Vee

They've brought back everyone else. It wouldn't shock me.

Remarkable how BLQ shows up down at the stables in what @Darn accurately describes as Scrooge McDuck pajamas. Ready to dive into that big pile of gold! You know Chase was in that bed last week sweating like “for the baby’s sake I hope these robes aren’t super absorbent 😓” These folks remain real casual all the time about eating right next to piles of horse dung. But if this was Y&R the horses would be kept in a) the ranch drawing room and b) drawn by the crew's children. Deeply annoyed the Gio thing appears to be legit - fInally they'd hired a cute young dude who isn’t needlessly related to everyone or giving attractive, viable younger adults under 50 more adult children that age them unnecessarily. Psych! Whether he turns out to be Dante or Cody's (something Darn posited, and I could see it) it is a huge mistake. I actually had thought Dante and BLQ was a solid screwball/straight man pairing at some point but thanks to this, no way. They're all gonna come off even more middle-aged. Chase looks practically young enough to be Gio's fraternal twin if you shave the beard. Why do Anna and popstar Skye Riley in Smile 2 have the same extra-ass jungle wallpaper? Sonny’s old island hoes are looking at it like ‘a bit much’. I think Anna even got this prefurbished from Sasha IIRC. Frank was like fûck it, not changing a thing! Anna's ready to take Jason on safari in the other room, crying all the way. I have said this a million times, but once more: Anna spent half the Cold War taking down the worst kind of people. She has killed God knows how many terrorists yet she comes back on this show in 2012 with Finola clearly worried she isn’t showing enough range and suddenly it’s tears over capping Carlos Rivera, tears over Sonny, Jason, Billy Joel, now this Maniac Mansion mutant child he's created with Lulu's eggs. Ron Carlivati got her right the first time in 2012 in those great scenes with RM’s Heather in the interrogation box where Heather was trying to do a deal to give up where Robin was and Anna very calmly said there’s no deal, I’ve spent my career closing people out, talk or die. And Heather did it too! That's the character. I love Anna but I hate that this goes on and has become such a part of the latter-day characterization. IMO Finola too often plays against harder material (as she did often this year under Mulcahey re: Sonny, constantly getting choked up over her dilemma with this mobster) to prove she's got more range than being an '80s superwoman, but she has absolutely nothing to prove at this stage of her career. She's one of the greats, and she still does a lot of great work on the show - she just doesn't always do it in the right place. This will never get changed about Anna again but it still drives me nuts practically everyday.

There wasn't one! But that's soaps for you. I would give anything to have Charlotte erased, I'm with you.

I don't remember anything after Valerie (except Frank's OLTL employment subsidy for Mark Lawson as Dustin). I do think an adventurous reporter is an ideal job for her, but Emme was the wrong choice.

I said it before; it is insane Willow and Sasha have both been here near the balance of 10 years, insane that Curtis and Jordan are still here, insane that Molly and T.J. have been lingering 12 years. I could go on and on, even Nina who I like more lately, you name it. I like how they haven’t even gotten to Bobbie yet for Lulu. Friday: Lulu asks if that bitch Britt is still on staff. Monday: Lulu wonders if the booze at Julian’s is still good.

The Uncle Frank Employment Plan. All over this show.

Curtis will drop this Drew situation like a bad habit when he discovers a younger, even blonder iteration of Laura has awoken needing his full attention. "You were in a coma, Lulu. I know something about what that's like, I get a solid 7 every night."

Let's be clear: "Best soap on TV" is a very low bar in America at this point.

Yet!!

Just admit that she's some random donor's kid. But they won't, presumably bc Frank adores JPS and Korte is rumored to be ride or die for Anna and Valentin (ugh). Without Charlotte he has less ties.

That is hilarious.

You don't need to do that lol. These episodes are over 30 years old! Just go for it.

I think she was great with Jonathan, but I haven't seen her with Genie yet.

That Danny kid is improving but still grins eagerly through his tears in the boathouse during his scenes with Jason, also featuring LW's contractually-mandated guarantee. Someone has got to work more closely with him.

Late August '91. Nicholas Walker's Max, already fired and last airing in a matter of weeks, tells Lee Ann “I promise this Max will not take much of your time.” It can't end soon enough! The accents, the fey mannerisms, the well-cooked ham. What an ordeal. I don't recall any intel on whether Gottlieb wanted to keep Yasmine Bleeth longer than '93 before she went off and conquered cable - I would assume so, I thought they were pretty gung-ho on the Lee Ann/Jason saga for awhile. But wow I am tired of this gross Max thing with her and the endless scenes in which she mopes around and passive aggressively begs for his declaration of love.

"Our hands are tied!"

I'm glad I've been distracted by other classic soaps, life, etc. because I am still only a third into S7 (while catching up on the Dallas dream season, as I am watching only this single year of both simultaneously). I do wish I could've seen the Peter Dunne era in better quality the first time.

It was appalling to me but not totally surprising given how grim and dark GH had become by then (although I believe Kim was spurred to quit by a story in the Garin Wolf regime). I'm so glad it didn't happen.

Which I hated and still do. But it was typical EE. IIRC the idea of Robin dying of possible AIDS complications was in part because Kimberly found the Lisa Niles story in 2011 distasteful (where I think Lisa threatened people with a syringe of Robin's blood) and had therefore decided to leave and pursue her directing career. I don't remember if it was definitely supposed to be HIV-related illnesses or a version of the explosion idea or a car accident or something else that killed her instead of the illness she began to display - I've heard different versions - but I believe she was supposed to be very much dead-dead. I was disgusted by the news and fortunately so was Frank Valentini when he arrived. He allegedly declared that Robin Scorpio would not die on his watch at General Hospital. He was right to do it, and to create the whole phantom explosion angle and subsequent fake death arc, even if it got very silly at times over the next year. It helped re-power the show and save it from the axe.

You know Rick Hearst still has it when he has me feeling for Ric Wayne Gacy in today's scenes. And you know it's bad when I'm feeling more for Ric than I am for Eva LaRue. She is so superfluous.

Sooner or later Ric will go under the wheels. He always does. For now I will enjoy him while they use him. In other belated news since I'm catching up beyond prior bits and pieces, Tajh Bellow was out here lipsynching for his life on Monday! He can smell that thirteenth week around the corner, he sees Isaiah in the corridors and knows there can be only one. Seriously though, it was excellent work by both him and Kristen Vaganos but as I keep saying I can only be so invested in T.J. and Molly after twelve years of backburner fodder and 3-6 recasts between them. I still think the best thing to do is write them out, either separately or together, and bring Molly back solo (and probably recast again tbh) down the road. Vaganos is solid but not remarkable to me outside of isolated stuff like this. Nonetheless, they should be commended for making me care in very good scenes. Not Drew Q doing the Polar Bear Plunge on the water in December just to divert his mind from that cozy niece piece. That's wild. Is Jason really not going to take off the leather while living at the Qs? Ric tore Alexis up. The truth is Alexis still sees Kristina as her cherished miracle baby from a stolen moment of unusual passion that she had to hide away and protect for years, and that colors everything about her relationship to her and all her children. No one will ever mean as much as Kristina. Which makes sense for the character, but it's time to evolve. I already commented on how amazing Finn Carr was with Alexa in keeping up with her, and how I live in fear that Frank will cut him for a hunk or marginalize him a la Eddie Alderson on OLTL or favor the greener Danny (who is improving, but needs the counterbalance). So I'll just say Alexa and Dominic were quite good together. She is nailing the spunk that was always written into the Lulu character without being a hardened, smug element like Berman too often was, which made it impossible for me to invest in any of her romantic pairings. Here it's the right tone and temperature.

Never. And it's shameful we don't see stories like that on GH (about abortion rights, COVID, etc which I've rambled on about them needing to do before) today. I still remember watching live when Alan told Robin she had HIV. It floored me as a kid and it still did watching the episode again a few days ago. I don't remember the Mac/Stone embrace - I'd love to see that episode.

Definitely. I can see Sonny and Ava resuming fúcking if he spirals mentally again and she gets one over on him once more. He's done it before, he almost did it this year, he's stupid enough to do it again. Sonny and Alexis are different. He respects her as much as he respects any woman, he kind of knows she has his number which grates at him lol. They know there are no surprises with each other. It's comfortable.

I don't need or want an actual serious re-pairing, but I do think the chemistry is still there and that they might as well have an autumnal fling (possibly secret) at this stage in their lives since nothing else they've done personally or romantically has worked for some time. It would be a transitional thing, like the idea I'd once had for exhausted single mom Liz to have a fling with younger stud Cody (before JJ returned).

Yeah, I didn't realize til exploring it during COVID just how hard she went at Laura. She gave Sarah's Carly a run for her money. It was intense. I know we're blessed with plenty of it now but I'd give a lot to see more of that period, particularly the David Hamilton stuff.