Thoughts & observations of Port Charles happenings.

Sonny
I usually organize my storyline comments by groups or duos, but the un-medicated edition of Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Bernard) caused so much entertaining damage this month, he gets a section all to himself. The death of his on-again, off-again love, Connie Falconeri, was the icing on the loss cake for Sonny. After interrupting his suicide attempt at the Haunted Star, Olivia (Lisa LoCicero) tried to get him to take the lithium prescribed for his bi-polar disorder, but Sonny emphasized he wanted to feel the guilt (he was at odds with Connie before she died) and pain and refused to take it. Let’s talk about the suicide scene. Any opportunities for a Maurice Bernard monologue or soliloquy should be taken, okay? The writers bypassed what could have been one of the most popular moments in Sonny’s history when they had his sons, Morgan, Dante` and Michael (Bryan Craig, Dominic Zampronga & Chad Duell) show up to help Olivia talk him down.

Sonny has 20 years of demons, guilt, loss and anguish that we really haven’t seen him unload in this decade. Incident after incident, he’s emotionally packed it away, never making the changes required to improve his life for himself or for the ones he supposedly loves. His obsession with power and control and his connections to organized crime lead to the death of his 1st wife, Lily, and the unborn child she was carrying, Connie’s rape and subsequent multiple personality disorder, his son’s (Michael) coma-inducing gunshot wound to the head and his daughter Kristina’s near death from a car bomb, just name a few. He took in an impressionable young man suffering from a brain injury (Jason (Quartermaine) Morgan) and pulled him into the mob, which lead to bloodshed and suffering in his own family and ultimately cost him his life, leaving behind a widow (Samantha) and a fatherless infant. Sonny has a lot of blood on his hands and just as he seemed to be ready to smear himself in every drop instead of washing it away, the Corinthos 3 halt the show. After that missed boat, I thought I’d catch the next ferry when a formerly disheveled Sonny was dragged to Connie’s funeral and he charged at her portrait, but no; only the processional was televised (which I thought was very strange). Maybe we’ll get our beautiful, Emmy-friendly monologue when Michael, his most worshipped and beloved child (we’ll get to that prick), dies.

Only Carly (Laura Wright) could do what Olivia couldn’t, finally getting Sonny to pop a pill (9/24). Why aren’t Sonny & Carly back together, again (more on pairings shortly)? I have to say, I’m kind of going to miss Sonny being off of his rocker. He was heartbreaking and hilarious with tears, random sly grins, inappropriate flirting and sudden jubilance. Did I mention what a brilliant actor Bernard is? I agree with the person who tweeted: “Maurice Bernard says more with just one look than other actors do with 500 pages worth of dialogue.”  

By Rudy Foster, Contributing writer

Doing the most and the least. 
PART I: Storytelling

If you’ve found this article, you probably know that General Hospital is celebrating its 50th year on ABC. GH is the longest-running American soap-opera on the air and the 3rd longest-running drama in television history. By any standard, producing nearly 12,900 episodes is a remarkable achievement. A stretch this far is dependent upon the progression of storylines. This is why daytime soap-operas have large, ever-changing casts, and as of late, ever-changing creative teams. GH’s executive producer Frank Valentini and head-writer Ron Carlivati, formerly of the recently-revived One Life to Live, were long heralded as daytime’s wunderkinder. The work this team did with the ratings-challenged, critically-lauded OLTL represented the fearless storytelling that sets daytime drama series apart from any other media. At OLTL, Valentini and Carlivati (referred to by fans as CarTini, for short) crafted an emotionally-driven soap about a small town inhabited by the privileged, using the most ethnically and age diverse cast ever seen on American daytime television. Alas, OLTL was cancelled, and you probably know the rest of the story. In short, CarTini (daytime’s wunderkinder, I remind you) were eventually hired to shepherd ABC’s flagship daytime program, the reason you are here, our beloved GH.

When CarTini came to GH, the show had its own set of problems. Ratings were fine, but they weren’t great (no one’s ratings were great, compared to soap numbers in the 80’s or 90’s, for that matter). The biggest problem was that GH’s ratings weren’t high enough to justify the exorbitant budget Jill Farren Phelps (executive producer from 2001-2012) demanded to run the show. Moreover, the show was rarely produced within the parameters dictated by the budget. Valentini, on the other hand, was notorious in the daytime community for being, shall we say, cost efficient. The decision to hire CarTini was simple: bring in an exciting (relatively) young head writer and an executive producer who knows how to cut costs without sacrificing the quality of the product. If you watch GH, especially if you have been watching for years or decades, you know by now that something went terribly wrong with this regime change. Here’s what: in the buildup to the 50th Anniversary episodes, the storytelling became lazy and unfocused.

Let’s start with the biggest changes made in GH’s CarTini era so far: the vets! In all honesty, I was not even alive when many of these characters were popular, but for classic fans and new fans alike, it’s certainly interesting to learn more about the long history of the show. Seeing legendary soap actors like Genie Francis, Finola Hughes, Lynn Herring and Kristina Wagner (to name just a few) reprising the roles that made them famous is a treat for any viewer. The problem is what to do next. Valentini cut production costs so that the show could afford to bring these fan favorites back to Port Charles. Carlivati, on the other hand, allowed these returning characters to completely derail storytelling. Our leading characters were now lucky to get 3 days on screen a week because we are focusing on the half-assed rehashing of stories that ended in the 80’s. Even less ancient veterans, like Daytime Emmy Award winner Tyler Christopher, have come back full-time for no reason. I have never been crazy about Nikolas as a character, but Christopher is a talented actor and if he’s back at GH, he needs a solid front-burner storyline. It’s great for GH and the fans that he’s willing and able to come back, but Carlivati’s got nothing for him to do. What enables a soap-opera to run for so long is that the storylines must always be looking forward.  Even if stories alter the events of the past, the focus must be on how the altering of the past affects the present and the future.

In its current state, GH is more focused on reliving the past than creating for the future.  One of the most glaring examples of this is the heavy-handed attempt at giving Patrick (Jason Thompson) another love interest. Jason Thompson is an extraordinarily gifted (and three-time Daytime Emmy-nominated) actor, so he’ll sell whatever he is given.  I’ll even give credit to Teresa Castillo and Kelly Thiebaud for playing what they can with Sabrina and Britt, respectively. Britt was never given a chance to properly vie for Patrick’s heart, and pairing Patrick with Sabrina was a little too easy. This was supposed to be a love triangle, but the writing so blatantly favored one pairing over the other. Yes, Britt is a Britch (all the insulting nick-names created for her were so fun), but there is such a thing as a bitch you can root for, like Carly (Laura Wright), for example. Regardless, the entire exercise was futile; Patrick’s great love, Robin, is alive. We, the audience, have known that for well over a year. If Kimberly McCullough, who had portrayed Dr. Robin Scorpio from childhood, was not ready to come back in a full capacity, the show should’ve temporarily re-casted or not have the character on until McCullough was ready. Watching Patrick pretend to make a choice between the unevenly written Sabrina and Britt was the most and the least; it was an impossible love story. They got tons of screen time, but it does not matter because Robin will come back and Patrick will still love her.

Stories that could bring the heavy drama (and Emmys) that made GH the most popular soap-opera of all-time, like the buildup to Connie’s murder, have been written in a nonchalant, quiet and subtle style. Sam’s (Kelly Monaco) son and only link to her great love had cancer, but it never felt heavy. No one, except Morgan (Bryan Craig), is disgusted by Kiki & Michael (Kristen Alderson, Chad Duell), even if they aren’t cousins. Left and right, we’re dealing with massive paternity reveals and murders, but it’s all being done in such a matter of fact way more appropriate for a primetime series on FX. I wish the writers were doing the work to give these plot-lines the punch they should have. The scenarios presented are wrought with emotion, but they’re written very straightforward; informational even. This a 50-year old soap-opera on broadcast network television: you need writing and performances to push it over the edge and we’re not getting that.  The recent critical and ratings successes of soaps like Days of our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful, stem from writers and producers knowing what their show is. Days is the small-town, big values, middle America soap. B&B is flashy, trashy and decadent. CarTini seem to have no clue. All at once, GH is an adventure soap (Luke and his bevy of ladies from the 80’s), a medical soap (Sam’s search for a bone marrow donor for Danny) and a business soap (the EMBARRASING year-long saga that was the battle for ELQ). It’s a tall order, but it is doable; a head writer and his team must focus first, and maybe, just maybe, that means cutting some folks.

PART II: The Next Generation is coming soon!

...Because everyone spills their guts, literally & figuratively, at Pier 52.

I planned on doing a “Pier 52” with my commentary on some postings from GHsecrets.tumblr.com about JaSam (the coupling of Jason Morgan & Samantha McCall), but now that SiAm (Dr. Silas Clay & Sam) has been initiated (they kissed on 9/5), I decided that in addition to my original idea, I’d give my thoughts on the new pairing & the writing of Sam’s post-Jason life (if some portions of this article look familiar, it’s because I pulled some lines I thought were important from previous pieces where I mentioned Sam’s storyline). As a Sam fan, I’m only partially happy with what I’ve been seeing currently. 2013 has been the year of familial bonds and friendships for Sam McCall-Morgan (portrayed by Kelly Monaco) as she’s been coping with the loss of her husband (Jason), gained an adoptive son (Rafe Kovich), faced the man who’s tormented her (Franco) and watched her infant son (Danny) battle cancer. As if things couldn’t be any tenser, she doesn’t know that her biological father is mobster Julian Jerome, who’s planning to take-over the territory of Sonny Corinthos, a dear friend of hers, and that her potential new love is linked to his sister, Ava. I love that family is now at the center of Sam’s arch and that her father is a part of “General Hospital” history, but there’s a massive elephant in the room that the writers have momentously neglected to thoroughly address and that elephant is Jason.

Yes, we saw Sam be in denial, shed a few tears and feverishly hunt for her husband, but there was so much surrounding Jason’s death, from how he died to the aftermath, that was not worthy of a 20-year veteran character and a decade long romance. Doing justice and paying respect to the magnitude of Jason & Sam’s union is going to be elemental in creating a “moving forward” trajectory that key viewers (i.e. the core fan-base, which in Sam’s case, are mostly JaSammers) will be content with and want to watch. Constantly in a place of individual emotional isolation and internalized pain, Jason and Sam understood each other (it never seemed right to me that Carly would sometimes get Jason right before Sam did). The gun-toting, butt-kicking and motorcycle riding JaSam were an outlawed version of Anna and Duke, to a degree, and were a major super-couple in the 2000's. As Ryan White-Nobles of TVSourceMagazine.com tweeted, “People come into your life for a season, a reason and a lifetime. Jason is Sam’s lifetime.” Unlike most characters, all of Sam’s other romantic connections were superficially based (she was a con-artist in her beginnings). Jason (Steve Burton) was the only person whom she found a place and a sense of belonging.

Turmoil is part of super-couple territory, but it seemed to find JaSam at an alarming rate. Most soap-lovers get married, divorced, remarried and have a couple of kids; JaSam could never quite get there. Then, in 2011, fans thought they were finally going to have their way when Sam and Jason wed, but it wasn’t a month before the honeymoon was literally over. Franco (then played by James Franco) kidnapped Jason and made him watch as he led Jason to believe he raped Sam (it was later re-written that Sam wasn’t raped and the scene was staged). When Sam turned up pregnant, a DVD left by Franco and a manipulated paternity test left the couple to conclude that Sam was having Franco’s child. Being that Sam had previous miscarriages, abortion or adoption wasn’t an option for her. The script had Jason rejecting the unborn child, becoming an insensitive butthole and leaving Sam to fend for herself. This series of events was a colossal mistake inherited by the upcoming writing team (“One Life to Live’s” Ron Carlivati became head-writer in 2012) that would cause a whole domino effect of mistakes. JaSam’s problems were exacerbated by Sam’s bubbling feelings for John McBain (an OLTL carry-on), who would help deliver her son. Another crazy string of events resulted in other OLTL carry-ons raising Sam’s son while she thought he was dead and she and Jason remained estranged. Feeling guilty, Jason teamed up with his rival, McBain (Michael Easton), to find the truth about Sam’s son and bring him home. Eventually, Jason asked for Sam’s forgiveness and embraced Danny. Viewers got just a glimpse of the Morgan family reunion and JaSammer jubilance was again short-lived. As crafty of a hit-man Jason was, he was unsuspectingly shot in the back by Cesar Faison (disguised as Duke Lavery) and kicked over into the harbor like a dog. Although his body being in the harbor and never found by police left an opportunity for the character to resurface at least, Jason’s exit was harsh and hurried. It was like being in a car where the driver suddenly slams on the brakes and you crash into a wall.

Thoughts & observations of Port Charles happenings.

Carly (The Mother of the Year) & Franco,
Morgan, Kiki & Michael
If you’ve kept up with my articles about “General Hospital,” you know I have qualms with how the character of Carly has been written since Laura Wright (who’s a fantastic actress) stepped into the role. There have been several instances where the dialogue didn’t align with what we’ve come to know of Carly and the most divergent of these instances is her current relationship with Franco. Over the last few months, Carly worriedly monitored Franco’s health reports, consoled him and gave him pep talks in the wake of the revelation that Kiki isn’t his daughter and tried to convince people that he just might be a changed man and to extend him grace because he had a brain tumor that caused his past deviances. The icing on the cake was when she escorted Franco (Roger Howarth) to his pre-trial murder hearing and volunteered to get on the stand in his defense. She mentioned having reservations and doubts, but emphasized that since Franco’s tumor was removed, she hadn’t seen any alarming behavior and believed he could change.

It makes me Sonny Corinthos-godfather-angry when the writers don’t keep characters in true form or dismantle storylines just to forge a duo. As I said in previous pieces, the writers are trying to re-create the magic Howarth and Wright (sounds like a law firm) had when Howarth was portraying Todd Manning. Fans enjoyed them on screen together, but we don’t need to see their electricity so bad that the script gets sacrificed and stops making sense. Do I really need to reiterate why she and Franco don’t work? Carly worshipped, possessed over and relied on Jason Morgan more than any man in her life-including Sonny. Her firstborn Michael is such a prized and precious jewel to her, that her other son, Morgan, accuses her of favoritism (more on Carly’s Michael adulation soon). Franco lived to make Jason suffer and in the process of his sick blood feud, Michael was raped while in prison. Her daughter Jossyln was also harassed by Franco. Tumor or no, the reasons why or how shouldn’t matter to the usually unforgiving and contemptuous Caroline. She should abhor Franco more than she does AJ, but Franco has seen her softer side of Sears more this month than AJ ever has. I wonder how sweet Michael is going to feel when he realizes Carly now has warmth for Franco. Carly is usually obsessed with her children; all bets are off when it comes to them, and yet, she’s making friends with their terrorist. The writers need to see they’re making vast changes for no good enough cause. Moreover, if part of the writing goal is to make Franco somewhat more tolerable, he has. To. Suffer. Throwing in a tumor doesn’t erase the memories or pain he’s caused to character favorites. If he gets off from these murder charges, there’s going to be a riot. Even criminals who claim mental insanity serve time-be it in an asylum or prison on lesser charges.

Carly continued her exemplary Mother-of-the-Year conduct when she learned that Morgan (Bryan Craig) rushed Kiki (Kristen Alderson) into a courthouse wedding before Kiki could learn of her parentage and run into Michael’s arms. Carly expressed condolences to Michael (Chad Duell) that he didn’t successfully snag his brother’s girlfriend with an “Aww, I’m sorry” and said she was going to put a stop to Morgan “causing trouble.” For the love of Britney Jean Spears, will someone please explain to me how Morgan is the bad guy, here?! I’m so sick of these lines and scenes that imply Michael is the one we should feel sorry for. When Olivia professes her regret of being on the outs with Connie before she died, she encourages Morgan to resolve things with Michael. I thought “Can someone give Michael the same speech, please?” While Morgan contemplated Olivia’s words and stared sadly at a picture of him and Michael, Michael was indicting him with trying to setup AJ for murder! And Kiki? I’ve had it with her Michael Kool-Aid drinking. AJ presumably killed Connie (more on that in a sec), her father-in-law’s girlfriend, and the likely homicide weapon was found by Morgan on her premises (how is it that Morgan, Kiki & Ava still live at the Quartermaine mansion anyway? They’re not Q-affiliated anymore). She nearly suggested that Morgan not turn the gun in because it would be too hard on Michael to see AJ brought to justice. WHAT THE HELL?! Now you’re willing to obstruct a homicide investigation for Michael?! This is too much, writers! It’s too ridiculous! She deserved every bit of Morgan going off on her. It’s amazing how guilty she doesn’t feel about being the center of this brother’s quarrel.