titan1978

Austin recognized his shooter didn’t he? Now I do think it might have been Ava or Valentin.

13 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I don't find the teen boys as awful as some although I do think they are very interchangeable at this point and I might have gone older with Jake, Danny, and Rocco at the very least.  I know you like Hudson West, but he's a bit up and down for me.  

I haven’t found them all horrible either because for the most part they are not actively in their own stories yet.

It seems like everything IRL is rough for a lot of people right now, myself included. Take care and I will personally wish harder for Vanessa to return.

Just now, Vee said:

As long as they find a place in there to reveal Charlotte was never Lulu's and it was all a gambit to attach himself to the Spencers for whatever reason, I'll take it.

Imagine if we got a very Helena type moment with someone hypnotizing her in a dark room with those Cassadine Tarot cards (another dropped story thread), and they pull back to reveal Valentin holding them up to her blank face, “Protect your King”.

22 minutes ago, Vee said:

Fill me in. I know very little about the Pikeman saga, other than that every time I tried to tune back in people seemed to stand around saying "Pikeman" for years on end with no actual movement (much like the saga of Cyrus, the world's oldest and most infirm mobster with family trauma). I do know Valentin introduced the issue of Pikeman the PMC/weapons dealer to Sonny in the first place. And I think the subtle ways they tied up all the dumb stuff of the past few months in the story (Brennan showing up in town, "Stone") is very smart.

I was in and out through that whole story. I believe Pikeman had something to do with Anna’s house burning down and her WSB story from the scabs. The public reveal of her time as a double agent, her search for evidence against Brennan, etc. which all played a part in her shooting Charlotte.

What I am curious about is if Valentin was Pikeman from the beginning, or if he took over after Brennan went to jail? My wish would be all along, and we get to see some dastardly stuff from now on.

54 minutes ago, Vee said:

I wasn't expecting him back for long, if he turns up at all. I think they'll wait to recast though and they should.

After his first couple of months I knew he was probably going to be a one contract and out person. He has the charisma/talent on daytime, which is a factory production at this point and very hard on newer folks. His size makes him good for mid 20’s roles and his face was still youthful enough for him to play younger. I could easily see him in a Marvel movie.

The only thing that would make me believe he might have come back was the tone of Hollywood right now- less projects being made across the board means way less roles going around. Plus his Ryan Murphy series won’t be airing until the fall at the earliest. Which is a long time if he doesn’t book anything else big due to lack of projects.

This reminds me so much of Guza’s first official week back during his second EP run. Calm down, no show has that overall quality today. But they started that week with Nikolas being shot in front of Luke’s, and then we had Carly leaving Tony with the brilliant twist claiming Jason was Michael’s father. I can still see the way Sarah Brown played that scene in my mind.

The twists that have happened in the last 7 days have been one good story turn after another!

Wasn’t Pikeman behind Anna’s difficulties this summer too? If that was Valentin I cannot wait for the fallout, because she also has a personal stake in this now.

Ava and Valentin conspiring together is a fantastic twist. I hope Laura gets to slap Valentin again before this is all over.

2 hours ago, John said:

And doubtful that was her intention but I agree

Jason may be innocent. But Carly is making it like Jason is the victim here. He is not. Dante is the victim here and she isnt seeing that. She is so laser focused on "Save Jason"

I would argue that is far more how Carly behaves than anything I have seen in the last couple of years. The exception being Nina and the FCC- Carly blaming someone for a consequence she deserved is 100% on brand.

Carly as kitchen mom and friend to the town was a quiet phase she was trying out. Carly being blindly loyal to Jason no matter what is back in action. If anything, I found her more loyal to Jason even during the Guza years than Sonny, so this tracks for me.

1 hour ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Hmmm... perhaps someone gave the script a little (lousy) polishing after the writer sent it to him

Or the script writer added it as they were writing the actual script. Although, we know how Korte feels about Carly (which I assume extends to her spawn), and she was there through all the terrible writing Trina has gotten and the propping of Joss, so I would not be surprised if her fingers were all over that convo. It could also have changed during filming by the directors and actors.

That one line of dialogue doesn’t change how terrible/classic Valentini the pacing was in that episode, and that is one of the things the breakdown is traditionally supposed to establish.

It is awful that there is not more diversity in the writing at GH, losing someone who was clearly invested in the young Black lead is not great. As many of us have commented though- she had limited overall input because Trina has been dragged through terrible/non existent writing her whole tenure.

Burton hasn’t consistently allowed this much emotion in Jason since his Robin and baby Michael days. If he’s going to be here, at least he is trying again. Maybe MB needs a couple years off to truly appreciate the job he has.

This is very refreshing to watch people question Sonny and Jason and not have the whole town serve the usual excuses- Jason must have had a reason! Especially Sam, those were great scenes.

This episode was more choppy and similar to what the show was like before the new writing regime. The script was more in line, but the scenes were chopped up. This is the first episode that the old style was so prevalent. Possibly due to the breakdown to scripting process, which might explain why they felt they needed a change. Still bad optics. Breakdowns do strongly dictate pacing though!

I think I am going to dislike Danny, he has the air of old school Sonny/Jason worship about him, and that’s not what I want to see in 2024.

1 hour ago, Soapsuds said:

When I first saw him I thought he was pregnant.

What's with the black hair?

IIRC when he came back from the show’s COVID hiatus, he stopped coloring/highlighting his hair.

27 minutes ago, janea4old said:

Thanks!

@Toups  What exactly does that mean?  Does that mean that traditionally HW and breakdown writers are at the studio in a "room" ...  but scriptwriters write from home ...  (even though they probably all write from home nowadays?)   Or does it mean something else entirely such as the "room" being where decisions are made?

Room doesn’t always mean physically. They used to do conference calls for writer’s meetings, now I assume they are on zoom several time a week.

6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I still can't get past the visual disconnect either with Jagger.  I agree AH is doing a good job and I'd probably be praising him up and down as an amazing find if he played anyone but Jagger.  It's still really throwing me off, but I suppose I will get used to it in time.

The show could have helped by giving him more of a salt and pepper effect than blond and gray. And a haircut.

We have no idea why she was fired. For all the talk about PM coming in, Korte has worked with these writers for years. She may have strong opinions on who they should keep.

I think the idea of refreshing the team with people not trained under FV’s style is a good idea, because they have done only plot driven stuff for years.

Breakdown writers traditionally had a large role in shaping the day to day show, and that has been an issue on GH for a long time.

I hope any hiring they do focuses on mentoring talent and diversity. As Peace said, she brought that perspective and maybe didn’t get enough of a chance to do it more. They may still bring in other writers that have worked with PM, but I still hope they work on diversity too.

Sonny’s conversation with Michael was great. I recognize this Sonny. I wonder if people that started watching or came back during the last few years would be shocked by him. This is as close to a 2000’s Guza era Sonny we have seen in almost a decade. The nice part is that people are standing up to him! How different that decade could have been if they really did this back then.

Ava is the most out of character which adds to my belief that she is up to something.

Anna realizing the shooting doesn’t make sense and getting the truth as we understand it so far from Jason was great.

Carly throwing someone out of Kelly’s/Bobbie’s wasn’t as fun as her strutting around The Metro Court, but she is also recognizable again.

I would hope in 2024 giving writers a shot that are new to the genre and diverse would be paramount. These soaps desperately need diversity on both sides of the camera, especially writing!

Frank loves kids almost as much as Gloria Monty hated them (or Labine killed them!).

Reading @Vee’s comments, I wanted to add something I noticed on Friday. Since the change, I am enjoying watching characters I had zero use for. And that is just because the scripts are better and the scenes longer and full of character.

Nina has come to life in a way that justifies having someone like Watros play her. Willow has all of a sudden become more real, and she and Michael felt more like a married couple than they ever have. Drew sparked in those scenes with both of them.

I am very realistic about any soap in 2024 reaching the storytelling glory of the old days. But the show is giving even the duds actual characters, and it helps the watchability. I am excited to see down the road how the show feels, and that’s rare these days.

I am really sick of Sonny already though. He’s everywhere and it’s not enjoyable watching him struggle at times to connect with scene partners.

On 2/1/2024 at 11:06 AM, Darn said:

Comic books are soap operas with superpowers. Some of the best selling issues of comic books center around WEDDINGS. Best known comic book stories? Characters coming back from the dead. If soap operas could they would also perpetually write everyone as if they're 35. Oh wait, they do.

Agree 100%, especially the long form superhero ones published by Marvel and DC. X-Men and Spider-Man come to mind as ones that really told stories within the superhero formula that were very close to/essentially soaps.

5 hours ago, Aragorn said:

I heard two things online and wonder if anyone here can confirm or deny them.

1. I heard that NAC gave an interview in which he trashed GH.

2. I heard that Roger Howarth was fired by ABC executives and that it was over Frank Valentini's head.

If such an interview happened don’t you think it would have already been posted here? And like all rumors, they could then say it hasn’t come out yet. And if an interview does come out and he is not trashing GH those same sources come back with his team got that cut out because blah blah blah. And anything not totally kissing GH’s ass will be seen by fans as trashing.

Also- what does trashed mean? If he was interviewed and said the show was timid at best about a mixed couple, kept starting and stopping the story, and he felt like his acting was suffering under the daytime grind and the fearful storytelling…some might say that’s trashing and as a longtime viewer and lover of GH I would say that’s probably telling it like it was.

A young couple on GH was getting actual attention with both Trina’s and the show ran away from it for the most part. Once upon a time they would have worked the two of them to death for every second of their contracts. Even with todays soap climate, two newbies going over their guarantees is nothing budget wise compared to MB doing it. When Oscar died we saw all of Joss grieving. We’ve seen little of Trina.

And as far as Roger goes- it wasn’t working. For some of us it hadn’t been working since Franco. But Austin was a failure and something had to be done. I think the days of Frank waiting for a few months and then finding another role for him are over at ABC, and I think that is more FV’s fault than anything Roger did.

21 minutes ago, Jdee43 said:

Didn't it turn out that it was Scott who killed Rick? How is it that Laura still has anything to do with Scott after that? Or that Scott never paid for his crime?  It was such a stupid twist, for a C-level story that the show didn't seem that much invested in, that I guess it's not surprising that everyone acts like that never happened.  

At the time it was pretty major. It gave Lulu a mission to clear her mother’s name, and removed the stain of Laura having killed Rick. But it should not have been Scotty. Really the whole thing should not have happened.

I would kill for Scotty to do something awful and have Laura rip him to shreds. He is well past the shelf life of being a jerk because she broke his heart. And I like scoundrel Scotty, I just think she should call him out.

The audience and Laura missed out on so much important storytelling when Laura was recovering. I think it would have been meaningful to watch Laura pick up the pieces of her life and rebuild her mental health. We saw all her breakdowns and traumas. It was a real missed opportunity.

I prefer the real Lucy any day to a watered down version. Even Duck Lucy had an edge as she was exploring being less selfish. See all her interactions with Katherine Bell, Bobbie post Damian reveal, Damian himself, and her at times antagonistic relationship with the Q’s about her ELQ stock. Plus her competitiveness about Deception is truly in character.

And I like Sasha, but she could go any day and I would not think about her again due to terrible writing from day 1. What did Lucy say that was so awful? They asked her to speak her mind when she was trying to be diplomatic, then got pissed that she told the truth about Sasha’s Mime photo shoot.

The truth is that a company like Deception would not have a single model for their brand, and certainly not such a bland one. Maxie, Cody, and Brook Lynn overreacted! And if Cody doesn’t want to be the resident himbo what are we doing here? Once upon a time a character like that would be surrounded by hay and shirtless working in the stables.

The number one thing that this show needs is some heat. We can have plenty of sweet, romantic love that is sexy. They also need something illicit and seedy too. It’s all still bland. Deception is a perfect place to bring this out- even the name is sexy.

Romance had been a huge genre once again in books thanks to book tok, and every tv show that leans into it. If these soaps got some consistent romances cooking again, especially the yearning aspect, the audience is there.

About the Webber conversation- I can see at her core if Laura doesn’t feel like calling herself a Spencer, it would be Webber. She loved Rick enough that even without seeing him in years she went into a catatonic state just thinking she killed him. And if you told me Heather still kissed a photo of Jeff at night I would absolutely buy that.

14 minutes ago, Vee said:

True, but there was still an awkward link there, much as there is now. And I suspect the idea here is Heather would become Laura's kooky talk-to. Whether I can get behind that remains to be seen, but it would definitely be something new for both.

I am not opposed to Heather being closer to her 80’s personality. I know she was supposed to have killed Diana Taylor and Monty decided to change that and keep her because she liked what Mattson was doing. She became a victim in my mind of the extremes of Guza/Pratt and later RC, everything had to be darker and also zanier with her, so now she’s a killer.

I have less issue with walking back Heather than I did with Rick’s terrible storyline under Guza/Pratt. Or being forced to watch Frank’s buddies in multiple roles. Or Lulu being forced to have a child with weepy Valentine. I have room to forgive this.

As far as the teens go- we haven’t seen anything really yet. What they have been doing is trying to give each one of those boys an identifiable personality to build on.

I’m actually surprised so many people posting seem to think the show was just magically going to be good. It’s going to take a minute to see what the new normal is going to look like.

3 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Laura is the resident enabler for characters they want to rehab.

I understood Esme more than Heather. With Esme you had a Cassadine trying to steal her kid, and that tugged at Laura’s deepest trauma. Plus she was upset at Nikolas and his crimes, and Spencer’s behavior. Add to that her own past at an even younger age having killed David Hamilton and gotten herself into lots of trouble- I could see that. Plus she wanted access to Ace. Not to mention being related to Kevin.

Heather I am having a harder time with. Sympathy sure- but not being reduced to Heather’s talk to. And I have watched a lot of the show on YouTube from Heather’s 70’s era past. They were not close. She was much closer to Monica than Heather, both before and after the Rick affair is revealed.

I appreciate Willow’s reaction and her conversation with Michael. It’s nice to have characters react to the Jason/Sonny disruption to their lives and acknowledge potential consequences for helping.

Not to mention even something as seemingly little as those meds is being used. They are covering beats that would be glossed over and it reminds me so much of classic soap storytelling. Things aren’t as tight as they could be, but it’s early days. And we know there was at least some scramble to get the Jason story going, so they were under the gun.

I didn’t even fast forward the Drew/Nina scenes. I wouldn’t miss them if they left the show, but I at least was interested enough to watch them. Watros is killing it as snarky Nina with some edge though. 

3 minutes ago, John said:

Brenda only VM can agree to at least a 2 year deal. These fly in and exit arcs, no thx. 

Oh absolutely. I would offer two years or nothing, unless it’s to whisk Sonny off the show. In truth, I would think she might enjoy the current shooting schedule- they have dark weeks every quarter, and even the stars that are used often have more time off because of how they shoot the scenes.

11 minutes ago, John said:

I wonder if this Heather story will reintroduce Steven Lars?

I would imagine after Burton there will be a  stabilization period before we get any more major additions.

By the summer I think we will know what actors/characters are being invested in, and any big exits.

My hope will always be bringing in Laura’s family first- Lulu and or Lucky. Or Brenda.

I appreciate the words from Anna, but my issue is now what? Maurice isn’t leaving the show, and Anna isn’t a punk. I don’t want her reduced to what they did to Mac in the late 90’s-2000’s. If Anna Devane wanted to dismantle Sonny and they treated the characters in the writing equally, he would be in trouble. 

Whomever the mastermind is right now in the mob story- Framing Sonny for killing Dex would be a fantastic way to keep the momentum going, and continue to pit characters against each other in organic ways. The guilt and torn loyalty of Michael and Carly, Joss being devastated, Anna being conflicted for not acting… this would be great drama.