General Hospital Watching General Hospital

[Daniel Avery]

Heck, he said he'd have to call Olivia from the car to tell her the news. Can you imagine how well she took that?

A thought about Kiki vs. Dr. Bensch: while it may seem really convenient/clever to have Scotty representing Bensch will likely be the downfall of the case--but not in the way we want. It's no secret in PC that Ava and Scotty are pals; if Bensch were to learn this, he could convince the judge his lawyer threw the case in Kiki's favor, having Scotty disbarred and likely having any guilty verdict vacated. Even worse, it would mean the case could not be tried again due to double jeopardy, allowing him to get off scot-free. He might already know it, and hired Scotty on purpose just so he can have leverage to get the verdict tossed if needed.

Of course he would then turn up dead within hours, and half the hospital on the suspect list...so I guess there's that.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I find it hard to invest in the Dr. Bensch story, considering he spent so many months just kind of loitering around the hospital with no storyline to speak of. With the way these things go, Griffin would end up being the one who did him in.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Genie Francis will be returning to GH in September! Granted, no one has said whether she will return with a contract, but perhaps a front-burner story for six (?) months would be preferable to being wallpaper while on contract. This whole "Kevin might actually be Ryan" story certainly would not be the same without Kevin's WIFE around.

https://www.welovesoaps.net/2018/07/genie-francis-returning-to-general.html

Oh, and Dr. Obrecht and Nelle might be one of my newest (and shortest-lived) supercouples.

"Spread doze scrawny legs und POOSH!"

 

[Ray&Donna]

Oh, it sounds like I need to be watching again! The other day I watched half of the episode and then went to bed for an extended nap. Something about Nelle crying on Chase about if Michael doesn't die, she'll be left penniless. Suffer, ho, suffer.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Kevin being Ryan would be kind of interesting, given it was the same actor in both roles, as opposed to two actors playing Jason.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I must say I was surprised they had that Nelle/Josslyn slugfest today, but hey--Josslyn IS her mother's daughter, and I guess it would have been sort of unfair for the much older, more scrappy Carly to inflict that beatdown in person. Was it necessary? No, mostly not. I think viewers would have been just as happy if Josslyn had given her one of those verbal beatdowns like Michael gave her the day before, with an accompanying bitch-slap or two. Brad and Lucas ending up with the baby was kind of what I imagined would happen, but the plotline loses some of its "oomph" when B&L have been virtually absent from the show for that past year or so. If those two had been more prominently featured up to now, I might feel a bit of urgency in the story. Instead, it's just a waiting game to watch the various parts of the story "unpack" themselves. Michael is a contract character while Brad and Lucas are barely on the canvas at all, so we all know who will end up the losers in this story...even though saddling Michael with a kid (eventually) when he barely has a life of his own doesn't seem like a very good long-term plan for him.

Jonah/Wiley joins a pantheon of Port Chuckles children who have two identities: Rocco Falconeri spent the first year of his life as Britt's baby, Ben Westbourne. Danny Morgan spent his first six months as Tea Delgado's baby, Victor Lord III. Maxie and Spinelli's daughter Georgie was with the Falconeris for a period until they found out she was not theirs. Valentin and Lulu's "test-tube baby" Charlotte was raised for six years or so by surrogate mother Claudette. Even Michael has vacillated between being a Corinthos and a Quartermaine. I won't even get into the relationships of Jason, Drew, and Franco to Susan Moore, her cousin Heather Webber, and Alan Quartermaine. Suffice it to say their branch of the family tree looks more like a wreath.

As it is, poor Bobbie Spencer will be introducing her "new grandchild" to everyone unaware that he's actually her great grandchild. But then, she'll likely be grateful to shave those extra years off.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I must say I was surprised they had that Nelle/Josslyn slugfest today, but hey--Josslyn IS her mother's daughter, and I guess it would have been sort of unfair for the much older, more scrappy Carly to inflict that beatdown in person. Was it necessary? No, mostly not. I think viewers would have been just as happy if Josslyn had given her one of those verbal beatdowns like Michael gave her the day before, with an accompanying bitch-slap or two. Brad and Lucas ending up with the baby was kind of what I imagined would happen, but the plotline loses some of its "oomph" when B&L have been virtually absent from the show for that past year or so. If those two had been more prominently featured up to now, I might feel a bit of urgency in the story. Instead, it's just a waiting game to watch the various parts of the story "unpack" themselves. Michael is a contract character while Brad and Lucas are barely on the canvas at all, so we all know who will end up the losers in this story...even though saddling Michael with a kid (eventually) when he barely has a life of his own doesn't seem like a very good long-term plan for him.

I slept through all of this. Probably a better use of time than watching, anyway

Jonah/Wiley joins a pantheon of Port Chuckles children who have two identities: Rocco Falconeri spent the first year of his life as Britt's baby, Ben Westbourne. Danny Morgan spent his first six months as Tea Delgado's baby, Victor Lord III. Maxie and Spinelli's daughter Georgie was with the Falconeris for a period until they found out she was not theirs. Valentin and Lulu's "test-tube baby" Charlotte was raised for six years or so by surrogate mother Claudette. Even Michael has vacillated between being a Corinthos and a Quartermaine. I won't even get into the relationships of Jason, Drew, and Franco to Susan Moore, her cousin Heather Webber, and Alan Quartermaine. Suffice it to say their branch of the family tree looks more like a wreath.

Yeah, confusion begins early with these people. And with his colorful history, shouldn't Brad be banned from the grounds of the hospital, much less going inside the building?

As it is, poor Bobbie Spencer will be introducing her "new grandchild" to everyone unaware that he's actually her great grandchild. But then, she'll likely be grateful to shave those extra years off.

"Grandma, what red hair you have!"

 

[Ray&Donna]

I'm afraid the actor who they've utilized for Cameron's unfortunate case of SORAS is comparatively weak when put into scenes with the young actors who play Oscar and Joslyn. Until they called him "Cameron" I seriously thought he was a day player!

 

[Daniel Avery]

I thought the same. If I'm not mistaken, they had a different actor playing SORASed Cameron a week or two ago and this latest one is a recast. Unless they plan to light a fire under this one, he might get recast again. I had to laugh at the interplay between Liz, Franco and Cam, though, when Franco offered to pay Cam's fine.

Liz [paraphrasing]: "Now you will be working to pay Franco back."
Franco: "No, that's not necessary..." [sees Liz's bitch-face glare] "Um, apparently it is necessary after all."

I also enjoyed Ava slapping Griffin--twice--a lot more than I ought to have. Ava's attempt to tank Kiki's case over the revelation did not play well with me, but her wrath was fun because...well, Maura West, y'know? I may be totally misreading Matt Cohen's playing of the character, but I can't help but think either Griffin or Cohen is gayer than a picnic basket.

 

[Ray&Donna]

So how, in the name of all that passes for justice in Port Charles, can Madeline Reeves be eligible for parole? Didn't she commit a pretty heinous murder, albeit of a forgotten character?

 

[Daniel Avery]

Of course it would not happen quite so fast in real life, but I've always had this sense that soap time is much quicker than real time. Look how much can happen to a single character in one year! You can have a character who looks 22 already married and divorced three times, maybe even widowed a time or two. So I'm going to hand-wave it and say three years in soap time is like twelve years in our time. SORAS only exacerbates this issue, since it ignores the progression of real time in service of story.

If Madeline indeed had no pride whatsoever, she could play up the fact that she is of...shall we say "advanced age," and occasionally parole boards will take into account the idea that an elderly (gasp!) lady such as Madeline can't be too much of a threat to society. A good lawyer (shout-out to Nora Buchanan!!) could have Madeline show up in court looking like a reject from the road company of Driving Miss Daisy, but of course Madeline is still rocking the stylish hair and make-up (graded on a prison curve, of course) and looks twenty years younger than she ought to.


"Miss Madeline, go back to jail. Do not pass go, and do not collect $200."

 

[Daniel Avery]

I didn't see the actual episode, but a synopsis I read somewhere said that the prison called Nina to tell her Madeline was dead! I have not heard chatter about it any place else, so I'm left hanging. (Apparently so was Madeline...) The implication was that Valentin had her murdered in jail and it was made to look like suicide, though the "implication" was just a strange look on his face as he hugged Nina. I seriously doubt these writers would kill off such a fun character. I'm guessing he helped her escape/fake her death, since he saw how having her around (even in prison) upset Nina. Maybe I got my "happy ending" for Madeline and Liesl after all, since both of them would need to keep a low profile now.

Since GH was in reruns for most of last week, I saw no reason to tune in. I had no idea what reruns they were showing. Like an idiot I tuned in today, believing the new episodes would be airing again. Labor Day was an excuse to air a rerun, and not just any rerun. OMG, it was Nathan's funeral. I should have turned the channel (hell, I should have pulled the plug on the TV) the minute I figured out what was being rerun. I purposely avoided that whole exit story for Ryan Paevey because....well, Nathan/Maxie was one of my favorite couples, and let's face it: someone that hot ought not die young! So like a total moron I started watching. I could claim my allergies were kicking up, but why bother lying--I was bawling by the end. I had no idea RP agreed to do an open-casket funeral (most actors balk at that, since it's kind of creepy and they have to lie so perfectly still for such long scenes). All the pomp and circumstance with his fallen-officer funeral certainly didn't help me keep it together, either. It was really, really well done--but geez, I'm dehydrated now.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Yeah, I watched last Tuesday or Wednesday and saw that the preview for the next day was supposed to be the episode where Nathan gets shot (which I missed first time around, and again this time) so I didn't really know what was going on. Not sure with the Madeline story, as I have only seen Tuesday of this week. The episode with Nathan's funeral was a good one, though I could've done without Spinelli's Doug Williams impression. You're not Bill Hayes, son, and you never will be...

 

[Daniel Avery]

Well, I guess we're supposed to believe she's "dead dead" after yesterday. Nina and Maxie went to a chapel for a service, and the casket supposedly containing Madeline was there, along with a large portrait of Donna Mills (soaps are making the "oversized funeral portrait" thing more mainstream). I kept yelling at the TV: "Open the casket! Check to see she's there!", but no one heard me apparently.


Liesl showed up in disguise (dressed like a bag lady!) to comfort Nina and to express her skepticism that Madeline's "heart attack" was natural causes. Valentin later showed up to do his usual "shady, suspicious looks to the camera" thing every time someone mentioned Madeline, and Liesl was secretly giving Valentin her patented bitch-face from the shadows. Years ago Valentin made it appear he had murdered Claudette (with the same "shady, suspicious looks" to the camera) but we later found out she was not as dead as we thought; it would be great if Valentin set up a situation where he faked Madeline's death and paid her off to disappear from their lives, but who knows what those writers are up to. At least I was happy to see Liesl still mixing it up with Nina. Maybe Liesl's new story (if GH can call it that) will be trying to find out what happened with Madeline (all while staying low-profile from the cops).

 

[Cliff Barnes]

I've been keeping up with the show and it is the most boring it has ever been ever I think. There is nothing exciting or interesting going on, in my opinion anyway. I'm a long time ABC soap fan, I can never get into the other channels, but I feel like they are trying harder than ever to get cancelled. I wish it would improve but there are like zero signs it will turn around. In all interviews the producers seem very pleased with themselves which is very irritating.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Glad to see Laura back, though the idea that she now has a big storyline seems to be hyperbole on everyone's part.

 

[Daniel Avery]

What I'd like to see: Laura and Lulu both figure out something is up with "Kevin" and team up to discover what's happened, with able assists from Carly (recalling seeing "Kevin" in Ferncliff) and Anna (whose WSB contacts fill her in on how and why Ryan's still alive). They find Felicia and Ryan, and Felicia fights back sufficiently to subdue/capture Ryan, since these ladies don't need a man to save them after all they've been through over the years.

What we'll probably see: Ryan convinces Laura that Kevin has been sleeping with Lucy to get her to leave him alone. Ryan kidnaps Lulu and stashes her away in Ferncliff when she stumbles on the truth. They never do explain just what Ryan plans to do with Felicia (kill her? force her to "marry" him? who knows?) Instead of involving Mac, Maxie enlists Peter to save Felicia since they're determined to make us like him, and Jason once again dons his cape and tights as Captain Save-A-'Ho to break both Lulu and Kevin out of Ferncliff. Laura stands to one side, fretting like some senior citizen, while the Big Strong Men save the day. Ryan manages to escape and lead everyone to believe he died (again).

 

[Ray&Donna]

You don't think Sonny will get involved, too?

 

[Daniel Avery]

You'd think he would have nothing to do with it, but that's never stopped GH before.

Edit: Sonny goes ballistic (literally: Big, Shiny Gun makes his quarterly appearance) when he learns his daughter-in-law Lulu has disappeared. (Actually, he also is upset because Alzheimers-ridden Mike remembers Dante exists better than Sonny does). So Sonny and Big, Shiny Gun heads to the pier to search for Lulu, where he has some scenes with hand-wringing Laura and assures her he will make everything okay since...well, he knows she is related to Lulu somehow, but can't quite recall.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I can't quite buy Kiki and Griffin as a couple--maybe because it feels like shades of Morgan all over again...