GH: November Discussion Thread

[JackPeyton]

im glad sonny was proud of mcihael for whacking clawhore with an axe.

i am too. bravo michael, bravo michael.

and lets not forget he has killed before. AJ anyone? No, i dont care about the rewrite that it wasnt him we all know it was planned from the start.

This show sucks tho. Badly.

[Cheap21]

I saw that Sam was the one to help Carly and drive her away after she gave birth. What is their relationship like? I remember Carly hating her around the time she broke up with Jason years ago and those two fought. What was her reaction to them reuniting?

I dont care that Claudia is dead but I found it disgusting how Sonny praised Michael and said "You did good" What kind of father says that?

[bellcurve]

Here's a fun, February Sweeps story: The Original Bensonhurst Whore, Kate, goes postal and Michael becomes a serial killer, offing her too.

Good idea, right?

[Sylph]

[Cyberologist]

Well I guess I am the only one that found Friday eppy well acted but horribly demeaning women in dialog so I guess that is good soap for some but not for me

(also having Micheal and Krystina witness their father's degradation of women was a turn off)

by the time Sonny got through his bitch whore and trash my stomach was doing flip flops. I don't find this good soap..I do give Sarah kudos for excellent acting in a crappy storyline

on so many levels...and glad she's hitting the bricks..because Claudia could have been fixed but they refused to do it. I am a SJB fan so I'll follow her to B/B to join my other emmy winning fav Guza refused to write "for" but "against." Rick Hearst

As far as Jason's scene with (JJ's) Lucky Jason has been a redundant one-note character sitting on Carly/Sonny's lap for over a decade.

With little to no range it has taken its toll on this character and he's become a bad parody of himself a walking contridiction

much as many GH characters have... It doesn't matter who the policeman is he will win...it can be Jesus Christ and Jason will win so I don't even pay attention to most of his once a month police interrogation/arrests scenes the outcome is always the same he dismissess the law and mocks it at every turn and always has no matter who is up

against him in a scene, a little boy, a grown man, woman, doesn't matter

I'll have to re-watch this week to see why its been lauded such a great soapy week "writing wise"

The problem with this show again "only a few get writing"

The Chosen ones, the pets unless you are a fan of Frons' poodles

on that short A-List you're screwed on this show.

Yeah Top Enforcers usually don't do the clean up/wetwork unless they are

a lone hitman which Jason use to be he's no longer a solitary man

its like mob from some bad B movie...

I guess as an educator I don't find seeing a kid written in a position to have to kill

a woman entertaining

[NorrthCafe]

I remember when fans started calling Michael 'mykill'. I thought that was harsh then. Apparently the writers thought it rocked! I know this sounds odd when said 'out loud', but I honestly thought that GH couldn't get any worse with their 'suckpranos' storyline. I was so wrong.

[MarkH]

So, I saw that scene without any spoilers or pattern of general viewership. I just tuned in, knowing roughly what was happening, and interested to see who would do in Claudia.

So, when Sonny said "You did good", my blood ran cold...in a good way.

Let me explain: We are seeing--the the most clear terms possible--the intergenerational transmission of sickness and violence. That was a core theme of the show to which this one is often compared (Sopranos). What we have just seen is that Sonny (and others) justified, defended, and supported a killing. And with that turn, Michael becomes the very thing he has (so far) suffered mightily under--a violent killer.

This is not grandma's soap, I'll grant that...but it is as compelling a portrait of familial patterns of violence as any I have seen on daytime.

It's not like the show is not self-aware, from a broader perspective, that this violence is bad. Just last week I heard the show's moral center, Robin, decry the violence.

But as a study of humans on the dark side, it is a remarkable demonstration of where "choices get made" (a line repeatedly used by The Wire's creators to describe their Season 4). We're seeing the making of a monster. I, personally, do find that very compelling--if it is unflinching. If they do this right, Michael will never be a hunky romantic lead or a happy fella. Instead, he will always be touched by this--every next step will be colored by this. I find this a very brave step to have taken.

I'm sure you regular viewers will roll your eyes and tell me "this has been done a million times -- they are going to glorify this -- they are going to make Michael the next young hero for this." Maybe. Maybe. Maybe not.

[Juliajms]

I don't think your "maybe not" is justified by anything but blind hope Mark. The show you describe could be interesting on HBO. It's a little much on daytime and I have no doubt that Micheal will be a romantic lead. Maybe a tortured romantic lead like Sonny, but the thought makes me ill. The show doesn't treat Jason and Sonny like monsters, so what makes you think they consider Michael a "monster in the making". GH isn't that deep ad it's head writer isn't that capable. No offense, but you must be a sporadic viewer at best, if you think there is any hope he could rise to that level.

I hate Sonny and his continual self indulgence and self pity. GH does not deserve to be compared in any serious way to the Sopranos. That show was very clear on the fact that the main characters were sociopaths. Robin may be the moral center of GH, but she doesn't fear Sonny and Jason. She thinks they are good guys at heart. The psychiatrist on the Sopranos feared Tony and that was shown on more than one occasion. She knew he was a thug who might turn on her at any time, even if a part of her was flattered by his attentions.

[MarkH]

I fully admit this was a "drive-by" viewing. But that scene was actually breathtaking.

[Cat]

Mark, I see where you are coming from. And, indeed, that is the reading that I got from yesterday's show. I mean, the whole show -- not just Sonny's "You did good," that was the fly on top of the turd -- was SO violent and sick that I knew that the HW (never the most subtle of writers) was making a point. The very point you make about dysfunction to the nth degree. The making of a monster.

However, this is only part of the story, because GH is always trying to have it both ways. Hence the voyeur-like "Look at those Corinthoses. Isn't it awful?" coupled with scene upon scene of our favorite mobsters:

-falling in love. Nothing like making a sociopath look less bad than by putting him into a chemistry-rich relationship! Thanks, Brenda.

-undergoing terrible tragedy, loss and grief. So that we feel sorry for them.

-doing the noble thing and pushing their beloved ones away "for their own good."

-telling us again and again how everything that has happened (to Michael, for instance) is their own fault. They take "full responsability" for everything. And yet Jason and Sonny are patently unwilling to make any changes to their "lifestyle" or even give up the mob completely for the people they profess to love more than life itself. When Carly was missing, Sonny was sitting around like a bored schoolboy, showing only the barest concern for one of the many women he "loved the most."

The show may be pointing out the worst kind of flaws in their main characters. But they also hero-worship them shamelessly. I feel nothing but pity for Michael who, ever since he was a baby, was never given a fighting chance to have a somewhat normal life. He can thank the best mother in the whole wide world Carly for that, who was too busy putting her own desires first (I won't even go into what his adopted father contributed).

And I am going to miss Claudia. SB was the only one in the show who brought any balls to her scenes. And while the Zaccharas were cut-price Cassadines at heart, at least the show never sugar-coated that family's murderous, misogynistic and incestuous dysfunction.

[DRW50]

GH doesn't have "happy, romantic" male leads. The problem is that the show actually wants us to pity and see as noble, long-suffering heroes, these men who commit violent crimes, up to murder.

Michael isn't going to be seen as a monster. He's going to be seen as a traumatized young man who did what he had to do. We are expected to weep over his struggle and be in awe of what a deep person he is. Deep because he makes a lot of weird faces, hates women, and lashes out with violence.

[Sylph]

As long as this is not another wave of "rationalizations", we're all set.

[Juliajms]

I didn't mean that as an insult and hopefully my post didn't come off as harsh. That was not at all my intention. I think I was just in shock that anyone thinks this show could do something good and deep. Whatever Y&R's problems, it is still much, much better than GH is or will ever be under Guza.

[Cat]

Ah. So he's his mother's son!

j/k, j/k Laura Wright fans. Carly would never lash out in violence now. She might break a nail.

Ouch! OK. I'll try again. Yes, I think Michael will be all the things you say... except he is obviously being groomed as another Jason, what with the looks and brain injury. The misogyny will therefore be less, uh, shout-y and softened by the fact that he wuvs his ma.

[Juliajms]

I think it would have made a lot of sense if GH had changed Carly after Michael's shooting. The character has changed, but the show won't commit to it the way they should. Carly could still be a schemer, but it's long past time she stops worshiping the mob. It's put her children in danger far too often for that. But if they really want to keep her in that world, then it's time to commit to that instead. Either all in or all out. The wishy washy way the character has been written in the last couple of years is just way too boring to me.