GH: March 2024 Discussion Thread

[Liberty City]

I am loving the 180° turn on Anna fully seeing Sonny for who he is right now. It's sharp writing, and is giving Anna some creditability back. She needed that. Plus, the use history between Anna & John is nice to see come to light. Patrick Mulcahey & Elizabeth Korte are shifting things faster than I could have imagined, and I am hoping it's a sign of a solid remainder of 2024.

[Jdee43]

The show is still boring; the focus is still on all the wrong characters; characters are still doing inexplicably stupid things, all for plot purposes. I was hoping at least for there being some common sense to the writing, but so far, nope. Obviously, change will not be coming overnight..

[Liberty City]

Anyone expecting things to completely change overnight are very naïve. There is 10+ years of bad writing to undo.

[Contessa Donatella]

Day 4 & it is amazing. I feel like I'm watching a soap from BITD. Someone just did a count, people who were in 5 episodes or more as of end of last month, it's a cast of 51. Right now they could do a promo of "GH is back, baby!"

Obviously there's plenty to try to ameliorate. D&C had years to do damage. I think it was allowed to go on way too long.

But, I am not bored. And I find that the writing is full of purpose, intention, specificity as to character & to story. Instead of just people randomly talking. And I feel like they are setting things up. 

Tracy with James today was such a nice scene. I didn't even mind Cody Bell. 

Again Eva LaRue's scenes are very well written & acted. Yesterday with MB & with Kate. Today just with him. I've complained time & again about Sonny delivering "sage wisdom" here & there. But, with it being Krissy at least it is grounded in his own family doings. 

And, Anna having a come to Jesus moment was pretty fine. And, I love that sweater she had on. 

Edited March 20, 2024 by Contessa Donatella
combine 2 posts

[allmc2008]

I'm trying to find various episodes from the last few years. Like Luke's last scene. Where the hell can I find them?

[Contessa Donatella]

Probably better asked in the Classic thread. If you make your list, then try to find the episode dates. You can always post

Daytime Royalty : Video Vault : Video Request Thread. 

I presume you've already looked on YT? 

[titan1978]

I appreciate the words from Anna, but my issue is now what? Maurice isn’t leaving the show, and Anna isn’t a punk. I don’t want her reduced to what they did to Mac in the late 90’s-2000’s. If Anna Devane wanted to dismantle Sonny and they treated the characters in the writing equally, he would be in trouble. 

 

[Jdee43]

The scenes are improved, but the overall direction of the show has not.

Dex is a character that should have been dropped day one of any new regime, with everyone pretending that he and his story never existed.

Jason's story should be that he got his memories back and he's stayed away because he's really conflicted by what he's done. The actor doesn't have to act any different than he has been; there can just be a little more nuance now, some anger, and some regret to his scenes. 

Sonny has become such a joke. The idea that he's this scary mob boss is laughable. To see him as the new Steve Hardy is so wrong. They should strip him of all that and try to revert him to what he was when he first came on, a charming, manipulative con man and rat. Keep it light; it doesn't have to be too deep with him. 

Fixes like this seem obvious. It probably comes down to actors' egos, and producers' agendas why it doesn't happen. Given that, it's going to be an uphill battle for anyone trying to fix this show. 

Edited March 21, 2024 by Jdee43

[Contessa Donatella]

I suppose you know that this was offered to Burton & he declined. 

Personally I think they're positioning to address Sonny and/or the mob. 

Of course, what they plan to do to fix things might be different from anything any one of us might imagine, or wish. 

[BetterForgotten]

I don’t think it’s fair to give their work a fair assessment until May sweeps and definitely not until the Summer storylines. If it’s more of the same by then, you definitely will know the direction they’re going in. 

Improved scenes and character moments only matter if they pay off over time and inform future character development, and yes, future plots. Right now, they’ve inherited D&C’s crappy plots, but in some ways, they don’t seem to be in any rush to move on from them. When they’re able to put their own stuff in motion in the next 3 months or so, it will be more telling in terms of where they’re going.

[Liberty City]

Yeah, I suspect the true ball won't be rolling until May Sweeps.

[John]

Yeah Burton or no actor should be allowed to dictate story.

If that was the story they wanted to tell and he said No, I'd say ok go call Y & R and see if they want ya back

[Contessa Donatella]

There are plenty of stories about discussions being held & determining if an actor is going to be comfortable playing what they have in mind. This is not singular to Steve Burton. And, these things only come up when it is a drastic change. More like being asked to play a different character, than accepting or not, a storyline. And then there are examples like James Mitchell, AMC teen gay coming out & gay teacher story, Palmer was going to be written as a homophobic bigot & Mitchell simply said that would not be happening, period. 

[John]

Difference there is that AMC still told the story and made Opal the ignorant one and she then realized said ignorance

 

This one with Burton saying No got the whole story dropped

[Contessa Donatella]

Look, if they didn't want him on his terms, that is up to them. This is old news. Came up years ago. They didn't dump him then. Obviously now it's not even been mentioned except in theoretical fan discussions. And, I don't see a new thing to be said about it. If there were degrees of mootness, it would be the mootest. So, brother, I will leave it with you.