GH: Carlivati interview about Sonny, Ava and Robin

[AlexElizabeth]

http://www.tvguide.com/News/General-Hospital-Shockers-Sonny-Ava-Robin-1079068.aspx

[beebs]

Did I just see Michael Logan dismiss rape as "yeah, whatever" compared to attempted murder? Or do I need another coffee?

[marceline]

Between Fairman and Logan, I feel like we get an interview with RC every couple of days. It's sad.

[Marco Dane]

It sickens me when Ron talks about the groundbreaking Marty gang rape story on OLTL. That's one of the only rape stories done right on soaps and television in general. What really grinds my gears is that he had Victor Jr (as Todd) re-rape Marty in 2008. But worst of all, he turned Marty, one of OLTL's most beloved heroines, into a raging psychopath in 2010-11.

[Vee]

The interviewer handing Ron a loaded intro with "those silly black and white-thinking fans!" was my favorite bit.

I don't disagree with that much of what he said here on its face. But the difference between what he's saying and what is is in how he does it and the excuses he makes for himself when he fails to execute. He didn't introduce Britt, Brad, etc. as ciphers because he just loves relatable villains - he introduced them that way because he was lazy and didn't have as many big plans for them back then as he does now, and he's failed to flesh them out properly on the page, although the best efforts of Parry Shen have helped a bit. Same with Obrecht - he fell in love with the actor, fine, but he'd do anything to keep her around and she's still mostly a cartoon. And his whining about Patrick not being viable if his marriage is happy - please, Patrick is barely viable single.

[DRW50]

Someone frame this and pass it out to anyone who still claims Ron is better than Guza. This is the same bullshit that Logan and his fellow sycophants praised Guza for. Just replace Breaking Bad and Dexter and Ray Donovan with The Sopranos. Same old shilling.

Michael Logan condescending to soap fans yet again. Let's party like it's 1999. Or 1989. Or 1979.

Moral ambiguity only works if the writing, producing, and acting can pull it off.

GH can't.

No matter how much macho man Michael Logan pulls his pud to fantasies that soap operas are going to be just like the old episodes of Crime Story that he probably has stashed on VHS, that will not happen. It has never been what soaps are about.

I have to laugh at the desperate attempts to make ANY of this seem new, edgy, or relevant. This garbage wasn't relevant in 1974, let alone 2014.

It's recycled pap from a delusional hack who hates soaps and hate soap fans.

[quartermainefan]

I am not Agatha Christie, but this makes no sense. What kind of murder mystery is it where you ae supposed to think the guilty party is actually guilty? How is that a mystery? And we did know it was Ava from the moment the initials were written. It could not have been a red herring because no further suspects were introduced.

I love whodunits but you need a minimum of three suspects: the person accused, the person we are led to think did it, and the person that actually did it. This was just poorly conceived nothing. The interviewer has no business asking anybody anything.

[Vee]

The amazing thing is, these guys still act like showcasing antiheroes or 'bad boys' is some shocking, hot new development for daytime. That hasn't been the case since, if not the early days of Luke Spencer, then certainly the early-mid '90s.

It goes back to what much of the cast and crew in Llanview in the Afternoon talked about happening to OLTL in the last fifteen to twenty years - the fascination and preoccupation in modern daytime with antiheroes, villains, 'bad boys' and only those outsize characters, no one else. I have nothing against those types of characters, but when that's all you have or rather, when that's all you care to write for, a show becomes profoundly unbalanced. You can't just write for or showcase the 'bad boys' - there has to be an equal investment in all sorts of characters. Ron no longer has that, he hasn't had that in many years. That's why so many other characters falter in favor of his 'more interesting' favorites.

I don't think RC hates soaps. I think he loves them, but his definition of what they can and should be is very limited, or at least limited by his own myopia and self-interest. I think he now processes them entirely on his terms, and his taste and his sense of balance and scope is way out of whack.

[DRW50]

The crux of the Ava story per that interview is that Ron knows that viewers assume he makes everything up as he goes along. That is his suspense. The viewers having no respect or trust in him.

And yes, beebs, I noticed Logan's handwaving of rape as not a big deal. This man has guffawed at and leered at rape stories for years so I'm not surprised.

This is the extent of GH's "edginess." Go watch that "shootout" with Max eating lead and tell me otherwise.

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[marceline]

He should never be allowed to even talk about that story. Not after what he did to it. Every time he mentions it, somebody should slap him.

[Mathewson]

Maura West looks worse than usual in that picture. The pursed lips are unbearable. She really is like a combination of Joan Rivers and awful actress Shannon Sturges.

Todd and Luke are two of daytime's greatest heroes? Really, Ron? Not that I'm surprised that RC is this deluded (he has been for years) but regardless.

Ava is fun and campy?! Ugh!!! Obrecht is fun and campy but Ava is a succubus just like Heather. And I couldn't care less about Ava's relationship with that jabroni Morgan.

RC even admitted he's not interested in writing for Robin and Patrick. And he's slobbering all over his precious Sabrina, ugh!!

[Vee]

Yeah, I blanched when they went right to Todd Manning. Really? The story you all ended up walking back onscreen with Roger Howarth castigating a sheepish cast who didn't even write it? And of course with Marty Susan Haskell ended up being incredibly angry with the show.

I enjoy Ava for what she is, but in no way are she or Sonny heroes. The problem is not Ava, the problem is that people like Ava are the only ones RC cares to focus on anymore.

[quartermainefan]

People can say what they want, but clearly Luke Spencer is/was the most popular hero in daytime history. "Greatest" is an applicable word just like we might say Sherlock Holmes is the greatest detective in history even though some might personally like Miss Marple or Columbo more.

[marceline]

Did he say that? Ugh. I've told myself that I'm not giving anymore page views to the soap press fapping over Carlivati. Thank you for confirming what a good decision that was.

[Mathewson]

Luke and Todd were both popular but there's nothing redeemable about a rapist. Even though I constantly laughed at Margaret Cochran's (and Tari Signor's) absurd OTT antics on OLTL. But even that was just camp, doesn't mean I was invested or had a reason to care.

It doesn't help that I never ever liked Tony Geary. Or Howarth in recent years, whether it's Todd or cartoon Franco. The sugarcoating certainly doesn't help or forcing them on viewers.