Vee

That's so stupid if true. Katherine was the stumbling block to their true love that they vanquished before even getting properly married!

IIRC she was there for the initial exit in '96 with all the drama surrounding Jax, Ned and ELQ. Tracy was part of the inciting incident. Blaming it on Katherine is ludicrous and doesn't even line up time-wise. (That would be on the show though, not you lol) I do think it's something you don't need to get granular about onscreen decades later, maturity and mellowing would explain a lot with Lois. But I do think something could and should be said that she only saw the worst at that time in that nasty situation, and she realizes the Qs were capable of nuance and multitudes.

I was watching a fall '96 episode tonight dealing with Lois' exit, and the indictment of the Quartermaines - including the Q women, Monica and Lila - was brutal and well-written, if slanted in a way which would of course later become an issue in the next few years. Lois was right about the dysfunction in the Qs, but it wasn't the sum total of who they were or what they meant to each other or how they cared for each other. What I'm curious about is if Lois has ever reckoned with and discussed this exit and her old attitude re: the Qs in any of the recent episodes since her return - I have seen some of her talks with Ned and Tracy, and some of those scenes are quite good but Lois is really pretty lovey-dovey and copacetic with both of them overall, especially Tracy. I can understand age and maturity mellowing her out, but I really think it's a topic that needs some broaching. Anyone recall anything about this stuff?

Oh, I totally agree. I meant someone not currently around or relevant, far in the future.

Eddie Murphy discusses SNL a bit in this NYT profile, and the David Spade joke he took offense to. I also think it was probably deliberate. @Khan

I can see potentially doing something with GIo's parentage at some point since it was openly discussed in his first days on the air, with someone worthwhile and not just the same old boring options. But nine times out of ten the obsessive fanfic over making any unconnected character a secret kid of someone is embarrassing and stupid. Dex does not need to be someone's kid. Dex was never going to be someone's kid. Move on. This show needs more new blood. Gio and even boring Dex represent that.

That center of Kristina's is never going to appear onscreen. It was a plot point.

Yep. Truly bizarre. JT was so checked out by the end, having spent the bulk of his last years onscreen with Sabrina. You could tell he was often miserable in his last year or two, having been reduced to a cipher. I know that RC deliberately modeled Robin's 2013 return after Laura's return in 1981 - he had Robin lurking in town for weeks in disguise, etc. to draw it out in the same way. I could understand calling back to that classic story and milking the moment, but when it ended up becoming weeks of Robin, Faison, Obrecht, etc. all hanging out at Wyndemere with Faison dressed as Beetlejuice for Halloween it just got to be too much. In any event the wedding climax worked, and I can't fault them for that. It's the journey that Carlivati often mangles.

In fairness, that wasn't all Kimberly's fault. My understanding is the show drug it out longer even when she was available. There was no need for Robin to go back into captivity after being rescued in 2013, for example. They should've just bitten the bullet and written out Patrick and Robin then, but for RC plot was all. There's a reason one of the first moves done after he was fired in 2015 was to finally end that infinitely long storyline, bring Robin home and send the Drakes away.

My take as well.

I'm sure that's why. But I saw enough of her attempts at nuance in the kiddie triangle in Ron and Frank's heyday. I don't think she's improved much. It's a no!

She also can't act!

All true. But that's a sea change ABC and the show clearly aren't ready for.

Whatever. She'd come back.

A Brian Stelter piece, but pretty in-depth:

Are we talking Brenda or am I missing something else?

I think Gio showed interest in Trina early on. The problem is that I don't think the show wants to give him to her; they seem awfully enamored of him, but anyone who was invested in Trina in recent months or years seems to have left the building BTS. Gio is an adorable kid but I fail to see what the story would be there even if there was an investment in the two of them together. He just seems very nice and very musically talented and it's not exactly a recipe for huge drama, unless it goes to a kinky psychosexual place where she's like, deflowering this hot innocent who vaguely resembles Spencer lol. He would need to show more facets to his character than he has so far.

Agreed. And I agree he was clearly in no rush to get JJ back. Until now.

Relying on one actor's return to provide a sustained ratings bump is a fool's game. It's not going to happen. The only thing that has any hope of that is a larger systemic creative overhaul. Doesn't mean I can't be happy Jonathan Jackson is back, because he should be back so I am. How many times have we said DAYS was off the air next year? And it's still here. So I am not predicting anything about GH's future.

A few people have claimed (including Donna, I believe) that Frank actually didn't want Lucky back unless he could get Jonathan. If this is true then he and I are simpatico. I am not so arrogant to think FV isn't a nuanced person, nor do I know his mind. (Shout-out to @Darn's sig!) Most of us are just guesstimating based on history and our own subjective biases. That being said I also think holding out for JJ as Lucky suited his other purposes - a character as big as a Lucky or a Brenda with a star as big as Jonathan or VM destabilizes the bland show he's been making for years, with mostly his favorites or his own handpicked hires. How many male characters become redundant or at least less purposeful with Jonathan Jackson around? Several. We can say the same with Brenda and many existing characters. And JJ is an actor who's had a degree of success outside of daytime and could be assumed to be unavailable for a long period (though he's claimed to be willing to return since 2015 before). So I think it may be a combination of FV wanting JJ and also not wanting to make material improvements to the show that he couldn't control, like just bringing on a recast. (Or he could've just been using not being able to get Jonathan for Lucky as the excuse all along, and now he's out of excuses - but I'm not going to be totally cynical about it.) The situation with VM is different, so if they announce Brenda's back then we'll really know Frank is in a spot lol. But yes, I think this is at least partly happening because Frank is pressurized.

It's nice to see him say (in the above podcast) how eager he is to finally get to work with Genie again.

Nope. I assume Valentin's organization did it, but I'd like it if it was Ava herself. I truly don't think the show remembers or cares.

I think the stuff prior to Gregory's death (with him and Tracy, with the wedding, with the final hours with him and Finn, etc.) was all quite good. And I think the immediate aftermath when Finn found him, etc. was also very good, and a lot of his collapse is decent. I think after the first week or so of June you can really tell the show is being pulled back towards factory settings. There's still stuff that shines through, like the recently-created friendship between Tracy and Stella, and Stella sharing with Tracy her story of her lost love, but the move back towards poor suffering Sonny and his struggle with his love for Jason and Carly is very clear. I'm just grateful the Drew/Nina/Willow stuff seems to still be in play for now. But once Mulcahey's name is gone (or once his mark seems totally lost) so am I, at least until Jonathan Jackson shows up. I will be back to watch his return, though I don't have high hopes for the story. It will be the first time he and Genie have had any extended solo material since the '90s, and that's reason enough to watch. I truthfully don't think ME will be back again. I think the third time is the charm for both him and Roger, and I think ABC has had enough of indulging Frank on OLTL stars - that's why they had the knives out for Roger and allegedly pushed him to ice both Franco and Austin (in addition to needing money for Steve Burton). But yes, I will still be waiting a year or more to be sure lol.

If you read my post you'd know I was not suggesting Guza come back, John. I was suggesting this show needs more action and excitement. Which it desperately does.

My issue is also with story, but different. We all know that if Guza's gang was on the job that drunk Dr. Finn would've driven his car through the front of GH or something with Violet riding shotgun. That's the kind of jolt this show needs.