Watch This Space

Friends (...Romans, countrymen) (every time I think I am NOT enormously nerdy, I do something like that to prove my own self wrong. It's the worst kind of know-it-allism) (my know-it-allism also extends to me having to physically bite my tongue so I don't correct strangers who I hear saying blatantly incorrect things. I am awful), I apologize once again profusely and sincerely for my General Hospital blogging hiatus. My busiest time of year at work is FINALLY wrapping up and with that, I will have more time to sit in front of a blank computer and come up with something--anything--to say about the current state of General Hospital. Which is kind of difficult, because nothing interesting has happened onscreen lately* and the things that have happened are too dull to even talk about. Sabrina? I'm supposed to buy her as--come on, like you are still even reading. Admit that your eyes glazed over at the very sight of Sabrina's name.

But! I absolutely owe it to all of you to at least TRY to make sense of what is happening in Port Charles right now. Or just talk instead about other people and places that share names with those in PC (I probably have a lot more to say about Kiki Dee's performance of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" than I do Kiki Jerome)...

*Billy Miller, you guys. I love him but I don't love Jason. I am excited but I am also scared. I am having many Jessie Spano moments.

Comments

[Neka]

I believe in you! :)

[Elizabeth Kerri Mahon]

Billy Miller coming to GH was probably one of the worst kept secrets in history. While I hate Jason the Borg, I'm hopeful that the unfrozen Jason will be a combination of JQ & JM. Still, I kind of wish that they had cast him as Lucky instead. You know, Lucky, who hasn't seen his kids in like three years. Behavior that is so out of character that I can't even. Instead we're forced to watch Nina who is crazier than a cockroach. Why Michelle Stafford couldn't have been brought on as a recast for Skye or as another Quartermaine, I'll never understand.

[Silvertone]

I feel like the only use Ron has for the vets is bait-and-switch. Connecting the endless newbie parade to the Quartermaines or the Devane-Scorpios or the Webbers or any of the core families wouldn't ultimately make any difference IMO because it wouldn't provide any story or airtime for any of the pre-existing members of those families. All it really does is give Ron a chance to laugh up his sleeve and point to how much he cares about GH history while continuing to base the show around the newbies and the handful of older characters like Alexis and Luke and Sam who get fairly regular airtime interacting with them when they're not exclusively interacting with each other. In Ron's world, longtime characters like Victor and Faison are only viable and relevant because they're connected to the mighty but 4 day old West-Westbourne-Olbrecht dynasty, not the other way around.

[Utoob]

Exactly. A lot of people are asking why one of these new characters couldn't have been Liz's mother or someone. It doesn't make any difference. Slap whatever names on them you like, carlitini will still do whatever they want with them.

Liz and the others have no storylines because Carlitini don't want to give them any. Bringing on 22 characters with historical connections won't change that.

There's a rumor that Jason is being brought back for Sabrina. I don't personally care, but I would agree it makes zero sense. If they feel like doing it, though, they won't hesitate.

[Silvertone]

Yep. For example, Julian Jerome was strongly connected to Anna and Duke, and tangentially connected to Bobbie, none of whom got much of anything, storywise, from his return. Lucas, his son since like 1989, got barely anything out of his return. If MS was playing Liz's mom they'd have one scene together before she'd be thrown with Franco, Silas, Kiki, Dr. O, Spencer, Sabrina, Felix, and their satellites.

[Nancy]

All of you just hit on the real truth here, and why I am so, so frustrated with this show. I know being writers, with huge egos and being asked to write stories for characters, with rich history that existed long before they came along, must be challenging. But for heavens sake, TRY, try to give a damn about the fans, the history and the richness that provides. It gives an excellent base from which to continue, YES CONTINUE what was there before they got there. Not use that base as a launch pad for 25 newbies that are force fed to the fans who know this show better than the newbie writers do. They clearly want this to be some other show, because its not GH anymore. So why even call it that. Start over with all newbies and just admit already that they hate GH, and only tolerate the vets so they can pretend to care and suck us all in. UGH!!!

[Bridget]

I SO wish Billy Miller had been brought on as Lucky. It would have been such a better fit for his personality (what I have seen on Y&R), and sorry but I think Lucky's absence is much more missed on the canvas than Jason; he just has more ties to it. The people I actually care to see with Jason (like, you know, his MOM) won't get anything in the story bc it will all be about Sam, Sonny and Carly (and probably Franco, Sabrina, Kiki and Nina because that's just how this show rolls these days).

[LJMartiz]

I have given up on this show for all of the reasons that everyone here has said. These writers and producers are just stuck on their own ego to even try to care. It is exactly as Nancy said. They are extremely arrogant and believe that it's all about them and not really about the show or what it represents. The problem is that we need the real life soap opera writer version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Someone who doesn't live in a world and business full of inflated egos and pathetic feelings of self importance. We need someone who truly cares about the show. We don't need people who think of this as their own private playground that they can do whatever to with no repercussions. I honestly think that they cannot handle the fact that this show existed not only before they were writers but even before they were born. The idea that there was a show and that that show was 100 times more successful is not acceptable to them. So they deal with it by turning it into whatever they want it to be with no respect for the history and especially the audience.

I think that they don't have the connection with the show that the fans have or the creators. After all most of them have passed away or are elderly. Just look at how much Agnes Nixon fought for AMC and OLTL. It was her baby and she stayed with it when she didn't need to. I honestly don't see that spirit in any of the writers in American soaps today. It's just a paycheck.

Man does Carlivati piss me off. The thing that upsets me is how he tries to play both sides. This is the show he wants with a bunch of new characters and families with little to no vets. He tries to play how he loved the show as a kid and how he was going to bring back the characters we all love. They are mostly on only as supporting players to the new unoriginal characters! That is if they are actually on at all! How messed up is that? He might have a few days a year where he brings on vets and lets them have their days in the sun. This is mostly for some cheap ratings stunt. It's also for him to talk about how he cares about the vets when he doesn't.

It's just so sad that it is this way. I have seen how great soaps can be by watching them internationally. Coronation Street is really the best soap out there. When I first started watching it I was blown away at the character centric stories. I love the characters so much because they are real and I can relate to them! I love that there is no SORASing or that characters actually die! I can actually cry when a character dies because I know that they aren't going to come back for some stupid reason. I love that they are lower middle class and actually have real troubles. Rich characters just bore me and are uninteresting. I think that making almost every character rich or have them be friends with a rich characters leads to these plot centric stories. That is because they don't have to fight or struggle. After all when you don't have to worry about money, the story options are limited to only plot devices.

[Regency]

The thought of Sabrina going up against Ava is entertaining. That's one way to ensure she dies, certainly.

[Zoote]

They just string together a series of soapy cliches as if all soaps are interchangeable. There are things they do that wouldn't bother me as much if I were watching AMC, or Passions, because at least there I'd know to expect it when I turned it on (and therefore I'd be a lot less likely to turn them on, but whatever). But as you guys have said, it's just not GH. With their generic checklists and massive self-love, the idea that different soaps have tended to have pretty different feels to them and that's why their fans watch is lost on our guys.

BTW, did anyone catch the Tootsie reference when Spencer yelled that he did an endive salad that knocked the critics on their and stopped before he said asses? That's the kind of thing that makes me wonder what's going on in these guys' heads. It's a 30 year old reference that's not particularly funny even if you get it and sounds even dumber to the majority of people who wouldn't.

[sjgsjg]

The Doctors is supposed to start showing on one of the retro channels and I can't wait for it to get better ratings than the current soaps. LJMartiz - where do you watch Coronation Street? I've been wanting to check it out for years.

[horselover]

Another former soap star coming to GH to eat the show. No thanks.

[MissyLady]

For me, it all comes back to balancing the show with beloved vets and injecting new blood via new characters. The network is not about to put a bunch of over age 50 plus vets on contract and the newbies are cheap, well, some of the newbies not named Nina, Ava, FrancoTodd, Silas, nuJason, etc.. are cheap. I don't mind new characters, BUT they should not eat the show (Ava, Nina, Silas, Todd, Kiki, Starr, McBain, Dr. O, Sabrina...) and the vets like Liz, Nik, AJ, Tracy, Monica, Lucy, Kevin, Scotty, Bobbie, etc...are off more than on screen.

RC is a dramedy writer, so we will see drama and tons of camp, period. Unless the character is a beloved pet, and he likes the pairing there will be little to no romance with lots of shirtless men and I am beginning to hate shirtless men on the show!

[Bethie]

I have liked a few things lately. I like the exploration of Sam and Patrick. They are friends now, and if they don't push it too fast and they (meaning tptb of course) let it build, they could have a really great story there.

Likewise for Ned and Olivia. Ned makes me like Olivia.

I also like Franco and Nina together. It just seems a way more natural pairing, I hope they explore this.

I'm liking all this stuff the last few days with lulu, Dante, Nathanjay, and Maxie. In all honesty though Maxie makes any pairing sparkle and that s pretty tough, but he's getting better.

I've liked it the last few days , minus the return of a certain undead psycho today. Way too over the top nutso!!

But I also am pissed at how the vets have become supporting actors. Except Carly and Sonny. Ugh.

[soapbaby]

Argh...I can't make it to the opening before having to delete it from my DVR. GH either bores or infuriates me...I fired up the DVR and two episodes in a row, Dr. Liesl Olbrecht is barging into Commissioner Anna Devane's office to shout insults at her. I.JUST.CAN'T. While I think Kathleen Gati (Dr. O) is a fine actress, I cannot tolerate the character. Why has Anna been written into a corner? She's been drawn into a complete bore and utter incompetent. That's not my Anna Devane.

I don't care one bit about the "Scooby Gang" being held captive. While I like Dante, Lulu & Maxie bore me to tears. Nathan is played by an actor with no visible signs of acting ability or even charisma. Toss a poor-acting (though still handsome) Robert Kelker-Kelly as Stavros and...ZZZ...sorry, I just dozed off. Apparently, the asylum has been overrun by the patients...and I am referring to General Hospital's writers and showrunners.

[Zoote]

What's worse, soapbaby, is that we were supposed to be grateful to tiic because Anna actually got a word in edgewise with Dr. Verbal Diarrhea instead of standing their mutely letting her emote on and on and on and on and on endlessly, like everybody does. Normally I would be grateful, except the entire purpose of those scenes was to make us feel sorry for her, create rooting interest in her children forgiving her for being mistreated, neglected, and abandoned, and allow her to return as the hero and save the day. So no.

Gati is a good actress, but good/great actresses are something GH doesn't lack for, and the character is intolerable! I could stand her in very, very small doses if she always ended up being humiliated and rejected by the children she's wronged and recieved some consequences, however minimal in this crazy world. But since they want her to be unrepentant, self-righteous, campy, cartoony, and deeply tiresome, and they want her to be the indomitable criminal-heroine who always comes out on top and makes the good guys look stupid and ineffectual, yet they expect me to feel sorry/root for her? Um.

These guys should have done a reboot of Dark Shadows or Passions or maybe Monster Island, not GH. I expect Faison to return soon and we'll have a love triangle between him and Victor, with both trying desperately to bribe the mini criminal mastermind in training, Spencer, to their teams to compete for Leisl's heart. Or maybe Stefan will be brought back, also as a deranged over-the-top scenery chewer to vie with Stavros for the love of Lulu and custody of the frozen embryo colony. More steam coming from the pipes everyone's tied to, some alarms and blinking lights would really help the plot.

[Silvertone]

This is why it makes me laugh when Howorth and Easton's fans admit they're phoning it in but act like it's understandable because "they're not happy." Oh, they're not happy? Everything Ron has, he puts into his pets. If they're not happy try being the rest of the cast who are given scraps so bad they're almost beyond description, and who still do their damndest to make it work.

Besides Ron being indifferent to 90% of the cast, and besides him only loving the sociopathic characters, part of it also has to do with his crappy storytelling. Roger Ebert used to talk about the Idiot Plot, where everything would be solved instantly if all the characters were not idiots. Ron's plots are so basic and predictable, there would be no way to drag them out if anyone showed a crumb of common sense, asked the most obvious question or employed basic logic. We have to have painful dialogue with Anna and Dante acting like their synapses are not firing because Ron's phenomenal storytelling requires it. "So we know this, and therefore we can conclude--" "No! We can't! Stop concluding! Don't conclude! You're ruining everything!"

[Cornfed]

If i could stand to get thru an episode of GH, i could probably write something HALF as witty or as tragically precise as what's on this board. Alas, i can't. I just can't. GH cheerleaders want to shout from the rafters how We Got Billy Miller! We Got Michelle Stafford! Um, i'll think i'll wait for Kelly Sullivan to strut into Genoa City with Justin Hartley and see stories actually take their time, all the while rotating the ENTIRE cast of vets...Yep, that may do me just fine..

[Elizabeth Kerri Mahon]

The cast needs to be trimmed way down starting with Sean, TJ, Jordan, Silas, Nina, Franco, Rosalie, Sabrina, and Carlos. Do they ever even mention that Lucas is not just the son of Julian Jerome but also Cheryl Stansbury who was Tiffany's sister? I would have loved to see a story line where Maxie deals with the fact that every single cop (Jessie, Cooper, and Lucky) has either died or been shot. Also Maxie needs a job like stat. And what happened to Lucy trying to revive Deception? Perhaps she takes money from Julian Jerome to restart the business, which ticks off Scott. The pacing on this show is way off. Soaps used to have an A story, a B story, and a C story in each episode. But now every episode revolves around the same story.

[Utoob]

"But since they want her to be unrepentant, self-righteous, campy, cartoony, and deeply tiresome, and they want her to be the indomitable criminal-heroine who always comes out on top and makes the good guys look stupid and ineffectual, yet they expect me to feel sorry/root for her? Um."

You know, putting it that way, Dr. O is basically Carly, except as awful as she is (and was especially in her early days) she isn't a violent maniac with 200 crimes on her rap sheet. It also sounds like Sonny and Jason, who are. Ron's basically out Guzaed Guza and given us more of the same, except played for laughs and acted out by hams and preschoolers. I'm not even sure Carly and Sonny would make my top 5 characters I wish they'd write out at this point.

[ALC]

What's up with the writers using women's wombs as a plot device? Think of all of the stories revolving around it of late: Maxie and her pregnancy, Britt and the embryo, Ava and her baby with two daddies, Sabrina and Gabriel, Nina wanting to have a baby or steal Ava's baby, and now Lulu and Stavros. Geeeeeez.

[ALC]

What's up with the writers using women's wombs as a plot device? Think of all of the stories revolving around it of late: Maxie and her pregnancy, Britt and the embryo, Ava and her baby with two daddies, Sabrina and Gabriel, Nina wanting to have a baby or steal Ava's baby, and now Lulu and Stavros. Geeeeeez.

[Alan]

For everyone complaining about the writing on GH (which I think is highly entertaining) may I just suggest you try sitting through a week of Y&R?

That mess will make you glad for what you have...

[TIsh]

to me the soap opera genre is dead-- I miss GH that I have watched since 1977 and sadly no more --not since "Robin's death" ....

I miss AMC and GH -- I never thought I would miss Guza but I do--

[Zoote]

What I'd like to watch more than anything would be the faces of the people who drew the short straws and got stuck on the Daytime Emmy Nominations committee.

[Denise]

I am guessing that you have taken a hiatus? I was watching this space. :-)

[AbsoluteLunatic]

They should rename the show "One restless life to live". It's not GH anymore and it's the main reason I quit the show.

[[email protected]]

Well it's certainly not One Life to Live either. That show was actually good a lot of the time. And other than the horrible Kiki, boring Silas and the serial mistake known as Franco, none of the cast are from that show either.
I see a lot of the worst of GH in this mess, with the retconned storylines and the OOC characters. But what I really see is an out-of-control writer who is spinning his own favorite ideas and characters with little regard to the show he's actually writing.
This is NOT in any way a recreation of One Life to Live. Or the Young and Restless, from what I know.

[AbsoluteLunatic]

No, it's just actors from these shows & newbies getting most of the airtime instead of GHers. The HW is out of control and he pretends he cares about GH.

[Nancy]

Still watching this space........