Sunday, April 5, 2015

Sunday Surgery: Wub Tub Time Machine GH52

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I haven't read any other sites, blogs or twitter about this eppy...I didn't even read the comments in this blog. 
So here's what I think.... Sit right down.  TV Dinners from Swanson. 


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WHO do you think you are? Mary Tyler Moore? 
Black and white was a perfect throwback.  Laura Wright fantastic choice to play Mom Spencer.  Luke was Archie Bunker. Even though that was in the 70s, was waiting for him to say "Meathead". Patricia looked so much like Tamara, I thought they hired her just for this show! Good acting. Young Luke was a bit stiff..but I won't complain much.  BTW, anyone else remember that Luke had straight hair when he first came on GH? He did, it wasn't curly. The devil's in the details folks! Especially on our soaps. heh. 

Hospital was awesome...looked just like the set!!  Jason Thompson acted exactly like Steve would have, even the head tilt! And Becky looked gorgeous....and SO "nurse" like!!  The old phone ring was SO real and triggered such memories for me. Geesh. Wow.  I was back eating Fluffanutter sandwiches while my mom was having a Pall Mall on the couch. 

The Bill Eckert piece actually made a good twist. Explained the keeping the house in Bill's name.  The little trick with the "last words" was also done nicely. So props for that! 


Um, yah, the house would have BLOWN up, correct??  Oh well. I guess I shall set that aside.   I did see on twitter Ron said it was contained to the basement. Um... well.. no, I don't think it could have been but even so, the firemen would have put it out, flooding the house. No soot. The floor would have given way. 
Again, I will set that aside. (details, details) 

The actual "Luke killed them both was interesting".  Not just Dad. Although he didn't "kill" his mama on purpose. Liked the red blood splatter when he hit Daddy dear. I of course would have loved a more gory scene but that's me. This story took forever. Give us some terror.







I WISH I WISH a couple of things...
Hinsight is 20/20... but, if they had decided to do this in the BEGINNING, at the start of this whole story, it would have been glorious. Because it was changed, there were a ton of missed opportunities. 
Patricia for one. Dee Wallace was brilliant. How about having HER come on a year or so ago and be the trigger for Luke's flip? Bobbie wouldn't know who she was, but Luke could have. She would have wanted to ease her conscience. Talk to her little brother. Yada yada. Instead we wasted eons on the mobular angle of all this.  We didn't need ANY of that.  The entire front-end of this story makes zero sense. Secondly? We  needed Genie.  Explains so much about him needing her as his "angel".  The rape--everything.  Could have not hired 10 of the other newbies you did, gotten Genie for the year as well and then have them going off to the sunset.  I did like Tracy in the story yes, but you could have had a Laura component too.  (The Nutrisystem commercial with Genie in it during this show was a bit ...mocking.) 


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Which brings me to the dual Luke's. Much of that whole part also makes little sense. Especially tying Bill's bones in the basement. (Why BILL?  Because he owned the house? Hid the body? ) Why talk to yourself if you are another self protecting the said 'sane' self?  Why did you fall in with Helena? Is it the fact that the "other" Luke was so evil he went totally rogue on his other half to just be a bad-ass? *sigh. I could go on and on. Maybe the "other Luke" was a personification of his father? Why was he such a perv? Why would he want ELQ? Why hook up with Julian Jerome (how did Luke even know Julian when it was a Bill story?) Questions, Questions.  Details Details.  Do they matter? Damn straight they do. When I sit and watch a story line unfold I want it to make sense. Have a beginning, middle and end I can hold on to. Call me crazy but that's what I like in my programs. I don't want to have to go back and fill in holes, try to make sense out of the non-sensical and sit here scratching my head.  I want to look back and say: Damn! That was awesome--- now I get it.  Now that was a story! 

I tell you what, just like OLTL, Cartini can deliver a spectacular moment and short-goings because this was a great episode.  STAND-ALONE episode gets an A just for the production. But the mush in the beginning? Moves the story arc WAY WAY down the ladder to below average.   When I think of trying to find clues and have fun with the Fluke thing? And none of it mattered? Ugh...and the mask. WHY the mask? Why the whole Larry Ashton stuff? Waste of my time. Could have used them in a different way if you wanted them back on so much. 


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This is also what could come if you concentrated on a few families more, and not jump around the whole damn place all year long. Stories could be quilted together and carefully stitched. Not thrown around like Francophrenia paints.
I know Tony was unexpectedly out for longer. I get that. But hello, tell the story differently but still have it make sense. You changed your entire direction and made the beginning moot. Just having TG "Skype' from Amsterdam was weird given this outcome. Don't tell me for a second any of this finale was planned. No way, no how. 

Sigh. Ok. Welp, that's over with. I will treasure this one episode, history holes and all because of the way it was filmed.  Truth is...(here it goes)...I was kinda sad after watching. Why? Because of what it could have been. One hour show after all that-- and yes, it was brilliant but --all the in between stuff? Why can't it at least be consistent? Or better woven or something?  I don't know. I guess my word is: Bittersweet.  Yep. Bittersweet for sure. 

I have to say I didn't miss GH at all this week. In fact, if the anniversary show hadn't had been on, I would have probably deleted all the recordings.  I'm not going to watch the next one, because I know it tempers the Ruby background. I can't deal with that. NOPE. 

We'll see if I'm in a mind to pick it up again next week. Right now? Not sure. 

I will read your comments later! Thanks for keeping the blog alive while I was in Florida! Had a great time, btw.  Left with 90 degrees and sun to SNOW today.
Boo. HOO.




24 comments:

  1. Karen, good morning, and welcome home! Yay, I am first again :) ITA, I thought the young Pat looked JUST like Tamara . . . And I also thought all along that the writers didn't know who Fluke was going to be, changing horses in midstream is a horrible slap in the face to the fans, who crave consistency, and were trying to piece together clues (though truth be told, in the first half of the story there really weren't any). Hope you start to watch again, Karen, we need you. Have a Happy Easter.

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  2. Welcome back Karen. I am glad you had an awesome trip. I suggest you watch episode 4/2. It's a continuation of the anniversary episode, and although you might already know the outcome, you really should watch the final 15 minutes.

    Hoppy Easter!

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  3. I agree with you about Genie Karen. Unfortunately TG doesn't want any Luke/Laura storyline. This comes from Genie's last event.

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  4. Bravo! Fabulous Sunday Surgery! Hit the nail on the head!

    Now if only Ron and company would read it and get a clue as to how badly they screwed this up....scratch that, Ron would more than likely say something snarky and rude, then throw himself a party for how brilliant he thinks he is...*siiiigh

    Hoppy Easter!

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  5. I suppose you heard GH will air live on May 15th and 18th? Your take on this?

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  6. Oh Hells, I watched the episode and got sucks back in. I'm so lost. I clearly want keeping up as well as I thought because this Sam/Patrick situation is strange. And I hope Rick shaves soon...

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  7. Frank..I think they did this once before under Guza-remember it was all "real-time"?

    I'm not in a position to ask right now. I'm a bit sour on the whole STUNT thing. I wonder if it's for the Jason reveal.

    While it will be fun for the days it happens, still goes back to needing good stories!

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  8. I hope everyone reads Ron's and Tony's interview's Ron talked to Daytime Confidential and Tony talked to TVinsider by Michael Logan. Everyone figured out that it was Bill so they changed it.

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    1. Interesting read. I'm always curious how across feel about horrific writing, good for JE. I'll be interested to see how they tie Sonny into this. I also can but can't believe he's going on vacation again.

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  9. When Guza left my main wishes were for less mob, less violence and no more sonny, Carly, Jason show - color me very disappointed with that. Add the disjointed story-telling and the extremely bloated cast and I am finding it really hard to watch.

    Karen,
    It was snowing here too. I just keep thinking "at least we don't get tornadoes."

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  10. While I enjoyed the April 1 show and thought it was well done, I think the problems with the story line and the reason so many questions came up is that it was started in one quite a long time ago and ended up somewhere else. Like a train trip to somewhere, anywhere? The writers decided to switch tracks and did not bother to clean up what they had created on the way there. By this time I don't even care. Actually I did not ever care for this idiotic version of Luke/Fluke. It never really made much sense to me.

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  11. I hadn't watched in a very long time (nearly a year), but decided to watch because of the 1963 angle. I thought it was brilliant. Of course, i hadn't been present for most of the crap that led up to it, so...

    Anyway, the comment Luke made to Carly in the episode from Thursday actually makes a lot of his history with her make sense. I know you said you aren't going to watch it, but it really was very good.

    For those who haven't seen it, skip to the next comment as there are spoilers ahead.

    At the end of Thursday's episode, Luke tells Carly that she looks like his mother. It made me think that the reason Luke had so many issues with Carly from the very beginning was that looking at her triggered those memories that he was repressing and so he couldn't handle being around her and treated her horribly as a result.

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  12. I knew they changed the Bill thing awhile ago. I have to read the interviews, yes I do!

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  13. I think in the beginning Fluke was supposed to be either Bill or Damien Smith. That why the mob/witness protection/hating Sonny was so heavy. He kept saying he wanted to take everything away from Sonny. I think when ppl started speculating, they went w/ Bill Eckert and that is when Larry Ashton and Faison came into play. But ppl were also saying he was Bill Eckert. RC seems to like to believe he is smarter than everyone so I think the Luke is Luke storyline was a last minute scramble and a Hail Mary pass to save the crap story that didn't make any sense after so many twists and turns.

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  14. "I haven't read any other sites, blogs or twitter about this eppy...I didn't even read the comments in this blog."

    Oh good! So that you have a clear mind! :)

    "Patricia looked so much like Tamara,"

    Yeah that is what other people have said. And you all are right, it's just that my first thought when I first saw her, was that she could be a teenage Joss! :)

    "I did see on twitter Ron said it was contained to the basement. Um... well.. no, I don't think it could have been"

    ROFL! I know right!?!! :) You are home now!? Welcome home!! :)

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  15. Dee Wallace was brilliant.

    ++++

    WTF? It was stunt casting. She was in a bed, tied up, in a chair, and inemotive. Any actor cd have done the role.

    They screwed up so much of the 37 year Spencer history and showed no respect for history nor the fans.

    It was badly written, badly acted, poor technically w the seeping colors and poorly dubbed Bill's retconned last words. It was one of the all time worst episode in GH history in every conceivable way.

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  16. Another thing that did not add up for me re April 1 episode. So in this episode young Pat was driving so was 17 or 18 years old. And this took place 52 years ago making Pat now 70ish.

    Her daughter Val looked 20ish. That would mean Pat was 50 when she had Val. Seems very old to be having a child. Val should either be about 45 to 50 years old or should be Pat's grandchild.

    It is all the more glaring when you consider Bobbie is substantially younger than Pat yet Carly is substantially older than Val.

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  17. Rumour is Nurse's Ball is a big old mob shoot out, and Anna shoots and kills Duke.

    Fire Cartini now!!

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  18. "friscogh says Rumour is Nurse's Ball is a big old mob shoot out, and Anna shoots and kills Duke."

    Oh I hope that is just a rumor!!!

    "Her daughter Val looked 20ish."

    To me she looks 18. :)

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  19. here is a thought.

    val has the last name spencer. pat has the last name spencer. can we assume that pat never married and that val is adopted, or that pat took over custody from a friend who may have died and left val without a parent?

    it would explain the age difference.

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  20. Tony Geary appeared in an episode of "All in the Family". So your Archie Bunker comment is appropriate.

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  21. His character was gay, too. Roger was the name.

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  22. I'm confused. Did they confirm they were Bill's bones?

    I didn't watch every day so I don't know. Couldn't they have been the Dad's bones? Didn't they say they hit the body in the basement

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