Fair enough. MB has lacked depth for the past ten years or so. I thought he was great in his original run from 93-97. I tend to think that was the character of Sonny's shelf life. IMO, it was a perfect ending to the character when he left Brenda at the altar. Gh spent most of the next decade trying to repeat the success of S&B with a variety of acting partners with virtually none of them catching on outside of Carly. I found the Sexis pairing to be refreshing for a few short months but the fallout was not worth it for Alexis. I agree the breathless schoolgirl thing was annoying, but I at least felt Sonny respected her during their brief courtship. Sonny is too far gone to be a viable romantic lead at this point and I think GH should just cut their losses with Sonny and put him back together with Brenda and have them live offscreen in Rome. Jason is gone, so the mob could just be put on the backburner and GH could focus on actual GH.

I never liked Sonny and Brenda and after her whole breakdown over him, they should never have placed her back with him. Now, I don't care if they end the show with her going off wherever with him. They've been long dead to me anyway. The only pairing I liked with Sonny was SJB's Carly because that character was corrupt enough for him while exuding the right amount of vulnerability to make their love plausible. If MB had been able to make it in prime time he would have stayed gone but he's just one of those guys that the soap crowd loves. Michael Easton has had some decent roles outside of soap land but he wasn't able to fare well enough to stay gone either.

Sonny could possibly be turned into a better character with much better writing. I think they all need to be realistic about what and who he should be at this stage and stop trying to pass him off as someone younger. Personally, I would finally have him get caught and go to prison and slowly go insane as a result of claustrophobia. Writers should go out on a limb and be more daring since most of these characters are way beyond any type of happily ever after conclusion. There's nothing left to tie in a nice bow.

I really don't think the show needs to worry so much about this character. John's past from another show is not really important. They just need to have the essence of his character and how that interacts with the cast of GH. His past is sort of irrelevant since it never happened on GH. John doesn't look good or bad when it comes to Natalie because I can't see Natalie. At this point she doesn't exist for me.

They made his past relevant by trying to make GH viewers hate Natalie for keeping him away from a child he treated like a piece of gum stuck to his shoe.

I really dont think they went into this with the intent of making Natalie a hated character. I dont see much of anyone hating her, especially since he's been written so horribly in regards to her and Liam. He abandoned them. He cheated on her. He's moved away from them. He really not doing anything to try and get back in their lives. John has done a great job of making people hate him for his own actions. If anything Natalie comes across sympathetic

I really dont think they went into this with the intent of making Natalie a hated character. I dont see much of anyone hating her, especially since he's been written so horribly in regards to her and Liam. He abandoned them. He cheated on her. He's moved away from them. He really not doing anything to try and get back in their lives. John has done a great job of making people hate him for his own actions. If anything Natalie comes across sympathetic

They've basically written her as this desperate woman who keeps a man from his son. I don't think she comes across as badly as they anticipated, but I do think they assumed fans would hate her and weep for John. It's just that, as always, Easton tanks it, and the writing was horrific.

Edited October 20, 201213 yr by CarlD2

How is she desperate? The desperate thing would be to use her son to hang onto John or try and lure him back to her. She finally got fed up with John's crap and told him to get lost and leave them alone. She embraced her independence and cut out a weed which was doing her no good. That was the opposite of desperate. More women in soaps should be written like she was

Edited October 20, 201213 yr by Cheap21

How is she desperate? The desperate thing would be to use her son to hang onto John or try and lure him back to her. She finally got fed up with John's crap and told him to get lost and leave them alone. She embraced her independence and cut out a weed which was doing her no good. That was the opposite of desperate. More women in soaps should be written like she was

Forbidding any contact, the restraining order, hiding behind Clint, etc.

How is she desperate? The desperate thing would be to use her son to hang onto John or try and lure him back to her. She finally got fed up with John's crap and told him to get lost and leave them alone. She embraced her independence and cut out a weed which was doing her no good. That was the opposite of desperate. More women in soaps should be written like she was

How is she desperate? The desperate thing would be to use her son to hang onto John or try and lure him back to her. She finally got fed up with John's crap and told him to get lost and leave them alone. She embraced her independence and cut out a weed which was doing her no good. That was the opposite of desperate. More women in soaps should be written like she was

Breaking my lurking to say, on what goddamn planet does an "independent" woman get a restraining order against a man and the father of her son -- the son that she apparently passed off as another man's seed -- over him kissing another woman? That is one horrible person to do that. "Yeah, I lied, keeping your son away from you for his first few months, but now, since you kissed another woman, I'm going to keep you away from him again by making it illegal for you to come anywhere near him!" Natalie is totally being written as the bully to John's victim in all of this.

Forbidding any contact, the restraining order, hiding behind Clint, etc.

I wouldn't call that desperate so much as spiteful but that's pretty much the par for the course in soap break ups where kids are involved because it gives the uncreative writer a chance to get some extra value out of the plot point kids again. The only reason this situation is different is because Ron is trying to create tension with a character who doesn't exist except in lore like the serial killer in a campfire story. Whether or not people feel for John or not is basically a YMMV situation.

Edited October 21, 201213 yr by marceline

It doesn't matter what the intent was in writing the references to Natalie. She's not on the show and people who never saw her on OLTL, have no idea who she is other than whatever is said about her. It's no different than when John McBain showed up on OLTL and there were all those references to Caitlin who was already long dead. Viewers were pretty much told how much he loved her and he planned to spend his life with her so the perception of him was that he had a deep emotional attachment to someone, even though his character turned out to be nowhere near emotionally deep. Viewers may have had some image of Caitlin based on whatever he said but that was probably never important.

In this case, people who know who Natalie is and like her will see McBain as being wrong and people who don't like her may see her in an even more negative light. Why would anyone who has never seen or heard of her before whatever was said about her on GH, have a positive perception of her? RC doesn't care about her at this point but he does care about McBain and he has to maintain the farce of McBain caring on some level. Natalie is insignificant as long as she's nowhere near Port Charles, and even if she was around she wouldn't be written any better as long as the plan is to stick him with Sam.

Breaking my lurking to say, on what goddamn planet does an "independent" woman get a restraining order against a man and the father of her son -- the son that she apparently passed off as another man's seed -- over him kissing another woman? That is one horrible person to do that. "Yeah, I lied, keeping your son away from you for his first few months, but now, since you kissed another woman, I'm going to keep you away from him again by making it illegal for you to come anywhere near him!" Natalie is totally being written as the bully to John's victim in all of this.

I totally disagree. First of all, Natalie's lie never kept John away from Liam. Natalie's lie was all about keeping John in Liam's life. John chose to stay away from Liam. Brody and Natalie both tried to make John see that if he loved Liam (and Natalie) he could still have the family he wanted.

According to Natalie's letter, she believes he never really wanted to be a family man. On it's surface, she just wants a clean break and wants to give John the freedom to pursue whatever "mission" he wants to without being burdened by him or being a burden to him. And for Natalie to be perceived as the big bad bully in all this, we'd have to see John suffering because he's not allowed to see his son. Casual mentions in between saving Sam, and kissing Sam, and taking care of Sam, do not qualify.

I love that Natalie is done with him. Finally sees him for the faithless crap that he is. Wants to create a better life for her son than she possibly could with this waste of human flesh who is always tilting at windmills instead of doing what honorable men really do. Natalie is really not important to this story, and tptb would be wise to just forget her, and allow John to forget her and his son. He obviously never really cared that much to begin with and trying to use them to make him seem sympathetic is an epic fail. Especially when in the same breath he talks about losing everything that mattered to him, and doesn't know what to do next, and then the next thing he does is try to get into another man's wife's panties.

They just need to let it go. John looks worse by the day.

Edited October 21, 201213 yr by rhinohide

It doesn't matter what the intent was in writing the references to Natalie. She's not on the show and people who never saw her on OLTL, have no idea who she is other than whatever is said about her. It's no different than when John McBain showed up on OLTL and there were all those references to Caitlin who was already long dead. Viewers were pretty much told how much he loved her and he planned to spend his life with her so the perception of him was that he had a deep emotional attachment to someone, even though his character turned out to be nowhere near emotionally deep. Viewers may have had some image of Caitlin based on whatever he said but that was probably never important.

In this case, people who know who Natalie is and like her will see McBain as being wrong and people who don't like her may see her in an even more negative light. Why would anyone who has never seen or heard of her before whatever was said about her on GH, have a positive perception of her? RC doesn't care about her at this point but he does care about McBain and he has to maintain the farce of McBain caring on some level. Natalie is insignificant as long as she's nowhere near Port Charles, and even if she was around she wouldn't be written any better as long as the plan is to stick him with Sam.

I agree. Unfortunately, tptb used Caitlin as the source of McBain's brooding motivation for several years. but Caitlin was dead. John had no choice but to carry on as best he could. In this case, they chose to give John a family. One he claimed to love. One he claimed saved him and made him a better man and a happier person in dialogue that was shown on screen. And then they chose to have him betray that. That is part of who John is on GH.

I totally disagree.

According to Natalie's letter, she believes he never really wanted to be a family man. On it's surface, she just wants a clean break and wants to give John the freedom to pursue whatever "mission" he wants to without being burdened by him or being a burden to him. And for Natalie to be perceived as the big bad bully in all this, we'd have to see John suffering because he's not allowed to see his son. Casual mentions in between saving Sam, and kissing Sam, and taking care of Sam, do not qualify.

I love that Natalie is done with him. Finally sees him for the faithless crap that he is. Wants to create a better life for her son than she possibly could with this waste of human flesh who is always tilting at windmills instead of doing what honorable men really do. Natalie is really not important to this story, and tptb would be wise to just forget her, and allow John to forget her and his son. He obviously never really cared that much to begin with and trying to use them to make him seem sympathetic is an epic fail. Especially when in the same breath he talks about losing everything that mattered to him, and doesn't know what to do next, and then the next thing he does is try to get into another man's wife's panties.

They just need to let it go. John looks worse by the day.

Agreed. I really cant see Natalie as in the wrong here, especially since John has done more to reunite Sam with her son than he has to try and get back together with his own. He's a deadbeat

Agreed. I really cant see Natalie as in the wrong here, especially since John has done more to reunite Sam with her son than he has to try and get back together with his own. He's a deadbeat

I don't necessarily think she's right either. But given what we know, she doesn't think he really cares. She's letting him off the hook. I can totally see Natalie believing the restraining order gives John the excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway. And based on what has been shown on screen, I can't find fault with her conclusions. He makes token references to missing a son and a woman he could have been with but chose something more important to him.

My honest wish is that tptb would just have Natalie admit she overreacted, and that she's withdrawn the restaining order so John can see Liam whenever he wants. And then he just doesn't. Same as before. Then John would have to own that he just doesn't give a **it. That he'd rather be in PC with Sam and Danny than in Llanview where he can be close to his own son. It's actually very soapy and romantic. John finds Sam irresistable and he's willing to give up everything to be with her. Just make him own it. As long as they keep trying to say he really wants his family and can't be with them because Natalie's a mean ol' bitch, then it really takes away from him wanting Sam. He wants her because he isn't allowed to have his family.

Edited October 21, 201213 yr by rhinohide

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http://www.examiner.com/article/gh-s-lisa-locicero-and-kelly-sullivan-dish-on-alters-visions-taking-control

LLC and Kelly Sullivan reminding us of the hilarity of men being sexually assaulted. I guess they want equal opportunity rapes. Women being raped on GH is hot and wild. And now we know women raping men is girl power. What a lovely message.

Maybe they can take over from Hinsey and Michael Logan. Acting has never been their strong suit anyway.