Vee

If you recast Roger Howarth as A.J. today it would turn into a Suddenly Last Summer situation at Prospect Studios.

Yep.

At this point I assume it's Nathan but brainwashed to be evil/carry Faison's brainwaves/whatever in some sort of nonsensical setup like the whole terrible Tom Pelphrey story on ATWT. Or more accurately some of the very dumb Franco's Brain, Drew, etc. stories GH did in the late 2010s. You'd think they would've learned to leave these limp mad scientist capers behind. Adventure and action you can still do on GH, but this team has always done poorly with their attempts at this headtrip stuff. I don't even know if Drew ever actually got his post-plastic surgery memories back. I don't think so! Where's the magic USB?

I have said it several times now, but they are tanking Britt this time with the classic hard Frank sell (to try to put her over with Jason - I don't believe Frank has any deep loyalty to KT, I think the character is just a means to an end with Steve for him), as well as the returned CVE's clear overzealous delight in the character and the whole resurrected Obrecht clan. And I frankly think Frank is more interested in more Gati and RP than Britt herself. Anyway Britt has always had a modest fanbase, moreso since she got with Jason. But they're tanking her by trying to push the Rocco thing while she still remains viscerally unpleasant and, as I've always said, Thiebaud is deeply limited. Whether Frank cares about the couple or not (and he clearly doesn't) the general GH audience is just not here for watching Dante and Lulu suffer while their baby boy fawns over the woman who stole him a decade ago. That's radicalized the more sanguine elements of the normie audience against her IMO. And it's this kind of push and willful ignorance of how it's playing to the viewers that will bring her down in the end. See also: Natalia, Kristina, etc.

He's so behind tired and pathetic a character at this point, but I am sure he will come back soon enough and we'll have more of the force meme Britt/Brad duo shoved down our throats. I still remember when they first made them a thing artificially snarking at the Nurses Ball on TV and tried to act like it was this big post-modern deal and kept bringing it back again and again. The beginning of trying to make str8 limp Britt a 'gay icon.' I don't think ABC would ever have crusaded for any actor to get between 3-5 separate characters on one soap opera in rapid succession. That was all Frank to me.

I am a couple days behind but I about saw red when Britt took her time out to snark at Marco and Lucas' table. Just leave! Of course we are supposed to know that Marco is in fact hiding dark secrets from Lucas (he knows his father killed the judge), but still it's a hot, very sexual gay couple. I don't care what the str8 woman/fake gay icon has to say! Nor do I care about her struggles.

It's so weird and endemic of this show and team that they kept spoilering about pivoting Martin to Tracy romantically like a year ago, and this is still where it's at and it's no less unappealing an idea than it was then. You can always tell when FV just does not want to spend more money on certain folks so he rotates them through the recurring players. I hope JK finally gets his way re: Cody and Tracy. I am pretty sure the height of Frank's Hospital was still when he had Howarth and Easton playing Characters #3-5. But he's certainly most likely safer than he's ever been atm, and empowered.

Nina is saner than Willow at this point. Their fúcked up relationship with each other and Drew is the only thing that's given either of them real juice on this show. Otherwise you could've nuked both of them long ago. Willow was especially pointless and boring til last year.

I think making Erika Monica's sister was a worthwhile idea, given Monica's mysterious family and origins. I just don't see a point in a tedious short-term story where everyone does another round of moaning about mean old Tracy. I'm behind by a few days and this does not compel me to sit through it. I've seen this team do this crap before. And like I said a few pages back, I think they want it both ways. They want to have Tracy as the head of the family (and often do well with that stuff, especially post-Mulcahey giving her a bit more grace) but still want to do these scenes where BLQ and all the 'good' Qs haughtily huff and get outraged with mean Granny. Like, who needs this? As for Ronnie, you could've done something simple and delicate about lost time and a broken family, or you could still do something fun with a con artist. But right now it's not fun, even though I think Erika and others are doing good work. It's just like, let's move this along. (And yes, regardless of the story I would've tied it back to A.J. or Emily.) (And don't get me started on how they both dress Alexa Havins down onscreen and keep just hurling Lulu into the worst situations imaginable.) Kristen (allegedly) made the foolish choice to ask for a pay bump after many years of service so Frank don't know her no more, lol. At least not in terms of a job.

I agree with all that. And yeah, I don't have any interest in another story with everyone beating up on Tracy.

LMAO. Good luck steering this one, Alan.

Oh boy. I forgot Linden House.

Was the Fourth of July '85 Marland? I didn't know he was there that early, or am I misunderstanding? I'll have to check it out.

That was my first thought. Not particularly interested in whether he's finally stopped (allegedly) drinking, drugging and sexually harassing his costars.

That dude is goofing off. But I do think a Kristina/Ava/Ric triangle would be amusing.

I think there was some good character work in Mulcahey's time, including when Dante was shot but after as well. The problem is a lot of the plotlines largely ground to a halt, and we know some of what happened there. Trina's best scene since NAC's exit remains that long, long day at his grave. I don't think the current show hates the Qs (and I do think Gio will fully reconcile with the Qs by Christmas), but I do think they still go for the cheap stuff with Tracy too often. They seem to want it both ways a lot of the time - they do clearly see her as the vanguard and standard bearer of the family now, which she is, and want to use her for emotional stuff when the moment warrants it. They do value her for that up to a certain point, and that was clear not only when Mulcahey was here but for quite a long stretch afterwards up til now. The balance there has improved since he came in and then remained that way much of the time after he left. But they also sometimes still want to use her as an easy antagonist for someone they want to prop up. While Tracy should always and will always have her worst instincts, there's less two-dimensional ways to play it if she is going to lash out at Ronnie. I totally buy her doubting this woman, but if you're just painting the scenes by numbers from rote, that's lazy. I just don't know who's in the market for another scene of the Qs shaking their heads at Tracy's shocking behavior this soon after Monica's death. It also doesn't help guest star Erika Slezak with a certain segment of the audience to have her be used as a tool with which to belittle Tracy yet again. There are fans who are not here for that, no matter which big OLTL star it is. Erika is doing fine work everyday but I have yet to see the purpose of all this unless she is a con.

Lord does Frank want all Laura's kids gone.

Spec isn't something we have to tiptoe around. Many people have speculated it's Scout. I think that'd be lame since DAYS just did it, but whatever. I still suspect Willow.

It's the most evolution any of them have had in years, and ironically I think it only started to come about out of necessity, and partially a byproduct of them having no safe haven for Steve as all his first year return stories and chemistry tests flopped. If they're smart (which they occasionally are) they'll continue to play the angle of Jason as Guardian of the Qs (with Tracy) hard.

The Agnes-esque unlikely connection with June is what finally piqued my interest in Robinson's Ted. Hopefully it continues. I do think they may have pivoted on Ted/Nicole post-recast once realizing there was just nothing there with him and Daphnee. From what little has been said by MVJ, etc. it sounds like whatever went down with the recast might've been a somewhat serious BTS situation.

Ah yes, Hayley's 2 minute DID.

This is another classical influence on the show that seems very, very old school. (That's not a complaint) Just like a month or two ago where they had Anita receiving virtually every one of her children or grandchildren in turn in an episode where they all came by the house to talk about their lives and situations, these ritualistic scenes with Mona, Laura, Jan, etc. talking about the state of the canvas and storylines. It feels right out of the Irna Phillips playbook or maybe Bill Bell or Agnes. I may not care for Jan but this old staple sits well alongside the hyper-modern elements of the show re: candid talk about sex.

I want those cakes at OG's bad.

Same. LW has never not come to work. I would drop her for Sarah Brown returning as Carly in a hot second if it was up to me, but she has always done quite well in the role. The show fails her, she's never failed it. And with two specific exceptions she's had romantic chemistry with virtually everyone they've put her with.

That and the character in that mode did not work. I'm far more entertained by this as is, it would seem, the majority of the audience. YMMV.