GH: April 2024 Discussion Thread

[John]

4.11.24

HW(s): Elizabeth Korte & Patrick Mulcahey

BDW: Emily Cullinton

SW: Kate Hall

Dir: Denise Van Cleve

[titan1978]

She has a point. We should be seeing Trina, even if It is grieving for Spencer. We spent months of Robin going to that bridge to remember Stone.

Stella, Trina and Portia are great. Jordan was not a good recast, at least for how they have written for her. DT plays Curtis like he would rather be anywhere than in every story he has had for a couple years. But there are plenty of other duds that have been seen.

We need more of Portia being as strong as she has been at the hospital, more time between her and her daughter. Stella has been utilized well at the hospital too.

Also- if the show wants me to care about Molly and JT’s surrogacy storyline, we should see them way more than we are.

Edited April 11 by titan1978

[ranger1rg]

-- I wish I cared about Brook Lynn and Chase's wedding/marriage.  I don't.

-- Regarding Maurice Benard, I don't think he's coasting or phoning it in or is lazy. I think he's struggling to remember lines, and it's getting worse all the time. Whatever that was on yesterday's show -- those scenes with Sonny and Jason -- was horrific.

[carolineg]

I like the idea of Chase/Brook Lynn much more than the actual execution of the couple.  They are just boring.

As far as Mo goes, it's hard to say.  He never had an issue with his lines in the 90's and had more complex dialogue.  It's possible medication, age, memory, shorter production time, whatever,  has contributed to his inability to remember his lines.  At the same time it's his job, so if MB has to make adjustments to be able to memorize dialogue he needs to do that.  If it was a new problem for MB I might be concerned, but he's had trouble with his dialogue for about 2 decades now.

[titan1978]

And those Labine era scripts were very dialogue heavy, with long scenes. Guza’s teams were as well, but he structured the show differently so they were not quite as verbose. Those Labine era scenes really proved how talented the GH cast at that time was- it was a lot of meticulous dialogue. Filmed under better conditions than now though.

I am not out here trying to bash Maurice. But he has bitched about the show for a decade. And he hates it when he doesn’t have a story or isn’t being used constantly, so it’s not like he would enjoy having a schedule like Tony did. He’s been very open about how the COVID shutdown lead to a breakdown for him, and missing the show was a huge part of that. So if everyone else is upping their game then he needs to dig deep too.

[John]

The issue is that even when GH is balanced, major stories still go to Sonny, Carly & Jason first & that needs to change. They all need to be back burned for a bit so folks like Laura, Tracy, Elizabeth, Trina can be front and center.

Remember when Soaps had A,B & C stories. Characters in A would go to C Then those in C to B and B to A & rotate like that. That rotation is missing. 

 

Edited April 11 by John

[DRW50]

I may be biased, but I don't think Maurice can do any better. I didn't think he was very good when he came back in the late '90s. I would hear about what a great actor he was meant to be but I never saw it. When I go back to his earlier work, the charisma is there, and certainly he was capable of stronger work (as shown in Stone's death), but even then, I don't see a good actor. I think Maurice was a good-looking guy with star power and that carried him a long way. That can be enough, especially on soaps. It's not with Sonny because he's such an overexposed, repulsive, pathetic manchild of a non-character.

I think Guza ruined this when he came back in the late '90s. I never felt like I stopped seeing Jason, and when I didn't see Jason, I was hearing about Jason. It was usually either that, Sonny, Luke the noble rapist, or some other side story with Brenda or the Cassadines (which would usually end up with Jason or Luke). Or filler like teen romances or Ned/Alexis/Jax/Chloe that he clearly had no interest in.

Edited April 11 by DRW50

[John]

It was more balanced when Wendy Riche was EP

But Guza's 2002 return he also got a prod credit and thats when it started

[DRW50]

I didn't feel like it was that balanced then either, and I also thought the show was dull as hell from about '99 on, but I am probably an outlier.

[BetterForgotten]

Maurice has also credited former producer Shelley Curtis for being there for him during his first few years - when he was suffering through anxiety and not able to remember his lines, Curtis would stay late with him in his dressing room and run through his entire scripts with him, line by line, so he could feel confident and prepared.

Curtis must have had the patience of an angel. They had more time back then, true, but she went above and beyond. 

[carolineg]

Yeah, I am not necessarily bashing MB either.  I just think if he is having difficulty remembering lines he needs to figure out a way to tackle that.  I am honestly not 100% sure it isn't a personal acting choice for him either.  I do think MB likes being on GH and I am not sure if it's laziness.  

I know he's not everyone's cup of tea, but I do think MB was a good actor.  It could be nostalgia blinding me and perhaps he was lucky to have a couple of great leading ladies that he had chemistry with, but he did do a lot of solid work early on.  I am just not sure anyone on GH has ever really called MB out on his line delivery and/or memorization.  He might not even realize how bad it comes off on screen.

[titan1978]

I felt the shift pretty much then too. Once Lucky “died” it kind of came unraveled. Several bad casting decisions and the push/pull between Guza and Riche really hurt the show. I think it was pretty dull to sometimes awful during the end of Guza’s time there for his second round.

Jason being featured heavily in two story circles did not help- the Sonny side of the show/mob and the Q family drama because of Carly and Michael. You could not escape him.

 

[Khan]

I'll say this much for MB: he's come a long way from Nico Kelly - and I actually liked Nico, lol.

[carolineg]

True that lol.  He had a lot of raw charm as Nico though.

Interesting.  So perhaps it was always an issue for him and he was just better prepared back then?

@titan1978 @DRW50  I thought GH was still decent until 2003.  I think 1999 was a rough year overall with cast departures, but 2002 was a great year for GH.  I have an obvious bias, but the only story I remember really hating was the Luke/Lucky/Summer triangle that was just..icky.

[titan1978]

There were some rough patches that are hard to forget for me- Luke/Felicia, the complete waste of Faison’s return, Lucky and Nikolas recasts I could not stand, Laura becomes sidelined, Carly and Sonny (I never cared for the pairing). Then JFP gets there and tries to destroy Bobbie to prop Jensen Buchanan, Rick is a bigger creep than ever before, Courtney…

Brenda coming back reset the show creatively and it was must watch during that entire run. Then Robin came back and they built up the hospital again, and I loved those characters. From there I was still watching daily until the text message killer story, even if I felt it was too dark and misogynistic.

I will always give that team credit for sweeps stunts that were very watchable!

Wasn’t he referring to his first weeks on the show? When he had a breakdown, and Wendy and Shelley held his job and Curtis walked through the script line by line with him on his first days back. I didn’t know that continued.