Stranger Danger

Today on General Hospital, a character that we barely know (and whose new/real name I cannot make myself remember--when his mother(s) were going on about James, I felt completely disoriented. I am going to have to put a Post-It on my TV saying James = Nathan...and I'd probably need another one underneath saying Nathan = Nina Cop) found out from his mother, who we know even less (her biggest claim to fame is being the mother and accidental murderer of Nina, who we don't know AT ALL because she exists/existed entirely off screen and in the conversations of other people and yet gets mentioned more than actual contract characters and I am weirdly and obsessively bitter about this), that she's not actually his mother but his aunt (and that Dr. Obrecht is his mother because OF COURSE SHE IS. It is random and it makes no sense and it's not particularly interesting, nor does it set up any storylines, but Dr. Obrecht is both comic relief and a convenient villain, so naturally the show is going to revolve around her, right?).

Madeline--Yes, I Needed To Turn Closed Caption On To Remember: My last name is not West. It's Westbourne.
Nathan James: So you're Britt's mother?
Madeline: No, I'm not her mother. And I'm not your mother either.
Nathan James: You're not my mother.
Madeline: God help me, I wish I were but I'm not.
Nathan James: If you're not my mother, than who is?
Madeline: My sister. Liesel Obrecht.
Nathan James: [Makes a face. I don't know what the face intended to convey--shock? Pain? Confusion? Irritation? Can HE remember his own name? I know none of these things. All I can say with certainty is that he DID make a face]

The shocking thing is that I think we are supposed to care! The dramatic music was all "Can you even believe this?!?!" and all I could think was "Did my DVR record the wrong show? What bargain basement Lifetime movie is this?!"

It's very confusing, and that's without even getting into the whole "Why does Kirsten Storms always get stuck in stories with annoying characters whose use of the English language is filled with buzz words and angry-making inflections?" thing that is also wearing on me. My head hurts.

Comments

[C]

I was actually surprised James/Nathan found out so soon. I thought we were in for weeks of him and Britt dancing around each other while the show was all, "Will this brother and sister do it, will they?!?!".

[sanen85]

It may be an unpopular opinion, but I like Nathan\James. I am also looking the connection between him\Britt\Olbrecht.i could do without Nina's mother and her connection, but that is mostly die to the whole Nina storyline. I'd take the Olbrecht family connections over Sabrina and this pregnancy any day.

Aside from Ric (minus the Liz adoration), Michael (minus anything Kiki), and Maxie (minus that obnoxious Australian)... the Olbrecht family is the only thing keeping me interested. Site, Nathan isn't the best actor but he's nice to look at. They casted that family perfectly if you're considering looks alone.

I can't stand Maxie's newest fling, and he's giving me flashbacks to early Spinelli with an air of superiority to boot. He's both irritating and frankly unattractive.

I'm still mad about AJ.

[Nancy]

If the writers of GH are trying to make me dizzy and nauseous, they have succeeded. So many newbies, so little interesting story telling, and now Sabrrrrrina is back...oh Lord help me. Maxie has yet another new guy living in her apartment ( how many bedrooms does that place have?..nevermind, I dont care.) My FF thumb is getting tired....

[TV's Tim]

I'm hoping that Aussie New-Age Guy turns out to be an evil control-freak villain, because I was definitely getting that vibe today. Plus it means he's likely not to be around long, because him as comic relief is going to get old quick.

As for the rest:

"Hey guys, it's DONNA MILLS! Remember, from that show your grandmother watched? Well, we've got her now! Aren't you EXCITED?!? Of course, there's no real story for her and we've already got dozens of other characters we don't really write for...but it's DONNA MILLS! And she's German! Or Swiss! Or something! And Doc Obrecht's sister! Wow, can you believe that SHOCKING TWIST? And that new guy isn't her son, but her nephew! You know, Nathan! Er, James! YEAH!"

This is what I imagine goes on in RC's head.

[MissyLady]

RC/FV decided it was better to kill off a legacy child like AJ Quartermaine and fill up my screen with Nate, Madeline, nuSpinelli, Sabrina, Olivia, Franco, Carlos, Kiki, Silas, Nina?!, etc? Really? What the what?

Mallory/Louise, I hope your next Soap Opera Digest article is on GH and all of the newbies (Brad, Felix, Britt, Madeline, Dr. O, Carlos, Sabrina, nuSpinelli, Ellie, Silas, Kiki, Nate, Franco, Ava, etc) that have been thrown on screen in the last eighteen months? We could have had Dr. Tommy Hardy Jr., Dr. Steven Lars Webber (recast the role!), Serena and Christina Baldwin, AJ, Dr. Sarah Webber, and the older vets in recurring roles!

[Utoob]

I have to give Ron credit, at this point I think I hate Dr. O more than I hate Sonny, and if she gets anymore overexposed, she could rival Jason in my lack of affection. This show has become actually depressing to watch. All I can think of is how much this storyline is going to dominate this summer, when Victor and 46 other Newbies join and we're supposed to be invested in them as a family.

[Trippyjr]

Are you made of stone?? How could this reveal not bring you to tears? The writing, the acting, the emotion, it's everything soaps are supposed to be about.

I just can't wait for the Nurses' Ball. I know Dr. O is going to perform and hell, probably emcee too. There could be no more fitting tribute to Robin and if we're lucky maybe Robin will pop up and declare her love and beg Olbrecht to adopt her, gaining her immediate uberpet status

[Daryl]

i like Dr O .. she's a wonderful villianess ... Ms Mills i could live without .. Nathan/James .. meh ... as for NuSpinelli if he hasnt some sort of evil connection to what happened to Real Luke i may have to FF all his scenes ..

[uliis]

lol at "can HE remember his own name?"

[Cindy]

I'm in the minority who likes Nathan/James as well and have high hopes of him getting involved in actual story now that the Nina thing is over. Especially after I thought he might take out annoying Aussie guy who had me actually appreciating Sonny of all things yesterday.

[Elizabeth K. Mahon]

I don't understand this show at all. Why fire Spinelli, only to give us Australian Spinelli? Why not bring back Jax? You know the Australian we've grown to love over the past 18 years, who has history with Carly, Sonny, Michael, Morgan, and his daughter? Instead of Kiki, why didn't they make Kristin Alderson Serena, Scott and Lucy's daughter? And why, oh why did they kill of AJ, but drag TJ's mom onto the show? Does anyone even remember Rafe, or did he just slink off into a corner after his little plan to break up TJ and Molly didn't work? Does Silas even care? While I'm enjoying Ava and Julian, if only to watch Alexis prove what a hypocrite she is by sleeping with Julian, I wish Ron/Frank could have hooked up AJ with Ava. Instead we have bad Luke who may turn out to be Bill Eckert who died on screen in Luke's arms.

[Cornfed]

Mallory, absolutely LOVING your inspired posts these past few days! :)

Supposedly AustriSpinelli is only on for 3 months. All together now: "THANK.GOD."

Rafe went off in search of a coat. Wait, Spring's here, he won't need one.

This show has gone so far off the rails so quickly, one does wonder if either Disney is calling the shots, or Re-Ron himself got a shot of some halucinatory Olbrecht drug once he inked a new contract?

And in other casting news, a call went for an actress similar to Sobrina. B/c we all know what this show needs more than anything is MORE NEW ACTORS! Better idea: Write off the character entirely.

I still think they sped up the Nathan story b/c they hoped Donna Mills would stay beyond her trial period. Supposedly they wanted her on contract but she wanted to try out the pace first. Of course GH has money for Donna Mills but not for Genie Francis. Right?

Yep, i'd agree that a once enjoyable character as Dr O. has now been so totally overexposed, she's gone the way of Heather Webber.

Sadly, i haven't watched since the day AJ flatlined, tho i did check out Carlypalooza to get my Sarah Brown fix, and boy did she deliver!

[QuA]

It's just Ron's little fiefdom and it isn't going anywhere. Just endless camp, nothing making sense, endless newbies, pets like Dr. O and Franco who Ron pushes and pushes and feeds all the best lines but who still aren't funny and aren't scary and aren't redeemable either, just incredibly annoying, all the other characters dumbed down to the point of non-existence to accommodate the pets. Get used to it, this is all there is until these guys either get fired or the show gets cancelled.

[Sylvia Fisher]

Sadly, this show is going to get cancelled. I used to love GH, but now, I hate all the newbies and Sonny.

[Janet B.]

I feel like I'm watching one of those old TV specials Night of a Thousand Stars. Today as I watched I was wondering if I made a list of all the characters how many would there be and how would it compare to other soaps since I only watch GH. There are just WAYYY too many characters.

I feel like Dr. Obrecht suddenly became the central lead of GH. Like Kramer on Seinfeld, a little Dr. O goes a long way for me, and if you try to make a Kramer character as the lead in a show, it doesn't work. Dr.O is OK in smaller doses as a villain who is sometimes amusing, but driving major stories is too much for my taste.

Also every story seems to be about a crime. A murder, kidnapping, attempted murder, mob activities. I couldn't really think of any story that wasn't part of a crime story. I hate to bring up Guza...but he had mostly mob crime. With Ron we have other crimes apart from mob crimes. I'm not defending Guza :) ! But I had hoped with RC and FV we'd get away from crime in general as the center of GH. "Happy 51st anniversary, GH. We now celebrate with the killing off AGAIN of A.J. Quartermaine, a legacy character we trashed so we could make Sonny, Carly, Ava, and every other criminal on the show win. As a bonus, please enjoy this cameo appearance of Ned Ashton for A.J.'s funeral!"

[Janeway]

Clapping! Your article was spot on. I have been watching GH over 40 years and I barely recognize it anymore. We did feel like the criminals got away with everything during the Guza years, but that is nothing compared to today. The loonies are literally running the asylum (hospital). The good guys & cops are dumbed down to the point of ridiculousness. Even in the crazy 80's years the show still seemed somewhat grounded in reality and that was with a machine that could freeze the world! It is a shame that they have to over use all these good villains Dr. O, Ava etc. to the point that I just want them to go away. And they expect me to turn around and feel sorry for Britt after all the horrible things she has done.

Not only that, but on a show called General Hospital, don't get sick or you will get day player doctor. Patty is stuck in Robin/Sabrina limbo but baby stealing Britt is still prowling the halls. Days has more hospital action than GH!

We used to say that GH has the best acting but that was before this endless parade of newbies, the newest one worse than the last. Days also has a much smaller cast, has family members and friends interact and doesn't make the bad guys the heroes of the show.

These days I stay mostly in my happy Lante/Rocco bubble, which is about the only thing that I can emotionally care about, so I can watch the show in about 5 minutes. I will watch for Anna, Tracy, for a Ric-Liz-Nik scene or Julexis on the rare occasions of a sighting. I would love to see more of Lucas, but not with sleazy Brad.

I cry for the loss of AJ and all the missed opportunities. It feels like TPTB are only interested in replacing all the older/more senior characters (more expensive) with newbies and think we won't notice.

I honestly don't know what the PTB are thinking but it sounds like a lot of fans are saying, we're not happy.

[sjgsjg]

Rafe vanishing a la Chuck on Happy Days is the one silver lining in this cloud. Shh, don't spoil it.

[Jules]

I read that the man in the giant painting that keeps showing up in the background at Ava's gallery is Carvilati (sp?). Surprised you haven't mentioned that huge bit of egomania.

[Utoob]

He's actually in more than one of the paintings. The big one is the one they're doing constant close-ups of (he's getting more airtime than any vet), but it's now turning into Where's Waldo. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he's in every single one.

[Mary]

I'm laughing and cringing at the same time after reading about putting his image on the painting. Seriously, does the man think he is Alfred Hitchcock? I know Hitch wasn't the nicest person but he was a GENIUS and that pretty much ends the comparison right there. I'm curious what people thought of today's episode with ghost AJ taunting Sonny. I loved it but it left such a bitter taste in my mouth about what could have been.

[Poker face]

AJ is awesome. I love him. FU RC. That is all.

[TIsh]

who, who and who???? I didn't know one person in the entire blog... how sad .. I have watched gh since 1976... I am done......

I realize the vets cost $ but seriously this is newbie overload.. scary bit I don't miss it at all...

[KatR]

Is Jason Thompson not on the show anymore? I don't watch, but I haven't seen his character mentioned here recently.

[Trippyjr]

Jason Thompson is still on, I feel like he hasn't been on much since Sabrina's been off for a while and the horrible kiddy triangle is all about Spencer, but he's still there.

[Ruth]

Thank you so much for your spot on comments. If somebody doesn't address what RC is doing to this legacy show soon - we may be forever lost in the world of newbie characters that we are supposed to give a flyin fig about or else Port Charles is going to be totally run by criminals.

[MissyLady]

Since GH was kept on the air in 2012, we have seen all of these new characters in the last two years, with more to come according to various spoiler sites, (Brad, Britt, Dr. O, Nate, Madeline (Magda), Levi, Sabrina, Ellie, Trey, Joe Jr., Silas, Kiki, Rafe, Taylor, Jordan, Ava, Felix, Carlos, ????). Yes, everyone started out as a newbie at one time, but RC/FV have gone completely overboard with no end in sight!