GH: March 2024 Discussion Thread

[AbcNbc247]

Too bad Trina didn’t bring him up today

[Contessa Donatella]

Speaking of Trina, Finally! Why D&C couldn't conceive of writing anything for her for, what, 3 weeks, baffles me. 

[Taoboi]

3-15

 

Well, all the talk about Heather and the hip has had me thinking at work today. I know a lot of us do not like over-the-top Heather and haven't for years. So perhaps the hip thing is going to be a way to bring Heather not only back from being looney, laugh a minute Ron Carlivati written character and more to what I've and the audience are used to Heather being...CUNNING. Perhaps cunning enough to make a more worthy adversary for Laura. It would give Laura someone to bounce off of which she has not had since Victor died. And it might raise the stakes in the battle over Ace that would surely come since a loony Heather is one thing, but Heather who would be crafty about how to get Ace could be interesting to see. 

 

I too have loved the cliffhanger. Though I loved the Thursday one better. Could this misdiagnosis on Curtis's Dad turn into a social story? A sign of where EK and PM are going?

 

I thought it was a good week. And I'm looking forward to a full week of EK and PM to get more of a feel for what to expect. Though I do feel Pat is definitely doing the 'lay of the land' with the characters a la Douglas Marland's rule for writing a soap but using the characters they got before they do anything like a massive get rid of. 

[Darn]

This show doesn't care about Cam as a character. At all. They jumped through hoops to justify and excuse Joss cheating on him when the drama came FROM Joss cheating on him.

I have my issues with Kevin, the negrologist, explaining how this could have happened to the three fairly intelligent black people in front of him but I liked a lot of what he had to say AND I found it surprisingly intellectual. We weren't spoonfed how to feel or presented with a bunch of dumb downed dialogue (the word "amazing" wasn't used ONCE to describe someone!). My god they used the word "quiescence"! 

I also found Diane's explanation of how Alexis could get her license back plausible. I think, it sounded realistic enough to me!

I LOVED the Tracy/Stella scenes, I didn't know I needed them to interact until I did. 

I enjoyed the Olivia and Lois scenes as well, they were nice and quiet and felt like two friends just talking. It was a stark contrast to the last extended Olivia/Lois scenes when they argued over Nina's secret. Those scenes were literally them talking in circles extended over an entire episode, just mind-numbingly stupid. Today on the other hand felt organic and lived in.

[Vee]

I have been dealing with IRL stuff so I'm going to try to unpack the last two eps more overnight, but I was glad to see them invoking the Heather/Laura past from their youth more and more in recent days. Heather has been mentioning it for a couple weeks now, then Laura. People forget that if you go back to those eps from the '70s/'80s their family connections intertwined a number of times because of the Webber brothers - and Heather lived with Lesley for awhile, and Laura spent time with her.

[carolineg]

What's with the show's obsession of ugly braiding Rena Sofer's bangs?  It's not an attractive hairstyle.

Joss was her usual insufferable self, but I am happy she's sad about Dex.  I don't really understand the reasoning, but whatever.

I am going to compliment Diane and say I liked her and Alexis's scenes today.

I don't really know what to say about the Kevin and Ashford family scenes, so I won't say anything at all.

Obviously Ava is up to something and these Nina/Ava scenes continue to prove that theory to me in my mind.  But Nina, Sonny is your husband!  Just go over there and demand answers, fight, break up, divorce, reconcile, whatever.  You are asking a lot of Ava.  Fight for your own damn relationship.

[Contessa Donatella]

Not the first time & won't be the last time that fans consider certain things or characters that the show is not at all invested in. Doesn't even matter & is not a problem, either.

I thought today was a good day. Scenes seemed long enough. Scenes seemed to have balance & even to flow. We got characters interacting with each other that we are not used to & I liked that. 

Also have issues with the white dude handing this down to the Ashfords. I'm not sure if this was their conclusion to this or not. If so, then I think they moved Marshall to the point of wanting to forgive too quickly. I'm not generally pleased to have so much of this family unit but it was okay & I think it served a purpose. 

Specifically I have Stella on my cut list but she was better today with Tracy. I tend to think that Jane Elliot elevates everyone else she's in scenes with but I also think was good writing. 

I thought Olivia & Tracy & then Olivia & Lois was very good. Can't stand this hairdo of Lois's but I get that Rena loves it, so I do not matter one bit!

Day 2 of PM/EK HW tenure, again with no Breakdown writer specified, and I found myself wondering if they're going to continue to get people out of their typical lanes & wonder if we could get an umbrella story?!! 

[Darn]

I genuinely don't understand what you're trying to say to me here. How does it not matter and how is it not a problem? I think it's a big problem because it creates an imbalanced show.

[Contessa Donatella]

I replied to someone else who thought of Cam, as I did also & you pointed out that the show has no interest in Cam anymore. I don't think it creates any imbalance at all necessarily for fans to talk about characters or things the show is not going to pursue. Now, if what fans were interested in & what stories the show wanted to tell were extremely different, then, sure that could create a disconnect or even cognitive dissonance. And that would be an enormous problem, but not one of balance per se. Cam, for example, is not even a dropped thread. We know where he is & why he's there. Perhaps this is more clear. 

[Darn]

This is even more nonsensical than your first reply.

Can someone who's mastered effective written communication please translate this for me? You don't need to reply anymore, Donna.

[Contessa Donatella]

My mistake. Shouldn't have taken you off Ignore. Easy to fix. 

[Soapsuds]

Loved me some Lois today.

The Tracy and Stella scenes were excellent!  Hope we get more of them!

[Aragorn]

Why doesn't the show care about Cam? Cam is a better man than either Spencer or Dex. I woud rather have him on the show than either of them.

[Vee]

A focus on the doctors and the work they do in the last two days with official writing change is what I come away with most. The intelligence and care given over to the Heather situation despite her many insane crimes - and it's true, before '04 Heather (while batshit crazy) wasn't a totally irredeemable psychopath. And the fun back and forth between Laura and Robert over it in the background was neat. I assume this is being done so PM can continue to use Alley Mills probably similarly to her supporting B&B role of the slightly nuts Pam (who Mulcahey wrote for), though Heather was always a lot more nuts than Pam. I'm dubious but if they keep using Heather as a foil/talk-to for Laura I could potentially if grudgingly get behind something like that, because AM is talented and the roots are there with Laura and Heather in classic episodes, and it's nice to see that touched on. But Mills is gonna have to seriously tone down her performance.

What really impressed me though were the Ashford family scenes with Kevin. That was very good stuff and clearly a labor of love for Mulcahey given his past work re: minority issues, and it felt to me like GH fulfilling its social contract with the viewers for the first time in a long time. They haven't gone near abortion or birth control or COVID in many recent years, just had people keep pumping out babies which I found shameful, but this is a good start back from that. Those scenes were long, layered, intelligent and emotional, and made me actually invest in Hat Dad's feelings for the first time. It reminded me of the show that gave Robin AIDS and educated its afterschool audience, and that made me proud.

And LOL I do appreciate Diane reading Julian and Britt for filth as dead perjurers. I may have very limited tolerance for ol' Diane but those scenes with Alexis were spiky and smart as she broke down exactly how Alexis could get back into the law. As for Nina, she is clearly harkening back to apeshit classic Nina from the Stafford days - spoiled, snarky, OTT and histrionic. Which I find Watros has often played the undercurrent of to get through years of boring material, but now it's really defined. Which is fine by me, it's who the character has always been. Time to let her loose!

Ava: I do think she is still deep in all this. I can also buy her becoming legit dickmatized for Sonny during the course of her scheme while also having worked him from the start. She's fallen for (somehow) worse men, or even lamer ones like Morgan and Griffin Munro. This is the woman who brought us Aunt Denise DiMuccio. She's both brilliant and down bad!

Edited March 19 by Vee

[VelekaCarruthers]

While I have some hope that PM/EK will bring on some riveting moments, until Frank is gone and replaced by an EP who hires real actors, I don't think the show can ever touch it's past glory (monty) dayzzz.  When I watch I'm struck by how much FV has stuck to casting hair models.  Rewatching some old OLTL under Frank foreshadows his reliance on Barbies and Kens.  They need to cut about 15 of these lovelies and emphasis acting chops over plastic, immovable faces and pretty bodies.  I can't even get through scenes with the gal playing chief of staff.  It's like a high school production.