12 hours ago, ranger1rg said:

Regardless of the problems on GH,I still think it's the best soap running right now. It holds my interest more than any of the others.

Agreed. It entertains me.

But considering how bad the other four soaps are, it's not saying much.

51 minutes ago, Khan said:

Believe it or not, I'm fine with forgetting Jagger's murder. Hell, I'm even for pretending he never returned.

I'd be down with Drew and Willow essentially becoming the new Alan and Monica if I thought the acting and writing were stronger. Even with that better writing, however, Katelyn MacMullen is not Leslie Charleson, and Cameron Mathison is sure af not Stuart Damon.

As am I. I just also think it's a great future avenue of attack for schemers like Willow and Drew.

I do think Willow must be exposed for the shooting eventually. But why not have fun on the way? I definitely don't think Drew and Willow are the new Alan and Monica though. They're much more twisted and evil than that, with less foundational depth, and eventually they would be shed of each other totally to scheme separately. Just not yet.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Vee

1 hour ago, Soapsuds said:

Agreed. It entertains me.

But considering how bad the other four soaps are, it's not saying much.

I just watched the 60th anniversary week on DAYS and I was shocked at how bad the show was. And I was primed to enjoy it with those returns, the flashbacks, etc. It kind of broke my heart.

And I watched a couple of recent Y&R episodes and it was so lackluster. GH is not faultless. There are so many things that should be tweaked. But it has energy and some vitality to it since Michael was recast and it was the best by far between those three shows.

It's sad how only two of the five soaps currently on the air hold my attention even a little bit these days. And I keep up with GH, only because I hate to be left out entirely from @carolineg and @Vee 's amazing conversations.

3 hours ago, Khan said:

Thanks for all the Jen Lilley intel...I think, lol.

When it comes to VM and MB, I'll just say this: he definitely needs her, but does she really need him?

I'd be down with Drew and Willow essentially becoming the new Alan and Monica if I thought the acting and writing were stronger. Even with that better writing, however, Katelyn MacMullen is not Leslie Charleson, and Cameron Mathison is sure af not Stuart Damon.

Believe it or not, I'm fine with forgetting Jagger's murder. Hell, I'm even for pretending he never returned. Bringing that s.o.b. back as a blue-eyed, blonde-haired fed with an inexplicable grudge against Sonny (who deserves all the hate and then some, but still...) was lame from the jump.

Now, do I still think Willow needs to go to prison for shooting Drew? Yes, and no. (I mean, she SHOULD, but I'm just a silly fool who thinks letting individuals get away with their crimes is morally irresponsible storytelling, lol). Regardless, I don't wanna see that mess with her and Drew and Michael dragged on any further.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Drew is not dead, and he hasn't seen the light either. So, what was the [!@#$%^&*] point of shooting him? So, we could see that Willow, the one-time cult member who was ripped from her comatose mother's womb and who (probably) faked her cancer, has a dark side? That's great. I still don't care about the bitch.

I have seen some comparisons to Michael and Willow with Alan and Monica, but I can't see Drew, even if he's Alan's son. Drew is more like a DL Brock for the '20s.

I think they just had the shooting for the sake of an umbrella plot, a whodunit, and heightening already explosive relationships. But, as you said, I'm not sure the aftermath will be enough.

I don't know if you can even redeem Drew (I don't know if he's worth the effort), but they should have tried to add some nuance to him through the shooting.

On 1/15/2026 at 6:51 AM, carolineg said:

Sorry, I was just assuming this Val/Carly stuff has a point. Carly can fit in multiple places while Sonny is more on an island. I am not against Sonny in a more supporting capacity, but he appears so much with little point these days. How many bestie chats can he have with Laura lol?

I think the show could have Sonny take a long break and GH would be fine. Take a few months to decide what you want to do with the character instead of having him randomly appear to fill his guarantees and sticking him with dayplayer DA just because.

Nope. It's just a prop now really. re: Val/Carly. I can and will still hate on that. All Carly needed from Val was info. That was it. Carly has decades of history of getting payback without needing a partner in crime. Keeping her alone could also have been a way to connect her more as she schemed her way through the canvas. But yeah, unlike Sonny, Carly still does have places to fit her in (not to be confused with someone named Korte sticking her somewhere hoping she will fit).

I like Sonny in supporting as well. I have noticed that outside of the scenes with the person you don't like being mentioned and Gio, he really has no point at the moment. However, the increase in Sidwell consolidating his power (sidenote: I'm surprised they haven't looped back around to his involvement in Deception yet given Ava vs Lucy is coming) guarantees that Sonny will get relevancy again soon. It reminds me of how many times on Y&R Victor fades into the background and then comes roaring back.

Same. He could visit our favorite brunette, and I would be fine with that as you know. :) But it is sad that Sonny could go to jail vanish tomorrow, and the canvas would not be affected at all. How the mighty have fallen.

55 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I don't know if you can even redeem Drew (I don't know if he's worth the effort), but they should have tried to add some nuance to him through the shooting.

They should have never taken away Scout as his Achilles heel and made her just another pawn. He could have his nuances there, but alas...

On 1/15/2026 at 1:17 PM, Antoyne said:

I realized today with Ric barely even featured now the only story I care about is Willow/Michael/Drew and when the episodes don’t have a heavy on that I don’t tend to care as much like today.

I seriously can’t wait for Chase’s stupid ass to find out Willow played in his face. But I hope his marriage crumbles first.

It's hard out there being a Ric (and Liz) fan.

Same. Tick, tock...

On 1/15/2026 at 5:35 PM, titan1978 said:

It seems to me that they planed his return around the original timeline Storms was going to return as Maxie. We were probably going to get a few weeks with his return before Maxie played some part in it. And it all got derailed. So he has been treading water since. It’s almost as bad as Lucky’s return was because there is nothing. Whatever the twist is they are preserving it by having him just there not really doing anything.

They also dropped most of his interactions with Britt too. So her suspicions and odd looks at him will return a couple of weeks before Maxie.

Hmmm. I mean...as much as I didn't like Lucky's return...that was down to the writing. Unlike Nathan, Lucky could have easily been pivoted since his connections are all through the canvas. They simply didn't want to write to that. Nathan I feel so far is far worse than Lucky's. Heck, they could build that suspicion through Spin, James, or even Felicia on Nathan, but instead we get NOTHING.

On 1/15/2026 at 5:43 PM, CrazySexyQ said:

I'm surprised they haven't romantically hinted at Lulu and Dante.

Same.

Scout is a cipher who probably didn't need to exist played by a typical smiling soap kid. Like most kids on the show. We have no reason to care about her unless they go out and find a really talented young girl and invest, which they could do and I'd be open to it.

But for now, I still think Drew's weakness goes back to both Sam, who's gone, and Jake. They were his closest relationships when he was a better man, particularly when he thought he was Jason in the Billy Miller years, a Jason who was divesting himself of the mob, very close with Monica, welcome at the Quartermaines and moving into legitimate enterprise (Aurora). He has lost Curtis, who he used to be close to. Those are things you can explore to add some shading and dimension to him again. It's even hypothetically possible to redeem Drew too - he could go out and save a bunch of kids or characters we like during sweeps or something - but not only would most of the audience likely never be there for it, mostly I simply see no need for that. He's a great villain. Why mess with it?

I don't think either Michael nor Drew and Willow add up to a new Alan and Monica. I suppose you could try with Michael and the new Willow but I'm not interested in that. They can have hate sex, they can relentlessly try to destroy each other but ultimately it would end. They should never be in love again.

On 1/16/2026 at 8:10 AM, titan1978 said:

Much like Trina and Spencer, the actual romance is being imbued by the performers. And they also were shelved for months at a time. The fact that they read the room well enough to lean into a sweetness for their characters obviously paid off.

I completely agree. And it's smart that they started adding things ahead of the writers who we know can't write romance properly...or aim for the wrong pairings...to save their lives.

On 1/16/2026 at 8:22 AM, titan1978 said:

Compare this to Britt’s return- the Five Poppies, built in angst with Jason and her family. Brad. Tying her into the Laura/Sonny plot. Her issues at GH and getting her medical license back. Rocco. I haven’t seen so much story flung at a returning actor since Vanessa Marcil in 2002.

And yet Britt STILL feels irrelevant. With less stylish hair of course.

On 1/16/2026 at 8:22 AM, titan1978 said:

If he didn’t fit the Valentini mold so well I would wonder if ABC forced him on them instead of Frank wanting him back.

Le sigh. That Frank.

On 1/16/2026 at 8:22 AM, titan1978 said:

They aren’t even using Obrect

Yeah, that has been surprisingly noticeable to me in my binging. She has just upped and vanished. Whether it's her fighting with Lulu over Rocco, still fighting with Britt, or mending her closeness to Nathan and noticing him around Lulu all the time (or catching a clue it might not be him), I'm surprised she's not being used more.

On 1/16/2026 at 11:11 AM, titan1978 said:

And an actual fan favorite the audience wanted to see return, with a real story to back it up!

Speak on it!

On 1/16/2026 at 11:11 AM, titan1978 said:

A half assed chemistry test with Lulu isn’t it either.

Same. Heck no.

On 1/16/2026 at 11:12 AM, Jdee43 said:

With Nathan being back, I guess that makes Chase expendable? Maybe go darker with him then? I think the actor could handle it better.

I believe they are already in progress with that. And JS has proven he can do that so tick, tock.

I don't even know if I would count Sam as an Achilles heel for Drew now. He can't even respect her last wishes due to spite and his own ego. That and the fact that Sam feels too much like an afterthought as is. And Frank likes it that way. Besides Drew's waaaaaaaaay too obsessed with Willow at this point.

I too have begun to lean into continued online opinion that Michael and Willow are totally giving hate sex. But not much else re: Their generation's Alan/Monica.

I honestly feel a bit bad for TPTB because the audience is constantly comparing every choice to whatever happened in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

I don’t need Willow and Drew to be Monica and Alan because I’m enjoying their particular [!@#$%^&*]ed up dynamic. Two years ago, both characters and performances were flat and boring—reconceptualizing Drew as a narcissistic [!@#$%^&*] and leaning into Willow’s pathology as a cult follower with Daddy issues has revitalized both characters and freed the actors to do their best work.

When audiences complain about characters and stories like this one, I honestly don’t know what they’re asking for—endless scenes of Laura and Scotty reminiscing about the ‘80s over tea?

And for the nostalgia-driven, the show has made the brilliant choice to squeeze every drop out of Jane Elliot for as long as she wants to work. Plus, legacy leading ladies like Alexis and Anna are vital and dynamic.

The show is much more balanced between veteran and newer characters than it was during the HW merry go round of 2023/24, and there’s a lot of strength to go around. For my money, the aimlessness around Nathan (attributable to Storms’s absence) and the wet-match Trina/Kai romance are the only things that aren’t clicking at the moment.

1 minute ago, bossruen said:

I don’t need Willow and Drew to be Monica and Alan because I’m enjoying their particular [!@#$%^&*]ed up dynamic. Two years ago, both characters and performances were flat and boring—reconceptualizing Drew as a narcissistic [!@#$%^&*] and leaning into Willow’s pathology as a cult follower with Daddy issues has revitalized both characters and freed the actors to do their best work.

When audiences complain about characters and stories like this one, I honestly don’t know what they’re asking for—endless scenes of Laura and Scotty reminiscing about the ‘80s over tea?

I agree with all of that. But as for Anna and Alexis, well, Nancy has gotten good material lately but the writing has no real investment in their lives in and of themselves. Finola not in quite some time, and it looks like Anna will next be brainwashed and a dupe again or something, which I'm not looking forward to. What she deserves is a love interest on par with her and she hasn't had one since coming back to the show, Finola's obvious adoration for JPS aside. Ian Buchanan is a wonderful actor but they wrote and played the resurrected Duke as a creaky old sadsack til he died. Instead of her simply serving plot functions I would rather see both her and Laura get strong new love interests. Alexis, the same but who knows what to do with her.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You all are killing me with how well you are plausibly defending a Brenda return. I love ya! Love you, too, Ranger. ;)

21 hours ago, Khan said:

IOW, Maurice Benard and Sonny Corinthos have become albatrosses around GH's neck.

Very.

10 hours ago, carolineg said:

There is no real reason for Nathan to be on the show without Maxie. It's wasting time and money on nothing. Does it ruin the flow of the show? Not really. The pointlessness of it all is more maddening than anything.

But the bold for me. And the fact they are clearly testing him with Lulu (Maxie's BFF) while giving the Dante/Lulu fans...one of GH's premier young pairings BITD...NOTHING. Just maddening.

10 hours ago, carolineg said:

I wish I had a dollar every time I mentioned Brenda returning, my friend. I would be a wealthy lady. It's been well over a decade since she last appeared and fans still want her to return. More fans than were clamoring for a Nathan or Britt return.

We would be wealthy in Paris together, dining and gossiping with Vanessa herself given how often we two talk about her and how easy it is to bring her back. It writes itself her connections to the canvas. Heck, just for fun...since I just mentioned it earlier...what if to save her company, Lucy calls her when she realizes Sidwell did something...and that of course leads to her return? See? Done.

No one was asking for Nathan or Britt to return. And for Britt, one can't use the only romantic option reasoning when a single Liz is around the nurse station.

11 hours ago, carolineg said:

xactly. It's not like Vanessa has crawled under a rock and retired from life. She has said she's willing to return under the right circumstances, Mo wants her to return, fans want her to return, and her story basically writes itself. It's been clear for years that Frank was the issue. I still think it's possible for her to return in the future, if not likely soon.

Same.

Too many people want her to return for there to be only one reason why she has not. Namely Petty Frank striking again.

And yep. Writes itself.

10 hours ago, Planet Soap said:

I don't understand fan backlash against Drew, Willow and Michael. As I've said before, what else is the show really have going for it in their absence? This is what characters are supposed to do, drive conflict. Furthermore, characters who have done far or worse such as Sonny Carly and Jason were allowed to free room this year for decades so this is mild in comparison.

It's because they are used to 'factory settings' on this show and no longer used to be characters actually being messy...one of the basics of soaps.

But...better happy or angry than indifference.