Vee

I remember a lot. But I have more patience for the Sonny/Carly saga (or later Robin, or Brenda and Jax and Jax/Alexis/Ned/Chloe) that unfolded than you do. I still think some of those scenes between Maurice and Sarah are immortal. Even the messy stuff where Guza and Riche were feuding over bus advertisement couples had a lot of standout material day to day. It was Stefan and Laura's early promise from '96 that they really fumbled later, but I think there were a lot of reasons for that. I said it when Mulcahey was back (as he wrote a lot of it) but it's the earlier stuff in '96 I think GH would be terrified to touch today - the casual, very candid sex between Jason and Carly when they first met, and IIRC the initial lack of understanding by the neophyte, brain-damaged Jason that sleeping with Carly would invalidate his budding romance with Robin where they couldn't be sexually intimate. Maybe I am misremembering it but I think that was the dynamic I recall early on.

I watched the show too. I didn't have to go back and watch Labine to learn after the fact, I was there in the first place. Guza has plenty of sins but no one helped erode Luke (during and after Guza) more than Tony Geary.

Guza's writing staff (partly inherited from Labine, like MVJ) as well as his own work on the day to day often kept the show afloat daily in some absolutely wretched years all the way up to his exit in 2011. At its worst (and there was a lot of worst) you could still have literate, layered scenes to watch anchored by great acting that was at times still given room to breathe in longer scenes. That ended with FV and RC and the larger purge of the dialogue staff. Yes, the show got lighter, more adventurous and broke the back of the mob (for awhile) and did many fun things that helped save the show from the axe in 2012, but the dialogue and character work went to the dogs and has largely stayed there since. That was Labine, yes. But that all happened over the winter of '95/'96 IIRC. I think she was out in March or April.

As I've said before, I am cautiously optimistic about Guza here. In their best days and even some of their worst, his team (which MVJ was a key part of for years) understood propulsive storytelling, intricate dialogue and character work, and even on a crass level pushing the envelope in terms of getting eyes on a show when it was needed during sweeps. BTG will need that, as opposed to the somnambulant pace of modern Y&R, late ATWT/GL and whatever the hell it is B&B does daily for decades. Moreover, MVJ came up under Labine as well and above all this is her show, not his. Guza has many vices and flaws but I won't lie and say don't I wish a bit more of him and his team were still in the mix at GH in the last decade. MVJ and others who worked for him have long defended elements of what happened in his 2000s run at GH, claiming certain choices weren't his fault or that he wanted to do more, etc. I've always taken many of those chummy stories with a grain of salt, though I'm sure Frons and other factors were in the mix. But now's his chance to prove himself again beyond the all-consuming obsession with the mob and the misogynistic, cable-envy flavor of many of his later lowlights. In the post-prestige TV era we're in now, where everything that used to be rarefied and mature is now commonplace and often cliche, maybe he's learned something with the time away. I have heaps of criticisms for Bob Guza, but I do think he knows how to deliver harder-hitting drama and character work than most of the skeleton crews left in current daytime. So, with MVJ still steering the ship and in control, I am willing to let him cook with her. I think very little of that was the Labines, AFAIK anyway. Carly was a character concept on paper but according to everyone involved (including Labine, I believe) it was Guza's team that fleshed it out past maybe the first few days. Jax was intended as a romantic spoiler for Ned and Lois when Labine left. The rest is all Guza.

Being deep in a revisit of GH in the mid-90s (specifically, '95) makes it that much more depressing. I am not prepared to throw in the towel on VH yet because it seems clear Carnes is not coming back any time soon, but woof this has been all over the shop already. Not that the writing or direction helps at all.

The problem with Willow and Drew is not that it finally happened (after far too much dithering post-Mulcahey), it's that in the moment that it did it made zero sense. As I said before: Willow recommits herself to her husband and takes Michael to bed while proclaiming her brief infatuation and couple kisses with Drew were a terrible mistake. The next day, Sam dies and Willow initiates sex with a grieving Drew in her baby's nursery. Huh?? Willow doesn't know Michael slept with Sasha and as far as she knows he's been totally forgiving. There was no rift, no impetus for her to 180 in less than 24-48 hours, and none of the writing since summer has built up any kind of intense enough sexual obsession between Willow and Drew that would make either of them completely flip and throw caution to the wind. She just comes off psychotic. So doing it this way, with her taking Michael and Drew to bed in rapid succession, feels like little more than a very mechanical, plot-driven timeline setup for yet another pregnancy/WTD story. Which is of course GH's M.O. - more babies, babies, babies to kill as many annual hours as possible and fill time. It worked with the surrogacy and they'll just keep doing it. I don't care about Kai and Trina so far because the scenes feel very artificially forced, the same old 'antagonism to attraction' setup we've seen a thousand times. I think not putting her with either Gio or more importantly the rumored new Quartermaine character that may have been dumped smack of keeping her in a box with a C-player, where GH would prefer she stay. I have little faith these two will not end up the new Bryan and Claudia. But we'll see. As for Isaiah I honestly think he has the most chemistry with Lucas even though Van Hansis' performances so far are uh, variable at best. While Vaganos has given some good performances I don't really care about the latest Molly or Brennan and I never will; I think Molly needs a long break from the show and I don't care about this dayplayer they've foisted on Carly to give her something to do. But that's all my personal taste. I think it was Shelly Altman who was recently quoted saying either the network or the show was very paranoid about writing anything re: little Aiden being gay a few years ago (and wouldn't even allow Julian to take on a white supremacist prison gang when he was incarcerated - a far cry from the very hokey but weirdly prescient One Pure People online Nazi storyline FV told at OLTL in the 2000s). And we know they allegedly cut scenes in the spring under Mulcahey where the teenage Aiden played by the previous actor would come out to Laura. I am pretty sure they're only going there at all now that they have an actor who is of age, to deflect any potential attacks from the usual hate groups. I think that caution and sanitized storytelling is only going to get far worse over the next four years.

Exhibit A: The definition of "Dig Up". I have blessedly had Donna blocked for ages, but the fact that she's still allowed to post here after what happened with a certain recent tragedy amazes me.

This is what I said would happen a few days ago. They won't run a lot of the character material onscreen for key stories beyond a scene or two because Frank is too busy playing Russian Roulette with everyone's guarantees and the block taping, as always. So you get an intro to Lucky and Aiden reconnecting and then a ton of it will be offscreen for weeks or months while people just talk about it in passing. It's what he's done (and Ron in the past did) with character development for years. The show continues to have many elements that could be great if watered to the right potential, and many that are beyond stale and should've been purged years ago. (And it's a wild contrast to viewing the key transitional period in 1991 to Linda Gottlieb's OLTL, where they slaughtered the cast like it was the French Revolution.) It's depressing to see it right back in the same old rut of strangled potential and storytelling that vacillates by the week between go-nowhere and furiously frenetic, speedrunning past any potential drama. I'm watching for the Spencers atm, but I skip past a lot of the Sasha Saga, etc. And I just don't have any time for half the cast anymore, including Fake Shemp Molly and T.J. or the wreck they've once again made of Kristina. Ava also appears to be doing nothing but flirting with Ric and gabbing with Nina every other Tuesday. And the less said about poor LW's onscreen prospects (and wardrobe), the better.

We'll see. I think too many voters still huff MSNBC as their lifeline, and that's not a solution. What is going to be needed is something bigger. We need to flush a lot of the norm-loving Get-Along Gang inside the party and most of all finally, finally start investing in new actually liberal media platforms a la Fox. We've been decades behind on the media war for a long time now and it's wrought a generation of more bigoted, more misogynistic and more intellectually lazy or reactionary youth, along with making many of the rest of us dumber as well. Too many Dems hate promoting liberal policy achievements, love to preach bipartisanship and then still go hat in hand to Beltway media expecting fair play and honest reportage like these are the days of Tip O'Neill. They're not. The only way through is to revolutionize how we operate to promote ourselves to the public, and stop being bullied by either extreme flank. And while I understand that making the sausage and grinding out the hard work will always be important and it will always be a big tent, I'm done with the institutionalists in the party who don't want to rock the boat with media or systemically inside Congress. We tried it their way and we're staring down the barrel of Germany in the '30s: Now with TikTok.

Yeah, I'm tuned out. It's going to be a Batman Rogues' Gallery so I expect only the worst, and if some flame out great.

God, who cares.

No. They've barely ever (if at all) acknowledged Lucky and Sam were a thing since Jonathan returned to the role.

I do think there were a lot of plans percolating over Gio early on - the constant mentions of his being an orphan, of his secret dead hero dad, etc. I suspect there was some creative tug of war over the character, over maybe testing him with Joss instead of Trina, etc. and then once Mulcahey was gone they seemed to toss most of it period and move on to other things. Their attention span seems extremely erratic even for this team lately. I can't tell if they've actually dropped or even concluded the Wagger saga. I do wonder if the Dante/BLQ secret child hints around Gio will actually return, which wouldn't shock me though I'd hate that for all of them. Me too, at this point. She also initiated the sex, not him.

There were rumors at the time that a fight with Joss would lead to Kristina miscarrying. It would've been an ideal and organic way to go but of course didn't happen. I do believe there were plans for Gio and Trina initially, and IIRC he was specifically promoted as a new man for Trina at one point (I think) and indicated some interest in her early on onscreen, but that all died on the vine and then got scrapped once Mulcahey was gone. Of course we don't know whose idea the character was anyway - I think he may have been another of those random separate auditions Frank liked and decided to make a character for, but don't quote me. (Which is a common soap opera practice to be fair, but FV has enough characters as is.) I still think in hindsight they should've simply recast Spencer immediately which would've kept the show (and PM) in a stronger position in the spring, and I think Giovanni Mazza might've been capable of it. But we'll never know now, and I think keeping Sprina out of commission suits both FV and the network's preferences. I do think Drew is genuinely mourning Sam. I just think it's played poorly by both Cameron and the writing.

It's depressing that even DAYS has changed creative hands but at GH Frank's crew has an iron grip.

The only long-form story they plan for anymore is pregnancies. Hence the endless surrogacy. It kills months of airtime and fills space. The entire Scorpio thing feels like it has only two real purposes: Write out Tristan and make the R/H shipper on staff happy, and above all provide an excuse to keep Sofia Mattsson employed after her near-firing during Mulcahey's tenure. Did anyone even find out the truth about Wagger? And then there's the Pikeman thing. I am still baffled by how we are supposed to accept that (IIRC) Brennan was in fact Pikeman or one of the two heads, but managed to get off scot-free by claiming he was merely 'undercover for the WSB' (which I think Anna has said was a crock and a cover story on his part, unless I am wrong) and now he's just a roguish romantic prospect for Carly.

It does make me wonder if they're wrapping it up somehow. Willow has spent forever claiming it was all a huge mistake and now she's immediately banging him. Understand, I am far from against them finally fúcking. But there were ways to do that kind of night of passion right and build it up quickly even now - maybe Michael turns horribly verbally abusive, maybe she learns he's been with Sasha or thinks he's serving her with divorce papers - but the total 180 she did from the night before where she sleeps with her husband and vows Drew is in the past to fúcking him in the nursery, with no real call to cheat on Michael in her mind, is just deranged. To be clear, beyond the scandalousness of this Drew story Sasha and Willow can both go into the farm thresher for me. I think they are both useless and totally overstayed on the show long-term. But if Sasha wants to embrace her inner schemer with her parents' latest abandonment and bleed Michael for all he's worth for awhile, sure, I can allow that as an exit story for both. I also think it might as well be time for Who Killed Drew Q? It's clear no one is committed to developing the character (or Nina) in an interesting way post-Mulcahey.

I don't love the idea of ruining that male friendship, and again I'm more into Cody and Tracy. It feels like a waste of time to me, but if the options are Lulu or Sasha then yes, I'll take Lulu.

Lulu?

Nina is now barely on, so that checks out. Whereas with Mulcahey the focus was clearly on those three (and Drew and Nina's hate sex/power playing moving towards romance), now Nina is the afterthought and the actual story for Willow and Drew is largely a series of hollow plot mechanics. It made zero sense for Willow to fúck Drew when she did, a few mere hours after she re-dedicated herself to Michael and resolved to put the kiss with Drew behind her, with zero knowledge that he'd slept with Sasha. A day later, maybe less, Sam is dead and she decides to bang Drew in her infant's nursery. It felt like they wanted Event A (Willow and Drew having sex) to happen but weren't ready for Event B (anyone knowing what Michael did) to occur, so they just shrugged and did it anyway. But in this instance, without having a deep enough romantic connection or at least sexual obsession established between her and Drew, it makes Willow come off totally schizophrenic and insane. God knows I blame plenty of things on Frank's whims but again I don't think Lucky's return is a big conspiracy. I think the show is purely and simply that inept on plotting returns and story (and Jason's showed this - it was on ice forever due to the same block scheduling and probably creative turmoil) and working with the relentless block taping chaos that leaves key story and characters plate-spinning for weeks and months while they rotate some in and some out to save cash. I do not think FV is prepared to stick his neck out to sabotage Jonathan Jackson's return if it came from the network. I am convinced Heather and Violet will be back soon enough. Frank never lets go. They did have Alley Mills' last(?) scene, I think, whispering creepily in the obviously unnerved Ace's ear "I'll be baaaaackkk!" You can play that beat ambiguous and still have it turn out she's harmless and happy in Sedona, but they clearly wanted to leave the audience guessing/suspicious.

Finally.

I'm aware. Still, Duplaix as a grandmother with fully grown adult married professional children is a hard one to swallow for me.

I still don't understand some of these TV Line character bios. Do they expect me to believe Daphnee Duplaix's character has not only grown children but teenage grandchildren??

Nothing I could say about Trina and the new guy would be fair or appropriate other than to say I wish they'd cast the Black Quartermaine character that was rumored during PM's run instead. Do I find it surprising that the male of color who has appeared instead is a random newbie with no real ties, summoning the spectre of Bryan and Claudia? No. As for Gio and Trina, I'll just say again that poor GM has a) a very nice body they seem intent on hiding and b) a character with the personality of amiable tofu, and he could be and do more. Am I surprised they didn't let her near him romantically after all? No.

It's just the FV way of block taping that shortchanges any coherent storytelling or throughlines. It's been getting worse since the end of OLTL.