By 
Watching General Hospital has been a bumpy ride lately. Just when it looks like the road has been repaired, there’s a plot hole pothole. The week of September 14th showed some promise that GH was moving in the right direction after a disastrously bad Labor Day week. Unfortunately this past week GH went a bit downhill again. Though there were some bright spots, as a whole it was pretty frustrating to watch. It appears we’re going to be getting a lot of forced angst in preparation for November sweeps. As a friend of mine put it, “This writing is so slanted ….. I don’t understand how anyone can still stand.”
The GH twitter accounts have adopted a new hashtag – #FallinLoveWithGH. It’s actually a good promotion idea, one that harkens back to other classic soap campaigns that worked. The only problem is that if GH wants me to fall in love with it, then it needs to do some wooing. This hashtag doesn’t match what I’m watching on my TV/computer screen. GH needs to be more lovable. I may write another article about that later.
GH did have some nice romantic moments this past week however, those moments got overwhelmed by major changes in character behavior and unnecessary rewrites. The cast all did a great job and I applaud their efforts but it’s hard to make sense of what doesn’t make sense. More often then not I found myself thinking “That’s not what happened” or “I don’t understand why this character is doing this.”
I’m going to focus on two of the major story lines – Patrick’s proposal to Sam and the Corinthos’ family crisis. A lot happened so if I didn’t touch on a topic that stood out to you, please leave a comment below or feel free to tweet me your thoughts and I’ll chat with you.
General Hospital Week In Review for the week of September 21st – 25th.
Love and a fortune cookie
I really enjoyed Patricks’ proposal to Sam. Even though it was answered with uncertainty, it was a sweet and tender moment for the unsuspecting couple. The audience may know that Jason is alive but Sam doesn’t. I thought the scenes were nicely done and the added bonus of Patrick’s melancholy love song was a nice touch. Sam was respectful to her current beau who she loves while keeping the integrity of her marriage to Jason. I like that Sam is being honest with Patrick and taking her time to think about her answer. She wasn’t being a jerk so Patrick’s understanding didn’t make him look like the fool. My main complaint though is that these scenes were so good that I have to wonder why we haven’t been getting more like this for Sam and Patrick. Jason Thompson and Kelly Monaco have very good chemistry and the ‘Samtrick’ pairing suits both of their characters. They are able to play a very romantic couple. Yet too much of their courtship has been playing out offscreen.
While the Patrick and Sam moments of this story work for me, the Jason and Sam stuff does not. Especially when seeing them back-to-back like I did this week. Sam is good with Patrick so I’m really struggling to see the value in trying to recapture her love story with Jason right now. It’s so rushed and forced that it falls flat. This is not the story I wanted.
The story I wanted was to see Patrick and Sam build a happy and healthy life together. Get married and combine their families into one. Then when they and the audience feel comfortable and safe, the bomb drops! Sam’s left with a very tough choice – her happy new life with an adoring doctor or her complicate past with the one she fought so hard for.
Unfortunately, what we’re getting is a story with no build up and an obvious ending. The characters look dense with the way this has all played out. Sam’s still hung up on Jason after four years even though it’s been mentioned several times that she has moved on? Patrick doesn’t realize this until after they move in together and he proposes? Jason repeatedly has flashbacks of Sam and him together – he even has a dream that Danny is his son – and he can’t figure this out? He just shrugs and says “Well that was weird. Past the go-gurt.” This is nearly impossible to invest in.
Jason Thompson sings “Sailor Short on Wind”
Photos courtesy of ABC.
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