Vee

Yep.

There is a lot of great info in there, including about the writing changes.

I think if they wanted to redeem Drew or not do this story they would've dumped it much earlier, as they began undoing all sorts of choices PM had made days after he left. They were also actually the ones responsible for turning Drew into a full on antagonist and villain; under PM he was just a politically-minded cad. I am pleased they haven't killed him off yet since he makes a good villain, but they often seem allergic to longer or more organic drama vs. outside rotating villains like Sidwell, Cyrus, Shiloh, Wes Ramsey and now probably Daniel Goddard's character. I wonder if losing SM means they want to start working back towards Michael and a redeemed Willow, but I sincerely hope not as that would be deeply boring. Until the last year Willow has never been remotely interesting, and now she's one of the central attractions on the show. I keep expecting them to waste Drew and do a whodunit and still kind of expect that now, but the fact they still haven't yet makes me wonder if they really will. Still, the best move here IMO was to keep the pairing going, even after Willow learned the truth. In other news, Britt looks matronly and tying her to Goddard and the WSB story ensures I can have even less interest in all of them.

Holly Gagnier always seemed like a very random choice to bring in to play that part as a suddenly svelte, restrained Jennifer Smith who seemed much more mundane post-Roseanne/Struthers. I figured that was a creative choice by FV/RC preferring the original take on the character from 1980, and always assumed at the time HG and FV knew each other going way back to the Paul Rauch days at OLTL and he was doing her a favor. But clearly she was doing him one as Fenn backed out and Gagnier has apparently become a very in-demand acting coach/agent/whatever, including for several GH stars. Sherilyn would've been a much better eccentric choice, again with some primetime stature like the last two actors in the role. But DRW is right that the writing for Jennifer was pretty lousy in those couple days.

A last minute replacement for Jennifer on GH in that terrible story in 2015?? Wow. @DRW50 should hear that one.

It also wasn't nearly as long or dramatic enough a crashout vs. when Willow lost the kids. You needed to maximize this, but instead she's immediately off and back to Carly's to see Michael. My biggest fear is they will now try to clean Willow up and re-pair her with Michael, but I suspect that for the moment he will reject her and she will spiral further into madness. Which is fine, but has a more limited shelf life as opposed to Willow marrying Drew and then beginning to turn the screws on him while also still scheming against Michael, etc.

I still find June herself to be an embarrassing, community theater pop-eyed cartoon a lot of the time. But I think the story of this unhoused woman secretly being the kids' mother is a solid story angle. It comes down to how it's handled.

That's not what I said. But it was obvious months ago she was tied to the kids. That's all I'm pointing out.

It's Ric and Ava with the reaction shot of the day, one which given the state of daytime I may make much use of in future.

There you have it. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to solve this one.

It's too soon to be sure but I hope this isn't another case of GH taking the quickest route out of long-term drama. I would absolutely not have ended the Drew/Willow relationship here, I would've had her marry him. This entire scandalous saga is the only really strong story on the show.

IIRC the kids were originally meant to be small children but they aged them up to play them in teen drama. I think that was a mistake. You easily could've introduced a Samantha-like character as a cousin or something.

Alegria is like a Disney animatronic. C'mon y'all.

No, I still think Alegria is considerably worse.

Alex Alegria is quite easily the worst actor on the show. It's not close.

It really is stupendous.

Wait, they've all been trapped in this Shining maze/estate for a month?? It's like the AMC dance contest!

All three feel washed and tired. They're an afterthought to the key stories on the show, no matter how much they try to pump up mob action.

Pretty much. That and paralysis on key issues (Sonny, Carly, etc). They would not have these D-list pairings years ago just to say they're there.

Which is a fundamental problem with the show, even when Frank's loyalty sometimes works out for the older vets. This tiresome character model has reappeared on the show what, at least three times?

I just do not understand what the point is of revisiting Stefano and the Queen of the Night at this late date. He is deader than dead.

I just don't think this rumor even exists outside of fanfiction or spec that someone picked up to get clicks.

What can possibly be mined from Stefano at this point? Joe Mascolo has been dead for years and the many 'is Stefano alive? have we transferred Stefano's brain?' stories they've done since have fallen flat.

The best way to handle it, then, is Brenda. It also allows you to finally play new and unique situations with him married off, settled and doing other things outside the mob life while still remaining a quote-unquote 'power player', but working at whatever speed Mo can actually manage vs. y'know, whatever this is. I thought he was lazy ten or fifteen years ago but Maurice in 2010 is like thespian Adam Driver by comparison. And meanwhile VM carries most of it by herself. And yeah, they'd get some viewers back for Sonny + Brenda 4ever.

I still can't believe soap opera Reddit is a thing, lol. But no, I don't think the scene was supposed to be all that sexy given the end result.