GH: November 2025 Discussion Thread 

How many murders and unresolved crimes are they going to do on this show? If they had a budget, maybe they could invest in a mystery, crime writer, to really go to town on this stuff, as I'm not sure this is in the writers' wheelhouse.

But then again, what really is in their wheelhouse...

5 hours ago, Vee said:

That's very sweet. I would disagree with Sarah's claim that Laura made Carly iconic though. Sarah is 100% the one who did that. As I've said before, those old clips of her Carly BITD still do numbers online because of how blisteringly modern and raw her work then still is.

OTOH Steve is also right: Laura is probably the hardest working actor in daytime, and she never, ever does not commit.

Sarah’s Carly is completely before my time as TB is my Carly, but I love seeing Sarah as Carly. She truly was such a force. I will always admit LW has never phoned it in a single day I’ve watched her, but she’ll never be my Carly. I’ve always associated her as just this loud mouthed bulldog Sonny apologist. I always found TB’s Carly with Lorenzo so much palatable even though I can admit Laura and Ingo did work at one point.

7 hours ago, Jdee43 said:

How many murders and unresolved crimes are they going to do on this show?

I've lost count, but everyone in Port Charles gets away with murder.

The cliffhanger with Laura was nicely done, though.

3 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

I've lost count, but everyone in Port Charles gets away with murder.

The cliffhanger with Laura was nicely done, though.

That was truly a shocking cliffhanger and on a Thursday at that.

I'm noticing there are some issues with follow-through/up on this show. Like Ric being drugged/tortured by Alexis/Ava - after all that, we just sweep it under the rug and pretend it didn't happen? Same with Ned's heart attack - I guess this was just a fast plot point to move other things along, but we're not really supposed to care how he is? We haven't seen him or Olivia since he got to the hospital...

Otherwise, there are fun things I like about the show. It moves quickly, so it's not boring like others. The sets are amazing, and they have so many... probably the best I've seen in current times. Great acting generally.

2 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

I'm noticing there are some issues with follow-through/up on this show.

The show is assembled from taped scenes out of order and the episodes recreated like a puzzle. So B and C stories, and ones not featuring pets or Frank’s personal favorites at that time, get dropped for weeks sometimes, or get shoehorned in as an afterthought. It did not used to be so obvious, and it is slightly better at times now. But it’s been a pattern for awhile now.

As has a bored Valentini interrupting the flow of stories and changing almost everything quickly, dropping months of plots/couples and often never returning to them. The fast pace they were running on when Rory arrived as the recast really covered the seams a lot too, but something changed with the Ronnie story and Britt return as far as momentum, so we are seeing more of the cracks in the way they assemble the show.

2 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

The show is assembled from taped scenes out of order and the episodes recreated like a puzzle. So B and C stories, and ones not featuring pets or Frank’s personal favorites at that time, get dropped for weeks sometimes, or get shoehorned in as an afterthought. It did not used to be so obvious, and it is slightly better at times now. But it’s been a pattern for awhile now.

Ahh I see, ok makes sense... not that I like it, but that makes sense haha.

So that makes me wonder - when Kate Mansi directed Tuesday's show, does that mean she only directed a few of the scenes that episode and not all? Makes me wonder how the directing/writing credits get assigned in that model.

6 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

The show is assembled from taped scenes out of order and the episodes recreated like a puzzle. So B and C stories, and ones not featuring pets or Frank’s personal favorites at that time, get dropped for weeks sometimes, or get shoehorned in as an afterthought. It did not used to be so obvious, and it is slightly better at times now. But it’s been a pattern for awhile now.

As has a bored Valentini interrupting the flow of stories and changing almost everything quickly, dropping months of plots/couples and often never returning to them. The fast pace they were running on when Rory arrived as the recast really covered the seams a lot too, but something changed with the Ronnie story and Britt return as far as momentum, so we are seeing more of the cracks in the way they assemble the show.

Now that makes sense. I do feel the Ronnie story only existed because of ES. You could take that entire story out and absolutely nothing change - except for Laura asking Martin to move out. Even that rift was healed the next time they were together (debate night). I kept wondering, who really cares who gets the Q Estate, compared to all the other stories that had been sidelined just to fit that in.

Credits for Friday, November 21, 2025:

Created by: Frank & Doris Hursley
Executive producer: Frank Valentini
Head writers: Chris Van Etten and Elizabeth Korte
Writers: Emily Culliton; Kate Hall and Cathy Lepard
Director: Tina Keller

13 hours ago, Antoyne said:

Sarah’s Carly is completely before my time as TB is my Carly, but I love seeing Sarah as Carly. She truly was such a force.

Have you seen the scene where Sonny and Carly battle it out and then fúck for the first time? There is a reason I was a fan of theirs real quick back in the day. (Online fandom in that era, on USENET etc. was notably repulsed when magazine spoilers about the hatesex came out early, but as soon as I saw their big scene I changed my tune.)

Tamara allegedly did almost replace Laura maybe eight years ago around contract renewal time, but that didn't happen and we got Kim Nero. I think you know that story. I like all 3, but I'd dump anyone for Sarah Brown.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

The show is assembled from taped scenes out of order and the episodes recreated like a puzzle. So B and C stories, and ones not featuring pets or Frank’s personal favorites at that time, get dropped for weeks sometimes, or get shoehorned in as an afterthought. It did not used to be so obvious, and it is slightly better at times now. But it’s been a pattern for awhile now.

This started at OLTL and got very noticeable in its last year or two. For a time I thought it was an ingenious approach to their budget situation, but eventually key stories or veterans would have stuff just going on in the margins every 3-5 weeks (like Viki, Charlie, Dorian and David basically doing light bedroom farce that went nowhere one summer) and it wore things down. It got worse at GH when Frank came here, particularly under Carlivati who had trained himself to work with FV's taping rhythm and the stories were very, very choppy. I'd argue it was even worse in 2014-15 than it is now, with us getting vague glimpses of backburner veteran storylines (Lucy/Duke, etc.) that were apparently going on without the audience.

He still does this and it has ebbs and flows, but it's definitely been all over the shop lately. I remember when they spoiled pairing up Martin and Tracy late last year/early this one in the mags (something I dreaded) and of course that's clearly no longer happening.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee

37 minutes ago, Vee said:

This started at OLTL and got very noticeable in its last year or two.

I still remember the gloriously outspoken HBS letting that info out in an interview. IIRC Nora was at a funeral and she didn’t know who it was that died or why Nora was there. I know it has gotten even harder.

This is kind of a hybrid version of the way that most films work. But the problem is the volume of material and so many stories that they clearly often just cut out the little character bits and details to keep it pumping. And as I said, sometimes it’s more noticeable than others. And it’s a talent schedule thing. Which is also why sometimes they give the lines to a performer tangentially connected to a story because of a schedule issue and they go with who they have. Mostly supporting, not the lead part of the story.

As far as the directing credits go, I have no idea. I know that many of us speculated that several scriptwriters listed per day showed they had to credit from the several scripts they used, not sure what’s up with directing.

On to the actual show. I see a lot of complaints about Dante. He is very hard on Gio. But the son he raised just got charged with felonies and locked up, there was vital information they did not know, and he has the last trauma with his part in Michael going to prison. I also think this is pretty typical soap conflict behavior. Do people watching now really want all these characters to be perfect and never have conflict? For GH this part of the story is mostly about actual human feelings, although heightened for soaps. It’s how I feel about Drew too. We need conflict in this show! There was a several year period recently where everything was generic and genial and boring- I don’t want to go back to that.

And people can miss me with Britt defending. She’s up to her eyeballs in something shady and she isn’t capable of playing any layers that make it seem like her hand is truly forced. Yes her medication. But that scene with Emma was ridiculous because poor Britt.

Also- all those extras for a debate and voting booths, and the hospital is practically abandoned. There was more staff in the Haddonfield Clinic in Halloween 2 than GH these days.

8 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

the hospital is practically abandoned. There was more staff in the Haddonfield Clinic in Halloween 2 than GH these days.

A plotline they really should do as some sweeps event at this point. Halloween II's empty hospital will never not creep me out.

I've always said KT is incapable of playing deep nuance or much earnest pathos and recent events have borne that out again.

Edited 3 minutes ago3 min by Vee