General Hospital Watching General Hospital

[Daniel Avery]

I saw an episode from 2003 today and my jaw dropped. Jason, Sam, Nikolas, Sonny, Jax and Tracy all looked so young. Liz? Looked exactly the same. I'd never seen Cameron's dad, Zander so that was interesting. Scotty's hair was less Mon-chi-chi-like than usual, and ugggh, Courtney was alive. I recall disliking Alicia Leigh Willis as the SORAS-ed Alli Fowler in the final year of Another World, and knew she was not very well-liked as Courtney, either. I think they called her "Kung Fu Barbie". And Scott Clifton was playing Dillon. I wish they would bring Dillon back to GH. Tamara Braun was playing Carly and was neither the showboat that is LW's Carly, nor was she the nutcase Kim Nero. I guess that's acting.

The whole hour revolved around Sonny (laid up with a gunshot wound) and his latest struggle to 'hold onto his territory'. Which is a plotline that has aged like a bowl of fruit.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I recorded that episode, but still haven't watched it, I just hope no one on the show gets covid, Jason curing a pandemic sounds ridiculous

 

[Daniel Avery]

If Robin Scorpio Drake can come up with a cure for being frozen solid (see: Stavros, Drew-as-Jason), then curing Covid-19 ought to be something she can do on her lunch break.

 

[Ray&Donna]

If Robin Scorpio Drake can come up with a cure for being frozen solid (see: Stavros, Drew-as-Jason), then curing Covid-19 ought to be something she can do on her lunch break.

She's too busy chatting with Peter to cure anything else

 

[Ray&Donna]

New episodes Monday, Rick and Lesley reconcile while Jason works to cure covid as Sam's life hangs in the balance!

 

[Ray&Donna]

Dante is back with a tiny pencil! And Sam is temporarily Justin Hartley's ex-wife

 

[Daniel Avery]

I also read that we're going to have a temp recast of Brook Lynn, since Amanda Setton is on maternity leave. I didn't even know she was pregnant. Granted, it might be a surrogate-mother situation, now that I think about it, but anyway....sorry I brought it up.

Today is the first chance I'll have to see it 'in person' so it will be interesting to watch everyone keeping their distance. My chief hope for the 'new' GH is that they've reconsidered Nelle as Nina's daughter and will say Nina stole the necklace from Willow, not knowing its significance. I know it's like 1% chance, but I'll hold onto my dream.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Okay, after I posted that I found an article where Setton says her doctor recommended she stay home (self-isolate) rather than go back to work and risk exposure to CV, so it's not what we traditionally think of when we hear 'maternity leave'...but it's pretty much the same thing. I saw her replacement today and the actress will do just fine from the look of things--Brook Lynn has never exactly been the most multi-faceted of characters.

I watched both B&B (despite barely knowing a quarter of the characters) and GH today to see how Covid-19 has affected the filming of soaps. I have to say the staging and energy at GH was much more relaxed and "normal" than what I saw on B&B. The actors on B&B seemed more uncomfortable (almost intimidated), more subdued and static--as if they were afraid to be too expressive. Within half an hour into the GH episode, I felt like I was watching a pre-Covid show--characters moving around the sets, etc. and a lot of characters appeared within the hour. GH appears to be doing a better job of embracing the "new rules".

I really don't know how I feel about Lindsey Hartley as Sam. The scenes with Carly/Sam today were quite introspective--much more than I expected. It was almost as if they wrote them knowing KeMo would not be performing the Sam half. Which I doubt is the case--the scenes were probably written months ago prior to the shutdown. I don't think I have ever heard KeMo's Sam discuss her feelings about being a mother (especially with another mother), so having LH's version of Sam doing the scenes makes it even more 'foreign' to have Sam reflecting on her status as mother of two small children, and not "Jason's girlfriend/wife" or "Port Chuck's PI girl with attitude". Granted, neither character would be mistaken for an Earth Mother-Karen MacKenzie type, but it was such a departure for the character that having someone else do the scene makes it hard to accept.

Not sure what to make of that final scene today, though. If Jason had a motorcycle accident, it was the most gentle one I've ever seen. He was lying on the otherwise-clean pavement minus a helmet, looking as if he was taking a nap with nary a hair out of place, much less any blood or torn clothing. Maybe there was no accident--it was just his 3pm nappy-time and he couldn't make it home. The big question, of course isn't whether Cyrus tampered with that part that hottie Brando installed on the motorcycle--it's whether or not Jason has any part of his brain that hasn't been damaged at this point.

 

[Ray&Donna]

The temp Brook Lynn is already far less annoying. AMANDA Setton is as welcome on my screen as Chloe Lanier and Wes Ramsey

 

[Ray&Donna]

Jason should have nothing but scar tissue at this point

 

[Daniel Avery]

From the Shallow End of the Pool:
Maxie's dark roots were distracting enough already. Instead of playing it down, they gave her this upswept hairstyle that made her look like she was wearing a black headband. Then again, maybe the show is forcing them to do their own hair and makeup and Storms just DGAF.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Jason should have nothing but scar tissue at this point

 

[Ray&Donna]

I don't think it's shallow, Maxie is supposed to be some kind of fashion maven, but she can't find time to use Eva Longoria's root cover up

From the Shallow End of the Pool:
Maxie's dark roots were distracting enough already. Instead of playing it down, they gave her this upswept hairstyle that made her look like she was wearing a black headband. Then again, maybe the show is forcing them to do their own hair and makeup and Storms just DGAF.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Of course they couldn't resist a n AMC reference forever with Michael Michael Knight on the show "why does the name Chandler sound familiar?"

 

[Primetime Soap Fan]

Of course they couldn't resist a n AMC reference forever with Michael Michael Knight on the show "why does the name Chandler sound familiar?"

I totally noticed the AMC reference. When Michael first appeared as Martin Gray on GH, I immediately thought the name of his character was in a way a homage to his AMC's Tad Martin character and another AMC character named Edmund Gray.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Saw today's episode (Thursday) and while I am glad the 'social distanced staging' of scenes isn't so noticeable, everything feels so rushed. A lot of major shifts of power occurred in the past two episodes (Michael getting custody of Wiley; ELQ being so unrealistically-and quickly-taken-over by Valentin; greasy Cyrus buying his way onto the hospital board), but there was no time to react; everyone was rushing through their dialogue and moving to the next plot point. The only genuinely emotional part of the episode was Olivia dressing down Ned about how he treated Brook Lynn. Lisa LoCicero nailed that scene. But Michael was basically shrugging "Oh, well, easy come, easy go" about losing his CEO job and the family business, rushing Willow off set (so Nelle can get her chance to steal the baby). Meanwhile, somewhere in Europe Tracy Q's head just exploded. If Cyrus tries to destroy the hospital I say we get Dr. Obrecht back from the Hague to slip Cyrus some Polonium-240 or something equally James Bond-ian (while she wears a fierce hat---gotta have the hat). She could take care of him and head right over to crash the Nurses Ball again to belt out a torch song or two. All in a day's work, y'know.

At least they gave lip service to the fact that Jason needed to be wearing a helmet in his recent accident. You'd think someone with a resume (ahem) like Jason's would be doing everything he could to keep the cops from having an excuse to harass him--like riding around on a motorcycle without a helmet. According to the Google Machine, NY requires both a helmet AND protective eyewear, of which he had neither when he took that neat nappy-time on the pavement. But I guess if his bride can have a baby through a pair of pants, he can get a huge gash on the side of his head but no road rash anywhere else on his body.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Also I told my TV, that Jason has been brain dead since 1995

 

[Ray&Donna]

Definite eye-roll moment when they decide to leave Wiley in bed after remembering Nelle previously snapped and assaulted Willow before trying to flee the country with Valentine's phony passports, because Michael is apparently Sonny Crockett with a speedboat

 

[Daniel Avery]

Where's Alice when you need her? She would have snapped Nelle's bony, little neck if she went anywhere near a Q heir.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Ever since the heart transplant story, Alice hasn't been seen