General Hospital March 2022 Discussion Thread

[Vee]

All the teen scenes on the ABC soaps in the last however many years have been squeaky clean and tame as hell. Starr Manning got knocked up at like 17 on OLTL but she instantly had a man, a baby, a fully furnished home and no problems whatsoever while singing her treacly songs and carrying her baby around on her hip being a perfect heroine. These GH kids, also boring as hell. You looked at Degrassi or the PP soaps and it was another story. To me it's just another indicator of the networks and the shows being too nervous to rile the ever-shrinking, conservative-skewed audience in the 21st century as the polarization has heated up nationwide. That's what governs the use of non-white characters or LGBT characters, and it's what governs the treatment of the teens and twentysomethings like they're vanilla little angels.

IMO, at GH at least, it starts with Frank who carried that sensibility over from OLTL and what he considered a winning youth formula. Yeah, Nate on OLTL did porn and Cam and Joss have a sex tape, but ultimately the story is either not about them or about how someone else did it to them and is the real problem. The actual teens are mostly relatively sinless. Even the GH teens of the 2000s got dirtier, usually led by Maxie hoeing it up!

Edited March 18, 2022 by Vee

[carolineg]

Truth.   Brenda and Jagger were pulling out condoms out of their wallets 30 years ago.  And now it's so awkwardly de-sexualized.  It's weird because that's not how teenagers act at all these days.  Brenda, Karen, Robin weren't hoeing it up.  They were just having sex and it's digressed so much.  These teens aren't even drinking let alone stripping at Sonny's club

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[Taoboi]

And that again goes back to what I said earlier. Have the teens been squeaky clean? Yeah. But they have ALSO not be acting like kids. If anything, they have been acting like we are on DAWSON'S CREEK a la adults in young bodies. From before I became a regular viewers again, they did not even seem like teens since they dealt with everything BUT teen matters.

 

But Spencer's return changed that. From a teen vixen in Esme to a teen relationship with a (clearly) slow burn with Trina. A teen couple with their own back stories and who were interesting OUTSIDE of being a couple. Being a couple being a bonus.

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 And it is even touching on Cam and Joss...who had been mostly (not completely) boring other than a kiss and getting together and conflicting opinions re: Jason. But with Spencer's return...we got mistaken identity, a kreger, and actually talks about sex. And then we had the overdue cabin where Cam and Joss had it. And at least they had talks about it leading up to it. Well Cam and Scott and the condom. And that is reminiscent of how it used to be with teens from soaps so I'm not going to hate on that. Or act like I did not see it happening now as a regular viewer and someone who plots. 

 

That said...I do agree with @carolineg that in a way. Yeah the teens could be written better. Especially the teens we have more or less watched grow up on screen. Joss could be so much more. Mind you, not at the expense of other teens, but that now goes back to how Frank thinks. And that I can also agree with. Especially since he did the same thing with Molly, TJ, and what'shisname. 

[Vee]

How much of a slow burn does it qualify as when the main focus and story drive seems to continue to be the white teens? Esme executes a scheme against Joss and Cam to drive plot, even though her stated objective is supposedly about Nikolas and Spencer. These two kids have been on almost a year and haven't kissed, while Cam and Joss (who do not have a serious fanbase together as far as I can tell) get a tender love scene. And I happen to think William Lipton is the best actor of the four, but go where the attention is and weave him in with Spencer and Trina, while doing something different with Joss's character as she potentially begins to morph into the rich bitch when Esme is done. Instead the focus is still on Frank's priority, IMO - Joss and her man. The Spencer/Trina stuff increasingly functions as a B-plot to me even though it's supposed to be a central story, which is exactly how Frank treated the 'ethnic' teens on OLTL: Sidekicks to the whites. Even when the story is supposed to be about them, the focus is not on them.

[Forever8]

I think it depends on whether or not Tabyana Ali has any chemistry with Nicholas Chavez. If not, I'm curious where they are going to go with Trina relationship wise. I just hope she isn't going to be further in the peripheral corner and be written off in six months. And I think they're going to bring up the whole "Is Curtis her biological father story?" that I don't think many of us want to see if things don't work out with Spencer. This is why they need to add another person to the YA set. 

Brenda's son, Phyllis, could have a nephew who comes to Port Charles on an athletic or art scholarship to PCU. Give me something here. And from the promotion they were doing, they were acting like MB's son was going to be the new face of the YA set. But I think somehow Trina will be more involved with her parents' lives soon. 

[xtr]

I didn't care too much for how things played out with the original version of Trina on yesterday's show/their last couple of episodes together. I understand Trina not wanting to deal with him as much due to Esme, but I still felt that last few days of scenes lacked some romantic moments they could have had. They could have slipped a kiss in there somewhere even if Trina still decided to walk away.

I'm also not a fan of the way they had Trina constantly lecturing Spencer down the stretch of their time together (these past couple of months). I know that some (maybe a lot) of Sprina/Trina fans (at least a lot of the ones on Twitter) like that. I do not. Trina is his love interest not his mother, and that's one of the things I haven't liked that they've done with the character. She can/should call him out for stuff, but I didn't care for some of the stuff she was doing during their last few interactions together.

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by xtr

[xtr]

Yeah, it went from a nice slow burn in the beginning to (as I had mentioned in the recast thread), to water almost boiling out of a pot. They stifled the romance with Sprina with their lack of interaction/romantic moments and had their storyline/romance really drag after Sydney went recurring. (I also think they did a bit of this with Chase/Brooklyn but at least they finally kissed and seems like they might be in the process of moving forward as a couple.) I think there could be multiple reasons for it. I wonder if another may have been her limited availability (though they still could have possibly done better with the storyline even taken that into consideration.)

I also wonder if another reason they decided to drag with the pacing was because they wanted to wait until they had Tabyana in the role, and they have someone that can/will have more time to play out this story. Though, it would definitely be another bad sign if they continue with really slow placing/very limited interactions once she takes over as Trina. 

I do think that how they have Spencer interact with the new version earlier on can be a sign of what could happen regarding the pairing going forward. I think they should hit the ground running with new Sprina, have them interact early on and see what the chemistry is looking like quickly. If it's good, great they can build off of it, if it's not at least they will know soon enough and can go in different directions with the characters. It may also help if Tabyana's Trina comes across as a more mature/adult version of Trina. She is older than Sydney so maybe she will and that could help her version of Sprina.

Though, I'm not sure how early on new Sprina will interact. I know this is not a spoiler thread, so I will just say I haven't really seen upcoming spoilers that suggest that Spencer/new Trina will be interacting right away. But maybe they will and it just hasn't been spoiled. I hope they don't drag out their first meeting for too long, or have them have very limited scenes when she's first on.

Edited March 18, 2022 by xtr

[Faulkner]

Just odd. Esme slips that phone into Trina’s bag, calls in an anonymous tip to the PCPD, and there’s no follow-up today with Trina, which I understand is due to SM leaving, but seems like poor planning/pacing/shifting gears. GH has improved, but things like that make the show feel ultra-amateurish.

[John]

This is how dumd Esme is. Spencer knows Trina did not do it. He is realizing its Esme 

Then we have Esme who called in the tio & know some creepy reporter is on the case asking all these questions and Getting Michael & Jordan involved now

 

Will they find the phone in Trinas bag, most likely but with her folks, Jordan, Curtis & Carly Esme is still gonna be #1 suspect to them.

Especially if they wipe for prints and listen to the tip line msg. They will realize its Esme

 

[Faulkner]

Not a particularly well-constructed plot to say the least. I just wish these writers also accounted for the ubiquity of cameras in our lives, which would force them to be a bit more creative with their storytelling.

[John]

Also would a sex tape of under the cover action cause this much hoopola. 

[victoria foxton]

That must be the most boring sex tape ever.

Edited March 18, 2022 by victoria foxton

[AMCOLTLLover]

A sex tape story… what is this? The 1980’s ? And this is what’s wrong with soaps and why they can’t find a new audience. Some storys Are so outdated. Who actually cares for a sex tape? 
 

Esme could be used much better with Ryan.

[carolineg]

Cameron/Joss fumbling around for their first time missionary style might be a niche porn thing, but I doubt it's that big of a deal.  Like everyone said, in the age of being able to get porn everywhere, I doubt their milquetoast love making would even cause a stir.  I guess it's embarrassing, but it's terribly boring overall.

[AlexElizabeth]

Never, lol. They would have zero views on a porn site. 

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