GH: December 2024 Discussion Thread

[detroitpiston]

I loved Curtis finally confronting Drew and gloating about the Aurora takeover. Him taking Drew’s nameplate off the door and tossing it to the floor was hilarious.

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Both characters and actors are so much more interesting to watch when the writers give them more arrogance, competitiveness and shadiness to play. 

Willow is so naive its honestly pathetic. Nina having Martin file legal separation papers was out of line but Willow inviting Drew over for Christmas was even worse. Chase and Michael talking about her past in a cult seemed designed to highlight how easily manipulated she is but I feel no sympathy for her tbh. I look forward to the inevitable Nina and Drew hunching reveal leaving Willow in tears.

Martin and Tracy actually had a nice spark and I liked seeing Tracy go hard for Michael. Following that up with her telling Jason he’s a murdering ingrate gave me whiplash lol, goddamn that was funny I did like the end where she said she prefers him to Drew and Jason finally accepted that he’s part of the Q family. I honestly never thought the show would ever do this and I love it.

I would be more okay with a Jason and Sasha pairing if she weren’t pregnant with Michael’s baby, gross. SB and SM have okay chemistry but they’ve already sullied the potential with these plot choices.

Agree with @ranger1rg and @carolineg that the Joss and Cam scenes were awkward and Joss’s vibe seemed way off considering where the character was supposed to be in the moment grief wise. I thought Eden McCoy did good with the last bit of Joss seeing a vision of Dex while snow started falling though.

Isaiah and Jordan locked in the steam room felt like a super forced setup but I still enjoy their chemistry. 

They are really laying on the Gio and Brook Lynn anvils thick lol but I’m glad Brook told him he needed a real social life because he’s come off very sheltered and stunted

 

[AbcNbc247]

Well hellooo, Dr. Gannon

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Guess this means that he isn’t gonna be paired with Lucas though

The Chase/Michael brofest was kinda nice too. I really enjoyed their friendship back in the day and part of me wants GH to revive it. 

As for Jason and Sasha, idk yet. I wonder if the GH writers are trying to tell us something since the two brothers are now in the orbits of the two characters that the fanbase often confuses with each other

And yeah, Cam is a much better person than I am. I’m still loving the karmic justice

[Vee]

Of course they would waste Isaiah on that cyborg.

[Cheap21]

I watched through Monday

 

Tracy and Ned aint sht for how they were getting their life out of the sex tape. With that said, their reactions were funny

Josslyn and Trina are annoying. The obsession with college football and how Josslyn talks like a groupie is irritating. Trina's whole attitude towards this Kai Taylor is annoying. They need to recast him bc the actor has no screen presence and seems like a day player.

I HATE what they've done with Drew. I last watched regularly when the character was Jason as played by Billy Miller but Ive seen him as Drew via the GH Spotlight. Ryan Lavery's version is a completely different character in every single way. I hate how he uses GH history as clapbacks as if he was around for any of that stuff. Like did he watch a YT clip of the Quatermaines greatest hits? it feels so forced and unnatural

Speaking of which, Willow is the absolute worse. I loved Carly reading her

Still dont understand why Nina is still around. She feels redundant with Carly and Ava on the show

If we all had a shot for everytime the name Charlotte is uttered, we'd be admitted for alcohol poisoning

That Dr. Gannon is straight? The first time I saw him, he was in the locker room with Lucas and it felt like they were testing the together

Sonny and Natalia have zero chemistry. Why is she even still around with her daughter gone? She mentions a son. Has he appeared yet It almost feels like they are teeing him up

[Vee]

This Trina/Kai C-story is so juvenile and shows how much contempt they have for this character they finally no longer are compelled to write for. Arguing over some slides while they repeat the same arguments over and over makes Tabyana look bad, and no, Kai isn't working well either. It's just boilerplate youth stuff with no depth and she could do much more.

[Contessa Donatella]

No, he's not on the show. The thing is, though, they've talked about him like this, off & on, for about a year. So far, no show!

[carolineg]

Given Trina's life experience thus far it all feels so trivial for her to care about something so inconsequential.   Trina always been much more mature than this.

I don't really have any feeling about Kai.  He hasn't done anything memorable for me to say one way or another.

[Vee]

Exactly. It's about deliberately marginalizing her and at times, I think about being actively trying to turn viewers off her. That's an old chestnut in soaps of course and Guza (or RC) were much more blatant, but it feels like repeating the same shrill scenes is part of the point. That and running out TA's contract. They want to be able to say she has a story but keep it as low stakes and inconsequential as possible so no one expects more from a Black lead again. The last time she had anything major was the wonderful monologue scenes at Spencer's grave early in PM's run. Ironically he barely touched her again - and knowing his history I don't put that on him.

Edited December 20, 2024 by Vee

[carolineg]

It feels very intentional and like they are just waiting for her to leave or get rid of her.  It's very disappointing.  I will say this current/old writing regime doesn't seem to have any idea what to do with Joss, Gio, or Trina.   The optics with Trina are much more suspect though.  With Dex dying, what is Joss going to do now?  And, no, the answer is not making Gio Brook and Dante's kid or Trina settling for a silly, basic romance with All American.

[Vee]

The Joss situation is especially strange because they spent so long with FV being all in on Eden as his precious NuStarr, the star of the show and trying to push her various pairings even while Sprina were ascendant. Then suddenly halfway through the year Joss and Dex can't buy airtime and she becomes Trina's talk-to. It kind of worked for the character because Eden and Tabyana have wonderful rapport and I frankly think Eden works better in a supporting or perhaps comic/scheming role (I'd still recast eventually, but not right away), but I wonder what caused the shift. And I fully expect them to try to put her over with the next guy.

I think Mulcahey was trying to make them more palatable by taking Dex away from the mob and making him a cop. Those scenes with him and Anna talking about wanting to serve the people again and not Sonny's ego or criminal interests were heartfelt and I bought them. But I still never really cared about him.

Edited December 20, 2024 by Vee

[carolineg]

The one thing I always liked about Joss/Dex is that EM and EH tried to really sell the pairing.  They had good chemistry and good love scenes.  I didn't think they were an amazing couple or anything but at least there was an attempt at sexiness and romance.   I thought EM/EH dated for awhile in real life?  Perhaps when they broke up IRL it cooled things between them.

Dex always felt slightly old for that group of characters, but it wasn't creepy.  They either need to expand the college set a bit or move these characters into more adult stories because Gio, Joss, and Trina with a side of Kai talking about PCU sounds dreadful.

[ranger1rg]

I think you're right about them. They were a good fit for characters who at first glance didn't seem to be one. They worked well together, and I blame the show for ignoring them. Now we're supposed to feel something about a relationship we haven't seen for months.

Dreadful is right. I can't stand it when a soap pretends an in-town "university" like PCU is some major player in sports or academia. No, they're not playing Oregon, Georgia, or Notre Dame and they don't have Heisman hopefuls on the team.

[carolineg]

Yeah, I think mixing characters that don't appear to work well together on paper might work for this set.  Bringing Dex in to interact with Molly seemed like a good start.  Igniting Kristina and Joss's feud would be helpful.  Bring Cameron back with his cellist girlfriend and interact with Gio.  Bring Emma or Lila Rae back or bite the bullet and recast Spencer.

The young adult set seems very isolated despite lots of connections and I do think they need to interact with a few adults not related to them.  The way Brenda started a business with Lois or Maxie/Lulu worked at Crimson, or even the way Liz connected with Jason.  Talking about football, which most soap fans could care less about is boring-and I say that as a football fan.  It makes it even more unrealistic. 

It appears the show is struggling to integrate the college kids solidly with the rest of the cast making them more disposable.  I am not exactly thrilled about all these characters, but the show has to realize they can't bank on Sonny, Jason, and Carly's antics forever.  They are all pushing mid 50's to 60's now.

[Vee]

It'll never happen, but Gio really needs to be the jolly bisexual twunk of the show. And more importantly, not related to everyone just so fan wiki-obsessed fans with no long-term thinking can nut over updating the family trees. The Sasha twist was bad enough and equally useless, but at least her blood ties didn't overly age up many relatively young characters who should be focused on active and passionate soapy story vs. always having more babies and secret kids.

Unfortunately brood mares and stupid new long-lost children are the only long-term stories GH is wholly comfortable doing. Which is how you idiotically train fans to think that every male under 35 who isn't Black is somehow secretly Brenda's kid (last seen as a toddler in 2011! almost as young as Aiden!) who she left on the streets or Jason's latest needless son he won't care for or something. Pathetic. Anyway, #LetGioBeGio

They'll never accept this until Steve retires or costs too much money. Same with Mo. It's also why they've allowed the youth set to back up for a couple generations and now Liz's boys and others are being squandered and underused. My bet is they won't recast Cam because FV likes Lipton, so we'll likely go without him too.

And yes, I would recast both Emma and Spencer. Lila Rae is a possibility. But I'd cut (and add) a lot of people, in addition to keeping HW's Jake. I would also recast Georgie and basically redo Georgie I's original wallflower persona, and maybe do a triangle with her pining for rebellious Danny while he's involved with some wild girl from the Asian Quarter or something. And Danny and Georgie can be the unlikely endgame, while sweet Rocco gets the crazy girl or Lila or whoever, who knows.

The problem is there's so many youths now in the mix, too many babies over the last few decades that you can't keep everyone, or use everyone you'd like to bring back. It's just too much. Which is another reason I'd move Joss to a secondary position for a while and introduce someone unusual for her (probably a geeky Q relation from Europe - an illegitimate grandchild of Alexandria). But in terms of who to keep or use - Cam, Gio, whatever? - I'm at a loss of how to balance it all while adding new unique characters or characters of color. Because again, GH has turned into a Christian breeding camp.

Edited December 20, 2024 by Vee

[carolineg]

It's hard because there are so many children, but have they truly had a teen scene since Michael/Kristina? I guess they tried for a minute with Molly/TJ and the PC kid, but then it sort of skipped right ahead to Joss and the show never spaced out the aging so now we do have a bunch of teens ready to take on story and no room for them like you said.  The show decided to use Spencer, Emma and Cam as ridiculous kiddie comedy instead-which has yet to have any bearing on anything except being a huge waste of the audience's time.

It feels almost hopeless now to right the ship on these kids/teens because it such a large number to accommodate.  If Mo, Steve, Laura retire, leave or, God forbid, get sick and can't work the show is left with a bunch of generations that are just underdeveloped and won't be able to lead the show.