GH: July 2024 Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

SON *has* spoken. Wagger 

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[John]

i like John Cates and hope they keep him

Karen being alive would be fun

As for Taggert ever since Trina took the DNA test after Greenland, GH has shelved Taggert which is a shame. 

[DRW50]

Taggert seems to have been completely forgotten. I hope it's not due to Real's health. The show has moved away from the black characters in general. 

The Pikeman story feels like one of those plots they just stall out to eat up time with having to churn out 5 episodes a week. I don't think anyone involved knows or cares what's going on. And being stuck in the quagmire of the story is probably a big reason why Mulcahey never even got a proper chance.

Edited July 16, 2024 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

Today is Marcus Taggert MIA Day #260, that is counting only M-F of course, on a real calendar & that adds up to more than a year. Taggert is only cared about by a handful of fans, no one else. As I understand it, Real is fine, so it's not some worrying health condition. Thankfully. 

[carolineg]

That is my question.  Karen and Stone have been dead for decades.  Is it possible for Jagger to still be grieving?  Sure?  But it's not playing out how it happened on screen.  Jagger did not show up for Stone's last days or funeral.  Jagger had cheated on Karen and long been divorced for her when she died.   If the show framed it as regret more so than a vendetta I could get it.  The show is acting like Jagger has a leg to stand on with the Karen/Stone stuff in regards to Sonny.  He doesn't.  Sonny had nothing to do with either of those deaths.  If Jagger just hated Sonny because he was a criminal that's great.  He is, but the show is trying to tell me Sonny wronged Jagger which he did not in the entire scheme of things.

If you are going to bring back a character from 30 years ago you might try to make it relevant to current day.  Without Robin, Brenda, Karen, AJ, Ruby, Jason with a memory, etc.  he's just talking to people like Lois and pretending like they knew one another.  No one on canvas currently outside of Sonny was connected to Jagger at all.

It's like Jagger is making up this narrative that Sonny is awful-and I agree, but Sonny is denying this.  No one on the show has really lived the Sonny/Karen/Jagger/Stone/Brenda drama so there's no objective middle in the whole situation.  They both suck.

[AbcNbc247]

Hopefully, Gio is turning down the job offer for Trina and not that blonde dog in heat. 

Willow/Drew/Nina is the best storyline on GH right now and also has the most potential to have tremendous ripples effects on the canvas and they would be really stupid if they didn’t run with it as much as they could. 

As for Anna, I wonder if any real life law enforcement officials ever helped out a crime boss for the sake of their children

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[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, come on, you know someone somewhere done did it. 

[Vee]

I'm pretty sure the idea of making Valentin the head of Pikeman (which did track with the original story developments) was PM's. It put a character beloved by the previous creative regime and the current EP (Frank) in an untenable and possibly irredeemable position. I believe Mulcahey also wrote the key reveal episodes with Valentin and Brennan himself. It was good work. At that point, with Ava discovering Sonny's meds were tampered with and keeping quiet and Valentin in turn discovering Ava had found out, it seemed as though the show was on course for the two of them to link up and conspire together for their mutual interests. Then it went on ice, probably in part due to FV's guarantee shuffle and probably also due to creative strife BTS, and then things changed.

That's all been flushed now: Sonny has suddenly remembered he should hate Ava and is overall behaving much more reasonably and kindly all over town, the newly-estranged Kristina and Dante have leapt back to their father's side yet again (after those wonderful scenes with DZ cutting him out after the wedding fiasco with Dex) over the fuckin' Natalia recording of all things, Ava is out of the penthouse and has no real place in the conspiracy. On one hand I am actually glad the show is finally remembering Ava is not some nice person for Sonny and co. to be buddy-buddy with, and I'm glad they're bringing up Connie, etc. It's important not to lose sight of what she is. But right now she comes off as a bumbling cartoon. The setup PM inherited with Sonny and Ava at the penthouse, which he turned into Ava becoming the Iago whispering poison in his ear, made sense because she'd done it before and was on track to go somewhere interesting IMO. Now it's back to Good Sonny and the world vs. Ava, which is boring to me. And meanwhile the wretched Charlotte is suddenly back from limbo to make us weep for Valentin and Anna's love. Nor do I think Willow/Drew/Nina will last much longer, which is a shame bc the big political rollout eps with Drew Q around the Fourth of July, with the town watching the press conference, etc. and a lot of umbrella reaction stuff was solid IMO. I do think that unlike Blake/Ross/Holly, the mother (Nina) was to be the endgame but who knows. Given the way things are going now with the sudden 180 on the story I am def down for a Ryan's Hope-type scenario. I just think it's such a waste of potential, because Watros, Cameron and even Katelyn MacMullen are doing solid work. Old fashioned soap.

Don't get me started on the handling of Natalia again BTW. It's disgusting and it's about FV wanting to hire and then wanting to keep another big soap star - nothing else.

I don't think Wagger is relevant either. I don't think bringing Karen back has any purpose (Scott has other daughters). Wagger had a handful of good scenes when PM came in to write. What has he had since? Nothing. Wagger was just another 'give us brownie points for bringing back an old character' hire by FV before the HW change in March, and now he does nothing. I'm not gonna squee and fanboy out every time they pull out some old name from the GH Wiki for a mid recast.

Edited July 16, 2024 by Vee

[DRW50]

You're right - Mulcahey did what he could to add some flavors to the whole Pikeman mess and the longstanding issue of how spent and confused characters like Sonny and Ava feel. I do get why viewers weren't thrilled, especially as Mulcahey was likely being sabotaged, but the lack of patience from a lot of people seemed to doom any real change from the outset. And now we're just back to what people said they disliked before he got there. 

[Vee]

I think the worst thing they can ever do with Ava is domesticate her. The problem is that is where she has languished for a number of years until recently - for a number of years under D&C she was inexplicably getting along fine with Sonny, with Carly and many others, breaking bread and socializing away. They were treating her civilly or even with friendship. That makes zero sense given their history. Ava is a power broker and at core a vicious criminal. So is Sonny, but he has longtime cachet with the town she never had. Ava's power base and social base is a select swath of the town.

The other problem is the audience, which cries foul when Valentin turns bad, or when Ava breaks bad again or torpedoes her inexplicable relationships on the canvas, like the odd friendship with Nina (who had a grudge with her going back to Silas Clay and her pregnancy and coma in the '90s). They want nothing bad to happen to their favorites or nothing to change, and then they call it ruining the character. This is who Ava came on GH as - Ron Carlivati had her gunning down Connie and letting her choke to death on her own blood on the floor of what is now Nina's office because a) he has no sense of long-term proportion and b) they never thought Ava would turn out to be a lifer, when Maura was only supposed to do first a few days on the show and then maybe a few months. But a lot of people say she's changed and it's character assassination. It isn't IMO.

What is problematic is the current story, where Ava is bumbling about with rinky-dink schemes like the Natalia recording which are small potatoes while Sonny is acting like she blew up another one of his kids. That's not the level any of this should be pitched at, nor should Ava be in the hot seat over what Natalia said. Ava should be making a whole different league of trouble.

The Sonny/Nina, etc. fans wailing about Drew and Willow, etc. I have no time for. At least a fair amount of the audience finally admitted the Drew/Willow kiss and the Nina FWB relationship was proper soap and are mourning its quick dismissal.

Edited July 16, 2024 by Vee

[Contessa Donatella]

I give. What is an FWB? I can guess the F. 

[Errol]

Friends with Benefits

[Liberty City]

I always do! 

[carolineg]

Jagger is not relevant.  And if you want to bring him back that's fine.  Whatever.  No one was asking, but his slanted skew on why he hates Sonny is weird.  Jagger can hate Sonny and Jason because they are literal criminals, but bringing up past crap to characters that have no idea who Stone or Karen are is just obnoxious and weird.  I know it's HISTORY! and it's being honored in Frank's mind, but none of this bs is actually what happened besides Sonny abusing an underage Karen.  And Jagger isn't even the victim here.  Karen was and forgave Sonny a million years ago.  Jagger can be mad about it, but in essence he was banging Brenda while his traumatized true love started stripping, doing drugs, and hooking up with Sonny while Jagger was all "Karen's being weird" and didn't do much else lol. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, my mind was in the gutter. Oy. Of course, Friends with Benefits. Thanks.