Thursday, April 6, 2017

General Hospital: Kidney-Gate


Image result for jakes death on general hospital

Oh, my fellow GH fans...I don't think I've been this angry in a long time. You all know how I am crabby so this must be bad.  And yes, I'm looking at YOU Nelle's kidney. I'm looking right at you. (John Oliver voice)

Image result for josslyns kidney transplant on gh

Why does history matter on soaps? Simple answer: Soaps are built on history. In the early days, soaps didn't have to care that much about history because they were telling the beginning of the story. Enough time has gone by that they have to use the past to build today.  Problem is... no one who's writing seems to give a damn about actually knowing what happened to propel the story forward. I'm not necessarily talking about ancient past (which in soap years is about 40ish)--no, I'm taking about fairly recent past. Like 2011 past. Jake just came back on canvas in 2015. Could no one sit down and not make this semi-believable? Look, I think the decision to bring back Jake in the first place was just wrong. It messed with the great story we got when he died.  Lucky and Liz struggling with the organ donation, Carly finding out Joss had stage 4 cancer in a nano-second and finally Patrick and Robin having to do the actual operation.

Image result for jake's death on gh

BUT NOPE... just shred all that up. Just forget about it. Why? Well, I guess it was more important to tell a story about Nelle who wound up being a wedge for Sonny and Carly. Thanks for nothing. Why didn't she come on as Carly's daughter she gave up before she left for Port Charles? Why drag Josslyn's kidney into it? All that's done is create a mess that can't be brushed off. We brush off enough from this show --we don't need to add a story grounded in history as well. 


When Jake was suddenly alive we had to swallow the fact that it wasn't his kidney used in the transplant. (He has both kidneys) Ergo, we thought Helena had to have switched out a body for Jake's. After all,  both Robin and Patrick would have noticed a cooler coming in with a kidney in it, right?  Unless there's a conspiracy of epic proportions going on, it's impossible to have an adult kidney be added to the mix now. Carly did question the kidney's origins at the time Jake showed up but they should have let it drop there. Why? NO way to explain this. The only way (that Helena somehow rescued Jake after the operation) it could have been plausible was taken away when Jake's body wasn't messed with. 

Image result for josslyns kidney transplant on gh

That brings us to Jax. WTF. Come on now.  He goes to Frank Benson to have him "Find a Kidney".  Look, he has a brother who is basically dealing with the devil on a daily basis and he goes to Carly's adoptive father. Why? Oh, he knew he wanted money! So!! Get him on the kidney hunt. Um, was he a doctor? How could he even have anyone tested? Was he an organ-broker? 
Just remember this: Carly and Jax found out that Joss had cancer and literally had about a DAY to find a donor. That's almost how fast that turn around was...so spare us that explanation.  
The one thing that may have worked or at least made us semi-angry instead of a rager is that Jax found out Nelle was Carly's daughter given up for adoption and somehow had her kidney flown to GH. That would have been near-impossible but it would at least explain the Benson part of the whole thing and given Carly angst about her adopting out her kid.  You know why I think they didn't do this? (and a lot of you as well?) Because they saw some kind of 'spark' between Michael and Nelle and went that direction instead. If so, it was a stupid decision. No one really even likes that pair enough to care. 

Where does this leave us? Nelle crying about her missing kidney, hating Carly because of it and plotting against Sonny. This is all about CarSon now (Big Surprise). All about the fact that Nelle has a secret: She didn't sleep with Sonny after all!!  Way to reduce a once compelling and complex story down to a black bra and roofies. Great going, GH. Thanks. 

PS. Look at your audience base. For the most part we are older--we get that. Do you? We remember things. THAT'S WHAT WE DO. Like, that's our job as soap viewers. Your job is to tell compelling stories in a timely manner that make the clues fit.  I see it all the time in prime time. You do have a more limited budget yes, but stories themselves cost nothing but paying writers to be clever and write entertaining sagas for us to watch. 

Thank you. And no I don't know when I'll pick up the show again. Yet AGAIN, I need a giant break. 




23 comments:

  1. Karen, don't leave us :( We all feel bad enough about this stupid story, we need our fearless leader!!

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  2. I think we need to drown their twitter account with these comments. They only appear to listen to the few young twits who follow them there. I've also turned off again. Thought I could get into the anna thing but then someone mentioned a twin, from yet another soap, and I'm gone.

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  3. C'mon, Karen. tell us how you REALLY feel.

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  4. Ugh - so disgusted. I only watched the beginning yesterday, and was dumbfounded when Jax confessed to Carly and she didn't even mention Jake. No one even questions how this could take place and of course, how would Jax know Nelle was a match? Unbelievable! I hate watching something now and knowing that whatever happens has no bearing whatsoever in the future. Everything we actually see is subject to change. What an insult to the viewer's intelligence!
    LindaV

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  5. My biggest problem with the kidney story is the timing of everything when it happened. If there has been a few days from when Joss was taken to the hospital till when Jake came in instead of minutes or hours they could make it work. Jax would have had time to reach out to everyone he could think of like Frank and Jerry. He did say he reached out to more then just Frank today but didn't say who. That said with the timing being so close there is just no way for this story to work on any level including Helena taking Jake because how would she have known everything that was going to happen.

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  6. Karen wait till this whole Casadine Island story plays out before you checkout. Let's see how if the show redeems itself with this story. GH has lost many legacy characters which lets the writers play with the shows history.

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  7. Just seeing that picture of Liz and Lucky makes me cry buckets.

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  8. Awwww Karen. :( I understand but I hope you come back!!!! Yeah this storyline is so goofy!!!!

    Carly's home:

    CarJax: Awwww Jax! :( I love you Jax!!! The writers can't make me hate you!! I refuse to let them!!! Just like with Scotty when he knew that Laura didn't kill Rick's lover!!!! They couldn't make me hate Scotty! I refused!!!!

    Bobbie and Carly: Gee Bobbie doesn't seem very happy or excited to hear Jax is back! ROFL!

    Michael and Carly: Ohhhhh. So Michael DID leave a message to Carly on her cell phone!!!! Okay. Was confused there.

    Wyndemere:

    Anna/Alex and V.C.: This was a great scene, and so was yesterday, but I'm still thinking this is Alex!!! Anna is acting strange here. And then when Lulu showed up, she was acting strange with Lulu too!!!

    Lulu and V.C.: Oh shut up Lulu!!!! See? The lady had an emergency!!! Stop accusing and shut up!!!! Go home! Wait until tomorrow for your visit!!

    Kelly's:

    Lulu and Griffy: Lulu is all whine whine whine and Griffy got a new little boy haircut! :)

    Anna/Alex: and Griffy: Anna is acting strange with Griffy too!!!! Did you see the look on her face when she was hugging him!!?!!?!?!!?!?! I am telling you it's Alex!!!

    Anna/Alex's table: ????????????

    Michael and Sonny: Boy there are crayons everywhere!! Is it because it's national crayon month?! So distracting.

    Ava's home:

    Ava and Kiwi: Ava! Calm down! You don't want your daughter to be all suspicious!!!!

    Police station:

    Bad guy and Dante: Oh! That bad guy! He is the one who was the robber at the floating rib! The bad guy wins the line of the day.

    Bad guy: Oh yeah. He got blown up right?

    ROFL! Those poor pills needs a rest!!!! It's so tired!!! Oh Dante is going to have fingers pulled from the pills! Hope Lucy's fingerprints are on there too!!! Oh hi Sonny! Oh hi Ava!

    Central Perk:

    Jax and Nelle: Jax be careful! You don't want Nelle to turn on you and get revenge!!! Oh listen to Jax Nelle!!! Oh oh a light bulb turned on in her head!!!!! She believes! SHE IS A BELIEVER!!!!! :)



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  9. I started watching GH in the 70s, but would usually only tune-in when Genie returned, so I wan't watching when the kidney thing happened. I will say that I think the actress who plays Nelle is great, and I felt for her today.

    And I agree - this is not Anna. Not sure I feel about this twist, but Finola is so good, I think perhaps this could be fun. Anyone else think that Alex looks a bit younger and more 'glam' than Anna? Where IS Anna? Hmmmm.

    PLEASE let this be the end of the Morgan/pill story. Ava needs to pay for some of her crimes.

    Looking forward to more of Tracy and Laura tomorrow :-)

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  10. Killing Jake was a horrible agenda driven story. He didn't even get a funeral. The only purpose of the story was to fire Rebecca Herbst and to give a child to Jasam. That fanbase had campaigned for years to get Jake killed off. The story was all about Lucky, Luke and Jason's pain while Liz was on the backburner. I was so happy when he came back. You don't kill Steve Hardy's great grandson.

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  11. sonya said...Oh Dante is going to have fingers pulled from the pills!

    That would at least add a little excitement to the story. ROFL

    P.S. Thanks for the review.Entertaining as always.

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  12. "Di said...That would at least add a little excitement to the story. ROFL"

    ROFL! I had no idea what I meant when I said fingers. So I read what I said and DOH! I meant fingerprints! :) But yeah fingers being found in the pills would have been REALLY exciting! Hahahahahha!

    "P.S. Thanks for the review.Entertaining as always."

    You're welcome. :)

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  13. AntJoan said...

    Karen, don't leave us :( We all feel bad enough about this stupid story, we need our fearless leader!!

    ** Here Here! I read a lot of soap sites/blogs/forums, and have been since the early 2000s, having been watching soaps for about 40 years. But, this is the only place that I've actually ever become active on, when it comes to any open soap site. And a big part of it is that everyone that comes here and participates, it's obvious really loves GH, and cares a LOT for it's history. Plus Karen has really given a great community for us. To the point that even after the absolute mess that GH has become each day, I look forward to coming here, then reading and talking things out with everybody.

    K

    K

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  14. I'm am not happy about the kidney story either. Plus the bringing Jake back story also ties to the story about Luke and his drunk hit and run story.

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  15. I have always hated it when soaps rewrite history, but this is absolutely the worst example. There's no way to fix this so they should just move on asap and let it fade.

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  16. I'm watching right now and still don't like friz. Can't stand it.

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  17. Kathy M said...
    I'm watching right now and still don't like friz. Can't stand it.

    I started to watch and then FF'd through all the fritz suff and since it kept coming I turned off. I'll check back on other storylines next week.

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  18. I was glad they addressed this (too little too late) on Thursday's show when Jax was talking to Nell. He said something along the lines of he gave Frank the money but never heard back from him & just assumed when Jake died it was his kidney Jocelyn received.

    First time I've heard Jake mentioned at this point in the story--the person who BOUGHT the kidney thought Jake died and his parents donated his kidney.

    Of course, if I had written a million dollar check to someone and I thought they didn't fulfill their end of the bargain, I'd put a stop payment on it. But eh, loose ends and all.....

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  19. GH has reached the point for me as when DAYS had Belle, Shawn & baby jump on a boat in Salem, OH and end up in the South Pacific the next day.

    It's insulting to the viewers, really.

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  20. GH usually ties things up to a fashion, but this whole Nelle story is so completely devoid of any coherence that I find myself actually f/f through the times she is on. I don't care at ALL about her, wish she would go back to the Atlanta rock she crawled out from under, and hope that Michael will find a perfect match for himself. Nelle is not in any way redeemable, the outlandish and stupid storyline she has been given will irk the fans from now until they pull the plug on her. It is totally sickening. Her machinations against Carly and Sonny are beyond evil and there really is no redemption for this character. My vote is to end our misery by letting the story line end her days on GH.

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  21. I wish the GH writers would read your blog.

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  22. Why didn't they just have Nelle be another daughter of Pat Spencer's??? That would've been more believable i think DNA wise. Because Jax could have made that more plausible rather than trying to explain going to someone who is not related by blood.

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