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Holy hell...but I'm on a tear. Seems that Jean Passanante , one of the head writers at GH decided to answer some fan questions on twitter about the idiotic Jason Cassadine Island story. Ok, they weren't all nice about it, but still...you have to admit we've been yanked around lately, especially with the impossible kidney story. They didn't care about what happened or how, just as long as they could shove something on screen that delivered 'moments'. Never mind it didn't fit with anything we'd seen on screen.
Nope. Why should they care about that?
That brings us to the Cassadine Island Story. You know--the one where Jason is now dreaming he choked Jake. We all know the story: Jason was taken to Crichton-Clark Clinic by Victor after they fished him out of the water. He was kept frozen until Robin could figure out how to wake him up.
Right?
Nope.
Seems that these writers decided that Jason was there 'before' the clinic--I guess running around the island doing crap for Helena and terrorizing Jake.
When they are called out on that...the answer is "well, that's OUR story".
HELL NO...WE (that would be the collective we, the viewers) ALL WATCH THE SAME DAMN STORY!! Why else do I watch soaps? Because you chop up scenes and drag stuff out for years? NO...I watch it because of the history and the story that builds up over time. To see characters grow and change. If you aren't going to take the damn time to even BOTHER trying to make a story that's believable and interesting without screwing up the past, then BYE.
Oh, and look..I know other writers have messed with history. Guza brought in the whole Cassadine family on the premise of Laura having a baby when she was on the Island. Every writer messes with things a little bit. THIS IS EVERY DAMN STORY---even if it just happened a YEAR ago!
Plus!!
Here's a hint: YOU AREN'T WRITING COMPELLING STORIES! The dialog writers need a damn raise along with every actor that sells this.
The stories may have a middle but no beginning and no ending.
Or...the stories may have a beginning and a bit of a middle then nothing.
Or...they are so boring and written to fit whatever is going on at that moment (Hospital Serial Killer) no one cares!!
And yes, I've read fan fiction that's way better.
Case in point: This portrait stuff with Tracy? So--the story is started about a month before she leaves (even though you knew for about a year she was retiring), is crammed full of things that happened off camera (Turkey/ Edward, Monks) with people we don't care about (Turkey girl) and we're supposed to be ok with this? Really?
No thanks.
If budget messes with the storytelling so much, pair down the damn cast so that you can tell some powerful things without having block taping and choppy little scenes. Hire some new writing blood. Do something.
Oh, and don't act like we owe you something. Sometimes it pays to listen to criticism when it fits. This is OUR show. Some of us have been here as long as it's been on. Period. You want younger viewers? Well, you're not going to do it by making up things and hanging you hopes on whatever it is this is trying to achieve. They are probably more viewing savvy than the rest of us because they've grown up in the age of arc TV.
I don't even know how to end this blog right now because I'm just so frustrated. Here I am arguing about a guy that was frozen and brought back to life. All for a soap that I loved. Get back to real stories about people, life and feelings. Leave all the "grand moments' behind for awhile, will ya? Thanks.
It's on autopilot. The writers and producers dont care anymore, as long as they still get a paycheck. Same with some of the actors in some of the scenes. You can tell when they are phoning it in.
ReplyDeletethe problem as i see it is that the writers dont know HOW to write. oh, sure, they can put pen to paper and characters on the page. But this is 2017, not 1977. What shows are winning all the primetime Emmys? Cable. Shows that are 10 episodes long. They start and finish their storylines in one of two episodes or in an arc. THese writers think that the viewers still rush home at 3pm every day and plan their shcedule around this show. It's a time warp. And it is sad.
Roseanne (yes, that Roseanne) is resurrecting her show. She is smart enought o only do 8 episodes. Not an entire 22 ep. season. Just 8 episodes to that it can be crafter with a beginning middle and end. So is will and grace. 10 episode return. Why cant GH sit down and plan stories that span 2 weeks. Beginning, middle and end. And not re-written several times throughout the fortnight. (I usde that British word just for you, Karen)
This isnt brain science. Pare the cast down. Have people be "special guest stars" for a week and then come and go like people do in real life. If you have to write it like a prime time soap, then do it. There was a reason why Dallas and Dynasty were number one in the ratings. They had their core cast, special guest stars and concise storylines.
When the bloodbath happened and AMC and OLTL were cancelled, I wished they would have done soemthing drastic. Take all 3 soaps.... and cancel them from daytime and move them all to Friday nights. 8pm - AMC, 9pm - OLTL and 10pm - GH. They ciould have all been 1-hour prime time soaps, every friday night. it would have been SoapNight in America. 52 weeks, no repeats. The shows can adjust their budgets, have shorter storylines, and bring in guest stars and have cross overs. Friday night is a graveyard on tv anyway, what would they have to lose? a few times a year they could have given the night to one of the shows to do a 3hr movie, a clip show, a live show, or whatever.
the sad truth is that so many of us "unskilled labor" folks could do a better job. And we have through blogs like this. (Thanks Karen).
For what it is worth, it hasnt only gotten painful for Karen to watch. This show has really sunk for all of us. They need a new regime, a younger one, a regime that is in tune with Netflix and Cable. Because this just isnt working any more.
i apologize for typos and no spellcheck. I am at a bar drinking, and well... that should explain it. Vegas, baby.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember right after Jason was shot by Faison he was originally said to have been at the same clinic in Switzerland that Robin was being held at. Then after Anna and Robert came to save Robin all of the important people there were transferred to Crichton-Clark Clinic. So before Jason was at the clinic he was actually in Switzerland recovering from his fatal gunshot wound. Not too long after this Helena was shot by Luke. So when you look at it there is literally NO way that Jason could have been on CI carrying out missions or terrorizing Jake as he was still recovering from his gunshot wound and Helena was too busy reviving Stavros and targeting the Spencers to be concerned with Jason. This whole story is just lazy and disrespectful writing by two hack writers who have a history of doing this on every show they go to, yet somehow they keep getting hired. I liken Jean and Shelly to Soap Mercenaries as I feel like they just go wherever the money is and they don't care or have any investment in what they are doing. Jason as a character has been so poorly written under these two that it's sad and to now write some mess where Jason thinks that he may have hurt his son when 20 years of history show that Jason adored and was adored by all children and was a great father and protector is beyond ridiculous. To be so blatantly dismissive of history and fan concerns just pisses me off and is why to me General Hospital has been dead a long time.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a viewer of a show you're at the mercy of the ever changing head writers and producers to show hop and rotate every X amount of years. No new ideas.
ReplyDeleteDavid you are so right about the cable arcs. And it will be really interesting to see how they do Roseanne.
Just heard about Roseanne and super excited for Will&Grace ❤
DeleteElmo I believe they did. PC was so much better than GH has been of late.
Lord where to begin I am so frustrated with gh right now. Jean is particularly upsetting because she will only listen to those that think the show is wonderful.She is rude and condescending to others. There is no show without us but they don'the appear to care. Even some of the actors are the same way. Let's be honest this show is trash now,the water it's filmed,cut and even the dialogue. The selling of one character at the expense of the entire cast is so obvious to viewers we aren't stupid we see your agenda. This thing with Jason is too much why do promote rapist and serial assault and Abuse? Why have you weaken the victims and given them no pov. The downward spiral of gh started a long time ago but if you want to bring back a dead organ less child have your story together and it should be compelling. Not to even the playing field and create fan wars. You have destroyed my soap yes it belongs to the fans you have forgotten that. You have Kellys and Billy who have created magic in their roles and you delegate them to helpers. I don't live watch because the world is an awful place right now and I feel sad after viewing this show I would say do better but it's apparent that you can't.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is agree with this 100%.
ReplyDeleteIt's really really hard to care about any GH story these days....there are no real love stories anymore. No development of characters...no growth...no relationships that we know WHY they fell in love! The last really great love story was the beginning of Lulu and Dante. We learned who both characters were and why they were that way. We saw the relationship build with lovely moments of drama and comedy! I loved GH back in those days...breaks my heart now! Doesn't pay to invest actual emotions these days because there will be no payoff!��
ReplyDeleteMy God I have been screaming this myself, but I just want Jean, Frank and Shelly gone and I want stop until it happens as it did with Jill Phelps, Ron Carvalti and ChuckPratt got them all out of there. ABC Network has to know the history of these rookie raggdie writers and producers yet they still hire them. I do believe ABC want all these soaps off air, But I pray that we continue to give them a fight by not watching and the ratings are working for us as they are still down big time. Try to find out about Bob Guza I am. One thing about this weak perverse generation they are lazy people just do enough. America is to big for Americans to handle. Really Lazy people.
ReplyDeleteTRUTH!
ReplyDeletethat's was a wonderful rant! I feel the same! I am a big fan of a specific pairing but even those strong preferences don't override my need for continuity with history and compelling stories that respect the characters as they've developed over years.
ReplyDeleteEven little details like... Kiki supposedly works in the psyche ward...what was she doing helping on the regular floor with Samira? I am so sick if hearing Samira say she "needs the painting"!!!! I mean seriously how many times has she said it?! Tracy was so happy that her dad forgave her and left her the painting, why not let her keep it?! This whole story just makes no sense and is an insult to Jane!!! Ron Carlivatti was going somewhere with Heather changing something on those documents and then Tracy was left out of the will that same day. That would have made sense to finish that story! It's sad that the writers don't even care that they're messing up the history of this show!
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget that Olivia has a secret which I'm sure will end up revealing that Griffin is Anna and Duke's love child.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those who's watched since Day One. I have fond memories of curling up on my Croatian Grandma's lap after she asked me to "Turn on my Jessie." (She spoke broken English, so GH was "My Jessie.")
Anyway ....
Many of us here can provide decades-long chronologies of the "5 W's" to help the writing teams because they're all too lazy to review past storylines. Crazy as it may sound, they needed to bring in 2 or 3 of us long-timers as consultants to help with continuity. (I'd do it for expenses only.) Unfortunately, I think too much damage has been done for that to make sense now. Once they brought in the 4th iteration of Michael Easton as a drug-addicted doctor who talks to a lizard, I'm not sure there's anyway to stop this train from derailing. And that makes me sad.
As a longtime viewer and fan of Jason Morgan. I'm a Original Jasam fan. I do not count anything that Billy has done as Jason Morgan because he isn't playing Jason Morgan at all. The character build and development is all wrong and disrespectful to character and fans of the character. It's more importantly disrespectful to the Original actor Steve Burton who played him for 21 years.
ReplyDeleteI have problems with the writing all over the place. Firstly Jason Morgan should still be in the mob and people should still be coming after him. He should be working for sonny and be best friends with SonnyCorinthos. Jason Morgan is a serious character whole doesn't smile unless with his wife Sam. General Hospital writers disappoint me because they don't know the history of the characters and then they want create all these new characters with out a proper background and history to introduce them.
The writing is no where near as good as the 90's. I haven't watched a episode since Steve Burton left but I don't have to know how bad it is.
RC brought back a bunch of characters from the dead. He had face mask, kid triangles, Sabrina, Pickle Lila, etc.
ReplyDeleteGuza killed all the Quartermaines. Made a mobster and his hitman the town heroes. Soily. Carly shot in the head. Emily got brutally raped by Connor (which was way worse than Jason's nightmare). The red demon Michael killing AJ with a pillow (until they rewrote it). Ric thinking of killing Liz with a damn pillow too. Having Luke kill a todler, his grandson. Michael killing Claudia. Michael, again, getting shot in the head. Emily, brutally killed. Sam, watching a newborn get kidnapped. Lucky, hooked on pill, screwing Maxie. Sam screwing Ric while Alexis had cancer. The coast of Bolivia. And the list goes on and on.
And now you guys are upset because there's a 6 months when Jason was "dead" but Helena wasn't that maybe she could have implanted a brain chip and used him? Jason was "dead" for 2 years and we don't know what happened exactly because we weren't there and that's what people are upset about? You guys are ok with aliens and face mask but not brain chips? You're upset about a nightmare? Seriously?
I actually enjoy the Jake CI island story. The rest of the show not so much. The people attacking the writer on twitter are mostly raging jasam fans who can't accept that their precious St-Jason is finally getting knocked off his pedestal. They can't accept that hitman Jason might have done something bad in front of his son. They can't accept that after this story, Franco's tumor excuse will be as valid as Jason's brain chip excuse. They're not mad that Jake (you know, the kid they nicknamed speedbump and roadkill) got choked, they're mad Jason did the choking. Billy Miller finally woke up from his deep coma and might finally earn a paycheck. At least enjoy that.
Okay fair enough, but nothing happened on screen. So Jaskn could have been fine after win for taken from the water and on CI and under Helenas control for 6 months and then Viktors after that. He may have been hurt or intentionally frozen to get Robin to come and save Helena (they needed Jason in distress to get her there). We were told what happened by Fasion and Viktor, hardly reliable sources. We didn't see it
ReplyDeleteI agree with Absolute Lunatic.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the outrage about Jason's dream. Far worse has been shown that wasn't a dream.
And there was for sure a time after Jason drowned, after he was fished out of the water by Helena before Helena was shot by Luke, that he could have been on CI with her.
And what I really don't get if you think that's not possible, how do you all think Jason got the chip put in his brain to begin with? When do you think Helena made him her "soldier boy?"
I hope you can send this blog to the writers please. They need to read it. That's all I have to say.
ReplyDeleteI tried to post this last night, but for some reason it didn't. So, I'm going to try again.
ReplyDeleteI'd been thinking more and mroe about that, for the last day or so, since it became VERY apparent that what we watched on our screens 3-4 years ago was apparently either a mass hallucination, or a completely new kind of Acid flashback. (And I'm rather certain it isn't)
Since I have a bad habit of going on and on, longer that what is probably sufficient when I post/reply to most anything, seeing that your postings cover a lot of issues that I would be just repeating tonight.
K
Elmo5656 said...
ReplyDeletedidn't they do 13 week arc stories on Port Charles? the vampire show one is the one I am talking about?
** They adopted that format from Mexican telenovelas, a couple years before the end. Personally, I didn't like it at all. It just felt like they were trying to do "Dark Shadows - Lite", and failed miserably. Don't get me wrong, I love Dark Shadows (I even bought the huge DVD set of every episode, the remake DVD set, and both of the original movies.) So, by no means am I adverse to that sort of thing. For me, the issue was more of it just didn't fit at all with GH when it was doing that. GH itself has had a pretty volatile relationship when it comes to scifi/fantasy/horror type storylines. Some of them worked (somewhat) some didn't. Though, even at it's most absurd reaches into (The Lumina Crystals/Casey, The Sword of Malkuth (where Luke suddenly has acquired psychic powers)), that stuff never took over everything. (The closest to that would be the Ice Princess storyline, and even then as silly as it could be it still worked) With PC, it just felt silly. At one point on PC, nearly the entire town was supposed to have been taken over by vampires and what not. Simultaneously on GH: Not a word. When PC was most definitely tied to GH, it was great. When that changed, it was just absurdly silly. (and not in a good way)
K
I'm at the point now I'd welcome a vampire storyline. It couldn't be anymore implausible than the drivle we're getting now.
ReplyDeleteCalling Caleb Morley 😊
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ReplyDeleteBobby Bear said...
ReplyDeleteI'm at the point now I'd welcome a vampire storyline. It couldn't be anymore implausible than the drivle we're getting now.
** I'm not THAT desperate. As much of a mess as things are right now, there are still at least SOME decent stuff. Having been watching since the late 70s, things are frustrating now, there's no doubt about that. I know I've said it a few times around here recently, but as hard as it is to watch GH when it's so FAR away from being at the "top of it's game" so to speak, but it's still MUCH better, and easier to watch, than the state that Days is, currently. It's very obvious and understandable as to why Vincent Irrizarry bailed from it, at the first chance he could get. I'm very frustrated with the state of GH right now, but with it I at least don't keep my finger on the fast forward while I'm watching it, and need to FF through a good chunk of it, after literally cringing at what's on screen. (Which I have done multiple times, every day, for the past few weeks with Days) And I've been watching it since the early 80s, so pretty close to the same length that I have with GH.
K
Amen. So well said. I don't even recognize the show that much anymore. Too many newbies and not enough vet storylines. The writers need to heed history. We do pay attention and will call them on their lack of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteKaren that was a tremendous read and spot on. I agree with all points. If you've invested a lot time watching a show the timeline means everything. Now I hear today Roger might be leaving this might beat the end for me watching this show. I immigrated from OLTL though I would occasionally check in on GH. Anyway you put things in proper perspective and thank you!
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