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Daniel Avery

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I don't understand why Tracy always has to befriend these characters the writers really want the audience to like: first Finn and now Cody. I don't need to see Tracy being jealous because of some jerk.
I think the producers know that Jane Elliot is one of those actors who can elevate any material, and also can elevate any scene partner. They've made an effort to have JE working with many actors whose characters would never have crossed paths with Tracy in the past. I'm willing to bet all the cast members who care about honing their craft want to work with actors like JE whenever possible.

If I am reading that series of scenes with JE, Josh Kelly and Sofia Mattson correctly, Tracy's beef with them is her personal opinion that Cody and Sasha are wasting time being servants at the Q mansion when they have potential to be so much more. Sasha, especially would appear to someone like Tracy to have something wrong with her--quitting a career as a nationally-known spokesperson/model to be a cook for the Q's. Tracy's rave reviews for Sasha's cooking leads me to think Tracy might "urge" Sasha to open her own restaurant or do something more impactful with her talent. Tracy has had scenes in the recent past with Gregory where she lamented not doing more with all the money, etc. that she has had all these years, so maybe she looks at talented young people like Sasha and Cody and doesn't want them to wake up thirty years from now and regret wasting their youth as Q servants.
What was the point of Brad's one episode return anyway? And Cyrus got to read the Bible to Lulu and pray for her and that was it?
When Heather's blood work came back, Portia was the first person to review it. Later, we saw Ric and Liz wondering why the results were so different from the results that had been done by an independent lab. I think Portia tampered with the results hoping to shut down any hope of Heather being released. She likely does not (yet) realize that Ric had a second set of tests run by another lab. When she DOES find out, Liz, Terri, and others will be asking some very uncomfortable questions, and who can she shift the blame to? Why....Brad, of course. He has a long, storied history of messing with lab results he has access to. He also was BFF with Heather's final victim, Britt....so there's the motive. The question is whether this will kick off a plotline where Portia becomes a full-blown villain or if they will chicken out as they usually do. They've tried to make her the bad guy in the Sprina pairing. They had her violate her Hippocratic Oath before (rousing that guy Esme poisoned from his medically-induced coma so he could testify in Trina's trial). I think they have nibbled around the edges of making her a full-blown villain already but they're just afraid to throw the switch.
It's amazing how important Lulu suddenly is to Carly, I didn't notice their close connection when Lulu was still around
There wasn't. This sudden concern for Lulu is just another instance of the writers feeling the need to insert her into everyone else's stories. Maybe they were involved in each other's lives more when Julie Berman played the role, but Emme Rylan's tenure as Lulu was mostly Carly-free.
 
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Daniel Avery

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So earlier in the week they dropped some exposition dialogue into the show saying that Steven Lars Webber, Liz's half-brother, has been released from prison and is settling down in Sedona, AZ. Why would they bother to update us if there wasn't some kind of plan afoot to bring him back to the show?

Steven Lars was the son of Heather and Jeff and was Heather's singular obsession back before they created all these other secret children for her. As an adult on the show, he was a doctor involved with Olivia Falconeri, but things went into the toilet when a shocking secret from his past was revealed. While working in a hospital in Memphis, he purposely killed a comatose patient so that an organ could be harvested and transplanted into another patient who was about to die. After some blackmail and a lot of trouble, he was arrested right before his wedding to Olivia and shipped off to jail. That was eleven or twelve years ago. Now we have a returning character needing an organ transplant along with a newly-arrived doctor-character who is said to be an organ-transplant specialist, and the prospect of another returnee who engaged in black-market organ harvesting.

Isaiah Gannon (perhaps related to the OLTL Gannons) seems eager to keep his personal life and past to himself, as evidenced by how he refuses to open up to Jordan about anything in his past. Maybe he was also a part of the organ-harvesting situation back in Memphis that ensnared Steven Lars. When the time comes to give Lulu her transplant, something happens that makes it necessary for Isaiah to do the surgery...but is reluctant to get himself and the hospital in trouble. He'd not been a part of the scheme when it happened but was swept up in it and looked guilty enough that he resigned and left the country. He does the surgery and Lulu is saved. Portia offers him a staff job and they bring Steven Lars back to testify to Isaiah's innocence and to help him get a job at GH....and maybe Steven sticks around too.

Would it be strange to have Roger Howarth back to play him? o_O
 

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Sidwell is one of the more capable adversaries on GH, at least until today.
It would be great to see him on the show for a longer period.
I give the writers some respect. It took some
imagination to get the four of them out.
Where are Laura and Kevin. Didn't they search for Lucky as well?
 

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I'm glad Carlo Rota is playing Sidwell and not an actor I don't particularly like, but I hope it's going to be just a nice, evil run and they don't try to redeem Sidwell, because too many unimportant characters have been redeemed for my taste lately, see Brennan.

Unfortunately, for me, crime on GH is now as irrelevant as death on Days. On Days, grief is just a waste of time because the deceased will return at some point anyway, and on GH, any police investigation is pointless because there are no consequences. If an important character does end up in prison, he will be released at some point anyway, like Heather soon or Brennan recently.

Anna seems to be heading into a bizarre relationship, like once her fling with Luke. I hope the writers don't waste too much time on Anna and Jason as a potential couple.
 
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AndyB2008

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I'm reluctant to say anything on this because the reporting is so spotty. The people I typically rely on for "the final word" (confirmation) have yet to confirm anything. There are "Has Kelly Monaco been let go?" stories but only TVLine (which admittedly is usually right) is writing as if she's already finished filming and her fate is set in stone. I guess it won't feel real until there are some kind of comments from the show itself, or from the actress.

Edited to add: I guess Variety is a solid source, and they're reporting it as fact.

So....back in the mid-1990s, evil soap killer/EP Jill Farren Phelps was cutting Another World to ribbons. She needed to come up with $$$ to re-hire Robert Kelker-Kelly, so she instituted a serial killer storyline to write out several actors to free up their salaries. It was said she needed to fire one actor with a "mid/high-level salary, the list including Anna Stuart (Donna), Judi Evans (Paulina) or Alice Barrett (Frankie). All kinds of anvils were dropping in the story indicating Anna Stuart's Donna, a popular, long-term favorite was about to be killed off. The fans expressed their discontent well enough that the story ended up being rewritten on the fly. Suddenly the killer was no longer after her....and instead Frankie ended up being killed off in an infamously violent episode that got the Head Writer and the evil EP fired.

Why do I bring this up? Because up until about a week ago Maura West's Ava looked to be living on borrowed time just as AW's Donna did. Lots and lots of plot points were added that made it appear she was about to be killed off because EP Frank Valentini was looking to free up some money to afford Jonathan Jackson, Emma Samms, Rick Hearst, etc. I think Maura West and Kelly Monaco likely make about the same salaries, given their long-term background in soaps and pre-GH stardom. If the EP was swayed into keeping West's Ava in the mix, then someone in that same salary range would need to go in her place...thus Monaco is now on the chopping block. History might not repeat itself, but it does tend to rhyme.
Not to mention Jill Farren Phelps fired David Hedison (a well known actor) from AW because he was too old and Anna Lee (a well known actress) from GH for the same reason.

At least Jill Farren Phelps isn't in charge of a soap like Neighbours or Corrie.
 

Daniel Avery

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Jill Farren Phelps ought not to be left in charge of a hot dog stand.

I think my main beef with the show has to do with the inversion of right and wrong, how killers and criminals (especially Sonny) are lauded as the "heroes" and placed on a pedestal, while the police and other authorities are written as impotent/useless and occasionally complicit in the cover-up. Anyone who shows an ounce of skill in pushing back gets the John Cates treatment---written as the bad guy, humiliated by the writing and blamed for their own demise after they are written out. Soaps, from their earliest times on the radio, were meant to be morality plays. Good triumphs over evil. The good guys always get their happy ending while the bad guys end up in jail or worse, depending on the severity of their crimes. In years past, when someone like Sonny gunned down an FBI agent in cold blood, we automatically thought "Oh, there's no coming back from that" and the next logical part of the story is how he will end up being written out. They would not even write a plot like that unless it had already been decided the actor was being written out, since there was such an "Action A=Consequence B" thought process.

But current GH has given Sonny such extensive plot armor that when we see him kill an FBI agent, we don't even bat an eyelash because we know they're not writing Sonny out, even though it is exactly what the character deserves. When we see justice not being served in this way, it rubs many people the wrong way because it just isn't setting a good example, and it goes against decades of typical soap opera morality. If GH wants Sonny to be an unrepentant murderer, then just say that's what he is. Don't have supporting characters sing his praises and give him the benefit of the doubt when he doesn't deserve it because it's just plain dishonest. Soaps are famous for being "reassuring" in their predictability via formulaic stories. It is reassuring to the viewer to see good triumph over evil. When GH attempts to gaslight me into believing that Sonny's a "good man" and "such a good father and role model" as he guns down unarmed FBI agents, I just get more cynical about the show's future.
 

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The Sonny and Carly show is certainly far less entertaining than The Sonny and Cher show.

I'm going back to 1995. Luke and Laura shine, Bobbie is alive and rocks, Sonny was just a supporting character et the best is still to come : The Cassadine will be back soon. Nikolas, Stefan and Helena.
 

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I love the Sonny & Carly show. I feel something (them) is missing when they're not in an episode.

Kelly Monaco taped her last episode on September 27th. Will Sam die while diving for the gun Alexis threw in the water? And if so, will Lulu get Sam's liver?

Will Danny become a mini-Jason with Sam gone and Jason being his only living parent (assuming that Sam dies)?

What exactly is Sonny's plan to get Alexis out of jail? He hired Martin, but apparently Martin is not doing what Sonny had in mind. I doubt Sonny wants Martin to point his finger to Sonny.

Will Molly and Dex get together? Feels odd that they keep having scenes together unless it will lead to something.

I love Ric's return. Especially since he is pro-Molly. She definitely deserves someone backing her. Alexis has absolutely chosen Kristina over Molly. Even sacrificing her own freedom for Kristina and defending Kristina even though she totally stabbed Molly in the back. And TJ seems to resent Molly for her way of coping with their child's death.

I love that Liz worries about Lucky's return. For Aiden's sake. Much like Sam worried about Danny when Jason returned. Liz knows Lucky has been a bad father.

Portia really is desperate to keep Heather in jail. I can't blame her for wanting that lunatic in jail though. Desperate people do desperate things. I don't see Portia as a villain because of this. Even if she will let Brad take the fall. It would be really bad, but she's still not evil.

Jason & Anna kissing was sure a surprise. But I don't think anything will come of it. I think it was mainly just a strategy to escape. But we'll see.

Will Charlotte & Valentin be located soon? I'd love for Charlotte to be by Lulu's side when she wakes up from her coma.

Lucas is returning. Van Hansis cast as new Lucas. With Brad also back, will they reunite?

When will Cody & Sasha finally get a break? And will Sasha become a member of the Scorpio family? I'd love for Sasha & Maxie to be family.

Does Brook Lynn have a secret? She has had some suspicious face expressions lately.

And can Drew & Willow please end? What a total mis-match. I prefer Drew & Nina. I hope Ned finding out will be for the best. He could blackmail Drew into voting for Ned as CEO of ELQ *and* stop seeing Willow.

Lois accent removed is surely to get Rena Sofer speaking with her normal accent.
 

Daniel Avery

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Will Danny become a mini-Jason with Sam gone and Jason being his only living parent (assuming that Sam dies)?
One of the first things I worried about when I heard Sam was being killed off was what will become of Danny? Jason means well but he isn't full-time dad material. Well, he could be, but the show seems intent on making him Sonny's lackey again, which would not be ideal for tending to the needs of an actual child (as opposed to tending to the needs of his man-child boss). If Alexis were not a guest of the state she could assume custody of Danny; maybe they get her out in time to take him in? They'll likely just say Monica has custody and add him to the 923 other PC kids invisibly living at the Q mansion. At least Sam's other child (Danny's sister-cousin Scout) has Drew, and logically lives at the Q mansion with him.
What exactly is Sonny's plan to get Alexis out of jail? He hired Martin, but apparently Martin is not doing what Sonny had in mind. I doubt Sonny wants Martin to point his finger to Sonny.
One option that could work (though it would create its own problems) would be for Martin to whip up just enough reasonable doubt to have Alexis acquitted. He could offer up theories that Sonny did it but provide no evidence. The PCPD can't produce enough evidence for a Sonny indictment, so no one ends up being punished for the Cates murder....and the show just moves on as if nothing happened.
Will Charlotte & Valentin be located soon? I'd love for Charlotte to be by Lulu's side when she wakes up from her coma.
I'd love for her to come back to visit her mother, and since she did nothing wrong she would not face any issues by returning. But since the show is already over-populated with kids they don't write for, it might be better overall just to see her visit, have some great scenes with "NuLu" and then leave to rejoin her father wherever he is now. And speaking of Valentin, he should throw one last grenade at the Quartermaines by signing over the proxies of his voting shares to Nina, who could then be in the cat-bird seat as Ned, Michael, and Drew all have to bite their tongues and be nice to her as she holds the deciding vote on who will get the CEO job.
 

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For me, there are too many filler scenes at the moment. At least when Molly met Dex, I was able to think about what could happen. Instead of a romance with Dex, I fear that Molly will face an alcohol problem. After all, there has been too much talk recently about how stable Molly is compared to Kristina, so it's time for Molly to be the one everyone is worried about.

How does anyone come up with the idea that Nina would be the perfect companion for Drew at his campaign events? Won't the press find out what Nina did? Would I vote for a politician who has a partner who paralyzed a pregnant woman and forced her into labor by injecting her with a drug?

I'm not a fan of recasts, but I never liked Steve, so I wouldn't mind if a new actor took over the character and gave him a bit more edge. The fact that he performed euthanasia was the only interesting thing about Steve.
 

Daniel Avery

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How does anyone come up with the idea that Nina would be the perfect companion for Drew at his campaign events? Won't the press find out what Nina did? Would I vote for a politician who has a partner who paralyzed a pregnant woman and forced her into labor by injecting her with a drug?
I've gone on the record in the past as HATING these "character runs for office" stories on soaps, and this one is no exception. All soap characters have these oddball scandals/problems in their past that would preclude them from running for ANYTHING. When Drew first decided to run, they were hinting that Drew's opponent (Chelsea something) was going to play dirty, but the new writers seem not to be following that; digging dirt on Nina might have been secondary to Drew's more recent problems. In addition to his stint in prison, there is Drew's adventures in "Memory Mapping," including that period where he literally believed he was his mob hitman twin brother. That would make for a very interesting anti-Drew campaign ad! If Drew can spin his time in Pentonville as "penance" for the insider trading, Nina could similarly point out she ended up in Shadybrook for what she did to Ava. But then, Nina was in the midst of a psychotic break when she did what she did to Ava, so some would say she wasn't responsible for her actions. Drew was perfectly sane, though maybe we could say he took the fall for Carly in the insider trading scandal because he was hypnotized by Carly's glittery hoo-ha. o_O

Though the Hate Sex plot between Drew and Nina was good for a few laughs (the looks Maxie gave Nina were hilarious), I'm kind of glad the writing has shifted away from that. It made him look like a sleaze and made her look desperate. This idea that Drew needs a "campaign wife" for his campaign is ridiculous in 2024.
 

Daniel Avery

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Two-soap veteran Ron Hale has died. Though I knew him best for his role as Roger Coleridge on Ryan's Hope, his most recent soap work was playing the original Mike Corbin on General Hospital. According to this article, he died August 27.

Ron Hale dead at 78: General Hospital star passes away six years after announcing acting retirement | Daily Mail Online

Years before Max Gail was hired as a Mike recast, GH decided to do an RH crossover with Delia Ryan Coleridge coming to Port Charles as Ava's mother. Delia was visiting Sonny's home for some reason and spotted a photo of "Sonny's dad Mike" (Hale) on the mantel. She immediately wondered aloud why there was a photo of her husband Roger in Sonny Corinthos's house, but someone changed the subject and it was never brought up again.
 

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I read somewhere that Kelly Monaco has completed her work.
Kristen Vaganos is improving as an actress.
The tendency for the character would be to overact, but she had done well in her performance
by staying more grounded.
Where are Laura and Kevin?
 

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Laura & Kevin are returning from Africa this coming week, after being of no use at all there. But Genie was on her annual break, so they had to be off on a wild goose chase.

Kelly Monaco has hinted that she will speak out about her being phased out and then fired from GH. She's already said that Sam begun getting phased out & personality changed when GH let Billy Miller go. I am guessing that Kelly took it personally and sided with Billy against GH producers/writers and was punished for it.
 

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I also read Kelly Monaco's comment and I have to admit that at first I thought someone had hacked her profile and written so angrily, but apparently it really was her. I was astonished to read that Billy Miller was fired because I thought he had left GH as voluntarily as he had left his very popular role on Y&R. I certainly get the impression that Kelly Monaco is not particularly happy with how little Billy Miller is remembered, which I also noticed on the first anniversary of his death. The daytime community (I mean the fans) have not been particularly active in remembering him. I assume it's because people only knew a certain Image of him and knew nothing about him at all... I don't think Sam had nothing to do for years. Personally, I liked her character development and to me, Sam & Dante is now one of the stronger couples on the show.

Is it now known if the killing of John/Jagger was planned from the beginning of his return? Antonio Sabato Jr. had said he was never contacted about returning, so I wonder if GH intentionally recast an actor who was nothing like Antonio Sabato Jr.'s Jagger, so that when he gets killed off by Sonny, no viewer is sad about it.

I think it's funny when the writers play with Carly's attitude, like when she acted towards Jason like she was the one who dropped the bomb to save everyone. There could be more scenes like that. What I didn't like at all, however, was how Robert and Diane's relationship is handled. I actually expected that as soon as Holly was back on screen, we could watch Robert and Diane being in love, but it wasn't until Holly's return to Port Charles was imminent that we saw Robert and Diane having dinner. GH apparently doesn't want to waste any airtime with Robert and Diane as a couple in love.
 
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Daniel Avery

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I think it's funny when the writers play with Carly's attitude, like when she acted towards Jason like she was the one who dropped the bomb to save everyone.
It is amusing to see Jason begging her to practice some self-control, only for her to go off and get in all kinds of trouble, knowing in the end she's not going to pay for her misbehavior. It has a sort of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo element to it. I could just hear Jason reprimanding her (not in Spanish, but....) while rolling his eyes in frustration.

Carly: "I did that! Jack helped, but I was the one who got to push the button!"
Jason: "You WHAT?!"
Carly: "Why are you mad? I saved you all from getting killed."
Jason: "I beg...BEG you not to get involved with Brennan....and within 24 hours of my leaving, you're ordering your first drone strike!"

Kelly Monaco has been making half-serious threats to "tell all" for several weeks. She makes these comments that are then deleted (knowing they will still be out there circulating) but the longer she goes without following through, the more it looks like the 'disgruntled employee'. As my grandpa used to say, piss or get off the pot. I do hope she moves on to bigger and better things but right now it feels like she's being coy about "her story" in an effort to win some points in the court of public opinion. The problem is that I think she might over-estimate the interest in her story.
 

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Return of Lucky, Lulu, Ric, Holly and Lucas
Major Heather Story
WSB is present, as per Brennan
Sonny and Carly together (somewhat)
Jason handles all the big encounters

GH is going forward into the past
 

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Return of Lucky, Lulu, Ric, Holly and Lucas
Major Heather Story
WSB is present, as per Brennan
Sonny and Carly together (somewhat)
Jason handles all the big encounters

GH is going forward into the past
Well sort of... Is nostalgia working with so many new faces ... ? Another failed recast : Lucas. No offense to the actor but he certainly does not have Ryan Carnes vibes, his charisma, this hard look in his eyes... If this new Lucas goes to Bobbie's grave, I won't feel anything.
How could we get emotionnally invested in strangers ? Storylines and writing are not everything...
 

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I will probably never love nuLucas, but I like that he knows what he's doing as an actor. The way he acts seems very natural.

I was shocked that Lucky stopped by Sonny before visiting Aidan or Isaiah and then wanted advice on how to deal with his son. But this made it clear once more who the star of the show is. I think it's good that the focus isn't too much on the enmity between Sonny and Ric and that it (hopefully) remains with one bad encounter.

I found the conversation between Lucky and Isaiah in the hospital pleasant and makes me hope that I might like Isaiah someday, because up until then I found him too much in every scene.

Since I'm not expecting a Finn recast, I hope that he gets a great job somewhere else and that Violet will live with him. The girl is nice, but not so sweet that she has to stay on the show.
 
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I agree with Mac about Holly.
Sam is not a blood relative, so speculation about her as the donor...I don't know
Why not Ethan (not even a mention)
I am a big fan of Tristan Rogers, but is it my imagination,
or does his voice seem fainter
and does he look a little unsteady?
I hope he is ok
Robert Scorpio is on e of GH's greatest characters, ever
 
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