Vee

Sonny and Jason are a fact of life on this show at this point, AFAIC. They're not going anywhere until someone either retires or dies. So with that in hand, I choose to focus on how the show handles them day to day. So far I've been pleased, so I'm taking what I can from it.

Supposedly there are scenes coming up where Anna and Laura talk about the blinders they had over Sonny because of family and friends, or maybe I forgot them or they got cut. Finola was saying a week or so ago they were coming up, but she also thought yesterday's scenes would be on last week. In any event, she always delivers emotionally but I am ready for her to stop deliberately softening this material. She's been crying too much in general over the last 5+ years, but FH has nothing to prove to anyone.

And Tony played it to the hilt, despite his claims later on. I remember him once saying in print that once they had Claire Labine he knew the L&L return would be a hit. Later, he either claimed they didn't get along or he couldn't stand the '90s material or both. Was one statement happy talk or the second just revisionist history in Tony's own mind? Like Luke, I think Tony spent a lot of recent years trying to convince himself the golden days didn't matter.

Anyway, Hudson did fine AFAIC. Nice enough scenes but yesterday was a choppy show edit-wise. I was pleased they held the line on Anna and Sonny and ending the relationship. I hope it lasts, as interviews suggest it will. But it's time for FH to start toning down the emotion in scenes like these which are fine on paper; I've said it before over several years now, but I think she too often leans towards high emotion since returning (which she always does very well) because she worries people will not see layers or vulnerability in superwoman Anna otherwise. Further, we know she loves working with Maurice and has stated recently she had difficulty playing these scenes. But I'm done with watching Anna tear up over these mobsters she used to put away by the truckload. Her emotion and inner revulsion made sense in the early scenes with Jagger's speech about Sonny in mid-March, but let's move forward and give Anna back some steel. I did like the instructor calling her out about Anna's softness on Sonny over the last several years.

She is a dayplayer AFAIC, and I don't need her to hang around when this subplot ends. I suspect that's all her role was intended for. I thought her first scenes (before the official writing change but clearly tweaked) were good and clearly delineated the character, but I don't need her around unless Natalia starts really fúcking with people and making a nuisance of herself. I think Kate Mansi is doing a fine job and that both women sell the intimacy, but I don't care about Blaze/Kristina and never have when it started however many months ago.

Because that's what she has always been! I knew this would happen if they tried to hang an actual storyline on her, but it started with the old team and now this one wants to frontline diversity so it's a tough spot. Still I'd probably cut her tomorrow. Ludicrous that Eva LaRue is complaining that the Face of Deception is pushing Deception products, but I hope that's just meant to be another indicator of Natalia the overbearing stage mom.

I don't think Tony kept Genie gone. At least that's the first I've ever heard of it. I do think that contributed to the worsening issue with him BTS, I don't think he'd have gone down that road if he was on-set with her every day.

Blaze continues to have the wardrobe of a Hot Topic shopper from 2003 and the personality of driftwood.

Alex has been Anna's twin since she first appeared in 1999.

Goodbye Manchin's Rose:

Finola's recent interview makes it sound like this is long-term.

He did get surgery in order to be able to potentially do so.

A bit too early in the week for us to critique this barely legal twink's life choices when he's, perhaps, a fraction of our age. Anyway, if the kid still needs work in a year or two when he finishes his major and his streaming/movie callbacks are sparse GH should go after him for Cameron (or Aiden).

AMC 2.0 also made a mention of Dimitri divorcing Alex when he came on. I was tripped out they even remembered her, but that was 3-4 years before she turned up on GH.

AMC needed a shot in the arm at the time and Finola was a star; they promoted her coming on big time. They were also trying to exit Michael Nader over money and used his 'death' to bring Alex on as his supposed widow. Instead MN and Finola's flashback romance scenes were hot as hell and her intro story with Edmund flopped, so they rehired Nader and put them back together then tried to fob Edmund off on undead Anna Devane. It was a big surprise when we discovered the mystery person Alex was visiting was Anna, who had been 'dead' since '92. Come to find out Anna fit into the show like a glove whereas Alex was boring, but Edmund and Anna still didn't work so they were split and she got put with David. How Alex became evil on GH has never been explained, but seeing as she had an incredibly convoluted and stupid backstory on AMC involving evil spies and brainwashing (and British thespian Samantha Eggar as her fake mom) it is not a stretch to think that Alex simply reverted to old form.

On Natalia's first or second day she said she does manage Blaze.

It's fine, my elaborate plans for Dr. Thomas Hardy and spiky feminist novelist Christina Collins (commoditizing her mother Lucy's scandalous past for a bestseller and a streaming deal), or Sarah Webber's fúcked-up perfect family, are even more overwrought. I would have Liz and Sarah's domineering mother Carolyn, a brilliant surgeon (and definitely recast), be the latest hospital villain though.

I honestly don't need them to conform to the contours of the cringeworthy and uncomfortable kiddie quad RC did (which had creepy little Joss jealous of Cam and Spencer's interest in Emma). Their mixing the young adults up was not a problem for me. I do think they have over-elevated and relied on Joss for years because FV was so thrilled to finally get a white blonde vaguely resembling Starr Manning to be functional on the show lol, and also because they were very wedded to the Sonny, Carly, etc. family gospel. IIRC Eden started as a temp or bit player and FV boosted her because he still seems to swear by his (somewhat) ratings-winning paradigm of the late 2000s vanilla teen scene from OLTL, and Joss was the closest he'd ever come to a young white heroine fitting the Starr mold since Kristen quit. It's also taken this long for him to begin to accept that Trina is not just Joss' ethnic sidekick a la Langston and Markko to Starr on that show. I don't think Eden is terrible and I think she takes too much stick from fans online for stuff beyond her control, but I do think they should change her role to something more comic or troublemaking, lighter but fun. And then I would probably recast in future. I'd also put her with a geeky character to humanize her more, a la Spixie or Nick Fallon and Chelsea on DAYS. Eden has a masculine and forward energy that would work well with a more sensitive male.

I'd just say she's spoiled and bored, lol. Lord knows people spoiled little Emma. Everyone would expect a peaches and cream saint on the canvas given her family and Brooklyn Silzer, so I'd pull the rug out a la the famous Valerie Malone reveal on 90210 at the end of Tiffani Thiessen's first episode.

Unfortunately that kid can't act. TA can and often reminds me of Kimberly, especially in her confrontations with Esme which at times echoed Robin/Carly. There's an inner strength and intelligence they both have. I would bring back Emma (recast, please God) but I'd do something different. She would be the secret town schemer, who nobody expects for obvious reasons. But I do think Emma will definitely be back on contract sooner or later, whoever plays her. It's just natural, and it's not like Kimberly hasn't come back to visit a zillion times since 2015.

Well, it's not gonna be lol.

Your mileage may vary. I don't think those two recent castings are anything but just random recurring bit players.

Plenty of options, yes.

Here it is:

Trina's a favorite of mine and for my money the best young actress on the show, but YMMV.