Sunday, May 1, 2022

Sunday Surgery: Light My Fire

 


I think production took the week or maybe month off. Seriously. WHAT was up with the show? I'll get into it all but I was not a happy camper. SO many wasted moments and just random things happening. SO many weird edits and chopped up scenes. It felt like it was cobbled together and given the nature of what happened, it should have run like a tightly wound ship. 

Please, if you're totally into the things and don't want to hear my mean thoughts, just save yourself while you can. If not, grab what you got and let's GO GO! 

Little different blog this week since I had such a rocky one! Summaries and then the Wubs Bitches of the Week. May as well just do it in one big section, right? 

There was nothing on The Luke-Murder or Ice Princess ... so if you were interested in that whole tale, I got nothin'


MARSHALL OF THE WEEK: I could have put up a photo of Marshall and Curtis. Or Portia and Drew talking about Marshall. OR Portia and Curtis talking about Marshall but I chose this one. Marshall supposedly left town and gave TJ his clarinet. Awww. Turns out he was in a mental hospital. Back in the day that was pretty shameful and who knows about his temper and such. Who knows why Stella was so upset ...who knows if he'll be back. I'm sure Curtis will talk about it for weeks, months. Years. 


CARLY OF THE WEEK: WELP!! If you thought the Harmony story was about Alexis, think again!!! CARLY also finds out that Harmony isn't Willows real mother. Now, she hasn't connected the dots with the Nina information provided by Phyllis but you damn sure know she will!! Harmony drugs Carly, puts her in the trunk. Carly then emerges with not even a dizzy spell to save Alexis!! THEN, she takes the whole narrative over on Friday because Alexis and Sam GO HOME. Because... you know, CARLY.  Even IF NLG was recasted this week, there is no reason on EARTH to have Carly be the driver in the story about an hour later in soap-time. I am tired. JUST SO TIRED. Yes, I get it's Nina's kid who she may or may not without information about. I get they are in a "Gramma Custody Battle" but. .again, SO TIRED. 


TEMP- RECAST OF THE WEEK:  NLG's recast did good. Deeper voice yes, but did a good job. Also, A LOT of people on Twitter said she looked like Robin..what did you think? I was sad Nancy had to miss this juicy stuff but health comes first!  Photo credit: @Here4Sprina


THUD IN THE ROAD OF THE WEEK: So, Sasha pops some pills, a photographer catches her, she races out with Gladys but is chased and speeds and ends up hitting Harmony.  Dante is like; BLOOP! Must have been an accident! Come on in later and give a statement. Now, I don't know about you--but for me the best part of this should have been her getting a tox screening at GH. Because you know--SHE WAS POPPING PILLS.  Kudos to Sofia because she rocked her scenes. Every single one of them! 


MILLOW OF THE WEEK:  Well, Willow's the last to know anything. Thank goodness Sasha decided to tell her she hit her mother or she'd still be wallowing in the chapel. Michael was useless and I think he had exactly 2 expressions the entire time; Surprise and...confusion. Given both their mothers were hurt, you'd think you'd get a sense of urgency. Nah. 



MICHAEL OF THE WEEK:  This brings us to Michael telling Sonny to stay out of his life because he cheated on his mother...and other various things. HE MURDERED YOUR FATHER but ...hey, don't bring that up. Just threaten to change your name to Quartermaine!! Michael wants to keep "Corinthos" however to bring "goodness" and "nobility" to the name. Because: WILEY. :eyeroll: 


BRANDO OF THE WEEK: Mark my words; they are setting him up to be Jason AND Michael. Watch his scenes with Sonny--he'll be the Morgan/Michael mix Sonny's always wanted. He was all threatening with Smaltz. Yep. I'm callin' it. 


RANDO OF THE WEEK: I'm not complaining that much because these were adorable scenes but WTF? Um...Finn and Ava meet at the Nail Salon? At night? We don't see until the next soap day that Nikolas is waiting for Ava for dinner. That seemed out of order. And...?? Was it to show Ava missing Avery? I don't even get it. Finn and Ava sizzled --well ME and MW always did so there's that. JUST when we are going to see Finn get his nails done, we leave. So, ?? where was the fun part? photo credit: Crimsonrum 

IDEA OF THE WEEK:  Elizabeth should have taken Violet to The Nail place. Violet loves Ava's nail color...she asks what it is. Ava says:  "Why it's Franco Frenia"!! Liz recoils...Ava asks what's wrong..Liz whispers: "What color did you say".. Violet says "French Fun, isn't it pretty"?? And...there you tied something together and further mystified the Liz story. :bowing: 


GHOSTIES OF THE WEEK: SO..is it ghosts, a stalker or just Elizabeth. We will be waiting even longer because she's moving into The Metro!! Seems the entire camera file is corrupted by malware and well... that's that. I'm all for getting stories going and such but this really needs to pick up the pace on happenings and scary/exciting stuff because...zzzzzzz. All of it seems like such an after thought. 



FAKE OUT OF THE WEEK: By now everyone in the audience knows that Spencer is faking being in wub with Esme to somehow help Trina. Thing is--it's the same thing over and over.  Trina hates him. Esme is jelly. The Ryan piece is dropped for now...so?  Photo credit @JeterGirl410


Photo Not Available due to Not Being around enough 

WHY OF THE WEEK: Austin has had 2 minor scenes in a month: Once at a choppy gym scene where he and Spinelli argue and.....this one going to the Metro to meet Maxie for a date.  Um, he's Jimmy Lee Holts son. The entire Q thing was dropped. He's...? 



BITCHES OF THE  WEEK: Taggert's absence is just stupefying. He was SO THERE during the beginning of Trina's ordeal and so NOT THERE afterwards. I mean nothing. Trina said her dad was a cop to Rory but that's his only mention. If Real can't be on, then you have that recast guy, right? If HE can't be on or Taggert isn't going to be around at all, then... well, you know what to do. This just makes no sense. 

I'm going to say it: Sasha and Brando? WHY? They should be Molly and TJ. And I'm not saying the same story per se but Molly could be popping beaners to get through the day and TJ can certainly be around more. Does Sonny REALLY need another Jason-Type? You have that in Brick. He can phone or zoom it in. 

This brings me to a related bitch-- KRISTINA. She's a CASSADINE-CORINTHOS hybrid FFS. She's bisexual! She can date the entire freaking canvas!! WHY the hell wasn't she in the Alexis-Harmony story??? Krissy could have given layers to this that were deep since it was she that was taken by Harmony for The CULT! WHY wasn't SHE in the trunk and not Carly?? Oh boy, I could go on and on with this.  NO CLUE why the Davis sisters aren't front and center. 

Ryan..where is he? This should be a huge driving force with the Esme story. 

PLEASE STOP MAKING SCENES so short!! It's out of control. It doesn't heighten the anticipation, it lessons it to the point of I don't care. Seriously, production: WATCH the show from Mon-Thursday. Tell me the edits don't kill the build up of what's happening. Throw 9 commercial breaks in and you have a mess. Go watch the "Leo Adoption" if you need any more proof. 




WEEK IN A WUBSHELL: 

Michael ends Sonny and his relationship. 

Sonny boxes it out at the gym. 

Liz moves into the Metro Court after Chase gets knocked out 

Brando searches for a house alone

Photographer catches Sasha popping a pill; Gladys takes his memory card 

Carly catches Harmony setting fire to papers, reads that Willow is not her real daughter 

Alexis finds Harmony at a cliff and Carly in the trunk; fight ensuses. Harmony runs

Sasha hits Harmony with her car while being chased by a photographer

Esme tries to get on Nikolas' good side and probs into bed

Laura tells Esme she can move out

Nikolas and Ava almost make love but Ava stops it

Trina gives Rory a sparkling water

Spencer, Trina and Esme have a 'discussion' at the Gallery

Portia talks to Drew and Curtis about Marshall 

Marshall may or may not have left town

Leo recites his Earth Day poem for Chase 



NEWS AND NOTES:  Michael E Knight will be back as Martin and Steve Burton is going to Days spin off Beyond Salem.   Did you know the character of Martin has been on GH for three years???? 


New hire! Well, why not. We just got Rory the cop and why not expand the cast even more. Looks like "DEX" is coming to town and might work for Sonny?? Hey...Brando look-alike too! He's probably a plant for the West-Coast Gang we keep hearing about., 

Characters that COULD Have more airtime: Spinelli, Phyllis, Epiphany, Amy, Terry, Molly,  Krissy, Brad, Martin, LUCAS (ok, he could have ANY airtime), Olivia, Ned, yada yada. We already have Austin and Drew taking up space. BUT! Newbie! 


SO...there ya go!! Yep, I was really feeling that the editing combined with story choices just killed my enjoyment!! Sorry but..The Alexis Harmony reveal really could have been so much more and production done better. Here's hoping I'm more into things this coming week!! Ending on a positive note:   At this moment NuSonMike is one of my fave characters and I love his talks with Dante. You know I also love Selina Wu.  More WU Please. 

BTW important note: I DO NOT want to be a soap writer..or any writer for that fact. It's a thankless job and there's no way I could deal with it all! Arm chair writing is easy...the rest? I'm sure a nightmare given how soaps are filmed. 

23 comments:

  1. I completely agree with all of it Karen. I haven't really been watching due to a new job, but discovered I am missing crap (IMHO) so there's that. I enjoy this blog more. Sorry to say this is the Carly and Sonny show folks. ALL CARLY ALL THE TIME. I've had enough of her and so have many people I think. As we say all the time; give other good deserving actors more air time

    Thank you though Karen. Your blog is always A+++++++++++

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    1. awe thanks... Are you watching on Hulu? Sometimes it's better because no commercials to chop it up even more

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  2. PS Glad Michael E Knight is back; hope they give him more than 5 seconds airtime

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  3. This is a great Sunday Surgery. It sums about my attitude about the show right now pretty well.

    Adding "Dex" is ridiculous, unless he's just there a month or so to move a storyline along. "GH" has interesting characters that they do not use and Kristina is at the top of the list.

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    1. I have to add that it was ridiculously idiotic that Michael ever forgave Sonny for killing AJ. That would drive a permanent wedge between the two.

      The thing is, it would make Michael a *much more* interesting character if it did. Having Michael use the Q resources to mess with Sonny's operations, with Carly stuck in the middle, would be more watchable than what we've gotten in recent years. And yes, make him Michael QUARTERMAINE.

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    2. I agree, Kevin. regardless of his problems AJ was his bio father and they just let it go. And if they're trying to make Michael seem more of a bad a** they're failing miserably. The director needs to tell him to stop looking around while he's talking. He looks like he's reading from Q cards in the middle of a argument. It takes away any sense of anger or urgency. You certainly won't feel threatened by what he's saying.

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    3. Oh boy. Maybe he is using cue cards.

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    4. Kevin and Di, I agree with both of you about Michael. He should have never forgiven Sonny for killing AJ. Some great stories were lost when Michael went back to being Sonny's kid instead of being a Q. Right now, to me Michael seems to be more of a whiny, entitled brat instead of the grown man that the writers are trying to make him out to be. Not a dis on Chad, just the writing for him.

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    5. Yes Kevin/Di/Gary I agree. Saint Sonny could never do wrong. I like this current Sonny so much more though. Not enough to Overlook what he did to AJ, but I don't FF any of his scenes anymore (maybe that's because Snarly isn't in many scenes with him any more). That being said, I will never ever get over them having Monica even speak a word to Snarly or Sonny.

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  4. Thanks for hanging in their kd. It takes all our patience these days. I agree totally about the Marshall fiasco, and the scenes with Portia and Curtis are turning me off the characters. My brain is just hearing blah blah blah blah blah when they start the same old conversations.

    And the short scenes are beyond frustrating.They are losing any sense of continuity. It doesn't breed suspense if the scene's so short you can blink and miss it. I hope they do better this week before we lose interest altogether.

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  5. Thanks for another great SS! I agree with everything you said.
    The scenes that reveal long awaited answers or action scenes are the ones that are short. The boring conversations are longer lasting. Sometimes almost the whole scene between commercials.
    I despise what they have done to Ava and other characters in the past months/years. I know the NuSonnyMike is liked but there seems to be no strong characters left. Except Carly.
    Too many characters. Too many story lines. What a mess.

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  6. Two things: I think the nail polish scenes with Finn were deliberate because his painted nails looked all "vampire"y and will be what exposes him (his alter ego?) as the stalker.

    Also, I watch the show on Hulu with no ads. The show doesn't seem so choppy that way.

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    1. Hmmm. Interesting Frank.

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    2. It was Port Charles the spin off with Michael Easton as Caleb and KeMo as Livvy right. They had some awesome chemistry back then. I stopped watching. What happened to Caleb and Liv. Wasn't Lucy a vampire slayer or something like Buffy.?

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    3. Lucy was a vampire slayer. And when the show was cancelled it went out on a cliff hanger. Caleb evidently got the heroine pregnant. I loved that show.

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    4. Interesting on the nails. And I actually DID watch the cliff scenes again on Hulu (wed and thrus) because so much was going on. I still felt it was all over the place.

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  7. Excellent column today - agree with all. I thought that when Finn bashed Lucy with the supernatural prospect that it was a deliberate nod to Port Charles. The writers seem to have good ideas but can't seem to carry any storyline out successfully. Haven't seen Val since the kiss - what gives with that? The Harmony actress was really good. Still not seeing any chemistry with Spence and NuTrina. Her hair is just too overwhelming for her small frame and maybe they should put her in some heels.
    LindaV

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    1. JPS (Valentin) is doing another show on Disney + and I'm not sure how available he is, which sucks. Forgot to include the Lucy stuff and I should have because Caleb being back doing this would be awesome LOL

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  8. I think Trina figured out Spence was playing Esme----when he said "Trina means nothing to me", her face didn't seem as much hurt as kinda shocked -----like she knew he was lying????
    I don't like the jumping around either - WHERE were the vets this week??? I would rather have one episode all about a character/charters and just say, "Today's episode will involve Valentin and Anna, Chase and Brook Lynn"..........and place on the screen 'That morning" or "6 hours later'......................

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  9. What is driving me crazy is not using Spinelli to work on Trina's case or Elizabeth's. Surely, he could trace the sex tape to Esme and he could have recovered the corrupt data on Liz's camera?!?!?!

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    1. Exactly. Spinelli is not used appropriately anymore. He is a hacker writers

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