General Hospital Watching General Hospital

[Daniel Avery]

Watching the tragedy unfold, it struck me that they're breaking one of the newer rules of soapdom, which is allowing characters from multiple story bubbles to interact in the baby Liam story.

Even before Covid, but certainly more so now, they've sequestered certain characters in "story bubbles," where certain characters are only seen with certain others. Nikolas would be seen with Ava or Spencer, but rarely anyone else. Joss only interacts with Trina, Cameron, and/or Carly. Sam's only with Drew, Dante, and sometimes Alexis....you get the drift. Brando and Sasha were certainly in their own bubble up until the baby was born, but once we found out the baby was having problems, characters from many other stories all converged on the hospital, since they all had reasons to be close to Brando and Sasha and want to help. In addition to giving yet another excuse to have Nina and Sonny interact (and remind viewers they have unfinished business), we saw Nina interact with Gladys (!), Sonny (acting very Mike-like) interacting with Sasha, Britt with Brando, etc. Sprinkle in other hospital-linked characters like Liz, Epiphany, and Finn and you have....an umbrella story!

The only notable absence from this story is Valentin, who was the reason Sasha came to Port Charles in the first place and remained friends with her despite the circumstances. With so many characters popping out of the woodwork to offer their emotional support, he would be another legitimate friend of Sasha's who could have offered a shoulder to cry on (probably more legit than Sonny, though like I said those were good scenes). Liam's situation, in turn, could help point out to Valentin that though he "lost" Bailey, at least she is still alive and healthy; Liam's situation would give Valentin some reason not to feel so sorry for himself, since Sasha and Brando are going through a much worse loss than he is.

Covid has dictated a lot of filming limitations, so engineering these scenes with characters/actors who rarely interact took a lot more work than just writing them. It might be difficult for the viewer to recognize just how out of the ordinary this all is in the new normal of taping a soap. I still object to the story, but I can see this might be one of the reasons they decided to write it---to show some of the old-fashioned "umbrella story" interactions where one event has ripples across multiple families and story bubbles and brings a (soap) town together.

 

[Daniel Avery]

So yesterday's episode served as the Christmas episode--it was even said onscreen that it was Christmas Day in Port Chuck. Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, (though the episode aired on Wednesday). Now it's the day after Christmas and they're starting Nina's trial. It's unrealistic to think that court would convene so soon after Christmas even if Christmas fell mid-week, but what judge would hold court on a Sunday?

 

[Monzo]

The last week of the year is actually important for soaps because some people (out of boredom or because they are still with the family after Christmas) tune in again after a long time, so I am surprised that a trial that returnees do not immediately understand is the main plot. There used to be a bus crash in the last week of the year, today it's a trial, times have changed for sure.

I like that the writers are so careful with Drew. Oscar who? Kim who? Drew doesn't seem interested in getting his memory back, and probably it's better that way. However, I don't need a scene where Drew tells Monica that he and Jason talked about their high school experiences shortly before Jason's death. Since Jason has no memory of it, Drew has none either.

I don't like Sonny with small children and I have the feeling that the small child actors don't like it either. I have the impression that it should be heartwarming like Y&R's Victor Newman and the little ones, but Sonny always seems so creepy with small children.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The last week of the year is actually important for soaps because some people (out of boredom or because they are still with the family after Christmas) tune in again after a long time, so I am surprised that a trial that returnees do not immediately understand is the main plot. There used to be a bus crash in the last week of the year, today it's a trial, times have changed for sure.

Historically, soaps used the new year period to phase out certain sets and bring in new ones. On Another World I recall they burned down the North Woods Inn during the week between Christmas and NYE, which up to that point was an upscale restaurant/gathering place for the characters. Several years later they burned down Mary's Place, their "informal hangout" on NYE also. In both cases it would have been normal for them to be rebuilt, but instead people started going to other restaurants that were supposedly always there (the viewers just had not seen them prior to that). A life-jeopardizing fire is always a great "hook" to get people to watch, but I think the choice to switch settings that way appears to be dictated by the new year, perhaps a function of the fiscal year ending and money opening up.

GH holding the trial over the holiday week might not have been their original plan. They had to truncate certain stories and rewrite things due to the departure of Steve Burton. In most places I would assume courthouses are closed for the rest of the year.

I don't like Sonny with small children and I have the feeling that the small child actors don't like it either. I have the impression that it should be heartwarming like Y&R's Victor Newman and the little ones, but Sonny always seems so creepy with small children.

He doesn't have that magic touch that Roger Howarth has with kids, for sure, but then very few do. I think MB is too wrapped up in the mechanics of the scene (hitting marks, getting his lines out) to lose himself in the moment the way some actors can. In a way that is a good thing, not wanting to leave his scene partners hanging or mess up a take. But given the sheer volume of material he is given, he ought to be able to get past that more often. It might just be my opinion, but I think he is much improved in his "being there" in his scenes since the Nixon Falls story, though he's still not a favorite of mine. Over the years people made jokes about how differently Sonny acted toward his sons versus his daughters, claiming he didn't even know the name of the "girl child" (Kristina). Now that he also has young Avery and Donna around (at least in the other room) it's harder for him to dismiss the "girl children". It IS rather strange that Donna has barely been seen since she was born, and wasn't even part of the "family Christmas party" we recently saw, since Christmas is mostly about kids.

Since the show has been having a recasting bonanza with the other kids, I fully expect the SORAS bunny to hop through Casa Corinthos in the near future and move Avery into the Charlotte/Aiden/Rocco age range, and perhaps move Donna up to Violet's age range.

 

[Monzo]

Jeff Kober is a really good actor

Excerpts from a brand new interview with Jeff Kober about GH:

“I really can’t say enough about how much fun I have when I get to go to work there. I love being there, I love doing the work, I love what they write for me and the people I get to work with are, to a person, just delightful. So I enjoy every minute of it ... The way it’s been going, it’s been about one or two (episodes) a month for the last few months ... They made a point of putting Cyrus out of the mix, so is he coming back in the mix further? I don’t know! I just wait for Frank Valentini to call, and I’m always happy when he does. I love the job.”

Sounds promising, although I wouldn't mind if his last scene, in which he told Laura about his revelation, had been his very last, this would have been a cool ending.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Saw this screen-grab online and nearly fell off my chair. It fits her so well! As if she's about to un-hinge her jaw and swallow Nina whole.



Why not put this picture in the opening credits?

 

[DallasFanForever]

Saw this screen-grab online and nearly fell off my chair. It fits her so well! As if she's about to un-hinge her jaw and swallow Nina whole.

View attachment 33539

Why not put this picture in the opening credits?

I will make the cardinal sin of mentioning a CBS soap in this thread but I always preferred her as Cassie on GL

 

[Monzo]

Was the chemistry between Laura Wright and Cynthia Watros on GL so good that it had to be repeated on GH? Michelle Stafford's Nina never had anything to do with Carly, so writers obviously wanted to recreate a certain GL magic when Cynthia Watros joined GH.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Was the chemistry between Laura Wright and Cynthia Watros on GL so good that it had to be repeated on GH?

Interesting question! I think it’s natural for actors that have a history of working well together to want to work together again and carry that over to another show but at the same time the Cassie and Annie interaction is so long ago that I don’t think it’s a major factor now. Cynthia joined GH in 2019 so my guess is the current writers wouldn’t care about their chemistry back in 1998. Just my opinion.

 

[Monzo]

Luke is gone?!? I doubt Anthony Geary will ever return, so I like the idea of Luke dying while Jane Elliot is willing to guest star, but still it's a big loss. To me, Luke would have had his off-screen adventures forever, but I hope that this on-screen goodbye (if it's a real one and not a trick) turns out to be a really good one.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

An intriguing possibility about Luke's fate.
Is Victor Cassadine behind it?
Really like Charles Shaughnessy in the role
He can be charming one second, then seriously dangerous the next, and transitions flawlessly.
Will Lucky return?



In other GH stories.
Ditch Nina, she only cares about herself. She should be a pariah after what she did.
Bring back Jason, Jax
OK with Lulu coming back if its another , better, more likable actress is cast
Brook Lyn and Chase look good.
Not a Dante fan, would rather see Sam with Drew
Liz and Fin not working
Welcome back Felicia!
Valentin and Anna are good together
Please reveal the big secret of Marshall. Its getting annoying
Put an end to the Maxie//Brook Lyn/Chase deception. It has gone too long

Just a wish list, maybe some of it materializes

 

[Daniel Avery]

Back when the show was interested in bringing Emma Samms's Holly back for a short plot arc, Samms developed Covid and the show had to re-direct. The characters believed Holly drowned on a ship that sank, but we later saw Holly via a security camera being held captive someplace (which, in fact, was a brief scene Samms filmed via Zoom to help the show set up the potential return of the plot after Samms recovered). Unfortunately she developed what they're calling Long Covid, which has made it pretty much impossible to pick up the plotline as they planned.
Fast forward to a few months ago when Drew was first re-introduced. He was in a cell on Cassadine Island, but in a neighboring cell Drew heard a woman's voice, sounding as if she was also being held prisoner. Many speculated it was Holly. In the ensuing plot with collapsing tunnels and assorted gunplay no one mentioned the woman in the other cell, as if the show was trying to make us forget that plot point.
A few weeks ago some hit-woman tried (and failed) to kill Laura and Martin as they hid out in a safe house. Cyrus had put out a hit on them, yet when Laura confronted Cyrus he claimed it wasn't him behind it, that someone else must be after her. While he is an inveterate liar, I tended to believe him in this case.
Now we hear that Luke is "gone". It's too soon to say if he's really dead (we've had a half-dozen 'back from the deads' in the last few months) but it sounds to me like part of a plotline that involves some of their most notable veteran characters. My guess is that he's gone into hiding and let the people out to kill him think they succeeded. It would be really cool if Luke has been working to find and free Holly all this time and had been just out of the line of sight of all the characters who were in Crete this fall, with Victor quietly trying to thwart Luke's efforts. In the chaos of the cave-in/escapes, he might even have rescued Jason as well as Holly.

But this is hard to imagine, since TG not only burned his bridges on his way out---he burned down most of the village. I tend to never say never in soaps, but the chance of Tony Geary returning is about as close to zero as it gets. The only thing that might....might entice him to return briefly would be the ability to film all his stuff in Europe where he lives, and work with Emma Samms and/or Jane Elliot (anyone but GF.....). Writing too much stuff for Luke when the actor is so....finicky? might be too risky, so he'd have to have made some serious efforts to settle past differences. Oh, and of course huge $$$ would not hurt.

 

[Monzo]

Will Drew be Carly's new strong shoulder? I hope not. I was hoping that she would have to stand on her own for just once, but Drew has obviously forgotten how badly he was treated by Carly when Jason returned and only remembers how intimate Jason's relationship was with her.

I'm curious which story Felicia will be most involved in: Peter, Luke or even Ryan? Sooner or later, Ryan is sure to wake up. Hope Esme's secret is worth the wait.

I like the friendship between Alexis and Harmony. If Kristina were an active part of the show I could understand why Alexis is keeping her distance from Harmony, who herself has no problem going to the bar Kristina works at.

 

[Daniel Avery]

A lot of online commenters have noted in the past month that Mathison seems to have great onscreen chemistry with so many of the actors who are part of Drew's story. A funny quote I read some place was that CM was "the recast we never knew we needed". But the overall verdict on his scenes with Laura Wright was negative, saying that if this was a chemistry test, they failed. I especially enjoyed the sparks between Drew and Britt, as well as Maxie, and even Sam (though she still needs to perk up sometimes). I did not get to see his scenes with Liz, though I heard good things about them, too.

It *is* a bit much for them to decide to think Drew will pick up Jason's baton with respect to Carly, given how Carly and Sonny ditched Drew like a prom dress as soon as Jason came back. Prior to that, Drew (thinking he was Jason) had pretty much elected not to be CarSon's hitman/goon, so the parting of the ways made sense back then, but now they act as if Drew was one of their favorite people prior to his plane crash/"death". If Carly were to show up wanting me to hold her hand and listen to her whine about Nina, I'd point out I was held captive and tortured for two-ish years, had my mind bent into a pretzel and was forced to listen to that cardboard villain Peter whisper-yelling about his latest grand plan for world domination. I'd point out that I didn't get so much as a fruit basket from her when I returned to town with my life in tatters, but hey---let's talk about your problems.

 

[Daniel Avery]

There was some clarification today regarding the story of Luke's off-screen fate. They kept saying he died in a cable-car accident in Austria, which led me to images of cable cars like the ones in San Francisco. That made it odd when Tracy or someone said "You might have seen the story on the news..." as if traffic accidents in Austria make the Port Charles news. So today she clarified that it was one of those ski-lift cable cars that take people up and down mountains, which makes more sense since such a photogenic crash/accident might make international news. It also makes it a lot easier for him to have escaped prior to its fall.

Ava's glee over news of the events in Nina's trial was hilarious. Nina's trying to be serious and Ava is practically doing a jig. But it's been a long time since Ava's been that happy, so let her have her fun.

 

[Monzo]

it was one of those ski-lift cable cars that take people up and down mountains, which makes more sense since such a photogenic crash/accident might make international news.

The writers were obviously "inspired" by the cable car accident in Italy last May.

Stresa–Mottarone cable car crash - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Since GH doesn't air in Italy and Austria (is it still on air in any European country?) nobody will mind, but personally I found it disrespectful. The fate of the only survivor, a little boy whose family died in the accident, was a big topic in Europe, there were problems with custody of that little child, it was a sad story and I don't need to be reminded of this by GH, so I hope that Luke's cause of death is no longer addressed and the show just moves on.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Always glad to see Jane Eliot return.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Tracy framed Alexis last year, making everyone think Alexis had been driving drunk. She ran off to Europe before the cops could charge her for her actions. And yet Tracy was able to re-enter the country (passport checks, TSA, etc.) with no issue whatsoever. This was why I assumed they had cleared up her legal problems (pled out, paid a fine, whatever) in the interim. I haven't seen today's show, so this might be cleared up onscreen, but it's a pretty bad statement on our Customs/TSA officers if they let a known fugitive enter the country.

Tracy mentioned in passing that Monica is spending time with "some Russian" ("Belarussian," Brooklyn corrected her), hinting that Yuri is still in the picture even if Valentin no longer employs him as Bailey's bodyguard. You go, Monica!

 

[Monzo]

For years I've felt that GH gave Sonny certain storylines to keep Maurice Benard on the show, much like Anthony Geary did until he eventually quit. Do I need to see Sonny off his meds? Not really.

I assume the fanbase of certain actors/roles on soap operas is totally overrated by the producers. Did Steve Burton's exit hurt ratings? Not at all.

Does Maurice Benard have such a large fan base? His videos on his State of Mind channel on You Tube are lucky to have 50,000 views, but mostly less even if daytime stars like Alison Sweeney appear in it. Die-hard fans of Maurice Benard would definitely watch any of his videos, but apparently there aren't that many.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Though I don't think the producers would say out loud that they allow any of their actors to shape stories, it's been understood for a long time that the more popular ones can game the system quite efficiently. I don't begrudge their efforts, actually---sometimes the actors over-step in their demands, but I blame the producers who actually cave to these demands, not the actors themselves.

It was said that Maurice Benard had grown tired of Sonny's front-burner stories and wanted a "mental health break," since all that stuff with Mike Corbin dying had been emotionally draining. The approaching 'mob war' with Cyrus promised to be much like all the others he'd played. This Nixon Falls story was their effort to give him that break AND to give him lighter stuff to play for a while. You will recall that Sonny fell off that bridge and was not seen onscreen for nearly a month (an actual break), and then when "Mike" became a thing he was playing lightweight stuff with Lenny and Phyllis. It was another six weeks or so before Nina stumbled upon "Mike" in the bar and all that stuff started. They dispensed with Cyrus with no help needed from Sonny; Sonny returned to an unrealistically quiet situation, mob-wise, considering leaders of two of the five families were assassinated. He's still "running the business" but the business is not running him. He doesn't even need his 'enforcer' Jason around to clean up the messes because...well, there are no messes. So I guess MB is pretty pleased, and I have to say I'm pleased they're de-emphasizing the mob again (as they did the last time they killed off Jason in 2012).

As for this business of Sonny going off his meds, it's pretty obvious what they want to happen, but I can't imagine why Sonny would allow himself to go un-medicated given what happened last time. And I think he was tricked into going off the meds last time by Ava (Crypt Sex, anyone?), so it's not like he made the decision willingly. I guess they want an "out" if he sleeps with Nina--to say he was unstable and off his meds (in short, so insufferable Michael can whine that Nina was taking advantage of him again). At least this time we know he won't end up with another kid, because Nina was declared post-menopausal back when Stafford was playing her.