GH: Discussion for the Month of January

[partyperson25]

He had a relationship with Tracy in 2005. He had an ok storyline back then and he was a jurior in a trial as well as Alice

[Vee]

I think there are shades and nuances of the character that are very different, as I said above, but yeah, I do think the two of them are redundant on the canvas on a regular basis. Kassie DePaiva has said that and I tend to agree. I wouldn't mind seeing Blair on a more regular recurring gig, mixing it up in town, but I'm not sure how that will work for any OLTLers if this Prospect Park vaporware thing actually happens and DePaiva ends up signing up.

[MissLlanviewPA]

She was.

I honestly don't see a problem with it. He's her brother AND her cousin. It's got to be confusing for her sometimes .

[DRW50]

I think that stopped being true for Carly some years ago. I don't believe she loves Sonny anymore, and I don't think she has for a long time. At best he was, in recent years, a crutch for her. The show has stopped selling him as the great love of her life or someone she would fall back toward, and stopped that quite a while back.

Blair was also heavily defined by family, all the way to the end. Family to her was a dream, sometimes a nightmare, but always something she wanted, even to the point of being a mother to Sam long after his father stopped caring. Carly stopped caring about family a long time ago, aside from her kids, sometimes. She is completely isolated by choice.

Carly is basically written as a bizarre mix of an 18 year old and a Real Housewife. She is a gorgon and an ingenue and a dozen other things. The character is too confused for me to compare her to anyone. The comparisons from the show are mostly down to "Cartini" seeing both women as pieces of ass for Todd.

[Vee]

They started writing S&C as a loveless marriage of convenience/addiction around mid-2004, IIRC. I remember something like him re-marrying her for the kids and then keeping Sam, his pregnant girlfriend, across the hall, and they pretended not to talk about it. Blair and Todd went through a lot, but they never did that [!@#$%^&*]. The difference, too, is that Sonny and Carly promoted themselves and Sonny especially to the world as paragons of truth, justice and virtue when they were together. Anything done against Sonny, even by Carly, was unforgivable. Everything he did was wonderful. Carly could not have her own mind or feelings or fears. When he shot her and she fell for another man (Lorenzo) who was kind and giving, it was her fault for betraying Sonny and she bowed and scraped and begged. Todd and Blair, even when it was Victor in his place, never really had that kind of world of illusion. They didn't dress it up. They were morally ambiguous people doing not so nice things. It wasn't about money or power or worshipping the man. Blair's point of no return was when Todd did those things to her or to their family. For Carly, that usually was just a prelude to an apology for doubting Sonny's great wisdom.

I think she's gained more backbone about Sonny since LW took over and they moved her away from him, but I think part of her will always lust for that feeling of material or armed superiority, that feeling of being part of the dark side of the world. In the end she was far more devoted to Jason, but the lingering connection to Sonny's world still makes her feel important. That's why she'll still slum it at Jake's/The Floating Rib, too. Her roots are in the underworld, not just the criminal one Sonny dominates but in the kind of murky limbo she needs to exist in. And yeah - she does remind me a lot of Charlize Theron in the film Young Adult, still preoccupied with a high school mentality. But I thought that was a compelling portrait, and Carly can still hold my interest for the same reasons.

[MissLlanviewPA]

Vee...that is a beautiful post. This T&B fan thanks you.

[Vee]

I didn't really mean it as a paean to Todd and Blair, just enumerating some of the differences. I can definitely see the parallels and why people see them in the couples but I think Blair and Carly are far more similar than S&C and Todd and Blair.

[MissLlanviewPA]

Oh yeah, I understand, but the differences needed to be stated, and they're there for sure. It's still a great post regardless.

[Cheap21]

Of course there's difference. No two charactera are exactly the same 100%. Its just inredibily innacurate to say that they have absolutely nothing in common. That seems more like people merely want to ignore it bc they dont like the implications it may have

In other news, its Friday, so drink up

[MissLlanviewPA]

If there's red wine I'll be there .

[DRW50]

I think they have some things in common, but mostly on the surface. Blair was motivated as much by wanting to protect her mother as she was by revenge against Dorian. I don't believe Sonny/Carly and Todd/Blair are all that close in parallels. I don't think the characters are similar in how they treat family - Carly had her niece's boyfriend essentially drug raped, all for some bizarre revenge plot I lost track of (as did she, apparently). The Carly/Jason relationship is like nothing Blair ever had - this desperate obsession with a man who would not touch her with a ten foot pole for 99% of their years together. They are mostly just two blonde bitches, semi-reformed in Carly's case, who went from poor to rich and have some businesses and some kids. That describes countless women on soaps.

For me the main difference is that I was a big fan of Carly's and I just lost track of her sometime after SJB left. She's closer to the old Carly now than she was when Braun was in the role, but I still don't "get" her now, as much as I might sometimes like to. For better or worse, I usually thought Blair was consistent in characterization.

[ChitHappens]

Damn! Coleman is still so fine! He should carry a rifle and occasionally ride a horse. Not sure how GH could work that in, but they could at least try. I love looking at him!

Sonny proving again what a horrible father he is. Krissy is upset and hurting (as best as Lindsay can play it - po chile) and he keeps going on and on about Kawny?! Greasy little moron!

Todd, John doesn't want a relationship with Nat and Liam. He's been stalking a married woman and her child for months now.

How did Carly and Starr get to the conversation about AJ? They were talking about Todd before the commercial break. Did I miss the transition? These breakdown writers are way too plot pointed for my taste.

Not sure why Orange Steve and Ghetto Delphina were even in this eppy. Odd.

[Vee]

They were rather hamhandedly starting up the business that will surely lead to Steve's imminent death, now that SR has been blessedly fired.

There were better ways to do that than that incredibly leading dialogue. Sometimes those moments are part of RC's charm, other times not so much.

Kristina seems to want Trey dead even more than I do, and that's saying something.

[Khan]

Frankly, I think Nellie is too busy comparing GH actors' nutsacks onscreen to realize anything.

[dragonflies]

+1