Vee

What is the tape to air lag time at GH now? A month, two? I can't recall offhand. Not that FV has not pre-taped stuff and then slotted it in sometimes way ahead of when it's expected to air. (He did it with Roger Howarth at OLTL in 2011 as soon as they got him back, among other cases)

I think Cody is full of potential, but they seem to have steadily squandered it. I won't be shocked if nothing comes of him or he vanishes too. I would've been down for them to do more with T.J. back in the TR days, but by the time of the recast he was already a non-entity. Bellow did a good job but there's very rarely been a character there, just an excuse to say they have the couple around. And meanwhile I'd much rather just bring Tom Hardy Jr. lol.

T.J. and Molly both should have been dumped years ago. T.J. was barely a character even when the great Tequan Richmond was in the role.

Pretty much.

I don't think the EGOT thing was necessary and I get the issue, but I also think it's pretty small potatoes to get bent out of shape over given what we routinely put up with on soaps for over 50 years. It's not like this show is aiming to be a gritty kitchen sink drama, let alone Ryan's Hope. Even Labine and MVJ's GH was populated by characters like Luke Spencer, the rapist turned town mayor and American hero who once saved the world from being frozen by a superpowered weather machine. By comparison Anita going EGOT under ropey circumstances is just not that serious.

BTG on its worst day is nowhere near as boring as Y&R.

Britt stole Rocco! Just clarifying again.

Cody and Molly are insanely forced and artificial. The Molly recast has always been mid at best but it literally feels like Slot Introvert Character A into Tab Available Rogue B. It's just a time-filler with two characters who can't sustain a real storyline, and I say that as someone who likes Cody a lot. He needs someone like Tracy or Ava to shine, and Molly needs to leave for at least a few years so we can miss the character beyond years of just being there. Kristina - I got nothing. The character is burnt beyond recognition and needs to either crash out and go full dark for awhile or get gone. Kate Mansi is very talented and could do great on the show but has been put in a terrible position with story after story. It's another instance where they seem to expect us to implicitly rubberstamp her repeat behavior (a la Sonny) because she's a major get from another soap.

Yep.

There is a lot of great info in there, including about the writing changes.

I think if they wanted to redeem Drew or not do this story they would've dumped it much earlier, as they began undoing all sorts of choices PM had made days after he left. They were also actually the ones responsible for turning Drew into a full on antagonist and villain; under PM he was just a politically-minded cad. I am pleased they haven't killed him off yet since he makes a good villain, but they often seem allergic to longer or more organic drama vs. outside rotating villains like Sidwell, Cyrus, Shiloh, Wes Ramsey and now probably Daniel Goddard's character. I wonder if losing SM means they want to start working back towards Michael and a redeemed Willow, but I sincerely hope not as that would be deeply boring. Until the last year Willow has never been remotely interesting, and now she's one of the central attractions on the show. I keep expecting them to waste Drew and do a whodunit and still kind of expect that now, but the fact they still haven't yet makes me wonder if they really will. Still, the best move here IMO was to keep the pairing going, even after Willow learned the truth. In other news, Britt looks matronly and tying her to Goddard and the WSB story ensures I can have even less interest in all of them.

Holly Gagnier always seemed like a very random choice to bring in to play that part as a suddenly svelte, restrained Jennifer Smith who seemed much more mundane post-Roseanne/Struthers. I figured that was a creative choice by FV/RC preferring the original take on the character from 1980, and always assumed at the time HG and FV knew each other going way back to the Paul Rauch days at OLTL and he was doing her a favor. But clearly she was doing him one as Fenn backed out and Gagnier has apparently become a very in-demand acting coach/agent/whatever, including for several GH stars. Sherilyn would've been a much better eccentric choice, again with some primetime stature like the last two actors in the role. But DRW is right that the writing for Jennifer was pretty lousy in those couple days.

A last minute replacement for Jennifer on GH in that terrible story in 2015?? Wow. @DRW50 should hear that one.

It also wasn't nearly as long or dramatic enough a crashout vs. when Willow lost the kids. You needed to maximize this, but instead she's immediately off and back to Carly's to see Michael. My biggest fear is they will now try to clean Willow up and re-pair her with Michael, but I suspect that for the moment he will reject her and she will spiral further into madness. Which is fine, but has a more limited shelf life as opposed to Willow marrying Drew and then beginning to turn the screws on him while also still scheming against Michael, etc.

I still find June herself to be an embarrassing, community theater pop-eyed cartoon a lot of the time. But I think the story of this unhoused woman secretly being the kids' mother is a solid story angle. It comes down to how it's handled.

That's not what I said. But it was obvious months ago she was tied to the kids. That's all I'm pointing out.

It's Ric and Ava with the reaction shot of the day, one which given the state of daytime I may make much use of in future.

There you have it. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to solve this one.

It's too soon to be sure but I hope this isn't another case of GH taking the quickest route out of long-term drama. I would absolutely not have ended the Drew/Willow relationship here, I would've had her marry him. This entire scandalous saga is the only really strong story on the show.

IIRC the kids were originally meant to be small children but they aged them up to play them in teen drama. I think that was a mistake. You easily could've introduced a Samantha-like character as a cousin or something.

Alegria is like a Disney animatronic. C'mon y'all.

No, I still think Alegria is considerably worse.

Alex Alegria is quite easily the worst actor on the show. It's not close.

It really is stupendous.

Wait, they've all been trapped in this Shining maze/estate for a month?? It's like the AMC dance contest!