GENERAL HOSPITAL February 2023 Discussion Thread

[j swift]

Here's what I liked about today's episode, they played all of the adults as intelligent people.

Alexis uses her brain to figure out the identity of the hook.  Laura knows the map of the tunnels.  Felicia knows how to get one over on Ryan.  These are bright women who have been in sticky situations before, and they know how to use their brains to get out of trouble.  Events don't just happen to them, they have the agency to save themselves.  That is both a powerful and fun message to write about in daytime. 

[Faulkner]

The Sprina kiss was very sweet and well done but it would have had more impact a year ago. These shows being so gutless/poorly paced destroys even the few great things they have. Happy for the Sprina fans who hung in there.

[Vee]

I'm glad it's happened, but I'll be more invested if the show actually leans in hard on the pairing now. Not just doing the minimum out of fear of the senior audience and only showing them intimate once in a blue moon.

[Faulkner]

Of course, the fan countdown is on to them hitting the sheets. But NC might be gone and Spencer recast by the time that happens (no spoiler but I can only imagine he’ll be enticed to leave with his looks and talent).

I’m very impatient with this show in general. It’s not worth the long-term investment.

[Taoboi]

Same.

 

And we have that right to have that moment in the sun. 

[Vee]

For me right now, the feeling is frustration. The show has somehow crawled out of the hole of being completely boring or unwatchable on the daily in the Passanante/Altman twilight years; it has many engaging actors, a few promising couples and even a couple potentially decent stories. I think it has fits and starts of real improvement that make me see a future for GH again. A lot of it is better lately, both production and potential-wise, than it's been in many years. And it's better than Y&R. But FV's personal choices and I suspect network oversight are still choking most of the life out of it. I'm watching for the moment out of boredom, but I tune out the at least 60-70% lame stuff.

I'm not holding my breath on sex or a committed romance. I think they will slow-walk Spencer and Trina for as long as humanly possible, semi-hoping one of them will leave. I think they are very conflicted about this being their new star couple and very frightened of it. GH never used to be that way.

[Ponds]

I have read this "senior audience" remark a lot lately and I take exception to it.  Not only am I a "senior" viewer, but I am one of millions of senior viewers who do not have a negative thought regarding interracial dating, sex or marriage.  I just wanted to get that off my chest!

[Faulkner]

GH is the only soap that *attempts* to be a soap in the way we remember then from 20+ years ago right now. Multiple sets, a big cast, events and set pieces, etc. All the others are creatively inert and you really see on screen how their low budgets have affected them every single day. So I’ll give them that. But yeah they seem very hamstrung by their perceived core audience and playing to their expectations.  They are likely hoping that Sprina fans will STFU for a while now that they’ve been given this and pivot back to whatever lame Corinthos family drama they want to force-feed them.

[Vee]

I get that. We're all gonna get there eventually. Unfortunately, GH and most remaining soaps seem to be explicitly modeling their show and content largely for what they perceive as their biggest senior audience - racist GOP voters. They know they have a sizeable Black, etc. and LGBT audience, but in the lean, lean times of the 2010s-onward they have decided to try to preserve what they believe is their biggest audience bloc: Older whites who are conservative and prefer relatively chaste or moralizing stories about babies, families, etc. and more fantastical soap stunts. I don't agree with those motives or that that's their biggest remaining audience, but that's the thinking as far as I see it.

I think Ron still tries at DAYS sometimes, but I think once again he's been given too much power and too little oversight, plus there's very little budget. Taste and good ideas rarely win out there, just the excess on a shoestring. It's amazing to me that GH now often looks better than it did in his and Frank's joint tenure.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Vee

[Taoboi]

Here, here.

[Vee]

It's 'hear, hear.' But thanks for not just posting 'same' for the 500th time.

[Faulkner]

And they’re probably right. Soaps feel like the last bastion (in terms of new original scripted TV) for the conservative, “go woke, go broke” audience. Even the Yellowstone universe is more progressive, and it’s got a reputation as the “red state” series.

[Taoboi]

I agree with that. Outside of all the returning characters coming for Y&R anniversary and Eileen Davidson, GH has definitely been pulling out all the stops in a way that I can't wait for the next episodes. This Sweeps have been feeling meh for the others.

I blame it on Mardi Gras recovery. But hey...a start.

[Vee]

I don't think they are right, really. I think a larger audience is there if they write for them and seek them out. Now, in terms of network-bound non-streaming TV survival? Maybe yes, I don't know; I don't tend to believe that personally given how the non-white, non-conservative audience has hung in for decades despite years of mistreatment, but it's possible. I think networks decided in the late '90s/early 2000s at the latest they were most comfortable writing for rural whites and have geared content towards it despite the numbers, which is why you see what happened at Y&R.

It could well be red state nuts are the largest bloc left for this provider, but that's not the future for soaps IMO - streaming is and that demands writing for a wider modern audience. And soaps need to start writing for it if they want to get there.

I do think Yellowstone is the successor to Dallas in many ways, and I don't mean that disparagingly despite Yellowstone's complex reputation.

It's fine. I was a bitch.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Vee

[Taoboi]

No worries.