44 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

It’s just as misogynistic as Guza/JFP but in a different way. It doesn’t lean into cat fights and sleaze as much, nobody is screaming whore at women’s faces for example. But it’s just as diminishing!

Absolutely; at least with catfights, women were not dumbed down or weakened. It's a give-and-take process, I guess? Either women are bitchy and do nothing but fight, or they're submissive/weak, especially in comparison to men.

Hey, Monday, hey!!!!

 

I'm almost afraid to say it. The last time I've given really good praise to GH, the following week was more of the same. And them writing tics are still very much there. But honestly...except for a few select characters...I've been enjoying binging. It has surprised me how bingeable the last few weeks of the show have been. Even with some of the issues I have, it doesn't take away from it like it did a year ago. I do wonder if it says something about the influx of new scriptwriters coming in and making the show/characters their own. And I don't think the writing team under these writers will hit the golden days of tight scriptwriting making even the sloppiest of writing work, but it's been enjoyable. 

 

And I can't start off without talking about Veronica. First of all...I agree with @carolineg and I'm sure I've said it before for clarification. I am a big OLTL fan and while I actually did like the wink wink nudge nudge of Veronica/Brennan aka Viki/Joey (since Chris was my first Joey as well), due to how often RC/Frank went to that well and all the other things that have followed...for THIS particular show (since I am aware that soaps have done that kind of thing when actors that worked together pop up on another show) the GH audience is just burned out on such things from an EP who does it too much...and they were tired of it BEFORE RC left the building for an hourglass.

 

As for Veronica's story...I loved it. If I had to pick on it, it's the fact that it was THAT quick honestly. Like I said, I'm a big OLTL fan so having ES back on my screen was a godsend. At first, I didn't like Ronnie, but I loved ES acting and giving out nuances here and there. I loved Ronnie vs Tracy. I gasped at the Martin reveal cuz I knew that will had to be fake, too. And the last few episodes of the story setting up for Tracy to find Monica's real will, including cliffhanger moments were superb and good soap from the music to the director angles. I loved Tracy and Lucy having all their conversations since Monica passed and hope it translates to some friction in the Deception set when we see it again (SIDENOTE: I have always given him his due, but I really have to again here...say what you will about Frank AND I DO...but it was reeeeeal noticable the number of different and new sets that popped up during my binging. And never once did I feel that it was a re-done set and it felt like a real town. Really nice touch.). I like stories that have a beginning, middle, and an end. See...the Articulate story on BTS. The acting has been great though the final showdown scenes for me suffered from the wacka wackas (but I rewind and saw CVE's name on top and figured...and the Outback moment was actually funny), but the acting definitely lifted it up.

 

I was annoyed at the family feeling a way about Tracy when they should have been on her side once she revealed the real will and she was right. I got Martin in cuffs (so no Martin/Tracy romance now hehe). I liked the Michael/Tracy moment when she finds out she gets the house. I liked Tracy and Ronnie coming to an understanding. I really, really, reeeeallly loved Gio as the voice of reason...giving some old school Emily Quartermaine over it all. And of course, the family coming back together and coming home in the end. It was cute and warm and nice tying of the bow on a story.

 

I hate to say it, too, because it really is more of the same. BUT it's just so deliciously messy!!! And what I'm talking about is Isaiah/Portia/Curtis/Jordan. I shouldn't even at all care because these writers have been doing this dance with Portia/Curtis/Jordan for YEARS with an interchangeable black man. I should be annoyed at that. Okay, I'm long term annoyed at it. BUT the difference I've noticed binging has been the fact that it IS soooooo MESSY!!! Isaiah over here popping off on Curtis and Curtis not knowing the man is d'ing down his wife. Jordan running to Curtis with the quickness to tell on Portia and the baby. Portia STILL not telling Curtis he might not be the daddy aka history repeating itself. Any and all Curtis vs Portia scenes. Portia catching Curtis/Jordan kissing showing she's been right all along. Jordan being all daring with that smug side-chick look she had on her face (which TH didn't do very well acting-wise, but I guess she did if I wanted Portia to slap her) that I wanted Portia to slap her. Surprisingly, Team Portia, too. Where's the ShebySheree gif cuz it's MESSS-Y!!! But is it giving me soap? YES!!!

 

Another thing that surprised me? That I was enjoying Sidwell's presence. I hope that means his story is finally moving and he's being moved right off the canvas. But...now that Sidwell was put in the backburner...having him back didn't feel like he was being forced in any of his scenes. And him, Marco, and now Lucas at Wyndemere and all the coming and goings...I guess him and Marco ARE the new Cassadines. OK. He came across powerful in a good way rather than a slapsticky way and for that I am grateful. There was just so much intrigue going on...that intrigued me. I think the turn for me was him getting one over on Drew...and I thought FINALLY someone did! And NOT Sonny.  Sonny vs Sidwell slowly seems to be building, and I do love a good build. And...it's been that in terms of Sonny vs Sidwell scenes, not so much the backdrop of their conflict aka the docks. I guess that part of their plot will be the climax. At this rate...February Sweeps? In any case, Sidwell has been moving like a boss and moving plot...with good lines...and I guess I've come around. Him vs Laura was interesting. I guess my only thought was...when did Marco get in soooo deep with his father? And I gasped at seeing that henchman from the ALIAS...I mean, Joss's storyline as the new butler. So does that mean that Sidwell was the main man behind Britt's return storyline? Because I was also surprised to find her now working for Sidwell as well? He's pulling more strings than Drew now? Who knew?

 

From Dark Drew to bumbling Drew...lol. I too laughed when Jason kicked that cane out from under him. But sadly that means...along with the above...that Drew has become fangless. If anything he's coming across like the show would like Tracy to come across...mean for no reason. In terms of his shooting, I guess that storyline is now just a barely there C plot. I still think it's Willow. Kate McM is still playing it like at any moment she could come unglued or even like she's playing everyone. BUT...mostly Chase. If it turns out to be the case, I will crow. The growing closeness between her and Chase has been interesting to watch. And I've loved Dante calling him out a few weeks ago. And I love Chase got called out again. And now Drew is picking up on it, too? Uh oh. I'm really waiting for BLQ to find out. 

 

Meanwhile Rory and Michael were bubbling through the week and a half in those tight jeans and I didn't mind at all. lol. Attractiveness aside, god, Rory Gibson is such a great recast and has been so watchable. Him getting Nina to hire That Woman was great. I also loved all his scenes with Tracy. I just wish there was more going on...and I DON'T mean That Woman. Sorry. Just...ugh.

 

A scheming Carly is the BEST Carly. I was happy to get story movement in the ALIAS storyline in terms of Carly finally finding out that Joss is an agent and that Brennan knew. And from go...I was here for her planning to give Brennan the payback. But already, they are trying to slow-walk the story and I had to roll my eyes. The Return of Val is a HELL NO for me even if I liked the intriguing idea of her using him for the payback on Brennan in an 'enemy of my enemy is a friend' kinda of way. And while I love the Charlotte recast, I am not for a family reunion. Especially one that turns Laura's daughter into a side character...which she has currently turned into. (SIDENOTE: I loved that we got a Laura/Lulu scene where Lulu got to 1-be with her mother and 2-got to talk about her POV) I still can't believe she had a prefect return storyline, an awesome recast in AH, and built-in storyline that played with history with BLQ and her single and Dante single...and CRICKETS.

 

I've enjoyed every Gio/Emma scene that I can get. Though I admit that I've missed a bit of Gio's happy-go-lucky quirkiness. I liked that the writers remembered Emma and Britt's history. And now Rocco is getting roped into this Professor mess. But again...I do like the little unit of youth we got going on...though I do wish they were better utilized.

 

Speaking of characters who had recent traction and have gone back to barely being there...ALEXIS. With the abrupt winddown of the Ric Hostage storyline, I did wonder what she would do next. I was not expecting her as Willow's lawyer in order to be able to see Scout...and Drew is trifling for not adding Danny to that list...but it was an intriguing sotry choice and I'm curious to see how she plays it. Because GH WILL give you a court scene unlike other soaps these days. And how it will affect the nice rapport Sonny/Alexis have going on because Alexis in the courtroom can be vicious. And it was also intriguing how Sonny aimed her right at Portia. Would GH dare do two umbrella tales at the same time?

 

 Barely there...Liz. So very annoyed.

 

As for the Anna cliffhanger...it was great and mid-week. They did confuse over who has her cuz I thought it was whoever is behind the ALIAS storyline, but that's...Sidwell? And now it was Brennan? But it's a nice confusion so well done. 

On 11/15/2025 at 9:35 AM, Kane said:

I think his last scene was him meeting up with Trina at Kelly's and then after she left, he took a flask out of his pocket and took a swig.

Thank you.

4 hours ago, detroitpiston said:

See I don’t think they dislike Brooke Kerr or Portia. They just treat her like the one Black character they can reliably dump into endless “harboring a secret” storylines because they know BK can sell em. It’s lazy, and it lets them keep the rest of the Black cast stuck in that virtuous, sanctimoniously boring box. Portia deserves actual nuance, real backstory, and family of her own on canvas instead of being glued to Curtis and his snoozefest orbit.

I noticed that the dialogue has gotten very heavy on story regurgitation and telling the audience what is about to happen as opposed to just letting us see it. If they spent less time on writing scenes like endless plot recapping and more on actual plot and character development and understanding you’d have a much more interesting show.

I got a good chuckle out of Lulu and Dante having to watch their son be carted off to jail the same way Michael was after they convinced him to confess to killing Claudia. Good use of Finn Carr and the legacy grandkids with this lab plot. I should have known Ric and Sonny trying to make amends was only so he could screw up Rocco’s case lol.

I still have no use for Britt and it feels like she’s on everyday and in every storyline 🤢 is this how the Carly haters always feel? 😂

They missed an opportunity to tell a whole storyline with the Mayoral campaign competition. I get that Genie takes a vacation but having the whole election race take place offscreen until it was debate and voting time was a misstep. I want Laura to lose for her allegiance to Sonny. I also expect Daniel Cosgrove to be revealed as the person Jacinda was really with the night Drew was shot.

Speaking of Jacinda it feels like Frank grabbed the first cheap bland and blonde actress he could find and slotted her into Sasha’s place on canvas (who was useless herself until they finally dumped her). The scenes with Michael/Nina/Willow/Drew have been fun though. Is it bad I kind of want Michael and Nina to end up hunching? RG and CW have good chemistry.

Lucas acts like a petulant immature teenager, I’m glad Carly told him how stupid he is for moving into Wyndemere and that she whacked Josslyn for convincing him to do it too.

I like Sidwell and the teases of him and Ava but I still have no idea what the hell his villain purpose actually is. Every thing just feels very vague and he’s been on canvas for over a year at this point trying to get those docks with very little actual movement.

I think Sasha had much more interesting relationships on the canvas than Jacinda does. If the actress didn't want to leave, then I guess this was just a salary dump as Jacinda has little to offer. 

I saw someone talking about how another soap has started having lengthy recaps and they think it's down to "second screen syndrome" with people busy doing something else. I'm not sure if that's the case with GH or just endless filler because this is a show that doesn't justify five episodes a week of 35 minutes with their current programming. 

The comparison between Carly and Britt is interesting in that they both do tend to bulldoze through scenes. At her best Carly had an inner life. Britt never has, although I think KT is a little better now than she was in her early years. 

That's because Sasha does have more interesting relationships on canvas than That Woman.

6 hours ago, titan1978 said:

I think they like her.

I don't think so. If they did we'd see a push for her into bigger story. The same way the D&C team clearly wanted to use Nina, but Korte clearly hates her for taking Carly's man. That colored things even when she was with Sonny where Nina would be humiliated and castigated 5 days a week, and now with Korte co-HW she's got no story whatsoever.

Edited November 17Nov 17 by Vee

27 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't think so. If they did we'd see a push for her into bigger story. The same way the D&C team clearly wanted to use Nina, but Korte clearly hates her for taking Carly's man. That colored things even when she was with Sonny where Nina would be humiliated and castigated 5 days a week, and now with Korte co-HW she's got no story whatsoever.

I can see that, but compare Portia to Liz. At least they use her. They really don’t like Becky Herbst for some reason. And I don’t get it, because by all accounts she is a team player, liked by her colleagues and is professional and doesn’t make waves as far as story goes. Now does she manage to rile up fans when they try to fire her? Maybe not actively, but the fan response is a real thing every time.

3 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Now does she manage to rile up fans when they try to fire her? Maybe not actively, but the fan response is a real thing every time.

Frank tried to fire her and so did JFP. Both failed. I think that and Korte's longstanding enmity re: Carly's rivals is enough to keep her in the freezer unless Frank has an OLTL star or other fave he wants to try to put over.

Lucky worked at Charlie's as a clear attempt to try to put him in Kristina's orbit. I saw no reason he shouldn't accept the WSB's offer at the time, and maybe reopen Luke's Club as a day job if JJ really didn't want to be back at the PCPD (as he claimed at the time). That would keep his hand in in both worlds. But Lucky just bumming around at a bar made no sense. It was there because Frank was trying to put over Lucky and Kristina. And the thing is I could see them having a fling, I was not opposed to it in theory, but not the way it played out onscreen with him enabling her worst, most unwatchable self while Liz got short shrift. Because at least some of TPTB clearly resented being beholden to Lucky and Liz per JJ and the fans.

Edited November 17Nov 17 by Vee

The funniest part of Korte's issues, real, alleged, what have you, is that Carly is pretty much useless to the canvas these days. Even Sonny has more connections thanks to his many kids and grandkids and Laura's adoration. 

Just wasted potential all around.

Just now, DRW50 said:

The funniest part of Korte's issues, real, alleged, what have you, is that Carly is pretty much useless to the canvas these days.

Very. She still have good writing moments due to her remembering some of (if not all as there have been cases) the history between some of the characters. However, just like CVE's writing tics irk me, I am growing to dislike her writing issues...real, alleged, what have you. Especially if it is a part of (if not the main) reasons I see so little of Liz and Laura in logical places on the canvas where they should be.

I fell out of watching in the spring and came back for Erika Slezak, and while I have the same complaints with Liz and Laura as most do, if they were to fix that I would find this show top notch.

With that said, I was impressed at how they really draw everything together, it actually feels like a soap, small moments are built up, like Gio confiding in Emma as the Quartermaine drama unravels and just so happens to see Tracy in time to bring everyone back together. 
 

I enjoy the chemistry between Lucas and Marco as well. New Michael is amazing and incredibly sexy. 

Sonny’s love life, ALIAS and Liz and Laura not being centered really hurt this show for me but yeah, after weeks of watching Y&R and B&B I actually feel like they have a breakdown writer at GH and a plan. 
 

PS-how amazing to see Erika Slezak just rocking it again, wow, was I impressed and it felt like they actually had a plan for this entire arc. I almost teared up when Ronnie found out she got her dream home. 

 

 

 

I am another poster playing catch up with the last week’s shows, and it’s interesting that they have taken a classic Valentini pivot. Nearly all momentum for the stories they had been building for months slowed or stalled, and we had nearly everything all in on Britt’s various stories and Ronnie. Drew/Willow/Nina hardly used. Michael is still in that story but clearly being set up with dayplayer Jacinda. Slowly wheels being put in motion to bring back Valentin. Now at the beginning of sweeps (which I assume still matter in some antiquated way) we are rebuilding Sidwell as an umbrella story. It’s such a strange way to tell stories on the show. You can tell they absolutely thought Maxie would be back by now or on her way soon because Nathan West is another stalled situation. It’s another twist without beats of a story to play. Whatever the story was for Ric and the three ladies it also just ended like it was truncated.

We over analyze this stuff, so we notice things like stories slowing down probably because of budget and not blowing anyone’s guarantees. But they were on a real wild streak of at least moving so fast it was entertaining and I wasn’t really as hard on the details. But the slowdown shows all the cracks again.

Now when I came back from my posting hiatus I promised myself I wouldn’t just post complaints. So what is working for me-

More Emma and Gio, even if they are still not on enough, at least they are back on the board. I like Rocco/Danny/Charlotte trying to help them too.

Laura seems to be more active again, and they have her standing up to Brennan and Sidwell. It’s nice to see Laura stand her ground. In 1981 she was holding a machine gun in a party dress covering Luke with Robert while he turned off the ice machine. It was a stupid story but Laura is the original action heroine on the show, and knows her way around danger.

Drew basically blackmailing Alexis to represent Willow. NLG plays being backed into a corner well as Alexis, and it continues to show just how gross Drew is. And Alexis using Felicia as a PI is fun. We just don’t get to see her do any real investigating or be in danger.

I don’t hate Sidwell, I just think it was time for the story to do something. And now that is happening.

Happy to see Lulu being used better. I kind of enjoy Chase being so stupid about Willow because for once their problems will not be Brook Lynn’s fault. RG continues to be the recast Michael this show needed.

Edited November 17Nov 17 by titan1978

Jill is in the booth, supervising feedback for the overall production. In the ‘Thriller’ Halloween dance video that Courtney Hope and Melissa Claire Egan originally posted on IG, they quickly took a look at the producer’s booth where Jill was in (with longer than usual hair) with someone else.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQUVQl7iXMY/?igsh=MTAyaGI4N3F6c2R3eA==