. Now those monsters have created new, less interesting monsters. Please don't repeat the same mistake with less interesting actors and think it will work. That's Heather Webber level insanity.

[Asp Burger]

7 hours ago, threebluestars said:

NuTrina I will reserve my thoughts on, just like I am with NuJordan because I think it takes a few weeks for an actor to really settle in with the character.

That's a good attitude to take, and I try to give everyone time to settle in too, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope for improvement with Tanisha Harper's Jordan. She really needs voice work. (That is, she should work with someone on improving her voice. I don't mean she should concentrate on cartoons.) She has that self-conscious, amateurish tone when she speaks in character, which a lot of models-turned-actors have.

I'll hope to be proved wrong, but I've seen my share of early days that were flawed but promising vs. early days with people fundamentally starting from too far back. I fear she's a case of the latter.  

1 hour ago, Grinaldi said:

I missed the whole Oscar story so maybe I missed some work to make her rootable or sympathetic.  But it ain't showing up in the bossy narcissist I've been watching.

I don't think seeing her in the Oscar story would have made you fonder of her. That's where they started to go wrong, with her tragedy-by-proxy making her and her needs the center of the youth circuit.

Come to think of it, that was her first big story. Morgan had died (or "died") in late 2016, and Josslyn started getting real stories (beyond reacting to the adults, like being mad at Sonny for running her dad out of town) the following year.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Asp Burger

[Kiki777]

“NuTrina” sounds like the name of a breakfast drink mix 😂 I like her enough and she’s adorable, but she’s coming off as so sweet and soft-spoken that I’m wondering if TBTP actually recast because SM’s Trina was too strong and charismatic to be a believable second fiddle to the almighty spawn of Carly.

[YaddaYadda]

NuTrina seems like she can hold her own and I thought she did better than most on her first day (looking at you, TempHarmony). Coming in to fill the shoes of a character and actress who seem to be universally loved is not easy and I think that she did well.

I do, however, question that Joss tongue bath of a dialogue they gave her. For me, that seemed like a very deliberate choice on the writers' part and since when does Trina have these things running through her head, like they made it sound like Trina is not this self-assured young woman that we have had on our screen for years now. It felt like they started rewriting the character.

I have to hand it to the Esme actress. Those scenes with Esme and Spencer were an absolute knock out for me and I totally second guessed myself about her being really pregnant. Of course, her not wanting to take the test right away was a massive red flag, but the way the actress handled those scenes was really good. Then when she left and went from tearful and stressed to that little smirk, well bravo! Watching Esme and Spencer go at it was pretty delightful. GH casting tends to do well. 

Give me Taggert and Portia any day over Portia and Curtis. That toddler didn't fly off the handle with Sonny like he did with Jordan. I wonder why. 

Sonny is likable these days, which is pretty depressing.

The Joss/Cam scenes were totally absurd. Let Cam exit this relationship with his dignity. He gets steamrolled by Joss time and again, he doesn't have a whole lot of agency in the relationship. It's not an equal partnership and I find Joss to be cut from the same cloth as Michael. The way those two behave in their respective relationships is exactly the same. And if Michael is lowkey abusive toward Willow and manipulative, then so is Joss toward Cam.

[dubbel zout]

13 hours ago, TVbitch said:

 First, Cam having to dismiss his own feelings cuz Joss reminds him every five seconds that this is by far so very much totally worse for her!

Joss sucks. As others have pointed out, Cam tries to sympathize and she just pooh-poohs it that as the dude he has no idea how bad it is for her. He's on the video, too! Ugh.

13 hours ago, ffwbe said:

he wasn’t the one continuously poking at Esme like she was which I really thinks she needs to acknowledge. 

I hated that Joss basically forced Trina to apologize for wanting a truce with Esmé. It's more of the "my way or the highway" attitude we get from Joss way too often. So unattractive. Joss needs to focus that on her mom. Make Carly's life a living hell instead of her friends'.

9 hours ago, Grinaldi said:

I missed the whole Oscar story so maybe I missed some work to make her rootable or sympathetic. 

You did not miss any of that. Joss was pretty insufferable after Oscar died. She never missed a chance to remind people that he died and she was grieving him more than anyone else possibly could.

[CeChase]

31 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Joss sucks. As others have pointed out, Cam tries to sympathize and she just pooh-poohs it that as the dude he has no idea how bad it is for her. He's on the video, too! Ugh.

I hated that Joss basically forced Trina to apologize for wanting a truce with Esmé. It's more of the "my way or the highway" attitude we get from Joss way too often. So unattractive. Joss needs to focus that on her mom. Make Carly's life a living hell instead of her friends'.

You did not miss any of that. Joss was pretty insufferable after Oscar died. She never missed a chance to remind people that he died and she was grieving him more than anyone else possibly could.

It would be soooo great if they wrote Joss as being hell on wheels for Carly.  I wish people on this board were writing the stories.   I would prefer Joss as being a great friend, but a real problem for Carly.  It would be so  much more interesting, you're right. 

[Melgaypet]

Carly's daughter should have always been her karma.

[ffwbe]

4 hours ago, YaddaYadda said:

The Joss/Cam scenes were totally absurd. Let Cam exit this relationship with his dignity. He gets steamrolled by Joss time and again, he doesn't have a whole lot of agency in the relationship. It's not an equal partnership and I find Joss to be cut from the same cloth as Michael. The way those two behave in their respective relationships is exactly the same. And if Michael is lowkey abusive toward Willow and manipulative, then so is Joss toward Cam.

Joss knows that Cameron was pining for her so she treats him like this because she knows he’ll put up with whatever to be with her. It’s sad but it’s what it is. Before they got together, she stated outright that she was considering dropping his lifelong friendship if he didn’t believe that Jason couldn’t have killed Franco because he was a hero. Notice she never treated her boring bf Oscar like this. I put Willow and Cameron firmly in the doormat categories. Michael and Joss don’t inherently treat others well so they need partners who call them out.  

 

@Grinaldi I think seeing the Oscar SL would have made you more annoyed by Joss, not less. Think months of the town talking about brave and strong she was because her bf had cancer and died. Even characters who never or rarely interact with her had to waste screentime exalting her virtues.
 

Though it did give a good scene of Trina reading her for the first time because she skipped out on supporting Cameron who was there for her during the whole Oscar ordeal but she couldn’t return the favor when he was struggling because she was too sad to be a supportive friend. 

[Blackie]

If Esme gets caught, will she have to go to Baby Jail?

Then  she will have to buy Baby Jail baby clothes!  (as per Cam)

 

[ciarra]

When Joss called Esme "Nelle 2.0", is she referring to the writers' lack of coming up with something new? 

Edited March 27, 2022 by ciarra

[Cheyanne11]

3 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I hated that Joss basically forced Trina to apologize for wanting a truce with Esmé. It's more of the "my way or the highway" attitude we get from Joss way too often.

Well, poor Joss had to "sit there and listen to you accept her apology."  I mean, hasn't she been through enough that her poor ears had to hear that?  Will no one think of poor Joss? 

[statsgirl]

6 hours ago, YaddaYadda said:

The Joss/Cam scenes were totally absurd. Let Cam exit this relationship with his dignity. He gets steamrolled by Joss time and again, he doesn't have a whole lot of agency in the relationship. It's not an equal partnership and I find Joss to be cut from the same cloth as Michael. The way those two behave in their respective relationships is exactly the same. And if Michael is lowkey abusive toward Willow and manipulative, then so is Joss toward Cam.

They learned from the best, their mother. Other than with Sonny with is the 'hero' of the show and throws barware, that's pretty much how she behaves in her relationships (see above: refusing to let Alexis be Joss' godmother).

1 hour ago, ffwbe said:

 Michael and Joss don’t inherently treat others well so they need partners who call them out. 

But the show won't let them have partners who do. It's cheap and shoddy writing, a dog whistle to the Carly and Corinthos mob fans  I don't think that either CD or EM have the chops to carry out a complex characterization but at least let them try to add more to the story.

1 hour ago, ffwbe said:

 

@Grinaldi I think seeing the Oscar SL would have made you more annoyed by Joss, not less. Think months of the town talking about brave and strong she was because her bf had cancer and died. Even characters who never or rarely interact with her had to waste screentime exalting her virtues.

Greatest pity party on screen. She got to mourn longer than Oscar's parents did.

[30 Helens]

11 hours ago, YaddaYadda said:

NuTrina seems like she can hold her own and I thought she did better than most on her first day (looking at you, TempHarmony). Coming in to fill the shoes of a character and actress who seem to be universally loved is not easy and I think that she did well.

Agreed. I’m always doing stuff while the show is on, so I listen more than I watch, and I was also struck by how similar NuTrina’s voice is to PriorTrina, in both pitch and tone. There were times when I couldn’t tell the difference. 

I thought this was an impressive debut and given a little time, I’m sure she’ll settle right in. Unlike NuJordan, who grates more and more with every appearance. Casting really dropped the ball on that one. (And I don’t even think it’s the actress’s fault. She might be perfectly fine as, say, Curtis’s younger sister. But a believable police commissioner she is not.)

Edited March 26, 2022 by 30 Helens
Because JSBT’s post reminded me that PriorTrina was not actually 1stTrina.

[jsbt]

I still believe that Trina and to a lesser extent Spencer are meant by Frank Valentini to function as the 'ethnic' sidekicks to Joss and her mate of the moment, Cameron. This was how he ran the teen scene at OLTL with a white princess at its center, and it's (from his POV, in the late 2000s) a demo-grabbing success strategy he's been attempting to reproduce at GH for over ten years. When Molly was unable to catch fire with the white twink of FV's choice, she and the succession of T.J.s were exiled to Planet Hoth for years, and they still barely get let out of the Phantom Tollbooth today. (And when they do Molly's makeup is terrible.) Frank spent years casting about for a way to reproduce Kristen Alderson's success on OLTL, and he feels he has it in the serviceable at best Eden McCoy who fulfills a certain physical type.

Anyway: What does this have to do with anything relevant to now? Well, we know Sydney Mikayla (Trina #2) left to attend UCLA and was on recurring. That was by all accounts her choice, and I don't think FV masterminded it or pushed her out. I do suspect he slowrolled Spencer and Trina this whole time despite audience response partially because he was hedging his bets about SM's future availability, which is understandable, but also more importantly because Trina is not Joss, and with Frank's youth sets there can always be only one star heroine.

Tabyana Ali (Trina #3) seems pretty good so far. I was impressed with her. I also think the fairly fawning, servile dialogue with Joss was textbook FV stuff, how the sidekick teens would always have to genuflect to the glory of Starr on OLTL. That similarity may be coincidence, but I don't think the show's compulsive need to center Joss in the narrative above others is. I don't think they deliberately cast Ali to play a lesser, weaker version of Trina who can be eclipsed by Joss, but I do think they may keep writing it. The proof will be in how things shake out with her opposite Esme and Spencer, and how they play up (or don't play) Ali and Nicholas Chavez.

Edited March 26, 2022 by jsbt

[Tenshinhan]

Cam should start spending more time with Spencer and less time with Joss.  Their scenes together are much stronger and healthier.

[Grinaldi]

3 hours ago, jsbt said:

This was how he ran the teen scene at OLTL with a white princess at its center, and it's (from his POV, in the late 2000s) a demo-grabbing success strategy he's been attempting to reproduce at GH for over ten years

Which was of course another fundamental misread of the character that had been written prior to promotion to ingenue lead. Starr should have been the one making people cry, not a sobbing Pauline reeling from constant perils. Same I think is true of Joss.

Thanks for the confirmation that I didn't miss something in the Oscar story, folks.

Edited March 27, 2022 by Grinaldi

[Desperado]

I like the new changes in makeup and styling of the actors. More colours all around and I’m here for it!

I also appreciate the more subtle and healthy Sonny. MB still has acting tics that annoy me but I mute him less now. 

And yes, Carly needs someone else than Drew. I’m also open to seeing her have friends and becoming more relatable. LW has it in her.

NuTrina looks 100% like a side kick actress to me right now and I don’t see her as being able to create any fire with Spencer. We’ll see what happens. It looked like RA and BK were really trying to make TA confortable in her first scene, which was nice. RA seemed more recovered and happier, it was good to see.

Cam and Spencer are fun in scenes together. I want more.

[YaddaYadda]

10 hours ago, Desperado said:

NuTrina looks 100% like a side kick actress to me right now and I don’t see her as being able to create any fire with Spencer.

I'm assuming that the person she auditioned with is the Spencer actor. The problem with chemistry is that is completely subjective. 

I'm mostly dreading the sidekick bit, tbh. 

[jsbt]

I don't think Ali's performance or her selection as the recast has anything to do with an attempt to marginalize the character, nor do I think anything about her talent seemed less than Sydney Mikayla. I thought she was very good for a first day and very winning to watch. She got dealt a hand where the character kowtows to Joss. Trina is not the first (nor is it Trina's first time as a character) and won't be the last.

It wouldn't matter who is in the role; IMO Trina and Spencer would still be viewed as adjuncts/sidekicks to Joss even with SM still around. Trina has often been presented as that. What I am interested in is if she has good chemistry with Chavez, which I suspect she will, and if she can play the character's strength, and I don't see a reason thus far to think she can't. After that, the story trajectory is down to the writers and EP.

Edited March 28, 2022 by jsbt

[ribboninthesky]

48 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

I'm assuming that the person she auditioned with is the Spencer actor.

TA's screen test partner was Donnell Turner (Curtis), so I'm assuming that the oft-implied paternity plot has something to do that finally coming to light.

11 hours ago, Desperado said:

NuTrina looks 100% like a side kick actress to me right now and I don’t see her as being able to create any fire with Spencer.

This is my top worry moving forward. Tabyana certainly strikes me as competent, but nothing about her screams scene stealer in the way Sydney's take did even if she also got saddled with obligatory "propping Joss" duties. Trina as a persona is structurally bound to always play second fiddle to Port Charles's preconceived golden girl, but SM had a way in finding loopholes to make Trina stand out even when the script said otherwise. Ali's already powder soft voice and demure presence give me pause. I can easily buy into TPTB using this situational recast as an off-ramp to reel back Trina as a character with breakout potential to be firmly slotted into wallpaper. 

[Winston Wolfe]

On 3/25/2022 at 7:21 AM, Kiki777 said:

ETA: I hope that Harmony spoiler isn’t true, and that she’s moving in so poor Alexis can finally get laid again

Hope I don't get torched for saying this...and I'm definitely NOT a fanfic person...but Alexis and Harmony DO have a strange/interesting sexual chemistry between the two of them. No male fantasizing here, but I'd like to see Alexis finally in a mostly-healthy relationship that doesn't implode/explode on her.

[jsbt]

I'm not going to pigeonhole the new girl based on one day's script where she's written to behave a certain way. Frankly I thought she seemed more layered technically than SM. With both Mikayla and Chavez, their charisma made up for some fairly green edges. If this girl doesn't have the same brawn to her that Mikayla had we'll see soon enough, but there's not enough for me to make that determination yet.

[ffwbe]

1 hour ago, Winston Wolfe said:

Hope I don't get torched for saying this...and I'm definitely NOT a fanfic person...but Alexis and Harmony DO have a strange/interesting sexual chemistry between the two of them. No male fantasizing here, but I'd like to see Alexis finally in a mostly-healthy relationship that doesn't implode/explode on her.

I don’t think you were the only one who thought that. There was a ton of posts on Twitter about it anytime they had scenes together. I just don’t know if it was intentional because imo Alexis has a lot of scenes that have that undercurrent even when it’s clearly not leading to a romance. 

[KimChi Rogue]

It’s fine if there is vehement hate for the Joss character and to be honest some points made about her are valid. But the antis who think people who enjoy Joss’s character are blind or just as bad as she is in real life, is an unfair critique. I accept that sometimes every word and action Joss makes just annoys people and they think she’s the worst thing on earth. But personally, I wish to view Joss as a complex teenage character who is as flawed and still have a lot to learn. I can’t recall Joss doing something so evil and heinous that it warrants people saying she deserves this maltreatment and exposure from Esme. Or that she should get over it because people don’t care about sex tapes anymore and only people in town will know and forget about it.

I guess it speaks to reality and maybe that’s what GH was trying to address when they introduced this story of releasing a sex tape without consent. We see it all the time where if a female victim doesn’t act a certain way, then she deserves what she gets. It’s just disheartening to see the hate overshadow the different perspectives of this story.

I am also in agreement that yes, Joss is very self-involved with her trauma right now and only seeing Cam’s struggle on the surface. But everyone processes trauma differently and are allowed the time and space to do that. And I feel that now that she and Cam have given their police statements and have Alexis and Trina in their corner, they have taken a proactive step in overcoming this traumatic situation together. And Cam’s hesitation is completely understandable. As is Joss right to try to overcome the shameful experience with whatever false bravado she needs to present to people to be able to deal with it. Anyway, I think I went a little too deep with all this.

[Desperado]

12 minutes ago, KimChi Rogue said:

 Anyway, I think I went a little too deep with all this.

Very heartfelt ❤️ and thoughtful post @KimChi Rogue - thank you.

[DanaK]

3 hours ago, Winston Wolfe said:

Hope I don't get torched for saying this...and I'm definitely NOT a fanfic person...but Alexis and Harmony DO have a strange/interesting sexual chemistry between the two of them. No male fantasizing here, but I'd like to see Alexis finally in a mostly-healthy relationship that doesn't implode/explode on her.

Not with Harmony I hope as she just might be in cahoots with Ryan and that's going to implode at some point, if the writers don't take their sweet time with it

[30 Helens]

“I like Trina.” “Interesting that Trina was recast as Black.” “Not feeling Trina.”

I was curious to see how people reacted to Sydney Mikayla’s Trina in her early days (she started in February 2019), so I did a search. The comments above were pretty much it. I didn’t see anyone remarking on her superb acting skills until the following July. 

Moral of the story is, it takes time to inhabit a character.  It’s especially hard to follow an actress as beloved as Sydney. NuTrina may not have all the nuances down yet, but I expect she’ll get there. She seems more than capable.

[Mirabelle]

3 hours ago, ffwbe said:

I don’t think you were the only one who thought that. There was a ton of posts on Twitter about it anytime they had scenes together. I just don’t know if it was intentional because imo Alexis has a lot of scenes that have that undercurrent even when it’s clearly not leading to a romance. 

I remember the inappropriate chemistry between Alexis and Stefan especially before we found out she was his sister. 

[YaddaYadda]

5 hours ago, Winston Wolfe said:

Hope I don't get torched for saying this...and I'm definitely NOT a fanfic person...but Alexis and Harmony DO have a strange/interesting sexual chemistry between the two of them. No male fantasizing here, but I'd like to see Alexis finally in a mostly-healthy relationship that doesn't implode/explode on her.

I see the chemistry. And I was even hoping that maybe they'd go there with Alexis and Harmony. Spoilers notwithstanding, I really don't know that this would be a healthy relationship.

[ffwbe]

11 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

I see the chemistry. And I was even hoping that maybe they'd go there with Alexis and Harmony. Spoilers notwithstanding, I really don't know that this would be a healthy relationship.

I don’t think it would have ever been a healthy pairing but Harmony is 100% her type. Shady past, history of lying, most of the town dislikes her, etc

[YaddaYadda]

16 minutes ago, ffwbe said:

I don’t think it would have ever been a healthy pairing but Harmony is 100% her type. Shady past, history of lying, most of the town dislikes her, etc

Your post makes me sad. 

[Winston Wolfe]

3 hours ago, ffwbe said:

3 hours ago, YaddaYadda said:

I see the chemistry. And I was even hoping that maybe they'd go there with Alexis and Harmony. Spoilers notwithstanding, I really don't know that this would be a healthy relationship.

I don’t think it would have ever been a healthy pairing but Harmony is 100% her type. Shady past, history of lying, most of the town dislikes her, etc

Sadly, you're on to something, ffwbe. Other than Jax (platonic marriage) and Ned (whom she left at the altar), Alexis has been all about the bad boys. Even Shawn and Neil have/had their issues. The main difference with Harmony is she truly appears to want to turn things around, but her past keeps popping up and getting in the way. Since there's no age-appropriate men around for either Alexis or Harmony at this point (other than maybe Robert), I'm getting a feeling that another same-sex pairing is coming our way. This one at least will be fairly interesting.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Winston Wolfe

[ciarra]

I don't think they can write a compelling Alexis/Harmony relationship.  Just look at the awkward mess they made of Parker/Kristina. 

[dubbel zout]

Ugh, more Hatman stupidity. It's not unreasonable for him to hate mob bosses, but why does the show insist on dragging this crap out? Just spill it and get on with it. FFS.

Esmé, you did Ava some egregious wrongs. It's not outside the realm of logic that she still might have some issues with you. That's not the lane to pick to complain about how downtrodden you are.

Did the show forget Trina is 18? A parent can't do anything except give her moral support. If she wants someone there, it should be a lawyer.

[statsgirl]

The writing for NuTrina is awful "I just hate that I made you guys upset." How about getting angry and fighting for yourself? And asking for a lawyer since they've put you in the interrogation room?  Joss would know to do that.

Jordan really shouldn't be talking to Taggart about Trina and the investigation.

I found today's episode pretty boring. Hatman/Curtis, people anti Harmony, Esme crying to Nic, the sex tape, Nina propping Sonny to Scott ... I care about none of these stories.

[ffwbe]

They seem to be really emphasizing that Jordan and the PCPD are playing things by the book now. I wonder why when it’s been anything but before. Dante might as well resign now because he’d have to recuse himself from 95% of the investigations and are they now pretending like they didn’t let Jason be actively involved in numerous investigations? Hell I remember times when he was interrogating suspects and offering plea deals. 

[jacourt]

OK  Not a techie here but when you get a phone is there an identification number attached to it? Seems like a simple enough solution but I know soapland.  I was glad Joss stood up for Trina.