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General Hospital is in the process of setting up some good story to end the year and carry onto the next. I’m particularly thrilled about the resurrecting of Crimson, the upcoming fallout for Liz, Anna in spy mode and the Nutcracker Gala. Last week put things in motion for these stories. I’m excited to see how it all plays out.
GH has been a bit too bleak for much too long. The most exhausting part about it all is that it doesn’t have to be. This show has a great cast and crew who are capable of so much more than mob wars and continually tortured heroines. It’s nice to see a little bit of light peeking through now and I hope that continues. GH differs from other soaps in that it has maintained popularity by continually reinventing itself throughout the years. It’s the Madonna of soaps if you will. Other soaps have a rather steadfast identity and style. For example, The Bold and the Beautiful will always be as glossy and sexy as its fashion industry setting. GH gets a makeover nearly every decade – doctors and nurses to super spies to freezing the world and aliens to controversial social issues to organized crime – while keeping a few accessories from each version of itself.
I’m hoping that Jean Passanante and Shelly Altman get to do their own thing. I think GH needs to move away from the “Sopranos Lite” years and reinvent itself a little again. I want to see Jean and Shelly’s version GH not a scrapbook of the past. I hope that the stories that are being set up now are a sign of what’s to come.
As always I wasn’t able to write about everything that happened this past week. If you want to share your thoughts or discuss anything I did or did not mention, please leave a comment below or tweet me and we’ll chat!
General Hospital Week In Review for the episodes that aired November 30th – December 4th.
Fashion Disaster
The Crimson saga continued last week with Julian giving Nina a hard time about the magazine’s low financial intake. Julian seems to feel very secure in his plan to tank Crimson; That is until a newly made over and more confident Nina leaves him a bit speechless. Between Nina and Maxie’s determination and Franco’s warning, Julian seems to have bitten off a little more than he can chew. Julian refused to give Crimson the budget it needs in order to rebuild its brand. Nina, being a wealthy woman, decided to put her own money into the magazine. This could either be an extremely smart move or a dumb one. It’s risky for sure. Hopefully her gamble pays off for her and she doesn’t burn through her trust fund in the process.
Another character is now being added to this story line. Maxie and Nina have an idea on how they can “break the internet,” making Crimson a success again, and Maxie thinks Dillon could be a key player in that plan. I’m actually pretty happy about this. I was not feeling the movie story line at all. I don’t think it makes any sense to give Dillon a movie career when he’s in Port Charles, NY. Maybe if this all took place in New York City or Los Angeles but it doesn’t. If Dillon is working at Crimson he’ll have a reason to still stick around the Quartermaine mansion and purpose other than pining for Lulu.
Readers, I love this story line! It features strong, smart women in a very female centric industry going up against the man in charge who doesn’t get it and doesn’t want to. Not only do I want Mina to triumph but, unlike other stories, I feel hopeful that I’ll get my wish. This story feels like a love note to the fans. Fans have wanted Maxie back at Crimson, Nina more grounded and more characters with jobs. Our wishes have been granted as this was clearly written for us and not to appease anyone else.
#ReturnoftheMac
This last week John J York returned as Mac Scorpio. For those at home who weren’t keeping track, the last time we saw him was during Duke’s funeral back in May. I’m not sure why this character has been so underused but I’m glad to see him back. He fits into Anna’s story line perfectly as sort of the Watson to her Sherlock. Anna has been going through a lot on her own and its nice to see others being brought into “The Case of the Carrrlos.”
With help from Mac, Anna broke into Sloane’s apartment. They found it abandon, as if Sloane left everything in a hurry. Viewers know that Sloane was shot by Paul and his body was used as a decoy for Carlos. Now Anna is closer to that truth as well. She finds a suspicious business card with a phone number on the back which she calls, leading her to find out it belongs to Paul. Anna knows that Paul can’t be trusted but now she has more than just her Spidey sense to back that theory up.
There have been some mixed feelings about Carlos being back from the dead. I’m okay with it for two reasons – I enjoy Jeffrey Vincent Parise and, even though it’s by default, this means Anna isn’t a murderer anymore. The part of Carlos’ return that I’m not particularly feeling is the WTD (Who’s The Daddy) story with Sabrina and Michael. It’s too rewritten and jumbled together. Michael and Sabrina make a cute couple but they haven’t reached the point where they are so desperately in love that this story can have any real romantic stakes. I also like Carlos and Sabrina but we don’t know much about their past and haven’t seen enough of their relationship either. I think story would have been tighter without all the baby daddy drama.
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