General Hospital Watching General Hospital

Daniel Avery

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He's Sir John Gielgud compared to Wes Ramsey.

Actually no, I have to amend that. Wes Ramsey was actually very good in the film Latter Days, and was likeable enough on Guiding Light as Sam Spencer, though Sam was never a very "deep dig" acting challenge. He's just terrible as Peter, and I can't help but think the character would have been recast years ago if Ramsey wasn't the boyfriend of Laura Wright. GH's casting team is usually so good at matching an actor to a role, but in this case there is some kind of blind spot and a continuing unwillingness to acknowledge the problem, something often seen when "friends" are involved. Tristan Rogers, in a sort of back-handed compliment, wrote on Twitter that Ramsey was too nice a person to do the evil character justice. Ramsey wrote something in an indirect response about "being a classically-trained actor, I can play anything" and from that point on, Rogers has not been seen onscreen and Robert Scorpio hasn't even been mentioned by other characters. One can't help but surmise that Rogers is in the time-out box for insulting Ramsey, yet Rogers has been an icon of GH history for over thirty years.
 

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General Hospital has become a trending news topic.

This is so sad! I would think for tv shows they would somehow be able to mandate it considering how close these people work together. Wouldn’t you want to protect everyone on ur show? It has to be nerve wracking for these stars to do these scenes and worrying about getting sick by the end of filming every day.
 

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I was surprised how many comments want to fire Ingo Rademacher, but I was not surprised that Nancy Lee Grahn put herself in the mix. She always has to be the center of attention. I still remember her rude tweet about Viola Davis' Emmy win. Even Patricia Arquette told her to shut up, but she never does.
 

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I'm surprised to read what an utter idiot Ingo is. Granted he doesn't look very smart, but I didn't think it was that bad.
 

Daniel Avery

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I think that as long as they're continuing to test in-studio and doing all the Covid protocols that they used when they returned to work, it ought not matter if some cast or crew are un-vaccinated. The whole cast and crew were willing to return to work (except Amanda Setton, who was pregnant and was advised not to return until after giving birth) and they were ALL un-vaccinated, even Ms. Grahn. There was that showbiz spirit of "the show must go on" back then. Now they seem to be more divided post-vaccine than they were before, and that has to be personal politics injecting itself into professional relationships.

I can't help but think Grahn's sudden demands to the union via Twitter (for a vaccine mandate) have more to do with her objection to Rademacher's political leanings and knowledge of the attempted "cancellation" campaign on social media. She has to know this sort of "airing of dirty laundry in public" is just like throwing gasoline on the fire. Using the Twitter Outrage Mob to do your dirty work is a dangerous business, because it won't be long before they turn on her, too--they're never satisfied, and pursue fresh meat continuously. If her beef was only about the wish for a vaccine mandate on the set, she could have sent a private e-mail to her union steward and/or higher-ups if the Exec Producer (their boss) had not listened to her concerns. As for Rademacher, I might not agree with a lot of what he says, but he, like everyone else, has a right to be wrong.
 

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Never in a million years would I have expected Charles Shaughnessy to play a Cassadine!
 

Daniel Avery

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I saw that today. I may have squealed. :re:

Granted, I always thought Thaao Penghlis and Kathleen Gati made a fabulous pairing visually, but I guess Victor getting burned to a crisp in the Crichton-Clark clinic allows him to adopt a slightly new look. I never watched Charles Shaughnessy's Shane Donovan period, but of course I know him as Mistah Sheffieeeeeeld, so this is going to be really weird. I can't wait to see Gati kill it once again (wondering if she has to kill him in the process).

It will be a fine line for Dr. O to walk. They seem to be trying to reform her, not only through her romance with Scotty but her obvious adoration of Britt, James, Maxie, Nina, etc. They said she was planning to kill Peter in St. Lucia but I think they wrote that knowing it would not happen. Now she is captive, in much the same situation where we met Liesl---only back then SHE was the one holding Robin captive. Nice, on-point remark Victor made about Liesl making the wrong decision to "kill" Victor and let Faison live---look how badly that worked out for everyone (except Victor, obviously).

When Spencer first got back, he told Trina his name was Victor. He seemed to need a fake name quickly and THAT was the first name that came to mind, so I have to think that Spencer knew Victor was alive and has been in contact with his uncle for a while. I'm interested to see how it all unfolds.

Speaking of Cassadine-palooza (on the heels of Quartermania!), I have a really disturbing and creepy story idea. Back in the days of the Memory Mapping experiments, they seemed to partially succeed in transferring someone's memories into another person. What we don't realize is that Helena's ultimate goal was to basically live forever by having her memories/consciousness transferred into another person. Helena was seen dying onscreen (with people beside her bed to witness it), but she neglected to tell anyone (except maybe Peter) that they had gotten to a point where all her memories and everything (not just individual memories or blocks of time) could be transferred into another person. Her body died, but Helena lives on in the mind of Esme, Spencer's weird, wise-beyond-her-years girlfriend. Esme was a child when they dumped Helena's memories into her head and now she's old enough to start making moves toward reclaiming power. She zeroed in on Spencer (the heir to the Cassadine fortune and titles) to manipulate him into becoming the second coming of Mikkos as he gets older. That Esme chick appears to have a boatload of secrets, knows a lot more than she lets on, and has a really strange way of carrying herself. She even scared RYAN when he saw her. She would want to drive Ava away from her dear grandson Nikolas, since she would view Ava as street trash unworthy of the Cassadine name, so she could be the driving force behind all the stalker stuff, and of course she could have helped Peter survive his latest run-in with a concrete wall and the freezer in the basement lab (the basement lab that Helena built, you will recall). I doubt they would dump such a juicy plot twist on a young, newcomer actress, but she seems very good at her job thus far.
 

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Crazy idea about Esme having Helena's essence like Steve had Stefano's essence on Days recently. It would explain a lot, but since this storyline wasn't popular on Days I can't see GH risking losing viewers by going there.

I'm not worried about Obrecht, I think she's safe. I understand her speaking German, but how about viewers who do not speak German? Is it funny? Is it strange? Or doesn't it matter at all, because no German word she's saying is important for the context.

Wally Kurth is doing both GH and Days, Thaoo Penghlis could easily do the same, because he's rarely seen on Days.

Charles Shaughnessy's casting makes me wonder how big names join a soap. In a recent interview Cameron Mathison said he wanted go back to daytime and GH was his destination, so his agent reached out and GH said yes. Does this mean Drew only returned from the dead, because they had to find a role for Cameron? Might this be the same with Charles Shaughnessy and that's the only reason Victor is back?
 
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Daniel Avery

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Yeah, the idea of Esme's secret identity is over the top crazy, but it's a fun idea to mull over. A more mainstream version might have her being depicted as a younger version of Helena, since Helena was a driven, ambitious woman who latched onto super-rich Mikkos Cassadine because she saw him as her ticket to power. Esme might see Spencer as a similar ticket, only she believes she'd be the brains behind the operation since he's never going to be anything other than a spoiled brat.

Dr. O and her late, great sister Magda/Madeline were from a German-speaking part of Switzerland. I'm pretty sure that if anyone had known Kathleen Gati and Dr. O would stick around so long, they would not have given her such a strong accent to play in the beginning. Now she has to play it for the duration. When Dr. O lapses into German, it's usually in anger or frustration, so the inflection kind of tells me what she means (sort of like when Ricky Ricardo would lapse into Spanish on I Love Lucy). I've heard mixed reviews on her German--Gati is from Canada--but she could make it up as she went along and I'd still find her fun to watch.

When you are a "name" in soaps (known for work on other soaps), it's a lot easier to get noticed by producers on the lookout for talent. When there were a dozen soaps on the air simultaneously they relied a lot more on discovering new talent with auditions, etc. and of course there are still a lot of new, young actors being hired. But now that there are only four soaps, the producers are much less willing to take chances on hiring a newbie to play a major character. They know that veteran soap actors can handle the crushing schedule, and in most cases know if the veteran actor is the right type for a potential role. The "name" actors know their value a lot more and can subvert the old system (auditioning for a role and groveling to get hired) by having their agent put out feelers to the soaps saying "Hey, I'm available. Call me!"

Mathison has a rep for being easy to work with, so I'm sure they took that into consideration when he expressed interest in working at GH. It also probably helped that he became famous on another ABC soap. Depending on how motivated CM was to work, he may have been hired before they were sure who he would play. It's a sure sign of confidence in an actor if a producer is willing to hire them first, then decide on a character to play. Truthfully I am glad they're bringing Drew back....I am just not sold on CM playing him. I think the character of Steven Lars Webber, Liz's brother, would have been a better fit for him since Drew and Jason are supposed to be twins. Yes, Drew had facial reconstruction, but Mathison and Burton have two very different body types. I fear this will be as weird as when Ellen Wheeler's Marley and Jensen Buchanan's Vicky became "un-identical twins" on Another World (after a decade of one actress playing both roles): Wheeler was thin and tall with a high-pitched voice, while Buchanan was short and had a throaty voice. They had to avoid putting the sisters in the same scene because of the obvious differences.
 

Daniel Avery

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So I'm honestly unsure how I feel about Nina/"Mike"/Jax today. As totally wrong as it was to keep Sonny in the dark, and how Jax sought to give Nina a gentler reality check than she probably deserved, I was also moved by how Nina (or maybe how Cynthia Watros) managed to validate her argument for letting things stay as they are. The only fault I saw with the whole series of scenes was how "Mike" left the bar so easily. I know they had to get him to leave so Jax and Nina could speak (yell) freely, but even in his odd state (a friend called it "neutered" but don't tell Maurice!), Mike should have been more motivated to stick around.

Sonny is going to be back in Port Chuckles soon enough, but how will they write it? If they simply do what they did with Jason when he came back, I'll be disappointed. Remember, he had been off in that Russian clinic-place for years, and despite all that had happened and all the plot opportunities they set up, he was right back wearing the black T-shirts and being Sonny's errand-boy in no time. If they gloss over all this Nixon Falls stuff and slide Sonny right back into his old mumbling mobster mode it will be a giant waste of potential. But giant wastes of potential are not unheard-of in GH-land, so....
 

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I also expect it to get back to normal as soon as possible. Some say Cynthia Watros' contract is running out, so Nina would be out, which is not that bad. I like Cynthia Watros, but what should GH do with Nina after Nixon Falls? Phyllis might move to Port Charles, work at GH and be Sonny's moral confidante just like Stella was.

When Esme was first seen eavesdropping at the hospital I thought she's just an untalented dayplayer and now she could be a major player.

Taggert sadly has become useless. For awhile it seems Jordan might end up with him, but now it looks like Shawn is the one. Still don't know if it was a good thing to bring back Shawn full time.

I'm worried about Jax. I don't want him to leave the show because Nancy Lee Grahn is doing her thing. When Jax was visiting Alexis recently, I thought this will be the last time these two are in a scene together.
 
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Daniel Avery

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I guess she ought to scratch that "coexist" bumper sticker off her car. :re:

As far as Nina is concerned, I have no idea what CW's status is with the show. People said they needed to write Valentin out of the show after he and Nina broke up, that his usefulness had come to an end. Instead, they did an amazing turnaround with the character, and now he is one of the most interesting characters in town. It had a lot to do with how well-liked James Patrick Stuart seems to be, since they bent over backwards to retool his character rather than just give up. Are they as dedicated to Cynthia Watros? Again, I have no idea, but if there is one thing I've seen on GH, it's that stories are very much shaped by how well the producers and writers get along with particular actors. The Wes Ramsey thing is well documented, and this year-long sojourn to Nixon Falls was purely done to accommodate Maurice Benard's request for a lighter work load. It was a poorly-kept secret that they did NOT care for William DeVry in his final two or three years as Julian. They would have been rid of him long before, had it not been for the fan base that rooted for Julian/Alexis...even after the whole "held a knife to her throat" incident. If Watros is behaving herself and Frank V enjoys what she brings to the mix, he will make sure Nina comes out of this intact. I can imagine a few ways they could make her more relevant to the lives of the other PC characters, to expand her reach beyond that little corner of PC where she runs her magazine.

As for Ingo Rademacher, I think it might be more the choice of ABC (rather than just Frank V) as to what happens to Jax. They might decide to give in to the Twitter Child Mob, or they might just grow a pair and realize that controversy (real or manufactured) can translate into ratings. The show would suffer without a strong critic of Carly/Jason/Sonny, since they give in too often to the idea of Saint Jaysus and Sonny as the Mobster With a Heart of Gold. Speaking of which, all the propping-up scenes we've endured lately with everyone saying how wonderful Carly and Jason are and how they were always meant to be together will be eating their words soon enough when Sonny walks across the waters of the Llantano River back into Port Charles. Well, everyone except Monica, who will probably open some champagne when she learns Carly is NOT going to be her daughter-in-law after all.
 

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Briana Nicole Henry is out as Jordan and I'm surprised. When she left yesterday I thought maybe the actress is going on vacation, but I didn't expect this. I wouldn't mind if Vinessa Antoine returned. She was great with Shawn. Briana's Jordan never had the edge of Vinessa.
 
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Daniel Avery

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Though I had not heard whether she was leaving or not, I realized that this happened on the (exact) third anniversary of her debut. Since most contracts are three years nowadays for newcomers, it made sense. I thought she was doing an okay job in what has become the most thankless job in Port Charles (Police Commissioner). Since the mobsters are the heroes and the police are the buzzkills in this town, her longevity in the job hinges on an inability to do the job well. BNH was entirely too young for the role, but I was able to overlook that since they barely show her son, TJ any more.
 

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I'm worried about Phyllis. I don't want her to die. It would have been so cool (and surprising) if she had killed Peter.
 

Daniel Avery

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Right before Ava left town (relax, it's just Maura West's vacation), she put Charlie's Pub up for sale. This is the bar that Julian ran, that she inherited when he died. Kristina is supposedly a manager there, though we barely see her to confirm this. Anyway, Charlie's Pub might be a great place for Phyllis to run/own. I tend to think this will be the set-up to keep her around, and now the only mystery left is which other Port Chuck citizen will end up being a relative of hers? My money's on Portia (and Trina) but she could just as easily be Stella's sister, and thus "Aunt Phyllis". Why else would they kill off her husband and burn down her bar, if not to sever all ties to Nixon Falls and free her up to move to PC?

It will be interesting to see how she runs a bar that actually has a customer once in a while.
 

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Sonny's return trip is not as good as I hoped it would be. Too many filler scenes (Michael & Willow / The Teens) are ruining the mood, but I don't enjoy the dialogues between Sonny and his loved ones as well. It feels a bit flat. Kristina appearing out of the blue acting like we've seen her just last week is also strange.

Peter's showdown was so close. I even thought this might be the end, but it wasn't...
 

Daniel Avery

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I see a lot of speculation online that there was some sort of network directive to shut down "Nixon Falls" and to put things back the way they were, and I'm tending to believe this to be the case. Everything was just bobbing along (like it or not) and then, all of a sudden, we had Maxie, then Peter show up in NF, then back in PC we had Carly and Jason's marriage of convenience take a U-turn into romantic feelings, complete with 3/4 of the cast being trotted out to sing the praises of their "wonderful love story" (they were F-buddies once upon a time, let's get real) as the wedding day was dragged out over three weeks of episodes. One good knock on the noggin gives Sonny his complete memories back, and he marches out of a burning building without so much as a cough. They didn't even have the (yes, cliche, but almost expected) scene where Sonny would walk in on Jason and Carly having sex (because...well, you know they would have). Any soap writer worth his salt knows you have to jump on those sorts of dramatic moments because all that build-up (nearly ten months!) deserves a big payoff---otherwise, you feel those ten months were a waste of time. BTW, what will all the characters who were singing the praises of Jason/Carly last week say now that Sonny is back? Ooopsie!

So many dramatic beats of the story were either overlooked or pushed under the rug. They also seemed to fill in a lot of time with flashbacks and scenes that did not "fit" in the episodes (like Michael/Willow/Chase stuff), as if they had re-edited some episodes and needed filler to replace other stuff that was removed. GH did a similar rush job when they killed the Dawn of Day story, killing off Shiloh in the process, and basically torpedo-ing a long-term story projection for Kristina, Alexis, Drew, Sam, and others. I don't know why Frank V or the head writers won't simply say in the soap press that the network asked them to change X or cut Y story short in order to explain why a story seemed to change gears so inexplicably, or why an episode seems so disjointed. Just today, I was watching Britt talk to Jason in the gym and she was wearing a gray shirt and jeans. In the next scene, she stopped by Maxie's and was wearing an orange shirt. Obviously they're editing things willy-nilly and trying to make it look cohesive, but one minute it's morning, and next scene it's night...

One scene we won't see that deserves to be filmed would be Monica learning that Jason's marriage to Carly has been declared invalid, followed by a stunt-woman doing cartwheels through the Quartermaine mansion foyer as Leslie Charleson yells "Yeeeeeee-Ha!" :roll:
 
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