Vee

We know why! I would bring Hudson West back tomorrow but I'm not going to go another round with the haters on him, I think he's great, so there! Aiden I would probably de-SORAS a bit to a much younger teen and play up some more eccentricity re: his culinary prodigy stuff to make him different, a la Molly as a kid. Then I would keep him just a recurring player longer, simply because I have other young people in that range or older I would want to frontburner. I would recast Georgie II as a wallflower (a la her namesake) and play her with charming rebel Danny and shy Rocco and another girl, probably from the Asian Quarter. This is all simple teen stuff soaps used to do in their sleep, but GH doesn't because it has too many characters and also wants to keep playing Sonny, Jason, Carly, etc. like they're 35. Charlotte can be written off with a tearstained letter and a warning that if she ever comes back to town her non-Spencer mutant blood will combust. I may be kidding on that last part. Sort of.

Trina (and initially, probably hedging their bets hoping Chavez might flop in pilot season and come back) is why. At some level of GH they've always been uncomfortable with that pairing and its popularity. As several of us have said, the instant Tabyana Ali goes off-contract or quits they'll start recasting. They didn't do it right away when they could've (with GM, IMO) so as of now I wouldn't bring him back immediately, simply because I think it needs the right actor and story to compete with Chavez. But I would introduce another strong character for her as I mentioned, viable competition, and also mix her up romantically with Gio, Emma, etc. Spencer would come later.

I've said it before, but Trina should be mixing it up with Emma, Gio and another strong young lead of color, a schemer who can offset her purity the same way Spencer did (or Robin opposite young enforcer Jason). I kept insisting it could be Justus and Faith's kid so I won't go back into that chapter and verse. Anyway, then you could mix and match the couples a bit too since Emma also has a scheming instinct. That quartet can be that older youth scene, and you can add to it or build it out incrementally. They won't do any of that for the same reason GH is keeping Spencer gone: To keep Trina in her prescribed C-tier role that FV has been most comfortable keeping the Black cast in. The Trina/Kai, Ashford, etc. stuff most resembles his last few years at OLTL or his earliest under Paul Rauch, where all Black folks were 'safely' islanded off together.

He may not yet be exactly Tony Geary, but I thought Mazza did very well with anger during the reveal fallout after the Nurses Ball. I think he's quite good overall. The kids are fine but I have yet to see Danny convey an emotional scene without grinning his way through it. We complained about it last year. I think AA has raw charisma which helps his weaknesses and he has a good rapport with Finn Carr and Steve, so I'd keep him for now. He plays the roguish, mischievous and overcompensating Danny as well. Swickard is passable but both he and the atrocious Harper fall under the category of nice people who should not still be employed here, which still covers almost half the cast. Their characters are pointless to me. Chase is BLQ's purseholder/audience fantasy husband and not much else. He has the depth of a puddle.

Tom Pelphrey (Jonathan, GL) is costarring with Mark Ruffalo in the HBO miniseries Task.

Jordan has never had any personality. The little that was there was Vinessa Antoine's talent. Jordan continues to exist solely because FV does not want to have to come up with new Black characters that might require more effort or take up larger space on the show he is uncomfortable giving to non-white characters. It's never lost on me that whenever Jordan's small, inexplicable fanbase pops up on Twitter or wherever insisting she needs major story, the primary rationale given for why is 'she's so beautiful!'

He's no Tanisha Harper!

He's quite good, but there's certain bait I don't respond to.

Tanisha Harper is, has been and will remain the worst actor on the show now that Oscar is rotting in hell.

Representation aside, it would be a tremendous error to make Kat asexual when she's one of the most/few? charismatic young leads on the show. So I highly doubt that is happening.

It would not shock me if they're trying to write out these overly old kids, lol.

LOL.

I think tying Leslie into Barbara is actually a great move. It elevates her role to something tied deeper into the core and more mythic. I'm also just here for Lady Boss Vanessa re: that story tbh. As soon as she kicked into high Guza gear so did Lindstrom IMO. She helped make him more credible in that role, though I go back and forth on Joey.

Yes. I don't know why anyone is surprised. This is the same blind, hard sell they tried to pull with both Mansi's Kristina re: the baby, etc. and with Natalia last year. When Frank doesn't get traction on something he wants to make work he just keeps pushing, then eventually dumps it altogether for something shiny and new. Which will happen here, too.

So ridiculous. And even getting Patrick began as part of the master plan to destroy the Scorpios and Spencers, from Britt's parents. She was not implanting that embryo inside her out of desperate love.

I'm into Outback.

Oh God.

Which is nice to hear as is this quote which warms both my and @DRW50's hearts: "I will not leave the show until they allow Cody to date Tracy." Hopefully when his movie finishes he can go back on contract, but GH has accommodated many regular recurring players over the years.

What? That's awful (and unsurprising for Reilly tbh).

That is a good idea. I do think they could always tie it into Sonny finally getting some kind of takedown and a move into white collar crime/business a la Victor Newman, which is inevitable if you want to re-pair him with Brenda for good and change that paradigm and downshift from stories centered around Maurice (which I do). Sonny could end up on the streets/MIA for a number of months after a blowout with Ava or whoever else - it would be six or more if it were up to me - before resurfacing, but Carly could get hit with RICO violations again as part of that. And/or her businesses get tied up or stolen out from under her by whatever villain of the moment, her own latest rash actions to protect herself/Sonny alienate her from people after blowing up in her face, or maybe Michael and ELQ are unable to help her due to the scandal (possibly Tracy forbidding it). Carly goes to ground and maybe gets away from town a little herself for awhile, maybe takes an offscreen break too like caroline said. Refuses to take help from more people partly out of pride or from alienating some of them, or not wanting to get Michael in deep further or maybe they're not speaking. Maybe he's had some other setback/trauma that makes that situation worse (since he clearly has PTSD onscreen from the fire), or maybe the whole A.J. thing has already reared its head again with him back, and that old resentment over his (then real) death and the cover-up Carly was involved in at the time. When she comes back, still in a bad way (maybe drinking), it's Sarah. If there's any way the network would go for that it's that she's probably cheaper than Laura now, lol. I would let Carly get at least some of her money and trappings back eventually - I don't think the money or her being nouveau riche is the problem so much as the entire town being wired to be Carly's friends and family these days. She's on good terms with almost everyone and is just a heroine in staid story. That has to change. But it would all probably inevitably lead back to another marriage of convenience for her and A.J., only this time they do fall in love.

It's not that hard to figure out for me. I'd take away some of her money/support system for a time somehow (there's always a way, relatives aside) and bring back A.J. I'd also bring back Sarah Brown if I could get away with it, though probably not. Laura does a good job.

Very difficult to have been born and raised in DC (and MD) today.

And it's a fatal oversight too because I am pretty sure CVE is among the big Britt stans BTS that tried to push her as some faux gay icon, lol. Someone there will not get it til it's too late. On paper I think Carly should be the least played out of the whole tired trio, but Carly has been cruising in bad stories and dead or afterthought pairings for years and while Laura always works hard she can't elevate true mediocrity BTS to greatness. If A.J. was back it'd be another story and could change the game for her, but they don't want to do that. Or if Sarah or Tamara came back, but neither is happening. I think Jason will always be something to merely tolerate for me, but the Q family stuff is where he excels now. Sonny at least could have Brenda potentially change his paradigm. But the only one I'd have a real investment in again with the right material is Carly. She's just so adrift and is being dragged down by the same stuff as the other two.

They need to justify Burton's salary and airtime to themselves and presumably the network. Frontburner-wise, it's been a bust and each attempt at a romance has flopped. (Something I could not have conceived of ten years ago, despite my hatred for Jason.) Hence, Britt is back to try to make him the star again. Letting Jason continue to have merely a supporting role is unthinkable to the show at present. I do think he works best currently with the Qs in this unlikely, surprising role he should've been in decades ago, and I think there are ways to give him key and prominent new story around that as I said a few posts back. But they won't do that.

Totally disagree, I think DZ is excellent and Dante should be leading the show again. But YMMV, that's fine.