2 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

Monaco, for the first time in a while, felt alive in a JaSam pairing with Miller in the role, at least from my perspective. And yes, Miller & Rebecca Herbst had outstanding chemistry, but I never saw them being repaired after Lizzie kept the secret of Drew's then-true identity. Herbst also had outstanding chemistry with Sean Kanan's AJ Quartermaine... which is a pairing I will always hate that did not go further than it did.... imagine Elizabeth Webber as Michael's step-mother...? Carly's head would have SPUN off of her shoulders!!!

I LOVED AJ/Elizabeth.  They never got a fair shake on the show.  Because everyone hates Sean Kanan I guess.  The years of story Carly/AJ/Liz could provide was ridiculously wasted.

11 hours ago, Dion said:

Laura didn't find out Cyrus and Martin were her brothers until just before Christmas 2020, while the explosion which put Lulu in the coma was just after Halloween, so Lulu didn't know Cyrus was her uncle. Cyrus did know that Lulu was his niece having found out shortly after first coming to town earlier that year but their family connections weren't revealed to the audience until Laura found out.

Lulu ended up in the coma after an explosion at The Floating Rib. Cyrus had wanted to kill Jason and was able to blackmail Julian Jerome into carrying out the deed as he had come into possession a letter that Nelle had written which detailed Julian's involvement in covering up the Wiley baby switch. Julian delivered an explosive package to the Floating Rib and detonated it remotely but Jason (and Danny) had already left the restaurant.

Oh wow so Lulu is waking up just hearing this creepy guy claim to be her uncle, how frightening.

9 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I LOVED AJ/Elizabeth.  They never got a fair shake on the show.  Because everyone hates Sean Kanan I guess.  The years of story Carly/AJ/Liz could provide was ridiculously wasted.

SO WASTED! AJ/Elizabeth was a viable pairing and, I felt like, if I can recall properly, he didn't treat Elizabeth as weak or needing to be saved. Plus, Elizabeth Quartermaine is a kick-ass name... more so than Elizabeth Baldwin. 😶 Cannot believe she's still Baldwin.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

Considering it was a best of flashback situation they probably had to dig deep to find Sam with personality lol.  I think there were definite times KeMo still showed some spark even in the end, but they were bogged down by the 99% of time she didn't.

If I had to choose the summer she was a villainess and her falling in love with Jason were probably the times she showed the most emotion.  I know she and Billy had a special connection, but I never found Sam/Drew stuff interesting.

I believe that. Almost makes me wonder what if she had come to PC as Livvie.

 

I of course agree. Her best moments was as a vixen and Jasam. I was a bit surprised at how much of Sam/Sonny they showed, but overall loved it. 

1 hour ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I was personally amazed that they showed her with Sonny. Other than that I thought their choices were excellent! I thought that someone took a lot of time picking clips. So good for them. Also an amazing number of actors in the church! Not used to seeing groups like that much anymore. 

+ 1

43 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I LOVED AJ/Elizabeth.  They never got a fair shake on the show.  Because everyone hates Sean Kanan I guess.  The years of story Carly/AJ/Liz could provide was ridiculously wasted.

The biggest mistake of the Valentini era for me was resurrecting AJ, with the right actor, and then killing him off again. There have been plenty of others, but that one had potential to bring the actual Q family back and have natural issues with Carly, Michael, and Sonny. Add in the original Drew/Jason story and actual Jason returns. AJ should have stayed. I also liked him with Liz.

40 minutes ago, Antoyne said:

Oh wow so Lulu is waking up just hearing this creepy guy claim to be her uncle, how frightening.

Exactly! Add to that she likely doesn't know where she is or why she's there or why her vision is blurry, etc. 

And, this "what if" Kelly had come to GH as Livvie, my bias jumps up because I really liked Livvie!

Edited November 21, 20241 yr by Contessa Donatella
Name

Kelly Monaco didn't need to be hired to play a character on a cancelled soap.  She was hired because she looks a lot like Vanessa Marcil and finished off Brenda's story with some tweaks because Vanessa abruptly bolted for primetime.  That's it.  That's the end of the casting story.

I will acknowledge Kelly tried to make Sam her own and succeeded in the end, but realistically, she hasn't had any fire, committment or care for years.  So all the shout outs of Kelly being screwed is not accurate.  She was actually incredibly lucky to hold a job for 2 decades with minimal effort.

5 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I will acknowledge Kelly tried to make Sam her own and succeeded in the end, but realistically, she hasn't had any fire, committment or care for years.  So all the shout outs of Kelly being screwed is not accurate.  She was actually incredibly lucky to hold a job for 2 decades with minimal effort.

I agree!!

People want to act like this is akin to killing off Maureen Bauer, and I'm just not here for that.  GH was fine without KM and Sam before, it will be fine without KM and Sam again.

Edited November 21, 20241 yr by Khan

I don’t want to downplay KeMo being brought on because of her own well deserved popularity from Port Charles, theres a reason all of the soaps were trying to snag her when the show was canceled. Yeah Guza and Pratt dusted off the Brenda story they had sitting in the drafts but her casting wasn’t just because they were desperate for a Brenda fill in like they were when hiring Lisa Vultaggio, etc.

Credits for Thursday, November 21, 2024:

Created by: Frank & Doris Hursley
Executive producer: Frank Valentini
Head writers: Elizabeth Korte, Chris Van Etten
Writers: Celena Cipriaso, Charlotte Gibson, Anne Schoettle
Director: Allison Reames Smith

Is the show going to drop the Charlie’s Pub set? If Kristina no longer works there, there is no other character left to run it. I haven’t seen Charlie’s lately. People have been drinking at the seedy bar that Esme discovered.

-- Tabyana Ali played Trina as much too amped up when she talked about Kai in those scenes with Joss. I know we're getting the typical meet cute cliche where the girl has to dislike the guy intensely in the beginning only to be over-the-moon for him at some point. I'm glad we got to see something natural in later scenes.

-- That Kai and Dex sparring scene could not have looked more cringe.

-- Chad Duell, of all people, was pretty good today.

-- Seeing the previews of Sonny the Murderer AGAIN making threats like some low-level mob boss mad me smh.

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

Kelly Monaco didn't need to be hired to play a character on a cancelled soap.  She was hired because she looks a lot like Vanessa Marcil and finished off Brenda's story with some tweaks because Vanessa abruptly bolted for primetime.  That's it.  That's the end of the casting story.

If she was truthful about her experience at the time GH/Frons was not her only job offer. 

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

I will acknowledge Kelly tried to make Sam her own and succeeded in the end, but realistically, she hasn't had any fire, committment or care for years.  So all the shout outs of Kelly being screwed is not accurate.  She was actually incredibly lucky to hold a job for 2 decades with minimal effort.

I have said this verbatim.

If you add PC & GH ABC/Disney gave her reasonably fulfilling employment for 25 years! 

26 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

If she was truthful about her experience at the time GH/Frons was not her only job offer. ! 

I absolutely believe it wasn't her only job offer.  She had a lot of buzz post-PC. 

I am just stating the obvious about her GH role.  I am pretty sure it has been publicly stated or at least is an open secret that Sam finished out the bones of the Brenda story when VM left after her contract expired because Guza thought VM was going to re-sign.  You can pretty much entirely place Brenda into Sam's story the first year and imagine how much better it would be.

That being said, Sam hasn't been a Brenda clone to me in years.  Brenda would have more energy and not be lethargy on screen like KeMo often was.

17 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I absolutely believe it wasn't her only job offer.  She had a lot of buzz post-PC. 

I am just stating the obvious about her GH role.  I am pretty sure it has been publicly stated or at least is an open secret that Sam finished out the bones of the Brenda story when VM left after her contract expired because Guza thought VM was going to re-sign.  You can pretty much entirely place Brenda into Sam's story the first year and imagine how much better it would be.

That being said, Sam hasn't been a Brenda clone to me in years.  Brenda would have more energy and not be lethargy on screen like KeMo often was.

Understood! Also agree. Samantha McCall in the latter years pretty much epitomizes low energy, like a kind of mellow, laid-back persona, right? Or maybe I rationalized that.