GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[ulkis]

1 hour ago, tvgoddess said:

It's short, but I kind of like it. No way in hell I could pull that off, but she actually looks okay. Pixie-ish, but okay.

Yeah I think it's okay in general too. I think the head tilt and that corny expression on her face makes it seem a bit dweebier than it is.

[jsbt]

That Jamey Giddens tweet cracked me up. I remember when he finally lost it on Ron's GH, though even then he was blaming a lot of it on Frank. I won't lie and claim I wouldn't welcome most of Guza's staff back.

[HeatLifer]

5 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Aww, KMc also wished Brooklyn a happy birthday on her IG account, too.

So did JT. They all created the most sincere bond. 

[IWantCandy71]

Chad Duell in the latest SID said he's really gonna  miss working with Jane. I'm gonna miss their scenes, too.

[dubbel zout]

I like NL's cut, too.

I wonder what finally broke Giddens. Heh.

I'm going to miss all of JE's scenes.

Edited April 28, 2017 by dubbel zout

[Sake614]

Seriously Jelly? This is the best you can do for JE's exit?
 

Quote

 

http://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/luke-returns-gh/

Anthony Geary, who exited GH as Luke Spencer in 2015, returns to the show on May 4 in conjunction with Jane Elliot’s final episode as Tracy. “We always thought that he would figure into Tracy’s future,” says Co-Head Writer Jean Passanante of Luke. When Geary agreed to the reprisal, she adds, “We were thrilled.”

 

Glad someone is thrilled...

[jsbt]

I think the Jason/Jake sleeper hold drove Jamey over the edge, for whatever reason - he was ranting about it. He is a big Liason fan, but I don't know that it's that so much as the scene was so stupid.

Edited April 28, 2017 by jsbt

[dubbel zout]

1 minute ago, jsbt said:

the scene was so stupid

It wasn't even the dumbest scene of the episode!

[TeeVee329]

We didn't really dig into it in the episode thread, but yeah, that dream sequence of Jason choking Jake apparently got a lot of people fired up on Twitter.  Giddens posted an article about it on DC today:

http://daytimeconfidential.com/2017/04/28/general-hospital-kid-choking-dream-sequence

[jsbt]

I don't think it is nearly as offensive as some of the shit both Ron and Guza ran with, or as offensive as Franco and Liz. But I can understand the complaints. I mostly thought it was very, very silly.

[TeeVee329]

Yeah, I dunno.  I totally get why people would have a problem with it.  But this is also a show that has bent over backwards to redeem a SERIAL KILLER, that has a murdering mobster as its romantic lead, etc.  This being where people draw the line is...interesting.

I'm trying to remember if anything like that has ever been shown on the UK soaps, I feel like there must have been, although they are always more suggestive than blatant with that kind of stuff.

Edited April 28, 2017 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

Oh, the UK soaps go way harder than us with everything.

Eastenders not only had a little boy beat his sister to death with a hockey stick (and try to kill his foster mom), it killed its central matriarch off on Christmas, leaving her dying in the snow after her family abandoned her.

[TeeVee329]

Yeah, but, using that "EastEnders" example, I don't think we saw Bobby hit (stupid, bitchy) Lucy with the music box, right?  That goes back to my original thought - there's definitely violence, but it's more suggestive than literal/blatant.  Am I remembering that scene wrong?

Edited April 28, 2017 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

I don't recall exactly. I do remember just a lot of harsh violence with both women and children over the years.

[dubbel zout]

In my not-always-so-humble estimation, GH is more compelling to watch than The Bold and the Beautiful and Days of Our Lives.  On any given day, the pacing is better.

Bolding mine, because WHAT?!

18 minutes ago, TeeVee329 said:

I totally get why people would have a problem with it.  But this is also a show that has bent over backwards to redeem a SERIAL KILLER, that has a murdering mobster as its romantic lead, etc.  This being where people draw the line is...interesting.

I'll say. I think trying to redeem SERIAL KILLER Franco is much more offensive than Jason dreaming he's got Jake in a chokehold. I think tying a painting to a human-trafficking ring is much more offensive than Jason dreaming he's got Jake in a chokehold. I think the continuing supremacy of Sonny is much more offensive than Jason dreaming he's got Jake in a chokehold.

But that's me.

[Oracle42]

The show is just so relentlessly boring. The mob follies were tedious but things happened and the writing for relationships (familial and romantic) was really solid. 

Jelly/FV don't have any original ideas, there awful at casting/creating new characters and they're terrible at tried and true soap tropes - it's kind of an incredible display is wide-ranging ineptitude

Edited April 28, 2017 by Oracle42

[jsbt]

I tried to watch the Anna/Valentin/Nina scenes from the other day - I've tried to do so before, too - and nearly fell asleep. Somehow Valentin is the lamest Cassadine I've ever seen, and I made it through Coltin Scott's Saxophone Man. What a wuss. I don't understand where the rooting value is there - him, the whisper-thin Cassadine? Crazy Nina? Fake Anna? It's got to be one of the lamest, most unmoored and milquetoast stories even Jean has ever done, and I saw some of her work at ATWT.

[ulkis]

1 hour ago, jsbt said:

I think the Jason/Jake sleeper hold drove Jamey over the edge, for whatever reason - he was ranting about it. He is a big Liason fan, but I don't know that it's that so much as the scene was so stupid.

a lot of other fans were upset about it and imo he saw it as a chance to jump on the bandwagon. Perhaps I'm being cynical but he liked Guza. I have a hard time believing that bugged him. A lot of ideas he's thrown out for the show haven't exactly been G rated.

I get that it's a child, but Jason Lenny-ing Jake barely rates among the violent stuff that's been shown on GH, imo.

19 minutes ago, jsbt said:

 I don't understand where the rooting value is there - him, the whisper-thin Cassadine? Crazy Nina? Fake Anna?

No clue. At first I think it was Nina and Valentin, and then I thought it was Anna, and now I'm back to Nina.

Valentin needs to kill Nina. That would make Valentin a threat again and get rid of Nina.

[dubbel zout]

4 minutes ago, ulkis said:

30 minutes ago, jsbt said:

 I don't understand where the rooting value is there - him, the whisper-thin Cassadine? Crazy Nina? Fake Anna?

No clue. At first I think it was Nina and Valentin, and then I thought it was Anna, and now I'm back to Nina.

Valentin needs to kill Nina. That would make Valentin a threat again and get rid of Nina.

It's hard to root for someone who's constantly on the verge of tears. 

Valentin will have to kill a lot more people than just Nina for me to consider him any kind of threat.

[Oracle42]

Nina would be such a good start though

[TeeVee329]

I mean, I kinda get the show not feeling beholden to the one piece of information we had about Valentin - that Helena was allegedly terrified about him - but the character as written is a mess.  Having him murder Nina Stavros/Chloe-style would be a start.

Also, Anna, in my opinion, didn't need yet another story where she's dealing with/investigating a shady man who's into her on some level.

Edited April 28, 2017 by TeeVee329

[dubbel zout]

2 minutes ago, TeeVee329 said:

I mean, I kinda get the show not feeling beholden to the one piece of information we had about Valentin - that Helena was allegedly terrified about him - but the character as written is a mess.  Having him murder Nina Stavros/Chloe-style would be a start.

They shouldn't have used the name Valentin. It's really not that hard. Gah.

[TeeVee329]

It's weird because Valentin is written as a Cassadine in the Lulu baby rabies story ("That evil Cassadine, coming after us Spencers!") and not so much in the Anna/Nina story.

I do wish they would do more with Valentin and Alexis, the few scenes they've had were interesting.

Edited April 28, 2017 by TeeVee329

[dubbel zout]

That's why they haven't done more. Why explore something worthwhile, when we can watch Samira?

[ulkis]

https://www.tvinsider.com/173624/general-hospital-jane-elliot-tracy-quartermaine-abc/

Q: Well, this is sounding slightly less dismal! Would you entertain the idea of a brief return to GH?

A: Is it up for discussion? Maybe. I’ll see how I feel in a year or two. But, right at this moment, I have no need to do it ever again. I had a conversation with Roger Howarth [Franco] about this. He said that I wouldn’t feel like quitting the business if I was, say, back east at the Williamstown Theatre Festival doing a great play by a great playwright, like Albee or Chekhov, where it’s all on the page and all you have to do is make it come alive. He says it would renew my love for acting. 

Roger should go do that himself.

[TeeVee329]

Awww, that anecdote about Genie Francis' journal gift was very sweet.

But how sad that JE knows/can't counter Michael Logan's suggestion that Tracy's exit is the end of the Q's.  #siiigh

[Oracle42]

29 minutes ago, ulkis said:

Is it up for discussion? Maybe. I’ll see how I feel in a year or two. But, right at this moment, I have no need to do it ever again. I had a conversation with Roger Howarth [Franco] about this. He said that I wouldn’t feel like quitting the business if I was, say, back east at the Williamstown Theatre Festival doing a great play by a great playwright, like Albee or Chekhov, where it’s all on the page and all you have to do is make it come alive. He says it would renew my love for acting. 

That sounds like a pretty solid dig on the shittiness of the writing

[ulkis]

Maybe. To me RoHo seems like he thinks any tv show short of an HBO hit is dumb as well, but obviously I could be wrong.

[Sake614]

Quote

GH never made you and your character the center of the show—the rich, powerful, dynamic hub from which all spokes emanate—the way Guiding Light did with Beverlee McKinsey or The Bold and the Beautiful did with Susan Flannery.

Or One Life to Live with Erika Slezak. As far as I'm concerned, they should have made Tracy the head of the mob. She should have gone one-on-one with Sonny

Oh would I ever have paid good money to see that!

But this? .

Quote

what I was told by this network exec is that the young actors are played heavily because that's what the advertisers want...

...this is not about the fault of the producers or the writers or the network. It's all driven by the advertisers and the need to attract young shoppers. This wasn't always the case.  Soaps used to be about storytelling and characters of all ages and types. We’re not doing that now. We go from event to event to event. The stories are activity driven, rather than driven by emotion. And, unfortunately, it’s easier to write an event than an emotional story, one that has depth and breadth and passion and heart. My hat’s off to anybody who is doing it in this soap business of today, because it’s all dictated by schedule and finance rather than what’s best for the stories. You are told which actors you can use, based on who hasn’t worked beyond their guarantees. You are told which sets you must use. You can’t fault the writers for the restrictions and constraints they work under.

just makes me shake my head.

[dubbel zout]

12 minutes ago, Sake614 said:

My hat’s off to anybody who is doing it in this soap business of today, because it’s all dictated by schedule and finance rather than what’s best for the stories. You are told which actors you can use, based on who hasn’t worked beyond their guarantees. You are told which sets you must use.You can’t fault the writers for the restrictions and constraints they work under.

No, but you can certainly fault them for how they write under those restrictions and restraints. 

[coffee drinker]

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

 

Bolding mine, because WHAT?!

I'll say. I think trying to redeem SERIAL KILLER Franco is much more offensive than Jason dreaming he's got Jake in a chokehold. I think tying a painting to a human-trafficking ring is much more offensive than Jason dreaming he's got Jake in a chokehold. I think the continuing supremacy of Sonny is much more offensive than Jason dreaming he's got Jake in a chokehold.

But that's me.

I think the real rub to those up in arms was that it was violence depicted using a child as the victim.  It wasn't inferred with a blank screen and voice-over dialogue, it was blatantly shown on screen.  Doesn't matter, imo, that it was a dream.  The aspect that the dream involved violence against a child was too far to some.  

I felt badly for BM having to play that.  I've seen other posts with suggestions that could/would have conveyed the same context without the visual we got yesterday.  

The things you find more offensive involve adults.  The difference here, to me, is that a child was involved.

Agree to disagree.  

[coffee drinker]

1 hour ago, Oracle42 said:

That sounds like a pretty solid dig on the shittiness of the writing

I've never had a beef with RoHo being on GH or his pet status.  Why?  Because he sees it as a paycheck and if anything better were out there that he could do on the East Coast, he'd be gone with a quickness.  I think he's always been very humble about having this job in the first place.  Sees the writing for what it is.  

Now I didn't I shed any tears over SBu's storyline written departure years back.  Why?  Because, unlike RoHo, SBu (for years) ran the show as BMoC with the help of Guza/JFP.  He reveled in the shine his character got all those years, despite the crap he spewed in interviews that it was only a job, just a paycheck etc.  Look how his tune changed with the regime change.  

Edited April 28, 2017 by coffee drinker

[ulkis]

7 minutes ago, coffee drinker said:

I think he's always been very humble about having this job in the first place.  Sees the writing for what it is.  

He doesn't seem particularly humble to me, especially if it's true about asking that Franco and Nina break-up. Oh, and letting his hair be disgusting and unwashed on-screen.

Edited April 28, 2017 by ulkis

[dubbel zout]

3 minutes ago, ulkis said:

He doesn't seem particularly humble to me,

Nor to me. He always seems faintly contemptuous of what he has to do, and I don't think he gets the worst of it by a long shot.

[ulkis]

Just now, dubbel zout said:

Nor to me. He always seems faintly contemptuous of what he has to do, and I don't think he gets the worst of it by a long shot.

I think he gets a lot of terrible material, but he could probably get some of it mitigated, especially without Ron around being all "no Roger! This LSD sequence is fantastic!" . And no one but him is responsible for playing some scenes so stupidly, like when Heather shot Franco and his screeched out at a register only dogs could hear.

[TeeVee329]

Cute!

[ulkis]

[dubbel zout]

Where to start? How about a big fat NO to all three looks? It's not your senior prom, dude. Or a lounge singer cosplay event.

Edited April 28, 2017 by dubbel zout

[jsbt]

Jacob Tremblay's Big Day Out!

[peachmangosteen]

I can't even respond.

[Melgaypet]

Good lord. But I'm thinking the middle one. It's hideous, but amusingly so. The others are bad and boring.

[peachmangosteen]

Personally I think he should go with the last one because it's the worse and therefore the funniest.

The first one looks so cheap. Like it legit looks like at suit jacket you'd get at like Rose's lol.

[ulkis]

23 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Personally I think he should go with the last one because it's the worse and therefore the funniest.

The first one looks so cheap. Like it legit looks like at suit jacket you'd get at like Rose's lol.

Rose's?

[TeeVee329]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

Where to start? How about a big fat NO to all three looks? It's not your senior prom, dude. Or a lounge singer cosplay event.

But...I mean...it's the Daytime Emmys...

[LexieLily]

Jean is an idiot. A good 90% of fans on Twitter are calling the writers out on the blatant rewrite of the Jason/Robin/Creighton-Clark story and saying that Jason and Helena couldn't have been alive on Cassadine Island at the same time Jake was, Jean tweeted "How do you know?" and later that "Since years pass by off camera it's possible things happen you are never shown. Before CC". Then she said that their story was that "he was taken to CI first."

So - according to them Jason was fished out of the ocean, nursed back to health from his gunshot wounds and taken to Cassadine Island for two years where he was dead-Helena's soldier boy, and then...someone did something to him to freeze him and transfer him across the world to Creighton Clark where Robin would have to save him?

LMAO. My head hurts!

If I knew how to embed tweets I could show you all of the tweets.

[TeeVee329]

I saw them too and, seriously, shut up, Jean.  Retconning is of course always a part of soap writing, but telling viewers they're flat-out wrong when they've offered nothing on-screen to explain how Jason and Helena - both dead and frozen when next we saw them - were running around Cassadine Island is not something she should be doing.

[jsbt]

This still doesn't top the convoluted shit Jean and co. came up for the Alex/Anna Devane backstory on AMC. I'll never stop talking about that. Just when you thought it was over, she added the whole angle with Gabriel the "dogboy" in a cage, and something about Samantha Eggar killing the twins' real mom in a carriage ride(????).

[WendyCR72]

The more of this mess I read (what, you didn't think I'd change my mind and watch, did you?!), the more I think a Writers' Strike would do this show a huge favor.

[UYI]

6 hours ago, ulkis said:

Rose's?

A chain of discount stores in the South and Mid-Atlantic. I have one near me here in MD. 

I can't speak to the clothes there, though. I mainly look at the books when I'm there. :)

Edited April 29, 2017 by UYI

[IWantCandy71]

I loved JE's comment about how she can't self promote because it's narcissistic and not who she is. It's part of why I love her. I still remember a soap mag interview she did during her second run as Tracy, complete with pics of her wearing overalls. Since I also owned a pair of overalls, I knew then that I loved her even more.