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Last week’s General Hospital was an interesting week. We had worms in the brain, topless protests, dopplegangers, lizard sidekicks and Pandora’s box. Needless to say the sudser went a little outside the box with some of its story lines. It made for a strange but mostly entertaining week.
GH has a new promo out, an edited version of their Michael Easton one, and it played on the big screen in New York City’s Time Square. I’m happy that the network sees the value in investing in GH and also hope the promotion is a foreshadowing of a new tone for the show. The promo is fun and sexy, but as some fans have mentioned online that doesn’t exactly match what we’re watching five days a week. GH has spent over a decade focusing on the dark and depressing. It is slowly letting go of some of that baggage by adding more character-driven romance, unique topics, family and hospital. For whatever reason, gloom and doom seems to be GH’s comfort zone so hopefully once they find their hallelujah again they don’t revert back to old habits.
A lot happened last week on GH and I wasn’t able to write about everything. If you would like to share your thoughts on 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 March 21st-25th.
Lounge Lizard
First impressions, though not always accurate, are important. That initial feeling of like or dislike can really set the tone for how much one wants to invest in something and last week I got my first impression of Easton’s new character Dr. Hamilton Finn. Readers, if you follow me on Twitter then you already know that I hated Silas with a passion. GH needs to avoid giving the audience Silas 2.0 like the plague. My hope is that the writers don’t plop Finn back into the same relationships with the same characters that Silas (and McBain) had. That will go a long way in helping the audience disconnect the roles. I also hope they avoid having him disrupt the natural flow of current stories especially if it is to the determent of other characters. So far I am cautiously optimistic. As long as previous mistakes are avoided, I think the character will do fine.
The shift of days (due to an earlier preemption) actually worked in favor for Finn in my opinion. Monday’s episode was originally suppose to be a Friday cliffhanger. I think if I was left with a weekend to mull over the WTF moment of Easton petting a lizard this section of my article would be very different. I was glad that I got three days in a row to form a reasonable opinion. The third day was a charm because I was ready to kick him off the island again after the first two episode. The first episode was a few lines and stroking a lizard; the second episode was a lot of talk of resemblance, too many characters repeating his name and some chemistry that didn’t quite click; the third episode was quirky and fun. Finn’s service lizard, Roxie, provided some light humor and entertainment. I also felt that Easton and Laura Wright played off each other well. I would be interested in seeing that explored more. I’m curious to find out why Finn has a service lizard and why he has decided to make Port Charles his new stomping grounds. All in all, I would say that Finn definitely wasn’t what I was expecting but in a very good way.
Bernie Madoff’s Daughter
Hayden’s true identity was finally revealed and for many it was a bit of a head scratcher. Hayden is really Rachel Berlin, the daughter of a man who orchestrated a Ponzi scheme. Rachel changed her name in order to get a fresh start. She lost everything because of her father’s misdeed – her social standing, her career, her money and her husband. The general online reaction to this revelation hasn’t really been that favorable from what I’ve seen. Most are disappointed that Hayden isn’t connected to GH’s history. It seems like an odd choice to me also but maybe there is another surprise on the way.
I feel that Hayden Barnes’ story fell victim to a lot of bad timing. Originally she was only suppose to be a temporary character so she had no planned back story. The spunky maneater was well-received and Rebecca Budig was given a contract just in time for GH to have a big head writer shake-up. It’s not certain who planned what for the character or if there was anything planned at all. Some major story lines had gone on too long, taking priority for the new creative team. This unfortunately resulted in Hayden’s story treading water for several months. I’m not sure how possible it would have been for GH to make Hayden someone’s undead relative or long lost daughter without having to result to some major camp. If she were Emily Quartermaine, it would have meant a return from the dead with plastic surgery and amnesia. If she were Susan Hornsby, then Paul’s story about his daughter being abused and assaulted by Sloane would have been offensive. In retrospect, I think that Hayden’s true identity should have come to light at the same time that it was shown that she was working for Tracy. Then instead of everything leading up to Hayden’s big secret, the story could have just been about how legacy character Nik was being duped by a vengeful gold-digger. The real story here is about whether or not Hayden and Nik can forgive each other and still be in love. I feel like the dark romance of this tale got lost in the shuffle of musical identities.
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