GH: August 2024 Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

This week, a year ago: I physically want to get that dadgummed stuffed animal, Valiant is his name, & Krissy brought him to her & tear him into ity bitty shreds & then burn them! I refuse to believe Alexis treated it as if it were a real horse & fed it. Nope, not in my Alexicon!

[carolineg]

Oh, I don't think Mansi is mediocre at all either.  I think the pairing was.  I even remember liking Blaze/JGL in that stupid Chase/Brook Lynn/shady manager guy story.  Unfortunately, she wasn't ready to be thrust into an A story.

It's been an entire year since OldMolly talked to that stuffed horse for several episodes?  I don't know what's worse the horse or the fact the surrogacy story has gone on this long.

[Liberty City]

Exactly. Mansi carried Lopez and a good portion of the show, as you stated in your post. Lopez was a cute dayplayer with a role that came in for a very storyline-specific part. And while I appreciate Valentini/the head writing team(s) for giving her a second chance at something new, she did fumble at it. And it did not work as a story.

This has been known... for a few weeks... but thanks?

It's futile because one will not change their POV and realize other POV's may or may not exist, especially when the bulk of those POV's don't support your one-sided one that you refuse to budge from.

Natalia & Olivia do not compare, in any way shape or form, to Allison (a.k.a. Blaze) & Kristina, other than they're two female-relationships. But both held different stakes and life experiences ⏤ which, had it been written differently ⏤ could have been a solid storyline for the latter couple. However, it did not.

As a gay man, it's so insulting that this couple, which really did not do much (much like another fan-favourite "couple") and they're hailed as untouchable and unstoppable. They were barely a match. The relationship did not work and was not going to work, especially when the homophobic mother is played as a victim (BY the semi-Legacy character) and is focused on over the character whose POV we actually care about.

Their "love story" was not unbreakable, it was not groundbreaking and it wasn't history-making. At all.

[carolineg]

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Thank you!  I have said too much about this already, so I am moving on lol.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yep. Aug. 10, 2023. WEIRD. 

Edited August 17, 2024 by Contessa Donatella

[carolineg]

Does anyone know when KV took over as Molly?  She still feels new-ish in the role to me, but it has to have been almost a year since OldMolly didn't last very long.

[Contessa Donatella]

From the wiki: Following former actress Haley Pullos healing from a car accident, details of the accident came out upon Haley's arrest for DUI. A temp was cast from May-July 14; Brooke Anne Smith permanently took over the role from July 19-September 25, 2023; and Vaganos took over the role on September 27, 2023.

[BeeLol]

No, it's not William Henry, Benjamin, or George. Just to set the record straight (the answer isn't terribly obscure), Sapounopera, like many of us, may have been dealing with 20 things at once, typing in "Michael" instead of "Gregory."

[Contessa Donatella]

AH! Makes all the difference & Gregory, both the character & the actor were set to die & thereby be removed from the cast from the beginning of his storyline. He was not part of any "reset" & has no effect at all on what seemed to be an abrupt departure from the LGBTQ+ couple. People all over are saying & have now for days who they would've cut BEFORE cutting JGL.As GH fans, this is nothing new. We probably all have 12-15 people we would "trim" from this cast.

Thanks for clarifying.

[Liberty City]

Timelines of the Molly's (by air date):

• Haley Pullos: July 9, 2009 – May 24, 2013
• Mia Kriegel: May 25, 2023 – July 14, 2023 (temporary; recurring)
• Brooke Anne Smith: July 19, 2023 – September 25, 2023 (recurring)
• Kristen Vaganos: September 27, 2023 – present (recurring, until August 2024; since August 2024 has been series regular)

[Sapounopera]

Thank you, I still think of him as Michael Sharpe from Falcon Crest lol. 

[detroitpiston]

Jagger arresting Kristina while she’s checking out of the hospital was nasty work, my goodness. So was Scotty leaving the pharm doc with Jason, glad we got the reveal of Valentine’s involvement with the med swap.

Molly and TJ were once again the standouts for me this episode. Loved their scenes trying to finalize details for the baby and TJ confronting her for using work to avoid helping. Molly’s scenes with Alexis confronting her for always putting Kristina first and TJ asking Ava about the hotel incident were really good too.

The Brennan/Laura/Anna scenes were fun, love that Brennan is trolling Anna for helping Valentine run off with Laura’s grandbaby. Wasn’t expecting the Lulu cliffhanger, I wonder if they already cast an actress and have her gearing up to air soon.

The Scorpio/Jones gang I really hope they fire Sasha and Cody next.

Edited August 17, 2024 by detroitpiston

[BrendaB]

The highlights from this past week were definitely the stories centered around

• Cody & the extended Scorpio family with that cute kid James.  Plus Tracy/Cody is always a delight!
• Drew & everybody.  Nice to see Cameron Matthison back to his old self, exuding chemistry with both Nina and Willow!
• John Brennan & Anna.  This is could be a much better dynamic than Anna & Valentine if they play it right!

I'm glad they've gotten rid of some dead-weight characters, but they could definitely trim some more.  I'm glad they ditched the daughter Blaze, and the Deception scenes could be fun, but if they were going to insist on Eva LaRue being on GH, they should have brought Dr. Maria Santos on to push out Portia from GH.

Nice to see Scotty, Lucy, Laura, Tracy, Felicia, Mac as always.  Maxie is great, too.

[titan1978]

Otalia had one major thing going for it- Crystal Chappel is one of those actors on soaps that has always had real intensity, and chemistry with pretty much every romantic partner. She also knows how to turn nothing into something by playing with it, a skill soap actors used to have. Mansi, and I liked her on DAYS and GH, does not have that passion, that sense of longing.
 

She was perfectly cast as Jennifer’s daughter, she plays banter, determination, and conflict well. Intensity and passion are not her biggest draws IMO.

I think what we can all agree on is there is an audience out there hungry for LGBTQ couples. This genre has always been served well by people falling in and out of love, and as flawed and afterthought Blaze and Kristina was, people do want to watch that. Even in mediocre form. The shows should learn the lesson to dip back into romance and not be afraid of same sex couples!

[Contessa Donatella]

Now, see, on this I differ. FINALLY I am taking Josh Kelly off of my cut list. Mac having a son & James just in general makes the Mac/Cody/James dynamic ... dynamic, also I expect it's going to be fun.