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Underwhelming Child Soap Death
Admittedly, GENERAL HOSPITAL is by far and away the best soap opera out there across the TV dial. On ABC Daytime, there is no comparison.
ALL MY CHILDREN doesn't seem to know what it is, a show devoted to the flighty, fickle fancies of Kendall, Greenlee and her Fusion gals, or an homage to the veterans who first introduced true diversity in story and character. If anyone knows what ONE LIFE TO LIVE is about, please let me know. Today was just a bunch of people I didn't know talking at each other (and WTF's up with Sarah and Nash??? Talk about awkward and forced and just plain ill-advised).
At least GH takes chances, pushes the envelope, draws controversy. In the midst of its almost-always heightened sense of drama centered around senseless mob violence and gender stereotypes, something real happens, usually in the most unexpected places (usually out from under the writers' expectations).
I've been keeping up with the Michael story since last Friday, curious to see if they'd handle it well, or blow it yet again for ratings and to revert to the mob worship.
It'd be easy to go the usual online board channels and rail against subterranean performances, or the ever-obnoxious supercouple alerts. But the fact remains, whoever was and is in charge since February has been painstakingly paving a path for the mob's ultimate doom.
I would've never imagined Carly and Jason both tag-teaming mobster Sonny while in the hospital waiting room, waiting for word on the results of a touch-and-go neural surgery on their son Michael--hit by a ricochet bullet. Never. Sonny was GH money. It never mattered what he did, hang A.J. on a meat hook, push and shove women around like his personal whores, court a girl a hundred times younger than him... Sonny would rise to the top like cream, miraculously, incredulously.
Yet, lately, he's been beaten up, beaten down, used as the scapegoat for all of GH's ills for the past 12, 13 years, made to look the fool, perhaps to pave the way for Jason to take over.
But that's not the main point of this story. The main point is that TPTB had a 12-year-old boy we watched grow up (a little rapidly) from an infant be shot in the head. (Well, why not? OLTL impregnated 16-year-old Starr.) He won't make it in the living sense, winding up in a living coma.
All to extract the maximum grief effect in fans and characters. Ooh, how will Jason react? Will he cry like a little girly-man? Will Laura Wright's Carly measure up to Sarah Brown's Claudia (who I can clearly see struggling AS CARLY)? How insane is Sonny gonna get?
What about poor Michael? He's just a kid!
When AMC's Kendall saw her oldest toddler boy moved in on a stretcher, as she was laid out on hers, passing in the night, I felt moved. When OLTL's Viki lost her grown daughter Megan to lupus, I felt moved.
This?, not so much. Maybe GH has numbed me by now. I see the make-up, the eyes moving, a young, talented actor going out, and I see everybody taking their places, but I don't really feel much.
The person I feel the least from is Carly. Sorry Laura Wright and fans, she acted like, IMHO, Laura Wright, stoic and brave and strong, but not Carly, not trying not to freak out and barely making it Carly... the way Sarah Brown was as Claudia, the mob wannabe who ordered the hit on Sonny which went awry and hit Michael.
This show probably numbed me down to nothing with its past, predictable shenanigans. I mean, they've brought people back from the dead before, why not later on down the line when they've found what they think is a promising, hot new, cheap actor from another planet to take over as Michael and court Claudia or something.
GH's minions in charge have so reduced the meaning of life and death in the past 12, 13 years that when it happens and we're supposed to feel something, all we feel is our intelligence jerked around.
B.J. must be doing a pirouette in her grave.
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Apr 8, 2008 8:04 PM
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I've only ever watched All My Children, but not since I got out of college (3 years), I have no time now.
I have rebecca budig's first episode back on my dvr, but haven't got around to watching it yet. I meant to watch when Bianca was back a few months ago, but didn't.
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Apr 9, 2008 11:10 AM
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whoever was and is in charge since February has been painstakingly paving a path for the mob's ultimate doom.
lately, he's been beaten up, beaten down, used as the scapegoat for all of GH's ills for the past 12, 13 years, made to look the fool, perhaps to pave the way for Jason to take over.
I'm only an occasional GH watcher, but I've been noticing this too. Jason it seems can do no wrong, and even he is questioning some of Sonny's actions. But I like the character of Sonny and would be sad if they got rid of him.
And as much as I've grown to like this Carly, I sometimes can't believe it's the same character when she acts in these kind of scenes. And since you brought it up, when is Emily really going to die and stop showing up to Nikolas? At first I thought it was nice to see how he couldn't let her go, but I think it's gone on too long and gotten a little bit ridiculous for his character to still be obsessed over her. Maybe I've missed something, but I am surprised at his character's actions lately.
Great post! Congrats on the red star!
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Apr 9, 2008 12:17 PM
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kelly,
I'm still waiting for Laura Wright to do something in this role here. I almost saw a dignity, a restraint, holding something back when she did not say a word after Lulu insisted she pass the word on to Sonny about Johnny's innocence. Just that face.
It's not Carly, though. I still contend, it's Laura Wright, which is why I've been watching Sarah Brown as Claudia even more than ever now.
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Apr 10, 2008 1:36 AM
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I agree with you. Seeing Sarah back as Claudia has reminded me of how great she is, and how fun Carly was to watch.
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Apr 10, 2008 7:18 PM
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