GH: April Discussion Thread

[Juliajms]

Today's episode was really good, although there were a few things that had me seeing red. Ethan and Luke referring to the police as pigs, I could seriously do without. Screw you and your disdain for the law Guza. Keifer's father putting his hands on Lucky made me wish Lucky would arrest that smug SOB right on the spot. Alexis assuring K that she had done nothing wrong, I didn't really care for that. Not that she has to bitch the kid out there and then, but I think there should have been some acknowledgment of her mistake.

NLG has been doing really well. I thought she gave a really raw performance today. I like that she played Alexis as devastated. Keifer was an ass, but he was only 18. He deserved jail and a chance to change. All his possibilities, including the possibility for redemption are gone now. So often GH treats killing as no biggie, I'm glad Alexis isn't treating it that way, no matter what Keifer did.

I like that Steven stood up to Jason. Sad that Steven is now doomed.

[quartermainefan]

I think it written entirely for women. Men, the stereotypical men anyway, don't really care about stories about babies and yet this is what GH has been serving up non-stop for years. Men I don't think care about pairings and yet GH has sat on the fence for years trying to string out these pairings just for the sake of it. I think if a man were to watch Robin Hood movies, he would be really be into Robin vs the Sheriff. Women, as the cliche would have it, would be more interested in Robin and Marian.

That's is what GH is: Jason and his endless girlfriends who don't get stories because any story might jeopardize the appeal of his latest love. I don't think you can find a single man who would say "you know what I am just dying to see? A story about Post Partum Depression where nothing happens but the woman gets to talk about it alot." And that is what GH serves up. A man wouldn't be interested in a gangster that every woman finds incredibly handsome because he has dimples. That clearly is aimed at women.

GH, with its total lack of drama and perpetual worrying about who should be paired up with who, is 100% aimed at women. A guy I think just wants a good story and wouldn't care if it was romance, spies, gangsters, mysteries, comedies or science fiction--as long as it was a story.

The Franco story I think was a story more men could tolerate than the standard GH fare.

[Sylph]

Yep.

However, since Guza feels some weird (sub)conscious contempt for women and everything 'girly', it all ends up being a Centaurean, bizarre misogynistic mess full of darkness and violence. He is writing this for women, but his psyche transforms it into something abominable.

[Juliajms]

I'm not sure a whole lot of women were loving that wretched story either. I hate almost all baby stories as well. There is nothing worse than a baby obsessed soap character. If you spend any part of your day with a screaming baby, I can assure you that watching one on TV is not the escape you are hoping for.

I think part of the reason viewers fixate on pairings is because that's all they give us. A good mystery or adventure would rock, but we can't talk about those things on the board because they don't exist. So we end up talking about pairings because that's all there is. Although, there is a segment of the viewing audience that sees the pairing they like the way men see sports teams. They need their "team" to win and will do crazy things to make that happen. That's when things get ugly.

[quartermainefan]

I stand by my general theory that if you asked a man who Jason should be with, Liz or Sam, you might as well say "who should Jason be with, Plaid or Orange?" It is irrelevant and not on the male radar. Things like "I want Robin to cheat on Patrick, not Patrick to cheat on Robin."...the logic of that would go right over a guy's head because it doesn't matter or make a difference.

I think a guy can only in hindsight say "Jason worked better with ___" but that only comes from seeing them both in the past. However, a guy will be passionate about whether it was right to move A Rod to Third so Jeter can maintain his position as SS. These are all cliches and stereotypes, but I think cliches and stereotypes stem from reality to one degree or another. A woman will look at Tiger Woods and call him disgusting. Every guy I have discussed Tiger with is more like "Thirteen??? He is a God!" And the more sordid the details about his habits, the more impressed the guy becomes.

(now watch as a parade of men tell me nobody they know thinks these things )

[Juliajms]

I might think he is a god if someone as ugly as he is managed to get 13 hot women without paying for it or being famous. But there's not anything special about hooking up with 13 whores. He's Tiger Woods, he could have afforded thousands. Just sayin'

I totally agree with you that women are more interested in romance than men, but GH is in no way fulfilling those needs. It's completely empty. I seriously can not think of one romantic GH scene in ages. Scenes like Luke and Laura dancing in that department store are romantic. What has Guza done to compare to that?

Even the few sex scenes that GH does are not truly romantic in the sense that I'm talking about. When I think of a romantic movie that appeals to women, I think of Titanic. Yes, I know it's incredibly cheesy and OTT, but teenage girls by the gazillion paid to watch that movie over and over for a reason. There are tons of minor romantic scenes in that move. Guza has no idea how to do that kind of angst and it isn't even that much of a challenge or shouldn't be for people writing soap.

GH should be geared to women and it should be fulfilling our need for unrealistic, over the top romance, but trust me, it isn't. Just because women care about which pairings have chemistry does not mean GH is doing jack for us in the romance department.

[Ann_SS]

I don't see GH as written for women at all. The show is written by a man supposedly for women, but every story is from a male perspective. It is a mistake to mix up what women care about over what is shown on the screen. GH is about Jason and Sonny in charge, how many women they have sex with, and how many people can they kill. Even in stories which women are supposed to in interested they revolve around the men and how they have to put up with these women and their issues. Yet women fans are desperately searching for romance where none exists. This is why argue over who Jason should be when any guy watching would point out the obvious which that Jason doesn't love any of these women and just wants tail. Women fans might worry about Patrick cheating on Robin with Lisa, but any guy watching will see the obvious story which is that Patrick is going to screw Lisa and then cry to Robin like Tiger to Elin.

[bellcurve]

With all due respect, I don't like Guza or his overblown ego as much as the next, but why does every single soap opera HAVE to fulfill over-the-top, romantic fantasies for women? Go read a romance novel or watch Lifetime Movie Network.

[DRW50]

One of the eras of the show that women loved, while still also being pleasing for men, was the action/adventure stuff in the 80s. You had shootouts, international espionage, saving the world, mixed with serenades, lavish weddings, love scenes, and strong women who needed saving but were also able to save the day themselves.

Today's GH seems to be written for his idea of men, which is men who jerk off to Sopranos reruns, but going by the show's dismal male demos, it doesn't really work.

[quartermainefan]

I just don't see it. GH is nothing like the Sopranos once you get past the word gangster. This is a female idea of a gangster, the romantic gangster who is sexy and who could be redeemed if only a good woman got the chance. The Sopranos, much like real life thugs, were fat slobs with bad hair in cheap running suits and gold chains much of the time. If he wrote Sopranos style gangsters, woman would be revolted and clamoring for the GH style back. I don't recall Janice Soprano ever being written as a romantic character, or really any of the other Sopranos. On GH, everyone is in a romantic situation in lieu of being in an actual story. The only story on right now is Kristina, Keifer and Ethan, and that wasn't a romance. It changed course today and what is up with Alexis is also not a romance. I think we would need only go as far as Super Soap Weekend clips on youtube to find just what it is that get women going and what excites them on GH. And Guza knows what they want, and he churns it out repeatedly.

[DRW50]

Don't forget about the constant excuses used to justify Sonny's bad behavior, it's all very much like they want to have a headshrinker show up to get Sonny to talk yet again about his childhood. The Sopranos was about a troubled mobster and his extended family of wives, mistresses, associates. Not that far off from Sonny.

[Ann_SS]

No soap or network prime time is going to cast unattractive overweight actors and especially won't cast them if they can act. The Sopranos was on paid cable which allowed the producers to cast actors who looked the part of real life mobsters.

Sure Sonny and Jason are supposed to be tormented romantic heroes, but I seriously don't see the romance. MB did say that the Sonny/Dante relationship was like a love story so it must be subjective. I didn't see anything romantic when Sonny was having prostitutes going in and out of his apartment.

As for viewers lapping it up, I think the fact that GH's ratings are declining like the other ABC soaps shows that nothing that it is doing outside of sweeps stunts is working. It has an audience that is steadily shrinking which means that what Guza is doing is working less and less.

[Juliajms]

You've got to be kidding me. If Guza knew what women wanted, the show wouldn't be at a 1.9 in the ratings. They've been bleeding viewers for several years. The reason I watch this show is pure habit. There is no romance at all. I'm not saying the writing is completely responsible for the ratings, but if women saw something they liked they'd stop tuning out in droves. They do it for Y&R and they did it for Days when that show had it's resurgence.

Who is this romantic mobster you speak of? Surely you do not mean Sonny? He may not be a fat slob, but he is far from attractive. He's completely disgusting as far as I'm concerned. I'm not going to sit here and rip on the man's looks and I don't have to because there are so many other reasons to find him repulsive. He's verbally and emotionally abusive, he shot his wife while she was giving birth, he shot his own son. How many times did Carly have to see him banging someone else in her bed? Be still my heart. Just because he's F*cked a lot of women, that doesn't make him a romantic character.

[Eric83]

Ethan being blamed for another crime.

Alexis better speak up.

[Cheap21]

that was messed up. Sucks to be him! I can believe how good the show is these days. Loving the drama. LOVED Alexis and her girls today. My only problem is that I wish they had developed Kiefer's parents more. Im having a hard time caring for their end. I also wish Mac and Alexis had more to do as a couple. He could have had a strong role here