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With the lack of mob action GH feels like just a regular soap. GH should stick to it's core fan base which is mob heavy with consistent suspense. For the last two months everyone is just engaging in conversation which lead to nowhere talking in circles. GH should push the boundaries and add shock factor to storylines. GH right now feels too much like the show This is Us which is not my cup of tea. I think GH should be darker and not focus so much on family issues. GH should be high octane entertainment.
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Nice question. I think GH has a core theme: "personal identity" - and it has hewed closely to that for decades, successfully.
The show's own identity, however, evolves. I think as a tv program, GH's identity at present is: "quietly-expressed melodrama told in the daytime serial format." That's it. I think it's meant to be a low-key version of an "everyone gets a little of what they want" soap.
For me, it's a style that works. Everyone is now equally boring, so as long as I can still enjoy the characters in general, I'm fine. There are more of them, making GH feel a little more like real life, where people wander in and out, not necessarily when you want them to. I think the "deeply-flawed and male" thing is overdone now - I can barely care about Valentin simply because we've seen enough of this sort of thing. But he is boring enough as a character that I can watch him like all the rest (also, see Jordan, who I'd hate if the show were livelier and had more contrast).
Also, every story is more-or-less boring. With that, and given that I like GH enough to watch, what difference does it make what story is happening.. or even how? I set a low bar, I guess, but for me there's a lot to be said about how low-key the show is. It suits my current needs in the vicarious catharsis department.
There's only one problem for me, and it's huge: the-character-whose-name-I-just-would-rather-never-hear-let-alone-type. He's too large to fit into the rest of the schema above, not low-key, not subtle, not actually having an interesting dilemma, and poorly integrated into the rest of the cast. And despite how awful he is, both Liz and Carly laid down with him! (also, Maxie, Nina, and I guess Ava though I can't remember now). It's too much, and it never ends, and it never improves. Please somebody do something.... -
Exactly. The storylines are heavily flawed and missing the raw emotional factor. Everyone seems to be talking in circles. I watch daily out of loyalty to the characters/cast that I love.Originally posted by heddalee View PostComment
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I think GH core has always been about family, love, and the hospital. Character-driven stories. I'm ok with the mob being around, but sick of it being portrayed as the core of GH. Its characters shouldn't be GH's paragons of virtue - yet they are. That's where GH fails its own heart for me.Comment
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The first 15 years of GH did not focus on family - which mostly came and went for characters. (For a glimpse: think about how many children died in the first 12 or so years of GH - almost all of them. Out of all the children born during those years, *only* Scott and Tom Hardy made it to adulthood.) There were friendships; but heavy romantic drama carried the day, along with hospital goings-on, to the exclusion of almost everything else. The people who were related were almost always siblings who were introduced as already adults.
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GH wish it had anywhere close the heart of a show like This is Us. But that isn't necessarily GH specific problem. With the shrinking daytime audience and lineups, most of the shows have kind of lost something special about them.
As for GH's identity? It really feels like nothing more than a vehicle at times for FV to screw around with the audience, for the same three tired characters and less of a daytime drama that is seeking to entertain everyoneComment
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You are right GH has no heart now. It has been many things over the years, but it has always been about interesting characters who the audience could relate to and admire... that includes the villains for being super villains like Helena.. With Sonny and Co.as the "leads" who are featured in nearly every hour of the show they broke that formula. There is noting interesting about their claustrophobic little world, and I for one do not admire them or relate to them. IRL I would avoid them at all costs, and in TV world I am tuning them out and tuning out because the show is mostly devoting more time to them at the expense of developing other characters who are more interesting and relatable. And the ratings continue to go down just as they did when some other EP decided to make them the centerpiece of GH. I cannot help wondering why this is happening again.Last edited by Thalia1; October 3, 2018, 06:25 AM.Comment
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GH is the story of the lives and loves of people who work in a hospital, and in the 80s grew to add the statement while trying to survive the dangerous element in the city they live in.
Of course in the late 90s, this theme flipped to the stories of dangerous people who like to gossip in hospital corridors and who like to seduce those around them who aren't evil.
I'd like to see it flip back to the top line. It made the show what so many of us love.Comment
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This is General HOSPITAL - not General Mobster. It used to center around the hospital - and be full of love, romance, action, adventure, friendship, family - and have amazing CHARACTER driven storylines. Now it's a former shell of itself - and what it used to be. And so full of characters from other soaps - not really recognizable anymore.Comment
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LOL imo the hospital scenes are not exciting/fun to watch. They should change the name and overall identity of the show to be more mob centric or at least more action oriented. Seeing normal day to day activities is not riveting tv. -
Ummmm............you don't change the name of a soap opera that has been on the air for over five decades. And if you take the hospital out of General Hospital - you will lose it's heart and most of the viewing audience. Some of the very best storylines have come from the hospital. BJ's heart was absolutely EMMY worthy. The storyline, the acting, the emotions were ALL spot on. Robin's HIV and Stone's story before he died were the same.
The problem is that these writers are doing plot driven instead of character driven storylines. They don't understand the characters or their history - don't seem to care what the fans want - and have very little budget left to work with.
Nobody said we have to have ALL hospital scenes - or characters just milling around talking. But I don't want to watch the Sopranos either. Back in the 80's and 90's - we had AWESOME action adventure stories that had NOTHING to do with the mob. We had location shoots, a competent police force - where good triumphed over evil, traditions ever year, fun, laughter, friendship, romance. There was drama, sadness, violence, terror - but done in a way that went through the emotional beats that made a GOOD storyline.
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GH's core was never nor will ever be the mob LOL. It was Guza's obsession in the early 2000's, and while its always been a factor since the 80's, it definitely was never the core, and their fan bases core was never the mob either. More people hated it than liked it.
The core was family, friends and the hospital, even in the thick of the mob stuff, but even that's been sadly lost under Frank.Comment
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We need the addition of a younger set of actors (20's/early 30's) that can stick around and age with the show. I feel GH missed the boat when Hayden left the show. Finn and Hayden could have been a great hospital romance story. Their lives being centered in and out of the hospital while learning to raise their baby. They could have been the next Monica and Alan. Liz and Nicholas could have been good as a couple in and out of the hospital since Nicholas was on the board. Their home life could have had mentions of problems with a blended family (with or without showing the kids), hospital issues, and issues with Jason as Jake's father. What we have now is no hospital patients which the staff interacts with. The staff stands around talking, eating, getting personal visitors. It's a hospital. Show some really long term health problems for patients in GH. Mike's problems are great as they are dealing and showing what happens to him, but he is not a patient in the hospital. We need more emotional stories like the BJ/Maxie heart story of years ago. There was also nurse Miss Marsh that fell in love with patient Al Weeks. They married and left the show.
Would like to see Michael more involved with Monica, Drew, and Oscar. Also Michael get a serious girlfriend that sticks around and has no problems, ie. no mental or baby daddies. He needs to be act in the 20's age group doing activities of that age group, ie having some fun! Since Oscar's brain tumor, would like to see these two bond, Michael acting as a big brother type to Oscar as he deals with his health crisis.
The mob related story lines are fizzling, there's no pop in them now. The Jerome family is dull. Same old thing with Ava. The women characters are downplayed and is disgusting.
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No mob story in 20 years has had anything like suspense.Originally posted by Truestar558 View Post
The stories are all exactly the same: Sonny has an "enemy".
Enemy does something that causes Sonny to beat his chest and whine about "honor" and "territory".
Sonny/Carly break up as a subplot.
One of Sonny's kids gets hurt, causing him to rant about honor and territory.
Sonny/Jason kill or otherwise eliminate "enemy".
Either Sonny or Jason is arrested for three seconds. Cops apologize for inconveniencing the bestest guy in town.
Wash, rinse, repeat.Comment
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This is exactly right. Sure General Mob had a lot of fans.. but, it also drove away a lot of viewers over the years. I know many people who stopped watching because of Guza and his Sason obsession. Guza turned GH into a very polarizing tv show, where you either loved it or hated it . During the Guza years there was little else to keep one interested if you weren't a Sason fan. I personally think the amount of damage that did to GH over all cannot be underestimated. How many people left because they didn't want to watch a Disney version of the mob while they ate lunch or did household chores?
Hey I love a good mob movie.. it is fascinating to me but, not in the constraints of a daytime tv show. GH version of the mob always felt fake, cheesy and repetitive. Like a high school production trying to remake The Godfather.
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Crazies, crazies, and more crazies! Too many crazies! Take a whole year without crazies and write compelling Soap stories that make sense having a beginning, middle and an end. Consistency should be the rule!Originally posted by Truestar558 View Post
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Agree a thousand percent with your Hayden ánd Finn scenario. The threw away one of the best couples on the show. They need to get Rebecca Budig Hayden and baby back pronto!Originally posted by rosamaira View Post
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Originally posted by rosamaira View Post
My sentiments exactly in regards to Finn & Hayden....co-sign!!!Comment
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Sonny usually always wins but I look at it as a good thing. GH needs to showcase more explosions, gun fights, and more edge of your seat kind of entertainment. Something unpredictable. I'm not interested in seeing typical day to day activities like we've been seeing for the last few months with characters just walking around the hallways with medical issues. So far I'm not impressed with this Ryan character. At this pace he's gonna get caught before he even attempts to commit any actual crime with a few characters including Laura already suspicious of his behavior.Originally posted by BettieCat View PostComment
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