General Hospital: January 2023 Discussion Thread

[Darn]

Sonny is both the lead of the show and feels shoehorned into the show (which is why he's doing things like reading Willow's medical records, @carolineg, like an aging gossip).

They're grasping at straws to give him something to do. He's certainly not leading story (thank god). MB is unwatchable. Those between Sonny and Victor were interminable. Two men past their prime posturing at each other. Enough!

It's funny, I think SJB is the superior Carly but I came to hate watching her Carly. She sold the deeply selfish and insecure and cruel version of the character so well, she felt like a real person I'd want nothing to do with. Laura's Carly is all of those things but I don't mind watching her. I can laugh off or find entertainment in Carly's self-centeredness and self-sabotage that I couldn't find in SJB (or Tamara's for that matter). Maybe it's the shifted focus of the show, where it's not just the same 4 characters trials and tribulations. All that to say I like enjoy watching Laura work, I do not like the character but seeing someone use their craft so well is a pleasure. She made those scenes with Drew, we've seen all of this a billion times, sing.

When I watch Michael and Willow scenes I think about how much better they'd be if they were people I liked. I'd find all of this heartbreaking if I were invested in the couple. They don't seem to have any fans but there they are with heavy story yet Sprina can't kiss.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Darn

[dragonflies]

 

[titan1978]

She’s been pretty vocal about this for a couple of years.  She said the same during that ABC soaps special a few years ago.  Think how awful that was, to have to justify this back then because she was a kid who was just trying to do what she thought Monty/network wanted.

I am complicit though too- I loved them together (although I didn’t really see them in action until the 90’s return).  I still think they should end the show together sometimes.  But I also appreciate Laura not being a victim and Genie getting to stake her claim on how she feels about that story. 

@Darnwhile I don’t want to see him onscreen really anymore, I am amused Sonny lately is like Amy Vining, sticking her nose in everything and gossiping about everyone.  Serves MB right for the years everyone else has no story except to talk about Sonny.

[dragonflies]

@Darnit's cause SJB could also make Carly sympathetic when it called for it, LW can't do that, she just plays Carly as very smug and unlikeable(the writing does too)

[Darn]

That's funny, I thought of her was much more smug.  Don't misunderstand me, it was a stronger characterization. Even with understanding her motivations I hated so much of how she was. The way she would speak to Bobbie and about Tony and AJ made me rage. Now Carly is mostly a very loud plot device. I can tolerate that somehow. SJB's Carly just made my skin crawl after a certain point.

@titan1978 100% it's what he deserves.

Spencer and Trina take me back to the early 2000s when I cared about couples. Anyway, look at their engagement versus official couples we have to suffer through.

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Edited January 12, 2023 by Darn

[Vee]

As I said a few days ago, it is so nonsensical lol.

I think the key is that I don't think Laura Wright takes Carly's bullshít super seriously. She doesn't ever phone it in or blow stuff off, to be clear, but while she is always committed there is a point where whenever Carly really lets loose on someone for insane reasons that LW can just do her thing and it feels lighter somehow than, say, Sarah going to town. That's not a criticism because I think LW knows exactly how to calibrate her work. She just knows that Carly has certain modes. Whereas yes, even when I found her fascinating and loved the character I also very often hated Sarah's Carly in equal measure at the same time. It could be visceral. With Laura's that happens less even when her Carly is utterly insufferable. LW is a master at riding that edge and making you laugh at it, IMO. Would I still take Sarah back? In a heartbeat, but I've always approved of the job Laura does.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Vee

[carolineg]

I actually think LW's Carly is a little more lighthearted and humorous than SJB's.  Not always, but when she's explaining her idiotic plans she sometimes seems to get how silly they sound when said aloud.  SJB could make Carly a lot more layered and sympathetic, but she was a lot more serious most of the time.  ETA-I just read @Vee's reply and basically that's exactly what I was trying to say lol

As far as Sonny, I don't mind him being a petty, busybody because I find it mildly humorous-it just doesn't fit the Sonny character at all.  Sonny is a conundrum though.  If you are going to write for him there aren't many options.  He's not good as a romantic lead, he's too old to be an action hero, he sounds ridiculous tolling out advice, and he's not believable as a threatening mob boss.  I don't know what I would do with Sonny except ship him off to Italy to be with Brenda.  But MB is here to stay so I guess he'll just run around town mining secrets and start an anonymous blog about the citizens of PC.

Edited January 12, 2023 by carolineg

[ranger1rg]

I agree with everything you said.

And with today's show, looks like ANOTHER layer has been intro'd in Cody's life. Pathetic.

MB is unwatchable, and it doesn't help that Sonny has become such a caricature. I've been LOL at the Sonny Is A Mob Boss scenes.

You're also right about Victor being past his prime. I know people generally love CS, but this character is ridiculous. As with everything else on GH, we're supposed to wait FOREVER for any real power move to play out. It's beyond tired.

 

[Planet Soap]

Sonny is no longer the lead. His grasp began slipping with the new regime in 2012, even moreso since Jason returned in 2017. 

SJB to me was the best Carly because it felt like you were watching an actual trasy and bratty sociopathic b**ch on one of those WeTv/Zeus reality shows. She had a masculine edge --her muscularity added to this-- yet the feminine vulnerability of a delinquent teenage girl. She sold the performance so well.

Tamera Braun was the petualnt diva pampered mob wife who was down to wear the ill gotten fur coat and tell off the cops for her man.

Laura is a balance. In the beginning Wright was very snotty like SJB, especially toward Robin. Wright also had Tamera's pampered wife image with Jax. Laura has her own spin which is a boss lady career woman making her own money. The boldness she showed during the metro court crisis displayed that.

To me, SJB had the best sexual chemistry with Jason. Tamera had the best chemistry with Sonny. Writght had the best friendship with Jason and the most sexual chemistry with AJ.

Despite how we may feel about Laura at times, GH did a good job at poaching her from Guiding Light to clean up the Jennifer Bransford miscast and fill Braun's void.

Edited January 12, 2023 by ironlion

[titan1978]

Well we watched Helena strut around for something like 15 years without ever really going all out.  But at least she was fun and looked fabulous.  All her most heinous deeds were truly in the past.

[Vee]

I was surprised to actually really like CS as Victor when he first came on despite it seeming like an epic miscast, because they went full on in the direction of Victor being a bon vivant and aging playboy with an evil side which is not dissimilar to how Thaao Penghlis played it back in the old days. (His 2010s stint moved him much closer to outright supervillainy, but he still had lots of smarm.) When CS first arrived they had Victor really camping it up forcing the Cassadines together, scheming, etc. I even wanted him to shanghai Laura into (a fake) marriage, I thought it'd be a blast. It was a very unique angle to take with a Cassadine baddie, a guy who was still having fun.

Unfortunately, over a year later he's actually done very little. The brainwashing nonsense was tedious, and didn't he have an actual weather machine he was using on the town again? What happened to that? He supposedly has killed Luke offscreen (I am not convinced TG will not turn up this year), yet Laura, Scorpio and Lucky who all would never stop until those responsible were dead, have done nothing? Where is the urgency? What is his plan?

I don't blame CS for this because I think he came on playing an unconventional bad guy in a fun way. But there is no actual direction that I can see. Or maybe I've missed the episodes where they explain any of it, but nothing seems to happen.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Vee

[Darn]

Killing Luke offscreen was just plain weird. It didn't generate story at all. It just...happened. One of the most famous television characters of all time dies (even in 2022 this got major media coverage 5 whole years after his exit) and it's a nothing plot? They could have given Genie a lot to play with Luke dead. Maybe it could have made Laura spiral (not in a Laura's crazy again way but a "The love of my life is dead, who am I anymore?" way), fractured her marriage to Kevin, something, anything.

[Vee]

It has to be a fakeout. But knowing Frank's history (especially with Ron, but also since) he sometimes does something and then gambles that he can get an actor back down the road. As it is though, even with a potential reveal it's insane that they all basically know Victor did it and have done nothing.

[Darn]

I meant to comment that, it's really stupid and shows a lot of hubris to write these stories without securing the actor.

[carolineg]

I have to believe Frank made some sort of deal with Tony.  Luke's death was so random and so inconsequential that I have to think Tony agreed to come back for the 60th or at some point in the future to finish the story.  Leave it to FV to prove me wrong, but I can't imagine he would move forward with killing Luke Spencer off without a plan especially since nothing came of it.