General Hospital Watching General Hospital

[Ray&Donna]

What's with the softball lately? Are they doing it for charity, or does someone just like seeing the characters in uniform? In regards to the writing, I know Shelley Altman "retired" earlier in the month.

 

[Daniel Avery]

You may recall in years past, they had many characters interact in a genuine outdoor location, a sort of park that seemed to need a lot of landscaping help (since it looked like a forgotten vacant lot). Every spring/summer they had characters end up there for scenes. This year they seemed to take it a step further by having folks show up there to play in charity softball games, implying this "park" they were going to had a softball field off-camera. They even used the plot point to take pictures and do a Facebook 'trading cards' thing I stumbled across. My guess is that this vacant lot they chose to do the location work is somewhere near the studio, maybe even across the street or somewhere on the studio lot--why else keep using it year after year when it's so unattractive? It was imaginative to have the characters involved in softball games to give them an excuse to wear those uniforms. In years past we could have had expensive, week-long costume parties onscreen, but given modern economics this might be the most 'expense' they can afford. Not that I'm complaining; the first scenes involving characters playing off-screen softball featured ELQ's team (with Michael) versus the PCPD team (with Chase). The actor playing Chase looked absolutely spectacular in that tight uniform--even Willow commented on it afterwards. The plot point was that Michael hit Chase in the side with a ball, though all we saw was the aftermath.

The photo does not do justice!

 

[Ray&Donna]

It's funny how the characters just randomly run into each other on the park. It's like the pier, but with sunshine

Nice to see that the writers finally remembered that Peter is supposed to be a villain.

 

[Daniel Avery]

He wasn't working as a romantic hero. But then, they made him a romantic hero because...he wasn't working as a villain. They don't know what they want to do with him, but the viewers do: they want to ship him off to Timbuktu, postage due.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Peter's only accomplishment thus far has been to turn Maxie back into an immature schoolgirl.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I might be wrong, but I get the impression that this sudden turn of Peter's, where they seem to be making him back into a villain, might be his exit story. Traditionally, when a new Head Writer (or in this case, new co-HW) takes over, there are abrupt changes and occasional firings. It's not just because of the new person coming in; they often use the excuse of a new person coming in to do some house-cleaning they wanted to do for a while, but just did not want their fingerprints all over it. A lot of characters already knew Peter was involved with Jason's stint in that Russian clinic, that he 'helped' Faison when Faison was helping Helena with the whole memory mapping stuff. For them to bring it up as if people (Maxie, etc.) would be so upset to learn his role in it all tells me they're grasping at straws, coming up with reasons for Shiloh to 'have something' on Peter. They're already making it look like he is responsible for Drew's disappearance and Andre Maddox's inability to return to help FrankenDrew get his memories back. Once Finola Hughes comes back from her summer vacation they will (more than likely) confirm that Peter is Alex's child--severing another tie to the canvas--and she might even bring back some more substantial dirt on just how awful Peter behaved back in the day. If you lose the Anna Devane Seal of Approval, you're toast in Port Charles.

Just witnessed: ACTUAL PLOT MOVEMENT!!

"We have to get into the Wyndemere trophy room and find the codicil to Mikkos's will. Then the Cassadine fortune will be restored to its rightful heir." --Jax to Hayden on today's episode. I feel like I just saw Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I was glad to finally learn Jax and Hayden's motive for being in town.

If Peter were to exit, it wouldn't hurt my feelings, or negatively impact the show.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Now we have to learn why Hayden does not have her Hayden/Finn baby with her. I can assume the baby is not being kept from her (as in being held hostage) from the somewhat pleasant, one-sided phone conversations she's had with the person caring for him/her, and Hayden carrying around that finger-painting. If the baby was being used as a 'motivation' for Hayden and Jax to get this job done, she would not have received a finger-painting--it would have been a finger.

While all fingers (hehe) point to Nikolas coming back, it is perfectly possible that the "rightful heir" they're trying to help is Spencer. Both Hayden and Jax have a soft spot for the little weirdo--Hayden and he got close when she was involved with Nikolas, and Jax was close to Spencer's late mother, Courtney. While Hayden obviously would help Nikolas, Jax and Nik hated one another (due to the aforementioned Courtney) so it's kind of a stretch to have him so motivated to help Nikolas retrieve his inheritance. But I'm glad he is, because the actor just has tons of chemistry with everyone. Plus, the show needs more "good" characters.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Now we have to learn why Hayden does not have her Hayden/Finn baby with her. I can assume the baby is not being kept from her (as in being held hostage) from the somewhat pleasant, one-sided phone conversations she's had with the person caring for him/her, and Hayden carrying around that finger-painting. If the baby was being used as a 'motivation' for Hayden and Jax to get this job done, she would not have received a finger-painting--it would have been a finger.

But will Finn ever find out the truth?!?

While all fingers (hehe) point to Nikolas coming back, it is perfectly possible that the "rightful heir" they're trying to help is Spencer. Both Hayden and Jax have a soft spot for the little weirdo--Hayden and he got close when she was involved with Nikolas, and Jax was close to Spencer's late mother, Courtney. While Hayden obviously would help Nikolas, Jax and Nik hated one another (due to the aforementioned Courtney) so it's kind of a stretch to have him so motivated to help Nikolas retrieve his inheritance. But I'm glad he is, because the actor just has tons of chemistry with everyone. Plus, the show needs more "good" characters.

Spencer was who I was thinking, too. I knew their was major conflict between Jax and Nikolas even though I wasn't watching back then, so I didn't think he would be hiding Nik in the catacombs.

 

[Ray&Donna]

GH is wasting a lot of really good actors on their science fiction storyline. I can't help but think Michael Easton would be better served if Hayden was in Finn's orbit, tormenting him over their lost baby.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Finola Hughes will be back soon from her annual summer vacation, and I'm sure Easton will be swept up in whatever they cook up for her return story. They might keep him busy enough that the show doesn't even get around to addressing the baby issue. Rebecca Budig is supposedly only back short-term (like, three months), so they may decide to leave the baby as a future plotline (translation: wrench in the works) and focus on this whole "rightful Cassadine heir" thing for her time on the show. Dr. Finn is not exactly the paternal type, so I doubt they would saddle him with a little girl (and by extension, saddle Anna with her). We already have a questionable situation with Michael getting closer and closer to having Jonah back, and frankly I think saddling HIM with a kid will be a dead-end, story-wise (kind of like making him CEO of ELQ has generated no real stories for him).

 

[Ray&Donna]

Yesterday's episode was really terrible. The endless push-and-pull over Josslyn--I know Oscar is dead, but she is rich and should get over it--Carly telling Sonny yet again that they need to get rid of Dev; Nina complaining about Jax's file on Cassandra Pierce. Seriously, the only good point was Laura, even if she was talking about Helena.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I saw it too, and your assessment is spot-on. I guess there has to be filler episodes every so often, and Thursday's a good day for them.

I could not really follow what Julian did when he was mixing Liesl's drink--I was too distracted by the mocked-up "fake" names on the liquor bottles. I knew he would not actually hurt Liesl--Brad ain't worth that. But I was disappointed that a fierce chick like Liesl would allow herself to end up in such a vulnerable position. It was really odd (okay, oddly worded) when she said that Nina and Sasha were "her world" at this point--poor Britt just gets no lovin', does she?

I wish the show would lay their cards on the table with Dev--is he there to kill someone or help someone else do the killing, and is he part of the Cassandra plotline? I'm guessing yes on both. They sent Dante to kill Sonny and he couldn't go through with it, so they likely sent Dev as Plan B. Heck, they might toss in a surprise and reveal he's actually there to kill Nina, Finn and/or Valentin on Cassandra's behalf. Raj (the bad guy in Turkey) was actively involved with Cassandra in her first go-round. Whatever the case, I just want them to show some plot movement. I know they feel they have to save it for November Sweeps, but they could throw us a bone or two in the meantime.

I wish that just once....once that characters would not automatically assume a character is dead when their plane crashes in some remote area. Most of the characters already talking about Drew in the past tense have also been "prematurely presumed dead", or at least had someone close to them have that honor. They all behave as if this is some unique occurrence when the character ends up being alive. I think Drew is likely cooling his heels on Cassadine Island, or maybe in that St. Petersburg clinic where Jason was held, waiting to escape with a new actor playing him. Hopefully the casting agent who hired Cynthia Watros will be on vacation the day they audition the actors.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Ding, Dong Shiloh's dead. Thanks to the Show for showing him in the body bag and making him "dead dead," because "soap opera dead" would not have been good enough for most of the viewers. The only "major shocker" was that Sam got to do the shooting for once. Watch for Show to go around patting itself on the back for being "so 2019" for having Sam save Jason and not the other way around like the other 854,923 times this has happened.

Now the only question remaining: why on Earth does Lulu continue to own the Haunted Star? That tub-o-bolts has a higher body count than a Jim Jones Kool-Aid Party.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Even though we saw Shiloh's corpse-face, I am unconvinced of his demise. I mean, didn't Ryan survive going over Niagara Falls?

I was also confused about Lulu "inheriting" the boat from her still-living father. Didn't Johnny Zacharra give the boat jointly to Lulu and Starr Manning in the pre-lawsuit days?

 

[Ray&Donna]

I wish that just once....once that characters would not automatically assume a character is dead when their plane crashes in some remote area. Most of the characters already talking about Drew in the past tense have also been "prematurely presumed dead", or at least had someone close to them have that honor. They all behave as if this is some unique occurrence when the character ends up being alive. I think Drew is likely cooling his heels on Cassadine Island, or maybe in that St. Petersburg clinic where Jason was held, waiting to escape with a new actor playing him. Hopefully the casting agent who hired Cynthia Watros will be on vacation the day they audition the actors.

I think this is the writers' not so subtle way to let us know that Billy Miller, Emmy winner extraordinaire, is never ever coming back. Besides, why not just have Steve Burton play both roles since they are supposed to be twins? (not that I'm advocating for him to get more screen time) Or better yet, give Jason Drew's memories so we can see some really bad acting.

 

[Daniel Avery]

We already see enough of that.

I was also confused about Lulu "inheriting" the boat from her still-living father. Didn't Johnny Zacharra give the boat jointly to Lulu and Starr Manning in the pre-lawsuit days?

Yes, he did! And when they had to hustle Starr off the show so quickly, they tossed in a throwaway line that Lulu had bought out Starr's half. With what? It's not like she and Dante had two nickels to rub together. Come to think of it, they hustled Johnny off the show almost as quickly as they did Starr.

Y'know, if they wanted to bring back Hayley Erin, she could play Starr Manning, now that the characters are 'available'. That would warp a few minds.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Y'know, if they wanted to bring back Hayley Erin, she could play Starr Manning, now that the characters are 'available'. That would warp a few minds.

It wouldn't be worth the throwaway dialogue they would use in scenes with Roger Howarth and Michael Easton about how they've met before.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I dunno, they've kind of dropped the ball on the "lookalike scenarios".

When Starr left and Kiki arrived, no one mentioned the resemblance. When Todd left and Franco arrived, no one mentioned the resemblance either. But when John McBain left and Dr. Silas Clay arrived, everyone flipped out about his resemblance to Caleb Morley the "would-be vampire". This, despite no one mentioning that John McBain had looked like Caleb, too. Turned out Caleb was Silas's twin brother, I believe, and they explained away the whole vampire thing as Caleb being insane. When Silas was murdered and Hamilton Finn showed up, one or two random characters spoke of the resemblance to Silas, but not the ones that should have mattered. Easton (as Finn) has yet to share a scene with either of the Ninas, so we missed seeing her do a double take when meeting him. Anna interacted with McBain a lot, and Sam was in love with Silas, but neither woman has mentioned the resemblances. Kiki never mentioned how much her late father looked like Dr. Finn. Dr. Obrecht has dealt with all three of Easton's characters and she hasn't noticed. It's all kind of sloppy.

So Lulu's in a stall in the ladies room and overhears Dr. O and Sasha discussing how Sasha is not Nina's daughter, and I'm laughing mighty hard. She wisely pulls her feet up so no one sees her feet under the stall doors, and she's sitting there with a wide-open mouth like Lucy Ricardo in one of her schemes. I know it was supposed to be a dramatic turning point in the plot, but I like that they made it kind of funny rather than the typical revelation. Maybe having that English Teacher Hottie* after her has made Lulu loosen up a bit.

* I used to love Mark Lawson during his tenure on OLTL, so I'm thrilled to see him back on soaps.

 

[Ray&Donna]

What's with the women being idiots lately?

"It's okay that I had sex with your husband, because Franco is gone and he's really Drew!"

"You can't bring Brody Lovett to the wedding, you had sex with him!" Seriously, Maxie, the groom killed her brother, and your boyfriend helped Shiloh escape from police custody. Don't throw stones.