GH: January 2016 Discussion Thread

[frequentsoapfan]

When I first heard RB was being cast I thought she was going to be an Emily recast. I have no interest in seeing Emily rise from the dead though or a NEm revial. That couple was shiit the first time. 

[Mr. Vixen]

I just want her to be a long lost daughter of Tracy's because she has great chem with RB.

[Juliajms]

It would be hard to accept Hayden as Emily unless she's been brain damaged. Related to Tracy or Paul I can buy.  I like Laura and Liz's relationship.

 

[Cheap21]

Emily wouldnt work but I can see her as Emily's twin, Rebecca. She was a con artist and was involved with Nikolas before. She'd have a reason to want to take him down after he cheated on and dumped her before. She also hated Liz so her intially pairing up with Ric to mess with her life makes sense

[JONNYSBRO]

Budig has been nothing but a sensation as Hayden and her chemistry with JE us electric. Jean putting them together has been brilliant.

[victoria foxton]

Hayden is a dud character there's nothing brilliant about Jeanine P

[YRBB]

If fans need to cast her in their heads as that-person's-long-lost-daughter or that-bitch's-twin, no, the character is not a sensation. She is, in fact, so bad, people here are generously trying to justify her existence.

[frequentsoapfan]

I definitely agree. I don't care about Hayden. That bish can go any day now and take Nik with her since he hasn't been viable in years. 

[KMan101]

Agreed about Hayden and Nikolas. Nikolas came across so pathetic and desperate trying to force Jason into that "deal" yesterday. Write them both out.

[DRW50]

I agree to a point, but I think it's also a byproduct of people expecting this over and over due to Ron constantly pulling this crap at OLTL and GH.

[Vee]

I think it's a different issue. I don't give a !@#$%^&*] about Rebecca Budig being on the show simply for the sake of being there, which is how she came on (her initial storyline as the nympho spoiler to Jason and Liz was even worse than this), but the fact is that it's still a barren crop on the canvas and a pretty incestuous show bordering on DAYS geneaology at the moment. Also, Budig has more chemistry with Tyler Christopher than any woman's had with him in years and the scheming relationship between the two characters works. So it's a question of what to do with her to make her potentially work when IMO she's one of very few new things on the show that does. The Hayden character is nothing at all - it's just a vessel for Budig to do a Greenlee cover right now - but she works with Christopher. If I'd had my way she'd have come on as Liz's much more competent sister Sarah but that didn't happen.

 

For me, there are relatively few ways to make Hayden relevant in the current severely weakened canvas where even core characters are flailing. Anything surplus to requirements, like Nina, is barely there despite their desperate attempts to make her and others work. So my answer is retrofit Hayden. As saccharine as Natalia Livingston was, Emily Quartermaine should never have died, it was a horrible mistake; the Rebecca Shaw character was at one point almost certainly a plan to resurrect Emily disguised as her twin, but that flopped with the story. Here, thus, you can kill three birds with one stone: Right a wrong, make Hayden relevant, re-infuse some Quartermaines. Reveal that Hayden Barnes is Rebecca Shaw with plastic surgery, as sent by the (currently) late Helena Cassadine to screw with Nikolas, then reveal, Vertigo-style, that Rebecca never actually existed at all: She was Emily, brainwashed by Helena as part of a long con. But the "new" Emily doesn't have the same personality as the old one, isn't the same princess or pushover, doesn't love Nikolas the same way - especially after he just tried to kill her. Voila. Done.

 

It's similar to what they likely intended with Rebecca initially. And it's ridiculous, but that's GH at times through the years, both bad and good. And it's a damn sight better than what I'm watching.

[KMan101]

Yes to all of this.

 

Everytime I see Budig I think she should have been Sarah, but they COULD make it work with her. She and Christopher do have chemistry.

[JONNYSBRO]

No no on Sarah it was a horrible role and the actress sucked. Hayden is a great little sensation and her chemistry with TC is off the charts. Go Budig and I hope she related to Tracy. Jean is a genius making them together.

[YRBB]

 

That, too. I certainly wouldn't argue against the fact that viewers have been programmed to expect this kind of sh!t.

 

 

 

I'm not sure who you are responding to because you didn't quote anyone, but I never said you, or anyone else, gave a sh!t about Budig. The point I was making is that Hayden is such an empty, inconsequential and irrelevant character (and NOT a "sensation"), the fans have to do the work of TPTB for them. As written, she means nothing, so fans constantly come up with ways to hold on to her by casting her as this-or-that. That is the very definition of a failed presence on canvas. 

 

Of course, any semi-competent headwriter could fix that really quick, and we've seen many ideas here that prove that.

[frequentsoapfan]

So after her hateful tweets NLG was given a great opportunity  and platform

http://www.eldredgeatl.com/2016/01/08/after-her-infamous-emmys-tweets-general-hospital-actress-nancy-grahn-comes-to-atlantas-king-center-to-discuss-lessons-learned/