General Hospital August 2014 Discussion

[AlexElizabeth]

Watching Epiphany stomp all over Mr. Marbles was apparently a huge turn on for Milo. Okay then.

Absolutely no followup to Mac getting shot. Not even a mention of it by all the hospital staff that's on today.

[John]

what is this episode like 10mins after Mac was shot

This is the main issue I have with GH. The Pacing

[NothinButAttitude]

Because no writer sadly cares for Mac. He's been criminally underutilized since the 90s.

And Pip and Milo is so stupid. If this is all that RC has to offer then he can exit stage left, pass go, and not collect $200.

[marceline]

Since I don't watch the show I try to refrain from asking too many questions but since this is the first I'm seeing mention of Epiphany in months I have to ask, what's going on? Did they actually give her a love interest. Is it worth checking out some clips?

[Khan]

Milo and Epiphany? That doesn't look right even on paper!

[DRW50]

My mother was watching the Knots Landing episode last night and showed me the scenes as she thought I'd enjoy them.

I didn't, but I was polite.

Anyway...

- Where is this "box set" of Knots Landing that goes to season 6? They released 2 seasons on DVD.

- Not that I want her name in that fool Felix's mouth, but if Ron Carlivati was any fan of Knots Landing, he would not have blather about "Abby, Val and Karen." It's, "Abby, Val, Karen and Laura." Laura.

[cassadine1991]

So thoughts on Alison Sweeney's first GH episode that she directed

[marceline]

You're a good son.

[RavenWhitney]

Milo and Epi? no way. RC flirted with having Milo come out and I thought that's where he was going with it. Having Milo enter the Lucas triangle would add some fun to the storyline.

[Cheap21]

[Vee]

Milo would not really be a good addition, no. Everything about the gay storyline is ADD and tacky.

Ron is clearly a little obsessed with Derk(?) Cheetwood and his body, and keeps flirting with the idea of making 'hot' Milo gay for fictional avatar Felix - I strongly suspect the shy, mild-mannered nurse is the one Carlivati or someone on the writing staff identifies with most - but he can't do it. And it's creepy to watch.

There is no actual story for the gay characters, just like there is no actual character for most of them. So much of it comes from the actors trying to make their best out of a surplus of one-liners and 'sassy' repartee. Their storyline resurfaces every three to four weeks and like almost every other story on the show now, we're expected to accept quantum shifts in the story that have happened offscreen. But who is Lucas? What is he about? What does he do? Is Brad a creep or a good guy deep down? Why is Felix so obsessed with Sabrina's life vs. his own? And more importanty, when did they all grow so close?

None of that is deemed important. And it's too bad, because an actual polyamory/threesome storyline works - the bones of it I have seen onscreen really do work. It reminds me of the kind of stuff the PP soaps tried to play last summer, the kind of envelope they tried to push regarding sexuality and intimacy. (This is far from the only example but their open marriage story barely happened at all; however, their OLTL was besieged by rewrites that surely contributed to that, and at least we knew Vimal and Rama well beforehand.)

I would love to be able to applaud GH for playing with this idea, although I frankly doubt they will go all the way. But the reason this promising idea for a story doesn't work on the show is because there is no 'there' there with these people. The characters' relationships are a C or D-plot affair at best, on every other handful of weeks, and the characters themselves are barely developed at all. Lucas has almost no personality or inner life - he is a hunky object of affection played by a known stud, a talisman for the two established ancillary gays to ogle over. 'Which one will win him?' Most of his rare conversations with family revolve around not him or his history or future or career, but his sex life. He has no other friends. Brad's personality and the writers' take on him being either a good guy or a rat fluctuates on any given day, and he has no friends other than Britt and the guys he wants to [!@#$%^&*] - the implication is that because he is the lowly Asian recurring player he's not worth bothering more with. And Felix is a mess we've all discussed before.

And when they do get together and talk? All they do is talk about incredibly stereotypical gay iconography that sounds like it was written by straight women or aaging queens - old sitcoms with middle-aged women and old '80s soaps - or about their straight friends' problems, or about [!@#$%^&*] each other. Or they make more sassy jokes.

That's not a way to tell any story on a soap, let alone one about polyamory. It's not the way OLTL did Kish, and since I know Jamey Giddens has been out stumping for this, I am not saying that every GLBT story needs to be like that or needs to have to have a message or a social conscience - far from it. I have been advocating for more gay villains or vixens or casual lovers, more nastiness and sin and crazy [!@#$%^&*] for the gays since before Frank Valentini became an EP at OLTL. I want it, I need it, it needs to happen to normalize GLBT stories on soaps. But just because you want to do those edgier stories doesn't mean you get a free pass to write the gay characters as two-dimensional ciphers who subsist entirely on Grindr chat and a middle-aged gay man's Netflix playlist. It's [!@#$%^&*] insulting.

[dragonflies]

lol

[reallyhateskateonlost]

Poor Alison Sweeney having to direct tis "EPIC" crap.

[AlexElizabeth]

Yeah, I saw that Ron (or Frank, can't remember) said that today's episode was going to be epic, acting like some big thing was going to happen. I must've been watching a different feed.

I also want to marry Vee's post.

[Cheap21]

Oh boy, just imagine if we get an Epiphany/Milo/Sabrina triangle