General Hospital Watching General Hospital

[Monzo]

I'm not really impressed that Austin is a Quartermaine. When Roger Howarth began his Franco run he was also supposed to be a Quartermaine and was hanging around at the mansion. Roger's acting is not that different to Franco or Todd, so I'm not happy with it. I was no Franco fan, but putting Elizabeth & Finn together was not worth killing Franco off.

I'm curious about who's Cameron Mathison is going to play. Hopefully a brand new character and no that rumored recast of Steve or Drew. I don't need any of these characters back on the show right now. Got no idea who could be his love interest, same with Austin's. It seems all ladies on the show are taken right now (at least by heart).

 

[Daniel Avery]

These writers obviously get a kick out of tying new characters to the distant past. Since Jimmy Lee and his family members were intentionally disinherited by Edward in his will, I can't see it meaning much for Austin to be a son of Jimmy Lee and Charity. Now if they were to ret-con the storyline and say that Alan slept with Charity and is Austin's real father, we might have a different conversation. Many are arguing that Roger Howarth is too old to be playing the son of Jimmy Lee, but there really is no point in arguing proper aging when so much SORAS goes on; time operates on a different plane on soaps.

I'm guessing that the show felt they had to create a character for RH who would not necessarily be interacting with the same people Franco did. That will help lapsed viewers get past the idea that he's no longer Franco when they tune in and see him doing scenes with people Franco rarely did. It's kind of mean to say, but the main difference I'm seeing between Austin and his other characters is Roger Howarth's new haircut makes his ears look enormous. I guess Howarth always had his hair longer and styled to hide them before this.

 

[Monzo]

It's nice to have Harmony back. I've always liked her and was worried that Cyrus might kill her, so I was kind of relieved when the actress was no longer available last year. Since Austin was present when she spoke to Harmony, I wonder if they could get closer because they're both outsiders.

Terry has been on the show for three years now and hasn't been in a relationship so far. Is it because ABC is afraid that viewers won't want to see a trans actress as a trans character making out with a straight male character? Or are producers worried that a straight actor would turn down love scenes with a trans actress?

 

[Daniel Avery]

To be fair, GH has a lot of supporting characters who don't have "a life". Terry is not unique in that regard. This is a drawback to having a large (maybe too large) cast of characters. The principal characters have to have storylines, and the supporting characters get the scraps, airtime-wise. Think of how many characters don't even have a "home" (that is, a set depicting their home). The show has been doing a great job lately with re-populating the hospital, but I fear once Sonny regains his memory and the Terrible Trio are back in the forefront, the hospital will once again lose its prominence. We likely won't even see Terry, Britt, Monica, Finn, Liz, etc. as frequently. They've mentioned Epiphany but I have yet to see her return, and in a throw-away line from Austin, it appears Lucas is no longer around---Austin mentioned that he was hired to "replace" Lucas at GH.

I'm not sure how I feel about Harmony. I wanted them to reveal (through Harmony) that Willow, not Nelle, was Nina's daughter, but it seems they've moved on from that story twist. And if Harmony is only around to make Willow look even more put-upon than she already is, I'm not looking forward to it. GH already has Carly butting into everyone's (especially Michael's) lives. Olivia can't help but butt into Dante's life. Gladys is butting into Brando and Sasha's life. Stella is butting into everyone's lives, especially Curtis and Jordan's. Do we need Harmony butting into Willow's life? I think someone on the GH writing staff used to watch "Aunt" Liz Matthews doing her thing on Another World, the Buttinsky Extraordinaire who famously had an opinion on everything, whether you wanted it or not.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I'm curious about who's Cameron Mathison is going to play. Hopefully a brand new character and no that rumored recast of Steve or Drew. I don't need any of these characters back on the show right now. Got no idea who could be his love interest, same with Austin's. It seems all ladies on the show are taken right now (at least by heart).

Cameron Mathison was quoted as saying he would be playing a character unlike any he'd played previously. Obviously he's going to be a recast Lulu Falconeri. Unless he's previously played a short, blond woman?

Heck, rather than wonder which PC lady Austin will be paired with, maybe they plan to pair him with Cameron Mathison? That would send the soap mags into meltdown.

Word just dropped that Charles Shaughnessy (of Days and The Nanny) has been signed to a long-term role. Sounds interesting, but with all these "name" hires, I fear they might start cutting costs by letting other actors go.

 

[DallasFanForever]

To be fair, GH has a lot of supporting characters who don't have "a life". Terry is not unique in that regard. This is a drawback to having a large (maybe too large) cast of characters.

I’m quite often amazed at how big the cast seems to be on this show. Many times it feels like we don’t see certain characters for quite awhile before that revolving door comes around again, doesn’t it?

It’s surprising to me considering how much we’ve seen these shows cost cutting in recent times.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Some actors are considered "on the cast" but have as few as six to eight appearances per year. Characters like Lucy Coe, Epiphany Johnson, Dianne Miller, and Aiden Spencer (heck, all the children younger than 12) might only be seen on holidays (and in Lucy's case, the Nurses Ball), but people still consider them "around".

It did occur to me the other day that the Cheetwood brothers (who played Max and Milo) are probably no longer with the show, since it has been years since I've seen either of them. Max's role as Sonny and Carly's security guy seems to have been taken over by "Brick" (that ESPN guy), and Piph said she and Milo had broken up some time ago. I've also given up on Felix (Marc Samuel), who has not been seen despite the recent prominence of the hospital as a center of action.

 

[Monzo]

Rumors have it that Cameron Mathison will bring some AMC-magic to GH. He should be NuDrew returning as a couple with Hayden. Maybe it's good on screen, but so far I'm not happy about it.

When Emme Rylan was fired, I expected Marie Berman to take over sooner or later, but now it's obviously later. Marie Berman was the perfect Lulu to me. She and Dante had great chemistry. I liked her with Luke and Laura. It would be so nice to have her back!

I like Charles Shaughnessy. A long time role sounds like a lost member of a core family or just a recast.

I remember Felix having a few (or just one?) scenes with NuLucas, but nothing happening. I didn't like NuLucas, so I think it's a good thing he's gone.

I recently thought of Max & Milo, because they should have been on air when Jason was in jail and on the run helping Carly.

What happened to Alice? She never had an exit story, she was just gone. Cook 2 is sometimes mentioned, but we never hear about Alice again.

On a superficial note: Gladys looks so much better since her makeover! Never thought she could look this good.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Alice did sort of fade away, which is a shame since I loved her interactions with "Miss Tracy" and all the Qs. They even had her interacting with Morgan, who was sort of star-struck since she had that side-gig as the female wrestler 'The Dominator'. I recall she had to have a heart operation (transplant?), and then....nothing. Of course that was when the Qs in general were a non-entity on the show, so no Qs, no servants.

Historically, these attempts to "recapture the magic of the past" by casting actors who worked well together on other soaps NEVER work. You'd think they would have learned this by now.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Turns out Cam Mathison WILL be playing resurrected/back-from-the-dead Drew Cain. I'm actually kind of happy with this, though I would have preferred his being a recast Steven Lars Webber. If they maintain continuity with Billy Miller's portrayal, Monica will once again have a "son" who adores her, and Sam will have an escape route from the DOA pairing of Sam/Dante. His resurrection will once again shake up the ELQ share wars, since his shares (which Scout inherited and Sam proxied out to Valentin) will be his again since the proxy will be null and void.

Anyway, we can just giggle to ourselves when Steve Burton stands next to his "identical twin" Cameron Mathison much like we giggled when Billy Miller was in scenes with Burton (for different reasons). Best of all, since Tamara Braun is off doing other acting work, we won't have to watch "Kim Nero" show up to resume her obsession with Drew now that he's no longer dead.

 

[Monzo]

If I had to name five characters I never want to see on GH again Drew would be one of them. I liked John Doe, but there was no Jason in him, so I thought that once he got his memory back that would change. Well, it didn't. Obviously GH wanted to please Billy Miller (or his fans) by making his version of Jason more like Y&R's Billy Abbott than the real Jason. NuJason was not called Stone Cold anymore, because he got a new personality. When Jason turned out to be Drew, all of this could have made sense, but unfortunately it didn't. Drew should just have gotten his memory back, instead we got him dealing with Kim and Oscar. When Franco got Drew's memories it was the first time I thought "This is Drew".

I think / hope Cameron's version of Drew will make more sense. I want Drew to have his memories back, but if he did he'd realize Kim is the love of his life, so that's the catch. At least I hope NuDrew with Jason's memories will show a little bit of Jason in his acting.

It still puzzles me what happened to Billy Miller. On Y&R he was überpopular, his castmates shot this cool goodbye video, but on GH the only cast member who seemed to love him was Kelly Monaco. As an avid reader of Soap Opera Digest I realized every actor who was working with him had to be asked about BM during interviews, even new cast members "Kim" and "Oscar". Once asked they praised BM, but never talked about him on their own. I always thought Kelly Monaco was a bad influence on Billy Miller.

 

[Emelee]

Sam & Drew

I guess a JaSam break is needed. I just hope they end Carly/Jason soon. I wouldn't mind Jason with Britt.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Jason/Britt is one of my favorite pairings of the past few years. GH was really lucky to find someone (in Britt) who was known for her self-reliance in the same way Jason is, saving us from another round of "Captain Save-A-Ho" and his damsel in perpetual distress. Being raised by Liesl would certainly make Britt more of a pragmatist like her mother--and like Jason.

When "Jason" was revealed to actually be Drew and Real Jason returned, Monaco's performances telegraphed who she wanted Sam to end up with, but Sam/Drew was not going to happen (at that time); GH had spent a ton of money (and Frank Valentini had eaten some crow) to get Steve Burton back, and he was brought back mainly because the Jason/Sam fanbase had been so vocal about having him back. Monaco probably rushed to Miller's side not so much because she loved working with him, but he was her potential ticket away from Burton and another round of JaSam. After a while, it started looking like Monaco and Burton could not tolerate being in the same scene together, much less being written as this "true love forever" couple. The show had been held hostage more or less by the Jason/Sam fanbase for so long that even as the actors seemed miserable, the producers were afraid of backlash if they broke them up,, and of course had spent all that money to get Burton back (not to mention tied the stories in KNOTS with ridiculous memory-mapping nonsense to explain how there were two Jasons). I actually believe (but don't know for sure) that if the show had not followed through on breaking them up, one or both of them would have quit. I mean, the difference in their performances with each other versus with other actors was stark.

As soon as the show broke them up (pairing Jason with Britt, leaving Sam alone for a while before starting this....thing...with Dante) both actors seemed to take more care with their performances, especially Burton. Kelly Thiebaud (Britt) has always been able to bring out good performances in her scene partners even during her "Britch" days. Kelly Monaco still seems to be playing Sam as "drowsy" (for lack of a better term--always moving slowly with her eyes slightly closed and taking longer to react) but she has been getting a bit better. I wonder if Frank Valentini will expect a lot more out of Monaco now that she "got her way," not only with the breakup of Jason/Sam, but now the potential of a second chance at Sam/Drew. If he goes to all this trouble, only for her to continue sleepwalking, then he will not be pleased.

 

[Daniel Avery]

So I ran across this little beauty from 2014.....

From the opening ten seconds

 

[Monzo]

Who shot Hayden? I thought it was an open secret that Nikolas was behind it. Elizabeth knew about it and she still does. Laura knew about it, but does she remember it now? Didn't Sam confront Tyler Christopher's Nikolas about it when she found out? She obviously forgot about it or was it just my imagination and it never happened? Didn't Hayden tell Jax the truth about her shooter when NuNikolas came to town? Jax didn't say anything when Sam & Shawn asked him about Hayden. This storyline is very confusing.

 

[Daniel Avery]

You're not losing it; the writers have given the town a case of collective amnesia to better serve the plot of Shawn "out to find the real (would-be) killer". Everyone speaks of how Shawn should not have been in jail since he did not shoot Hayden, but they collectively forget (or at least gloss over) the fact that he was there to kill Drew-when-he-thought-he-was-Jason (on Sonny's orders). He missed (the bullet was found in the wall) and the hitman Nik hired (to kill Hayden, not Jason/Drew) just happened to be there at the same time and had better aim. So Shawn might not have shot Hayden, but he was totally guilty of attempted murder (of Drew/Jason). When someone dies while you are committing a crime (even a totally unrelated crime), you are on the hook for their death, so he may have been charged incorrectly, but had a legit reason to be in jail.

I have to say I'm totally mystified by how Drew's return, Naomi's murder, Hayden's continued MIA status, and all the other hints and clues might fit together, but I don't mind sitting back to see how it all fits.

 

[Monzo]

Peter could have stayed dead a little bit longer. I'm not ready for his next run yet.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Though it was not a total surprise, I still hate that they decided to bring him back. There were several reasons I thought they would bring him back, including how relatively uneventful his 'death' was (Finn pushing him down the stairs). The producers are aware of how much the fans want Wes Ramsey off the show (not just Peter), so they will likely do something a bit more "showy" for his permanent departure as an apology for us having to sit through this whole fiasco. They probably would have had his "resurrection" occur sooner but Kirsten Storms had that emergency brain surgery.

 

[Daniel Avery]

....and speaking of wonky brains, Peter seems to have no issues at all considering he fell head first against a concrete wall, then spent some time in a freezer. It might have given the whole thing a bit of levity if Peter had occasional bouts of head pain or "spells". It might even explain why he has that weird Victorian/Great Gatsby accent fading in an out of his performances. Remember when AW's Justine Duvalier "returned from the dead" after falling into the path of a train? She had a hook for a hand and half her face had been torn off, but she still showed up to menace the Corys and Carl once again. Heck, she even wore a nun's habit as a disguise. Woman had STYLE, even if she was nuttier than an almond orchard. Why couldn't we get a little of that?

 

[Monzo]

I like Chase, but Josh Swickard is the worst actor on GH in my opinion. I don't why he's been getting so much heavy material lately that proves he can not act when he is that good at playing nice.