General Hospital: March 2023 Discussion Thread

[AMCHistory]

Can I just say I hope Brad and Felix are not on the route to becoming a couple. NO ONE was rooting for them to get together the first time. 

Did they ever explain whatever happened to Lucas? God, that is a character with so much potential. I miss when RC wrote for him. For the first time Lucas had a personality beyond "Tony's Son."

[Vee]

Sorry, misread.

Edited March 30, 2023 by Vee

[BrendaB]

I agree with you 100%.  As for Mariah, the fan wikipedia page I read said they killed off the character in 2007 off-screen.  I wasn't watching then, but I'm sure it was an insignificant aside and probably a casualty of Kristina Wagner's precarious position on the show back then, like you said.

Thanks Vee for answering the question.  I loved how the 10,000 episode ended with Head Nurse Audrey at the nurse's station with the hospital moving around her and the theme song playing.  I hope GH never gets cancelled, but in a series finale or another anniversary, it'd be nice to recreate that with Elizabeth.

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[Vee]

The show has also put out a series of decent memorial episodes for people. The John Reilly one was a bit silly but mostly very heartfelt, and had a beautiful use of his daughter. This one was even better.

Leslie Charleson being left to a voice cameo - I'm so glad she did it, but the last time this happened that I can recall it was because either Sharon Wyatt's illness or other circumstances had apparently left her unable to appear onscreen for whatever reason, and so Tiffany was used by voice over the phone instead at John Reilly/Sean Donely's memorial. Leslie supposedly had a fall or accident around this time last year and was expected back soon. Now this. I don't want to worry about her, but I do. I am glad they wove her in any way they could. And while I do wish they'd managed to get Kimberly, and Kent Masters King and Minae Noji as Lainey Winters and Kelly Lee, having Emma appear in the Drakes' stead was decent enough. Brooklyn Rae Silzer has improved.

Another thing the show has gotten better at is realizing where the real meat and weight of audience investment is. I may not love every story she has and find her pairing with Kevin milquetoast, but Mayor Laura is extremely central to the show and canvas these days. She's the heart. The same goes for Elizabeth; they throw her at every loser under the sun, from serial killer to Michael Easton, in part because they know and have increasingly valued just how important she is to the audience. So Elizabeth becomes the linchpin and centerpiece of this episode and her catharsis is the audience's catharsis. They know her value to the show and have slowly begun acknowledging it. Now if she could just get more A-story for her own sake, and not for Easton or Howarth's continued employment.

I admittedly found Epiphany annoying as hell a lot of the time - I never understood her forced admiration for the mob scene considering Sonny and Jason got her son stuffed in a trunk and killed, and I didn't like that soppy song they had her sing to Sabrina and Emma at the 2013 Ball which repeated at the end of this episode. But it was tradition so they used it and that's fine, and Sonya Eddy was a lovely woman who was absolutely devoted to the show so I was sad for her and for the cast and the show. You could see Drew Cheetwood (never much of an actor) and Carolyn Hennesy were barely holding it together, even in their earliest scenes. It was all very touching, and it was well done.

[BrendaB]

Matt Trudeau is so hot, I don't understand why they don't show him more.  They finally get the casting right for adult Lucas and then he disappears.

When they had Tiffany come back for an episode honoring Sean Donnelly's death, I don't think she even asked about her nephew Lucas, did she?  The custody battle over Lucas between Tiffany & Sean and Bobby & Tony was a big storyline in 1993 (which I'm currently watching LOL).

[Vee]

Tiffany wasn't onscreen - she did a voice cameo over the phone due to Sharon Wyatt's illness, I believe.

I think any Lucas but Ryan Carnes is a nonentity. He did great, was popular with the audience and left very abruptly and unexpectedly.

[AMCHistory]

There are definite growing pains with Brooklyn. Her acting style still reads child, when it will need to read young adult to fit-in with her contemporaries. I can see the show wanting to bring back Emma full time to live with grandma Anna down the line. The best thing Brooklyn can do is take acting lessons and mature her acting style, beyond grinning smiles and exaggerated facial expressions.

I can see Emma going the way of Robyn Richards. We all loved Robyn, but her acting style never matured. Against the strong teens set of her day - Lindze, Scott, Adrienne - that flaw only become more apparent. I was not surprised when it came time to recast, and boy was Kirsten loved for quite some time.

 

[Vee]

That's why I've always been against using her as a lifer like her screen mother, because she's so cloying and cutesy. She was a bit less so this time, but we barely saw her. Unless she can show real chops I'd still recast.

Robyn Richards wasn't as green. I think she could've worked out, but people are forgetting that Kirsten was intensely unpopular in the role for her first disastrous year or so. She had bad and deeply unsympathetic stories. It was moving her into a comic role and the Spinelli pairing that saved her, IMO.

Edited March 30, 2023 by Vee

[slick jones]

Matt Trudeau was never a good  Lucas.  He showed zero personality and couldn't even fake chemistry with a lamp post.  Like Grandma used to say, "Well, at least he's pretty".

Ryan Carnes was a chemistry magnet, from familial chemistry with Maxie, Bobbie, Carly, Uncle Luke. He came across as a healer. 

The  drawbacks are 1. That Frank can't handle the gays. He botched things at OLTL with Re-Ron and couldn't run any story involving Felix, Brad or Lucas.  Lots of Golden Girls and Knots Landing but zero substance. Most of Lucas and Brad's story was basically Brad running around blathering about the Baby and Lucas while Lucas was off screen. 2.  Lucas wasn't played by anyone #firefrank needs to pay the mortgage for.  If Howarth were Lucas, here would be orderlies in their g-strings in the locker room.  Same with Easton.   

As a legacy doctor on the show, Lucas should have been up for Chief of Staff by now.  Not twice a month Terry or Breeeee-tahhhh.  But twice a month Terry and her <cough> three sentences per appearance boytoy <cough> Yuri are fodder for a post of their own.

[Vee]

@Darn has said Terry cannot react to a page convincingly and bless her, it is true lol. I am glad the character is there but she does not need major story.

Britt should not have been left in charge of a Chia Pet after the shít she and her mother pulled.

Edited March 30, 2023 by Vee

[AMCHistory]

Love Carnes, but he’s made it clear he is not coming back. 
 

Who do you want to see step into the Lucas role? It needs to be an actor with some daytime chops. This is not a role worth recasting if not. I can see JP Lavoisier doing a good job, and he is a FV favourite. 

[Taoboi]

So very true. And heehee at 'at least he's pretty.'

 

I would take RC back in a heartbeat. Lucas, like Brenda, is so connected to the canvas, that it's just shocking to me that he's not there. And there are so many possibilities for him...being the brother, working toward CoS, getting back with Brad or being in a triangle...that is so much more than a gay doctor and more a doctor who happens to be...gay. 

[Taoboi]

3-16

 

OMG...is Cameron really leaving? Say it ain't so. And when did WL get an ear piercing that made it through an editing error?

 

And how tall is AC? Because now that Spencer vs Dex looks like it going to be a thing against Dex/Joss if Cameron is really leaving, this scene with them in each other's faces made me see that the Dex actor is a dwarf compared to AC. Speaking of AC, he suuuuure are wearing these jeans versus the jeans wearing him. 

 

So is Finn/Chase's dad dying? Because it seems...convenient. All that work to try to make him work with Alexis, and the writers wanted to go that route? And on another note...can't Alexis catch a break?

 

Oh, lord...not again with the mixed signals route between Chase and BLQ. I can't do this again.

 

So when is Willow going to be saved...May Sweeps? Because they are dragging out the 'Orbecht can save Willow' arc.

 

While I have been liking the conflictedness of Amnesiac Esme...yeeeah NO to Trina trying to be her savior though the reasons for her telling Spencer, Cameron, and Joss they should drop the charges are sound.

[dragonflies]

The only thing they got wrong on this was GH was NOT the first show back in production with covid protocols, BOLD was

 

 

[Liberty City]

Wow. What a beautiful end to the episode.

At this point, they'd likely have to recast. I loved Matt Trudeau, too, but he's doing real estate outside of Los Angeles in Chicago. I just don't think there was ever any focus for Lucas, especially after being predominately in a marriage to Brad.