GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[standbyme]

I like Michael Easton just fine, but his run on GH, to me personally, cannot be compared to JJ. I can see a lot of people are displeased about his return, and I feel bad about that, because there's so little left to enjoy on GH. But nothing can kill my buzz about seeing my favorite soap actor return to the role he created as a child.  That is, until the show writes a terrible storyline for him, which is sure to happen. 

[tessaray]

2 hours ago, tessabq said:

GH has a sad modern history of not knowing what to do with truly talented actors, male and female. 

I'm cynical enough to wonder if it's really cluelessness or if it's intentional. If you showcase an actor, what do they usually want? More money, more perks like long vacations or out of their contracts. 🙂

[tessabq]

7 minutes ago, tessaray said:

I'm cynical enough to wonder if it's really cluelessness or if it's intentional. If you showcase an actor, what do they usually want? More money, more perks like long vacations or out of their contracts. 🙂

GH is willing to do that for some actors, but not others, and the ones they choose aren't always the most talented. Of course, viewers' opinions vary widely on who is talented and who isn't. LOL I wrote about soaps for years and TPTB motivations were often financial but often simply dumbfounding.  

 

[jsbt]

17 hours ago, tessaray said:

 I think ME's daytime status was pretty comparable to JJ's overall.

Maybe 20 years ago. And never on GH.

18 hours ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

I think that's a bit unfair, especially since I think you're including Caleb (or whatever the character's name ended up being on GH.) That character was on simultaneously as Silas and wasn't meant to be a regular character. If it weren't for circumstances outside of ME's control, he would probably still be playing John McBain here. They gave up on Silas too quickly, but I liked Finn better. He played Finn for 7(?) years. That's not a failure, in my book. 

I included Caleb because he played that character on this show. He played four characters on GH. Silas was unpopular and was killed. Finn was unpopular and was written out. Our personal takes on these characters can vary and that's fair and valid, but that's the reality for the majority of the general audience at GH. These characters did not move the needle.

ME (like many other unpopular stars still on GH atm in fairness, and like Roger Howarth in the past) was only kept on this show for over a decade due to institutional inertia, network disinterest in GH's quality for the majority of those years, and an EP in charge who has kept favored status for him on this show owing to their personal and professional relationship from another soap opera (a show I loved my whole life, for the record) for 20+ years. That's a failure, but it's failing up. It happens all the time, especially on soaps. We all know about that kind of preferential treatment.

I don't think Michael Easton is a bad guy or untalented. I've never heard an unkind word about the man. I thought as McBain, he actually worked on GH. But Finn stopped having the minor amount of juice he had years ago. Silas never worked. The OLTL employment office should've closed in 2014. But it took a network act of God to get Roger fired twice, and it took Jonathan Jackson (and probably some renewed network oversight) to make ME go. That's just the way it is. 

As for Finn's arc: Yes, it was rushed as Easton rightly says, but they clearly wanted to broom the character out and move on and it was past time. So I was fine with that. I thought he did some good work and some of the scenes were very good surrounding his downward spiral. Though if it was me I'd have started it earlier and made it much darker. Finn's paranoid rants about the Quartermaines to Scott were like something out of GH 1999, and his irrational aggression with Liz, Portia, etc. and the nasty intellectual crossing swords with Alexis were all scenes visceral and compelling to watch. He could've had a longer, darker disintegration for a couple months if the show had played things out earlier overall, the kind of material this show has done before (including with Lucky, and it is so stupid that anyone let multiple scenes with Liz suddenly being newly educated about addiction go to air given her past with Lucky among others), and frankly I would've ended it in Finn drunkenly crashing his car into GH or something with Violet in the passenger's seat. Say what you will about Guza but that's how this would've ended vs. just a whimper. I wouldn't need to kill Finn, but any kind of action and high drama that gets this moribund show's heart rate up is desperately needed right now.

Edited Tuesday at 08:06 PM by jsbt

[ciarra]

JJ's return is like the Backstreet Boys doing a Downy commercial.  It's retro, it's nostalgic, but is he relevant to this show any more?  Liz is all grown up, his Oyrish nurse, Siobhan, is dead.  Other romantic prospects? 

He could go visit Nik in jail, and Laura at the mayor's office, but how long will that take? 

I wonder if the kid who plays Aiden will tower over him?

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, ciarra said:

JJ's return is like the Backstreet Boys doing a Downy commercial.  It's retro, it's nostalgic, but is he relevant to this show any more? 

Yes. He's a Spencer. There is a lot of story still to be mined with him. As has been stated up thread, JJ is one of the best actors out there, who started on this show, and I, for one, am thrilled and looking forward to seeing Lucky connect, reconnect with everyone, SAVE that heifer of a Shebeast.

Edited Tuesday at 10:21 PM by GHScorpiosRule

[jsbt]

1 hour ago, ciarra said:

JJ's return is like the Backstreet Boys doing a Downy commercial.  It's retro, it's nostalgic, but is he relevant to this show any more?

Compared to 90% of the current cast?

[Grinaldi]

There are plenty of stories to tell with Lucky. Hell, he could bring story with him. Is he running from something? Is he bringing someone with him? How does his presence affect his kids? There is plenty to mine with Jake alone.

And my spec on the Aiden story was just that. I hope my concern is unfounded. Without those reports of deleted scenes I wouldn't have considered it. He is a pro from everything I have heard about him.

[jsbt]

32 minutes ago, Grinaldi said:

There are plenty of stories to tell with Lucky. Hell, he could bring story with him. Is he running from something? Is he bringing someone with him? How does his presence affect his kids? There is plenty to mine with Jake alone.

Considering the show has never really dug into Lois' own sea change about the Quartermaines (I rewatched her exit scenes from 1996, and they were very good but brutal in her autopsy of the family right down to Monica and Lila - a precursor of the harsher writing re: the family that came in '99) to where she's now lovey-dovey about them and Tracy, I don't expect this nuance to appear in any future writing but I do wish they'd address that for many years Lucky was a very devoted parent and father to those boys. As he once told Luke, Cam and Jake were his sons, period. For years they bore his family name. I hate that that has fallen by the wayside and he's been supplanted by Franco or Drew or whoever, and I hope some of it can be repaired. Jake won't really have many memories of Lucky and Aiden none, but Cameron would.

Edited Wednesday at 12:15 AM by jsbt

[driver18]

I still don't think that Finn leaving is because of JJ coming back. It's because Korte wanted to give her precious Chase/Brooklyn an insta family and decided that Violet was the perfect fit. If it was about getting rid of Finn for Elizabeth for Lucky so much of that story wouldn't have revolved around, oh, setting Violet up with Brooklyn and Chase. This, despite the fact that Finn had already designated Elizabeth as her caregiver.

Since Korte took over, Chase/Brooklyn have been the #1 spotlighted couple. This was her way of continuing to do so. Giving them an insta-family.

[jsbt]

Chase and BLQ are not that popular let alone interesting. It's not about them. It's about freeing up money for a male star. Offloading the kid onto whoever is around is just a side issue.

[driver18]

That's what makes sense on paper, but when you look at all the ways Finn could have gone and yet the way chosen one was that put Violet with Chase and BLQ... Even though Brooklyn never interacted with Violet like that before but Elizabeth did. And Elizabeth literally has the custody because it was spoken of. And Korte has made Chase/BLQ the main couple focused on. 

Everyone is just assuming it was ME for JJ. But you don't get Violet to Chase/BLQ without getting rid of Finn. And it wasn't a side story. A huge component of Finn's addiction story this go round was what is going to happen to Violet? And she was with Chase/BLQ. Legal papers were drawn up, and they already had her living with them EVEN before Finn left.

Same reason GH was probably let go after the wedding. Dealing with his deteriorating ALS would have been about him rather than him being all about Chase/BLQ. 

Look, I'm sure other factors came into it, but I think the first and main thing was that Korte wanted Violet for Chase/BLQ. They are clearly her new faves.

Edited Wednesday at 12:41 PM by driver18

[Tenshinhan]

I'm not sure I would like to see Lucky return to be a father to his kids.  I don't really see JJ pulling that off.  Especially now that the boys are teenagers.  I think that he might as well leave the parenting up to Liz at this point.  

Fatherhood and GH just doesn't seem to click.  Maybe there are some exceptions, but in my view the male characters on this show seem to fare better when the stories revolve around their lives away from their children and families.

[driver18]

Lucky, when played by JJ on canvas, has always been an exceptional father.

[KerleyQ]

1 hour ago, driver18 said:

Look, I'm sure other factors came into it, but I think the first and main thing was that Korte wanted Violet for Chase/BLQ. They are clearly her new faves.

I think it was more about keeping Violet than anything else. Frank has a habit of getting attached to child actors and wanting to keep using them. And putting her with the Q's as a whole gives her a lot more opportunity for storyline than putting her at Liz's house (we barely see her two kids who live with her). I think that, if this was only about Chase/BLQ, Violet would have called Uncle Chase when she found Finn out cold on the floor. Instead, she called Tracy. I predict that, as time goes on, we're going to see a lot of her interacting with Tracy. The story gave Chase and BLQ some story right in the heat of it, when they were getting temporary custody, but I don't see it being some big story going forward. Now that they've got her, we'll see them with her just as much as we see any other GH parents with their kids. I'd predict we're going to see her spend at least as much screen time opposite Tracy as Chase/BLQ, possibly more with Tracy. 

[tvfanatic13]

I thought that JL (Violet) is also leaving. If so, isn't it moot as to who TPTB wanted Violet to be with? 

[jsbt]

3 hours ago, KerleyQ said:

I think it was more about keeping Violet than anything else.

Exactly. FV would cut half this show before dumping that fucking kid. He has a long history of spoiling the little rascals he cultivates on his shows. (Until, like Kristen Alderson, they grow up and ask for a standard pay bump at contract renewal time.) He held the Spencer role open for years praying Nicolas Bechtel would somehow grow into a gigachad twunk.

Edited Wednesday at 05:52 PM by jsbt

[mostlylurking]

On 7/2/2024 at 11:48 AM, standbyme said:

like Michael Easton just fine, but his run on GH, to me personally, cannot be compared to JJ. I can see a lot of people are displeased about his return, and I feel bad about that, because there's so little left to enjoy on GH. But nothing can kill my buzz about seeing my favorite soap actor return to the role he created as a child.  That is, until the show writes a terrible storyline for him, which is sure to happen. 

 

21 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

He's a Spencer. There is a lot of story still to be mined with him. As has been stated up thread, JJ is one of the best actors out there, who started on this show, and I, for one, am thrilled and looking forward to seeing Lucky connect, reconnect with everyone, SAVE that heifer of a Shebeast.

Make this a party of three!  I’m excited, and there is so little to be excited about in soaps (and life) lately.

I liked Brooklyn and Chase better before they got together.  They just took too damn long to actually admit their feelings and were so childish about it, I lost interest.

Michael Easton is such a pro.  He didn’t burn bridges, and he’s been good natured about everything.  I’ll say the same about Roger Howarth.  The Austin character never really got off the ground, but he took it in stride when he was let go, also for questionable reasons.  These guys know how this business works, and how to roll with it.

[Auntie Velvet]

I was looking at all the roles that ME has played in the Port Charles universe, and some of them seem to have morphed into others, while others were distinctly new roles....Anyway, it's at least six. So he's certainly had his shot.

 

[isalicat]

On 7/3/2024 at 5:33 PM, Auntie Velvet said:

I was looking at all the roles that ME has played in the Port Charles universe, and some of them seem to have morphed into others, while others were distinctly new roles....Anyway, it's at least six. So he's certainly had his shot.

 

I can only think of three: Caleb, the police detective, and now Finn. Who else was he? (just 'cause I am wondering and can't figure out how to Google this).