titan1978

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.

1 hour ago, BetterForgotten said:

I love Jane Elliott, and I would be very sad if GH loses her again. 

She apparently found retirement boring, and missed the camaraderie of the cast/crew. The GH cast seems to be pretty tight, especially the vets.

About Joss- I guess I don’t see her reaction as all that far fetched. When you consider her entire life she’s heard Sonny was in the mob, and Jason and Carly have glossed over the worst parts of that. They all know the danger, but I can easily see her idolizing her mother enough to believe Carly would not have been his defender this long if he was as bad as he is. The show and those three have painted him as the good guy for decades. These are people that thought The Quartermaines were terrible compared to Sonny.

In her mind she’s probably thinking sure, I’ve been shot at. But those people being killed was justified. All of them were justified because they were dangerous to Sonny’s extended family and were going after his territory. Asking Dex to eliminate someone she described as a helpless old man was too direct. Does she know about AJ? Or Alcazar? Both of those were cold blooded.

If this leads to Joss continuing to question her mother’s morals and decisions I might actually root for her, and that is something I have never said in my life when it comes to Joss.

39 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Interesting.  I have never heard her podcast, but that all makes sense.  I am sure MB would talk about whatever she wanted to though.

It’s kind of heartbreaking. Her friend Suzanne was the co-host and you really get a feel for their close relationship, and then she has a reoccurrence of Breast Cancer and sadly passed away from it. She was on GH as Brenda’s wedding planner if I remember correctly, they met on Vegas.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

I recall Vanessa saying she's been asked, but that she is trying to write a book about her life and once she is done with that she will go on his show.  That was a few years ago though.

Just going off her half told stories, it seems to me like she hasn’t fully gone there in deference to her son. I know she has been vocal but not gone too in depth with her decades long custody fight with BAG in the past, and her son has an on/off relationship with him. Her podcast was the first time I really heard anything about it from her perspective. And truthfully, her son makes me believe her side of things- he’s clearly closer with her and also clearly wants some kind of relationship with his father. It’s a terrible situation.

And she never brings up her divorce from the actor from CSI New York.

9 minutes ago, John said:

YES

The scenes are longer

Dialogue is smarter

It’s not just smarter, it feels specific and purposeful. And this is just the beginning. One of my main complaints for years was how generic the scripts were. It’s a good sign.

I would like to see if Mulcahey and Korte can continue to mentor some of these newer writers and let’s see if they have something. They haven’t really been given a chance to write more than the basics.

Dan & Chris and their team wrote the show Frank wanted them to write- easy to chop up in editing and generic. I think they had several good ideas that never got a good shot because of the way the show is produced. Even if they had years of airtime, they were so generic it didn’t amount to anything (the return of Ryan Chamberlain for one). Several OLTL actors (HBS and Woods were two of them) complained of this style back when their show was still airing. Everything easy to chop up in the editing process and form shows that way. It’s pretty clear that has been happening at GH especially under C&D. So I’m excited to see these longer scenes with character specificity already- and they have barely begun!

There are many interesting episodes, and sometimes it does become more about him than the guest. He’s very emotional at times, and the stories people tell are moving.

The one with Lesley Charleson was interesting, she opened up about her family and mental illness, and I had not heard any of that before.

They are not all sad though-  he is a little obsessed with the 80’s on GH and how much drugs were just around. He asks all those older GH actors about it. He also seems to geek out a bit when it comes to those performers, admitting that he was intimidated because he watched the show during the Luke & Laura days.

I don’t think Vanessa will appear until she feels comfortable talking publicly about her custody issues with BAG and her abusive marriage before her current husband on a large scale on camera.

I wouldn’t mind Heather being restored to a semblance of the character she was. It feels more like classic GH to me when we have a big bad for an umbrella storyline, and then a couple of smaller scale schemers that aren’t as evil per se. Characters like Tracy, Lucy, Scotty, Katherine, og Heather, even Nina.

We know from Genie and Tony (back then at least), that ABC was considering Luke without Laura, as opposed to Laura without Luke. He was the one that insisted he wouldn’t play Luke again without her, and they tried to force it by letting her go at AMC. It’s another in a long line of ABC thinking Luke is the draw.

As far as Labine, I have read stuff from back then in old soap mags and more recent interviews that ABC knew GH was in pieces after Monty was removed, and it was going to take time to rebuild the show. Nobody left was a lead in the same sense as Tristan or Finola (Bill wasn’t working), so they had to reshape the show. It had been star driven for over a decade at that point. And what Richie wanted to do needed the right person writing.

Even with Labine that was an experiment, she had never done an hour show before. That’s why GH scenes ran so long in her first year, she was filling them with dialogue and had decided on longer format scenes and a hybrid structure between what she was used to at 1/2 hour and the traditional structure of an hour soap.
 

And I think of all the star characters to lure back to GH at that time Luke and Laura were the right ones. They had that Marland/PFS foundation grounded in reality that later characters did not have. It fit the tone better.

7 hours ago, Vee said:

They have been using old cues Frank brought over from OLTL dating back to the 2000s. It's tiring hearing them over and over.

I was not a fan of a lot of JFP’s score either. She insisted that the theme music cue be utilized in the score, and it didn’t work for me. There was a lot of great music during Riche. Especially for sinister characters or mystery elements. 
 

14 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

I hope PM/Korte end the Robert/Diane sh*t, and back burner CH where she belongs 

My one big fear is that some of the vets that came back will just drift away. I could go either way with Robert as long as Anna is still there. But I don’t want to lose Felicia or Lucy again.

Diane can go back to smart ass lawyer though, nothing more needed.

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

Of course lol!  I am sure it was only because ASJ and CS were leaving, but the way Brenda/Karen make up is just a little too convenient for me.  They asked her to be a bridesmaid in their wedding!  No one would do that in real life.  It's fine and good and I don't actually have a problem with it, but it was the moment you knew Brenda as a character was going in a young heroine direction.  All is forgiven!

That was pretty wild. Soaps do stuff like that all the time and it’s always a head scratcher.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

Hannah was definitely FBI.  They used the fact that she looked like Brenda to try to infiltrate Sonny's business.

Brenda definitely moves away from just straight torturing Karen and does seem to feel bad about it.  I never thought about her playing against the writing, but I do remember when she finds out Karen was abused and she feels awful.   After that Brenda actually works to help Karen/Jagger with the Sonny stuff and just changes the character a lot.  Her becoming good friends with Karen is a bit too tidy of an ending, but I don't think Karen ever could prove Brenda did half the stuff she did and Karen's pretty forgiving lol.

Well if she could forgive Sonny, Brenda pales.

1 minute ago, Khan said:

IMO, there's more drama and conflict to be had with Liz, as a single mom of three boys/young men, finding love with someone who isn't already one of her baby daddies.  

I agree 1000%

Give this woman an attractive actor that can act, and let’s get on with it. No Finn.

We should all be so lucky that Sonny didn’t go after her.

Back in the day the WSB wasn’t just a US agency. World Security Bureau. The FBI has been mentioned often.

I have no idea what DVX stands for though!

Labine said one of the first things she did was have Karen stop using and call Sonny out. She wanted Karen to have some agency.

As far as the re-introduction storyline, they toyed with a bone marrow transplant storyline but decided L&L’s return needed to be bigger than that, and involve some danger to create momentum. Tony Geary has claimed that he and his writing partner created the framework and Labine and team implemented/expanded on it. They ended up reusing the bone marrow idea for the return of the Cassadines.

About Vanessa Marcil- I also agree she grew a lot as an actor before she was paired with MB. As a matter of fact, I think Maurice improved by being paired up with Tony for the Frank Smith story. I was not of the opinion that he landed as amazing and everyone needed to learn from him.

Vanessa made specific choices during the Karen stripper story where she is supposed to be exposing her and yet she acts as if she feels badly about it, and has some concern for what is happening. I thought she was playing against the writing a little bit and it was noticeable to me, and I was a Karen fan back then. It was like all of a sudden she decided to have an inner thought process play out as Brenda, instead of mostly surface. And I also loved VM, still do. But moving her away from straight vixen did wonders for her.

Sonny hasn’t been the same since Nixon Falls. Maybe there is something to play there in regards to Jason. He is also mostly isolated except for Ava. Sonny isolated traditionally means he is on the verge of a breakdown/in one. Plus he is paranoid after Michael/Dex was revealed.

I don’t find it all that strange Sonny thinks something is up with Jason. Because Sonny at his Guza core is a selfish bastard that wants power more than anything. Not being in the know is a threat to his power. We have seen grandpa Sonny who is pretty mild for close to decade. Him being volatile and unreasonable is back to 2000’s basics for him.

What I am hopeful for is that other characters are allowed to be as strong as him, so that the show doesn’t slip back into Sopranos lite like it did when Sonny/Carly/Jason became the dominant characters.

25 minutes ago, j swift said:

Good point, and I never take your responses as mean spirited @carolineg .  I guess I was just thinking that Jason would have more salient (or recent) memories of Bobbie than from when Michael was a baby in 1997.  So, I was simply distracted that they chose that moment to highlight her loss, and we can chalk it up to a failed attempt at humor on my part.

Does Jason know that Brit's also dead?

It’s funny I just watched several episodes from when Bobbie was helping Jason with Michael after his heart surgery. She was invited to the christening, and the Q’s were not, which created friction between them. She even slips Monica in to see the baby while Jason is out. All of this was right before Carly told her she was Caroline.

Bobbie really was still central to a lot at that point.