titan1978

I loved the scenes of Portia going off at the hospital about Heather. Soaps used to be all about the community reaction to the actions of the characters. And her point of view makes total sense to me. I also like Joss and Kristina’s natural animosity. The show was very lacking in essentially good people having true differences. I even liked Joss handing Dex a burned grilled cheese. It’s exactly what she would do. Everything isn’t so generic anymore!

The only other dramatic option I see would be if there is a medical crisis, the baby ends up fine but Kristina can no longer have children. Couple that with postpartum depression, and maybe some fixation on the baby and it leading to her life coming unglued again. within that fixation, Molly decides her family needs a fresh start and they leave town. It doesn’t have to lead to Kristina trying to keep the baby or taking it, there are plenty of other directions to fall down- trouble with the law, alcoholism, family strife, etc.

I haven’t watched entire episodes of GH daily in almost a decade. I’ve been a daily viewer again for over a month. There is a lot of cleaning up needed on the show, and hopefully they have the courage to cut some losses sooner rather than later. Any writing team that makes me care about a barely established (even though it’s been years), thrown together couple like Sam and Dante is doing something right. And credit to Dom and KM, they are both killing it. If I started watching with Jason’s return, I would think Sam, Dante, and their family were major characters on the show, and truthfully they haven’t been treated that way in years. Cody can do every scene without his shirt on all summer. Please. They cannot possibly be hinting at Tracy taking this stud out for a ride can they?

I agree. It’s lazy conflict.

Carly and Sonny have been at odds for so long, and his relationship with Nina was isolating, revisiting these themes is organic even though Jason has barely returned.

Here is my problem with Kristina’s love life. It reeks of what the prior writing regimes under Frank have been doing (except RC). If this was intended to be a major story and couple the build up would have not been basically filler material. I feel the same way about Dante and Sam, Robert/Diane, Terry/Yuri, even Cody/Sasha. It’s just people together because they were there, not because there was an actual intent or they were given any actual story. It’s why we also have Laura/Kevin. Kristina and Molly should have been in younger lead stories for years, not hit and miss and used just to have something for Sonny and Alexis to do (Dawn of Day). Mansi should be mixing it up and in major story. Instead she’s in a surrogacy story that should have been dropped for many reasons, and a relationship with nowhere near enough fire in it. And I don’t dislike Blaze, I just question the investment. I have never cared about Sam. And I agree they just put them together because they needed something for both of them. And PM and Korte have made the pairing work and family too!

OLTL lost the Wolek’s, but the Lord family stayed important all the way to the end. They started as the two core families though. AMC- was anybody left from Phoebe’s family at the end of the ABC run? I know Brooke was in the PP revival, but hadn’t she left the main show?

Especially on GH right now. I have been watching stuff I would normally FF, and characters that I have zero interest in. They could still go, but while they are here at least they are becoming actual characters.

I wouldn’t mind seeing him again. Or Robert Tyler. Come on gentlemen and break up Laura and Kevin.

On the one hand, I agree. On the other, the show has ignored details for so long it is kind of refreshing to watch every single beat be played, like the old days. I think those rules are great, but he absolutely didn’t follow them himself. The only rule I truly need in 2024 is do not flood the show with new people right off the bat.

We already knew the change was abrupt, because they had to rework the original Jason returns plan. I would imagine they are looking for things to spark, and hopefully building and setting stuff up that we are not seeing fully yet. We have heard zero indication that Korte and Mulcahey arrived with a bible ready to go. Much like when SSM was recruited back to Y&R, she didn’t walk in the door with stories. Her problem was she focused so much on character and never found a groove with stories to propel her forward. I am holding out hope that we won’t see what their real show is until May sweeps and the summer. Hopefully we start seeing some actual stories moving besides Jason, including some exits. Plus Mulcahey has no problem being interviewed and there has been nothing so far. They seem to be cleaning up the writing, and tightening up the characters, and letting the Jason story drive momentum while they test out the cast.

She arrived and he left shortly after. And the cast liked Patsy Rahn, so it took time for them to accept LC. Which is crappy behavior- she didn’t fire her. From everything I have read Donovan was liked by many people in the cast, and had modernized the cameras and sound equipment, which Denise Alexander said was from the dark ages before he got there, and DAYS had very modern everything (for the time). I have only seen a handful of scenes with Valerie Starrett’s Diana and she seems fine, I never felt really drawn to her like I always am to Audrey, Leslie, and Jesse. Meg Baldwin draws me in too. But I haven’t gotten to see anything that really focuses on her Diana. I just like Brooke Bundy, and my first time seeing her was also in The Dream Warriors.

Stuff like this is exactly why the show still needed AJ. We need someone to be in Jason’s face about Michael and his hypocrisy at shunning the Q’s and then totally ignoring his own children. He’s actually a worse parent than AJ would have been when you count the abandonment, shootings, kidnapping, constant threats. Jason Morgan left because he wanted to be free to choose his own path. Are Sonny, Carly and Jason’s kids free?

It’s a great cat and mouse game. And I actually like Brooke Bundy as Diana. I know she was not really a popular recast. I like Peter too, one of a few legacy actors left before he is killed off. I remember being so excited when I finally got to watch the entire LSD episode on YouTube.

I fell into a rabbit hole and watched a bunch of stuff from 1979. Makes total sense how the ratings soared that year. There isn’t a weak link (aside from Anne Logan) or a boring storyline (even overbearing Jeff Webber is watchable). It is always so interesting for me to watch Scotty, Laura and Bobbie. Bobbie and Laura are fascinating in those early years. Jacklyn Zeman really landed a fantastic part and they made it so complex between Marland, Monty, and Zeman. She’s doing so much shady stuff and she’s so rootable, even though Laura and Scotty are so adorable together. And Scotty is so different, although he is volatile enough that his later behavior after heartbreak makes sense. Does anybody have access to the episode where Monica falls down the stairs/is pushed by Alan? I keep watching her in episodes in the hospital bed around the accident but not the actual accident.

If you watched the show during SJB’s Carly, they spent a significant amount of time building to Jason being in love with Carly on paper, and Steve very visibly fighting any of that on camera. Part of it was his holding out for KMc to come back as he preferred Jason with Robin. After she began her leaves for school, he would be in the soap mags saying how much Jason still loved Robin and in at least one interview I read he fully stated Jason would never fall in love with someone like Carly. His exit storyline was built under an assumption that Jason would feel betrayed that Sonny and Carly had sex while he was doing mob business and got shot. It was laughable because Burton had spent that entire time visibly fighting it. Kelly was vocal about feeing Sam had moved on and was happy, and again, visibly acted frustrated with reuniting with Burton the entire time the show put them back together. She was vocal online about it and about Billy Miller’s dismissal.

It was wild!

He had a lot of layers too. You had the danger stuff with Frank Smith and the issues with being Sonny’s partner. His fatherhood issues with Lucky and Laura. His relationship with Laura as she was happy to be back home and he was more inclined to keep running. They also still had a believable romantic connection. He and Bobbie had a very specific dynamic. There was a lot of fertile ground and it didn’t feel like his maligned opinions at the end of his tenure. I loved Luke during Labine’s run. Truthfully, I still thought he was a wonderful character until the Felicia affair. Which tracks, because I need Laura to help make Luke palatable, and that was a point on the show where Genie felt they had stopped writing for her. She was just miserable for like two years as she grieved Lucky and the end of her marriage. I enjoyed him a bit more again when Lulu arrived as a teen, and he was pulled away from being selfish all the time. But it got worse from there. That’s the willingness part. What should be a collaboration sometimes becomes outsized on either end- a character way out of character to support a plot, or an actor refusing things or actively sabotaging the intent of the show (Burton with SJB’s Carly towards the end of his first run, KM clearly tanking her Jason reunion to stay with Billy Miller, whatever the hell happened with Liason/JaSam in the mid 2000’s, etc). I remember reading an interview with Zenk about how much she hated Bitch Barbara on ATWT, didn’t agree with what Marland was doing, and fought against it. And then after the fact realizing that probably saved her in the long run because the show could see her as more than just a victim. Sometimes they should just act!

I usually agree. However some of the best plots on GH came from a willingness to listen to the actors about their characters. LC brought the idea of Monica’s breast cancer to Riche, and they ran with it. Genie in some of her first conversations with Wendy Riche brought up those two years that Laura was gone was fertile ground, and long enough for her to have a child and fully recovered. Guza ran with that one. Tony created the overall ideas for the L&L return, and Lannie fleshed it out with the writing team. Well there was some conflict with it, because Claire Labine said Wendy would send her to talk to Geary about stuff they knew he would not like in her We Love Soaps interview. So he’s not fully creating that narrative later. She acknowledged that she just wasn’t capable of writing that 80’s action stuff he wanted to do all the time, and that Luke as a family man and what that means interested her. She did say he was always gracious about it with her.

I can appreciate the protectiveness and ownership Tony Geary felt for Luke. The problem was he became so absolutist about things being a certain way that the audience saw him play differently. And that he himself spoke differently about before he got burned out. I can get behind TG not wanting to play the same Luke and Laura dynamics. But to have that be so ingrained that they can’t even have Genie on the show was ridiculous. And I know that was JFP too, not just Tony.

I really enjoyed the scenes between Jake and Jason, and the later one with Liz and Jake. As far as acting goes, what I saw with Jake was the performer making actual choices instead of just reciting the dialogue. I see promise in several of these young kids. I hope the show strikes the correct balance with Anna and Sonny. Because we know they are not going to get rid of MB. But this is Anna Devane, not Mac. And Anna was nobody’s fool. It was an incredibly convoluted retcon.

The abrupt ending of the Aztec doll storyline, the beginning of the 2 Macs, and somewhere around those few weeks is also when Alexis gets her family history lesson from Luke, and Brenda begins her early signs of depression/instability. This was when Guza was on his way back and the show didn’t officially credit him until his “relaunch” week. But he was back in the building, and the writing was moving towards setting up his plans. The exact same thing happened during his first tenure- he overlapped with Labine and was not credited as HW even though he was there setting his plans in motion with the other writers. I have been watching a Jason Morgan year 1 playlist, and there are so many details I forgot due to how Jason was by his total story domination in the 2000’s It’s easy to forget the family controlling him was not the only reason he leaves the Q’s. It’s also because of the pain everyone is going through, including him, not getting past the old Jason. He has this conversation with Robin and AJ several times. Jason Morgan is impulsive and at times insensitive due to his injuries. He also has a lot of joy in his new life, that is totally gone once he settles into Stone Cold after returning to the show in the 2000’s. I also forgot how long his no strings sexual relationship lasted with Carly and how that impacted on Carly fully going after Tony because she wanted someone to care about her and look at her like Jason looked at Robin. Ned trying to one up Edward with Jason’s stock, and Jason selling them to Sonny to protect him legally with a shell company was even more entertaining on rewatch than it was when I saw it the first time. And all that is before Tracy walks in the door. The show never should had destroyed the Q family.

I like the idea of Emma not being little miss perfect when/if she ever returns. She doesn’t have to be a full on villain. Monica and Alan were excellent doctors, mostly good people who both also had a dastardly side, especially when it came to each other in their younger days. There are many ways to have a character that is not sugary sweet, and it could be fun to watch.

Dante actually looked handsome in that bed after waking up! And the last couple of days have convinced me that he and Sam are a real couple. That’s what happens when you give them some emotion to work with, instead of just saying they are a couple and moving on. They also made Stella’s work at GH feel real, instead of her just carrying a folder around. I know it’s not perfect, and may never get there or even close. But characters that have been treated as space fillers or just there have been made more detailed and real in the last month than in years. Dante laying in bed has been given more depth thanks to building up his family and playing his connections than he has had the entire time FV has been at the show. I could take or leave many of the cast, I have felt that way for years. This week, the show made me care about Olivia again. I see the renewed purpose for Stella. Valentin even interests me! I haven’t felt this much for Sam since the mid 2000’s. Burton is filling Jason with a lot of emotion, and it is making me invested in his story. Improved writing meeting more invested performers is doing wonders for a show filled with people a few months ago I didn’t even waste time watching. And I will give Frank the credit that everyone seems to have stepped up their game to meet the more detailed and depth filled writing, and he has to have set that tone or it would not have worked.

Carlivati had no clue how to write for Lulu, and I get why JMB had enough. Her character had more going on than just a baby factory. But all of a sudden she and Maxie are reduced to traumatic children stories without any emotional depth.