Vee

Jordi never worked here.

Oh, that's very sad. RIP.

IMO they don't take risks because for the most part, ABCD is simply marking time keeping this show on the air and keeping it functional. They have no investment in it beyond basic sustenance, and so they choose to simply cater to a shrinking, aging FB audience - keep it middle of the road, keep it running until they can cultivate a replacement. It's the same thing with Y&R at CBS IMO. Frank, who simply wants to keep the show on the air at any cost (while also playing his favorites), will go along with that because he knows they can't afford to lose any numbers, ergo why take risks or jeopardize the things on the show he is invested in? So instead we get things they know the network will greenlight and FB won't complain about: Tame teen stories, and more and more babies. (Supposedly the #1 thing the network will always rubber-stamp storyline-wise) Even Ava, Carly, Nina, Liz and Sam are all civil or even friendly to each other now. Why?? It's sad because there is potential here on GH, more than a few years ago.

It reminds me of the PP soap casts' exulting about having rehearsal time again. It certainly made a huge difference with the OLTL youth set.

I think Lipton was the breakout star (and is the best actor) until he got chained to EM as her new accessory sans Oscar, and for a time he picked up bad habits from Roger Howarth, etc. He's circled back around again for me and is good now. I think he is still the most technically capable of the youth set and I suspect he'd have chemistry with TA just as he did SM. But his role today is simply to be Joss' white boyfriend. FV will never give up on building the teen scene around a young white blonde who superficially resembles Kristen Alderson, based on youth demos from over a decade ago. Eden is passable but could do more as a rich bitch than a central heroine, if you had to keep her which you don't. Then there's other kids they could bring on - Emma (NOT with the kid who's been playing her), Alec Barrett, Lila Rae Alcazar, etc. Hudson West (Jake) could also easily come up from the background like Kimberly McCullough once did as a junior character and I think he's at least as good as she was back in '92-'93, and technically better than most of the older teens, but it's more likely Frank will foolishly fail to secure him and lock him down and he'll be recast. I think the extremely bland and generic at best writing for the kids is a huge factor. If you had Karen Harris, MVJ and Labine or Guza's crew writing for these kids we'd potentially be in a very different place with how we talk about all of them and the raw talent therein. Frank doesn't take those risks, and neither does the network anymore.

He has improved a lot, definitely.

I think she's pretty good so far. But yes, none of these kids are Jonathan Jackson level talent lol. I said that about Chavez when he started and it was the Wicker Man for me!

She was solid and charismatic, but neither Chavez nor SM were without their green issues onscreen. People on Twitter especially (which I don't use) get high on hype quick.

She seems to have chemistry with Chavez at first glance. They'll have to make sure she doesn't become the little woman/sidekick though. With SM Spencer was more the ingenue than Trina, the less conventionally strong or dominating partner. I think TA may be capable of that fire but we haven't been given the chance to see it yet. We don't know what she can or can't do, but she definitely can sell emotion.

I don't think there's enough evidence suggesting anything like that.

I enjoyed a lot about OLTL 2.0 and thought it was aesthetically cutting-edge and more serious in tone than it had been, as opposed to simply leaning into the tonal issues that eventually sank the Valentini/Carlivati brand at GH and later DAYS. It certainly had any number of pacing and structure issues of its own making re: the holdover storylines from ABC, but those were solvable and I thought the youth set was very strong (if overexposed). The overarching suspense plot only began to actually coalesce into something cohesive and compelling at the very end, and the way they handled Roger Howarth and Trevor St. John's limited availability (confining Todd to a hotel room for weeks) was very goofy. You can fault them for lots of things, but I think a lot of what that show did on Hulu would be the blueprint if it ever returned somehow. That being said, I think AMC 2.0 was very easily the best soap of that year, or that decade frankly. I understand they could have more easily survived launching just one, but honestly the whole operation struck me as a grift from day one. I knew what the PP guys were, but I chose to enjoy the shows for the shows for as long as they lasted. And I thought the duality of AMC and OLTL, light and dark, again was very well-redefined by pairing them up together. It's how it should still be, IMO.

I believe they also never paid a lot of the actors.

Don't hold your breath, champ.

This is what Janet said to Phylicia:

If people want to act like Sydney Mikayla's Trina was somehow commanding every scene and dominating the canvas and not at the whims of story, like when Trina was drugged and framed while the white teens had a passionate love scene, they can do that. It's not accurate, though. The character is the same windmill she has been since her inception because GH will not allow Trina to supplant other preferred characters. That hasn't changed from actor to actor. Time will tell if Ali has some of the same fire despite those restrictions, but so far I have been pleased with her work and the depth of it.

She seems very impressive to me so far. The writing isn't on her (and neither Chavez nor Mikayla, while charismatic, were exactly Olivier or Sarah Bernhardt).

Watergate II. You can't make this up.

Nice to see Chalamet with Kyle MacLachlan (the other messiah of Dune):

2/10.

For those wondering, Janet Hubert took Will's side.