carolineg

I mean, I liked it back then and I still like it in a rewatch. As an adult now, I keep thinking why are all these intelligent, gorgeous ladies are obsessed with men who aren't that into them? And it seemed like a lot of men were in the middle of these triangles. Looking back it seems slightly misogynist. But then again, the main villian on the show was obsessed with forcing Malena to love him, so maybe not. I just can see it from a different perspective now that I am older and all of JER's triangles sort of followed the same formula. 2 good people, 1 psycho.

Sami has been shown to be incredibly smart, so okay, maybe she figured that medical stuff out. I'll allow that. Finding someone on the black market to kidnap your own sister? A little less likely. Marlena/Roman not immediately getting her massive amounts of help when they realize she kidnapped her own sister because she was "jealous"? Not stellar parenting... I don't know if I judge Sami more for raping Austin (I do) or the fact she thought Austin was the pinnacle of boyfriend material. I was a fan of the Austin/Carrie/Sami storyline back in the day. The one thing I couldn't stand about JER is all these women doing crazy, crazy things to hold on to men that didn't want them and were in love with someone else. Yeah, Peter did it with Jennifer, but it seemed to be almost completely female psycho focused in these triangles.

I felt like Sami was absolutely manipulating the situation. Yeah, Roman might divorce Marlena, but you think falsifying paternity tests and kidnapping was going to help. She went from troubled to criminal in 0 to 60. Plus, as a rape victim herself has she ever taken ownership of raping Austin?

I don't think the show explained it, but maybe the trauma of her mom dying, her dad having a new face, her mom coming back, the dad she thought was her dad her entire life not being her dad, and a new guy with the original face being her actual dad might have f*cked her up. Also, she was always sent away to Colorado for long periods. Plus, people liked Carrie better. And she had to watch her mom have sex with her non-dad on a conference table. It's traumatic I think. Not enough for the 25 years of bitching she's done about it but enough at the time.

Well, I think Wayne could have pulled it off as opposed to Drake playing John as bad. I totally think the motivation would be there for Roman with just the fact he was held captive for 7 years and a man took over his life with pretty much no questions asked lol. I think it's a very interesting idea, but JER/SA seemed to want to focus on the lovestory aspect moreso than the personal effect it had on Roman/John. The whole triangle/quad was practically dropped for a year, so I actually was surprised when they brought the John/Marlena relationship back. I do think the affair changed Marlena/Roman/John more than towels in the bathroom. It put a chink in John and especially Marlena's perfection that took her years to recover from. Because honestly they had sex twice and people acted like John/Marlena were meeting at the local Motel6 for years lol. Well, it's also annoying Marlena (and John to a lesser degree) let Sami manipulate them into keeping the affair a secret. I am not even sure why these two adults let Sami dictate their lives. And seriously, Roman let Sami treat Marlena like crap before and after he learned of the affair. He didn't nothing to help the situation at all and seem to enjoy Sami being horrible to her own mother.

There is definitely a way your scenario could have worked as well. I am not sure I would like Roman as a darker character though. It certainly would have helped the characters staying power to perhaps manipulate Marlena into staying with him knowing she was in love with John. More of a grey situation than truly villianous. I'd be pissed and resentful too if I were Roman. Roman was already looking bad with just his behavior before/during/after the affair, so why not? Carrie should have been more teamRoman, but CC had a long established relationship/chemistry with Drake as her father so it worked that they would just naturally be closer. They always had such a lovely relationship. Plus, I don't think that weird, bratty TM version of Carrie ever felt like she liked Roman or anyone lol. Obviously, the whole Sami stuff and seeing John/Marlena was just a plot point to make Sami evil. It was just a disservice to the viewers because 1. the Roman/Marlena timeline of raising them was so unclear-they were a 'family' maybe a year 2. There was very little onscreen bond established between AS/WN as father and daughter before the affair 3. I am not sure why it would be the end of the world for her if John/Marlena ended up together vs. Roman/Marlena. It wasn't like John was a weird stranger. He raised her as a single parent for years-which he never got much credit for. Like, the twins would have been orphans without him. 4. It really would have helped if Eric were around as well to maybe balance out Sami's obsession with Roman and make him closer to John. Anyhow, I have more praise than complaints over Sami's descent into bad girl, but it does seem like a bit of an overreaction given the history we watched onscreen.

Yeah there was some evil cartel at the time that Harlan and others were involved in. I think, among other things, they were doing some shady business with the Eckert's Cannery and that's why Bill killed Harlan. Ruining a decent romance with Julia at the time. Listen, the show was such a mess in that era it had a lot of problems. I agree JJY probably wasn't the best casting ever but I do think Mac found a decent niche for himself on the show after awhile. Wiki tells me he did Mac was piloting a plane that killed his parents and Robert's then fiancee, so you did not dream that up. He was also involved in that explosion with Miranda/Jax that was completely dropped when the show dumped Miranda.

I think Carrie was playing that role of being more attached to John than Roman, which makes sense since she was older and probably remembered things more clearly. It just very confusing because I guess we as the viewers are left to believe Roman did raise Sami for longer than we saw onscreen. Sami actually was pretty close to John when she was first SORAS'ed though. They were shown to have a pretty good relationship before the affair.

She acted like his new wife for a minute there. It was so icky. I have never been clear on the Roman/Marlena timeline of raising the twins because the show never clarified and it's weird with the SORASing, but how much time did Sami actually spend with Roman raising her? They were in Colorado for awhile too. We saw John raising those kids for years, so it's just strange she had such a strong attachment to Roman.

Okay, I can buy what your selling on this. It's much more well thought out than some of his backstories. Especially if John was low key evil and wanted Marlena for himself. Interesting....

Lol! I guess there are Mac haters out there. He really didn't have a defined purpose in the beginning but he settled into the show just being Uncle Mac/Police Commissioner/Owner of the Outback.

Lol, I am not an OG Possession fan. I am an early/first run JER fan, but if the show was going to do it again that was the time. Not now when Malena is like 75, but whatever.

The one thing I always thought about Stefano is that he was weirdly obsessive/protective of all his children. YMMV on the children stuff, but I definitely think they should be related in some way since it was such an elaborate, bizarre plan for him to brainwash John to make him into Roman, hope no one ever finds out, hope no one finds the real Roman, hope Marlena doesn't notice the difference, and just fingers crossed it works out lol. There is really no way at this point to make it all make sense.

It's very interesting to hear their stories. WR and SC must have really saw something in MB as it doesn't even seem like he auditioned. Clearly, they weren't wrong, but I have heard the Damian story before and I just can't imagine him as Damian.

Well, the show should have made John the real Roman after they ditched Wayne, but that ship has sailed since it would make Shawn/Belle cousins and Theresa and Brady as well. Making John Stefano's son seems like a lot to me. I can't imagine Stefano doing that to his own kid, but I had no problem with him being his illegitimate brother. There has to be a better reason for Stefano to have tortured John for so long and in such a complicated way. I am not buying he knew too much or whatever the story is now.

Haha! I am still confused as to why they hired a man who had such difficulty with an Australian accent to play an Australian. Early regimes did try with Mac. They let him drop the accent, he had a lot of love interests, was always involved in stories, but he lacked the charisma and excitement a true leading man needed. There is a definite place for Mac's type of character on soaps. He was a great friend, dad, lover, and a cop. I have always liked Mac. I honestly don't know if I have ever come across a GH fan that disliked/hated him or anything. I just doubt this is how the show envisioned the character when the cast him as Robert Freakin Scorpio's brother.

THIS. And then the two characters became redundant. There isn't anything to truly differentiate the two characters. They fill almost the exact same role on the canvas. The John backstories are crazy. I think him being an Alamain or related to Stefano were my two favorites. I am actually not sure why Days never just did a Jason/Drew twin story with Roman and John. Except everyone would be related. Drake's lasted because he's likable, charming, and has good chemistry with his costars. He's a horrible actor and wouldn't have lasted past 1993 if he didn't have better chemistry with Deidre than Wayne did and wasn't JER's fave.

I don't think Gerse would have had the chops for Will's later stories, but I don't recall him being awful at all. Listen, anything was better than those poor twins who played Will for years that never spoke lol. I am totally blanking on the kid that played him in between the twins and Gerse. Chelsea was created by JER (both times), so I believe Zach being killed off was his writing. I think everyone's million dollar question is how that SSK story was supposed to end. I guess we will never know. If we are being honest, this is actually when Marlena should have been repossesed.

Ron probably would have if he could have figured the original Tale of 2 Macs story out lol. All I remember is fake Mac was trying to kill Jax and it ended with Felicia getting married to real Mac lol. Such a weird story. What did happen to Sam/Spinelli's PI agency lol?

I remember hating those Kate/Sami fantasies. Some were mildly entertaining, but it just seemed like a pointless waste of airtime. I can't remember liking or disliking CG as Will. He was just there for me. Nothing special, but I do recall he wasn't very popular. The Jan/Nicole team up was odd, but they were entertaining together. You're right. Everything was so OTT that it was almost like JER was parodying himself.

I was going to say Sami/Lucas as well, but I don't remember loving it. They spent a lot of time making out really noisily. I don't know if it was an audio thing at that point, and it's a weird thing to remember, but AS and BD had some weird kissing scenes back then. I actually liked Shawn in a cage lol. So silly. Forgot about that but that was so Passions and just a rip off of his own previous Marlena in a cage story.

On the flip side, where do you think his second Days stint went wrong? Do you think it was the serial killer storyline? That is what most people say, but I honestly can't think of a story I did like during that time.

Agreed. It's very weird for him to have none of his own kids just because he's been on for so long. I watched every single day back then and I still could not explain that story to you. I think I actually read a recap of it recently and it still didn't make sense to me. I know it was scrapped early or changed, but the show never even tried with Mac again after that. Yeah, I think I misspoke. I forgot about the Anna AMC stuff so she gets a pass. And I know Robin was pissed about Robert, but I guess it still rubs me the wrong way. After all Robin went through as a teen Mac was the one who raised her while her parents were MIA. I guess my point is I don't think Robert is that much better than Frisco even if he's been back for a while now. But I get that's not really a popular opinion. When you put it like that I get it lol. I just assumed it was mostly water under the bridge for them at that point because they did a movie together and everything, but I can see how it would be awkward playing those particular characters. Honestly, I like Felicia/Mac doing investigations, but I miss the Outback. Can the show bring that back?

For sure. I always wished Mac had his own child. I know he raised all those kids as his own and I don't discount that, but it's a shame he never got his own bio kid. He's such a good dad. I think Mac/Felicia are a perfect pairing right now since they are mostly backburned and don't carry story. It's a nice pairing just not very riveting. I mean, I take it any day over Felicia/Luke or Felicia/Matt Ashford's weird, grossly sexual take on Tom Hardy.

That's a tough one for me. You make the best points, but I sometimes am like "YaY! Supercouple pairing" -ex. my hard attachment to Sonny and Brenda. It's not right for actual character progression, but nostalgia does get me everytime. I actually just enjoy current Days sometimes because they flashback to John/Kristen circa 1993-which I didn't even like or have much bond to. Felicia has been ruined since the Luke fiasco and Mac just takes her back. Felicia has never been one of my ride or die characters, so I definitely have a different take. I like her, but don't care about her in the way that I do about Brenda, Robin, Lucy, Sonny, Jax, Ned etc and I tend to find Mac the 'safe' choice for her. But, again, Mac/Felicia are the least of GH's problems. They are a nice couple and I want Uncle Mac to be happy,