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I haven't watched much of the short-lived Monty 2.0 era, but I was intrigued by your posts and found some coverage from Entertainment Weekly in July 1991 saying that the year had been a "bloodbath" in which Monty fired "a dozen" actors. I don't think this number included Finola Hughes or Tristan Rogers, who left at the very end of 1991 and early 1992. So does anyone know who else was fired? All I can figure out is that Jack Wagner left and the actress playing Dawn was fired. But who else was part of this "bloodbath", or is the number of firings being exaggerated?

I'll be the contrarian here and say that, so far, I'm fine with the fact that Maxie is sidelined for Nathan's return. If she were in Port Charles, then the story would have to center around her feelings that her husband is back from the dead. Which is fine, but--because soaps have done so many of these back-from-the-dead stories--is not as dramatically compelling as the beats they've actually been playing out this week, like Nina's reaction, and Felicia's reaction, and little James talking about his father. I also like the twist that Nathan recalls nothing since his shooting 7 years ago. Ryan Paevey has very limited range, but he played those scenes well. My theory is that they'll play this out into a wild gothic horror/sci-fi story where Nathan was implanted with Faison's brain and has been acting as the unseen big bad ("Him") in the Britt/Five Poppies story. I'm guessing that he was in town to menace Britt and leave the box of meds on her bed, but then got into a car crash that somehow took the Faison brain offline and rebooted his Nathan memories. The only question is will the Faison persona somehow come back? That might be so-bad-it's-good, watching Ryan Paevey try to play a Eurotrash supervillain!

I think romance is one of the show's real weak spots right now, and it's telling that of the actors who are in the Top 10 for episode counts this year, the only one in a really romantic storyline is Eden McCoy (Joss). I'm not counting Carly/Brennan, Sonny/Random DA Woman, or Drew/Willow or even Brook Lynn/Chase as genuine romance storylines. And it's too soon to tell whether we'll get any romantic scenes between Jason/Britt. I will say that the one advantage of the show's huge cast and rotating storylines--where we'll sometimes not see our favorites for a week or more--is that it does allow more time for slow-burn romances to percolate, like Lucas/Marco (who were dating for months before they even slept together) and Emma/Gio (who were a little too slow-burn IMO).

I saw this posted to another board, and I wanted to give a chef's kiss to whichever writer penned this dialogue for Monica: "I bet you're an excellent lock pick. You have the hands for it. I remember Alan and I used to argue for hours what kind of surgeon you should be. Of course, it didn't really matter then, you were only in high school. But he wanted neurosurgery and, of course, I wanted cardiology. And here you turn out to be a skilled henchman for the mob. It's funny how life turns out!"

I started watching GL in the 1990s, which I think helped me warm to Beth Chamberlain's performance in her second stint, since I didn't have any previous incarnations of Beth to compare it to. I didn't exactly love her in the late 1990s, mainly because she was mainly there to cause trouble for Harley and Phillip, who I did love as a couple. But I grew to appreciate her a lot over the years, especially as the writers mined the depth of Beth's psychological damage. Honestly, Beth's behavior--as maddening as it was at times with her love-hate relationship with Alan, where she kept coming back to him because he provided safety, money, and power--made a lot of sense to me given her past as a teenage abuse victim. Whereas the sweeter Judi Evans version of Beth played to me more like a romanticized fairy-tale version of abuse, with Phillip as the Prince Charming who rescues her from the ogre who wants her for himself. Especially during the Wheeler years, I thought some of Chamberlain's performances as a self-destructive female antihero were just magnetic. But I can understand why some long-term viewers felt that this "ruined" the character.

Just echoing what everyone has said about how great the Tracy/Jason scenes were today. It's pretty rare that the show delves into the traumatic implications of Jason's brain injury, so I loved how he acknowledged the loss of those precious memories growing up with Monica as his mom. I also want to give the writing team credit for making a very unusual choice. Typically after a major character dies, the next episode is spent with the whole town learning about the death and reacting in various ways. I'm sure we'll still get some episodes like that, but they smartly used this episode to focus on the grief of the two people who were closest to Monica.

I missed the first iteration of Jason/Britt, but I've generally been enjoying them this time around, as their scenes give Burton more opportunities to do deadpan comedy. That said, I totally agree with you that KT is a limited actress at best. I can tell the writers enjoy crafting Britt's snarky dialogue, and I think her whole abrasive-yet-vulnerable characterization is a winner on paper. But even after all these years, KT can't quite pull it off. It's too bad that they didn't recast this part, because I'd love to see what an actress like Jen Lilley or Emily O'Brien could do with the character of Britt.

I'd agree with that, but they didn't just ignore her--they actively broke up Obrecht and Britt's emotional reunion, then pushed them out of the hospital before Britt could get her life-saving meds. Dante and Lulu act like they're the only ones who have feelings that matter, which is about I would expect from the spawn of Sonny and Luke. If I just looked at the overall plot points, I would totally agree with you and Antoyne and feel like I should be on the side of the parents who got their baby stolen. But the day-to-day acting and dialogue choices just make Dante and Lulu so damn unlikeable to me. I actively want Rocco, who comes off as a sensitive, thoughtful teenager, to ditch their smug, self-righteous asses. And I should add that I don't even especially like Britt or Obrecht, and I'd be happy if they left the show forever to conduct unethical medical experiments together somewhere in Europe. But I've still been finding them less obnoxious than Dante and Lulu recently.

Unpopular opinion, but I'll just say that if I had Dante and Lulu as parents, I'd also be actively fantasizing about what it would be like to have someone else as my parent. The two of them got on my last nerve today, as they interrupted the emotional reunion of a mother and her presumed-dead child, then proceeded to make it All About Them. By the point that they managed to shoo Britt out of the hospital before she could get her Huntington's meds refilled, I was rooting for Rocco to run away from home and live with Britt.

Give them time. I'd put money on Carly--or maybe Liz, but probably Carly--finding Ric locked in the basement before the month is up.

Unlike P.J., I'm one of the few people who actually liked Hunt Block's Craig on ATWT. But Ben Warren didn't work for me either. He was clearly meant as one of those "love to hate" villains, but Block played him as this toxic combination of slimy and smug, which just wasn't any fun to watch. Block isn't bad-looking, but it just seemed insane that Blake (or any woman) would be attracted to that guy.

Today's episode wasn't very promising on paper, but I ended up really enjoying it. I usually feel like Chris McKenna's Brennan is sleepwalking through his scenes, but he finally came alive in those scenes with Valentin. And even though Charlotte could have stayed up in the attic indefinitely for all I care, I thought the young actress playing teen Charlotte did a good job with the material and had a nice rapport with Alexa Havens. I also really liked the scenes with Ava, Kristina, and Alexis scheming how to cover for Ric's disappearance; those three work really well as unlikely allies. The Five Poppies storyline gets sillier and sillier, but I enjoyed all the campy spy movie touches, like Britt's ankle bracelet set to explode in an hour. The only part of the episode that didn't work for me was the Molly/Cody storyline; I'm not sure if this means they're really over, and I can't bring myself to care.

I basically agree with you, but I try to focus mostly on what I enjoy rather than what could be improved. Given the state of soaps in 2025, I'm not optimistic that "new blood" on either the writing or producing side would actually improve the show. In fact, I can think of many ways they could make it much worse. Given how much of the show's heart was gutted during the 11 years that JFP served as EP, I frankly think it's a miracle that GH is watchable at all these days.

Good visual casting--he looks like he could be Nick and Sharon's son. But Adams tends to be such a low-key actor I suspect he'll just fade into the background at Y&R, like most of the younger actors do.

Maybe that's Ryan Quan's influence? Agreed that it felt a little too campy at times. Those scenes with Ava, Kristina, and Alexis didn't quite work for me. They reminded me of similar scenes on Days years ago, where Kate, Sami, and Gabi dispose of Nick Fallon's body, but there the camp was totally in keeping with the tone of the show and those particular characters. Here it felt a little forced, with Alexis in particular acting out of character to keep with the jokey tone.

I think so too, although I hope the show doesn't make the mistake of actually killing him off. They could get a lot more story out of a "Who shot Drew?" mystery where they put him in a coma for a few weeks then have him wake up and return to being a total prick.

I liked today's episode, but I felt like the show was cramming a few weeks' worth of plot developments into a single day. It sure seemed like they were closing the door on Cody/Ava, but I hope they eventually circle back to it, since Maura West and Josh Kelly have chemistry in spades.

Based on that last scene where Liz overhears Willow talking to Drew, she might not be such an ardent Willow supporter for much longer. But I got the sense that standing up for Willow was only a secondary motivation for Liz. I felt like her primary motivation was to shut down Kristina for being so sanctimonious.

I think the show has been really uneven this week, but I did really like today's scenes between Willow and Kristina and then between Kristina and Elizabeth. Willow and Kristina are each deluded and entitled in their own ways, but it was fun to see them butt heads. And then I loved how Liz played hardball with Kristina; sometimes the show writes Liz as nothing but sweetness and light, so it was nice to see her tougher side coming out.

Maybe that's the mysterious technology Professor Dalton is developing and testing on animals: something that will make your teeth glow blue.

I'll share one of my favorite Vaughn scenes, which starts about 2 minutes into this clip. I think this might illustrate what I mean when I talk about the potential for the character, especially if he starts mixing it up with other Port Charles residents beyond Joss:

I'd agree that Bryce Durfee and Evan Hofer have enough of a physical resemblance that they could be playing brothers. But beyond that, Vaughn and Dex don't feel very similar to me. I think Vaughn is a huge upgrade because he's a more complex character, someone who's so used to lying and slipping into a role that it's become like second nature to him. With the right writing, you could get a lot of good stories and scenes out of a character like that, because you'd never quite be able to tell where his true agenda might lie. Dex, on the other hand, was just another in a long line of Frank's derpy hunks who look good shirtless.

I'd be okay with that, but only if a character like Sidwell gets to tell Sonny, "To lose one child may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness."

I feel like the real entertaining story--far more entertaining than the WSB/Britt story we're seeing onscreen--is whatever's been going on behind the scenes the past few months. Because first we get Daniel Goddard auditioning for the role of Brennan--which would have been perfect casting and he might have even been able to generate some chemistry with Laura Wright, which Chris McKenna certainly can't. But then the role goes to Frank's old friend Chris McKenna, although that means now Brennan is suddenly no longer Antipodean, but a down-home American son of a plumber. But then Frank likes Goddard, so he creates this entirely new role for him, Dalton, the college professor with a sinister secret. But before Goddard's character gets to actually do much villainy, the focus suddenly shifts to Croatia, where a back-from-the-dead Britt is using Dalton's research. And she's working for some unseen Big Bad, who's clearly going to be this new character played by Ryan Paevey (almost definitely Nathan's hitherto unknown evil twin). Which leaves Dalton doing very little in this story (and Goddard off screen for the past few weeks). So is Frank just like my cat, who comes running every time someone waves a shiny new toy in front of his face and then ignores the shiny toys he got just a few minutes earlier?

Just when I thought that Sonny's scenes with DA Justine couldn't get any worse...