AMCHistory

…also, in an example of how YR has always been the “smarter” soap, did anyone catch the parallels between the “mums” in this episode. - Kyle’s joy at Diane homecoming - Devon’s surprise at seeing Harmony - Summer’s anxiety at keeping her secret about Summer Each child/mother relationships is unique and drove today’s story forward in different ways.

In theory you’re right, Sam is a shell of a character and writers have struggled to write a story for her. Heck, she even sucked opposite the return of Jason. It’s clear that since DWTS, Kelly is one of ABC’s recognisable daytime stars. She will have to leave on her own accord. I can’t see it happening. Someone should at least give her Som coffee so she is not so sleepy on set.

Why did Malcom not appear until 90% of the guests leave? Especially since most of those guests were the actors that Shemar actually interacted with back in the day: Victor, Nikki, Sharon, Cassie, Ashley Heck, he acted over the years with these players more than with Devon!

I would love to see Dante in BL’s orbit. Revisit their childhood friendship first and have BL use Dante as a confident. Play up their inside jokes. Let them accidentally fall in love, so that there is a tension and some stakes with Sam. Sam is better as the spoiler in a relationship than as a romantic lead. She is meant to be rough around the edges.

This show is so painful…. It looks like a bad high school production. The dialogue is cheesy, when you know they are going for camp. The actors seem… tired. When are we on tap for the next Days reboot? Don’t we deserve a “new plan to save Days” moment?

Night and day - I came here to ask this question. Was there a change in directors recently? The sets and the direction suddenly look “Y&R” again. The two moments I noticed it today: - The Jazz Lounge: There is suddenly a depth to the set. The bar in the foreground is far enough upstage to provide perspective. There are suddenly more than three tables, and they were not on top of each other. It’s like a whole new set. - The Abbot House: They did the classic YR shot of the character standing behind the sofa instead of in front of it. The decor looks fuller again. It did not look like a play, it looked cinematic. There are less straight on shots, the cameras are angled, at corners and niches in the set. It is night and day to the episodes that aired 50th anniversary week. Am I being too optimistic that show looks very YR again? …also, this Harmony is so much better than Debbi Morgan. It was a smart move bringing her back. I hope we can see her drop into town more often. I really like this version of Harmony and Tucker. Tucker’s aloofness is so endearing. He comes off as an eccentric billionaire. It’s a fun contrast to the always serious and stiff Victor and Jack. It’s like Tucker is the Silicon Valley billionaire to Victor/Jack’s more traditional CEOs. This Harmony is more subtle. Less scenery chewing. I could see this Harmony and Tucker once being in a romantic pairing.

Cody has so much potential. The actor is good too, nuanced in his performance and with good comedic timing. Gosh he was fun with Britt. I could see him with Kristina or spoiler for Molly/TJ. Maybe he could get a desk job at the PCPD as slowly work past his unsavoury past? What are folks thoughts on Dante/Sam? The actors have chemistry, moreso than their recent pairings. Gosh, I never realised how bad Dante/Lulu were together until now. Gosh those two actors were mismatched.

I like the idea of Robert coming and going as WSB agent. So much of the world’s traumas seem to happen to this small upstate NYC town anyways! He doesn’t need a job in Port Charles - a club, as DA or otherwise? What is Mac’s job these days? Other than being ogled at at the pool? I wouldn’t mind Mac and Felicia taking over Kelly’s for Bobbie while they balance their adventuring and private investigating. Both are great talk to characters for the community. They have so many experiences from a broken marriage, blending families, loosing children, dealing with health crisis like AIDS. Unlike Ruby and Mike, whose traumas happened offscreen before they came to the canvas, we witnessed those traumas live at viewers. Not going to lie, I think this setup is just what Port Charles needs right now.

I felt the build-up under JFP and Megan was pretty bad, but in years since I think it's a mistake their relationship was never revisited. This was the only riveting thing to watch in that time period. MB and Tamara Braun were still sorting out their chemistry. Alexis just changed storyline orbits, from the Q’s to the Corinthos. It felt like a shift, but NLG and MB had the chemistry. This is a strange memory, but I remember Alexis had a pinstripe suit that tied in the front. They really wanted to make that look happen for her, maybe to introduce some feminity to her very masculine wardrobe. It stood out to me because it wasn’t another basic pant suit.

The woman cannot do nuance, and she was given so many opportunity recently: the hook, Epiphany’s death. She is a Disney Channel actress, literally. Using her sparingly will go a long way, though i would rather see her recurring pay-check go elsewhere. …adding to my list of characters to cull: Maxie and Spinelli. Send then away for a happily ever and rest the Maxie character. I would love Maxie back, but the current characterisation is not it. She is not supposed to be the next Amy Vinning. She is meant to be the next Lucy Coe. I hope the current Molly/TJ story lets us start seeing some flaws in good-guy TJ. The easy path would be making him a cheater. I want something more complex - maybe a prescription drug addiction to stay on top of his game as a Doctor? Get him tied up accidentally into the Corinthos drug trade? Let's see TJ a little desperate and living over Kelly's.

I hope they start phasing out Diane. Let Molly be the town lawyer with questionable judgment, even for her Uncle Sonny. I would love the storyline potential for a Sonny/ Molly working relationship. Molly will constantly be out in the middle of tensions - with Alexis, Kristina, her mother in law the cop. It could be a fun way to reintroduce Ric. He was the best pairing for Elizabeth, both times! And Rick Hearst is more handsome than ever.

I think GH is the closest soap to being in a "renaissance" - I just hope the ratings reflect this so the writers and FV can continue in the direction they are going: There is a critical mass of veterans, driving leading stories, and they are not all mob related. I am looking at you Anna, Tracy, Holly, Felicia, and Laura. There is a real sense of community in Port Charles, without feelings like everyone is one story. Michael/Willow are facing her mortality. Liz/Portia are dealing with hospital drama. Sonny has a traitor in his midst. The Q's are about to implode with a power struggle at ELQ. Anna/the Spies are chasing Cassadines. But everything is connected like dominos, where an effect in one story is being felt in the next. The relationships on the show are about more than romantic pairings. We have friendships. We have siblings. It's not just musical beds and mystery pregnancies'. I think there is a cast culling that needs to happen to free-up budget and to open the canvas either returning or more interesting characters. Sasha, Willow, Chase, Finn, Gregory, Drew are all experiments that have had their time and just do not work. I want more TJ/Molly. I want more Kristina. I want more Liz/Portia/hospital crew. For that to work, some of these characters need to be release from their contracts. Brenda - I think VM works best when her stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. VM is not a lifer. Even if she thinks she is, the character of Brenda works best when she can break a lot of things, and rest from the mayhem that she created. AJ and Jason (and the dead Q's) - I think we need to leave well enough alone and let the dead be dead. Especially with LC and Monica's futures in limbo. I appreciate the pivot the the Tracy/Ned side of the Q's. This cast has good chemistry. They have ripe relationships to continue to dig into (BL/Dante, Tracy/Olivia). I would love Dillon and Lois to come back to fill-in the voids. We know the character of Dillon works and is beloved with the right portrayer (think comedic v. himbo). Lois is a 20 year build-up we've been waiting for. She has immediate rivals canvas: Carly, Tracy, Ned, Olivia. Rena still has it. The Kids - The kids on this show is a real problem. Gone are the days where Maxie, Georgie, Robin, Lucas were easy to track on the canvas. Now weave 100 blonde girls running around. I hate to say it, but we need some kids shipped off to gifted boarding schools and off-camera grandparents. Come back for holidays. Liz is the perfect kind of character. She is from a "name" family in Port Charles. But she doesn't have 100 siblings and cousins running around, so she and her kids are not too limited in their romantic options.

I admit I didn’t get to watch JT’s return closely. Did they mention at all if he was still with Mac? They have kids together now, no? I prefer Sharon’s mystery story to be a Matt Clark revisited v. Cameron, especially if Eddie was up for it. Sidenote, I did not know Eddie was a California kid and knew Tori Spelling since high school. They even went on a date. I wonder if that helped him get cast on Sunset Beach.

Laura is the symbol of this era of GH. This is the post-mob only era of JFP. Port Charles is a community again, it has a heart again. That heart is Genie.

Peter is such a handsome man, but even that has not saved his prior roles. Let’s hope he is more than a pretty face.

Can we give GH kudos for making the ladies the heroes for the Cassadine caper? Laura is leading the rescue charge. Holly and Anna are the calvary. Jordan and Felicia are the home team. I don’t want GH to be all spy adventures all the time, but the weeks of girl power and suspense since the awful Nurses Ball has been must-see tv for me. The only weak part to this story is that we’re supposed to hoping for Obrecht’s rescue in time to save Willow. Only, none of us care if Willie lives or dies.

Lexi has gotten the short end of the stick at GH for years. Kristina and Molly should be front burner characters. Their greatest hardship is that they are blood related to the Corinthos men, making them romantic pairings in the B story only.

Victor and Sally… I hate to say it, but they had chemistry. Would it be creepy for them to end up together? Who would have thought that Michelle Stafford’s presence in a storyline would TANK Summer’s. Gosh, I hope Summer is not completely tainted for being part of Phyllis’ stupid plan. …and yes Summer, sleep with Chase already. Kyle is still of zero interest to me.

I love that Felicia and Robert are in the virus story. I hope they get more scenes than being locked in a random hospital room. When did Frisco get such a big promotion at the WSB? I hate that we’re still talking about this character. Why are the scenes so short? I know they want to fit a lot in, but the scenes are so short and so repetitive. We have to have a better attention span than this as a society. Is Helena meant to be a hallucination?

Can someone give Scotty a haircut?

They couldn’t convince Thad Luckinbill to come to the studio? He filmed his cameo over Zoom? Why did they waste our time…

I feel like Gabi is the perfect character to kill off. It frees up Stefan and Li to have other romantic pairings. There are enough friends/family on canvas to mourn her loss. Let her go out in a blaze of glory.

I enjoy the character of Portia. She and Trina are a good mother/daughter pair. I like that she is in a position of leadership at the hospital, which is a big deal in real life for any woman, much less one of colour. Since she broke up with Curtis and Taggert, it is clear that she just lacked chemistry with either actor. I hope they test her with some new characters. Maybe she can get into some trouble with Cody? Or, she can become an interloper with Anna and Valentin, who I think are far from end game. Did we know Dr. Andre was coming back to Port Charles? Is he recurring? The cameo was so slight, and did not do much to advance the story.

As opposed to the time she ransomed the entire town with a bioweapon and got Tony (and Courtney, but hey) killed! I ain't forgot. Especially since one of the main victims was Robin, the girl she loved and treated like a daughter. It made no sense. There was no character driven reason for Holly to turn on her. Scorpio? Sure.

And the facial hair. Every time he shaved, even as Alcazar or Thomas, I remember the gay awakening power of the Soap Opera.