Episode Discussion II: The TFGH

[Desperado]

36 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

Interesting that the show ended on Esme remembering rather than EvilWSB stalking Anna and Dante. Esme remembering is a more subtle story than this show usually goes for.

The tree decorating as a trigger made perfect sense. Good job, show!

Wonder if this means we’ll see Nik again.

[ffwbe]

I don’t consider myself the biggest daredevil and I’ve been skydiving. There some risk involved, sure, but not so much that a healthy 20/30 something like Chase couldn’t do it with his dad so I don’t get why Gregory is so adamant that his sons not do it with him. I kind of get Finn not doing it because he’s a stick in the mud but you’d think Chase want that memory with his father. If you’re not experienced, they won’t even let you jump alone. You have to go with an instructor. 

[Cheyanne11]

3 hours ago, Desperado said:

The tree decorating as a trigger made perfect sense. Good job, show!

Wonder if this means we’ll see Nik again.

If anything, Esme should be enraged with him once she gets her memory back. 

[Artsda]

I liked temp Joss. 

Of course Carly has to be inserted in Anna/WSB story. 

Kristina needs to fun in opposite direction and embrace her Cassadine. Kate Mansi can do so much better than this character.  

 

[Asp Burger]

I liked Temp Joss too. If I didn't watch this show and just randomly tuned in, I wouldn't guess it was her first day as a fill-in. She seemed comfortable. And I like her vocal tone more than that of permanent Joss.  

I actually watched all the scenes with the young-adult foursome. They were the highlight. I was "helping along" everything else: listening to a sentence or two to get the gist of a segment and then skimming through the rest. It's not as though any GH story right now is captivating, but some are farther from it than others, and today there were several of them: Carly at Kelly's flirting with the new bad guy, Alexis and Gregory in the Invader office, Brook and Chase, Molly's fertlity woes...

If next week Violet were suddenly played by a 15-year-old arguing with Finn about wanting to wear makeup or whatever, I'd be happy about it. I hate that it's come to that, but the child actress is written and directed to be so pushy and overindulged, and they feature her so heavily. Not the first time in Frank's history with preteen performers on daytime, certainly.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Asp Burger

[sunnyface]

12 hours ago, statsgirl said:

You have a Super Sekrit file that the bad guys are killing to silence.  Do you

1. Have only the original copy and take it with you to the deserted waterfront? OR
2. Make multiple copies, digital and hard copy, and send it to everyone you know so that killing you won't do them any good.

I truly had hoped that the writers had upped their game during their recent time-out.  Looking at the ELQ/Aurora and Anna plots, they clearly failed.  So much clunky dialogue during yesterday's morgue and doc scenes.

I am appreciative of this lengthy Christmas season this year.  Port Charles (both on-screen and behind the scenes) could use an extra chunk of holiday cheer.

Sasha's pink shirt she wore on Friday was very loud.

Adopt - if you can't wait.

MW seemed ok in her recent scene with Carly where she mustered up one of her signature looks - a dripping with disgust sneer at Carly.🤞

 

[ffwbe]

3 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

If next week Violet were suddenly played by a 15-year-old arguing with Finn about wanting to wear makeup or whatever, I'd be happy about it. I hate that it's come to that, but the child actress is written and directed to be so pushy and overindulged, and they feature her so heavily.

Heavily featured kids on this show have always been a sore spot for me. To be fair, child Robin was before my time so maybe she was better but I’m personally not interested in watching a kid grow up on the show. They should stay in their lane with them and either leave them to their couple episodes a year of holiday scenes or storylines surrounding their parents dealing with an illness or medical emergency. 

Violet is following in the footsteps of NB’s Spencer who I found incredibly annoying.  The other glaring example I recall is the red headed Michael who was not only on contract but had something like 120 episodes a year during his high point. The show thought it was cute to write a preteen as a complete misogynist who was ordering his mother around and trying to pay off his daddy’s gf. 

[Cheyanne11]

I did LOL at Spencer's gift to Joss.  His "oh, you're going to love this" schtick really did have the perfect punch line.  Well done, writers.

I did find it interesting that the surrogate story seems to have pivoted a bit, in that TJ/Molly noted they would use a donor egg.  Prior, with Andrea, it was written they used IUI vs. IVF.  And I'll say while I'm not enamored with this story, I think they've finally hit on a good actress for Molly.  

[YaddaYadda]

I don't know if the regular writers are writing the current episodes, but I see that we are back with bravestrongloveswithherwholeheartCarly who must be shoved in every single storyline because she has nothing going. She's so obnoxious.

Esme remembering was pretty surprising. I didn't think they'd go there.

I just can't stand Violet. 

[Cheyanne11]

2 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

I see that we are back with bravestrongloveswithherwholeheartCarly who must be shoved in every single storyline because she has nothing going. She's so obnoxious.

I'm sure she'll be enlisted to go undercover to excuse the new WSB dude (already forgot his name and can't be sussed to go look it up), be put in danger, save the day, and have the entire town thank her for her bravestrongwholeheartedness.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, ffwbe said:

Heavily featured kids on this show have always been a sore spot for me. To be fair, child Robin was before my time so maybe she was better but I’m personally not interested in watching a kid grow up on the show. They should stay in their lane with them and either leave them to their couple episodes a year of holiday scenes or storylines surrounding their parents dealing with an illness or medical emergency. 

Robin, Lucky, and Emily as children were utilized well. It also helped that they were very strong actors as children and natural.

2 hours ago, ffwbe said:

Violet is following in the footsteps of NB’s Spencer who I found incredibly annoying.  The other glaring example I recall is the red headed Michael who was not only on contract but had something like 120 episodes a year during his high point. The show thought it was cute to write a preteen as a complete misogynist who was ordering his mother around and trying to pay off his daddy’s gf. 

You've hit the nail on the head with this. Down to the childish way she talks and Bechtel's marble/mush mouth way of speaking. We should be lucky Violet doesn't have oodles of money on hand and there isn't a gross "triangle" as Frank did with Cam/Emma/Spencer when they were wee. The only highlight of that story line was having mini-shebeast as the child of corn and excluded.

But that's just me.

[YaddaYadda]

50 minutes ago, Cheyanne11 said:

I'm sure she'll be enlisted to go undercover to excuse the new WSB dude (already forgot his name and can't be sussed to go look it up), be put in danger, save the day, and have the entire town thank her for her bravestrongwholeheartedness.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

John Brennan. This whole thing sucks. Charles Measure is a capable actor and they have his character sitting around with SheBeast. Brennan is obviously using her, but I'm sure he'll be in love with her in no time and become obsessed with her narcissistic ass.

Because this is the way. 

[ffwbe]

1 hour ago, YaddaYadda said:

I don't know if the regular writers are writing the current episodes, but I see that we are back with bravestrongloveswithherwholeheartCarly who must be shoved in every single storyline because she has nothing going. She's so obnoxious.

They’re definitely back. They were in the episode credits yesterday and there weren’t any writers listed during the strike. I’m not sure if that was the first episode or if they’ve been back for longer though but it’s the first time I noticed them 

[dubbel zout]

8 hours ago, sunnyface said:

Adopt - if you can't wait.

Adoption isn't necessarily a faster route to a child. 

4 hours ago, ffwbe said:

Heavily featured kids on this show have always been a sore spot for me. To be fair, child Robin was before my time so maybe she was better but I’m personally not interested in watching a kid grow up on the show.

Robin was precocious, but I think the show treated her with more respect that the younger kids get today. It helped that KMcC didn't have a lisp, and the show didn't give her ludicrous story lines that forced her to vamp around like the Phantom of the Opera. Casey the Alien was a ludicrous story, but didn't they play it fairly straight? (I wasn't watching during those years.)

2 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

I did find it interesting that the surrogate story seems to have pivoted a bit, in that TJ/Molly noted they would use a donor egg.

I thought the donor egg was always there? We never heard about Molly giving herself hormone injections or anything like that. The baby would always have only TJ's genetics.

[Katy M]

50 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

thought the donor egg was always there? We never heard about Molly giving herself hormone injections or anything like that. The baby would always have only TJ's genetics.

Their first surrogate used her own egg.  At least that's what we were led to believe.  I thought one of the reasons Molly was on board with Kristina was because then she would also be biologically related. However, I think it's better to not use Kristina's egg because she's going to be involved enough as it is.

Nina  has the right idea trying to counterblackmail Michael, but it was destined to fail.   carly is never going to be mad at Michael for more than 5 minutes, especially not over this.  He didn't know until after the fact, it's not like he was part of Drew going to prison.

I still think she should have told Ned and they could work together, but I don't really know what the end game would be.  And I also don't know how Cyrus is going to use this information.

Donna is still cute.

 

[nilyank]

1 minute ago, Katy M said:

I still think she should have told Ned and they could work together, but I don't really know what the end game would be.  And I also don't know how Cyrus is going to use this information.

 

He is either going to tell Sonny to ruin his happiness with his new wife or he is going to join the Blackmail Club and make Nina do his bidding.

Sonny will most likely forgive Nina in the first option but if Nina works with Cyrus in the second option against Sonny's interests, a big nope. Sonny might even pull out the barware for his reaction.

[perkie1968]

Blooper of the day:  Brennan is talking to Carly about Dante and calls him her "son in law".  But that's wrong, Dante is Carly's ex stepson via Sonny and ex cousin in  law via Lulu.  Son in law would mean he's married to Carly's daugher, which he isnt. 

Things like that make me wonder if the scene partner, in this case Laura, just wasn't paying attention, so she didn't correct it, or if they just can't be bothered cutting and restarting.  

[Katy M]

Just now, nilyank said:

e is either going to tell Sonny to ruin his happiness with his new wife or he is going to join the Blackmail Club and make Nina do his bidding.

I just got this image of everyone in PC (minus Willow, Sonny, Carly, Drew and maybe a couple of others) all finding out and blackmailing Nina in various ways.  cyrus will have her terrorize Ava somehow, Tracy will demand that Crimson do something for Deception, charlotte will make her have an affair with Valentin to get Anna out of the picture, Sam will go back to her old ways and demand money, Spenser will get her to get Ava to fire Trina so she can spend all her time with him.  Poor woman will be run ragged.

[Katy M]

7 minutes ago, perkie1968 said:

looper of the day:  Brennan is talking to Carly about Dante and calls him her "son in law".  But that's wrong, Dante is Carly's ex stepson via Sonny and ex cousin in  law via Lulu.  Son in law would mean he's married to Carly's daugher, which he isnt. 

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think sometimes in England and Australia they use son-in-law to mean stepson.  I've noticed that in some books I've read.

[DanaK]

FYI, there will be no episode, new or repeat, on Christmas Day in favor of NBA basketball games

[YaddaYadda]

This show never fails to disappoint. They always write their bad guys like such effin' losers. That Pikeman guy was extra, requesting a deal right away and Brennan got dropped by a tray. So much for any hope that we might get something decent. Should've known the second they had Brennan coming around Kelly's for Carly time.

Carly, you shouldn't use your ex-navy seal to threaten anyone. I doubt Drew would be as effective with that tray, tbh.

[perkie1968]

3 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

Carly, you shouldn't use your ex-navy seal to threaten anyone.

Also, not sure what Drew, who's currently in Austarlia, would do if Brennan pulled out a gun and shot her in the head.  Oh why couldn't Brennan just shoot her in the head!!

[statsgirl]

So is this the end of the Anna/WSB/shooting saga? Did the old writers come back and decide to shut it down as fast as they could? What a fizzle out.

Dante and Anna come out of this looking like they are auditioning for the Keystone Kops. And I am really tired of Anna endlessly apologizing for being a double agent 40 years ago. People on the show today have done worse much more recently and you don't see them wearing hair shirts.

Speaking of not-too-bright: Nina deciding to work with Michael instead of telling Ned that Michael know and is still publicly blaming Ned. She should know by now that Michael cannot be trusted to be fair. And that his tribe will never be angry at him for longer than a half scene.

Poor Scott. The show needs a Christmas miracle for him (not Lucy!).

I wish that we had seen part of the Living Nativity play. Could they not get the girls who play Avery? The rest of the cast could have been just background.

4 hours ago, YaddaYadda said:

I don't know if the regular writers are writing the current episodes, but I see that we are back with bravestrongloveswithherwholeheartCarly who must be shoved in every single storyline because she has nothing going. She's so obnoxious.

I suspect that I wouldn't hate Carly so much if they wrote her is a bit of nuance and conscience instead of like this.

17 minutes ago, Katy M said:

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think sometimes in England and Australia they use son-in-law to mean stepson.  I've noticed that in some books I've read.

From what I've read, you're right. I wonder if it was the actor who did this.

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

I thought the donor egg was always there? We never heard about Molly giving herself hormone injections or anything like that. The baby would always have only TJ's genetics.

The doctor told Molly that her eggs would most likely not be viable which is when they started looking for a surrogate who would use her own eggs. I think that's what Andrea did.

That scene was the first that they talked about using a donor egg for Kristina's surrogacy.

The positive with a donor egg would be that once the baby is born, Kristina would be out of the picture except as an aunt like Sam. (Until the child misbehaves that is and Molly and TJ blame Kristina for not taking enough care while she was pregnant.)

The negative would be that the DNA would be from a donor and mostly unknown to TJ and Molly.  DNA is a hellova thing; I remember when I was working at a family clinic and a family brought in a child that they had adopted a few years before and now wanted to take back. The girl was a handful and the family was not coping well. Knowing what I know now, I think that the girl had ADHD as probably had her unwed teenage mother. The family stopped coming after a couple of months and sadly I think that they gave up on the girl.

[dubbel zout]

Tracy was looking at a snow globe? She'd never stoop to something SWSNBN territory.

Ava, get a peephole installed in your front door. Good grief.

"I see you know my secret." If your new job and photo is plastered on the web, it's hardly a secret.

19 minutes ago, perkie1968 said:

they just can't be bothered cutting and restarting.  

Unless a set falls apart or an actor drops dead, it's one take and move on.

34 minutes ago, Katy M said:

Nina has the right idea trying to counterblackmail Michael, but it was destined to fail. 

It's also a bit late in the game. Drew is out of Pentonville, and there's no threat to him and Carly now. Plus, he doesn't care anymore who dropped the dime on them.

10 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

Brennan got dropped by a tray

So that's it for Brennan? TFGH to end a story with a gigantic thud.

[perkie1968]

12 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

So that's it for Brennan?

So is that also it for Pikeman?  

[YaddaYadda]

24 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

So that's it for Brennan? TFGH to end a story with a gigantic thud.

Even Mason had a longer run than this, if that's the case.

[ciarra]

45 minutes ago, perkie1968 said:

Oh why couldn't Brennan just shoot her in the head!!

Shooting her in the head doesn't stop her. #beentheredonethatCarlysindestructable

Edited December 19, 2023 by ciarra

[TVbitch]

Oof. Good Lord that was lame. I've seen episodes of Scooby Doo that were inifintely more nuanced and compelling. Tracy throwing a martini in Scott's face was more way dramatic than (yet another) dock shootout. Why are Dante and Anna even standing there discussing it? With the only copy of the evidence? Was the GH morgue booked? 

Maybe Of course the bad guys will escape while being transfered to Pentonville or Steinmau (sp ?!), so there is hopefully still a chance they can take someone out with them. 

[WendyCR72]

Nothing says, "Merry Christmas/HappyHanukkah/Happy Holidays/Happy New Year!" like another gunfight!

At least the tradition still goes on. Still remember some shootout around Easter a decade or so ago!

[ciarra]

2 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

At least the tradition still goes on. Still remember some shootout around Easter a decade or so ago!

In a church.

[Asp Burger]

18 hours ago, ffwbe said:

Violet is following in the footsteps of NB’s Spencer who I found incredibly annoying.  The other glaring example I recall is the red headed Michael who was not only on contract but had something like 120 episodes a year during his high point. The show thought it was cute to write a preteen as a complete misogynist who was ordering his mother around and trying to pay off his daddy’s gf. 

I also remember the time he burst out from behind the couch and started pummeling his recently hospitalized grandfather (the Corbin Bernsen character who was around briefly), because Grandpa said something negative to Carly about Sonny. And he tried to order a hit on someone! The Chad Duell adult Michael years have had plenty of low points, but the Dylan Cash years were just beyond.  

Robin and Patrick's daughter was obnoxious too, in her "I want SABREEEEENA!" phase.  

I've said it before, but the best child character they've had in the 21st century—combination of the actor being very likable and the writing not ruining it—was Aaron Refvem's Morgan. He had such a sweet relationship with Dante, when Dante was a new character pretending to be "Dominic" to infiltrate the mob. I see that Refvem didn't stick with acting but went into sales.

[Tenshinhan]

Marshall/Stella is a lazy and poorly written plot development.

With everyone celebrating over at Portia's house I can't help but wonder if Taggert is drunk off his ass somewhere.

The dialogue writing on this show is awful.  Especially the casual stuff like between TJ/Molly and Kristina.

I'm happy to see the Esme story pick up again.

[TVbitch]

Wyndemere really needs to get ADT or something.

As if I don't already have tendonitis from fast-forwarding Curtis, now I am looking at six plus months of FFing the pained yearning glances between Stella and Marshall. Between them, Violet, and the Bensonhurst broads yammering, this show is gonna put me in a wrist brace! 

 

[Ambrosefolly]

On 12/19/2023 at 9:28 AM, ffwbe said:

Heavily featured kids on this show have always been a sore spot for me. To be fair, child Robin was before my time so maybe she was better but I’m personally not interested in watching a kid grow up on the show. They should stay in their lane with them and either leave them to their couple episodes a year of holiday scenes or storylines surrounding their parents dealing with an illness or medical emergency. 

 

On 12/19/2023 at 2:13 PM, dubbel zout said:

Robin was precocious, but I think the show treated her with more respect that the younger kids get today. It helped that KMcC didn't have a lisp, and the show didn't give her ludicrous story lines that forced her to vamp around like the Phantom of the Opera. Casey the Alien was a ludicrous story, but didn't they play it fairly straight? (I wasn't watching during those years.)

Too many kids stories is stupid in a medium always aimed at adults, but the reason I started watching General Hospital in the 90s as a young teen was because of Jonathan Jackson's Lucky. They help, especially if they strike gold with a good child actor. This discussion about kids made me realize what writers like Guza and Tony Geary never gave Claire Labine credit for: she knew how to write child characters. Lucky wouldn't be nearly as beloved if it wasn't for laying the groundwork for the character. Not only because she "stole" dialogue from conservations she overhead when she was out in the world, but maybe because she was mother as well. While I don't think you have to be a parent necessarily is a requirement for writing for kids, it probably doesn't hurt. 

Casey the Alien was also before my time, but I would have rather revisit that storyline for Emma instead of the Emma/Spencer/Cameron love triangle they had when they were all eight. 

 

[Auntie Velvet]

Interesting development about Kristina being the egg donor as well, but TBH I had forgotten that element since it didn't come up with their first surrogate -- or it was breezed by, anyway.

Forgive my ignorance on IVF, but does this speed things up because they don't have to find an egg donor, and/or because maybe they don't have to extract the eggs? In other words, can Kristina be injected with the father's sperm?

 

[ciarra]

No Christmas story from the Chief(s) of Staff?  I thought it was bad enough when they dumbed it down with "bits of cloth" for "swaddling clothing", back when Alan Q read it, but it's tradition.  They don't need to read every line, but I think it has more meaning than The Night Before Christmas, as read by the Grinch and the Mayor.

[Desperado]

Damn. Jane Elliott even looks gorgeous with lighted Christmas antlers on her head.

Poor KW having to utter a nonsense excuse about Mac not being there, knowing why JJY wasn’t on set.

We’ll see on Tuesday what Silas Cyrus did with the priest. Will he be irredeemable or not? Mind you, listening to someone’s confession is very gross in itself.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Sparing special thoughts for anyone struggling through this time.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Desperado
Cyrus - not Silas (facepalm)

[ciarra]

*Cyrus.

I've been calling him Silas all this time, too.  The names are too close to each other.

[dubbel zout]

On 12/20/2023 at 3:31 AM, Asp Burger said:

Robin and Patrick's daughter was obnoxious too, in her "I want SABREEEEENA!" phase.  

This was when the show was very heavily pushing Sabs. Every character propped her, whether it made sense or not.

I don't quite understand why we had dueling Night Before Christmas readers, but I prefer it to someone who doesn't have the right gravitas reading the religious Christmas story. Portia and Terry wouldn't work, IMO.

6 hours ago, Tenshinhan said:

Marshall/Stella is a lazy and poorly written plot development.

I groaned out loud. It's the worst.

6 hours ago, Tenshinhan said:

With everyone celebrating over at Portia's house I can't help but wonder if Taggert is drunk off his ass somewhere.

He didn't even get a lip-service mention, poor guy.

[WendyCR72]

3 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

This was when the show was very heavily pushing Sabs. Every character propped her, whether it made sense or not.

Exactly.

Which is why, when Robin reappeared, I loved the symbolism of Emma separating Patrick/Sabrina's joined hands at their wedding as Emma raced for her mother.

That was "real" Emma, to me. Sobby was just a placeholder, no matter how much Ron Carlivati shoved her down the viewers' throats.

Ah, the bad ol' days...

[Cheyanne11]

9 hours ago, Auntie Velvet said:

Forgive my ignorance on IVF, but does this speed things up because they don't have to find an egg donor, and/or because maybe they don't have to extract the eggs? In other words, can Kristina be injected with the father's sperm?

Yes, if they use Kristina's eggs the process isn't IVF, rather IUI (intrauterine insemination), where the sperm is inserted directly into the uterus.  The only time restriction would be knowing when Kristina is ovulating.

[Winston Wolfe]

And we're back!  Seems like ages. Lots to unpack. Despite myself, I loved Lois and Oliva's little "who's on first" routine with the NYC subway system, with even Brooke Lynn chiming in. Been damn near 15 years since I've ridden those lines, given what's going on over in the city these days you couldn't pay me enough.

Love that JE rises above even the most pedestrian material she's given. Far and away the cast's best actor, bar none. Did anyone else pick up a strong Marisa Tomei "My Cousin Vinny" tone coming from RF/Lois in the subway skit?

In other news, even though Portia has warmed up to Spencer, she's still an un-likeable so-and-so. When Curtis is the most compassionate one in the room, trouble abounds.

Also enjoy the heavy use of the vets these days. I'm liking Felica more now than I ever did in the 80s and 90s.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Winston Wolfe

[dubbel zout]

9 hours ago, Winston Wolfe said:

Love that JE rises above even the most pedestrian material she's given.

She really does, which accentuates how bad the writing is for Tracy most of the time. In general I think the show does a disservice to nearly all the actors this way. Too many of them are so much better than the crap they have to serve us.

[Desperado]

12 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

Yes, if they use Kristina's eggs the process isn't IVF, rather IUI (intrauterine insemination), where the sperm is inserted directly into the uterus.  The only time restriction would be knowing when Kristina is ovulating.

So Kristina and TJ will have a fully biological child and Molly… will not. I'm seeing a storyline coming and don't like it. 

[DanaK]

42 minutes ago, Desperado said:

So Kristina and TJ will have a fully biological child and Molly… will not. I'm seeing a storyline coming and don't like it. 

All because they didn't want to wait a few months

[dubbel zout]

Molly and TJ aren't getting any younger, you know.

[nilyank]

16 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Molly and TJ aren't getting any younger, you know.

I mean they should be turning 30 in a couple of years. They would collecting social security any minute now.

[ciarra]

They'll be too old to push their kid on the swings.

[Fellaway]

10 hours ago, Desperado said:

So Kristina and TJ will have a fully biological child and Molly… will not. I'm seeing a storyline coming and don't like it. 

I kept waiting for someone to address that really obvious and huge elephant in the room, but... nothin'.

Anyone here think Kristina is gonna be able to disconnect herself from her biological child? Anyone?

Even if she could and does, there's still the huge elephant left in the room of what the kid is gonna think and feel about it all down the road. Idiots, all of 'em.

[ciarra]

No one has mentioned Kristina's father being bipolar, and it runs in families, anywhere from 44-90%. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Kristina is bipolar.