GH 50: Discussion for the Month of April - May 3, 2013

[TeamEric]

Patrick & Sabrina were so anti-climatic and like most of RC's new GH couples completely shallow and built on sand. Spin & Ellie are the only couple he's invested any real time in getting to know each other and built slowly and organically. I'm going to miss Ellie as sadly RC isn't subtle with this baby phobia,

I enjoyed SE's pipes and the DWTS rip. But BA stole the show! What a fun and delightful routine.

I'm tired of Anna being a cold fish to Duke. The man was imprisoned for 20 years and not once has she sat down and really asked how she can help him adjust. She comes off such a selfish bitch.

I winced during Mac's act. He really is a dead bore even when throwing punches and snark. Felicia feels so much more passion and love for Frisco but is terrified to take another chance on them so she settles for the safe, predictable Mac. I've seen this before and it doesn't end well, Mac.

Carly vs Brenda? Can I pick neither? Could MB look any more bored today?

[DRW50]

Anna's been like this since she came back last year. Some actors lose their charisma as time passes. Finola seems to be one of them.

SE is always a very pleasing personality when they don't just have her yelling at people.

Spinelli still makes my skin crawl.

[Vee]

I love Finola on the show. I think she's fine. I don't think she's cold, I just don't see it; I also think she has some of the best reaction work on the show with her facial expressions, mumbled adlibs, etc. She's constantly hilarious. I do think the way they are basically speedreading the Duke/Anna 'storyline' is lame. They give Ian Buchanan nothing to work with, virtually nothing - he gets some good stuff here and there with Felicia and Mac, but too often he's stiff, constrained and he doesn't have to be, it's not his fault. He had a hell of a lot more vigor and life in him playing Ian McAllister on DAYS, not exactly the role of a lifetime, and that was last year. If they let him get out of the very formal suits into something more cool, let him run a club again, play around - why not? Wasn't Duke the merry romantic scoundrel? I blame the writing, not him. They take him for granted. Ron's team has always taken so many people for granted - just do the job, say the lines, fulfill a function and get out, goodbye.

[alexisfan07]

Wait I'm just seeing this now...they deleted those two scenes and couldn't find anywhere to put them into other episodes? Or even the Sabrina/Milo stuff could've happened later. Wtf, so disgraceful.

[Vee]

It's something Frank and Ron used to do at OLTL as well. They'd put deleted scenes online. I can't recall if those scenes were any more character-driven than what was on the air show, but these certainly were and that practice has become par for the course with this team.

[TeamEric]

I love FH, too. But I find the contrast between Anna's warmth with John and Luke versus Duke striking. KW shown far more intense conflicted feelings for JW than FH has summoned in any scene to date with IB. I get nothing from FH/IB scenes, nada. FH acts cold and IB tries too hard.

It's very obvious RC's only interest in Duke was the Faison reveal stuff. Typical RC he doesn't know what to do next.

[alexisfan07]

Yeah I remember that but they stopped putting them up after a while. I should just be grateful that we were able to see them at all, god forbid what other great material they've cut out that we've never seen.

[Vee]

I don't really read Felicia as 'conflicted,' because I think Kristina is barely acting in those scenes with Jack. She is very intense but I'm actually uncomfortable watching her because she seems viscerally on edge and unhappy doing that stuff, it's too real for her. He put her through hell IRL. And I normally wouldn't care at all about that, that's their business, except for the fact that, as I said, I feel it shows up onscreen. Meanwhile, the writing is slapdash, threadbare and barely there, and Frisco is basically being performed as a cold fish - imperious, arrogant, condescending and smug with no warmth, IMO. And that's just so inappropriate not only for the character in general, but for the Frisco that abandoned his wife and children for decades.

It's not that I don't like Jack Wagner, because I do. I'm coming off years of having loved Jack on Melrose Place as a child; he could do no wrong for me on that show. I could've bought into a Frisco and Felicia reunion, somehow, if RC had bothered to write it and make me care for him and for their love. The only thing that has made me do that in the last month is the GH marathon with several of their classic episodes, in which they are both charming, warm and fun. Not so anymore. And I grew up with a funny, literate, stable couple in Mac and Felicia - boring though they were sometimes - so with this revisit of Frisco flopping for me, I go to what I know and what I feel is best for Felicia after years of character assassination from which she has only just begun to recover.

I think FH has actually turned it off with Luke since the Faison thing got going. I think she's good with IB but they just have no idea what's going on, and neither does Ron, obviously. Especially since we know the addition of Duke was a last minute change when they discovered Ian Buchanan was available. He's shortchanging him and the couple. RC shortchanges a lot of people.

[TeamEric]

God forbid they cut Milo repeating the you're as beautiful on the outside as the inside now speech to Sabrina. Or cut that tacky scene with Emma catching lipstick on her father's collar at the event to honor her dead mother.

[alexisfan07]

LMAO. Very well put, both scenes could've easily been lopped. Or like I said, would anyone notice if the Milo/Sabrina makeup scene aired tomorrow instead? Probably not.

[Vee]

Man, Frank has given Milo more story and airtime than anyone, ever. He knows his business.

[DRW50]

That huge chin and head of Milo's is disconcerting. He looks a lot like John Larkin (the first Mike Karr on EON, and radio Perry Mason), minus the charisma and talent.

[TeamEric]

I've never been a big JW or Frisco fan but arrogant, cold fish only really describes his first scenes.

JW poured his heart and soul out into those intense scenes at the Metro Court with KW. THAT scene made me root for F&F. I felt all the old passion sweep over them and the love was palpable. I didn't see a smug, cold fish jerk. I saw a man tell the love of his life he'll never stop loving her and he knows she feels the same. I don't really care what JW and KW feel personally. KW sold more passion and love for Frisco in one episode than she has in 20 years for Mac. JW came alive after those scenes and found his stride with KS, too.

There was a great deal of pain in his voice as he warns Maxie living with regret is so difficult and when he confesses he wants Felicia back. I saw a caring man catch on immediately when Maxie rushed to leave after the Spin & Ellie number, and advise her again it is not too late to stop the lying. I find it very telling that Maxie felt she could confide her lies to her screwed up dad and not to judgmental Mac.

Why Mac & Felicia fans are pleased by RC's writing for them I don't get. He wrote their reunion off screen and didn't show any interest in them until Frisco returned. Felicia comes off too guilty over hurting Mac and too scared to follow her heart's desire, so she settles for a safe life with Mac. That's not character growth. That's repeating the same old mistakes. It's obvious RC leaving the door open for Frisco to return when Maxie needs him later.

[Vee]

I just didn't see it with Frisco at any point. I think all his scenes have been far too brief, scattershot and with little feeling behind them. They barely showed their past, and mostly spoke in platitudes about the couple today. Frisco barely dealt with what he'd done, only with how he thought they were still a sure thing as a couple. I thought him using Maxie to facilitate Date Night with Felicia was profoundly horrible. I also thought his scenes with Kirsten Storms - "I WANT TO KNOOOWWW YOUUU!" - were dreadful. He used to be a much better actor than that. He seems heavily medicated this time. I don't know why.

I think Mac and Felicia aren't exactly the bee's knees, no, but they are sweet, caring and comfortable. They were a lot more than that when Claire Labine wrote them, something the marathon reminded of since I haven't seen most of that old material since the '90s, and my last memories of Mac and Felicia prior to that were of what Guza did to them. Today they're a supporting foundation couple more than anything, but that works for me. I think that role is appropriate for them and I think they fit it well. I don't think Frisco could ever do that.

I do think that Frisco will be back. Ron's nostalgia is too all-encompassing. And I fear that's when Felicia will choose him for good. That follows Ron's pattern. On OLTL he had Viki stumble upon a letter from Asa declaring her to be "a Buchanan, and you always will be" the night before her wedding to Charlie Banks in 2009. I knew Ron's work and I knew then that somehow, someday he would send her back to Clint despite it not being right for the characters at that time. Two years later, he did just that. I'm at peace with Viki and Clint redux now - I want them to be happy, I love both characters and Erika Slezak and Jerry ver Dorn do have chemistry - but at the time it was ice in my heart.

[TeamEric]

We'll agree to disagree because I saw JW wake up in those electric scenes with KW at the MC. They lit up twitter even.

It's hard to take seriously your claim Mac & Felicia make a nice, supporting foundation couple when they're never on. OLTL's Bo and Nora fit that bill because RC cared enough to write them an onscreen reunion and wedding first before shuffling them off to support mode.

Since I found Viki & Charlie utterly boring, and JVD breathed a new twinkling light into Clint, I couldn't wait for that V&C anvil to play out. As they say different strokes for different folks.

I'd bet money Frisco will return for some Maxie crisis. That's why Frisco, not Felicia and Mac, knows the truth about her baby. Knowing RC's love of repeating old plot points, Mac will probably be the one that brings Frisco back for his daughter. That's when F&F bond again over worry for Maxie and Mac finally releases her from this huge guilt she carries. Honesty most of Felicia's talk been I don't want to hurt Mac again and fearing Maxie will hate her for hurting Mac again. She hasn't had one scene convincing anyone her love for Mac over-rides love of Frisco. It's a pathetic choice that won't stand, IMO.