General Hospital Watching General Hospital

[Daniel Avery]

In a further effort to stretch out the remaining episodes still unaired, someone in the editing room has taken a chainsaw to said episodes, inserting an absurd number of flashbacks into the episodes. I watched Tuesday's episode and every time someone referred to a past event, they would automatically insert the scene where it originally happened, like a callback-flashback. There must have been six or eight such flashbacks (anywhere from ten seconds to a full minute) in the course of the episode. I felt like I was watching Days of Our Lives.

The "intentional" flashbacks recreating Carly's problems with her stepfather, pre-Port Charles are interesting, though. Eden McCoy (Joss) played Carly, James Patrick Stuart played Frank Benson, and Cynthia Watros played her adoptive mother Virginia. Funny: It was set in 1995....even though Michael is 30 years old if he's a day.

Watching Thursday's ep right now--five minutes in and they've already done three callback-flashbacks. This is going to get really annoying.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I wondered if that was the reason for all the flashbacks...using the old clips to spread out the story. Cynthia Watros's wig as Carly's adopted mother was hideous. What were they thinking? I hope Brando isn't related to Ric Lansing because otherwise Molly committed mild incest

 

[Daniel Avery]

From what I gather, Brando's mother is Gladys, a cousin of Mike's...which makes Brando distantly related to Sonny at most. I'm pretty sure Ric is related to Sonny via a mother in common rather than father, because if Mike were also Ric's father, he would have been referenced during this Alzheimer's story. But the less I know about Sonny and his family, the better.

I will however fully enjoy seeing self-righteous Molly being knocked off her high horse when everyone learns she is a [Blanche Devereaux voice] wanton slut [/BD] who can't stay away from the bad boys just like mommy Alexis.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I'm sure they will find some way to make it TJ's fault, just like when Valerie hooked up with the notorious hypocrite Dante and they kept telling LuLu it was her fault because she took Dillon to Canada

 

[Ray&Donna]

Building a series of episodes around Molly and her sisters is a terrible idea, especially that self-righteous Sam acting like she can judge someone else's baggage. Watching the Y&R reruns on CBS beforehand makes current GH look even more vapid

 

[Daniel Avery]

Keep in mind that this nonsense with Molly was likely originally C-story filler. When they took on this task of strrrrrrretching the episodes out, every little morsel of story ended up being magnified 100x with the liberal use of flashbacks. I mean, how important could a story be if they include Kristina? The producers likely had to include Sam in the episode to satisfy the actress's contractual guarantee, and since they're strategically keeping her and Steve Burton on opposite sides of the studio, it was either insert her hypocritical self into Molly's story, or have her start hanging around the Maxie/Peter train wreck again.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Both Dr Byrne and Alexis have been barred from their chosen vocations. Perhaps they can go into business together and find a way out of these story doldrums. I literally muted all Davis women scenes today. I would literally rather hear Carly the Harridan lie about not using Baby Michael as a weapon against his paternal family than hear any more advice from Kristina

 

[Daniel Avery]

Oh, but her smackdown of Sam was a thing of beauty! Sam's been such a hypocrite lately and it was nice that someone finally said out loud what I've though for ages: that Jason will always choose Sonny/Carly over Sam/Danny/Scout. Sam and Jason's entire relationship revolves around their addiction to danger/action, and if there isn't anyone endangering them, they have to seek out the danger or else they have nothing to talk about!

Kristina is about as exciting as a bucket of wallpaper paste, but they put some great words in her mouth that day. What I'm trying to figure out is why they even bothered. Are they trying to give Sam a much-needed moment of clarity about JaSam, as if they're setting the stage to break them up?

 

[Ray&Donna]

Brook Lynn has already spent more time behind bars than anyone in the history of the show. Did they only bring her onto the show to punch people in the nose?

 

[Ray&Donna]

Of course they were chemistry testing Sam with Brando the other day. Which would be a horrible miuse of the actor. Although probably not as abysmal as Ryan Paevey in the Ask Man Landers debacle

 

[Daniel Avery]

At least we can lay the Man Landers Debacle at the feet of Kirsten Storms's emergency departure and the need to rewrite established story projections. The constant Chem-testing of Brando with all the women in town is purposeful. The actor playing Brando, while very easy on the eyes, will never compare to Ryan Paevey.

Speaking of chem tests, I've been watching the Michael/Sasha/Willow/Chase storyline and have decided the best romantic on-screen chemistry is between Michael and Chase.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I never figured Sasha would last this long on the show, especially given her knowledge of various deeds and misdeeds

 

[Daniel Avery]

They can't really afford to write her out at the moment, since the show has (historically) been short on female characters in her age group who aren't somehow related to the male characters in that age range. Poor Michael had to do without (so to speak) after they killed off Sabrina, and he didn't see any action until Typhoon Nelle swept into town. It is notable, however, that she's hung around this long without "boo" being said about her real family or anything about her "real" past, since they usually feel compelled to tie every character to the show via family linkages or past romantic partners.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Chase imagining Willow in the shower was the sexiest moment I have seen on daytime in a while

 

[Ray&Donna]

Sam doesn't even care about her own kids but she has the nerve to attend Wiley's custody hearing

 

[Daniel Avery]

...and to speak for lost-lost Lucas as she once again denounces Julian. Girl ain't too bright if she thinks Julian really loves that bee-atch Nelle. You'd think she'd immediately figure out he's being blackmailed.

But the glaring invisibility of Lucas in this part of the story is what bugs me most. You'd think the judge would at least inquire about the one person who did nothing wrong in this whole sordid tale. It has shades of the custody battle for Georgie when she was born; Maxie was supposed to be surrogate mother for Dante and Lulu, but in fact got pregnant by Spinelli and wanted the baby back, leading to a custody battle. The judge, deciding they were all horrible, awarded custody to Spinelli, since he had been the only one to conduct himself in an above-board and mature manner. If this judge were to give Wiley to Lucas using the same frame of mind, I would applaud. But given the way they sideline that character, the two of them would likely never be seen again. Not sure if Ryan Carnes has other acting jobs taking him away or if the show just doesn't want Lucas to be around that much, but he ought to (at the very least) have an opinion/point of view explored in this story.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Injecting Lucas into the courtroom shenanigans would require a more sensitive character-driven plot than these writers are able to handle. I mean, Nelle blackmailing Julian into a quickie marriage seems like a poorly done plot twist than something the writers planned six months in advance

 

[Ray&Donna]

Lucas is, after all, a doctor and the hospital seems to be an afterthought most of the time. It's not like when Patrick was there or even the priest who had an affair with Jessica from One Life to Live

 

[Daniel Avery]

"Mrs. Nelle Jerome" struck me as "We have to come up with something for Julian to do, since we have to pay the actor to appear anyway."

I would love for Diane to get Julian on the stand to 'review some current history'.

"Mr. Jerome, we already covered how you held a knife to your previous wife's neck and worked with your sister to blow up the hospital. But are you aware of your bride's history with marriage? Mrs. Jerome's previous husband, the convicted sexual predator known as Shiloh was shot and killed by...you own daughter, correct? And Nelle's first husband died as well...only in this case, she was convicted of murdering him. So what we have, Your Honor, is a case of two people who really should try the single life. Or maybe they just really, really take that whole 'til death do us part' thing seriously."

 

[Ray&Donna]

I never understood how Nelle married Shiloh in the first place? Wasn't he busy trying to steal the Haunted Star, the most unfortunate honeymoon spot in Port Charles?