General Hospital: June 2023 Discussion Thread

[Darn]

It's really very funny. Frank runs up to Buzz "Hey pop, I gotta run. I've got a date...in the park" Of course you do. Every thing you do is outside.

Daisy is in love with the baby she thought she was her little brother. And she leaves town with the mayor's blonde daughter in a ugly sedan.

There are at least 4 infants in it. And several children under 10. And maybe two pregnancies? Lizzie's pregnant anyway.

Here's half the cast spying on Blake and Frank at the park.

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Lmao

[Vee]

I keep forgetting old-ass Reva had another child until I see her with that little boy at the very end each time.

I remember this! How did they sneak up on them?? I count 10 people minimum not adding the stroller! It's always astonishing to watch every time I go back.

I think it was @Khan who once bemoaned the fact that in Peapack they held a Spaulding press conference in the middle of a vacant field with some lawn chairs on the grass.

There also used to be a whole lot of people just wandering on the side of the road lmao. Like drifters.

[ranger1rg]

Cameron Matheson got another one of those Hallmark movies. That's why he's gone for awhile. If Frank is hot for him (as he seems to be), he'll be back.

 

In other news, you can tell how good GH is these days by seeing all the GL posts in this thread. Speaks volumes.

[Vee]

Cameron's future on this show lasts as long as it takes for Frank to either find another hunk from soaps past or come to terms with Steve Burton, which I still wish they wouldn't do but they totally will sooner or later.

[Michael]

Nothing will ever be as hilarious to me as the time they went to... Bosnia? Germany?... for something involving Jeff Branson's Shayne and they literally just put the flag of whatever country it was supposed to be in the middle of Peapack's lawn. Guten Tag!

Sorry to get off-topic in the GH thread, but uh... Frank can take Steve Burton back now, because I have no idea why he's in Salem.

[Dion]

It's almost hard to believe now that GH went nearly 5 years between Michael and Kristina's births with only Carly's miscarriage and Alan and Monica's brief attempt to have another child in between.

[carolineg]

I absolutely believe you are all right about baby stories being easy to follow, easy to write, and easy to get approved, but this show's main character is a mobster.  And it used to also have a hitman as the other lead.  I just have to imagine something else could get approved.  Young women like Brenda, Robin, and Emily existed for years without children and outside Robin having HIV none of their stories were particularly groundbreaking.   Half the time on GH the story would be more interesting without the kids and almost none of these women should have more than 1 child.  Carly and Liz are the only two I think probably need more than 1.  Anyway, I am talking in circles because we've discussed most of this, but I do think while babies add stakes in the story most of these baby stories actually short change the character and the relationship.  Instead of developing a character or a pairing it becomes a super serious relationship because a kid's involved now.  It's the laziest way to make something much more important than it should be.  No one can tell me Drew/Sam or Lulu/whoever or Maxie/anyone needed that child for character development.

[Vee]

Different rules, double standard. Older audiences love Sonny and Jason so they accept it. You can have an aging, cranky 'good' mobster but not major story for gays, bigger Black story, extramarital affairs, abortion, etc.

[DRW50]

The funny part is many of those births happened years before Ellen Wheeler took over the show. 

As for the finale, I mostly just enjoyed seeing Vanessa and Billy get married and Fletcher's and Nola's returns. The rest I file away as, "I don't care, but still better than ATWT, AMC or OLTL's final moments." 

Edited June 22, 2023 by DRW50

[DRW50]

When I go on Twitter I see a lot of conversation about Trina, Portia, Jordan, Curtis, Taggert, Spencer - a sense of community and fun that you don't see for the soaps very often now (any conversation I see about DAYS is just people saying how much it sucks). I hope Frank and the rest see that and don't just assume viewers are watching for more of the not-so-greatest hits.

[Vee]

Frank has made it pretty clear they focus on "certain parts of social media" and not others - the message I took from that is, we're focusing on our perception of what we believe to be a white, red state Facebook audience and Twitter can take what we give them.

[Darn]

They're definitely catering to a more conservative audience.

But the conservative crowd who view themselves as Boss Babes and don't take sh!t from no man except their husband. That's why Carly is now treated like a generally nice person with an attitude and not the extreme narcissist she is. THAT'S why we have Carly of all people saying "I'll pray for you" every other week. Imagine Carly praying. 

The other day I think Drew called her the glue that holds her family together. Calm down blockhead.

And characters grow, that's how Rachel went from the villain to heroine on AW. Kim had an affair with her sister's husband on ATWT then went on to become the beloved matriarch of the show. Carly's development has not progressed to that point, she's still just as cruel and vindictive except now it's praised or blatantly ignored.

Yesterday for instance, Sam wasn't even allowed to be mad at Carly for more than a moment. 

AND ANOTHER THING Carly had the audacity to bad mouth her "best friend's" husband yet again while commiserating with Sonny. Two of the most self-centered in Port Charles were slagging Ned. "Typical Ned!" They can both go to hell.

An engaged mostly non-white audience. He wants none of that. He thinks people are on the edge of their wondering if poor cancer-striken Willow is going to die (it would have been nice if they'd given her even one moment of strength during this storyline, except she's been moping around for a year like the school bully is picking on her).

I wonder how many people it pisses off upstairs that Joss and Dex, two conventionally attractive young white in your classic Bad Boy/Good Girl coupling don't have anything close to the response Spencer and Trina have received.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Darn

[carolineg]

I have always found Carly's trajectory into heroine fascinating.  She didn't evolve or grow or even try, she basically fell into it and it just stuck.  Carly's just more polished, wealthy, and a bit wiser than she was 25 years ago, but that's about it.  Robin and Brenda left, Liz was moved out of the Sonny/Jason stories, and every other love interest paired with Sonny/Jason didn't stick so Carly just got pushed into the main heroine role by default.  The closest character to rival Carly in the heroine dept in that orbit was Sam and the combination of Kemo being duller than dirt and Jasam fans being largely Jason fans makes Sam a practical footnote in today's stories.  The Carly adoration has been going on since the TB days when JFP/Guza were at the helm.  So many characters called her the strongest, bravest, loves with her whole heart girl.  Even her rivals begrudgingly praised and admired her courage. Countless characters praised what a good mother she was.  Jax once called her the pinnacle of womanhood (verbatim) and any love for Jax I had died that day-long before Ingo became a vocal Trumper.  The show has been trying to convince us that Carly is awesome and good for so long I think most of the audience has almost a Stockholm Syndrome like belief that it is true.  

[DRW50]

I do think most of her support within the show came from the other attempts at giving Sonny love interests flopping (Angel, before that, Hannah), or Guza just not wanting to actually write them as a real long-term pairing (Sonny/Alexis). Tamara Braun did win viewers over, but it didn't really matter, as the show was always going to put Sonny first (as shown with him being the sympathetic party after accidentally shooting her in the head while she was in labor).

By the time Laura Wright came in, the canvas was thin enough to where they had to make Carly even more of a central figure. I would say Laura is also more naturally prone to sympathetic portrayals than someone like Sarah Brown, although she's still a somewhat cold actress, which suits Carly more than the writing itself does.

Definitely. That's one of the reasons I'm surprised they even actually paired Spencer and Trina in the first place. As you said, I imagine Joss and Dex were, and are, the main goal.

[Vee]

That's 100% what's happened to a segment of their audience and it's why they now write Carly the way they do, long after the Guza team is largely gone. They are both afraid to do anything else and don't want to.

But most of the Guza team (minus Liz Korte, who's still there) knew how to write Carly ugly and go for the throat, right to the end. As I've said before, they were not averse to writing Laura's Carly as hard, cold and ugly to the wrong people/heroic protagonists - and Laura played it very, very well. When Carly had a vendetta, even in her later dotage with Jax and the kids, the money and the beautiful yellow house, you knew LW's Carly could still make it her mission in life for all the wrong reasons. Yes, she's been overpropped and over-indulged since at least near the end of Sarah's run but they didn't have to lay out nearly as many hosannas to Carly's kindness and greatness until this show became Frank's house and only Frank's. Until I'd say the mid-2010s they were still able to allow Carly to sometimes be two things.

I will admit to being pleasantly surprised how central and intimate they've allowed Spencer and Trina to be lately. That doesn't mean it should've taken this long. They are definitely still trying to play them and Dex/Joss for equal time though.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Vee