GH: Discussion for the Month of February

[DRW50]

The problem is that doing this with a stranger to most viewers, at a time when a beloved character has just died and many of the characters barely seem to notice, might not have a great impact.

[Chris B]

An easy reason to keep her in PC is if Hope is injured and needs treatment at General Hospital, you can even have Starr as the injured one. It could be any reason and then she just likes the city and decides to stick around. I find it more likely she'd stay with her son and boyfriend dead, surrounded by memories of it (and alone) in a strange city.

[JackPeyton]

its just lazy writing to kill the baby to free the girl to be in a romance and not have to deal with the kid.

[quartermainefan]

It was lazy writing to give her a kid in the first place. This is just correcting an error. Why do soaps insist on writing all their characters like people from the Jerry Springer show? Starr came from the wealthiest family in town but did she go to Harvard or Yale or even a community college? No, she became an unwed mother, high school drop out. Then you go to GH and what do you find? Liz, the unwed mother three times over, with three different baby daddies. Or Georgie, who was married as a sophomore in HS. Then you have Michael, another wealthy kid. Is he in college or even working? No, he is a criminal who did time before graduation. These people, what would Helena or Phoebe Wallingford say about any of them and their families? And they would be absolutely right.

It's also limiting to the show when everyone revels in being from the streets and never shows any aspirations of upward mobility. Unwed teen mothers are a peeve of mine on soaps. I don't remember this character type being the norm and something to be glorified like it is today. Bobbie was an unwed teen mother, and she gave the kid up for adoption because she knew this was not the life she wanted for her kid. On OLTL and GH and soaps in general, teen moms are the new black. I say they should not only kill Starr's kid, but maybe throw in Emma for good measure. Too many kids on GH!

[JackPeyton]

i honeslty dont know where to begin...

i think making star a prego teen and a teen mother was great. the issue is that no issue came out of it. she never had to struggle, having a baby did not impact her life, she didnt have to give anything up. she didnt even have to raise the kid because her family took care of both of them. i think a teen/young single mom on a soap could be great if they told some reality in the story, it aint easy.

as for college, im perfectly find without it on soaps. they have not done good college stories... ever? i sure cant think of any. tho i dont understand your point on liz, as she went to college and has a career, and was married for most of her pregnancies (just not usually to her baby daddy, lol). i do agree about the georgie type issue, soaps rush all these couples into marriage and it kills the couple usually. as for what helena would say? who the hell cares? like that bitch has ANY room to judge anyone.

i dont think anyone revels in being from the streets as nearly everyone is written as middle or upper class (but are show as extreamly upper class without a money care or issue in the world). writing everyone rich hurts so much.

and lets kill emma because there are too many kids on gh? really? why? patrick as a single dad isnt something you see everyday on a soap, so at least thats different. plus gh just killed jake like a year ago. what other kids are there? cameron and ayden, jocylan and i guess morgan. are there more im missing?

[VirginiaHamilton]

While I wouldn't go as far as to kill off Emma (to me, she's a symbol of hope that HIV+ people can become parents), I definitely agree about the teen mom trope (something that, as much as I did love OLTL, brought the show and characters down). Like you, I can't stand the fact that teen mothers are glorified (on soaps or away from soaps) and miss the days when being a young woman meant making your way through the world without being saddled with a kid/marriage.

[R Sinclair]

Good drama comes from good people who make good choices ALL the time.

[Ann_SS]

There was never going to be any kind of interesting story once Starr decided to have that kid. While there are emotional challenges to a teenager having a baby, most of the problems come from the financial challenges and a wealthy soap teen has absolutely none of those problems. I remember watching becoming completely perplexed as to why she would even consider giving the baby up for adoption same with Destiny. They have both familial and financial support coming out of the nose.

Actually we are living in those days "now." It just rarely is shown on the soaps which are mostly stuck in the white middle class fantasy of the 1950s.

[Juliajms]

I don't really see teen mother's being glorified anywhere. Even on reality shows they are pretty much portrayed as trashy. I think some people enjoy watching trashy behavior and thinking "well, at least my life is better than that".

To me, Hope's survival doesn't matter that much in terms of drama. I think there might have been some drama gleaned from Michael choosing to date a teen mom. I'm sure Carly would have had issues with it. Still, I don't really feel like Hope's death is equivalent to Ron killing another GH child. This was really just a random family driving through PC and tragedy ensuing. It happens everyday. I thought it was a pretty decent way to introduce Starr. We needed a GH character connected to the tragedy because otherwise, it wouldn't matter any more than a random day player to half the audience. I'm not sure Michael was the right choice, but it got the job done, imo.

[Antoyne]

Emma Samms was awful. I almost FF'd through all of that but I love Constance.

[VirginiaHamilton]

For the record, when I stated "away from soaps", I meant reality TV - as in that 16 and Pregnant/Teen Mom/Secret Life of the American Teenager nonsense. I know that we're living in these days because my peers and I are a part of that real life. I will agree with you about soaps still being stuck in the WASP vortex, though - a prime reason why they're dropping like flies.

Back on topic, though, while I agree with quartermainefan about Starr never needing to become a teen mom (because it did nothing but bring her character down), I do feel that killing off T&B's granddaughter wasn't necessary. Like someone said (upthread?), they could've easily sent the kid back to Llanview to live with Viki or to DC to live with Senator Dorian as Starr heals. Heck, if the kid had to be affected, they could've just kept her (and Cole) in a coma here in PC instead of killing the child off.

[JaneAusten]

He's not in fact I guarantee aside from Irina non of these deaths will stick. RC always backpeddles

And I am no Guza fan but I thought he handled the immediate impact of the deaths much better. I've felt very little from anyone barring that scene with Patrick and Pip.Maybe its the editing which pulls you away from a scene just as the viewer starts to feel something.

[Skin]

That is exactly what made it so bad. She had the baby kept it and never had to raise it. Her family raised the child and she was so affluent that she never had to deal with any problems with the baby. That's what people are talking about when they say it is a glorification of teen pregnancies and that it was a major disservice to viewers. Teen pregnancy storylines on soaps are usually awful though. The only one I felt was actually portrayed well was Bianca's pregnancy on AMC.

OLTL actually had a good college set in the 90's and early 00's. Marty, Kevin, Todd, Powell and then later Marcie, Al, Jen, Riley, Sarah, etc.

No but it helps if we find them understandable and likable. I can't think of one character on GH who I would want to save from a fire right now.

OLTL definitely glamorized it with Destiny and Starr.