GH: July 2024 Discussion Thread

[titan1978]

The show is desperately in need of an umbrella storyline that has a beginning, middle, and end, like the water crisis. Shock the show with adrenaline, three weeks max, use the majority of the cast, and set your other long term stories up to spin out. Otherwise it just keeps limping on in this directionless mess.

Have there been any rumblings about other writers joining Korte or taking over and she goes back to the team? When Mulcahey bounced those were the rumors right?

Thanks to the strike, the firing and promoting Korte/Mulcahey, and whatever happened after that, we have had an entire year of stories just starting and stopping, being dropped, ignored, etc. Frank clearly cannot EP from a story point of view. This show is in dire need of someone to control story and he produces the show.

Even Felicia’s Aztec revisit in the 1990’s was given an ending when it wasn’t working and Guza was coming back. And that had maybe been airing a month at best.

[Vee]

The problem is he thinks he can manage story. And no one has been allowed to challenge that for long in almost a decade.

Last Monday (7/8) with a good portion of the cast arrayed around the Fourth and Drew Q's coming out party and the spark of the Willow/Drew kiss is great stuff IMO, as is Mac and Cody in the following episode, etc. But now a lot of it is just strangled in its crib. It's so frustrating seeing good material and players wasted when there is a lot of raw material there.

[detroitpiston]

Anna just looked ridiculous today. Begging Jason to hold off on giving up the evidence so Valentine would have time to run free because of…her guilt for shooting nutzo Charlotte? She lost all credibility from me when up until this point I thought the writing has been great at displaying her act with integrity. Next time she goes on a Sonny rant I will have to side eye

The Nina and Drew confrontation felt weird and lacking for me and it wasn’t CM and CW’s fault. She should be way more furious and it feels like they’re moving fast with it so they can pretend it never happened.

Also we’re suddenly back to Nina and Sonny talking again? I actually don’t mind them as a pair but its so out of left field after their last interactions. I can only rationalize it with Sonny’s BPD mood swings.

I enjoyed Ava vs Natalia and Ava trying to get cozy with Jagger. He should definitely be sent off the show once this Pikeman story wraps though.

Josslyn/Dex and Gio/Lois just felt like literal time wasting.

@dc11786 I’ve been on the turn Michael into an alcoholic campaign as well. Chad Duell is not a leading man so I’d play into Michael being a trauma riddled but spoiled loser all his life who uses vices and money to not deal with anything. I know he and Willow are apparently big on facebook but I wouldn’t care, they are boring as hell so either have some fun like we were starting to get with this Drew & Willow mess or send them off the show. The show needs a real toxic pairing anyway.

[titan1978]

Strangled is a great metaphor for what has been airing. It’s like there was a story meeting and every single bad impulse was chosen as the direction to go in. I haven’t even seen today and I am enraged at what they are doing to Anna.

[Vee]

Same. It guts the character, unless in the end she brings him in herself (or kills him while they're away and alone, which I'd be fine with).

Edited July 17, 2024 by Vee

[DRW50]

Sadly, I'd say Guza just ended up replacing them with his own aimless storylines (especially Stefan/Laura, Ned/Alexis/Jax/Chloe, and the baby Opie saga), although he did wrap up what he was given. 

I remember they seemed to briefly suggest Alan was going to get Emily hooked on pills, which would have been more interesting than anything they ever did with that character. 

I don't think he's relevant, per se, but then most of the people currently on the show aren't. I figure since they went to the trouble of bringing him back, giving him some type of story, or giving Jason, Carly and Sonny something new with Karen, might not be the worst idea, although I doubt it will happen. I wouldn't be saddened if he leaves but it annoys me when these returns are done for little to no reason.

Anna seems to be in the same place Alexis was with the Julian pairing. I guess at least in Anna's case she does have history with Duke. Valentin isn't worth the effort though.

[David_Vickers]

   i like Adam Harrington as John as well,  I think people who don't are just Antonio Sabato Jr. fans, or are mistaken that Antonio is hispanic, he isn't.    I do agree that Karen should've never been killed and should be brought back.  Bring back original Cari Shayne or the best re-cast Marie Wilson.   I also agree that is was a bad mistake to axe Réal Andrews (Taggert).   

 

 

 

[Khan]

ASJ might not be Hispanic or Latino, but he ain't a WASP either.

[Taoboi]

Very. I still remember Taggert's scene in the elevator once he found out that Trina was not his daughter. That scene resonated and I wanted to see where it would go. But alas.

 

Hahahahahaha!!!!

 

 

[Vee]

There's too much floating around there about why RA may or may not be back and I find it irresponsible to repeat it or speculate. I just know I'll never care a tenth as much about Curtis as I do Taggert, and I miss him a lot.

As for the Heather mess, while I think a lot of last week's early episodes around the holiday are fairly strong they are definitely writing Portia way OTT re: her very valid issues with Heather, and that (like the goofy Ava situation and the handling of Natalia) is agenda writing and biased BTS. They want the anti-Heather side to look unhinged so suddenly Portia is claiming Elizabeth(!) and the Quartermaines are all in Laura's pocket, and ranting at the top of her lungs. That has a racial aspect no one left currently at the show seems to care for.

I would honestly end this with one good monologue for Genie with Heather, talking about the good old days in her cherished youth with Rick, Lesley and Jeff and the old household and how much she loved Heather’s poor long-suffering mother Alice the housekeeper and tried to associate Heather with that and a link to a loving past that's mostly gone. And how she can’t be sure what is happening to Heather or what she will become, but remembering all she's done to people in Port Charles (and she can go through the list) Laura says she can’t have her here or do more for her. And depending on how Heather's mind turns out in future, she can say she wishes her to get well, serve her time or both, and then ships her off to an extensive high security rehab facility somewhere, and that’s it. Just put a bow on it and then end it. At least that way you leave the ambiguity for the future; maybe someday Heather comes back semi-saner but still bad news, maybe her treatment does nothing at all. But Laura has done the right thing and the story is over.

But FV never says die on favorite actors or stories unless absolutely forced, so here we are.

Edited July 17, 2024 by Vee

[Taoboi]

That definitely for me is a sour note in PM's run re: black characters. There definitely have been great moments with our black characters. And it was nice to be able to get the characters scenes that were given, but it would have been nice to see what direction they could have gone in. 

 

I still feel that was stalled due to BTS drama. I don't think Mulcahey liked the story, but I felt that when he started that the Pikeman story started to get focus and a direction and a way for Mulcahey to clearly define characters like most of his run was doing. And by clearly define, I mean set up a character's natural end. And by that, I would say Valentin. It was clear the story was leading to his exit. But again...BTS. 

 

YES.

 

Oh, yes, totally. And like I mentioned, Mulcahey might not have liked the story, but he quickly started to build it into a potentially great umbrella story that would have had consequences as he set up new directions that led to some exits. 

 

 

[DRW50]

That would be a great way to end the story with Heather and also help justify Laura's actions.

(I would then have Heather find a portal in her cell and never return) 

I wonder sometimes if the very vocal criticism the show gets for the treatment of Portia, Trina, etc. on Twitter only hardens them further. 

One of the reasons it was so hard to believe Finn was actually leaving was just not believing Frank would let him go. I suppose Valentin is more popular than Finn, but it's why I am expecting any time to hear Easton is back.

You have a good point about Mulcahey and the black characters. I don't think it was his doing, it just seemed to hit when he was starting (due to factors like the end of Sprina), but the optics didn't help him at all.

[Vee]

I think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Chavez had just left and Trina was in a natural mourning period, which would slow down story for her a bit at first. We had those very good scenes with Kevin, Marshall, Stella, etc. discussing the issues of Black medical misdiagnosis on one of PM's first unofficial days, then some very good stuff for Trina at Spencer's grave that was a whole-ass '90s-era monologue for Tabyana on par with Kimberly McCullough's classic stuff IMO. Then there was some solid material with Stella and Tracy forming a friendship. But beyond that? Not much.

PM has always been a fierce advocate for characters of color so I can't imagine it being down to him. I think it is the show and getting caught up with the struggles over the bigger, crazier stories and the BTS crosscurrents, culling the cast, etc. I think FV and possibly Korte have very little interest in Black story and possibly an active aversion to doing too much with them beyond C or B-roles at best; I think someone fears it is 'too edgy'. Even the Gio thing is in a very weird place and Trina has been re-relegated to mostly Joss' talk-to of late. There were rumors of a long-lost kid in his teens or 20s being cast for Justus Ward but that may just be fanfiction, and if it ever was real I doubt it's happening now. It feels like most of the powers that be want to keep the show safe, focused on a couple people, and mostly white and inoffensive.

in hindsight I might've just recast Spencer right away and pulled the Band-Aid off. Chavez will not be back for years at this rate if ever given his current career trajectory. Fans would've squawked about another recast but if you did it right they'd have settled. It's possible Giovanni Mazza could've pulled it off but we'll never know.

Edited July 17, 2024 by Vee

[Taoboi]

I will always be for the Heather storyline because it was (under PM) giving an old school soap situation in that you got to see ALL point of views and there was no propping. It also gave a chance (as I've said before) of Heather being rebooted into a calmer, less-goofy, more cunning schemer again. But I trusted PM could do that. Now that he is out, I'm not sure if I would like the story to continue now. Moreso if it's more of the goofy. 

 

I honestly feel the same. re: Finn. Michael Easton definitely gave some good performances to the end of his arc though. But there has been all of us speculating about the BTS drama for months. In during that speculation, the idea was put forth that it seem clear it was not FV's idea to bring in PM so I would safely assume that the actual person who did also wanted FV's faves out and good writing to do that. Enter: Patrick Mulcahey. FV clearly did not take that well. So I feel He Who Was Behind It will keep Finn gone. We will see.

 

I hate to say it, but I agree. It was just bad timing. But those optics were telling. A shame because there were so great scenes that came out of it (Portia dragging everyone about Heather and it made sense, Trina at Spencer's grave, Stella and Tracy).

TBF it looked like Pikeman was going to be that, but we couldn't have that cuz BTS drama.

 

And I would say the closest lately was the reveal of the Natalia recording because regardless of her newbie status, she actually connected to so many characters the audiences actually like. 

 

 

Hahahaha. 

[Liberty City]

Please register in order to view this content