GH: May 2014 Discussion Thread

[Khan]

Hallelujah to the lamb!

[Vee]

I don't mind when they hide this stuff and drop that [!@#$%^&*] in - Frank has done it many times before. Call him what you want, but when OLTL was cancelled and Roger Howarth came back around the same time, they knew they had no time to lose and they got him in the studio to block-tape and dropped a huge ton of solo material into already-filmed episodes to get him back onscreen and in story ASAP. It was the right thing to do. They did the same with Trevor St. John for the finale on ABC.

The issue for me is what they've started doing at GH more, which is where they'll drop something in and then leave it for weeks or even months. Like Ian Buchanan's first appearance back on the show in August of 2012 or whatever - he was gone for what felt like weeks after one silent cameo. Unless it's a Robin situation where she was being held captive overseas in a long-term storyline, you shouldn't leave it that long.

[AlexElizabeth]

What is this nonsense with Felix calling Sabrina "Bree"? Has he always done this and I'm just now noticing? He's already super annoying as it is and this "Bree" BS is just making it worse.

[Vee]

Oh, Jesus, really? No, I can't remember him ever doing that before.

[sivad40]

Jamey Giddens take on the Emmy snub.

http://daytimeconfidential.com/2014/05/02/did-richard-simmons-and-a-campy-nurses-ball-hurt-general-hospitals-daytime-emmy-chances

[DRW50]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6syyVJWhZE

[AlexElizabeth]

He can have a seat.

[Vee]

Jamey was a very, very latecoming fan of OLTL who by his own admission took virtually no interest in it prior to FV/RC. I really don't need a lecture from him on what constitutes the true nature of my show, or how any soap that's not stuck in the primetime '80s forever is a "shell of itself".

Look, I enjoyed the Nurses Ball a lot - it was fun and sweet except for the lowlights (Sabrina, Richard Simmons), but it was the wrong submission for a soap opera drama. That was also the last time GH was really largely good, before the wheels came off the cart. Still, there were a ton of key Robin, Anna, Faison, etc. episodes from later in the year that they could have shown, not to mention the aforementioned gallery confrontation with Sonny and Morgan. Anna vs. Faison in Switzerland was fantastic, then there was some of the Maxie/Lulu fallout. It's also a question of which Robin episode they submitted - the one with Patrick and Robin in each other's arms, or the one with Sabrina sobbing in the back room?

I think there's plenty to criticize about OLTL's season last year with its ups and downs after that premiere, and I have more of a tolerance for comedy and fun on a soap than most - I think I've enjoyed more of Ron's comedy on OLTL and GH than I've disliked, I think they should hold onto Obrecht/Kathleen Gati in the right story role for as long as possible, and I am one of the relative few who will defend his Dorian gay marriage SL on OLTL in 2009 to the death as one of the most fun, daring and subversive GLBT stories on American network television (I even loved Bo and Rex in 1968). But OLTL 2.0's premiere was excellent, and showed a more mature and measured tone than GH, and that's why it got in. Because it wasn't all broad, all the time. It wasn't all a showpiece, or all tuned in at a social media audience, or bloggers, or even us in the audience - it wasn't all about me, or you, or the writer or any one fan. The premiere, and by extension both of those TOLN shows, focused on characters - they didn't get so caught up in winking at themselves or congratulating themselves or us for getting the joke, and that premiere in particular leveled up in terms of production and production value as well as dramatic content, vaulting way ahead of most other soaps. For a moment in time those shows looked like the future soaps needed. They didn't last, but they raised the bar.

And it's not hard to do - you can put on a show like that everyday, at least in terms of varied content and tone and characters. It doesn't all have to be about stirring the embers of your past memories of other soaps, or slapping the back of the audience with a scripted shout-out, or making a fleeting hashtag happen on Twitter everyday. It can just have something as simple as a girl in trouble (Kelley Missal's Dani) and a lot of people colliding in one room. The trappings may have been a large part of what got OLTL on that ballot, but the trappings didn't get GH on it - so why is that?

[rhinohide]

It will cause him physical pain.

[cassadine1991]

I remember him talking about his hemorrhoids in the podcasts, gross

[Khan]

Never mind.

[YRBB]

OMG why must we suffer the indignity of hearing Sabrina whispercrysinging? What have we done to deserve this?

RME at the bullshit between Levi & Mac. Were those scenes supposed to be funny? Cute?

Silas looks so much like an ostrich, I can barely stand it. Desperately needs a haircut, to gain some weight, and a face transplant.

I can't believe there's a man walking around town with an embryo in a thermos-looking thingy. And of course Thaao is Nathan's daddy. SMH.

OMG OMG OMG Michelle Stafford. Oh dear. And what a stupid ending. The woman has been in a coma for over 20 years and she just wakes up and is able to talk like nothing happened. I'm not a doctor but I'm preeeeeety sure her voice would, at the very least, be extremely coarse, scratchy and annoying (just like Michelle's acting in the last decade).

Re: the discussion about Sonny & Ava sex. The image of a post-menopausal bitch being pinned against a wall of dead people by an over-tanned rat would be tough for many to take, sure, but the real problem was that there was zero chemistry and it literally looked like Sonny couldn't decide whether to beat her or f.uck her. It reminded me of that fake kind of caressing students in a high school play would do, all awkward and pretend-passionate.

[AlexElizabeth]

I don't know why, but I still have this saved from when Silas and his glasses debuted last year and it seems relevant right now.

[Cheap21]

wont he break it though?

[rhinohide]

Lmao. So glad you preserved it.