Jeff Kober asked to be released from his contract because, as someone said at the time, "he did not like the direction his character had taken". I never did learn just what part he did not like--the random killings and increasing malice, or the "softening" we saw when he appeared to be trying to win the approval of his mother and/or Laura. Whatever the case, if he asked for--and received!--permission to drop out of a long-term plot like that, I can't see the show trusting him with another long-term plotline. His brief "drop-ins" keeps the character in the mix without actually impacting stories, so they may not want to invest much more in the character/actor.
I like the softened "Smike" version of Sonny, because for the first time in ages, Sonny is unpredictable. I detest Carly, so anything he does that bothers/upsets her is fine in my book.
It would take more time, but I'd like them to ease Sonny out of the mobster role altogether. Let Ms. Wu be the Last (Wo)Man Standing and have a truce declared that allows her family to peacefully take over Sonny's territory, and eventually have no one even mention mob activity in Port Charles.
I've nursed this plot idea for years and still want to see it: Willow, not Nelle, is Nina's daughter. Easiest explanation would be that Harmony gave birth at the same hospital where comatose Nina was, and she switched her baby with Nina's because she wanted her child (who grew up to be Nelle) to inherit the Reeves fortune. Little did Harmony know that Madeline had other plans for that kid.
Peter will end up pleasantly (for me, anyway)
dead dead, as in "we see him die and they donate several of his organs and send the rest through the shredder" (last part optional). Right now I hope it is an accident (something spectacularly macabre/gruesome) rather than an outright murder, something where the mouse falls into his own trap or something in the manner of David Kimble's death on Y&R. If it has to be a multi-suspect murder mystery that drags out uncomfortably, I'm okay with that as long as they have daily flashbacks to the gruesome death scene so we can re-live the good times.
I'm on the fence as to whether I'd prefer Liz/Drew or Sam/Drew. CM has turned out to be a really, really good recast. Liz needs a new man in her life, and Finn ain't it. But I do not want to sit through another triangle between these two women, so we need to find someone for each of them. Would they take another trip to the well with Monaco and Easton?
Chase and BrookLynn seems like a great pairing-to-be, as is Anna/Valentin. Brando and Sasha ought not to be as interesting and watchable as they are (credit to the actors). Maxie needs a Nathan-esque, true-blue love interest as a palate cleanser after this Peter fiasco--maybe Austin has a younger brother?
Would that silver-tongued devil Victor Cassadine try to turn Monica Quartermaine's head? Victor seems to be wanting to "re-assemble" the Cassadine family as a working unit (with him as patriarch, of course) but they would logically butt heads with PC's pre-eminent Quartermaine family eventually.
I've also nursed along a "While You Were Sleeping" plotline for Nina, which might be more viable now that Victor (who ran the Crichton-Clark facility where Nina "slept") is back on the canvas. It would involve Nina, Victor, Liesl, Madeline (Donna Mills in flashbacks!!), maybe even Michael Easton in flashbacks as Silas. What if Nina did not stay comatose for that entire 20-year period? What if the clinic revived her as part of one of their sinister experiments, but Nina simply doesn't remember this happening, or what she did (or
what was done to her) in that period? The only people who would know are all dead....except Victor, and possibly Liesl, though that might be a stretch. She'd be the one to uncover the secret, though, because she knows the "real" Victor and what went on at that clinic of his.
) of watching soaps, but the Charles Shaughnessy thing doesn't bug me. I'm like "Oh, Mr. Sheffield's now going to be villainous Victor Cassadine? Sure, why not?" It's the same feeling when they kill off a character, then bring back the actor to play a different role. Michael Easton's situation was different, since he had been officially let go and then re-hired for the new role. Roger Howarth's contract status never changed---he just sat out a few months, then returned---probably even kept his dressing room. I saw no need to kill off Franco and have Howarth play a new role, and I was disappointed they decided to have the other characters not notice his resemblance to Franco. Ideally, Austin would have scared the ever-lovin' $hit out of Peter when they ran into one another and Peter could have landed on Chip Roberts's pitchfork.
