General Hospital: April 2023 Discussion Thread

[AMCHistory]

Yes, this was established when Sam came to town. She owned the boat, and Luke came onboard and realised it was the boat given to him by the Cassadines. There was a lot of plays early on for ownership of the boat between Sam, Jax, Luke, Skye, and Faith/Alcazar. 
 

i agree, I didn’t think the boat was going to be seaworthy again. I thought it was like the Queen Mary, permanently docked.  But they need to fudge this so they can revisit the Ice Princess story, and give Spencer and Trina their Luke and Laura adventure. I’m willing to suspend reality, since I am loving Victor and this umbrella story. I mean, we’re about to see a man use a diamond try to freeze the world again. A moored boat suddenly sailing again is the least impossible part of this plot…

[Vee]

IIRC Helena took off with hostages on the Star in 2013 too.

I am personally still recovering from the revelation that Luke's Club burned down (like so many other landmarks) offscreen and that apparently, in-universe Ava's gallery now sits on its former site.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Vee

[carolineg]

Luke burned it down (off screen) years ago.  Sonny and Brenda were hanging out in its charred out hallways 12 years ago lol and Sonny said Luke torched it after Laura got sick.  Ava just explained they rebuilt it which they seemed to be in the process of when Sonny and Brenda were spending hours in the old apartment.  The important fact is that it originally was Sonny's strip club The Paradise Lounge.

[Vee]

I didn't remember that either. Of course Guza had Luke burn it down. They burned all the old homes down!

[carolineg]

I guess the Spencer family likes fire to soothe their rage?  When Sonny and Brenda were in that condemned area and Sonny explained the whole issue with Luke's I actually thought the show might bring it back in some form, but it was completely dropped.   And of course, it looked absolutely nothing like Luke's Club actually ever did, fire or not, so I could see how you could be confused when watching. 

I don't even know if Luke actually even owned the building before he burnt it down.  I think Sonny always did lol. 

Edited April 13, 2023 by carolineg

[Vee]

Well, I was only watching fitfully during that period at best. It was the stuff where they actually had Sonny and Brenda evolving and trying to work out a functional marriage for a brief period that caught my interest most of all, when I had never been a fan of theirs in their heyday (I preferred Ned and Lois and later Jax/Brenda and Sonny/Carly). Rewatching during the pandemic I appreciate the OG Sonny/Brenda romance a lot more now than I did as a kid, when I was more focused on other couples and stories.

[carolineg]

It's too bad Vanessa didn't stay and all that so Sonny/Brenda could have tried to be adults in an actual marriage.  I can see how Ned/Lois and Jax/Brenda were appealing to people and they were to me too.  Sonny/Brenda were a lot especially as a kid.  I, of course, loved it even as a youngster, but there is a lot of darkness in that relationship that I see now.  It's almost strange how GH focuses on so many leading men with such troubling pasts (Jason, Sonny, Luke).

[Vee]

It's still the main hook for them in the future for me. I just thought Brenda was too pushed as the pretty princess in those years (and I always held a bit of a grudge for her covering up Ned's bigamy to Lois, lol) so I was contrarian about it and preferred Robin, Lois, Luke and Laura, later Carly, etc. I even liked Lily and Miguel! I didn't come around to Brenda more til Jax. Today I appreciate Sonny and Brenda a lot more - they had great stuff.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Vee

[carolineg]

LOL!  I think Brenda was really unwittingly bullied into keeping Ned's bigamy a secret.   It's on Ned.  Ned was so mean to her even when she wanted to come clean and she knew way before she was friends with Lois and dating Sonny.  I actually don't think she was pushed as the MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD until Jax.  She was pretty much a spoiled brat with Sonny a lot of the time.  They did have great stuff, but I don't think they made her every man's desire until her later returns.  Because in the 90's only Sonny/Jax were obsessed with her, every other man was like she's A LOT lol. 

I also semi-judge you for liking Lily/Miguel.  Two pretty people with a lot of good hair do not make exciting story.  Although Lily was actually underrated in her manipulating skills.  The altars she was given after her death do not really tell the full story of her buying herself a husband. 

The story for Sonny and Brenda will always be him finally giving up the mob for her and it's basically unrealistic unless Mo leaves or the show is canceled. 

[Taoboi]

Which has always been on my ENDGAME wish list if the show gets cancelled. I will be beating that drum and probably being obnoxious about it.

[Vee]

I just thought they were very sweet and romantic as a kid and was a bit sad when they didn't reunite. I was not used to that happening as a kid lol. Watching the Sonny/Lily stuff as a married couple more recently I think it is layered and interesting, how she quietly understood her father and husband's business and life (and manipulated it).

Like many soap characters unnecessarily resurrected, Lily is much more powerful in death than life. I am glad Ron never got to act on what I suspect were very real rumored plans to bring a scarred Lily back as Sonny's uber-enemy - Lilly Melgar was too tight with the production at certain points in the early 2010s, and there were too many direct connections to Lily springing up among various new characters.

I didn't mind Brenda the global celebrity and icon because it was an outgrowth of offscreen stuff and part of the texture they played in her life as an evolved person, vs. her simply swanning around PC with everyone being obsessed with her BITD. Of course when she came back everyone obsessed over her too.

I don't think it's impossible with the show ongoing. Victor Kiriakis and Victor Newman were both toned down over the years (and then ramped back up again) vs. the supervillains or the guy who put his ex's boyfriend in a dog cage. I think the way we've outlined it together in the past makes it doable, if Sonny goes largely white-collar and applies his criminal mind to more straight business or a scheming patriarch role in a reduced capacity while Brenda takes the bulk of A-story (we have discussed this twenty times but I am saying this for the benefit of onlookers lol). I also think it's the only way to preserve MB staying on a revamped or streaming version of the show with his current energy level. But you would have to play it out as a long, long story with Scorpio and co. getting to finally take Sonny down, having his choices as a kingpin humble him and take real losses like another of his many unnecessary kids, etc. Then when he's at bottom, he can receive Brenda in the way a better man could. But this is all abstract and academic.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Vee

[janea4old]

That's the only way I'd accept Brenda being with Sonny - if Sonny left the mob.
 

 

I don't come into this thread much, so this discussion is all new to me and I appreciate it.

[carolineg]

I don't love Brenda being a global celebrity.  It's fine, but the way it was played wasn't my favorite.  While I don't think it's ridiculous that someone that beautiful would become a famous model and advocate, I did enjoy Brenda in a business role for L&B and would have also enjoyed her running Deception or Crimson as well.  If modeling was something Brenda enjoyed it would have been fine, but her depression about modeling and doing it only for her charities was a bit annoying.  She was effectively going to give it all up for Sonny anyhow.

I would be all for Sonny transitioning out of the mob starting now (and yes we've discussed this).  I don't see what Sonny being in the mob brings to the table at this point.  Sonny distancing himself from another love interest due to danger?  We have literally seen this story 20 times.  All Sonny has been doing for awhile is follow Nina around.  He might as well take a back seat to someone I actually like.  Brenda has inherently much more story to tell just because she's been offscreen for so long.  I do feel like Guza was going for Sonny at rock bottom the last time he hooked back up with Brenda, but he didn't take any real losses or change at all.  Sure, a lovelorn DA was trying to prosecute him and his kids were a little mad at him, but Brenda spent a ton of time expositing how Sonny wasn't bad at all.  Instead of Brenda getting a story truly about her or even S/B getting a story about their love, most of her return was to cheerlead Sonny and to make Brenda/Dante the potential bad guys.  Anyhow, I am seriously digressing, but if Brenda were to come back a year or two down the line, Sonny would need to be done with the mob truly.  Otherwise, we are watching the same old story with them.

As far as Lily/Miguel, there was a really big set up for them.  When I watch edits Miguel is literally looking out windows and singing about unknown Lily for about 9 months (in my mind).  They also set up the fact that still unseen Lily resembles Brenda quite a few times, so I am always curious if Sonny was always supposed to be involved with Lily.   I think everything with Miguel/Lily/Brenda/Sonny did get cut short because Ricky Martin asked to be let out of his contract pretty early to do Les Miz on Broadway and Wendy let him.  I know nothing, but I would assume the story would stay pretty much as planned but with Brenda/Miguel instead of Brenda/Jax and, you know what, thank you Ricky for leaving when you did because you and Vanessa had anti chemistry. 

[Darn]

I find myself solely watching for Sprina and Laura. That's it. Luckily they're all on a lot and driving plenty of story.

Willow's death march goes on (and on) and she continues to look like she forgot to put on concealer. I will say I was pretty impressed by the actress in the scene where she broke down by herself after Michael left the room. I'm surprised the show even found time for a scene like that, you know how modern soaps can't handle any sort of silence.

Love that Sprina is getting a little adventure but Trina returning to the room and telling Spencer all of the things she did and saw, which we didn't get to see, as well as the flashback to Laura on the Titan highlight the budget constraints of daytime drama. But I won't complain too much.

It's only been 3 days but if Esme says "my baby" one more time...also Avery Pohl was MUCH better as conniving Esme, not this shell of a person wailing about "That's not who I am anymore" to anyone who will listen. It's frickin' boring.

SPEAKING OF BORING Joss freaking out about "Omg what if Sonny finds out?? Dex you'll be dead! Dexed!" and having it amount to Sonny shrugging his shoulders and going "So what? Who cares?" was pretty funny. He doesn't care that much about your opinion or safety, Josslyn. Tough luck, kid. Maybe if Jax ever comes back he'll care about your sensitive bodyguard lover.

Sasha says every line like she's a motivational speaker.

Brook Lynn being such a drip when she's Lois' daughter and Tracy's granddaughter is a Huge Glaring Mistake. Make her a spitfire! Give her some UMPH! Not this earnest weepy mess we get every where. BL and Sasha playing ping pong with the same cliche, empty platitudes speaks to how weak the characterizations are for all of them. Forget Willow and Sasha, they're disposable, but BL as a Quartermaine needs to have a well-defined personality and right now she doesn't. She's just some woman pining away with tear-filled eyes for a guy who looks like he shops in the Boys' section at Target.

Someone ask JPS what movie or TV show or play he thinks he's in. Because I ain't got no CLUE what that man is doing. His unhinged performance is uncomfortable, unconvincing and frankly too much.

Please register in order to view this content

Edited April 13, 2023 by Darn

[titan1978]

Apparently fire is the only thing a Spencer man can do to deal with a location and emotional trauma.