Port Charles Discussion Thread

Khan · March 21, 2014

Frankly, cassadine, I don't think so. As I've said upthread, PC was just desperate to gain traction with the viewers. They needed something -- ANY thing -- to get people talking about the show and get them out from under GH's long shadow. Short of a true, visionary EP and HW'ing team, I think PC's cancellation was inevitable.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Khan

Harmony233 · March 21, 2014

It seems like all the soaps in this time slot never could make it loving the city ect

It also felt like the beginning it was more family oreniated and had more of an ensemble.I feel like the time it ended it became the Alision/Rafe/Livvie/Caleb show that said I thought it was stupid of RC to have all the vampire crap be an hallcanation in lucy's mind.

cassadine1991 · March 21, 2014

But it turned out NOT to be a hallucination after all

JackPeyton · March 22, 2014

I think if anything the turn to supernatural prolonged PC more than ended it.

The problem was that the later arcs were just not good abd much like when the main story sucks on a soap it hurt the series, but PC didn't have the supporting stories to keep (most) people that didn't like the main one.

cuzIsaySo · March 22, 2014

I liked early PC better. I stopped watching when they got into that supernatural crap becuz i didnt find it interesting. I felt it was too much of a departure and I personally didnt think being so closely tied to mother show GH was what hindering PC. AT TIMES Pc wrote GH history better than GH itself.

I wish they had had more cross-overs and i still have a soft spot for Mary Scanlon. I liked seeing Lee and Gail and amanda barrington. I wish they had crossed Katherine bell over at least to come toe-to-toe with rex stanton.

I wish Neal and Serena had grown on the show. I wish they did something with Chris Ramsey and Courtney (dont remember her last name but i loved sarah aldrich as a bitch).

I wish they hadnt gotten rid of the interns one by one. I wish Ellen Burgess had been given more airtime. I wish they kept jake marshak and develop his romance with Danielle.

I wish the show brought Jagger as angst for Joe and Karen.

I think there were so much missed opportunities with PC that going the supernatural road was a silly gimmick

Harmony233 · March 22, 2014

Edited March 23, 2014 by Harmony233

cuzIsaySo · March 23, 2014

Considering the Bordisso stuff was so convoluted i dont blame anyone for not having a clue of what it was all about. I doubt the writers had a clue themselves.

Eve was a part time hooker to pay for med school which is when she initially met DV. Dv was introduced when Lucy started the Serena clothing line (i think) and to somehow get back at.scott he tried to tank it by having it involved with child labour scandal. He didnt know scott was his son cuz meg(scott's bio mom) left him without telling him but held him responsible for his split with Meg (again i think not sure).

It got evne more convoluted becuz DV and kevin's father Victor had beene

Experimenting with spy stuff and mind control.

dc11786 · March 25, 2014

There is some stuff from 1999 on youtube from DV's time. In the credits, Robert Guza is listed as storyline consultant so take from that what you will.

I spent a little time watching bits and pieces from the show this week on youtube. I was never an ABC fan until SoapNet arrived and then I sampled a little bit of everything. "Port Charles" was always the easiest because it was only a half-hour.

From the first go around, I don't remember the early PC episodes being very interesting, but rewatching some of it, I found some of it was more effective than I remembered. I enjoyed parts of the premier episode. The speech that the interns deliver to Greg Cooper about agreeing to keep mum about what happened was very Richard Culliton. I thought they integrated the old and the new well (the Scanlons lived in the same neighborhood as Rhonda Wexler, Greg's family knew Dr. Hardy, etc.) I don't agree with a lot of the casting. Michael Dietz is competent, but I don't get the sense he's the hot head it's implied he is suppose to be based on the conversation with Alan Quartermaine. Similarly, Jennifer Hammon is given a lot of baggage to play in the opening episodes with Scott, and the stripping, and Lee's wrangling. Maybe it's unfair to judge so soon, but I think someone with a little more oomph could have made that role a bit more compelling. That said, I remember really enjoying Hammon the first go around.

And yet some of the other roles were perfectly cast. Pinson is solid in these early episodes as a snarky go-getter while Ramsey plays the spoiled cad well. In my viewing, I also caught Eve crashing at Chris' after Karen kicks her out when it was revealed Eve had slept with Bennett Devlin. Eve and Chris were delightful together. I remember the last time the show really played Eve and Chris was during "Time in a Bottle" when Eve learned she was pregnant and contemplated raising the child with Chris.

Lisa Ann Hadley is to be commended for really running with whatever they through at her. She seemed fine as the poor little rich girl at the start and managed to hang on to her dignity when they first accused of her being the General Homicide killer. I saw some stuff from her sanity hearing with Nolan North's Chris which stood out because it was surrounded by the mind altering adventures of Eve, Kevin, and DV.

Lynn Herring seems more at home playing this early material than some of the more overwrought material Karen Harris and Barbara Bloom gave her. The Lucy / Scott / Kevin dynamic was much more compelling than I remember. I think the set up of the kidnapping was a bit much, but the overall arc is interesting. I had forgotten Scott's car accident had happened so early on.

I didn't care for the General Homicide stuff I saw. It all seemed heavy on plot. I could almost tolerate the DV stuff more because of some of the lighter moments. At one point, Kevin and Lucy have led Eve to believe that they are sleeping together in order to protect Eve, how I don't really know. Anyway, it led to a very nice quiet moment between Kevin and Lucy where Lucy comments that its been a year since Kevin walked in on Lucy and Scott together and how they never really resolved this situation. It was nice and Lynn Herring played Lucy's mixed emotions well.

I wonder what the original plan was for Rachel Locke and when they decided to incorporate Grace and Livvie. Rachel was introduced under Hammer I think, and the Livvie stuff played out when Harris and Bloom were writing. It seems to flow well, but I am curious about the quickly dropped connection to Ellen and the connection to DV.

I wish they hadn't gone with the arcs. I thought "Secrets" was the best as it told a story in 13 weeks and moved on.

Vee · March 25, 2014

I enjoyed the "General Homicide" mess for a while, but what baffled me is it seemed to go on for what felt like 18 months as everyone on the show and their mom said, "it must be Greg Cooper and that crazy Julie!" Greg Cooper was supposed to be responsible for everything bad on the show, so I naturally thought, well, these two are obviously red herrings. But no! After all that, it was Greg Cooper and Julie! Ridiculous. And the DV story was awful. They were psychic spies? What?

I thought the whole incorporation of Kevin's backstory - Grace, Rachel Locke, etc. - was masterful, but the Ellen angle they dropped absolutely infuriated me as a kid. I loved Debbi Morgan, and even though she wasn't playing the role anymore I cared about Ellen.

cassadine1991 · June 1, 2014

Happy anniversary