Vee

No, my point is I don't think it's a problem for me as a viewer either way. It's a soap. Every rich family on soaps has questionable dealings at best (to say nothing of the current murder cover-up). I'm not going to be aggrieved at Vernon for lobbying on behalf of Newman the same way I would a real-life politician in bed with the NRA or AIPAC. We see Mayor Laura on GH cozy up to Sonny all the time. I don't love that but after 30 years of their relationship it doesn't destroy her character IMO. However they choose to portray Vernon's connection to Victor, it's just another character trait to me.

I agree with that. I just wish the realtor crap, being the buffoon at Deception and falling for any evil schmuck who comes to town would end.

I'm still annoyed about that given Ian Buchanan's talent. He was written as such a pathetic old sadsack, even if that may have been fairly true to life given what Duke had been through. If they somehow never find a new non-loser romance for Anna again (which I fully support them doing!) I'd admittedly be tempted to do what I once suspected RC might've done eventually - bring Duke back one more time, except I'd probably write him much more eccentric and fun after the hell's he already endured, and he would probably be way too close to IB's roles on Twin Peaks or On the Air vs. the actual GH character lol.

Lynn auditioning for Felicia is crazy.

Kevin remains Lucy's true love. I don't think Scott and Lucy have had it since he left in '93. The stuff since the 21st century has been particularly weak. I wish they'd at least stop making Lucy moonlight as the town realtor. She is now the CEO of a global conglomerate again. She should not be out selling houses on the side! Erica Kane's not doing that, it makes zero sense.

Buzz was a handsome older gentleman who had a lot of gravitas and charisma, but it was a fundamentally different sort of thing. I can't see Anna being stuck in a paternalistic relationship like that for long. It reminds me of more old fashioned soap pairings of an older, erudite man with a younger woman. Many of which worked for their time, but it's just not Anna.

Love this.

Soaps have always had to scramble with story any time an actor leaves or takes an out unexpectedly. That's not Steve controlling the writing in some new or unusual way, though he certainly did in certain ways in his prime 20 years ago. I doubt half the show or his storyline would be like this if he was in the driver's seat.

Doesn't bother me. It's a soap opera. Anything that makes the Duprees less saintly is good for drama at this point, as opposed to more endless scenes telling us how wonderful they are.

The movie was uh, messy but Susan and Matt Bomer were quite good. I also had a minor out of body experience when little Cary Christopher's scene was devoted largely to dropping the F-bomb with Martin Scorsese.

Molly and T.J. were rarely seen much from 2014-15 until the surrogacy story began in mid-late '23. They were nobodies. The reason being that when Frank and Ron first arrived in 2012 they tried very hard initially to find a new teen Starr Manning type fitting her mold from OLTL for youth stories, to chase that youth demo. That's where Molly came in. Frank pushed hard to showcase Haley Pullos' teen Molly and turn her into Starr II with his chosen new guy for her, Silas Clay's twink nephew Rafe Kovich Jr., the son of Caleb and Alison from Port Charles. The kid playing Rafe couldn't really act and nobody cared about him so the hard sell with them flopped, but at the same time FV and RC were trying to smear Tequan Richmond's T.J. to kill that relationship - he was acting out, getting drunk with Felix's mischievous niece or sister or whatever and being a wild teen. It was bad optics for a young Black boy to be made to look unruly and out of control while the two white kids were being shined up in 2013, let alone today but Frank and Ron were not exactly racially sensitive. Anyway, it didn't work. Rafe was killed off and with his attempt to make Molly and Rafe into Starr and Cole 2.0 having flopped FV pretty much exiled Molly and T.J. to the eternal backburner for the better part of another decade. (That's when he discovered Eden McCoy and began trying to make Joss into Starr instead.) After that they very rarely had any story. And I lost interest in T.J. entirely once Tequan Richmond was gone to better things. Tahj Bellow was okay but it was always a character that had very little grounding to me vs. other young men of color you could bring on with less tedious history. And Molly needs a long break from the canvas - Kristen Vaganos is bland and boring to me. So that's why none of it registers to me. But I do think it's pretty tacky that they never gave T.J. a proper goodbye while subjecting us to more of Molly and Cody's Hallmark slop.

Malone came in with the winter storm in early '03, yes.

Trina used to be well-defined. Now they're just running out the clock. They could not be more relieved that Spencer is gone and it shows. I hate it, because she should be leading along with Emma and Gio. Period. The way Portia is handled screams them disliking Brook Kerr. Whereas whatsherface playing RoboJordan must be a sweetheart because they seem to love writing this bland nonsense for her day after day even though she can't act. But Jordan as a character has never once worked for me, even when the great Vinessa Antoine was there. She has always been a sketchy cipher whose only defining trait is getting in way too deep with her undercover marks. First Julian Jerome, now Sidwell. She enjoys it a little too much is all I'm saying!

I will give Ron Carlivati credit. Whatever Malone may have intended with Heart of a Lord before Roger Howarth left (by his own admission) as soon as humanly possible, RC managed to give it some sort of weight many years later. He tied in Victor's signet ring (which Todd took from "Victor" and became mysteriously fixated on in 2003 before Howarth's exit) and made it part of the conspiracy plotline in 2011 with the Two Todds, which also tied back to '03 - the ring had microfilm in it or something connected to Irene's spy organization. I appreciated that small touch in an otherwise very silly retcon story. I was ecstatic when Malone was rehired in late '02. I could not have been more excited, or more disappointed with the results. But looking back now, especially revisiting the early '90s, it's not hard for me personally to believe it's the same writer. The same gothic trappings, the same literary influences and stylistic elements, the same obsessions, the same love for fantasy episodes and old Hollywood interludes, the same tropes or archetypes (holy man, party girl) are all very evident in both runs. It's just that both the budget and the larger quality control of the scripts, storylines and in a number of key cases acting is way, way below the bar. Brian Frons' ABC micromanaging the show and what stories got told with who couldn't have helped either, and in fact actively hindered the show in a number of instances we know of. But Malone made his own bed as well. He also was reusing messy stuff he'd attempted at Another World, and possibly also his unsold 13 Bourbon Street pilot for Fox primetime (which we all still want to see). Still, as bad as it got Malone II was an undeniably creative, very volatile time. You had literally no idea what you were going to see from day to day, be it brilliant (rare), terrible or just plain ugly. And some character vignettes (like Kevin and Jen Rappaport bellying up to the same bar to trade war stories about Joey who they both screwed over, with Kevin flat-out telling Jen she was just a substitute for Kelly in Joey's life) were of a type we never got to see on the show again. Some reinventions or new ideas worked, many didn't. Some stories and concepts had good bones and terrible execution but there was always a lot of passion, however misguided. That was the story of that period, and it was succeeded by probably the darkest era in the show's history for me (Dena Higley, who I think added the weird 'Cristian is not Cristian no wait he is' twist - she came in in very late '04). As for Max and Gabrielle in 2001, what I was told is one of the actors explicitly (and quietly) asked to end it due to the howlingly bad reception from both the audience and the soap press. It's been so long that I can probably just say it but you might as well take a guess. I don't know if that's true but I couldn't blame anyone if so. I know Malone allegedly wanted to revisit them while re-pairing Bo and Nora, but neither got off the ground. Exterminating the Holdens was a Frons directive.