Episode Discussion II: The TFGH

[dubbel zout]

Of course Sonny's pea brain can't imagine that someone else's sexual preferences don't follow what he thinks he knows about it.

I'm really glad JPL shaved off that terrible mustache and crumb catcher.

LOL at Jakeson's HulkSmash! out of being handcuffed to a chair. Oh, Show.

[statsgirl]

Today was a good example of how toxic Sonny is to his family much less the rest of the town. Kristina is so afraid of telling Sonny that she's not perfect because "you're the real deal"  She idolizes him too much, someone who orders people dead at the drop of a hat, and she's afraid of disappointing him. That's not love, that's intimidation. What the scene showed is not that Parker helps Kristina become herself, as Krissy said, but that she's completely confused about who she is and what she wants.

There isn't a child of his that Sonny hasn't hurt -- Michael, Dante, Kristina, Morgan, Avery (by keeping her from her mother) -- except for Donna and she's still a baby.   Carly and Sonny infantalize their their children, most likely to keep control of them. The worst examples are Michael and Kristina, Michael who can't make decision without Mommy and Daddy, and Kristina who needed a cult to find any kind of purpose in her life. Morgan was pretty bad too.  I'm really tired of the show telling me what great parents they are.

This version of Valentin was actually kind of scary. JPS should have kept the lowered voice. Now he's too much of a woobie.

4 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

LOL at Jakeson's HulkSmash! out of being handcuffed to a chair. Oh, Show.

When I first saw him there, I thought "Who thought it was a good idea to handcuff Jason to that chair?  They're so flimsy!"

[dubbel zout]

12 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

Today was a good example of how toxic Sonny is to his family much less the rest of the town. Kristina is so afraid of telling Sonny that she's not perfect because "you're the real deal"  She idolizes him too much, someone who orders people dead at the drop of a hat, and she's afraid of disappointing him. That's not love, that's intimidation.

And of course Sonny yells at Kristina, making it all about him, instead of being horrified that one of his kids is terrified of him.

[gp1999]

Remember when Valentin was supposed to be a ruthless villain that even Helena was scared of him?

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, statsgirl said:

This version of Valentin was actually kind of scary. JPS should have kept the lowered voice. Now he's too much of a woobie.

I was on the barge when this aired, so missed this. But I agree. This Valentin is a scary dude. What happened to turn him into. Petulant whiny emo? Nina? Anna?

Oh My God. What is that thing on Julian’s head? Is he being arraigned for trying to kill Alexis?

When I saw the Bratz Doll with a gun in her hand, all I could do was 🤣🤣🤣🤣😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

She is NO Laura!Fucking!Spencer! In her pink gown, toting a machine gun and looking BADASS doing it! Julie Marie Berman’s Lulu could have pulled it off.

❤️🥰❤️DANTE!!❤️🥰❤️

[gp1999]

10 hours ago, Kiki777 said:

Not gonna lie, I’m very judgmental when it comes to fans of Sonnycarlyjasonsam (not a typo, I just see them as one horribly annoying entity).  I’m not on social media but when I meet a person IRL who watches GH I’m initially happy to have someone to discuss it with.  Until I hear OMG Sonny is amazing Carly is such a good mom Sam and Jason are soulmates lalalala.  Then I write them off as a basic bitch and politely decline their invitation to go to Starbucks for a pumpkin-spice latte. 

Its a soap, almost everyone has done bad things. I'm a fan of Sonny and Jason (kill me) and I know they're not the best people. But I only enjoy watching them as characters on tv. If this was real life, I wouldn't want anything to do with them.

3 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I was on the barge when this aired, so missed this. But I agree. This Valentin is a scary dude. What happened to turn him into. Petulant whiny emo? Nina? Anna?

Oh My God. What is that thing on Julian’s head? Is he being arraigned for trying to kill Alexis?

When I saw the Bratz Doll with a gun in her hand, all I could do was 🤣🤣🤣🤣😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

She is NO Laura!Fucking!Spencer! In her pink gown, toting a machine gun and looking BADASS doing it! Julie Marie Berman’s Lulu could have pulled it off.

❤️🥰❤️DANTE!!❤️🥰❤️

Yes and I think he was also going on trial for murdering Carlos

Edited July 10, 2020 by gp1999

[Kiki777]

4 hours ago, ulkis said:

At this point "the swell mob" is the premise of the show. You either go with it or you don't. I don't go with it but that's because the actors give such shitty performances now. If there were a hot charismatic mobster, I might.

Now Johnny Zacchara was a mobster I could root for.

[Melgaypet]

2 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

And it was that whackadoo's Lisa's bright idea to get Terrell to come to General Hospital--to get him to "seduce" Robin into an affair? Like, whuuut?

The only thing I remember about Terrell is being seriously annoyed that he wasn't Tom Hardy, Jr.

[statsgirl]

2 hours ago, Kiki777 said:

Now Johnny Zacchara was a mobster I could root for.

Johnny had a ton of self-awareness though. He saw how his father affected Claudia and how Sonny completed her destruction, and spoke up for Michael at the sentencing. He didn't want to sit by Olivia's bedside because they had broken up over his choices and so while he obviously cared a great deal for her, he left it to be Dante there when she woke up.

Sonny and Jason, and Carly have none of that. It's always about themselves for Sonny and Carly, and for S&C for Jason.  Just as Sonny makes Kristina's pain and anxiety about himself, Jason has no awareness of how his absences or his lifestyle affects his children.

[nilyank]

3 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I was on the barge when this aired, so missed this. But I agree. This Valentin is a scary dude. What happened to turn him into. Petulant whiny emo? Nina? Anna?

 

I am going to say it was Nina.

They met and had a one night stand, and somehow he became all googly over her.

[dubbel zout]

15 hours ago, statsgirl said:

Jason has no awareness of how his absences or his lifestyle affects his children.

Jason has no awareness of his children, period. I don't think a change of lifestyle would change that. He and Sam would still dump them off at Monica's so they could go riding on his bike or something equally dumb. They're action people! Kids just slow you down!

[Annifran]

This coming week is a skip-the-week for me.  All five episodes are repeats from earlier this year.  Don't care to see them again.

[gp1999]

2 hours ago, Annifran said:

This coming week is a skip-the-week for me.  All five episodes are repeats from earlier this year.  Don't care to see them again.

Makes no sense. People here may not have liked how these repeats were Sonny themed but at least we got to see older episodes even dating back to 2003 and see characters that aren't there now.

4 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Jason has no awareness of his children, period. I don't think a change of lifestyle would change that. He and Sam would still dump them off at Monica's so they could go riding on his bike or something equally dumb. They're action people! Kids just slow you down!

It's a soap though. No one wants to see people raising their kids. It's a reason why we hardly see kids on the show.

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, Annifran said:

This coming week is a skip-the-week for me.  All five episodes are repeats from earlier this year.  Don't care to see them again.

God FORBID they air the more classic and better episodes! Hell, they love Jaysus and Burton so much, why not air the episode when Jason Morgan was “born”? 

[dubbel zout]

47 minutes ago, gp1999 said:

It's a soap though. No one wants to see people raising their kids. It's a reason why we hardly see kids on the show.

Sam and Jason aren't even raising their kids offscreen. I'd at least like lip service that they have game nights or something where the family is together.

[GHScorpiosRule]

33 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Sam and Jason aren't even raising their kids offscreen. I'd at least like lip service that they have game nights or something where the family is together.

I find it highly ironic that after years of complaining and whining about wanting a baby, how her chances of having one was “ruined” when she was shot in the uterus, that when she has TWO, let alone one, she can’t be bothered with them because it’s all about Jaysus and doing whatever with him.🙄🙄🙄🙄

And I had to 😆😆laugh at Parker’s note to Kristina. I suppose she thought a text would have been too impersonal?

So can someone fill me in why Alexis was up for possible disbarment?

[nilyank]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

So can someone fill me in why Alexis was up for possible disbarment?

Julian asked her to defend Carlos on the murder charges for killing Duke. Later Julian ends up stabbing/killing Carlos, and Alexis finds out and keeps the secret. Eventually she gets blamed for it by the cops, so Alexis agrees to wear a wire and Julian solution was to pick up the knife the Helena used to kill her mother and tried to slit Alexis' throat. She got in trouble for her involvement with Julian.

[statsgirl]

I don't want to spend a lot of time on children on soaps but I do like watching Liz's boys. The kids are good actors, especially the oldest, and the stories have been interesting and a nice change from the repetitive stories for the adults, highlighted all too much now that we're seeing these reruns.  Trina can also stay on my screen.

I don't care for Joss or Spencer because they're brats and Charlotte is too often just a pawn for plot. The other kids are too young to be interesting in themselves.

10 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Jason has no awareness of his children, period. I don't think a change of lifestyle would change that. He and Sam would still dump them off at Monica's so they could go riding on his bike or something equally dumb. They're action people! Kids just slow you down!

What I was thinking of specifically was Hallowe'en 2018 when Danny and Jake dressed up like Jason for their costumes. Sam asked Jason if he would be okay with his sons taking on his work (mob enforcer) and he said sure if that's what they wanted.  A job that was not just illegal but also very dangerous and including murder and torture but he was fine with Jake and Danny doing it. Yeah, forget scientist or doctor or teacher, mob enforcer is the role in life that we want for our kids.

[Ambrosefolly]

On 7/10/2020 at 6:08 AM, Kiki777 said:

Not gonna lie, I’m very judgmental when it comes to fans of Sonnycarlyjasonsam (not a typo, I just see them as one horribly annoying entity).  I’m not on social media but when I meet a person IRL who watches GH I’m initially happy to have someone to discuss it with.  Until I hear OMG Sonny is amazing Carly is such a good mom Sam and Jason are soulmates lalalala.  Then I write them off as a basic bitch and politely decline their invitation to go to Starbucks for a pumpkin-spice latte. 

 

On 7/10/2020 at 5:05 PM, gp1999 said:

Its a soap, almost everyone has done bad things. I'm a fan of Sonny and Jason (kill me) and I know they're not the best people. But I only enjoy watching them as characters on tv. If this was real life, I wouldn't want anything to do with them.

Yes and I think he was also going on trial for murdering Carlos

I hate Jason and wasn't much of fan of him when he was a compelling character, but lack of Jason fans makes for an echo chamber, and I was once a fan of Sonny. I have been watching a lot of Youtube videos (I need to get a life), and it helping crystalize why General Hospital has been so poorly written for nearly 20 years. In one of the videos, they compared the mediocre Hobbit to the superior Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, it wasn't because of the cast, because that was nearly flawless; it was writing and directing. One phrase describing the action sequences was comparing to watching laundry spin in a washer: a lot of action but no real tension. Jason is the equivalent of watching laundry spin. It isn't just that he is the designated winner in any storyline. There are plenty of shows, including this one in the past, where everyone knew who is the winner. It is how the person triumphs that was the draw, the person making mistakes and getting over weakness with in his or hers character. Jason is never in the wrong, he never actively pursues the woman that he eventually has affairs with (Courtney, Elizabeth), he is never the reason the woman cheat, there is something wrong with the spouses. He is always right, the moral center. Even the soap press says he only kills "bad people."  There is no reflection in him and his relationships with Carly and Sonny have no complexity. For god sakes, Sonny straight up murdered AJ and Carly helped cover it up, but it hasn't been brought up since he came back, though I fear if they ever do bring it up, it would be completely hand waved by Jason, despite the amount of pain it put Monica through. It isn't just "bad things," it is that with Jason, it is always excused and deified. 

[ffwbe]

4 hours ago, nilyank said:

Julian asked her to defend Carlos on the murder charges for killing Duke. Later Julian ends up stabbing/killing Carlos, and Alexis finds out and keeps the secret. Eventually she gets blamed for it by the cops, so Alexis agrees to wear a wire and Julian solution was to pick up the knife the Helena used to kill her mother and tried to slit Alexis' throat. She got in trouble for her involvement with Julian.

I think the reason she got in trouble was an ethics violation during when she represented Carlos. She talked him out of taking a plea deal because they wanted him to flip on Julian. 

Edited July 12, 2020 by ffwbe

[dubbel zout]

13 hours ago, Ambrosefolly said:

For god sakes, Sonny straight up murdered AJ and Carly helped cover it up, but it hasn't been brought up since he came back, though I fear if they ever do bring it up, it would be completely hand waved by Jason, despite the amount of pain it put Monica through.

I'm pretty sure Jason knows that Sonny killed AJ, but since AJ was fat, Jason doesn't care.

[nilyank]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

I'm pretty sure Jason knows that Sonny killed AJ, but since AJ was fat, Jason doesn't care.

He does. He just doesn't care as Sonny and Carly were always more important to him than any Quartermaine.

[statsgirl]

1 hour ago, nilyank said:

He does. He just doesn't care as Sonny and Carly were always more important to him than any Quartermaine.

And he has absolutely no conflict about it.

[dubbel zout]

I watched literally three minutes of today's repeat and bailed. Even in that short time, my blood pressure rose way too high, LOL.

[statsgirl]

The only parts of this episode I enjoyed were Alexis talking with Valentin, and Finn calling out Chase for lying, and neither of those ended up going anywhere.  If they totalled 4 minutes I'd be surprised.

[Kiki777]

Are the repeats for this week the ones full of flashbacks?  Because I don’t think I can stomach the constant deja vu a second time around, I’ll go mad.

[MarciNJ]

I have watched exactly zero episodes of the repeats/flashbacks.  I'm (im)patiently waiting for the new shows  (Late August?  Does anyone know?).

But, here is my question - do you think they will take this opportunity to do a time jump, as some shows do?  Maybe get rid of some dead weight/storylines that weren't working (Peter August)?  I know they were in the middle of a lot of things that need closure (Jonah's custody, Nelle as Nina's daughter, etc) but those stories can be told via extended flashback, maybe even stand alone episodes   It just seems they have a unique opportunity to really tweak the show for the better; I'm curious if they will do anything with it.....

HAHAHAHAHA - who am I kidding?  Of course they won't!

[dubbel zout]

10 minutes ago, MarciNJ said:

I'm (im)patiently waiting for the new shows  (Late August?  Does anyone know?).

There's no return date to start filming again, and I think there's usually about three weeks between taping and airing. That's when things are up and running; a restart might have a longer gap.

[MarciNJ]

1 minute ago, dubbel zout said:

There's no return date to start filming again, and I think there's usually about three weeks between taping and airing. That's when things are up and running; a restart might have a longer gap.

I thought I had heard a return date of 7/20, but I realize that is a moving target.

[Katy M]

2 minutes ago, MarciNJ said:

I thought I had heard a return date of 7/20, but I realize that is a moving target.

I think they did say that, but that has probably changed since California is doing another shut down.  I realize that they aren't shutting down as much as the first time and that filming wasn't specifically mentioned, but filming a soap seems higher risk than eating inside a restaurant.

[statsgirl]

With the repeats of such recent episodes, I've realized that I'm watching the commercials because I want to fast forward through all the  characters I don't care about, which apparently is 80% of most episodes since I know how the stories end. The time spent on characters I actually care about.

1 hour ago, MarciNJ said:

But, here is my question - do you think they will take this opportunity to do a time jump, as some shows do?  Maybe get rid of some dead weight/storylines that weren't working (Peter August)? 

I don't think they necessarily need to do an actual timejump as long as they wrap them up quickly.  Robert can get information on Peter, maybe his contacts in Australia who caused Holly's ship to "sink" (it was a ship this time, right?), he's arrested and gone.  Nina finding out that Nelle is her daughter and fighting for her could give Nina some much-needed energy that Jax and the endless flip-flopping with Valentin and Sasha don't give her and push that storyline to a conclusion too. On the other hand, Sasha's addiction they can shut down right now.

But I don't think they agree with me on what needs to be wrapped up. Today's episode had Willow saying how awful Nelle is and they will never let her have custody of Wylie so I don't think they know how much I want Nelle to win that case, or Cyrus to knock Sonny down a dozen pegs or more.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I had to 😆😆😆 at yesterday’s synopsis on my dvr: [Mooby] is in agony; Olivia is upset; [SLS] gets plenty of support; Mac pulls Chase to the side; Laura supports Robert.

But the actual episode was the AWESOME TRUTH TELLING Kristina gave to Sam. I fast forwarded all other scenes, which included Lawyer Tad Sanders with Nelle, some Shebeast, and Jax and Neeeena.

Edited July 18, 2020 by GHScorpiosRule

[dubbel zout]

40 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

the AWESOME TRUTH TELLING Kristina gave to Sam

That was the best part by miles. I also loved how Sam got all snippy about her and Jason loving danger more than their kids, and Jason putting Sonny and Carly before his family, and Kristina replies, "Whatever; you know I'm right," and all Sam could do was look as if she were sucking a lemon wedge.

And then the rest of the episode alternately put me to sleep (Nelle and Colonel Tad Sanders) and into a rage blackout (Carly insisting she never used her children as leverage).

Oh, GH. You give and you take.

[GHScorpiosRule]

7 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

That was the best part by miles. I also loved how Sam got all snippy about her and Jason loving danger more than their kids, and Jason putting Sonny and Carly before his family, and Kristina replies, "Whatever; you know I'm right," and all Sam could do was look as if she were sucking a lemon wedge.

I swear I was nodding my head and 🙄🙄 at the same time when Molly and Alexis accused Kristina of not being fair, and she responded in agreement, but added “but accurate.”

Man, I remember the days when Alexis did everything she could to keep Sam and Jaysus apart. She even convinced him to break up with her after Sam was shot in the uterus!😆😆😆

And now, like Molly, she’s a sycophantic cheerleader.

[dubbel zout]

35 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

And now, like Molly, she’s a sycophantic cheerleader.

I don't understand this with Molly now. When she was younger, sure. Sam and Jason were always running off somewhere, and I get why a kid would find that romantic and exciting. But Molly is in college now. She's had some life experience, has seen what bad relationships look like, knows that Jason is a mob hit man. Yet he and Sam are still the best couple evah? Oh, honey, NO.

[Kiki777]

So they’re re-rerunning the pre-pandemic episodes... but with the shutdowns extended, what if they run out of 2020 episodes?  More Sonny-centric flashbacks? 🤮🤮🤮

[dubbel zout]

Spectrum has thrown up its hands and has stopped putting in episode recaps this week. So we get the boilerplate: "A soap opera set in a hospital and the surrounding city of Port Charles."

[rur]

Today we're getting an episode from May 6 of this year. We're a couple of minutes in, and Sonny is yelling at his dad to remember. Meanwhile, Y&R responded to viewers requests about what they wanted to see, and today the first two episodes ever were shown.  Kudos to Y&R. 

[BlancheDevoreaux]

Themes I'd be more interested in than Sonny and Co.:

Hospital storylines. Crazy, I know. People are really into doctors and nurses right now and are really respecting all they go through to keep us healthy so why not profit off that by showing storylines that revolved around the accrua3l doctors and nurses in the hospital?

Teen loves (would have been smart with kids not in school to hook them on the show) like Robin and Stone, Liz and Lucky, or even Dillon and Georgia 

Quartermaines, especially Lila and Edward or Alan and Monica

Replay sweeps episodes. Weren't those supposed to be the best of the best?

Family legacy stuff. An example would be starting with Dr. Hardy and working our way to Cameron's storylines.

[Ambrosefolly]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

Spectrum has thrown up its hands and has stopped putting in episode recaps this week. So we get the boilerplate: "A soap opera set in a hospital and the surrounding city of Port Charles."

Did they take that tag line from 1994? This hasn't been a soap opera "set in a hospital" since the 90s.

[dubbel zout]

Hey, now! People are shown inside GH. What more do you want?

[statsgirl]

It feels like there have been more scenes in Turning Woods than in GH.

[Melgaypet]

1 hour ago, Ambrosefolly said:

Did they take that tag line from 1994? This hasn't been a soap opera "set in a hospital" since the 90s.

The injured have to have somewhere to go for treatment after Mob Shootout #684346375!

[BlancheDevoreaux]

Please. We all know the plan is to change the title of this show from General Hospital to GH so they can then say it stands for Gangsters and Henchmen or Gangster Hotties (vomit) or Gangsta's Hos or something equally Sonny-centric.

[Katy M]

10 hours ago, BlancheDevoreaux said:

Please. We all know the plan is to change the title of this show from General Hospital to GH so they can then say it stands for Gangsters and Henchmen or Gangster Hotties (vomit) or Gangsta's Hos or something equally Sonny-centric.

Gangster's Haven. Gives it that quality of goodness, like Sonny is protecting the town.

[dubbel zout]

What is the plan with these very recent-ep reruns? Did TPTB think they'd start taping again and we'd catch up?

Carly demands that Sonny do something about Cyrus. What happened to her bemoaning all the damage guns can do? That was supposed to be some sort of line in the sand for her, but of course it isn't, especially when her family is in danger. Gah.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Just now, dubbel zout said:

What is the plan with these very recent-ep reruns? Did TPTB think they'd start taping again and we'd catch up?

Carly demands that Sonny do something about Cyrus. What happened to her bemoaning all the damage guns can do? That was supposed to be some sort of line in the sand for her, but of course it isn't, especially when her family is in danger. Gah.

Huh. I guess I have a smart DVR, because it didn't record yesterday's episode. Will have to see if it captured today's. Even though I have it set to record new and repeats.

There are so many better episodes that they could air. But noooo. We have to get those focused on the SheBeast and Mooby.

[dubbel zout]

My DVR didn't record yesterday's ep, either. I deleted today's episode before it started, so I don't know if the DVR is protecting me or just having a brain fart. Spectrum is still refusing to give episode recaps, heh.

[TheMediaHo]

I have Fios and had reset the DVR to record first-runs and repeats. Then this week, it’s not listed under “Scheduled Recordings,” even though I scheduled it! DVRs are verrry intelligent! But, yes, obviously there’s going to be a gap between the end of these eps and the airing of new material since their start date has been pushed back...so what’s the story, ABCD?

[GHScorpiosRule]

9 hours ago, TheMediaHo said:

I have Fios and had reset the DVR to record first-runs and repeats. Then this week, it’s not listed under “Scheduled Recordings,” even though I scheduled it! DVRs are verrry intelligent! But, yes, obviously there’s going to be a gap between the end of these eps and the airing of new material since their start date has been pushed back...so what’s the story, ABCD?

Yeah, even though my DVR is set for new and repeats, none of this week's are being recorded--they don't have the multi-red circles that indicate a series recording. However, when I checked next week's schedule, those red circles are back. weird. As it is, it looks like this week's episodes were the last new ones before they started airing "classic" ones.