titan1978

It was an actual story before, with beats being played out weekly. Cliche as all hell, but it was going somewhere and Mulcahey’s character work made Nina actually watchable, and Drew didn’t seem like a scumbag. Now it’s back to FV GH mode- dropped for weeks at a time, then dragged back out just to create a twist. And before it was at least like three people making choices that made some kind of sense based on the parameters we were seeing. Now it’s like a kid playing scandal with Barbies. It’s once again so generic and poorly paced, and worst of all, completely unsexy. I honestly do not know what happened to GH. The instincts of the creative decisions are just all wrong. I didn’t think it was great before by any means, but it wasn’t as mishandled. Around the time they killed Spencer and Esme the show has been really in trouble creatively, with one bad turn after another.

It’s like casting on DAYS! I half expect her to be finished taping before we even see her!

Truthfully I don’t know what to think. Valentini has allegedly tried repeatedly to lure JMB back to the show, even before a Lucky return was on the table. Genie has made no secret that she would like to work with JJ again, but I don’t think anyone has that kind of pull anymore. Clearly they decided to shore up the Spencer family. What I see is what was happening before the strike, and most of last year. The show is falling apart at the seams due to lack of actual story. Planned story, intended to last for longer than 30 or 60 days. A prime example is whatever the hell just happened with Sasha. Robert and Holly are her parents and they are gone shortly after the reveal, leaving her there with a head scratching twist and not an actual story about it.

It’s kind of shocking because even at the end, if Tony Geary wanted to, he could still sometimes do good work. And I haven’t seen anything from MB in about 5 years that I would say was good. I think the shooting schedule and a decade plus of writing that doesn’t know how to utilize him or Sonny has really done him in. And that is before mentioning his personal struggles. It does often seem like he has lost his character and can’t bring it forward under this type of writing. It is strange the show has somehow lost the core of Sonny, Jason, and Carly, but refuses to move them away from the center longterm, and IMO they are all floundering right now.

They faked her death and the funeral aired on a primetime special called Twist of Fate.

I loved that loft set when I was a kid. I always thought it would be such a cool place to live.

And then Maxie burned it to the ground! One thing JFP never understood was people like to see those old sets. Just redress them, or rebuild and keep touchstones so longtime viewers know. I believe part of that set is now where Liz lives, which in-story is the renovated Brownstone. Of all the soaps I watched over the years my favorite dwellings were the various places on GH, Y&R, and DAYS. They all did a good job having various sets that changed hands but had a sense of continuity and specificity so they were recognizable.

I forgot about that. Sharlene was there before Tony and Lucy broke up. Did Colton live there too?

He had at least one, and it was the incredibly fun funeral where several of his ex wives showed up in hats and veils.

The Webber house on GH housed Leslie, Rick, Laura, Amy, Mike, Blackie and later Ginny. Also Robert, Anna, and Robin, through Mac and Felicia’s girls. Laura has lived in a crazy variety of places- the Vinning home, Webber house, Scotty’s apartment, Beecher’s Corner room, her own crappy waterfront apartment, the Haunted Star, the Cassadine compound, briefly the mayor’s mansion, Mariah’s Hacienda, various places all over the world, the house in Canada where Frank finds them, the old Ward house, Wyndemere, an asylum, and her current penthouse. That is a huge variety for one character, especially since she is off the show for like 20 years since her arrival.

JJ’s return story felt very much like it was shoehorned into the show. Shot with no other actual GH actors until Jason and Anna arrived. Holly doesn’t count, she was also shoehorned in. Isaiah the same- with Lucky and then the hospital, disappearing for what felt like weeks, sharing scenes with an underutilized Jordan who was easy to plop into scenes due to not being used elsewhere. I don’t know if this is the shitty FV shooting schedule, rewrites around KM’s exit, Jackson’s availability, or all of the above. He said he was relocating back for the show, maybe his family wasn’t there yet or he is still commuting. It’s glaring onscreen.

I haven’t seen today’s show yet but I really feel for Kristina Wagner having to be part of scenes like what I saw described. It’s borderline cruel. I want them to use her and still love Felicia. But two scenes about dead kids in roughly a month is awful.

The kid playing Rocco really sold the emotion in his scenes. The show would be wise to invest in him. NLG broke my heart. Kristen Vaganos also really sold Molly’s shock. And Dom covered a lot of emotional ground in one episode and did it well. This had to have been torture for Monaco to lie there while this all played out. The show has a shallow core, but the actors really do bring their generic material to life when they give them something to play. I am happy that for the first time in years what matters is being played out by actual core characters.

Yup.

I get her fans are in their feels about the firing. And it was petty on FV’s part. What I do not get is the outcry about them not pairing her with Jason being the fault of the show, and how that would have saved her. She chose to tank the triangle story and reunion between Sam and Jason the last time he returned. Publicly. Because she wanted to be paired with her real life boyfriend only. So blame the show for firing her, and firing Billy, which was shitty and petty. But not what happened to JaSam. Look at her photos in the Steve returns promos from January! She was still visibly against being paired with Jason. And I am totally fine with that! But don’t blame the show for that one fans.

I have been waiting for a bastard Michael storyline for a decade. Instead of perfect Michael, who has dominated this show since he was born like no other child ever on GH. Give him material. Let him be a heel for once. It’s something new! Just think, it took far less trauma for Marland to justify turning Barbara Ryan into a bitch that was going to get Tom Hughes, no matter what stood in her way. Give us mean Michael!

She was also played very heavily for several months. They may have backed off due to the budget and not going over her guarantees.

I won’t be able to watch until tonight. So they made her play a full death scene? I find that incredibly grim, even for Frank. And I don’t even enjoy KeMo or Sam. But that doesn’t mean I want to watch that knowing how upset she was to be let go.

I enjoy soap angst too. But I also think this would have been an opportunity for a little levity- jokes about what kind of hillbilly nonsense has Holly gotten us into by Cody. What I do not want to see is him being so angry that he decides to go full on con man and go after Tracy for her money. I may be alone in seeing potential in those characters having something more than friendship and it was refreshing to watch them organically figuring it out vs just another fully plot driven story.

The strange filming schedule strikes again. Where is Lucky during the surgery? Also you can stretch something like this out much better than they are doing right now. Compare this medical crisis to what happened with Dante when Mulcahey was clearly rewriting scripts. That first week of shows had so much depth and every little beat was being played. Also- Cody and Sasha are adults that did not grow up together, in a family that has just happened. While the idea of them being first cousins and in love is both disgusting and ridiculous, it wouldn’t be that strange for them to be together under the circumstances. Which again, are ridiculous. Just don’t have kids!

Between Cassandra and the stories surrounding Nina and David, I was so hooked on Y&R at that time. Would NA have made a stronger Ashley recast? I grew to love BE, but she never had a command of the scenes like Nina or Eileen. Hard to dispute how important Dominique was and is to GH and the first year-ish of Port Charles, with very little time invested in her. And really she only took off with Scotty and then the baby story with Lucy. I found Mac way more interesting once he settled into the Ryan/Felicia story.

They wasted Garcia. He was fine as hell, and a decent actor.

Just another shortsighted mess created by Ron Carlivati. He brought back Frank Smith just to kill him off again. Tony Geary said it was beyond ridiculous because Frank was old in 1979. They brought AJ back and it worked really well and they killed him off again. And Duke.

It’s because it was a romance. When you look at the show right now, there are not any couples besides them falling in love. They may be wasted airtime to some (including me), but I get why people wanted to watch their story unfold. Romance is baked into the DNA of soap operas, and it’s had a major resurgence in other media too (books, streaming, manga). I don’t understand why these shows are not embracing what is popular and they used to do well.

It reminded me of how sad Sharon Wyatt’s last scenes were when Tiffany and Sean were written out. It was hard to watch them say goodbye more to their colleagues than as characters.