GH: September Discussion

[Ann_SS]

It even worse at GH because the episode counts don't take into consideration how many more minutes the top GH characters appear in each episode compared to the top Y&R characters. So while Victor may be in the episode for 15 minutes, Sonny is in it for 25 minutes. Y&R does not begin to come close to GH in terms of character imbalance. It really wears you down as a fan. If you love Sonny, Jason, the Carlys and Spinelli life is good for you, but if you do not you are screwed. It really hurts the show.

[Ann_SS]

It was amazing how much better today's show was with the cast integration. It has been forever that we have seen the hospital side get any subtantial airtime and the show was so much better with them. Guza refuses to give the hospital characters any airtime. Their stories are basically non-existent. The medical mystery had so much promise, look at how much fun it was today, but Guza would not give it any airtime so the conclusion is manufactured drama instead of a logical explosive conclusion. The other non-mob story is the Nikolas/Rebecca/Liz story which is ridiculous and a replay of Liz getting involved with yet another emotional unavailable man. Guza could have played the quad out as having real emotions, but he prefers to play Lucky as the doofus, while bloated Nikolas who is totally unattractive is the object of these women's attention. What a mess.

[JaneAusten]

You know I was so down on that medical mystery stuff and thought it was pointless but like you said today showed what could have been although Martha Byrne still proves to me she's one of the most overrated actresses in daytime. And Nik/Rebecca/Liz. We see a replay of Jason/Sam/Liz. Sam's betrayal versus Rebecca's with Liz being portrayed the same. And again, I hated Liz the most during that nonsense. THis story though has made me hate Nikolas equally if not moreso than Liz. Rebecca needs to be morphed to Emily and tell these 2 losers to get lost and go off to California and finish her medical studies or hook up with someone interesting for a change. And I hate that Lucky is a non factor and prop yet again.

[Ann_SS]

The medical mystery really did have potential. Instead of Patrick and Robin have the same dialogue for 2 minutes 2 or 3 times a week for months, Robin, Patrick AND Matt could have been investigating the mayor, his wife and the victim could have also had a sketchy boyfriend with whom she was planning to blackmail the mayor. Of course, this would have taken 15 minutes a week away from Guza's beloved mob and its characters.

Another thing about the carnival scenes, it struck me how GH has limited its younger romances by making every single member of the 2nd generation (except Cameron and Emma) related to Sonny and Jason. Now the show that already has limited resources has to go find love interests for Sonny's kids.

The carnival scenes also showed that Sonny is best as a doting father. His days as a leading man are nearing the end. Something I suspect that GH knows which is why they brought in Dante.

[KSlater]

I hope you don't mind me adding to this discussion. I am new to GH, well, sort of new. I watched the show in the late 70's/early 80's. The other soap opera that I used to watch has become like nails on a chalkboard to me, so I dumped it after 20 years of watching it and decided to give GH another look based on the promo.

I found the first part of the week so-so, but immediately was drawn to a few characters. I only saw one familiar face, Monica. There's only one character I took an immediate dislike to and that was the guy who talks in an affected way, like he's reciting Shakespeare for the impaired, Spinelli. Thursday's episode was not good and kind of gave me pause about the writing on this show. But Friday was different. Very well done and enjoyable. It's nice to see a show that looks like, well, a show. I particularly enjoyed the family interaction and the location shoot. While not a lot "happened," was a great introduction for me to the characters and the dialogue was good. I know after reading threads here and on other boards that Friday is not a typical GH show and that something horrible is going to happen, probably mob related and the family interaction will disappear (I've been warned by other viewers LOL), but Friday was a welcome change, at least for a day, from the other show I used to watch. I'm keeping spoiler free on this soap to be able to judge it just for what shows up on my screen, not what I know will happen. I think that one of the big reasons my other soap was ruined for me -- spoilers. I guess I'm soap opera "shopping" mode right now. If GH doesn't keep me interested or keep up the quality after this stunt, I'll move on.

[Southofnowhere]

What did u all think of the DOOL shoutout???

[Ann_SS]

KSlater, all contributions to the thread are welcome. I would especially love to hear your perspective as a returning viewer. GH's stunt promos always gets new or lapse viewers to tune in. Unfortunately, the ratings show that they don't stick around because frankly the show is dreck. Maybe you will change this trend and suffer with us.

I hate Spinelli so we have something in common there. He only gets worse so be prepared.

[KSlater]

Thanks for the welcome, Ann_SS. I'm hoping for something good, but am fully braced for the worst. A friend who stopped watching GH in March because she couldn't take it anymore painted a bleak picture for me. She said that Guza always does a stunt and then there's no follow through. That he rips himself off more than any other soap opera head writer. Kills off beloved characters for no reason, pushes fan faves asides for his pets. Doesn't inspire much confidence. And just when you think his writing has hit rock bottom, he tops himself. So in a way, I'm thinking, what am I doing? LOL

I guess this is the last chance for any soap to convince me to keep watching. My faith in soap operas has hit an all-time low and my tolerance level for dreck is almost nil. I pretty much had thrown in the towel as far as watching all of them until I saw that promo -- it was exceptionally well done, so I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a shot. It's really on TPTB on these soaps to step it up if they want to stop losing viewers. I'm on the verge of saying "goodbye" to soaps but am still hoping for some show to "snap out of it" and show me some decent soap opera.

I'll report back in a week after these events start to play out.

[JackPeyton]

loved it.

[jcar03]

So other people caught the Drake Black and Deidre thing.

[Bright Eyes]

Interesting. Details?

[jcar03]

Sam got a new case as part of her PI business to look into Drake Black thinking that Deidre was selling business secrets turns out that Deidre (played by Valerie Wildman-ex-Fay on DAYS) was the woman that Edward is having an affair with. It wasn't anything huge but it was obviously a reference to Drake Hogestyn/John Black and Deirde Hall.

[S&BFanForLife]

Wow. That went right over my head.

[Ann_SS]

Second day of the carnival and I am bored to tears.

[KSlater]

I said I'd wait to comment until the end of the week, but I lied. LOL

This second day of the carnival, I didn't care for it much. It was kind of hard to follow. And the mob stuff really didn't fit, at least for a newbie like me. I didn't understand where that came from or why. Why were people shooting at Spinelli?

Jason and Sam, while I thought they were cute together last week in one episode, annoyed me today, except for when Jason pulled out his gun at the carnival -- I thought that was funny. Is he a mobster? Is he related to the Quartermaines -- whose son is he? Nicolas and I don't know the woman's name, while I know why he's angry with her, I'm not seeing his big revenge plot yet.

Even with all of the gun and the car running into the crowd of people, I have to admit, I wasn't on the edge of my seat. The promo promised a lot more than this has delivered so far. But I'll still watch until the end of the week.

I guess the episode didn't flow very well.