General Hospital Watching General Hospital

[Daniel Avery]

I think Britt decided it would be preferable to spend her last moments with her mutter, so she convinced Dr. O not to take her to the hospital ("Tis but a scratch..."). She knew Huntingdon's was going to kill her eventually, so this was sort of like "suicide by cop". While I can understand that decision, it has to be worse for poor Dr. O to have lost both her kids to violence in the past five years. Britt tricked her mother into not getting her the help that might have allowed Britt a few more years (at least) with her mother. It might be even more painful when Dr. O learns that Britt had planned to leave town and disappear.

As much as I would love for this to be Kathleen Gati's turn to shine (well, shine even more) I've been disappointed too many times by these writers who don't strike while the iron is hot. Something terrible happens to someone and these writers' first impulse is to have the character languish off-screen for a month.

 

[Monzo]

Here are some excerpts from Kelly Thiebaud's big exit Interview from the current issue of Soap Opera Digest.

"I’m in love and have been doing long-distance for almost a year now and my partner cannot move to the States at the moment."

"My return to the show [in 2020] was only supposed to be temporary and to be quite frank, it was only because of my relationship with Steve Burton, and our characters falling in love with each other and having something really magical happen between us that made me want to stay, so I agreed to stay longer. I was very clear with the writers and Frank Valentini about that. We were all really excited to go on this journey, and then the whole bomb dropped [with Burton departing the show in 2021] and I was really disappointed about that. It was like, “What just happened? I stayed on the show for this storyline!” But it was always going to be a temporary thing for me because I really want to do films and theater and all sorts of other things. It was always something that I knew would happen."

"I probably would have been able to do both [GH and Station 19] if that was the case, because it’s on the same network and Frank is so incredible and always wants to try to help his actors do outside projects as much as he can. But that had absolutely nothing to do with it."

"I had serious talks with Frank about wanting to leave. For me, really wanting to move on in my creative experiences and in my life, I needed to feel like this was the end, and that’s why we all kind of decided on her dying.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I wonder if the partner in question is (still) Bryan Craig, the former Morgan Corinthos. I recall they were 'a thing' back when both left the show but have not heard if they're still together.

 

[Monzo]

Kelly Thiebaud and Bryan Craig split up a few ago. It was a bad break-up as far as I remember. Rather, I wonder why her new love is not allowed to enter the USA...

I thought it was good that the story about Station 19 was cleared up, because it never made sense to me why both shouldn't be possible.

I didn't realize how important Steve Burton was to Kelly Thiebaud. She didn't rave so much about Josh Kelly in the interview. From what she said she was pretty sure she was leaving and did not hide that, so I'm wondering if the romance between Britt and Cody was just meant to be his introduction to the show and is it actually about Mac/Cody and not Britt/Cody.

Back to the current storyline: I don't like how some plots are just dropped. I would have liked to see Ava and Laura dealing with Nikolas about Esme's pregnancy in the next episode or how Josselyn reacts to Britt's death and who comforts her (Dex or even Cameron), but instead there was boring conversation between Curtis and Portia. Esme's amnesia may be classic soap telling, but I could have done without it.

 

[Monzo]

It feels like February sweeps in January. It's good that Willow's story is finally moving forward, but it feels rushed. When Drew was suddenly smart I first thought I'd missed an episode. What was going on behind the scenes that ABC decided to offer quick progression in the story?

I'm not worried that Josselyn will suffer from survivors guilt for Britt for long. She also quickly forgot about Brando.

 

[Monzo]

When Cameron Mathison was asked "What do you remember from your first on-screen kiss", he replied:

"It was very memorable. My first on-screen kiss was with Ryan Phillippe in the movie Studio 54. I was playing a bartender and at Studio 54, you know, everything was fair game — guys and girls or whatever. I picked him up on the bar and we got him to do shots, like I gave him a shot of tequila in the scene and then I leaned over and I gave him a big kiss! He was a great kisser."

 

[Daniel Avery]

I remember seeing 54 in the theater!

I have to say I'm surprised they had Carly confess to Nina. I expected that to play out in February for Sweeps. It makes me wonder what they DO have planned for Sweeps. With luck, it involves the characters solving the Hook Killer story, but I fear we may get yet another baby switch story since Esme and Willow are both almost due to give birth (calendars be damned!). Even if Esme does not do the switching herself, look who's around her: Heather (she's got a history...), Ryan, Nikolas, and Victor. Willow already has played the "Oh, my baby has died, woe is me" onscreen, and lord help us Willow's fiance Michael and her twin sister Nelle were at the center of another baby switch already. I'll be stocking up on Pepto-Bismol.

In my dream scenario, Nina is crushed to discover her bone marrow is not a close enough match. However, a 'mystery donor' for Willow is located in New York City who wishes to remain anonymous. Nina has Sonny find out who it is anyway, and we learn that Madeline Reeves faked her death with Valentin Cassadine's assistance years ago. Donna Mills does another guest stint which also allows her to tell the tale of how Willow was given away, how Nelle ended up with the Bensons---and how Valentin paid her off to go away. Nina would be alternately furious with her mother and relieved that she came forward to help save Willow's life. Liesl would be torn between wanting to reconnect with her sister (since Liesl lost both Nathan and Britt and has no family left except her grandson James) and wanting to push her away for disappearing on them all like she did. Sonny would warn Madeline off from trying to ingratiate herself into Nina's life any further, and even Phyllis would get a few licks in, since Madeline tricked her into being part of separating the twins and keeping them from Silas, their father. Victor Cassadine expresses renewed interest in Madeline, whom he was involved with many years ago, and she of course turns on the charm because he's super-rich and she's got a plan. He wants to find out just how much she remembers about the shenanigans at the clinic where Nina was kept while in the coma. She of course knows a LOT---in fact, she knows too much, so he plans to do to her what he did to Lucy Coe. But maybe Victor will have met his match in scheming.

Oh, it would be great fun, especially since we've never seen Mills play against Watros's Nina.

 

[Monzo]

I don't feel Nina/Willow as much as I thought I would. Cynthia Watros delivers great performances, but apart from that I only found the scene between Sonny and Michael interesting.

Surprise Surprise: Taggert is back and he made it clear right away that he's Trina's father and not Curtis. Hopefully the valentine wedding will offer some good sweeps drama. Somehow I think Stella will have a big role because she is by far the best actress in the family.

Does Spencer have to take the baby away from his father? Didn't we have the same story a few years ago with Sonny, Michael and Avery?

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

I don't feel Nina/Willow as much as I thought I would. Cynthia Watros delivers great performances, but apart from that I only found the scene between Sonny and Michael interesting.

Surprise Surprise: Taggert is back and he made it clear right away that he's Trina's father and not Curtis. Hopefully the valentine wedding will offer some good sweeps drama. Somehow I think Stella will have a big role because she is by far the best actress in the family.

Does Spencer have to take the baby away from his father? Didn't we have the same story a few years ago with Sonny, Michael and Avery?

I am disappointed by the writing, lately. Agree with your points, though.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I think Diane did briefly mention the Avery situation from a few years ago, but I would have had her use it as an argument against Spencer's idea. She could point out that Michael did what he did not because he wanted to father the baby, but to punish Sonny for killing AJ. Spencer's motivation ought to be a wish to do what's best for the baby, not a need to 'get back' at Nikolas. Also, at the time Michael had Sabrina in his life to basically take care of Avery, while Spencer can't even take care of himself.
I guess they cannot talk of that past plotline too much because it would remind longtime viewers of when Michael had a legitimate argument for hating Sonny (the whole "you murdered my biological father" thing), but inexplicably forgave Sonny for THAT. He now professes to hate Sonny even more simply because Sonny took up with Nina and hurt his mommy. His current hate-on for Sonny has a very thin foundation, and they likely want to avoid examining it very deeply.

I'm still covering my eyes and doing the La-La Song every time they refer to Willow and Esme being in the same hospital at the same time and both being about ready to give birth. If they think another baby switch story is what we want, they're crazier than Heather Webber and Ryan Chamberlain put together.

 

[auhin4]

I'm loving GH. I just started watching around November I think.

 

[Monzo]

Since I noticed there are Denise Crosby fans in here, here's the story of how she came to GH:

“When the offer came to me for General Hospital, I got a text from my agent while I happened to be in Las Vegas at a big annual Star Trek convention and Jonathan Frakes was, like, two seats away from me! I jumped up and went over to him and said, ‘You’ve gotta look at this,’ and he grabbed my phone and goes, ‘Oh, my God, you have to do it!’ He immediately called Genie and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this. Denise is standing here with me and she just got this offer from General Hospital.’ I got on the phone with Genie and she was like, ‘You’ve got to do it, oh, my God, it’ll be so great.’ I said, ‘Absolutely, I’ll do it!’ ... So I was really surprised to get this offer because all these years have passed and I’ve never gotten one. But I thought, ‘Wow, okay, this is kind of wonderful, to jump into something so different than what I’m used to and use it as a test for my own skills.’ ... William R. Moses and I are old friends in real life, so that made it even more fun. We were both scrambling to have the gaps in the characters’ history filled in for us. I’m a mother in real life, so I found the story of what Jeff and Carolyn did to Liz harrowing.”

 

[auhin4]

Denise is awesome on Trek. I liked her and Billy Moses so far on GH.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Denise is awesome on Trek. I liked her and Billy Moses so far on GH.

I would like tro see more of both of them interacting with Liz

 

[Daniel Avery]

I think they realize the initial story between Liz and her parents was DOA, given how quickly they moved on from it and did not allow Liz (or anyone else) to linger on the feelings/repercussions. We didn't even get to see the Webbers meet/interact with their grandsons, did we? They seem to be really reaching in an effort to bring Carolyn into the mix, and though I'm glad they did not just drop the Webbers entirely, I'm not holding out much hope since those two characters have been pretty much assassinated. There would have to be a lot of screen time devoted to rehabilitating the characters if they wanted them to become palatable to the audience, and GH historically has not been willing to invest in the Liz Webber character.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Some observations.
Heather seemed unusually caring and maternal toward Esme.
I liked seeing Harmony again. I was disappointed that the the writers chose to vilify her again,
I liked the "Redeemed" Harmony.
Where is Phyllis?
Who is giving Austin his marching orders.
I like Adam Huss as Nicolas
The Liz and her parents "reunion" has been completely botched

 

[Monzo]

Harmony's return made me wonder what it would have been like if Britt had been welcomed by Faison in the afterlife, but that would probably have ruined the great good-bye with her mother.

For me both TempNikolas Nick Stabile and Adam Huss were good replacements. I wish GH would choose either of the two as a permanent fix - unless Tyler Christopher can return.

I wonder if Marcus Coloma misbehaved not only with the main cast and crew, but also with an outsider, Denise Crosby to be exact. In the middle of the action of Nikolas & Caroline, Adam Huss was suddenly there. Maybe Frank Valentini was afraid that Denise Crosby would spread the word that a total psycho is terrorizing GH, so Marcus Coloma had to leave straight away.

What doesn't interest me so much at the moment is Anna's story. It's nice to have Lucy back, but will we ever find out what Victor is up to? It's about time something crucial happened.

 

[Daniel Avery]

On the one hand, would Harmony be welcoming Willow into heaven or....the other place, given the stuff Harmony got up to? The actress was wearing a black outfit, so I wonder if that was a signal? Given the size and thickness of Carly's plot armor* at the moment, I half-expected Harmony to give Willow a lecture on how she ought to go back just so she can sing Carly's praises alongside everyone else. But on the other hand, Harmony is a sort of "loose end" in Willow's life, since she can't really move forward with a plotline surrounding her new mom unless he gets to properly write the old one out of her life.

In a perfect world, she could have 'met' her father, Silas Clay on the other side. He could have filled her in on the Nina he married, the one who wanted kids so badly and was (from back-story) a nice, innocent woman whose chance to raise their kids was taken from her. But since Michael Easton is on the show in that other role, it would have been confusing to the viewers. I always thought it was a shame they had to ignore that side of the family; what if Silas had a sister or a cousin whose bone marrow would have been a match for Willow?

I think Adam Huss is a serviceable recast for Nikolas for the time being, but I'd like to see them recast Nikolas with a new actor. Bringing back past Nikolases makes it harder for the show to reboot the character, and yes, a reboot is what the character needs. Obviously a plot had been written that would take Nikolas off the canvas for a while, so they've been auditioning people for a while.

* plot armor refers to when writers refuse to allow a character to atone for their sins, even after the character does demonstrably bad things. Other characters inexplicably do not call the character out for their bad behavior, and in fact bends over backward to justify those actions.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Sadly Laura Wright revealed on Twitter the other night that her daughter has Type 1 Diabetes. Apparently the going rate of insulin is astronomical at the moment and difficult for most everyone to afford. Let’s keep Laura and her family in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time for them.

 

[Daniel Avery]

"You're not the man I married!"