Vee

Eh, I'd have aged her down to Michael's age myself. They could've hired someone slightly younger. But I take your point.

BLQ framing Willow for her own mistake is absolutely the kind of dirt this show should be getting into. Chris McKenna has such a thankless role that probably shouldn't even have been recast but he always works so hard, and he does have real chemistry with LW and Cynthia. If he'd come on as a doctor, maybe RIck Jr. or something who knows.

Rewatching lately I think Leigh McCloskey is perfect as Damian. That voice and his looks really do it for him, and he has real chemistry with many women. Had they not turned him into a bit of a cartoon in '95/'96 he might've been able to run a bit longer. They could still add some surprise Smiths today to make trouble. I last saw McCloskey when he played Dorian's very brief paramour to write her off OLTL in 2000. As someone who grew up not making the connection between Damian and LMC's role in the Dario Argento Italian horror classic Inferno, it was a shock to realize they were one and the same (probably right before or after he began on Dallas). I get what people are saying about the DAYS transplants. I think SN always worked well throughout despite his story falling apart in '97. I still miss Stefan. And I will stick up for MBE. No, Katherine shouldn't have stayed as long as she did or had all the stories she had, but MBE played her to the absolute hilt and she's fun to watch at least early on making trouble, in '94/'95 (I skip over all the Stefan stuff). It was night and day vs. Kayla to me. That's one more needless undead return I might support, Katherine turning up briefly to be behind conning Cody and Mac or something. Or Katherine's twin! I'm not picky.

The only endpoint is him doing it for Brenda or someone else, as I've said before. But that's not happening any time soon.

It's ridiculous. I knew they would do it this way though. It's exactly how this regime handled Cyrus, etc. with kid gloves just so Frank could keep the actors he liked on the show (while also writing terrible, ineffectual stuff for poor Jeff Kober) and made both sides of the canvas look weak for not dealing with each other. It also betrays FV, CVE, etc.'s fundamental discomfort with mob stories in general over the years. They just aren't good at it or excited by it. Not that I mind that per se - I think the recent refocus from the mob to the WSB is potentially more interesting long-term, particularly if Jason ends up there which I think they've flirted with before. But the actual WSB saga they are telling onscreen, with these boring dayplayers like Cullum and Pascal, tedious recurring characters like Jack and Sidwell and annoying returnees like Britt and Cassius (to say nothing of Joss and Valentin), really really stinks. I don't mind that doddering Sonny is now taking his cues from Lucas and Laura - I kind of find it hilarious and such a sea change from the Guza era. But it's still such a ridiculous, awkward storyline.

Thanks!

Seems I can't access old discussion threads from a few months ago (specifically, GH in April, etc.) The search results appear for certain key words (or searching my own posts for key words) but when I click one of the results I get this: Oops indeed! Couldn't find a topic for this but here you go.

You ain't missing much! I am skipping around a lot since too. And no, the show glosses this over but Britt never took Rocco out of 'love' for him or Patrick Drake. She took him because her terrorist parents wanted her to steal Luke and Laura's grandchild and also steal Robin Scorpio's husband. It was all just a big revenge ploy and Britt was a useful pawn. And yeah, Sonny letting this slide is crazy. But again we see how far he's fallen and the mob canvas in general with him. Sonny and Jason spent most of the last year talking about what Sidwell, Britt, Lucas, Laura, etc. were doing in other storylines while not actually doing much themselves. Now we have Sonny taking his cues from Laura and Lucas about Pascal the evil gay butler dayplayer. Lucas!! Imagine that even 10 years ago.

I think everything you say is true, and that Frank's ADD pacing, focus on sets being up and the block taping are a big part of the execution. But in addition to not wanting to 'bore' people with long scenes, he is also much, much more scared about content than he used to be. Which you've also mentioned. OLTL and his early GH were not afraid to do that, 10-20+ years ago. I don't think he'd dare trying the mess he and Ron pulled with Franco or DID Connie today. But sexuality, as we've all talked about, has also been downplayed. And Frank's past periods were not afraid of explicit sex or the main characters doing horrible things, as opposed to outside interlopers like Sidwell, Cyrus and so on. (who all still come off more meandering and less brutal than earlier GH villains or OLTL baddies like Mitch, Carlo, etc). The very first little arc I'd do on GH today is one I've mentioned many times before, and one they'd probably not dare to do right now: Emma, Joss, whoever is accidentally knocked up, needs an abortion and some local right wing anti-choice measure temporarily prevents GH from acting legally. So Portia, Elizabeth, Lucas, Felicia, etc. lock down part of the hospital and do it anyway, maybe with the secret backing from Laura or even Congresswoman Willow. Shameful as it is given where we've regressed in America right now, that is a soap opera still making a statement and using its social contract with the audience. GH used to do that and still could. Frank is focused on keeping GH alive, which I can understand to a point, and isn't interested in making those statements. Sorry, but boring C-plots about endometriosis or a day of eyemites are not properly utilizing the hospital or the message platform. I will always be so grateful for how direct and powerful AMC 2.0 was with that storyline with Angie and Cassandra. I'll never forget Debbi Morgan doing direct address to the camera about Todd Akin and 'legitimate rape'. That was Agnes Nixon, and that was the power of the medium made manifest even at so late an hour for soaps. Scrubs and the rise of Grey's were incredibly important for the show. People talk a lot about lack of hospital stories today and I agree it needs more doctor/hospital leads in A-story again. But the fact is that after the show bottomed out in 2005, hit a nadir and Steve Burton got on the phone and begged Kimberly McCullough to come back, they did a lot of what they needed to do. Scrubs became a central couple riding the Grey's wave and they built around it, adding a lot of supporting players for them at the hospital (Epiphany, Kelly Lee, Lainey Winters, etc). Liz was on staff. As two-dimensional as I found some of those added characters I did love that karaoke at Jake's or whatever became a regular thing for the GH staff players. It was almost shades of Monty's sense of community, which I'll get to below. But from '06 on the hospital became a central story hub again and has stayed that way. Contract leads under 50 either work there or are there all the time. Yes, we need more young doctor leads again, but once the hospital came back as a hub it remained and has stayed there for 20 years. I wasn't really sure that would ever happen from '00-'05. The mention of Monty wanting to emulate Frank Capra makes a lot of sense. I talked in the Classic GH thread about how charming and spontaneous I found a lot of the constant social gatherings in early-mid '80s Monty, how unforced and loose a lot of it feels. And it's something she did again and again with various groupings that always felt very lived-in and heartwarming. I also will say I think FV kept the working-class/underclass roots of the show very active at OLTL in its last decade. Angel Square, the Vegas, etc. all remained a major part of the show. Roxy's Hair Haven. Natalie and the McBains both came from humble roots they never forgot or fully divested from. Gigi Morasco and her son were a low-income single parent family we saw a lot of. Moe and Noelle from Paris, TX. Ex-addicts Sky and Rachel living together and friends with Kish, all of them sharing a complex (I think) with Layla and Cristian. It wasn't perfect material or story by any means, but the social stratification was still there. A wonderful thread, and discussions like this are an essential part of the reason I stay on this forum.

It is wild that they let her dip with Lulu and Dante's child again and everyone is supposed to be cool with it.

Yeah, I'm busy IRL and I think I'm dipping on a lot of this lol. The last week-plus has been a grind story-wise on top of the endless attempts to first cement Britt and then vouchsafe her latest terrible behavior. I do not feel obligated to give modern GH my time whenever it hits a series of potholes in rapid succession. This began (after my last regular return in 2012) with Jean Passanante and Altman taking over, much of which I skipped for my own sanity, as well as a lot of the early Van Etten, etc. period until Sprina happened. Any time it really becomes an annoying snooze I take a break for days, weeks or months. When the Willow, Drew, etc. saga begins moving again I'll start watching daily some more. Or when a certain blonde shows up. ETA: Scrap that, Gio is shirtless tomorrow, I'll watch at least a third of the show!

About time. KK is far from my first choice for reasons @DRW50 mentioned and I would have had her closer in age range to Michael, but whatever. I will take this with optimism. She is an obvious (and smart) Maxie replacement if they do it right, and I have always wanted Serena to swoop in and help Lucy take Deception back from these interlopers. Hopefully Kruger will surprise me.

Oh, Kirsten. No.

It was creaky and middle-aged then!

Nope, never.