3 minutes ago, Vee said:

Karen Wexler is still dead

I'll take "Cool Band Names" for $200!

Edited November 30Nov 30 by Khan

22 minutes ago, Vee said:

Thanks so much. You always have lovely thoughts. I think the hope under this regime re: DV and Scott must have been that DV would be some ready-made long-running villain, hence the blood ties and Kin Shriner spending months scowling and growling "Bordisso!" everyday, but I never was interested in him and he flopped just like Rex Stanton. I can't remember how or when they got rid of DV.

I have always wanted to see Rachel Locke return to wreak havoc on GH. I'd still want GH to make use of some of these other characters (like Christina and Serena, or perhaps a child of Livvie's) someday, while deftly sidestepping the continuity issues involved later in PC's run. The ambitious but dismal 2013 attempt at such on GH was largely handwaved as being the result of a magic spell anyway.

I do think part of the issue with Bordisso is the timing of his arrival. He is introduced late February, 1999, and Latham is out the door in very early May, 1999. There was a little over two months of set up before Hamner, who was already on the team, took over. I think Latham may have left due to illness, or maybe that was just an excuse to politely fire her. Anyway, I get the general idea of DV being Scott's father, but it just seems to be lacking the oomph. Having watched a bit of Scotty's early 1990s episodes, the relationship between Scotty and Lee was so layered and complicated. This complication didn't really add anything to that so I guess I am just wondering where they expected this to go in the long run.

Bordisso is out early December. Hannan Carrouthers comes in late December, but may not be credited until January. I know she is credited for bringing on Erin Gray as Nicole Devlin who appears in December. Hamner is out in late January. There is no writer in February and Harris arrives in early March. It feels like Bordisso was part of a housecleaning between TPTB. Van Drusen also immediately returned to "The Young and the Restless" as Keith Dennison so it might have been the actor's decision to cut and run. I don't think van Drusen was under contract.

The show definitely lacked clear villains early on. I think that's why I like the messier Frank and Courtney and the slightly unhinged Julie. Julie's reaction to Lee surviving the embolism is diabolically campy, yet slightly enjoyable. Rachel was only a few weeks from arriving in the place I stopped (July 9th, she's there two weeks later).

I like what I've seen of Rachel, but she definitely feels like a smaller scale (yet more effective) villain that what was originally intended. I think her involvement with Julie and later the larger feud with Kevin over Grace was smart. I'm curious if Kimberlin Brown would have stayed another year or more had Harris and Bloom stayed as headwriters. Or if she left, would they have recasted given how integral she was becoming to the canvas by that point. It's a shame Scott leaves after Christina's kidnapping because I think the Baldwin unit was so well developed removing him undermined a lot of that.

During the DV era, I believe they also, for a hot minute, tried to make Victor Greg Cooper's father, which I think would make sense if anyone in the audience thought Greg Cooper had a lifespan outside of a sweeps month.

In another one of my "Port Charles" jaunts this weekend, I was looking for the sequence from 2000 where Claire Wright dies. In that search, I found some very solid scenes with Alan Quartermaine coming to see Karen about her pill problem during the Nurses' Strike. The history between Karen and Alan was very integrated given Alan's connection to Rhonda, the bond Karen once shared with Jason, and Alan's own history of addiction. It's a shame more wasn't done with Monica's ties to the Baldwin clan through Gail, but I thought it was all very good. A lot of the bigger story on "Port Charles" may be tough, but so much of the domestic conflicts are fairly well done.

I did end up watching Kimberlin Brown's arrival. Rachel's introduction was intended as a Friday cliffhanger for Friday, July 23, 1999, but a preemption left it as the Monday, July 26, 1999, cliffhanger with her more in-depth scenes on Tuesday. Rachel is brash and a bit abrassive having been lured by Chris Ramsey to take over Julie Devlin's case from Kevin Collins. During Rachel's consultation with her, Julie is evasive leading Rachel to bluntly ask what it was like to walk in on her brother Buddy after he had blown his brains out. Maybe Rachel wasn't that crass, but it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility. I had forgotten that little detail of the Devlin family history (Rachel finding Buddy). In the aftermath, Rachel tells Chris she'll take the case and Julie makes it clear that she doesn't trust Rachel (comparing her to the sharks she saw at the aquarium when she was younger).

The Devlin family history was very twisted and I could imagine the Bennett / Buddy / Allison (Buddy's fiancee) situation playing out as a sorta darker take on the Alan / AJ / Nikki Langton story. Maybe its a superficial comparison, but it seems that the Devlins seemed to have the foundation to be "Port Charles'" answer to the Quartermaines. I think Chris and Nicole Devlin also had had an affair so the whole Julie - Chris dynamic was twisted as well. No wonder Julie was a mess.

In the other main story of interest (to me at least) in these episodes was Frank's renovation of a bar (maybe the Recovery Room? Whatever it is it sounds like Mary owns it), which leads to a celebration and lots of accolades being made about Frank in front of Karen and Joe. Joe, who apparently has held on telling their mother about Frank's deception leading to Karen and Joe's breakup, finally lets the cat out of the bag and informs Mary of what her eldest son has done. Initially, Mary rejects Joe's claims, but as the conversation goes on, Mary starts to turn. Pat Crowley does a decent job in this sequence with her loyalty shifting from one son to another with an unnerved Courtney fluttering in the background (afraid Frank will be a turncoat and reveal her role in the breakup).

The resulting spiral of confrontations with Frank is fascinating with Frank desperately trying to regain control of the situation before turning on Mary saying she has always sided with Joe (even though moments earlier she cannot believe what Joe said) and then leans into the Scanlons' own twisted family history reminding Joe how many beating Frank took from Pops Scanlon to protect Joe. It's all a well done mirror to the dsyfunctional family history on display in Julie's story.

I think there were also some bits of the psychic spy crap with Victor, previously presumed dead, now alive and helping Eve in a mock up of Jasmine Island or something. It's all not very compelling to me, but, at times, I get what they are trying to do (a psychological adventure story with a more modern twist), but like a lot of the GH stories from the early 1990s, it's not my cup of tea.

I find it incredible that a half-hour soap (that isn't EON) even would attempt a story like the psychic spy story, or any action/adventure-type story for that matter. All you have to do is to look at what SFT did so often with Travis and Liza to know that stories that aren't kitchen-sink dramas don't work in a half-hour format. There just simply isn't enough time or resources to do it well.

(Of course, I always make the exception for LOVING, because even high romance mixed with action/adventure stuff might've helped them be something other than "Dollar Tree AMC," lol.)

Edited Thursday at 05:06 AM4 days by Khan

@Khan I think "Search for Tomorrow" is an apt comparison. Joanna Lee spoke about how the half-hours needed to compete with the hour shows by providing the same type of stories, but I think you are right. Those type of adventure plots are hard to achieve because of the necessary resources and story space. I think that the show was trying to figure out what to do with Kevin and Eve as a couple. At some point, Eve is tormented with the idea that the son she had by DV Bordisso was alive. I imagine the original endgame was to have that become the reality. From the weekly summaries from earlier in 1999, Eve was suffering from endiometriosis and there were questions about whether or not she would be able to become pregnant.

Psychiatrist Kevin and his spy father Victor involved in a plot involving both their careers on paper sounds smart, but it's not super interesting. I imagine when you are telling a story about a serial killer being released from a mental hospital, a couple gaslighting a young sexual assault survivor that her boyfriend is a sex addict, and a love triangle involving a father and son where the father assaulted the female leg of the triangle by coercing her into sex during a stint with amnesia, you see the psychic spy stuff as lighter fare. With all that darkness, the show doesn't feel heavy 24/7 because there is a lot of emotional beats around family, friends, and romantic interests.

I think you can effectively do some of the psychological adventure stories on the half-hours effectively. I think you could pare down the Ryan Chamberlain saga on GH from 1992-1993 into something smaller in scale. Rusty Sentell gaslighting his daughter-in-law Liza in order to end her marriage to his son Travis is effective in plotting, but not motivation (Rusty was looking to secure a grandchild to access the General's fortune). Vargas kidnapping Jo was also effective on the same series. I really enjoyed Amy Morris, the crazy babysitter, kidnapping Ryan Fenelli and Maeve Ryan thinking Ryan was the baby she aborted and Maeve was her former boyfriend's controlling mother. I think your larger point about these grand adventures is completely accurate, but I also think that the 1980s style big adventure stories could only be effectively done by a handful of writers, while most writers and their teams can make domestic stories semi-effective mostly until the early 2000s.

The Livvie story a year later seems a more effective use of Eve and Kevin.

I picked up in November 1997 where I left off a while ago starting with November 10. I finished off the month making it to Thanksgiving, 1997. This would be the start of the second month of Lynn Marie Latham's run. I do think the show is getting a bit stronger in most areas, but I don't think there is a strong enough big story to keep an audience tuning in day in and day out. Port Charles is a quieter show in that sense, which seems odd to say about Latham's work. 

My favorite material involves the Devlin family. In the Loving / The City thread, we've discussed Harding Lemay's comment about The City not being compelling in it's early sequences because it was all set among one generation of characters. This comment would also apply to early Port Charles. I think it helps that they have started to explore multigenerational dynamics more. The Bennett / Nicole / Chris / Eve story has developed nicely in terms of story and characterization with some interesting structural decisions made in the process. The Ellen / Matt / Grace triangle is benefitting from the recognition of the non-traditional family dynamcis with Ellen's role of supervisor of the interns preventing Ellen to committing to a relationship with Matt. Joe and Karen's romance is more interesting because of the needling from all of their assorted family members about what their relationship status is. 

The Devlin family scenes are some of my favorites. Bennett and Nicole's marriage is toxic. Bennett is a philandeerer and Nicole seems to be having her own mid life crisis by throwing herself into an affair with Dr. Chris Ramsay, who Nicole describes in one scene as a mirror image of Bennett in his youth. Chris and Bennett as the same type makes not only the Nicole / Chris and Nicole / Bennett dynamic intersting, it sets in motion what should be a more solid foundation for Chris and Julie in the future. Nicole isn't really going to bed with Chris; she is trying to relive the love she experienced with Bennett. Barabara Stock does well with the little she gets, but I wish they'd dig deeper. After learning the Julie knew about Eve and Bennett's affair, Nicole berates her daughter only days after Julie has been rescued from Greg Cooper's clutches. Julie's role as Nicole's confidante and Nicole's need for Julie to parent her sets up an interesting role reversal that explains why Julie is such a neurotic mess. Bennett also uses Julie as mediator in his attempts to reconcile with Nicole. 

All of this culminates in a rather purposely bizarre sequence where Julie dreams of performing surgery with Greg Cooper on her mother while Greg morphs into Bennett during the course of the dream and Nicole into Eve. The sequence ends with Julie stabbing Eve in the stomach on the operating table. I have to wonder at what point Latham was considering going the serial killer route. 

There are other interesting structural choices made in these episodes. On the way to the Scanlons house to see Julie, Bennett and Nicole both offer up their own versions of how Bennett and Eve's affair began each including competing filmed versions of the stories that play out one after the other. It's an interesting gimmick I have rarely scene in daytime, but it allows the audience to draw their own conclusion. Once the Devlins arrive at the Scanlons, they are surprised by the arrival of Eve and Chris (pre-affair with Nicole) when Eve arrives to get some notes she left in the Scanlon basement from when she shared the space with Julie. Eve walks right between Nicole and Bennett, which is played lowkey but is a delicious visual representation of the role Eve plays in their marriage. 

Pinson is charismatic and has a nice comedic flair, but occassionally will fall flat in some of the more dramatic material. At one point, Bennett attempts to persuade Eve to tell Nicole that neither Bennett nor Eve loved each other and that was little more than a one-night stand. This lie devastates Eve as there was a time she expected Bennett to leave Nicole for her. Eve confronts Bennett over whether he ever truly loved her, and Bennett backtracks. It's increasingly clear that Bennett is someone who will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Albert underplays a lot of Bennett's swarminess which is fairly effective, but I'm not convinced it's as nuanced as I would like. Anyway, when Eve does goes to Nicole, Eve reveals what Eve now beleives to be the truth; Eve's love for Benentt was one-sided. He only loved Nikki, but Eve. 

All of this culiminates in Nicole's proclamation that she will be staying in Port Charles and later informs Bennett and Julie of her plans to divorce Bennett. Julie's reaction to this is pretty prominent, and, if I remember correctly, it plays a role in how she will react to her relationship with Frank down the line. Frank and Julie are very comfortable in their relationship after Julie's kidnapping. Bennett offers Frank the reward money, which he initialyl refuses before telling Bennett to donate the money to the Dominque Baldwin Pediatrics AIDS Wing at General Hospital. Julie and Frank mostly appear in their own stories, which is fine. 

I like how Frank Scanlon maintains two different jobs. I don't think soaps always do this well. Frank's work as an EMT and a substitute teacher put him in the center of several stories and effectively crosses over nicely at the end of the month in a much larger story that doesn't focus on Frank. Slowly, throughout the month, Frank's next story starts with the arrival of Lark Madison, a student in his class who has an injured arm. Frank has taken Lark to GH in order to have her treated. Karen is the attending who sees Lark, who claims she is just clumsy. Later, Karen is unable to confirm Lark's address, while Lark also skips school to work at Mario's restaurant, which seems to be the new, more upscale, dining location. When Frank stops by Mario's to confront Lark, the teenager has alcohol on her breathe. It's an interesting beat in a mystery that is slowly spiraling out. 

Speaking of Mario's, Joe and Karen treat Mario, Jr., the owner, for heartburn that he assumes is a heart attack and Mario thanks them with a dinner at his restaurant. It's a comedy of errors as Karen and Joe both get ready for their non-date with Mary, Frank, Julie, and Rhonda all clucking over the date that isn't a date. This is also involves a well directed sequence where Joe and Karen pick up each other lines and the camera matches body movements with Karen going to sit down in her scenes with Rhonda while Joe stands up in his sequence with Frank and Julie. After the non-date, Joe asks Karen out for real. 

Joe and Karen as played by Dietz and Hammon have a nice rapport. It's not a love for the ages, but it's clear that we are in an era of shows like Chicago Hope and ER where we are firmly in a world where medical romances are popular. There's also a lot of gratuitious shirtless scenes with Karen trying on the dresses for Julie and Julie stripping down for work with Matt walking in on both women shirtless. Later, you have Eve down to her underwear to get Chris out of bed. Chris also walks around in a towel at one poitn. It's all very obvious at times and slightly cheapens the drama. 

There are some nice beats hit in the Karen / Joe material. Karen talks about how this will be the first time she has been out with anyone since she's been married and how nervous that makes her. When Joe and Karen do go out, it is Joe who wants to slow it down because he doesn't want to be Karen's rebound after Jagger. Joe wants to be there for the long haul. Karen also talks about how hard it is for her constantly wrap her mind around the idea from Joe going from being just her buddy to something more. When Danielle dies at the end of the month, it is Joe and Karen in the operating room. Karen speaks to Joe about how hard she is taking Danielle's death because she was just getting use to patients dying when she didn't know them and how she knew Danielle. I think this story is in a good place, but it was going to need a catalyst for drama that wasn't there. 

Danielle's death was well done for a character who has had little to no story for much of the last two months that I have seen. In her final days, a run in with Serena at the hospital leads to Danielle have a change of heart and decides she is going to confess to Scott the truth: she is Dominique's half-sister, but she is not Serena's mother. Danielle has planned to flee Port Charles because she has nothing left and to escape Rex's control. In addition, Rex told Danielle that Scott was a danger to Serena, which is why she went along with the scheme. While awaiting the FBI agent at the firehouse, Danielle gets a call from Rex, posing as Jake, saying that he has the FBI agent on his payroll and then alludes to Danielle's impending death. Danielle flees before telling the FBI agent what her role was but leaves a message on Scott's machine before disappearing. 

Danielle's accident occurs offscreen. Instead, the episode ends with a woman being brought into the ER after a car accident and everyone learning it is Danielle. The next episode only deals with Danielle's surgery and everyone waiting to find out the results. There are a lot of nice character beats. Matt wants to know what caused the accident for Jake's sake seemingly alluding to the nature of his own accident that left him paralyzed. Scott tells Jake he knows what he's going through alluding to Dominique. After we are told Danielle has died in surgery, Kevin goes as far as to speak about Grace's death (without naming her). There's a lot of assumption of GH lore in these scenes and I am starting to see why the show felt in the long run they wanted to cut ties from that. I still think its fairly well done. Rib Hillis, while a beautiful man, isn't the strongest dramatic actor. With that said, Pinson's scenes had me cringing more than Hillis, but Pinson's presence is more laid back overall than Hillis'.

The Scott / Lucy / Kevin stuff involving Rex has been slightly more enjoyable than I remember it. Lucy and Kevin go to the Cayman Islands in a sequence that seems like a more subdued version of the Eve / Kevin stuff I saw in the summer of 1999. Andrew Lee was the director of an episode that had a very nice overhead shot of the Cayman Islands hotel room from the view of the ceiling fan. These kind of shots are not done often in daytime anymore so it stood out. Honestly, the production values in terms of how scenes are put together and some of the filming techniques are surprising. There was another sequence (a surgery) that was filmed using the hand held cameras which were shaky. It worked for the intensity of the situation, but it was carried over into some other scenes and it was less effective. I believe one of the medical shows had used a similar format.   

The bulk of the plot in the story is Scott and Rex each trying to gaslight the other. Scott manages to lure Rex's PI to his side and then claims he has Rex's chef on the payroll. Rex claims he has the FBI agent in his pocket. It's a lot of back and forth and often things are purposely ambigious, which I don't mind but I could see as bothering others. I've seen better Riche produced gaslighting tales. In an exposition dump to Danielle, we get more details about Rex's stint in a mental institution which Rex claim was instigated by his brother Avery Stanton (Domique and Danielle's father) and insinuated that he was very aware that he was surrounded by psychopaths. It leaves the source of Rex's mental health issues up in the air as well as giving motivation to why Rex is so determined to get the money. 

Lucy's sidequest to find information about Serena Ltd, which was a shell company I believe that Rex funneled money into to make it look like Scott was stealing the inheritance, has her doing her schtick with a Cayman Islands banker which is fine. Then, she comes up with the idea to kill off Scott so that they don't need Scott there. It plays out better than I can explain it. It's not my favorite stuff, but its solid plot movement in the story. Towards the end of the month, Lucy thinks the only way to get to Rex is to fake a break up with both Kevin and Scott in order to allign herself with Rex with Rex believing this will be the only way Lucy can get access to Serena. This arc makes sense to me and is messy as you have Lucy and Kevin still trying to have a baby and talking about their wedding at some point. 

The other noteworthy thing to mention is the brief custody hearing where Justus Ward defends Scotty and the Baldwins (Gail and Lee) securing temporary guardianship of Serena for Gail and Lee. Interesting enough, Dominic Hoffman appears as Byron Rollins, Rex's attorney. I believe this is the same character who defended Tiffany Donnelly in her suit against the Jones for Lucas back in 1993. 

I think Latham is making strides, but I feel like I don't remember there being much of an energy shift in the January 1998 episodes I watched within the last few years. 

There was also nice movement in the Matt / Ellen story. Matt had saved elitist Boardman's life which put him in the spotlight. Monica asked Matt to assist her in a surgery using the new chair lift he had fought for. The surgery sequence reminded me of Monica's return to the operating room in June, 1992, after the Langton trial was over. It wasn't a necessary beat, but powerful. The surgery goes well with Matt performing most of it, but at the end, there is a issue. A valve is bleeding and needs to be sutured. Monica asks if another doctor needs to step in, but Matt comes through with flying colors and precise sewing skills. I think it is a nice thing to help let the audience know that your doctor can be differently abled and still be a competent surgeon.

Additionally, Ellen drops the wig and starts wearing her natural dreads. When Matt comments on the change in hair, Ellen said Matt has taught her that she needs to stop conforming to what people expect to be a doctor and simply be who she is. I thought it was a pretty powerful comment on the racism in the medical profession that I could never see flying today in the more conservative daytime landscape (unless you had a white character explaining it).

1 hour ago, dc11786 said:

On the way to the Scanlons house to see Julie, Bennett and Nicole both offer up their own versions of how Bennett and Eve's affair began each including competing filmed versions of the stories that play out one after the other.

[...]

It's a comedy of errors as Karen and Joe both get ready for their non-date with Mary, Frank, Julie, and Rhonda all clucking over the date that isn't a date. This is also involves a well directed sequence where Joe and Karen pick up each other lines and the camera matches body movements with Karen going to sit down in her scenes with Rhonda while Joe stands up in his sequence with Frank and Julie.

Sequences like those are something of a signature for Latham (and for her husband, Bernard Lechowick, as well). The Lechowicks employed them all the time on KNOTS LANDING, HOMEFRONT and other shows they've written and produced.