GH: April 2025 Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

I suspect I am a typical viewer when it comes to Spinelli. Used to despise him with a passion & now I love him. D'uh.

[Khan]

For years, I believed that the only way to understand Spinelli, let alone tolerate him, was to assume he was on the spectrum.

[carolineg]

I have always assumed Spinelli was neurodivergent.  The show just made it seem like it was "quirky" and "funny" instead of addressing the issue.

[Antoyne]

He truly did grow up. Left me actually fully behind Maxie and Spinelli.

[DRW50]

Is he even that close with Jason now? 

I suppose it's down to airtime, as I assume Bradford and Steve are still close.

[Antoyne]

They’ve interacted less than a handful of times I think since Jason returned and Sam died. You’d never believe how much airtime they ate up as a trio with how little they’ve interacted.

[prefab1]

The people behind GH's YouTube page apparently don't know what day it is because they posted a poignant 4-minute Alexis/Kristina/Molly clip a few hours before it aired on TV. I put it in the Spoilers thread in case any of you want to watch it now. 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Ya know, that entity whoever it may be, screws up with fair regularity!

[carolineg]

I think they are still close.  Spinelli just really isn't that entrenched in the mob scene anymore.  He mostly appears with Maxie.   I am sure that's down to Bradford's availability or whatever deal he has with the show. 

The larger picture about Jason is that he's been mostly isolated from his previous relationships.  Carly is his only friend at this point.   He doesn't even seem that close to Sonny.  The show killed off Sam, he never talks to Liz, Michael isn't around, one of his kids was shipped off and the other rarely appears, and of course Monica is gone.  Even some of his lesser friendships with Lucky, Lois, Maxie, Dante, etc have been ignored.

Suddenly we are down to Anna and Sasha being his potential love interests.  I don't know. This Burton return has been so strange lol.  It's like Jason isn't really doing anything at all but appears consistently to have the same conversations over and over again.

[Liberty City]

Credits for Monday, April 14, 2025:

Created by: Frank & Doris Hursley
Executive producer: Frank Valentini
Head writers: Elizabeth Korte, Chris Van Etten
Writers: Ryan Quan, Charlotte Gibson, Cathy Lepard
Director: Robert Markham

[FrenchBug82]

Interesting question for me is how much of this is due to bad or odd writing, how much is this due to the return being foisted by TPTB on a writing team that don't really feel inspired by Jason, or, more interestingly, how much is due to bridges SB may have burned during Covid and his departure.

Fact the higher-ups decided to let bygones be bygones does not necessarily mean his costars did!

[Contessa Donatella]

Jason is spending time with various people, but it's people who are relatively new rather than traditional persons from his past. Anna, Sasha, most of the people at the Qs since he lives there now. He & Carly did not see each other for a period of almost 3 weeks. We only saw him with Spinelli twice, once finally reunited after Jason returned & then a terrible time when Jason gave Spixie the news that Sam had died. But, he's seen Anna, Sasha & Tracy more than ever before. I believe he sees Danny often & we don't witness it. 

[jasonminer1974]

The writers drag everything out like crazy

[carolineg]

That is a great point and theory that I didn't really think about.  It does seem like the writing team isn't thrilled and obviously I don't blame his costars for not being entirely on board.  Obviously that didn't work out for KeMo and I can imagine being irritated Steve just got away with risking everyone's health and only had to take another job on a soap to "wait it out"

[DRW50]

I think some of this had been building up even before Jason left the last time, which is why they paired him with Britt. I do wonder if this is down to Valentini just not clicking with him - has Jason ever had any worthwhile material under his watch?

The biggest disappointment is the decision to write out Jake, which should have been one of the main story points for Jason's return and was early on. 

As it is now beyond some kind of nostalgia boost I have no idea what the point is. I'm sure that Steve Burton would be thrilled to be in the same position Steve, Audrey, Lee and Gail were in when he joined GH. Then again, this is likely just a retirement plan for him anyway, so maybe he doesn't care? Good for him, I guess.