For today's "Pier 52," I'm just going to post some anonymous "secrets" from a fan Tumblr & comment. I'll spill my own personal guts later (I definitely have ideas). Jacob & Jaxon Kring, the twins who play Danny Morgan, have so much personality, I almost pay more attention to them in scenes than the adults. Their laughs, cries, looks and points are unscripted, but are always on time and add to the scenes. It's uncanny. They should keep them as long as possible. 

This is ridiculously accurate. As a child, Michael was mouthier, fearless and more confident. You would think adolescence would heighten this, but Mike went soft during high school. Some say how they write a character is all about who the actor is. Maybe that's true. One person said Andrew Garrett's Michael was the best. Maybe that's true too. All I know is that being a Quartermaine raised Corinthos should make Michael a contender-pun intended-for a future GH patriarch & at this tender, push-over, mama's boy rate, it's not happening. Morgan is handsome and has a little edge, but he's kind of dopey. Kristina has always been a brat. I'd like to see these characters be tougher, wiser and more intense.

Thoughts and observations of Port Charles happenings.

Shawn & Alexis/Britt & Nikolas
Awhile back, someone tweeted either the writer (Ron Carlivati) or the producer (Frank Valentini) of “General Hospital” and complained that Alexis Davis & Shawn Butler’s (Nancy Lee Grahn, Sean Blakemore) romance wasn’t going anywhere. The reply was that it would be going somewhere really soon. I guess nowhere was considered “somewhere.” When Shawn declared his fervor for being a hit-man and refused to stop working for Sonny (Shawn makes a terrible Jason), Alexis broke it off. Once again, Alexis and Shawn lose a romantic counterpart. Fans seemed to really like the concept of them of as a couple, particularly seeing an older character (Davis should be around her 40’s or 50’s) have love scenes, but alas, they were pulled apart; likely to make Alexis available for Sam’s father when he appears (the rumor on the street is that “Days of Our Lives” star Peter Reckell has been recruited for the part). Alexis & Shawn’s breakup was written without much context and it was very rushed. Given that Shawn experienced a personal tragedy while being a soldier in Afghanistan, he shouldn’t even want to be near a gun, much less thrilled and invigorated by the idea of working for the mob. All of the sudden, mob gooning is his life’s passion? Huh? Where did this come from? If it does give him a sense of purpose, why? In my opinion, that was a hole in the writing. Excellently played scenes where Shawn called Alexis out on her hypocrisy (she not only had a child with Sonny, but has gotten him and his men off for murder several times) and gave her the ultimatum of dropping Sonny as a client were cut short. Alexis got away from Shawn’s challenge too easily and without having to answer for it. Shawn was made out to be the bad guy for “choosing” the mob over Alexis, but she didn’t try any harder to maintain the relationship. She has plenty of clients, but for some reason, wouldn’t let go of Sonny any quicker than Shawn. It was an opportunity for great dialogue and for the actors to show their chops, but it was passed over.

Meanwhile, Nikolas Cassadine and Britt Westbourne (Tyler Christopher, Kelly Thiebaud) keep having friendly, flirtatious chance meetings, leading the audience to assume they’ll be the next Port Charles couple. Who saw that coming? I didn’t. I’m kind of here for it. It’s so nice to see Nikolas have a chance to be the charming, well-mannered and fine prince he is. Although Britt is far from the golden-hearted Emily Quartermaine, if Nikolas is going to move on, I rather he do it with someone he didn’t betray his own brother for (i.e. Elizabeth Webber). On the note of Nikolas and Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst), I’m sorry, but I loved it when Britt had Liz fuming with jealousy. The line about having buyer’s remorse over AJ? Ha! I hope the writers have exciting plans for this burgeoning match-up. Another great “Britch” moment was her recent confrontation with Sabrina where she makes the excellent point that it’s bitchy of Sabrina to keep at her, given she’s successfully with Patrick (Jason Thompson). I’m generally team Sabrina (Teresa Castillo), but Britt had her with that one. *Kanye shrug*

After hearing Elizabeth Webber tell AJ Quartermaine “there’s nothing to forgive” (week of July 1st) when she discovered he had sex with Carly Corinthos-Jacks, I just had to express my thoughts how the character is written. Given that Rebecca Herbst is a fantastic actress (she’s profoundly natural; her strength is that she can give a compelling and convincing performance without high dramatics) and her character is the product of GH royalty (the granddaughter of patriarch and matriarch Steve & Audrey Hardy), Elizabeth Webber should be a pronounced, never forgettable or dismissible force, but that’s arguably not the case. Somewhere around the year 2000, Liz gradually went from a must-watch figure to an impulsive lover and spineless victim who occasionally victimized others and said “did I do that?”

We all know that on soaps, love triangles are inevitable and unfortunately due to sexism, female characters are often reduced to self-degrading and obsessive antics in which they’ll be labeled “pathetic, “slut” or “whore,” while the males come off suave and irresistible. No female character (off the top of my head) has fallen to these lows and left without a single shred of dignity like Liz Webber. Liz impulsively falls in and out of love like a teenager, instantly smitten, blinded and neurotically fixated.  Whether they deserve it or not, she treats each man like he’s the love of her life and will move heaven and earth-often to her detriment- to be with them. For example, Lucky Spencer was supposed to be her alpha and omega, but somehow, she needed Nikolas Cassadine (Tyler Christopher) so much, that she’d carry on an affair with her husband’s half-brother (not to mention Nikolas was married to her best friend, Emily Quartermaine, who died just two years before). Oh, and let’s not forget how she always secretly pined (daydream fantasies abundant) for Jason Morgan.

Despite the fact that Jason often treated her like a plan B side-chick, she was always willing drop everything and do anything to be with him. How high-school was the Floating Rib scene where Liz loudly lied to mislead Sam Morgan (Kelly Monaco) in thinking Jason wanted a divorce? I couldn’t believe the writers created that and followed it with a repulsively devious paternity test debacle. Until they thankfully redeemed her with an act of maturity and honesty (she told the truth and called a truce with Sam), she couldn’t have stooped any lower. In explaining her motivations, she painfully quivered that it was because she never got a real chance with Jason, yet, short months after he dies, she’s head-over-heels for his arch-nemesis brother AJ! All of her over-the-mooness makes one yell at the screen: “Do you know who you’re really in love with, girl?! Dang!” Her naiveté and loyalty to AJ (Sean Kanan) is particularly puzzling and despicable, not only because of the Jason connection, but because this man has practically called her a slut at least twice. Insecure about Nikolas re-entering Liz’s triangle, AJ condescendingly threw the former affair in her face when asked if he distrusted Nikolas or her more (the extra salt in the wound was that Liz confided in AJ with that information; AJ didn’t know about the affair). The second time was when Nikolas innocently answered Liz’s phone and when she got on the line, AJ aggressively said “How long did you wait? What, an hour, two hours?...It hasn’t even been a day since you broke things off with me and what now, you’re playing house with Nikolas?!,” hung up in her face and slept with Carly (Laura Wright). Ignoring AJ’s disrepute accusations, Liz heard him out and almost immediately gave him another chance. Even though AJ actually did what he falsely slut-shamed Liz for (getting with someone right after their breakup), she didn’t hold AJ’s tryst against him because they technically had split when it happened. Simply stomach turning. 

Prior to starting this section all about GH, I wrote two features on the soap-opera. Click the photos below to check them out :)