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Just in case some of you are coming to me through means other than <A HREF="http://www.eyeonsoaps.com/announcements.htm ">Eye on Soaps</A>, you can now read my musings in my new column at EOS, <A HREF="http://www.eyeonsoaps.com/sherrysjubilee.htm">Sherry’s Jubilee!</A> (click on the name to get there)! Don't want to lose even one of you!

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Today, it happened. I reached my limit. Most of the time, I was watching just so I could write this column and it was still worth poking fun at so I hung in there with hopes of a better tomorrow. Today I realized that it isn't fun anymore and it has become unwatchable.

Many of you have already stopped watching, others are on the brink and today's show may or may not have affected that. For me, it did. We all have our limits and it's only natural that they come at different times. Personally, I'm glad of that because it means there are still people watching, and I want to thank the recappers out there in advance, as I will most certainly be utilizing your services.

I've loved GH for a long time now, and like any great love it has let me down from time to time. I've forgiven it and even made excuses for it, but I'm just too tired to continue with that at this point. Overdramatic you say? Certainly, but realize, this show has been a part of my life for a long time and I'm gonna miss it. I spent the last hour, since the show ended, slowly facing up to the fact that I can't spend precious time watching it anymore, that I don't want to. It's tough to face, it hurts, but it's the truth.

If you didn't see today's show, the scene that broke the thread I was dangling by included Sonny, our "resident hero and misunderstood sorta bad guy with a heart of gold…he gets mushy over babies, doesn't he?" manhandling Faith, our "resident bad mobster who dares to seek revenge for her husband's death by the hero's hands". "Bitch, whore, slut, streetwalker", etc were tossed about (as was Faith) and we even got yet another hate kiss, followed by the spit of disgust. Was it worse than other things we've seen on daytime television? Nah, probably not. I'm not sure it was even worse than last weeks naked choking while kissing scene, or Faith sitting on Benny, or Alexis being reduced to nothing...while her baby is ripped from her. Ric messing with Carly's mind, Summer being a pawn that deserves to be manhandled as well, so Nik can keep her in line...there's a lot to choose from. Maybe not the worst, but it was the scene that ended it for me.

Just for the record, I've long believed that if GH is going to bother with a mob storyline, then they should strive for a bit more reality. I loved Sonny once. I have called for Sonny to be more "mob-like". To those out there that are claiming that is what we got today, I respectfully but vehemently disagree. A real mobster would have quietly, quickly and cleanly killed Faith the moment that sound died down from that fake machine gun blast awhile ago. A real mobster would have removed the threat to his family. A real mobster is no hero. Not that I think that is the kind of thing that soap opera viewers are tuning in for, I believe the opposite actually. I believe they should have delved further into Sonny's mind, not further into his mobstering. But alas, no one fricken listens to me. So, we got Sonny the hero. To all of you who feel that the mobster is back, let me just say that it doesn't take a mobster to manhandle a woman (any woman), all it takes is a weak, cowardly man who wants to make himself appear strong by attacking a woman. Period. It summed up perfectly what this show has turned into...and it isn't pretty.

Like I said, today wasn't necessarily worse than several other days, but as I sat there watching I realized that I just don't need it. I don't need to watch one day (yesterday) and feel heartened that maybe we are getting a few more characters on screen and a few more stories to play out and then watch today and be disgusted again. I don't need it. I don't need to watch OLTL directly before GH and see the cops on that show acting smart, making lists -doing something about crime…and know that I'm excited to watch because I'm not sure who will get the better of whom. On GH, I already know the answers. And I already have been shown and told the answer to whether this will change with our current regime. So, it is with great regret that I say goodbye to this column for now. I'll read the recaps, I may even tape a day or two here and there and ff to watch the Alexis/Cameron scenes (because I love Cameron and I hate ABC for taking that away from me!), but it won't be enough to comment on. I could probably just guess and do a decent commentary on the recaps, lol, but that would be cheating.

I'll be waiting to hear that something has changed, that someone at ABC cares about who their viewing audience is, and as soon as I hear it has you better believe I'll be right back watching my GH. I'm not in anyway encouraging anyone else to stop and I hope there is still a show left for another regime to repair, I really do. In the meantime the very least I owe ABC for taking my favorite show from me, is a note out to each of their GH sponsors with detailed information about why I won't be catching their commercials that hour and why I won't bother with their products.

I'll miss all you guys and your great comments, you can still feel free to email me anytime. Actually, I'm shocked by how much it hurts to give this up, but I'll still be doing my Port Charles writing and I'm considering trying a column on OLTL on occasion. Hopefully, change will occur and I'll be right back here in no time…in the meantime, take care all! Thanks for reading.

<ADDRESS><A HREF="mailto:sherry@eyeonsoaps.com">Email Me!</A></ADDRESS> </P>

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Does anyone understand why Sam, the worst shot in the East, had to hide her gun in pieces all over the bathroom? If someone found and removed a piece, then the gun would be rendered useless anyway, wouldn't it? Why take it apart and have to put it back together? Just wondering.

Hey Jason, since Liz is at the hospital with a gunshot victim, and you and Courtney are just there to stand around and fret over a perfectly healthy Sonny, why don't you two go ahead and wait somewhere else instead of demanding that Liz do so? I mean really, it seems only logical. Hah! I get it now…logic was involved…

A very special thank you goes out to Dr. Meadows for taking such great care of her patients…preemptive care even! Instructing Sonny to make sure his pregnant wife isn't shot at again during her pregnancy was a brilliant piece of advice…and she even delivered it with a straight face.

So, how smart is that Sam anyway? She runs out of the club and straight to another public place, the grille, wearing the same exact clothes and everything. Of course, Faith is obviously closing in on being just as stupid since she met her there in plain site, apparently not noticing Sonny's sister sitting two tables over. Gee, get linked to a crime much?

Sooo, Ned didn't sign on for violence? What the heck did he sign on for then? He was providing the monetary backing…what did he suppose Faith would provide? This from the guy who has had the most weapon aided sex EVER on this show. "Oh, I didn't know you wanted to actually hurt anybody!" Whatever.

I want to commend Carly on her foresight. Taking Michael out of school to send him to the island would be a grave mistake. The worst thing that can happen to a kid is to have people at his funeral whispering about how much school he missed. Thank goodness and Guza that Carly really understands such things!

I had stars in my eyes watching Jason do such a heroic job of protecting Courtney from the cops! He's so tough and smart, and he wouldn't let Scott get the best of Courtney and infringe on the investigation whatsoever. Good for him! Now if he can figure out how to protect her from kidnappers and the hit woman two bar stools over…we'll be all set.

When exactly did Courtney become such a complete idiot? I know I've mentioned how much I dislike her numerous times, but now I'm wondering just when exactly the complete change in personality happened? She sat in the police station and rolled her eyes at every question the DA asked, and none of this was even in an attempt to attack anyone she cares about, he was trying to get info on a crime against her family! She sat there, refusing to answer and being a total smart ass, all because she is now one of those that feel it's necessary to thwart the cops at every turn. I have no idea why Jason would have been allowed to be in there, but the entire thing was ridiculous and frankly, offensive (once again). She witnessed a death; she can answer a few questions without being a bitch about it. When she asked why the police weren't trying to protect Sonny instead of accusing him of things, I just wanted someone, anyone, to explain to the little idiot that Sonny is a criminal and the police tend to not mind all that much when one criminal takes care of another criminal for them. What the heck? I'm gonna be completely uncooperative just like my brother, my sister-in-law, and my boyfriend…but you'll still be out there protecting their criminal asses, right?

Uh Ned? No one broke into your house so shut up already. He knows the baby wasn't home alone, so does he really think they came in through some way other than the front door being opened to them? He gave me the creeps during that scene. If he came home and Alexis was there alone, then fine, be very concerned. But she was with her doctor, and it's her kid…I'm telling ya, Ned is gonna be a big problem sometime soon.

Yes Jason, your logic follows and since Faith's Grandma died of drinking sherry I can see why you'd conclude that Faith also killed the shooter with poisoned sherry as well. I do have to wonder though, why you didn't just show the bartender a picture of Faith and just, I dunno, ask him outright if that was the lady sitting next to the sherry drinking (how convenient was that?) hit woman? I would think the bartender's testimony that Faith ordered them both a drink might just link her to the hit woman and therefore the shooting at the club. Just a thought.

Wow, that sherry glass has sure gotten some airtime lately…it's racking up the travel miles as well. I don't think it has quite the intrigue of <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/sherrygh/?skip=20">The Chairs</a> (that link works, but you'll have to scroll down to the 8-17-02 entry to find the story of "the chairs"...I suck at these html links, sorry!) yet, but it is closing in. It's a toss up really because while we aren't really sure of what the chairs are up to, the sherry glass has been involved in several homicides already. Keep your eyes open because I'm fairly certain Sonny will need to break things soon and it will really be sad if the sherry glass falls prey to one of his fits. I would say that there is no way they would do that to something as useful and intriguing as the sherry glass, but we all know nothing is sacred on this show. Soap gods bless and keep the sherry glass, may it live long and hold poison for many.

Sonny Sayings (My interpretation):

"Carly, I promise I will NEVER let anything happen to you or the baby. NEVER EVER. People may shoot at us but there will always be some dumb schmuck to step into the line of fire because I'll never allow you to be shot. Fired upon repeatedly maybe, but never shot."
"Carly, I know who my enemies are and I will eliminate them. These things have to be done at the right time and in the right manner, but I will do it at some point. Sometimes it's best to wait and let the other guy have the next move because it makes it a lot easier to threaten him when he's done something to you first…but I'll do more than threaten at some point, I really will. They'll be eliminated when I'm ready."
"Carly, I know you just saw that woman shoot at us and Ric got shot, but you believe that I would never allow it to be you that got hit, right?"
"Carly, Ric got shot because he was too stupid to move and that is not our problem. He should've ducked so that one of us could've been hit because then we wouldn't have to listen to him go on and on about saving our lives."
"Sonny, I know you will always protect us. Michael, the new baby, and I are completely safe here with you. That bullet may have been aimed at us but it didn't hit us, and that's because you protected us all. You know who your enemies are and you will eliminate them for me, right?"
"Carly, I will eliminate them. It is what I do. I haven't done it lately, but when I'm ready they better look out because I'm going to go on an eliminating spree that will impress the hell out of you and give Jason a…well, he'll be impressed as well. Trust me. I can take care of this…and I will eliminate my enemies."
"Faith, you can go easy or you can go hard. You decide, and I'll be back later on to do away with you. But believe me, it WILL happen…just not right now."
"Faith, you tried to kill ME and MY WIFE and you missed…big mistake! I'm gonna take you out, and I'll be back really soon to do it, I mean it!"
"Look Faith, I'd kill you now but everybody knows you can't just walk into a public place and do away with someone. That's just not how it's done and it never works. Someone might have noticed me come in here, so I gotta go now without eliminating you. I will be back though, and I will end this, in my time, on my terms. Uh…in the meantime I am ORDERING you to stay off the streets and to not let my wife see you…uh, I mean; you don't go near my wife…you got that? If Carly comes home wondering why I haven't eliminated you yet, then I'm gonna have to tell her that I know who my enemies are and then I'll have to come and eliminate you immediately, do we have an understanding? Good, now the next move is yours."

Ric certainly looks like he should still be in the hospital; the poor guy looks whiter than a tampon commercial.

Please, someone make them stop saying "Killing Sonny would be too easy"…I mean it - I can't take it anymore. It's ongoing torture.

So apparently all the extra money this week went to hiring in the Five Family actors which explains why Dara is the best attorney Jax's money could buy. She's consulting with the top experts?? So the heck what! It's the lawyer who is actually out there doing the talking that matters, right? I was thrilled to see Dara, don't get me wrong, but since she has lost many a case to Alexis I would think there should have been some hesitation about her being the best attorney for the case…in fact, it was just stupid. This would be a very high profile case…a crack-shot defense attorney now the defendant in a murder trial, with DID involved? There is no way I believe that one of those "top experts" wouldn't have been chomping at the bit for a chance to fly in and work on this case.

Hey Nikolas! If you were even slightly involved in your aunt's life then you might know that she actually likes Zander. Telling him to leave when you haven't even visited her in the hospital is just ludicrous. That said, I loved Zander's "At least my father isn't a psychopath" line! Cameron's comeback was great and it gave me renewed hope for their storyline. It's been slow moving, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. And let's be honest, it is a story that is unrelated to the mob, so we're lucky it exists at all.

All right, someone forgot to let me know this was Man Fantasy Week on General Hospital. I should've known something was up when Ned was kissing and choking naked Faith while backing her up against a wall, but I thought maybe it was a fluke…I dunno, all the female writers that still have the guts to speak up were off sick that day or whatever. Then Faith straddled Benny in front of a room full of mobsters, and started whispering "lick it up and swallow it whole" and I realized I'd been had! Great joke ya'll, but next time warn me about these special theme weeks so I can decide to tune out like I should have with the Fan Fantasy episode.

I loved Alexis' trial! This should answer those of you who have asked me about why I pick this show apart so much and why I expect things to be realistic when it's a only a soap. I do expect a certain amount of reality, but I'm also willing to suspend reality if the show is entertaining enough. The trial is downright ridiculous in it's plot (Is it a competency hearing? A trial with no jury? What the heck is the purpose of this thing because I didn't hear much talk of the actual crime involved), but it was a lot of fun. Alexis attacking Scott, stabbing Cameron and being tricked (quite cleverly) by Edward - all great soapy twists (for the spoiler free anyway)! The histrionics were over the top, yet appropriate, given that she is faking the whole thing. Jax getting thrown out, a judge finally mentioning cell phone usage in court, the reactions of the crowd when Alexis went berserk on Scott…I enjoyed it all in that "eye rolling yet grinning at the same time" kind of way. I swear I heard Zander yelling "Dad" repeatedly in the background when Cameron dove into the fray and I found that intriguing. The people that were at the trial made sense, and for once, there was subtext (Ed's plot, Jax and Skye, Zander and Cameron) without constant interruption of the flow of the scenes. We weren't hit over the head repeatedly with everything going on around the main attraction so the scenes really had a cohesive quality to them and that doesn't happen very often.

How in the heck did both Jason and Sonny, coming from different places even, manage to beat the ambulance to Benny?

I think I saw some chemistry between Liz and Ric. I don't understand why this relationship makes any sense at all for the character of Liz to pursue, but I guess I'll take chemistry and romance where I can find it. Seriously though, can we just go ahead and send Liz to nursing school? She has played nurse with every injured hunk in town, what are we waiting for? At least the hospital will be back into play a little more - just assign her a broom closet for when she wants to apply her special form of healing to whichever hottie is up for shirt removal this week.

I wonder if the writers realize just how much they have damaged the character of Carly, simply by allowing her to know too much about Sonny's business? It used to be that Carly was sent upstairs, kept in the dark, and basically only knew what she knew by lurking around eavesdropping. Over the last year or so, Carly has become increasingly aware of and involved in "the business". The meeting she attended with the five families and her dealings with Tagliati were a result of Sonny's "death", and somewhat explainable I suppose. There have been many little things, but what stands out to me lately is the fact that Sonny now openly discusses his enemies with Carly. He stands next to his pregnant wife (in the open, on the street, alone…directly following being shot at) and tells her that he'll "take care" of Faith Roscoe. And Carly nods in agreement. Where am I supposed to find sympathy for a character that is this unsympathetic? She is pregnant mother who should be scared out of her mind, but all we get is Carly telling Sonny it will be fine. Carly telling Sonny she wants to stand by him at all costs. Carly nodding in agreement that Sonny will take out his enemies and keep her safe. Where is the story in that? The only story I see is that they are both incredibly stupid and incredibly selfish, at the expense of their own children. If Carly were in the dark, unsure of how serious the danger really is because Sonny kept his business under wraps then there would at least be wiggle room for Carly to choose her great love over fleeing. As it stands, she couldn't be more aware of the truth of mob life and she's choosing it anyway. Had they left Carly childless, okay, but with one child and another on the way I'm left with no way to find sympathy for her character. She has even refused to allow Leticia to take Michael away to the island…what is that? Bravery? I call it knowingly placing a child in danger, which is a very unsympathetic position to be in. The writers should have left Carly in the situation of having secret hope that someday Sonny will leave the business - they took that away back when the Carly/FBI story aired and they've done nothing to build that back up again. It shouldn't be all that hard, we all know that mob wives DO know what their husbands are up to, but that ambiguity that is provided by the secrecy and decisions to keep it removed from the family and the family home, allows the wives to tell themselves that it isn't what it seems or what other's think it is. It gives them wiggle room, to convince themselves that they are safe and that their husbands are semi-legitimate…that's their story and they stick to it. We can allow them to be blinded by love, money and power. Carly, however, is not blinded by anything. She sees the entire picture. She knows how serious it is when the #1 enforcer quits, she knows the danger, she knows it is unending, she knows her husband is guilty of what the PCPD and the public accuses him of and she just wants that life anyway. I think that is a really big mistake and part of why the mob story has become completely disgusting. Watching a mob wife struggle to balance her husband's secret life with her family's public one is part of the intrigue and provides emotional outfall that is worth watching. Watching pregnant Carly pat Sonny on the back while he plans how to kill the woman whose husband he killed, is not worth watching.

Hey! You grab one end, I'll grab the other and we'll take care of the little "Journey" problem right now!
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What can I say? Characters that boring should not be allowed to wear ropes around their necks.

I can't believe they killed Benny to further the Jason/Sonny feud! Benny deserved better and I'm gonna miss him...I take serious comfort lately in seeing the usual people where they're supposed to be, given the current rate of disappearance of some of those "usuals". I guess Sonny will have to yell at someone less familiar from now on.

Hang in there guys! It just can't get much worse, right? I know there is a lot I didn't cover this week - some I don't even care enough about to pick on and some I can't bear to discuss yet. This was one of those weeks where there were actually a few interesting things happening, and while that seems like it should make it easier to be upbeat, it really doesn't. It is almost harder to watch a bad show that is sometimes good than it is to watch a completely bad show. In a matter of minutes, the glimmers of hope can turn to doubt and regret over what could be. Gets a girl down sometimes. I'll get around to commenting on most of it eventually, I'm sure. Sometimes one must let these things simmer awhile to get to an honest and intelligible opinion to come out. Take care…always love to hear from you!
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For once, I will be keeping my mouth pretty much shut today so that some of you can do the talking. If you're here for my most recent column, scroll down to the next entry (after you write me a 100 word essay on why you are so behind on reading, lol!). For now though, I thought it might be fun for you all to get a look at some of the great mail I've been receiving lately. I am honored to receive emails from some of the most intelligent and witty GH viewers and these particular ones are so good I can't in good conscience keep them to myself any longer. These viewers love the show as a whole, but no character is safe from their opinions, particularly if the character isn't performing up to par; so you may want to skip this if you have a favorite that you cannot see any faults in. All are printed with the author's permission (and edited to remove some nice personal comments that might make me appear self-serving, lol!) and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

<u>From No Name:</u>

<i>"I have to say that I agree 99% with everything you have said. The only thing I have to disagree with you on is Faith. I hate her! Faith (or Eyebrows as my friends and I like to call her) is like nails on a chalkboard to me. She is too pale and way too predictable.

But I am loving Ric at the moment. The conversation with Carly when he let it drop that they had unprotected sex was priceless. Of course he is slime, but he is entertaining in a Snidely Whiplash kind of way. Maybe he needs a mustache to twirl.

Coleman is hands down the best male on the show right now. His comment to Skye that they could play some pool had me in stitches. He doesn't need a makeover, just more air time.

I am also truly fed up with the "Fab Four" aka Sonny, Carly, Courtney and Jason. I didn't think anything could make me hate Jason but the current storyline has made me wish he would get shot or just die. I actually was rooting for him to die during the car accident episode. If they are going to keep him on they might as well just marry him off to Courtney. It will save us from more of the same repeated conversations, and marriages don't last long on the soaps. I can see it now - a St Patrick's Day Wedding at the Cellar. Michael could be dressed as a leprechaun/ring bearer and Rosie can be Maid of Honor. A month later Courtney and Jason are sitting at the loft, or wherever, and Jason drops dead of boredom.

Sorry to go on, but the current writing on the show makes me furious."</i>


<u> From Faithful2002:</u>

<i>"Humorously and directly, you have described the GH that has daily been on my screen since it was hijacked by the urrent regime of Guza, Pratt & Frons. A sad day, indeed.

I would have been long gone last winter, except for one thing only.....the coming of Rick Hearst!

He has applied his genius to Ric Lansing and deftly constructed an intriguing man of many faces and layers. I give NO credit to the writers for this mysterious man....quite simply, it is a staple of RH's work and is a testament to his skills as an actor. His scenes with Rebecca Herbst have shown a chemistry and attraction we have not seen from her since the one and only Lucky (JJ) was killed. I am thrilled for her and her many fans that we may just have an honest to God Romance looming on General Hospital.

Jason and Courtney??...I'd rather watch paint dry! The good news is I can FFWD them together, which saves screen time for most of the canvas, although it has been backburnered permanently these days.

Sonny and Carly....ITA with your assessment...and Carly pumped full of estrogen is more that I can bear. I start each viewing day with a silent prayer, .......that the show I enthusiastically watched for over 25 years might somehow be returned to me.

I'm not holding my breath!

Your column gave me great satisfaction that I AM seeing what's on my screen. It's not just a nightmare."</i>


<u>From KellyB:</u>

<i>"…what prompted me to write today is that you guilted me into it. You see, I am one of those freeloaders you referred to. Now, I'm not embarrassed, I think most long-time GHers can understand the need to drift away from our favorite soap from time to time. In fact, sometimes it's the only way to make it slightly bearable in the watching. I remember a time when you only had to watch the occasional Friday show to catch all that you might have missed. I applaud the fact that now certain key plot points surface mid-week, but when the remainder of the week's episodes contain a hodge-podge of recycled dialogue, what's a girl to do?

The point of this missive however, is to put out some of my thoughts on the current story lines (if you can call them that). So for your criticisms, laughter or groaning enjoyment, here we go:

Jason/Sonny/Carly/Courtney
Here's the deal, we are expected to believe that Sonny is this multi-layered, excessively deep persona. That's why we are supposed to be able to swallow a mob boss as our hero - right? Well, I just don't buy it in the context of the current story line. Luke was the anti-hero, he made mistakes, he did good things too and we bought it because the whole time, he made us root for him and the unattainable things he desired. Now Sonny doesn't seem to get that other people have lives, feelings and dreams. Obviously Jason has never said shit with a mouth full of it to Sonny, but couldn't Sonny at least pretend to consider the love that Court and Jason might have before issuing his decree from on high? Oh no, he just got that Moses on the Mount look and told Jason it was not going to happen.

Everyone jokes that the real love story in this quadrangle is the "man-love" between Jason and Sonny. We'll that may be, hell - it is. But to slough it off in such a cheesy manner isn't the pay off I would have chosen. I agree that they've rehashed the same conversation/ultimatum way too long, but Sonny never once looked like he was even slightly guilt ridden over the choice he was making. It would have made him more sympathetic to the masses, instead of an S.O.B.

As far as Carly and Sonny, they've got a mutual worry thing going right now instead of a marriage. It's boring. Even with the non-chance that Ric is the father of Carly's baby, it's boring.

I'll throw in a little Liz here, since she really doesn't fit anywhere else... I liked Liz and Jason. I'm not sure about Liz and Ric. She came on the show and was piss and vinegar, now she's just pissy. Her little barbs to Courtney just make her look pathetic, not sassy or clever. And while I don't expect her to have the chemistry with every actor that she did with Jonathan Jackson (Please God) at least he was semi-close to her in age. Now I almost get a creepy dirty-old-man vibe from the Ric/Liz combo that I can't seem to get past.


Luke/Lucky/Summer
O.K. I get the Laura-doppelganger aspect of the Luke attraction, but Lucky too? Can you say Oedipus? Yikes - this is icky in the extreme. Again, Summer is way too young for Luke and way to old for Lucky. Now she's going to be with Jax (and get paid!). I'm not sure what the standard benefits are for a ho these days, 401K, dental, whatever - but I'd trade it all to knock boots with Jax. Luke's finally getting called on the carpet for his irresponsible behavior with regard to Laura and (hello!) Leslie Lu. 'Bout damn time, and now it looks like Nik has got some 'splaining to do about the power of attorney thing. Good thing he's looking out for his mommy instead of trying to date her.

Ned and Faith
At least he's getting laid

The Q's
I'd pay money just to hear Monica tell Edward "It's MY house!"

Skye/Coleman
I want her to bounce back and be tough and smart again instead of being stupid over Jax. And as for having hot sex with a totally unsuitable stud to get your groove back- you go, girl!

Alexis/Cameron/Zander/Gia
I hope NLG is getting paid triple for this stinker of a story line - and that wig! We were promised big things with Zander and his dad.so far it's been like watching paint dry. Gia, NuGia - who cares. Now that your brother is leaving, we'll expect that you won't be too far behind. Besides, how can Alexis afford you when she's practicing law out of the psycho ward? Scott's crossed over from boyishly smarmy to just plain pathetically needy. I'm hoping to see more of Mac. I would've
liked him to hook up with Summer, which might've made for good story, but P&G wouldn't know good story these days if it sat on their faces and wiggled."</i>


<u>From Smileyny:</u>

<i>"I especially love your description of Jason jogging into the cellar looking for Carly or Sonny (like 27 times last week) Did he never get his cell phone fixed after the accident? Why didn't he just call to find out where they were?

You've covered perfectly all the repetetive conversations. When Courtney said to Liz to "go over Jasons for like the 9,000th time" I was waiting for Courtney to say something else along the lines of "I love Jason infinity more times than you EVER will" She is such a brain dead child. I also wonder why, if Liz is going over there 9,000x, we never see it? Don't you think we would have a better understanding of the constant bickering sessions between the two if we knew that?

I forgot all about Carly's bitchiness to Penny. What was that all about? Why doesn't Penny start reporting to Bobbie all the crap she has to put up with in a day's work? And now that Courtney has another job, why doesn't she quit? If she hates working with Liz so much. It's not like she needs the money, she was living on the money that she made from Kelly's (which I'm sure we're all well aware wasn't much since she was never at work) Is Jason still paying for the loft? She seems to like this job alot more, she actually goes. She still hasn't got that "staying" part down. Don't you wish you had a job where if life got in the way, they would let you go home?

Love your take on Leticia. So true. So good.

I'm also glad I was not the only one who noticed Nik's hair. Ugh, I've never seen anything THAT bad.
Also, Lucky and his backpack. I'm tired of watching this kid pout. Either keep your hooker or move on. Don't take it out on the trash can. I thought he like never went to school anyway.

I absolutely LOVE Faith. It took me a while to warm up to her, but I think she's one of the best things they've got going right now, next to Ric of course. You should check out <A HREF=" http://www.cynthiapreston.com/">Cynthia Preston’s</A> web site, it's great. It's very explanatory. I also can't get enough of Ric. HE is my favorite man right now. I hope he sticks it to Carly and Sonny really bad.

As much as I laughed at your thoughts of what the opening of GH might look like, I couldn't help but be slightly nervous that there will be truth behind it VERY shortly..."</i>

<u>From: Wendy</u>

<i>"OLTL is gearing up for some good stuff but I'm just bored, bored, bored with GH. Occasionally I can watch it and enjoy it, if I'm watching it like episodic television and not considering its history, but overall I just can't get into it anymore. Apparently, many people appear to be watching since the ratings went up for awhile, but I don't think I'll be one of them.
I'll check in every now and then but I'm not going to schedule it in my days anymore. It used to be my escape but now it feels like listening to a friend who only wants to complain about the same thing over and over and never move past them. Never finds a solution. Eventually you stop spending so much time with said friend.

The good news is that I've discovered reading again. Real books. Whoda thought? If I can't escape in the soaps then at least I found another medium in which to do so. The sad part of that is I love reading other people's opinions, ideas, rants, and raves about the soaps. I don't get that with a book. I've been making myself stay with the soaps far too long because of the fun of reading about them, but it's time to find other hobbies. They are just too draining. It will be sad to say goodbye to some characters I call "friends", but it's a relationship that has gone past its time. I can only get beat up so many times before I have to leave to save my sanity.

My parting comments:

Sonny: Call me when someone brings you a reality check.
Carly: Sleep with Ric for real this time. I'll schedule time to watch that.
Scotty: You don't make any sense as far as character goes but at least you're interesting. I don't know if you're written as a serious character but I see you as welcome comic relief.
Skye: You're looking very good these days. Keep up your dance with Coleman.
Coleman: If Skye is busy, I have some extra time these days from not watching soaps. I won't even steal your gun.
AJ: Join Scotty's team. You two could cook up some fun stuff together and since things don't need to make sense you two would be a great team.
Allan & Monica: Find other people to have sex with so you can have SOME sort of interesting fight. Maybe you could compare notes as to who found the best lover.
Faith: Jump in bed with Edward so you can throw more people over the edge. There would be no more question about watching or not. TV's all over would be clicking off.
Liz: Shut up.
Courtney: Go to college - or anywhere. I'm so disappointed in what they've done to you that you should just go away for awhile.
Jax: Don't care what you do. No need to call me - ever. (Never thought I would say that.)
NuNuLucky: Thanks for not being JY.
Alexis: At least you have a story?
Cameron: You were the last one to keep me hanging on as long as I did. I will miss you but you aren't compelling enough to take up my time.

So, I'll keep taping and see how many I can get to. Reading others' opinions will keep me as well informed as watching with no wasted time on my part.

Wow, didn't know I had so much in me."</i>


<u>"Jessica from New Jersey" says:</u>

<i>"Just wanted to let you know I love your column, as usual. But I do have to disagree with on one point. Jason and Courtney should be together. Really they should. Because now they will stop having that same conversation. And if they are kissing, she can't be talking. I don't tape, so I can't fast forward, and sometimes I can't get to the mute button fast enough and....

Sorry, I had to stop for a second because I was shuddering at the memory of Courtney's quavering, high-pitched whine.

As for Ric, I love him to death. I feel bad about it, not because he's against Sonny, but because of the whole did he rape her or not angle. But the thing is if you're going to like anyone on GH, you gotta put your normal moral judgements aside. Is a guy who let's a drugged woman think he slept with her (which I assume is what happened) worse than a guy who kills people (or has people killed) as part of his job?

And as for Faith, I really agree with you about her acting. She's interesting, which is more than I can say for, oh, I don't know, off the top of my head let's say, Courtney. You know why she had to kill her grandmother? It had nothing to do with her inheritance. She had to do that so she would be evil. Because otherwise she'd just be a grieving widow trying to kill the mobster who killed the man she loved. That's too murky. This way she's the evil, psychopathic, grandma-murdering blond who's gunning for the wonderful, dynamic, powerful, family man, Sonny."</i>



<u>From: KellyB (again!)</u>

<i>"Like they say in the Trident gum commercials: Chew on this

1. Why is it Felicia Scorpio-Jones and not Jones-Scorpio? Mac was the last hubby of public record, wasn't he?

2. If they were set on pairing Lucky with an older blonde, why not Felicia? You would still have the father/son thing, plus with Maxie's unrequited crush on Lucky, you'd have tension on both sides. Better yet, have Flea get off on the idea of a younger guy paying attention to her - tadpoling anyone?

3. Saw Bobbie today looking well rested - smirk, smirk. Oh well, if you've got the money honey, who am I to judge. But this sorasing of the juvies has got to be controlled. Did anyone read the script to JZ and remind her that she's supposed to be a granny? Now would be a good time for Jerry Jacks to use his "get out of jail free" card or come back from wherever the hell he's been to enjoy the newly nipped and tucked Nurse Spencer.

4. Jason Nipple alert -- I guess there's one fan fantasy that actually has had some major payoff - yowza.

5. NuNuLucky = PULucky - Jonathan Jackson has been busy yes, but I hear he's got a bambino on the way and no steady gig. Playing the Whisky and the Roxy isn't exactly a bona-fide steady income. He's got to start thinking of college funds and stuff like that. If he's too expensive, I'd gladly chip in weekly to see him back where he belongs... besides, what happened to all that cheese that they don't have to pay VM now?

Oh well - it's only a soap opera!"</i>


So there you have it! That mail alone should help explain why I'm still bothering with something that has become less than entertaining, at best. I'll be back at the end of the weekend (or thereabouts) with some of my own comments - take care!

I would be happy to forward any comments you have on to the individual authors, or you can use the comment feature below and they'll be able to go in and read it themselves.
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I watched and took notes…I'm afraid you can't ask me for much more at this point. This is one of those weeks where I don't have time to sit down at the computer and start twelve different columns, continuing to plug away at it until something semi-entertaining comes out. So, who knows what is about to happen (isn't this exciting?) because I'm just going to go through my notes, pick out comment-worthy material (my guess is this could be a short one…) and type it up however it comes out the first time. Grammar and punctuation will suffer even more than they normally do and cohesiveness will be nonexistent. Yeah, yeah…I mean it will be about like normal minus my couple extra hours of switching commas from one wrong spot to the next, and minus my re-reading it twelve times in an attempt to understand what I meant. I'll hire an editor when GH writes a scene where a hired gun actually hits what he/she is hired to hit. Till then, we'll both keep living in our own little worlds, pretending we know what we're doing. Unless someone wants to volunteer for the job in which case I'll pay you half of what I don't make. It's a big opportunity…think on it.

Speaking of opportunities, has anyone had the chance to count the repeat conversations floating around town? Let's take a quick inventory:

1. Sonny and Carly fight about Jason and Courtney. In case you haven't been watching (You freeloader! Depending on us schmucks to be willing to suffer through watching and give you the gist of what you missed…that's just wrong!) here's the basic premise of this much re-aired conversation. Carly thinks Courtney is giving "pour out her heart" pleas to Sonny and Jason - though that's debatable in my opinion since I haven't seen Courtney say much that looked real since she moved out of AJ's sphere and into the Mobsketeers. Carly also thinks that Jason should be with Courtney because he can't choose who he is in love with. I have major, major issues with Carly and Courtney being friends and particularly with Carly being a cheerleader for a Jason/Courtney (or Jason/Anyone, for that matter) relationship. (Scroll down to Dec. 2 entry for more) It's not in Carly's make-up to want Jason with anyone…I don't care what the argument or how much she's "changed", it makes no sense to me whatsoever. Sonny, on the other hand, thinks that he didn't demand Jason do anything and that Jason needs to stay away from his sister in order to keep her safe. True, in theory. The same argument, over and over, between them is getting so very old. Why Carly doesn't just stop one day and say "Hey Sonny, how selfish are we to be bringing a new baby into this life when it's not a safe place for your grown sister to be?" I'll never know. They can stop spatting about this already - we understand that they are on different sides of the issue and we don't care to watch him yell at her or demean her any further. Honestly, I'm no Carly fan these days but if I were I would be completely incensed at the way that man treats her. When he turned around with a downright hateful look on his face the other day and basically spit out "I just heard a speech from her and I don't want another one from you" and then stomped off…sorry, but personally I'm taking that from no man. It's not so much what he says but how he says it…must be true about the thin line theory, because I could swear he detests her about half the time. But I was gonna rant about Sonny later, so I'll save the rest.

2. Jason and Courtney have "heartbreaking" conversation about whether they should be together. Fifty freaking times! Over and over again, they say the same darn crap. Let me just solve this matter. NO. NO, you shouldn't be together because you each have more chemistry with your ex's, your friends, and your own family members. Together you are as flat as a pancake (something that is obviously difficult for Courtney to achieve) and you bore me to tears. There is no dog, child or touching photo in the world that is going to make me see a spark. Although, I still ponder the picture thing because I am curious about where they got those…are they using a timer and posing around the apartment or what? They had no friends that could take a picture of them together, yet they have several. In fact, I think maybe they have more pictures than they do actual memories of time spent together…there's an interesting phenomenon. We'll just take lots of pictures where Jason (he of little expression) is smiling away nestled up against Courtney and *poof* you have a relationship. Whatever. Frankly, I'm glad they're together again. I can fast forward them easier and maybe they'll stop yammering to everyone else in town and just keep it all in that little blur of a loft (trust me, ff A LOT - it all looks better at warp speed).

3. Carly and Courtney talk about whether Courtney should fight for Jason. Puh-leeze! I pretty much covered this above. If Carly is supporting and even encouraging it, then something is very wrong. Their scenes are cringe worthy for several reasons and frankly; it's ruining both characters. Carly doesn't support other women in their attempt to land Jason in bed or worse yet, in marriage. She just doesn't and I fully support that aspect of the character of Carly because that is part of what makes her Carly. I've got no problem with Carly having a friend, but Courtney is the worst possible choice, period. Carly needs someone who can give as good as she can, someone she can have a uneasy friendship with, because uneasy is the only type of friendship Carly should really have. No matter how close she gets with someone, there should always be the uneasiness. Skye would be a much better choice. Courtney is also being ruined by the friendship because Courtney started out seeing right through the mob violence and the life her brother leads. Now she's suddenly blinded by love, thinking Carly is a "great soccer mom", oh slay me now. These two in fast forward mode make an interesting blur of platinum on top with a weird, almost creepy blur of suede and leather surrounded by pastel and corduroy on the bottom. Reminds me a bit of Liz's painting of the wind…you're looking at nothing but a lot of empty space with bursts of hot air blowing around.

4. Sonny and Ric. Enough already. "Do you think I can't see right through you?" Uh, yeah Sonny, I think you obviously can't. "I don't want you in my business, there is no place for you here" Uh, yeah okay. I wonder just how long it will take Mr. Corinthos to realize just how stupid he sounds repeating those two phrases over and over to the SAME person?

5. Liz and Courtney throwing darts at each other over Jason. This is the most contrived thing I've seen in quite some time. There is no conflict between them that makes sense…and it's like they are making things up to manufacture conflict. "Oh Liz, why don't you go over to Jason's apartment for the 5,000th time…" Um, how did I miss Liz going to Jason's apartment since he and Courtney have been together? And how would Courtney know since she has barely ever been there herself? It's all ridiculous and I'm really getting tired of cringing every single time two women are left alone in a room together on this show. If the goal is to make me hate them all, then success is looming and victory will be theirs.

How about The Cellar? Can't you just see this place becoming a raging success? Opening night lasted five minutes and resulted in everyone being thrown out. The original proprietor of the club dropped dead while having a drink a week later. Then, Carly decides to close the club on a Friday night for a private party-wake for the person who died there, because she knew her for five minutes. Way to remind people that the place is a bit unlucky so far! She invites people who have no clue who the dead honoree even is…why not just make it an open party and at least not alienate patrons in your first month of business? She invites the Quartermaine's…why again? She doesn't like even one of them, they don't like her…I'm at a loss to explain their presence there. Interesting though that she apparently didn't even invite her own family (Bobbie??), but she invites AJ's. She also invited Scott…good idea to make sure the law is involved, I guess.

I mentioned last time that Courtney has no business being a waitress since she refuses to wait on half the town. It's downright hysterical that she has joined forces with the other intolerants of PC. Between her, Carly and Sonny the Cellar will be free of patrons in no time flat. Carly spent the majority of Catherine's "wake" trying to throw people OUT of the place. AJ, Ned, Faith, Liz, and she was even snarky to the hit lady. "Hey you, yeah YOU…go back and be frisked please"…I mean, yeah, she's a hit lady but to Carly she was supposed to be a paying customer. I think Carly ought to reconsider her line of work; she'd make a much better dock foreman. Then Sonny comes in and proceeds to throw Jax out (apparently he has no problem with Ned…the guy who is working with the woman who wants to KILL HIM)…though he'll have to be quicker if he wants to beat his wife to the punch, she had already questioned Jax's presence. See, I'm thinking…the only logic for inviting the Q's is to have some power and money present, but Jax would be an even better choice if you were going for generating some positive press. He is the owner of a rival club, can't beat that for advertisement. I'm also guessing that Jax has more young, hip friends than the Q's.

How do the Q black sheep manage to find out about the family invitations, anyway? AJ and Skye always come into these gatherings and say "Well, the Q's are invited, right?" and I'm wondering if there is a Q bulletin board at the mansion where they post all the invites for the month? Do AJ and Skye sneak in there and write down all the info off them so they can crash the party, or what?

We have a hit man whose face has never been seen, and only deals in wire transfers. Isn't it odd that Sam chose this particular hit at this particular time to go ahead and meet face to face with a client? She obviously doesn't normally do that or else by now, someone would have seen her face and lived to tell about it, right? Also odd that someone who doesn't allow their face to be seen would agree to do a hit in the middle of a crowded club…someone is bound to see where the gunfire is originating from, particularly when you shoot wildly around the room, giving time for everyone to find the source. The funniest part though was Sam insisting on more money and almost backing out because Sonny is "impossible" to get to. Uh…right. He wanders all around town with no visible bodyguards (and c'mon…if this was gonna be the story why not stick two extra's on him 24/7…why not see them always lurking around when he's wandering around smooching women on the docks and such?) and he vacations at a remote cabin alone with his wife. He also went charging up to that other cabin just because someone called and told him to, bringing along two or so guys with him for protection. Come to think of it he did that at the church when he met Brenda as well. Let's face it; all you need to get Sonny is a telephone, an unfamiliar voice, and a convenient meeting place. It's a soap, and drama is great and all, but why bother with statements like Sam's when the entire viewing audience is wondering how dumb the writers must think we are to buy that load of crap? Toughest hit ever? Yeah right, but then she obviously hasn't actually used that gun before so what does she know anyway?

How about that Summer? She professes love to Luke and he turns her down so she heads on over to Lucky's place and asks for another chance with him? Quick recovery on the heartbreak there, hooker! What? She's made it pretty clear that she likes to refer to herself by that name so why can't I? Nah, actually, I still like Summer. She's not mean, catty, snotty, crazy or drunk. What's not to like?

Pregnancy apparently makes Carly grouchy. Surprise, surprise. It amazes me that every soap opera pregnancy begins with dizzy spells - usually about five minutes after the actual conception takes place. I'm sure plenty of women get dizzy while pregnant, but the odds seem a bit high in PC. Carly has been trying to peck other people's eyes out even more than usual; apparently she's nesting already. Liz I could probably understand, but her overall nastiness to Penny at Kelly's was completely uncalled for. I'm also curious about her inability to get herself a cup of tea downstairs in her own beverage joint. They must have hot water down there, right? Grab a handful of teabags from Mommy's stash and get the heck out of everybody else's face already.

The staircase incident was the topper this week though. She (someone who fell down a flight of stairs and lost a baby) goes down the stairs and has a dizzy spell (it looked more like a cramping spell to me, but I think it was just supposed to be dizziness), wisely sits down on the stairs and gathers herself for a second, and then unwisely starts a snottyness throwing contest with Liz. Once she gets rid of Liz, she stands up, and finishes the walk down the stairs. All good. Liz goes upstairs, tells Courtney about Carly and Courtney turns around to see Carly, back upstairs. What the heck? After almost losing her balance on a staircase she turns around and heads right back up by herself, not even stopping to maybe I dunno, have a glass of water or a cup of tea and making sure the dizziness thing has passed completely? She came up for no apparent reason (unless you count the chance to be bitchy to Liz again as good reason) and only stayed up there five minutes before turning around and running right back down again. Ugh. I guess I just expected a little more staircase sensitivity would be in order.

Thank goodness Courtney slapped AJ. It's been ages since we had any good open-handed action around here.

I'm glad to see that Luke's months of drunken "coping" came back to haunt him. He couldn't have held power of attorney then and whether I think Nikolas should give it back now or not is irrelevant. It makes sense that Luke should have to deal with how inept he was for awhile there and at least we get a nod to reality every so often.

Why the heck am I watching Skye tell Jax how great he is? I realize she wants him back but if she's gonna be that much of a pushover to get him then I've got more interesting things to watch.

Like Skye and Coleman. I love Coleman… "Man, I just don't get modern art" Did I mention that I love him?

Why hasn't Nikolas gone to see Alexis yet? Why isn't he the one offering to get her an attorney? Not that I mind Jax being involved, that's actually the only time I am interested in seeing Jax, but I don't understand why Nikolas is all over the Spencers but not Alexis. It makes no sense. He's supposedly wanting Gia back, what better way to gain some points than to help out Alexis, Gia's employer? He knows Gia has been worried about the situation and he has ample reason to be involving himself…I just don't get it. And please, Hair and Makeup, God, whoever…do something with his hair. This Frankenstein look is even worse than the fiasco he had last month. It's frightening me.

I found it somehow comforting to watch Edward do the "take over the grandchild" thing this week. I dunno, I'm desperate for something that makes sense I guess.

I understand why Ned thinks Faith killed her Grandmother, but why would Sonny jump to that immediate conclusion? It would take a really cold person to do it and I really can't picture that Sonny should believe she's capable of that with what he's seen so far of her. Ned has inside info, like Faith's "Nobody lives forever" statement…Sonny doesn't. The lady was OLD…I just think that maybe the first assumption would be that she just died. Not that I think he should've been consoling her or anything, but I was a bit surprised by the outright accusations…way to play it close to the vest Sonny. I know some of you loved the NYE episode, but I didn't so forgive me when I say that I'm not buying any of this "grieving Carly" stuff either. If she was so touched by Catherine, why hadn't she had the woman over to see the new place yet? She wanted Sonny to meet her? Well she was right across the street! They spent an hour together, max, and it was an hour that part of the viewing audience probably missed since it was stated that it was NOT going to further the story, it was a stand alone episode. If you missed it, I'm sure you're wondering how Carly knew this person and why she chose to keep it to a one time event…up until she could throw a wake-party that is. Not to mention that I don't think I would want to be "like Catherine" since she gave up her kid for no discernible reason right before she apparently gave up the mob life and wrote off her husbands business and fortune as tainted. Could she not have done that while keeping her child? If Sonny gets to be a mobster because of his childhood then I'm guessing Faith has ample reasons as well. Your sweet little old grandma was a mob moll who gave up your father when he was young and now denounces the mob life…except of course, for when she became fast friends with the wife of the mobster that killed your husband. Am I supposed to be watching this and thinking Carly is angelic for honoring Catherine and Sonny was right to kill Roscoe, but Faith is wrong for trying to kill Sonny? At least Faith owns her crimes. I give her credit for that.

So now that Jason and Courtney are back together does this mean we don't get anymore of those scenes where Jason comes jogging into the club and stops cold with a look of pain and longing at a scantily clad and overly made up and coiffed Courtney? Can't we get just one more? Please?

Oh gosh, Lucky, put down the backpack. This is so ridiculous. I saw this guy on a sitcom not two weeks before he started as Lucky and he was HOT! Whatever they did, they need to undo immediately. I'm allowing more time for the acting to come along and for him to get the feel of the role, but the outfits, teeny-bopper props and the hair have got to go, now!

So, Carly and Sonny come home and Michael is sleeping. Wouldn't it stand to reason that Leticia might be off duty by that point in the day? Why exactly does she want to run Carly a bath? Would it be because Carly had such a rough day watching her kid? No, that doesn't really fit, now does it? Sure, go get Leticia since she's done with Michael for the day and now make her run Carly some bathwater. Give me a break. Does Sonny not remember how to turn on the water? Get the Corinthos' a maid already. Sure, the idea of someone at my beck and call to run bathwater day or night sounds great and it certainly can add to the fantasy of watching the show, but because most viewers probably relate more to Leticia than Carly it might be best to spread the workload out a bit.

So, leaving out the whys and wherefores of Alexis faking DID (because I'm just not ready to address the stupidity of the situation at this point), I need someone to explain to me how Scott suddenly saw that she was faking? What exactly did he see on that tape? And why exactly did the chimes play while he was playing it? Those damn chimes are really ticking me off already.

I was really saddened watching Jason and Sonny break up. It was heart wrenching - the begging, the pleading and the turning away. And just when I thought it was over and I could dry my eyes for the last time…Jason turned back toward the door and the tears began flowing down my face again as his Sonny slammed the door right in his face. *Sob* See, I still can't even talk about it. I really couldn't believe it when he went for consolation (or is it revenge?) sex with the sister…ah, the drama. Poor Sonny too! I know he may have been acting like an ass but I could tell he was really torn up about it. The way he raised his voice 50 decibels above Benny's, just to tell him to keep his voice down…well, he's obviously distraught. There's no other explanation for his attitude and short temper with others afterward because, hey, Sonny is just NOT like that. *Sigh* Yep, it was a really sad day in soapy land.

I'm a bit worried for my sanity. The characters I currently enjoy watching (besides Cameron, Alexis and Coleman) are Faith and Ric. This seems a rather bad sign really, since they are basically rather evil at the moment. Cynthia Preston impresses me more every day and her scenes following the murder of her grandmother were perfect. We watched her kill the lady and yet somehow, I still felt bad for her that she *had* to do it! The nail filing in the chapel, followed by the crying on Ned's chest…it was all just too deliciously perfect. She's dead on in every single scene she's in and I find myself watching for every little expression she makes. Even in the icky sex scenes with Ned, she manages to make the characters thoughts and intentions clear. I really can't say enough about what she has managed to do with what could have been a very one-dimensional character. Someone just get her a gun, because I believe that woman could actually take Sonny out if she stopped using incompetent help to try to do it! As for Ric…well, what can I say? I cheer out loud every time he gets a good jab in on Sonny or Carly. I may be turning evil, but I'm fully enjoying his ability to twist everything around until it ends up serving his purpose and keeping one or the other of the Corinthos' at a disadvantage. If I were Liz, I'd be turning my back the next time he comes simpering around after that little display at the club, but overall, he's performed up to my expectations. I fear he will someday be nothing more than another mob minion, so I am enjoying this side of him for as long as possible. He and AJ were great together as well; I've been missing AJ.

Nancy Lee Grahn did a great job with Alexis during the scenes with Ned while she signed the papers to let him take Kristina. Again, not commenting on the stupidity of the mess she's gotten herself into, I felt for the woman who was giving up her child, albeit temporarily. She was heartbreaking and I also found myself liking Ned for a few minutes again - that doesn't hurt either.

It's probably a good thing that Alexis is in the psych ward…they don't usually allow pens and such in there so that should keep her from writing down her next list:
1. Get Cameron a thank-you card for covering for me.
2. Try to bribe guard at door to go buy me some wind chimes to keep pretense up.
3. Rearrange hospital room and claim it's Feng Shui.
4. Practice my shocked expression when Scotty accuses me of faking.


Is anyone else the least bit concerned that we may turn on GH one day and find that the opening has been changed to include only Sonny, Carly, Jason and Courtney's faces inter spliced with scenes of shootouts and limo sex? I am.

Love to hear from you!
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Opinions, everyone has them. Last night I was feeling very under the weather (still am so bear with me) and felt like just relaxing on the couch with a few of my favorite fluffy comedies. All was well until I had to leave the room for a few minutes to take care of some preparations for my daughter's day at school today…when I returned, the channel had been changed. "We" were now enjoying <A HREF="http://www.rush.com/"><u>Rush</u></A> Live on <A HREF="http://www.vh1.com/channels/vh1_classic/channel.jhtml"><u>VH1 Classic</u></A>. I made some groaning noises, complained lightly and then gave up since I know how much he enjoys such things and well, that's just the kinda girl I am. Okay, so there may have been a foot rub in it for me as well…but still, it was a foot rub obtained while listening to music that just isn't my thing. That's nothing against Rush fans or Rush's music. I can see they're talented and I can see why others like them but, save a couple songs that I don't mind, I just really don't get anything much from their music. My husband, knowing this, still tries to convince me every time this situation arises (the TV mysteriously changing to <A HREF="http://www.vh1.com/channels/vh1_classic/channel.jhtml"><u>VH1 Classic</u></A>, <A HREF="http://www.thehistorychannel.com/"><u>The History Channel</u></A>, <A HREF="http://dsc.discovery.com/"><u>Discovery Civilization</u></A>, etc) that I'm just missing the one bit of information that will make this as enjoyable for me as it is for him. Following the course then, he starts in as soon as <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000001F8E/qid=1046209824/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/103-1897643-8044654?v=glance&s=music&n=507846"><u>"YYZ"</u></A> starts…the version with the extended drum solo, of course. He's talking about "most talented", "four different beats at once", "patting your head and rubbing your stomach", etc. Forgetting somehow that I can recite this litany on my own because I've heard it a thousand times since I met him waaay back when he used to play <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000001F8E/qid=1046209824/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/103-1897643-8044654?v=glance&s=music&n=507846"><u>Exit Stage Left</u></A> as loudly as possible. Then again, that's probably fair since I admit I probably pretended I was a bit more into it back then than I really was…just like he probably pretended to hear something profound in whatever was coming out of <A HREF="http://www.islandrecords.com/bonjovi/home.las"><u>Bon Jovi's</u></A> mouth. The other thing he forgets though, is that despite hearing this often enough to be able to give the same speech to someone else with enough feeling that they might believe I mean it, I still have not developed an enjoyment for the music anywhere near equal to his. He really seems to think though, that if he keeps saying it that someday I'll just "get" it and we can travel the world hunting down Rush concerts. Screw the house, kids, jobs, etc…it's just RUSH…all the way baby! (Except that band is only one of many that he finds mesmerizing on VH1 Classics, so we'd probably have to change our travel plans every time he flipped by that channel, lol!)

Sometimes it feels like that is exactly what is happening with GH. I feel like someone thinks that if I'm just presented with the same thing on a different day, in a slightly different way, that I might just suddenly be riveted by it. This is all a personal experience and the things that feel like they are being force fed to me might be different than what you feel you are being force fed, but I'd be willing to be that the majority of you feel like you're being force fed something on this show. It's impossible to avoid really because the redundancy is becoming too obvious to ignore. Once you get into the rhythm of it, at least you know what to expect, right? A "shocking" murder of a not so important at the moment character, a long-winded, twisted up mystery that usually ends up to be not nearly as confusing as we were led to believe (always end with a whimper they say…) and preferably it will be a woman who "did it" (look at the last several…Angel, Laura, Alexis). In order to make it twisted up, long winded and confusing it's important to add a lot of little details that will, of course, turn out to be relatively meaningless. Reaching a conclusion for the mystery should really entail taking one of the heroine's down to straight-jacket status at some point and if you can "hang" an old lady or two along the way (for storyline purposes, of course!) then all the better!

So, as it appears that our current "whodunit" is coming to a close, albeit with fallout yet to come, it's time to look forward to the next one. At the core, where love, betrayal, and family once were, now resides murder and mystery…technically I think the betrayal still exists…score one for us. Around the core, we still have some bit players from the old days and they even get a day or two a week on air sometimes. I'm beginning to think their airdates are the best kept secret because it means that we, the viewers who are still watching mainly for glimpses of what used to be, have to stay somewhat involved on a daily level so we don't miss seeing the reasons we are still watching. On most soaps, you would have the intertwining story factor that would prohibit you from just skipping certain days when your favorites weren't on, but GH doesn't really play that game. The only intertwining story is surrounding the Corinthos family. Jason and Courtney (don't care), Ric (I care, but suspect I won't shortly), and then twelve people working to "bring them down" though they unfortunately don't actually DO much toward that end that is worth watching. Sometimes it is hard to know whether I should want more airtime for some other characters because to get that means they have to be more involved with the core, which will put them in the unenviable position of being props. AJ, for example, has all but disappeared because his only real story involved Courtney (he has no friends and his family is backburner at best). So, he appears from time to time to prop up the core. He verbally attacks Jason or Courtney, or he on occasion is spotted following his family around town. Apparently we aren't supposed to notice that the relationship he had with Skye somehow just went up in smoke. Maybe all that work they did trying to get "the core" convicted of murder just tainted their relationship beyond repair. I know some of you are thrilled with where the show is centered and I'm glad to hear it! If the core characters were still among my favorites to watch, I'd be right there with ya. Enjoy it to your heart's content…it's only fair really because at some point things will probably shift and I'll get my turn again as well. And hey, I swear I wasn't using "the core" as an analogy because it's the part that is usually thrown away when you're done…

Enough with the rambling already! Let's move on to disjointed thoughts, shall we?

Strange how after the bad guy put the drug in Carly's drink, all the other patrons disappeared. As he was trying to basically carry her kicking and screaming out of there, not a soul seemed to notice! Besides Ric, who has a knack for noticing things, it seems.

I was glad to hear them mention that The Cellar was getting a second chance with the critics…here's hoping the patrons are as generous! If I went to opening night somewhere and was unceremoniously dumped back out on the street with no explanation I might not bother going back. Was there really nowhere else for Jason and Sonny to talk? "Hey everybody, OUT!! We need a moment alone…" Whatever.

Why was Brenda waiting on the floor outside Jason's door after her non-wedding? Sonny came by, she acted surprised to run into him, they talked and then she turned around and went right into Jason's apartment. I know it means an extra set for the day, but maybe next time they could just run into each other in the elevator as they're heading up to their respective destinations? It would look less contrived then having her sit outside for no good reason…unless that was supposed to be a clue in the "who the hell does Brenda really love" saga? There's a mystery for the ages, let me tell ya.

Hey! Did you all notice that the little, cramped storeroom that Carly and Ric attacked with an axe has tripled in size? It also grew a balcony…how cool is that?

Tamara Braun was absolutely excellent in the scenes of Carly waking up with Ric. She was flawless and I felt I was really watching Carly…something that sometimes eludes me lately. Kudos goes out to both her and RH. I find Ric to be very compelling in his machinations.

Cynthia Preston is also wonderful as Faith, and I enjoy watching her scenes. The character of Faith, however, is proving less interesting than I had hoped. She's little more than a one-dimensional villain, perfectly well acted but being written into a corner as far as I can tell. We need a Faith-like character that has ties to the community, a long standing history, the ability to revive a family that is actually getting story at the moment that incorporates that history, and a vendetta that can be all inclusive to the canvas …hmmm, it's too bad GH doesn't have any characters like that laying around!

How great was it that Brenda was able to get a few last words from Yoda, I mean Lila, before she left town? It's really too bad that Skye can't seem to get that benefit from time to time.

Yeah Sonny, you're right. Carly would never "do that to Michael"…can't you just imagine little Michael, all grown up and able to use the microfiche machine at the local library? Scrolling through the articles about his mommy's death and subsequent return: "What do you mean you just needed some time alone, mom? Was there a reason you couldn't just say so instead of pretending you were dead and putting Grandma through a funeral and all? And hey, WTF was up with that crown, anyway?" Jason and Sonny stand around talking about how PC's best mommy would never stay out all night unless evil forces were involved, and I'm thinking someone should really just get on the phone to all the local dives and find out who ingested the last order of chili dogs and cheesy fries (or whatever the heck the great tip off was last time…).

Jason hangs up with Carly, and Sonny says, "Where is she" or whatever mobbie version of that he was using that day, and then we have this long dramatic pause where we are supposed to (apparently) be wondering if Jason will give up Carly's location to his master. I know I'm not the only one though; who was waiting for them both to crack up with the realization that there is no way Jason has a clue where she is! I'm thinking "blooper reel" and they're moving on with the drama already. *Sigh*

Coleman, I enjoy. I cringe when they insist on involving him in every nefarious plot this side of the Mississippi, but hey, I still love him. Scenes like the one where he came to the cottage asking for his gun back "If you're done with it", are priceless on today's GH! He may be smarmy but he's got smart dialogue and he and Skye sizzle for me. More, more, more!

Sooo, Ric had to put two bullets in to fill his clip. Do you suppose that means anything? Didn't think so…

Okay, it's time for a little Sonny talk. I used to LOVE that man. LOVED him. And there are still moments when it comes back to me in full force. But I have to say that someone needs to remind Mr. Corinthos that you just cannot talk to people the way he does and expect to have a long happy life. Even when he's being "sensitive and loving" he comes across as mean, nasty and so self-serving that I cannot stomach it. It used to be, that Sonny had the appearance of being that way all the time but he showed moments of vulnerability, usually with Jason, Brenda and later, Carly. Now, even when we are supposed to feel his vulnerability he manages to throw out something that basically negates anything nice he says. Sometimes it's the words, sometimes the delivery and sometimes both. His complete impatience with Carly over the Brenda kiss is a prime example. Every time he tried to explain it to her or anyone else, there was a complete ignorance to the pain he had inflicted. "I want you - can you get that or not?" What the heck? Why not just say: "Carly, you moron, so you saw me kissing someone else…I'm telling you that I want you. Are you intelligent enough to hear me and "strong" enough to believe me or not, because I've just about had it with the explanations already." Or how about "Don't run. You can fight, scream, break things, and whatever…but no more running"? Uh, gee thanks Sonny. It really is to bad that everyone doesn't have the fine, upstanding practices that you have for dealing with angst. Break something, yell, kiss someone you aren't married to, explain it all to a dead ex, and whatever…just don't run away. For Pete's sake, even the makeup lovemaking that she said she didn't really want to have, ended up with him laying out on the bed and her having the privilege of hopping up on top. That whole scene was creepy and gross. Carly deserves more and Sonny deserves to truly understand what he has. Goodness knows if she had kissed Jason (ya know, to say goodbye since he's in love with Courtney now and all) he wouldn't be forgiving her, and she'd have to grovel, scream and cry before she even got the chance to explain herself.

I thought the disintegration of the Brenda/Jax relationship was actually very good. Personally, I think the "it's over but we part as friends" thing would be impossible given the history at this point and I was glad to see a bit of reality in the pain and brutal honesty they gave to each other. It hurt, but it should have. They were angry, disillusioned, and hurt. Looking at everything they have counted on, fallen back on, and used as a crutch for YEARS completely fall apart around them in one single moment of truth. These two had love, they abused love, and they are paying the price for that. Sure they lost trust, but you know I am not really sure they ever had it. I think she completely trusted that he would always be there and when he finally called her on her intermittent flights of fancy with Sonny (in his mind), it caused a rebellion in her the likes of which she hasn't felt in years. It was fitting, given Brenda's rebellious start on GH and I enjoyed seeing her give Jax a bit of what he deserves for the way he has blown through several lives all in the name of Brenda love. Brenda never fostered trust in Jax though, and he would have to be a fool to be able to fully trust her, just as Carly is a fool for fully trusting Sonny. Broken trust can be worked through but not if it's buried under false bravado and excuses, and certainly not if it's a repeated behavior. Sooner or later, it will wear down the best of us and Brenda and Jax finally wore out. He was nasty to her afterwards and he lashed out in very unattractive ways, but then, we have seen Jax's unattractive side quite often lately so Brenda was the only one surprised by it being turned on her. He can't get away with blaming her for their relationship's demise because he is just as guilty. She nailed him on the damsel in distress thing, and we may never know how their relationship would have fared long term when Brenda became just his wife, instead of his never ending search and rescue mission. Given the events that transpired since her return, I am happy with the way they ended this. It was a situation, right from the beginning, that was doomed to end with no winner and honestly; I'm surprised and impressed that it ended up playing out as such.

Poor Brenda has had an even more limited existence than I thought if she thinks Jason deserves love and happiness over anyone she's EVER met. I was quite ticked to hear her change her mind and try to sentence us to a "forever" of Courtney and Jason. Nice parting gift!

Brenda and Jason were great during their goodbye scenes and I am really going to miss their interaction. Of course, we didn't actually see her get ON the plane so who knows where she's lurking around. Maybe I'll just imagine that Jason stashed her somewhere nice and when he visits they giggle about how he pretends to love Courtney just to keep Sonny all in a tizzy.

I know someone out there must have counted how many Brenda flashbacks were of Sonny and how many of Jax. So c'mon spill! Who is the real "love of her life"?

Audrey lives! Liz is taking classes! Thank God for newsflashes.

Can Summer please have that same "I'd probably quote him a price" type conversation just one more time? I don't think I have fully digested the trajectory of this story yet. Maybe if I could meet a few more people from her past…

A waitress who can't wait on half of the regular customers is in the wrong line of work and Courtney has more enemies at Kelly's than she has coats. Besides AJ and Coleman, now Jason decides he needs a different waitress? Um, what? She should have told him to find another restaurant. He walks into a place he knows she works; he sits down alone and then treats her like crap for assuming maybe she could speak to him? I don't have much use for Courtney these days, but I would have loved to see her tell him where to stick his request for a new waitress. That was just uncalled for and all too typical of the unnecessary humiliation of women that's going around town.

Lucky to Summer: "I'm not standing here with expectations or assumptions beyond tomorrow. I just want to know where you and I might end up" Um, okay. And I am absolutely not robbing you, but give me all your money anyway.

How sweet of Sonny to admit to using Carly to keep Ric "close by". Safety first, right Sonny?

I'm not really going to comment on the Alexis story until it plays out further. I am enjoying the performances. The supporters of the story lately, Cameron, Scott, and even Jax, have all been good in their reactions. I haven't watched most of yesterday's show or any of today's show and something tells me I really may not want to. We'll see…hey, maybe we should start a support group where one of us "takes one for the group" and actually watches the entire show and then sends out email notices of who is on screen for the hour and if there are relevant details spewed by those that were that might affect those that hardly ever are. That would save the time many spend browsing the message boards trying to figure out if they should watch a particular episode or not.

Soap gods save me; I'm foolishly looking forward to the fan fantasy episode tomorrow. Maybe I'll up the cold medicine dosage a bit and that way I'll be sure to enjoy it on some level, or, I'll fall fast asleep and dream up my own fan fantasy!

I'm all for putting up with a little to make someone else happy sometimes. The problem last night was that he (the husband - I'm back from soap land now, lol) promised he'd give the dog a bath before I took her in for her vaccinations today and he watched that concert until 11pm without having done it yet. I'm not moved enough by any drum solo in the world to want to take a smelly, ratty looking dog out in public - not on the one day a year when we pretend that the poor thing hasn't been relegated to last place since the kids were born (the dog, not the husband!). I bided my time and kept quiet and for once it paid off. He was quite grateful for his concert time and washed the dog afterwards, despite the late hour. Then he proceeded to really score some points by taking time off today and taking her to her appointment since I'm sick and the kids are teetering on the edge of sick. I came out looking generous and didn't have to go out in the snow. It doesn't get much better than that. If only GH loved and appreciated me for putting up with the intermittent (Oh, if only!) crapfest, we might be able to work out an arrangement. But somehow, knowing that the network's main goal is to snag a dumber, and more importantly, younger version of me always just makes me think that I "gotta know when to walk away, know when to run!" Then again, <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000068TMX/qid=1046210352/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_4/103-1897643-8044654?v=glance&s=music&n=507846"><u>Kenny</u></A> is always waiting for when "the dealin's done", and soaps almost always have another hand to play, now don't they?

<ADDRESS><A HREF="mailto:sherry@eyeonsoaps.com">Email Me!</A></ADDRESS> </P> Love to hear your thoughts!

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I wish I could tell you exactly how many times I've sat down to write a column over the last few weeks. I've once again taken all sorts of notes, jotted down all kinds of witty (well - okay…but there were a few that seemed somewhat funny anyway) things to include, not to mention being so far behind at one point I thought I would never catch up (or maybe I thought I'd never find the desire to catch up…)! I've started several columns, and depending on my mood that particular day, they varied in content. I never got beyond the first paragraph in any of them before I decided to abandon ship and try again another day. Here, let me offer you some proof:

This from February 11th - "I've been working on some tips to help enhance your viewing experience. For instance watching snow melt always helps! During scenes at Kelly's, pay special attention when a character enters with "snow" all over their hair and shoulders. Then count how many commercial breaks come and go before someone thinks to brush that plastic crap off him or her - thereby effectively "melting" the snow. I believe Nikolas holds the record at the moment, but you should have no problem coming up with winners of your own. I've also found that imagining Summer will end every sentence she utters with some variation of "I'm a HOOKER" is quite entertaining as well. For example when she says something along the lines of "I love Thai food!" you imagine it really came out as "I love Thai food, but I doubt you'd be asking me if I weren't a HOOKER!" Get the idea? "I'd love to go out with you on Thursday, but I'm a hooker." "Your little girl is adorable, I hope she doesn't turn out to be a hooker like me!" "Lucky, you have fake snow on your eyelashes…is that so when you look at me you won't notice I'm a hooker?"


And this from February 15th - "I have no idea where to start today, so I guess we'll start with a bit of honesty. I have been completely uninspired to write a word about GH for…well, for however long it's been since I wrote last. The main problem at the moment seems to be that I really cannot take the show seriously. No, I don't mean seriously like I think Sonny is real and that maybe I can snag him myself, I mean taking it as serious entertainment. There was a day when it was so entertaining to me that I would forgo most anything else on television rather than fall too far behind watching my tapes. These days, honestly, I sometimes find myself watching something I've never even watched before, as an excuse to NOT watch my GH tapes, how sad is that? General Hospital has become much like my cable or Internet bill; I'm glad to see it but only because it is the link to other things I enjoy, so I'm willing to pay my dues. Painful though it may be to dole out the payment, it would be even more painful to lose the benefits, so while I may complain and balk a bit for awhile, I eventually pay up."

See? I really have been trying. Neither one really inspired me to keep writing so I realized it just wasn't going to happen at that moment, and I gave up and waited to try again later. Sometimes I wonder if some of what we see on our screens everyday comes from exactly that, a poor, tired, depressed writer's random attempt at getting anything down on paper. The only difference is that I don't have anyone grabbing the paper out from under my pen and delivering it as finished before I've had a chance to think it through. This must be the explanation; because I KNOW there isn't anyone thinking through the stuff I'm seeing everyday. There can't be!

Look at the Alexis story as an example. How much sense does it make that Kristina puts her wig in Alexis' purse and then Alexis carries it around all day without noticing? But hey, who cares right? At least it's readily available when Alexis turns back into Kristina (by the way, stop with the chimes already - we aren't stupid and we shouldn't be judged as such just because we are still watching this crap!) on the docks…because, well, she needs it then! Kristina also can't seem to make up her mind; she hates Ned and orders him far away from the baby when she sees him at Kelly's then she tries to climb up him in the middle of a roomful of wedding guests. I also really have to question the wisdom of having Kristina/Alexis confront Dr, Feelgood with a knife during her confession. "Yes, I confronted Alcazar with a knife - much like this one actually, and then I stabbed him just like I'm gonna stab…huh? How'd you get me in a headlock so fast? Wow, it's really a good thing that Alcazar didn't move as quickly as you just did or I guess my knife would have been useless against him as well…!" What the heck? Alcazar's greatest shame is not that he was an arms dealing, murdering meany - it's that he apparently was beat up and stabbed by two different women over the course of three minutes. Then he tripped and fell over a railing, which, frankly, sounds hard to do. Well thought out?

How about that exciting drug bust? The cops burst in to Kelly's, rush around a before unseen corner and come racing down the main steps at the club. Yes, apparently the "Cellar" guests will be coming through Kelly's to get in or else someone needs to draw me a map so I can understand the entrance set up around there. Anyway, they rush in, find the drugs and have playful verbal sparring with Ric the superlawyer. Sonny and Carly are called back from a cabin that is apparently five minutes away, unless of course you take the route Courtney and Jason took. Sonny and Carly go straight to the club, are informed of the trouble and proceed to get into an argument about Jason and Courtney that lasted about five days. It was a good argument, but I'm wondering why no one gives a crap about the drugs anymore? Aren't the cops going to arrest someone? Did the whole problem just go away because Ric threatened Mac? Can the bad guys not even count on the cops to get a search warrant and appropriately conduct a drug bust so carefully set up? Doesn't Sonny care who set him up? Did everybody just forget about the drugs??!! What was the frigging point anyway? Wait! Maybe it was so we all see that yes, Ned can sink lower yet. I liked his nice little hospital bedside "if you touch the stuff again" speech, right up until he hand delivered the crap to his favorite little junky workhorse. Moron.

Nikolas and Gia: "I don't want to lose you" "That's not going to happen" "It's over!" "Sounds good, see ya!" Well, to be fair there was that catastrophic fight that led to his moving out…there was build up at least, right?

Here's one line that I think might have been very well thought out actually! Courtney (to Jason): "I can't do nothing!" Hee…I'm sorry, to be fair I think she meant that she didn't want to sit around doing nothing instead of helping him. But, uh, well…I just enjoyed it in it's purest form and imagined that she was a bit rattled by the accident and decided to admit to him just how stupid she really is.

Let's talk about Jason's injuries. So, we've got Jason and Courtney involved in a serious (but not too serious, no airbag deployment) accident. Jason is very injured; yikes, he might even die! He's rushed to GH where his loving parents are both by his side as he undergoes difficult, life saving surgery. Why, WHY did we get nothing from the Q's about being in this place again with Jason? Why did Carly act like she was more interested in snarling at Liz and Brenda than worrying for Jason? Why is Tony suddenly someone Carly and Sonny want anywhere near Jason or Courtney? Don't get me wrong, it was nice to see Tony but there is a "history" there and all and it used to matter. It was like Sonny and Carly already knew Jason would be fine, they were just hanging around waiting for the chance to confront and comfort, respectively. Thankfully it was a quick surgery, Sonny didn't even get his gloves off before it was over. Even better, it turns out that whatever the frick they did to heal Mr. Morgan was downright miraculous because he has yet to rip out the stitches even with all that bike riding and chick slinging. Makes you wonder a bit about all those weeks he crybabied on Liz's studio couch, now doesn't it?

How is this for a well thought out line? Faith (to Ned): How are we supposed to work in stealth when that harpy swoops down on us all the time?" (Not exact quote…but close) Here's an idea: Stop. Going. Out. Together. In. Public. If. Your. Partnership. Is. A. Secret!

If an annulment can be granted by mail (or whatever) in a matter of days then why did Jason and Brenda fly there to begin with?

This just in! Jason Morgan, long speculated to hold a number of positions of importance to mob boss Sonny Corinthos, has now been confirmed to be an Enforcer by an enemy, a family member, an ex-girlfriend, an ex-wife, his boss, his bosses wife, and his bosses wife's attorney…all in one week! Yes folks, it looks like it's official so it's time for everybody to pay up in those office pools!

Well, I suppose I've wasted enough time on the inconsequential chitchat. Time to get down to it. I'm gonna try to make this brief! I don't care one iota that our resident Alpha Male has separated Jason and Courtney. I find their lovelorn looks to be downright laughable and I feel nothing about either one of them at the moment. When Jason drove his big ole bike up to the edge of the cliff, I silently (oh, okay - I said it out loud!) encouraged him to drive over it. When he just sat there I started to ponder his face and wonder why I used to think it was so sexy…now it just bores me. It's not unredeemable, but it's getting close. I did, however, enjoy the scenes between Jason and Sonny at the hospital. The acting was okay (wait, if Jason was supposed to be acting like a whipped twelve year old - then he was GREAT!) but what most fulfilled me was watching Sonny go ahead and be the hypocritical, self-absorbed jackass that a mobster really must be if he's going to be successful. I loved that and supported him in his hypocrisy 100%. He was, after all, annihilating something that I have wanted to see annihilated since its very inception so it would be hypocritical of me to feel otherwise at this point, now wouldn't it? It was definitely the most mob related activity I've seen Sonny practice since around 1999 (just pulled that year out of my you know what, but you get my point) and I found it enjoyable for a change. I also enjoyed the fighting between Sonny and Carly, and thought much of it was well acted. Personally, I hope that Sonny's comments to Jason inferring that Carly thinks only of herself, along with Brenda's extremely apt description of Carly as cold and hard, herald a return of the Carly of old. You remember, back when she wasn't the head cheerleader? Carly looked and acted more like herself this week, not putting up with Sonny's decisions just because he said she had to. I don't think I heard her tell him he is awesome all week.

As for the kiss, well, what can I say? As someone who has always enjoyed the pull between Sonny and Brenda I will admit to enjoying the kiss and the conversation surrounding it. It pretty much cements to me that Sonny will always want Brenda and Brenda will always want Sonny, but they are priding themselves now on being smart enough to know that they aren't good for each other. This way, they are both still the center of the universe you see, because they are making the supreme sacrifice for the betterment of humanity. If they hook up, get married and try to live happily ever after then they will destroy each other because both really do require being the center of their universe. If you need evidence of that just look at their reactions to their significant other's reaction to the kiss. They both acted like they were shocked that Jax and Carly would jump to the wrong conclusion when all they were doing was saying goodbye…how could those two not trust them? Not for one second was it ever about anyone but them. I'm not knocking it, I'm gonna miss Brenda (and VM who I believe delivered some really solid work this time around) and I'm finding a bit of long lost Sonny-love in my heart at certain moments, but good relationship material they are not. If Carly needs any further proof above that kiss that she is not now, nor never will be, first in Sonny's heart then I offer her what I consider even more damning evidence. I offer her his "after all these months of fighting myself" comment at Lily's grave. I would be crushed if my husband kissed his long lost love, but I would be completely devastated and our relationship would be beyond repair if I found out he had been having sex with me while "fighting" being with her for months. I also offer Sonny and Brenda's conversation about Jason and Courtney and how she believed he did the right thing breaking them up. He told her that he didn't know if Courtney was strong enough to give Jason up…implying to me that he was acknowledging his own and Brenda's strength in doing so, and how they naturally saved the universe by having the strength to be apart. Courtney doesn't have that strength (apparently) and neither does Carly, at least not according to Judge Sonny. So there you have it, it is over. They should part ways and honestly, I think I'm up for a Carly/Jason pairing (unless tptb want to send Carly off in a hail of bullets - it's all about the same to me).

That brings us to Jason and Courtney. First thought is: who cares? Second thought is: now wait a minute, there might be a point to be made here! Mostly the only thing I'm noticing is that Courtney is decidedly not upset with Jason and I find that a bit odd. It would be nice if we could see a moment, just a flash even, of Courtney thinking "wow, AJ gave up his family and fortune for me - we lived in squalor (*snort*) in that crappy little apartment that had absolutely no frills (*snort*) and he worked as a fork lift driver to help support my stripping habit. But Jason won't risk angering his boss for the love of the likes of me…wtf?" In addition, I'm fairly certain that I saw Jason grow some rocks on Sonny when he caught wind of the fact that Sonny was lip reading Brenda down on the docks. He didn't snivel, tear up or sniff even once, he just went off on a rant about how important CARLY is and how he gave her and Michael to Sonny to take care of and if Sonny damn well wasn't doing it then he was gonna just take them back since they were the family he wanted to begin with…or something like that. He stood right up to him like nobody's business and I can't be the only one who got the impression THAT could be a deal breaker! He didn't even show a flicker of guilt at jumping Sonny for kissing someone else while married when he and his beloved were doing the very same thing a few months ago, back when she still thought she was happily married to his brother. Way to go Jase - work that hypocrisy baby! You saw it with your own eyes; Jason jumped right up there in defense of Carly's happiness. Courtney just doesn't rate folks, my apologies to the fans of the couple, but the writing is on that wall if you ask me. (And yes, I hid the eraser!)

Are you people praying to the soap gods to end this stupid Alcazar crap? Because seriously, this has gone on so long that I think the statute of limitations might be running out by now. Did the cops not check the lobby tapes to see who exited the building in the few minutes after Al fell? Because she must have taken the elevator down since there was definitely not time for her to run down fourteen flights of stairs and still be the first one to notice the dead guy on the alarm blaring car, right? Since she said she was passing through and saw him, when they spotted her exiting the building wouldn't they have been suspicious? What the heck? I do think Nancy Lee Grahn is doing a good job with the story so far. There have been moments when Kristina is truly creepy (that'd be the alter one, not the baby) and I enjoy most of her interaction with Cameron because I still love him. Usually when you have these alter stories the second personality is vastly different than the first, so the actress portraying them can easily show the differentiation. On Port Charles, for example, Kelly Monaco is playing Tess and Livvie and you can't get two more different personalities than that. She does a fabulous job with both characters and they are written to act very differently. NLG is dealing with two characters that frankly aren't all that different in ways that can be shown outright in a simple "standing on the docks talking" scene. Kristina was quirkier, arranged rooms, wore trendier clothing, talked a lot, etc., but she wasn't evil or bitchy nor did she have any obvious attitude or trait. I suppose that is why someone decided we need chimes to signal a change, but they are wrong about that. There have been no scenes where it wasn't easy to tell which character she was playing and I give her credit for that. I know nothing about alter personalities (well, besides what I've seen on soaps that is) but it seems really weird to me that Kristina's personality is apparently altered as well. I would spend time considering all this on a deeper level and try to analyze what's going on, but I see no point in doing so. I'm so far not as upset by the story as I thought I would be, but I'm not exactly enjoying it either. Its just sort of there - it's evoking no real emotions either way from me at the moment, which is probably just as well.

Like I said, I am still enjoying Cameron and I've seen moments between them that tell me they (the actors) still have chemistry but I'm not holding my breath for it to play out in a palatable manner. I'm lost as to why Cameron is Zander's dad though; the only thing they've used it for so far is to provide Cameron with a reason to help Alexis so she won't lose her child like he lost his. That's great but it doesn't seem like the kind of story that should be pushed aside and used only as a prop for another story. It gets really tiresome to get excited about a story (Cam and Zander, Alexis and Baby Kristina, Ric and his mysterious past…) only to find out it was really only a flash in the pan sideshow, providing a moment of clarity in a surrounding story and then falling by the wayside. Oh, it'll probably all get picked up again later but I always thought the beauty of soaps was that several stories at once could be consistently juggled and the threads remained constant. The threads being family, intrigue, romance, etc., but we don't get consistent juggling on GH. We get big reveals that either lead to nothing or lead to something so far down the road that we don't care anymore.

The big question I have at the moment is what are they doing to AJ? He's been almost non-existent lately and then he shows up at Jax and Brenda's wedding? Huh? Why the heck would he be there? Why is he suddenly following the Q's around again like a lost puppy dog? What happened to Skye and AJ having a relationship? Is AJ just fading away into oblivion or what? I miss him.

I thought the scene between Brenda and Courtney was good. Great parallels running through it and VM especially did a great job of conveying a lot to those of us that have lived through that life with her. The eyes said it all.

It was good to see Luke interacting with Lulu. I also enjoyed his interaction with Scott. I think maybe its time for Luke to get back out into the PC world a bit and shake things up a little. I'm also enjoying Ric, because I find the way he is pulling strings and playing with everyone rather interesting. I even think the sucking up is calculated and intentional, and I hope they don't disappoint me when his purpose is revealed.

I think you can assume a wedding is doomed when the groom mentions "all the people we've hurt" to get where we are. It's just not a good sign. It's also not a good sign when your parents show up to each wedding as though it's your first. "We wouldn't miss this occasion for the world" Uh, yeah - as though you won't get another chance in the near future! "We loved Skye, and we loved Alexis…Chloe, not so much, Miranda was okay and we love Brenda each and every time as well…but we're really happy when you use one up, dump her and move on too because we only want what's best for our little raider…" Whatever.

The club opening was a complete let down, not that I actually had my hopes up or anything. I did like Carly's little tantrum and the throwing of the bottle - that rang pretty true to character. I also can understand avoiding Sonny because I can't see how she could expect anything but the bad news she thinks he's going to deliver. What else could he be planning to say? "Yeah, I kissed her because I needed to know if I'm really over her after all these years of being with you. But yep, now I know you are the right choice so c'mon baby, time for you to make me feel better again"? Not to mention the fact that he has already kissed her since she returned…apparently it takes a few tries to get the right result?

The Brenda/Jax wedding fiasco was interesting. After hearing Jax's explanation to Ned I would have to agree with him, he should've been scared. I don't really know why he waited until the vows but I'm fairly certain it had something to do with the clause all GH guns have in their contracts. ABC doesn't comment on contract specifics, but I have it on good authority that the Gun Users Network Union (GUN U) wrangled a "matching clause" with wedding dress and sex scenes. In other words, for every wedding dress or sex scene, we must have a gun scene. Skye and Coleman have had two gun/sex scenes. Sonny and Carly were almost gunned down before they ran off to have sex in the cabin. Skye and Brenda donned wedding dresses and were promptly stalked by gun toting lurkers. Faith and Ned…well, they're the darlings of several of the weapon's unions. It's all about the politics and the backstage fight for airtime.

Well, I'm off for now. I have some serious thinking to do because I really must figure out how the coaster off my coffee table ended up on a strap hanging around Brenda's neck.

I'd love to hear from you! <ADDRESS><A HREF="mailto:sherry@eyeonsoaps.com">Email Me!</A></ADDRESS> </P>

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<font size=4>What The Heck???</font>

Since when do judges (particularly this judge, who seems to beat that gavel demanding order when it is already quiet and not bother when the place erupts…I think maybe he's a drinker or something because he's been highly erratic through the whole trial!) allow every Tom, Dick, Harry, Faith, Ric and Sonny to use his or her cell phones during court? Am I supposed to believe that none of them have a vibrate feature? (Why do I have a feeling that Faith doesn't own much of anything that doesn't have a vibrate feature?) I could be wrong, but I really figured that cell phone calls would be distracting during a trial and would therefore not be allowed to ring in the courtroom…then again, I was sure that guns were not welcome either which brings me to…

Hello? How did she get that gun in there? No metal detectors? No wait, that's right there aren't because Jax marched Ric into the courthouse by gunpoint a while ago as well. Okay, so now we know she can just bring it in without a problem but I have to wonder why she even still had the gun. She used it to shoot Coleman, so it would have been taken into evidence at that time and would have stayed there for quite some time I would think. Then it would have been returned to Jason, since it was registered to him. Why would he bother giving it back to her after the stalking incident was all over with? Apparently it was the same one since she went on and on about where she hid it in between telling AJ why she luuuuvs Jason. Which brings up yet another question…

What the heck is she talking about? Jason gave her honesty? Jason gave her a kiss when she was still married to his brother (actually, I think she even started it!), Jason stood by while Sonny degraded her by bringing AJ into the strip club, and Jason can't really go into why he was up on Al's balcony which resulted in his conviction. Now let's look at Courtney's honesty with her husband. She lied about having a bank job, failed to mention stripping every night, left out her overnight jail stay, allowed her husband's enemies to help her and give her a ride home every night, and let's not forget that she lied to me about her potential as a character! AJ lied all over the place, so I won't disagree with her choice of brothers at the moment, but I do take issue with Saint Courtney getting on her soapbox and waving honesty around as the clincher in her Jason deal. Someone warn Jason that Courtney will be honest as long as she's not trying to save him from trouble, and as long as she doesn't become intrigued with someone else while she's doing the saving…hmm, sounds like another blonde Jason knows.

I think Port Charles needs to consider several changes in their court system. A big problem I see is that they take way to long to start court each day. Maybe they should consider not opening the courthouse until closer to the actual starting time and clearing the courtroom as soon as it's over, because there is just too much of a chance for trouble to erupt. There are more deals, threats and plans being made in those halls then on the docks, and that says a lot. I'm guessing part of the problem is that while Jason was sitting in the courtroom in his suit waiting for the sentencing hearing to begin, Brenda was still in her cell in her prison blues…maybe it would speed things up a bit if they just coordinated that or something.


<font size=4>Hello? Use Your Head!</font>

Summer, Summer, Summer. Is there any reason why the whole "woman in a mental institution in London, husband (Dad) makes it worse when he visits" thing isn't ringing a bell with you? How often do two people in the same town tell a person that kind of story within weeks of each other?

Does Jason really not remember all those conversations that Sonny had with him about how his sister would not be involved with his life? I remember at least three long, drawn out conversations about it. Now Jason thinks that this will all be just fine (insert his big wide grin here) and Sonny will be thrilled for them?

Why did Taggert, who supposedly wanted to make sure justice was done during the trial, keep something so critical as a third stab wound to himself? He should at least be responsible for telling Mac about it since it should have been Mac's investigation. And Mac should have cared enough about Brenda to use that info to search further. We have heard nothing about whether that wound was from the same knife or a different one…but I would think this would be info someone would want to look into at least from a police investigational standpoint.

How on earth does Skye keep getting into Alcazar's room? She obviously didn't ask for a key or the front desk would have mentioned to Nikolas that someone would be in his room when he got there! Maybe Courtney swiped Jason's lock picking kit earlier and tried to threaten AJ with it so he took it from her and gave it to Skye to use for her numerous attempts to make herself look guiltier. Then after they watched the scenes of Courtney holding a lock pick in front of AJ while sneering at him, they decided maybe a gun would work better.

Does it really make sense to send someone you don't trust, who happens to be an attorney and not someone who should really be experienced at this sort of thing, after a guy that just tried to scare you to death? I also think there must be a more appropriate response to being shot at (blanks or no) than being upset that your conversation was interrupted.

If Jax suddenly wants to help Skye, then he might consider how it looks to the cops when they show up at his place and ask questions about Skye and then find him at Skye's five minutes later when they go there…could he have run over there to warn her any faster or made her look any more suspicious? He could have at least left the room before she let them in. Why they didn't mention any surprise at his presence, I don't know, but I thought it was a bad move.

This one's for the writers. It's Friday, and you've been building to something…well, it should say "for weeks" here but nothing builds for weeks around here and unfortunately in this instance we're talking a day and a half, but you know what I mean…you've been building to something for uh, awhile, and you're mapping out your last few scenes of the show (Did I mention it's Friday?!!!). You have this big shocking reveal of Alexis in her Kristina-like hair and clothes while in an apparent trance and you plan to have her say a big shocking line that lets us all know that things are very, very wrong and points to some big reveals for just about anyone who isn't a moron. Next time, that should most definitely be THE CLOSING SCENE OF THE FRIDAY SHOW!!! Hello? Is there anybody at ABC with a brain? Brenda doesn't have to close every scene of every show…and putting a reveal such as this second fiddle to anything else is just not using your head.


<font size=4>Better Luck Next Time!</font>

Hey Alexis? Next time you decide to dump your clients mid-trial I would suggest you approach them (the actual clients, I mean) directly. You could have saved yourself and us the pain of watching yet another grating interchange between yourself and the Corinthos'. This would have been particularly helpful since the clients in question had plans to leave the country at the time and probably wouldn't have given you much flak about taking care of your baby at that point.

Hey Courtney? There is no way AJ can honestly say that "Jason is innocent" and the gun doesn't change that. See, while AJ was lying his rear off about several things involving Ida, he was telling the truth about the limo thing and he knows nothing else about who actually killed Alcazar. There is no way he, nor you, can know for sure who did or didn't do it. For all AJ knows he could have been framing the guilty parties.

Brenda ought to sit down and contemplate all the trouble she's had with Jax not listening to what she wants before she accepts his proposal…did she really just forget that things have been less than smooth so far with this reunion?

The guy that accepted the job of shooting blanks at the mob boss in town needs us all to wish him luck because he obviously has little else to run on. Sonny should've done away with him purely because people willing to do things that stupid should really not be walking around in polite society.

What kind of elective surgery can you have performed six months earlier than necessary on a premature infant? Ned said she didn't need it for six months and I'm thinking most people would be hard pressed to find a physician that would perform such surgery if it weren't necessary, it's not like you can just order them to do it or anything. If she actually found a Doctor who saw no benefit to Kristina having it done now, and it wasn't supposed to be done for six months but did it anyway…well, maybe Alexis put on those clothes and that wig and seduced the doc into doing it because I'd say that's the only way to make it happen. Why can't the writers come up with a way to make these conflicts transpire that isn't so blatantly last minute and stupid?



<font size=4>Can You Possibly Be Any Lamer?</font>

If Ned and Faith are supposed to be mounting (ew…) this top-secret attack force against Sonny, why are they constantly being seen together in public? It appears to me that the whole world knows exactly what they are up to, except apparently, Sonny. Alexis called them on it weeks ago, Edward could see it as soon as he saw them together at the courthouse (as far as Ned knows anyway) and all along I thought part of the plan was the surprise attack idea. He wouldn't "see it coming" or whatever. Sure, show up at the courthouse for the verdict Faith, Sonny won't give a thought to why you're there…whatever.

Uh, Summer? Do you think it's wise to be so tight lipped about your past "hookerhood"? I mean really, why not go ahead and mention it once in awhile…you almost never bring it up!

This trial has been nothing short of dumb throughout, but it somehow managed to get even worse at the end. Among the myriad of questions swimming through my mind, one stands out the most. How exactly does the piece of coat with blood on it mean anything? That could have been anyone's coat with Al's blood on it, from who knows when. He was shot before in town for goodness sake, maybe it was a piece of Al's own coat from the last time he was shot that someone took out of his closet and gave to Ric. It's pretty lame that a piece of cloth casts enough doubt when a third person in the room (Skye) did not. And don't get me started on the third wound in the sealed report! The autopsy must have been seen by both attorneys, so why would the third wound - which we DID NOT see on his stomach while it was laid all out on that car, but whatever - be in a different, sealed report?

Hey Courtney! There's no way around the fact that your tape would be inadmissible. There is also no way around the fact that by the time you got to the DA's office, several people with more brains than you had already gotten the ball rolling without your assistance. So why, whhhhhyeeeee, do you insist on bringing up your stunt to everyone in sight? I also noticed that you failed to mention to both Sonny and Jason that your tape did absolutely no good and that the investigation was already reopened…methinks you just love the drama and attention!

Has anyone else noticed that when you see a scene that makes little sense, comes out of nowhere and doesn't really end up going anywhere (Courtney pulling the gun on AJ for example), that you can almost always trace it back to a prop or violent action? The gun in the courtroom scene wasn't about getting a confession that saved the day; it was about letting us see a gun. Carly and Alexis' confrontation a few weeks ago wasn't about any actual character development; it was about letting us see a good old fashioned slap. There are few among us who do not yet understand the relationship (or lack thereof) between Ned and Faith, yet the weapon sex keeps coming.

Sonny needs a new expression of anger. Smashing the same barware, the same way, every single time you get angry begins to show a lack of imagination and an inability to actually ACT angry, instead we have to be shown physical evidence of it each time so no one is confused or lost. The poker was a new one, and while I give points for broadening his horizons a bit, I think picking up a poker and attacking your home while your wife stands by is moving beyond anger. And a personal note from me to Carly: No, you cannot afford to replace everything that is broken, trust me.

How on earth did Sonny and Carly not notice that guy with the gun until he was practically in their laps and where have all the bodyguards gone?



<font size=4>Ew, Gross!</font>

Ned and Faith having "anger sex" (if you can even call it that…it's more like two desperate people bound together by fetishes for weaponry) for the millionth time. Can we move on already…it's just not interesting anymore and it was really only minimally sexy the first time.

Zander's crack in response to Cameron's "aim higher" comment was funny. I apologize, because I realize it's terrible and nothing to joke about, but c'mon! "I guess I could have hit him in the head…" (Or whatever the exact quote was) I laughed pretty hard, but then I felt kind of guilty so I'm putting this in the "Ew, Gross" category instead of in a "LMAO!" category out of respect for the rest of you.


<font size=4>Oh, That's Just Cold!</font>

Monica is the worst parent around. I know Cameron is terrible as well but Monica wins this race because she's been saying the same crap to AJ that Cam says to Zander and she's been doing it for years! She also sinks lower than Cameron by seeming to not even have a moment of regret for her words or actions. Cameron is a close second, but at least he shows a glimmer of remorse once in awhile.

Jax suddenly has "An obligation to help Skye"?? That's rich.



<font size=4>Where Ya Been?</font>

What sense did it make to have both Jax and Skye missing when the verdict came in for Brenda and Jason? Through this long, beleaguered, belabored, ridiculous trial they were both front and center…one trying to protect his love and the other trying to send that love away. Then the verdict, the moment when we all were holding our breaths (*snick*) and then looking around in shock at the thought of losing our Brenda and Jason for twenty-some years, and where are the two pivotal reactions? Nowhere to be found, it seems. At least Jax had an excuse (he was getting a haircut!), I still don't know where Skye was supposed to be that day which was really odd since they couldn't keep her drunk a** out of there the rest of the time. Also strange that Monica and Alan were missing giving the constant bickering about who was going and who wasn't, they both showed up for much of the trial but not for the verdict? No sense, I'm telling ya.

Why is Felicia suddenly working for Sonny and Jason? I can understand a desire from Felicia to get to the truth even though she isn't directly involved, that is within character. But I see no reason she would need to be reporting to Sonny about anything. It's not as though she doesn't have contacts of her own to utilize, she doesn't need Sonny's. It was dumb to begin with that Felicia basically disappeared for a week or so and then suddenly, when it's too late, she shows up again claiming she's sure Ida's testimony was false…whatever. It all reeks of last minute story writing and it's rather offensive. Why can't Felicia just stick with the good guys and call Mac instead of Sonny when she needs to talk out her theories? Speaking of Mac, why didn't he work harder to keep Scotty honest since Brenda's life was at risk? At least he gave her the cell phone in jail, but that's about all he did to help her out which seems rather unlike him, given that he knows Scott both invents and suppresses evidence all at the same time.

Elton!!! I suppose we can hope to at least see a few good comedy scenes in the upcoming weeks since he popped back into town. I hope he sticks around and finds something more profitable to do in PC…weddings are definitely not GH's thing lately.

Liz and Lucky are acting like friends! I've missed it and I'm glad to see it again. If we can get an actor in here that has at least half of what JJ had then I say Liz ultimately belongs back with Lucky. Period.

Coleman…Colemaaaaaaan! Where are you?

Where did Ric's nightmares and the fiery reminders his past life run off to?

I guess we no longer have to ponder on the whereabouts of the buzz cut capitol of the world, it's even closer than we could have imagined.



<font size=4>Oooh! You're Good!</font>

Bobbie and Lucky. Sweet conversation, respected history, no one slapped or attacked anyone, and it furthered the story (such as it is). See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?

Scott and Summer. He has been charming and almost sweet so far with her. I have no interest whatsoever in watching Summer send every friend, child, and ex-love of Laura's into a tailspin just by being a blond with a blue coat and scarf, but I admit I'm intrigued a bit by Summer and Scott. So sue me again.

Ned and Zander. Their talk in the hospital was realistic and well acted. It was nice to see characters deal with normal everyday things, like jobs. It was also nice to see that Ned still has some common sense in there somewhere.

Brenda and Jason. The banter is getting a bit repetitive at times, but it still cracks me up and I enjoy it immensely most of the time. They have great lines, great chemistry and awesome delivery when they're together. They are also very good the few times that they speak honestly and seriously with each other. The comparison between the electricity between the two of them, as opposed to each with their respective "loves" of the moment, is basically pathetic if you ask me. Sometimes "it" is just there, and Jason and Brenda have "it" right now. Courtney and Jax would look really great together on a beach somewhere in Australia…

Edward! I love the idea of Edward being behind Faith. Edward is a nasty old coot, but I love him that way and it's been awhile since we were served some true Edward. I'm looking forward to more and kudos for pulling out a surprise or two with this one so far!

Brenda and Sonny were really good at the jail after her conviction. Jason and Brenda were also excellent in their post-conviction jail scenes.

Zander was excellent at the hospital with Gia at the end of last week. The acting was perfect (and much, much better than the overacting his character's drug habit seems to bring on!) and I enjoyed NuGia with him as well. Give me more of that kind of stuff for the Zander character and I'll be completely hooked in no time.

I don't know what it does for Skye, but when she mentioned a "Brenda baton" all sorts of hilarious images went through my mind. One could spend hours just picturing everyone in town (who has waved Brenda's name around like it's sacred) on ice skates twirling a stiff Brenda around by her feet and tossing her into the air…nah, it doesn't take much to amuse me, you're right about that.

Jason and Brenda were also great in the jungle (or wherever they were) hut. Anything on this show that makes me laugh out loud (not from disbelief) is great!

Addendum (February 3, 4:08pm): I absolutely loved Jason and Brenda's talk today about Jax. I was rolling my eyes last week when she yet again changed her mind about who she wants to be married to and was not expecting much from today, but I was pleasantly surprised! Jason's right, for once she made sense instead of coming off like a flake. This may not be the best way to handle the situation, but I'm exceedingly grateful to see them at least address the fact that Jax and Brenda may not be ready for a wedding. I do wonder about Brenda's expectations (not that Jax doesn't still suck royally, but...) if she thinks she will never be disappointed, and it could explain why she keeps bouncing back and forth instead of sticking with something and working it out when she gets disappointed, but all in all it was a satisfying conversation. Those two really bring out the best in each other! (Sidenote...Apparently it was a rough plane ride because Brenda transformed herself to a baglady somehow by the time she got home - that sweater was hideous!! Do you think she just put it on in the dark and that's why it appeared to be upside down and sideways?)



<font size=4>Huh?</font>

Brenda has never had a man protect her and ask nothing in return until Jason? At first I was disbelieving of her statement, then I decided that Jax probably did usually want something in return since it seems like he's been forcefully proposing to Brenda for about twenty years. But then I decided that with all the men she has around ALL THE TIME, there must be one of them, at one point, that did something to protect her without demanding payment - at least not right away. She hasn't been around Jason long enough to judge whether he's going to start proposing to her in the near future, or not. Jax seemed pretty selfless when he put her back together after Sonny (for five minutes anyway) so Brenda needs to learn to not judge things quite so quickly and give these guys time to show their obsessions before she lauds them for their selflessness.

Nikolas and Gia. What in the heck is going on here? As Nikolas and Gia argued in the hospital a while ago, I found myself wondering how I'm supposed to be able to watch this and have any feelings about it at all? I understand that the writers are apparently going for the idea that Gia is into her career now and Nikolas wants a little wifey at home, thus we have conflict. Problem is they are showing us absolutely nothing but fighting between these two. Particularly since NuGia arrived, the pairing of Nikolas and Gia is basically gone. I can accept taking them in a different direction, but I would rather see them have an actual event happen that does irreparable damage. Watching what is supposed to represent a slow disintegration is really only serving to irritate me. I don't really care if they're together or not, but I'm not buying that they worked their way through the princess-to-be wanting to be a supermodel, but now can't work out her desire to be an attorney. Nikolas, while being completely snotty and annoying about it, has a point since they are apparently writing Gia so that she hardly ever goes home and ONLY cares about her work and Zander, refusing to even call home anymore…that's not the relationship I remember them having. Either show us the changes in the characters or just blow them apart quickly, the slow death thing, minus any explanations, is just unfair and annoying. They had "a fight" so he moved to the PC Hotel??? Huh? That is apparently the worst fight they've ever had since I don't recall him not being able to be in the same hundred-room mansion as her before, and we didn't even get to see it. He just moved out. There's drama for ya.

I find myself completely amazed that over the course of two days, Alexis went from stressed out mother to someone who sleepwalks, has huge memory gaps (not only doesn't she have no recollection of buying the chimes, she doesn't remember packing them in her suitcase?), is often non-responsive to those around her and dresses in her sister's clothing. If Kristina is now one of Alexis' personalities then why isn't Alexis cozying up to Ned and wanting him to be the father of the baby at least half the time? Isn't that what Kristina would want? I think I'm as confused as Alexis appears to be these days.

Why has Jason STILL not taken off that wedding band??


In conclusion, I found last week to be a huge mess of things that made so little sense they weren't even worth commenting on for the most part. I haven't bothered to dwell on the whys and wherefores in here because it's not worth the bother since this show is no longer about the characters. Is Courtney suddenly nervous about telling the world about her romance because she grew a brain and remembered who her brother is, is she not as in love as she thinks, or is it just because there is a story twist down the road that will require a hearken back to a moment of doubt? Is Liz and Courtney fighting it out at every opportunity because the ultimate story will go back to Liz and Jason or is it just that a good catfight is always in order during sweeps? Are Summer and Lucky jumping into a relationship at this moment so Luke can crash again or because we need Lucky to have this wrapped up before his new face gets here and heads straight back to Liz? Was having a hit man walking straight up to Sonny and Carly and shoot blanks so we could all roll our eyes the next day at the utter stupidity of it really necessary or was it just another scene with a gun? Are Nik and Gia fighting solely so that it makes more sense for her to spend time with Zander and to provide him a confidante? He desperately needs one but no one got around to giving him friends after Em left.

One thing I am looking forward to is what happens after the Alcazar murder is solved…who do they write for after we have to get back to stories about individual characters? What big tragedy will they formulate and execute next…all while swapping characters around until someone appears to fit in with the story? The answer is that we're all just along for the ride, griping and complaining as we go. We all had a good laugh at the ridiculousness of AJ hanging on the meat hook a while ago, but I wonder who is on the meat hook now? Soap watchers are a resilient group, if nothing else and we'll keep coming back for more…but at the same time no one should underestimate our ability to complain, loudly, to anyone who will listen. My suggestion would be ABC, their sponsors, and the soap magazines for starters. Check Eye on Soaps' <A HREF="http://www.eyeonsoaps.com/GH/contact.htm"><i>Contact Page</i></A> for addresses. Send letters by snail mail, not email (every one I've sent that I activated the request receipt option on has been deleted unread - I don't recommend bothering!) and send them often. The current GH may not be horrible but imagine what it CAN be with competent writing…just imagine! Write, write, and write. It's the best hope.

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Things I Need Explained:

1. The whacked out hours that Kelly's keeps! Really, Liz and Courtney have a spat. One of them apparently stays long enough to put all the chairs up and close the place down. An hour later, they both return because Bobbie called them wondering why Kelly's was closed (uh yeah, ya think?) so they start opening it back up. Since they apparently sent the cook home, they are on their own. Zander went downstairs, cleared a bunch of cobwebs off the crap laying around in the Speakeasy, Carly shows up and instead of thanking Zander for helping jumpstart the actual construction phase of her project (which seems at something of a standstill after all) she acted like he took out her very favorite cobweb. Zander leaves, running into Liz upstairs who is also apparently leaving. I believe she was there all of fifteen minutes…I wonder if that was what Bobbie had in mind when she called? Maybe Liz is like the "set up" waitress…she gets everything ready for the actual waitressing to occur, but the crack-shot serving team shows up before any actual approach to a table?

2. The PCPD's extremely lax security. Anyone, and I mean anyone - even the DA's most hated rival and top crime boss of Port Charles, Sonny Corinthos himself, can just waltz right in and visit any person who happens to be in custody. Even if that person happens to be a possible witness for or against Mr. Corinthos or any of his cohorts. We had a moment, out in the hall at the PCPD where it appeared that Mr. Corinthos might get the chance to approach Ric Lansing and possibly threaten him about revealing what he saw that night, but luckily the twelve guards surrounding Mr. Lansing ushered him quickly away from the threat and we all breathed a little easier. Of course, a while later Mr. Corinthos just walked right on in to the interrogation room in front of God and everybody and told Mr. Lansing to keep his mouth shut.

3. The substitution of the word "Brave" for the word "Stupid". Jason says Courtney was "brave" for stripping rather than asking Sonny for help. Now Courtney is "brave" because she IS letting everyone else handle everything for her…make up your mind already! Sonny and Jason both say Carly is "brave"…I was quite a Carly fan for a long while and I must say honestly that I didn't often see her antics coming from bravery. More often than not Carly's plans come from fear and very occasionally she stumbles onto something that actually works to her advantage. I figure that "You're so brave" thing is really just their way of trying to keep her mollified so she doesn't go off and do something stupid again. Jason says Brenda is "brave" for diving into a frigid lake/river, apparently without scuba gear, to wander through a shipwreck at the bottom of the lake/river looking for a key to a safe deposit box that contains…what? She apparently didn't know what it contained but it ended up being a tape marked "SMOKING GUN"…er, or was it "PROOF BRENDA DID ME IN"? Nah, just kidding, no way would all that fit on that label (Can't you just see Al sitting at his computer making out labels for his videos? LOL), particularly not when the largest font was obviously necessary! Thank goodness clearer heads prevailed and it was labeled only "MURDER" so Jax could still be dumb enough to hand it over to the cops without being quite insane enough to be ushered straight to Ferncliff. ANYway, I don't see these chicks as all that brave. If they want to see bravery, they oughta turn around and take a look at those of us watching this show everyday…cringing to see what the heck they're going to do with it next! That's bravery.

4. Where exactly is the entrance to Kelly's storeroom? Because it certainly appeared as though Zander entered from the outside which would make it a complete pain in the rear to go get that can of stewed tomatoes every time they need more chili. There must be a back entrance to Kelly's which leads to the upstairs as well, so I can allow that maybe he went in the back way and then down into the storeroom. Funny though, how Liz and Courtney didn't hear a thing while Zander was working on giving the bar top that great "weathered" look, but when Ric and Carly were breaking down the wall the little old lady across the street could hear the commotion…

5. Where is Skye hiding her bottle? She carried that teeny flask while at the courthouse all day, guzzled from it like it was bottomless, and carried it inside that teeny purse of hers that obviously couldn't carry much else. So, where's she getting her refills from anyway?

6. How do you get an IV in while someone is still wearing a full wetsuit? How does a person pass out in frigid water but still manage to keep a key clenched in their hand? Do paramedics carry blow dryers? Apparently they don't carry extra blankets since Nikolas was left to shiver in the cold, but someone did dry Brenda's hair by the time she got to the hospital so maybe Nik stayed warm by blowing on her head in the ambulance??


7. Were there hidden cameras in the courtroom? I didn't see any obvious ones, that's for sure, so there must be hidden ones that were providing the feed back to Brenda's hospital room. There were multitudes of problems with the courtroom scene, but by far the most hilarious was Jax appearing in the frame at just the right moment. Followed by Jax yelling at the courtroom to get Skye away from the screen…as he craned his neck to see around her. Um, what's the problem Jax was she blocking your view? I guess we found where the cameras are hidden! Why no one seemed to mind that Jax just blew weeks worth of spinning to make it appear Jason and Brenda are actually married is beyond me. Why did the judge start addressing Jax with questions like he has anything at all to do with the case? Ah, it was all most piteous really.

8. Why does that tape make Brenda look anymore guilty than before? She already admitted that she stabbed Alcazar…didn't she? I thought that is what got her on trial in the first place? Admitting that you stabbed someone intentionally seems like it would pretty much cover the question of whether you were capable of stabbing someone or not.

9. The big mystery around town is why we can hear the dial tone loud and clear after Emily hangs up, but we can't hear her voice while she's on the line. Curious, isn't it?

10. Sonny: "I don't need help and I probably never will…", said to Alexis of all people! Who was that guy again that barged into NICU because he couldn't figure out how to find a new lawyer on his own?

11. Hello? News flash for Monica, Courtney, Brenda, and Carly. If Jason and Sonny had not been planning to kill Alcazar that night and had not therefore, turned off the security camera tape, then Jason and Brenda could already have been cleared since Brenda left Al's suite before he took the plunge, and Jason never even entered the room. The plight that Jason and Brenda are in, despite whatever moves AJ or Skye has made since then began when Jason started to carry out his hit man duties. Period. This, of course, does not exonerate any criminal activity on the "Three Musketeers" part, it just means that there's no way this show is going to convince me that lines like "…not like Sonny's hired killer which is exactly what Scott is going to try to convince the jury you are…" make a darn bit of sense except in a humorous, "laugh at how stupid these mob girlies are" kind of way.


Things I Would Be Perfectly Happy To Never See (or hear!) Again:

1. "Okay, you know what?" Enough said. (No, I mean really! It's been said a EdamnNOUGH already!)

2. Courtney and Carly having the "talk". Everytime I see them, I think of "13 Conversations About One Thing" which is a perfectly interesting movie having nothing to do with mob chippies singing the blues to one another, but the title is certainly appropriate in describing what these two have to say. I wonder if Carly's first clue about Courtney acting "too much like" her came from the odd coincidence that these two "friends" have slept with two of the same men? C'mon girls, be "brave" and try out another conversation already.

3. Zander stumbling around sideways. I really don't mind Chad Brannon, though admittedly he's never been a particular favorite of mine. The thing is, he's great in the emotional scenes such as on the phone with Emily, or when he had his talks with Carly, but I really start to cringe after awhile at his "I'm high and might explode into rage at any moment" scenes. They feel completely over-acted to me and I never feel like I'm really watching Zander do those things, I just feel like I'm watching CB put on a show with a very limited range of facial expressions available for use apparently. When I put Zander's unraveling up against Skye's unraveling…well, there is no contest about which is really tangible. CB absolutely rocks in the emotional scenes but I think they'd be better off to limit the screen time when it comes to his long drawn out fits.

4. Courtney talking to Jason about anything. Courtney talking to Sonny about being a good little sister. Courtney talking to Coleman (she blocks my view). Courtney writing in her diary…that one especially! Puhleeze! They sleep together, they practically live together, he's on trial with the possibility of the death penalty and she's talking about being scared to tell him she loves him? Maybe she could just start by asking him to sit next to her in third period and work her way up.

5. Inexplicable crap like Brenda's dive into the lake! Why? Why? Why? Way too much left unexplained, such as did she have scuba gear? How on earth are we supposed to believe that she found the shipwreck, found her way through it and came out with the key only to pass out and float around for a while before being rescued? It's completely ludicrous and really unnecessary. It resulted in Brenda TV, which was not exactly a stroke of genius if you ask me. We didn't get to see any of Jax's reaction to Skye's testimony, which would have been interesting. We didn't get to see Brenda and Jason sit united in their defense. Instead we got Brenda, clutching her blankie and looking pretty darn healthy, peering unblinkingly out from a television screen. I was surprised they didn't pile some books under the monitor so her head would be level with Jason and Alexis'. Her dive also gave us the scene between Jax and Sonny, which was again uninspired. Brenda's willingness to risk her life for that key seems a bit odd given her basic lack of reaction to Jax turning it over to the police five minutes later. My personal theory is that VM wanted a day or two off and they had to think of a way to get Brenda off screen for an hour. Since it's pretty obvious that between Jax, Sonny and Jason she can't just be "not seen" for any length of time, the best they could come up with is sending her for a swim in January. They're just really lucky all the lakes and rivers weren't frozen like the one's near me are or their big "get Brenda a day off" plan would have gone completely haywire.

6. The complete and total self-righteousness of soooo many characters. Look, we all make mistakes, no doubt. I'm not in any way saying that any of these examples excuse the behavior of any other characters. But why, oh why, are 95% of the characters on my screen everyday, so hatefully self-righteous? Why does Courtney no longer have any problem with her brother and Jason's business? Why doesn't she feel a slight amount of remorse about kissing Jason before she knew AJ was a stalker? Why does Sonny think that his life is fine for Mikey but not for Courtney? Why does Carly think that it's somehow worse for Jax to want Brenda to sell out Jason than it is when she herself tells Jason that he should stop protecting Brenda and save himself? Jax, Skye, Ned, Alexis, Monica, Alan, AJ, Edward, Cameron…all blatantly self-righteous and mostly annoying. The amount of "I hate you forever and I'm going to make you pay" going around is staggering, even for a soap opera. No one seems to even like each other anymore. Alexis and Jax were great friends, now he basically yells at her and she just stares back at him. Jax and Ned rarely interact. Everybody hates AJ. Everybody hates Skye. And it's no wonder, they are mostly all completely not likeable so why would they like each other anymore? I swear these people need to be sent to separate desert islands for a few years and then brought back to begin again.

7. This Maxie, Georgie, Lucas crap. Look, if they had wanted to pursue the Maxie yearning for Lucky thing, I could've handled it. I could handle more Felicia handling the young teens thing with a little Mac thrown in for good measure. I could handle the three of them getting into trouble while Flea and Bobbie try to juggle careers and kids. All three of these allow for the parents to be involved and also allow for a little extended family action. What we have now is a NuGeorgie that has little chance since we haven't gotten much to build her into the family with. NuNuLucas who is probably okay too but has yet to spend time with Bobbie or Tony. The three of them together do nothing more for me than any three kids they pulled off the street would. I don't really know them, I don't care about them and I see no anchor for them to even be on my screen. They're in their own little bubble with no change in sight. Major waste of time.

Reasons That I'm Still Watching:

1. AJ, Skye and Coleman. These three absolutely shine together. I love all of their scenes. I love the dynamic between Skye and Coleman, and I can't wait for the day when he finally gets through to her when he gets all sensitive and tries to explain that she needs to get on with her life. I swear if they make Jax the catalyst by which she gets herself together, you will be able to hear me screaming no matter where you are! I loved RC's performance at the trial. It was over the top, but still well executed and touching in its way. All three of these actors are able to somehow rise above the drivel that is their story lines and manage to bring something new and fresh to almost every scene they're in. Almost without fail, you can tell they are engaged in the dialogue and giving it all they've got. Unfortunately, that cannot be said for every actor on GH. I'm tired of Skye drinking, I'm tired of AJ being the bad guy, but somehow I still want to watch them. That says a lot. It's been said before but I will reiterate that Blake Gibbons is downright perfect as Coleman and he gets great dialogue that he delivers almost flawlessly within character. Wardrobe gets a special nod over Coleman too because I don't think they could dress him any more perfectly than they do.

2. Cameron, Alexis, Zander. Yes, I saw how Cameron acted last week. No, there is no excuse for it. I do believe however, that his behavior is within character and realistic. Father's and sons can be very complicated. It's not always pretty and in this case it most definitely wasn't. I'm intrigued by the back-story, which is still largely untold but is beginning to take shape. Peter was the "good son", Zander was a screw up and we really don't know to what extent yet. It's pretty apparent that tptb have opted to rewrite a bit of Zander's history since he swore up and down to Em that he never did drugs but now seems to be falling back into his old habits (which are supposed to have never existed) so I guess we can scratch the notion that he was only a dealer at this point. Was he doing drugs back then? Does Cameron suspect he was high that day? Had Zander been on a course toward destruction that his parents had already spent themselves on helping him with before the shooting? Zander ran away from both his mother and father and apparently hasn't seen either one, even after knowing they split up so it's possible there is more to the story than we have seen thus far. There is also the possibility that Cameron is being a complete and total a** because of his own guilt. I doubt it's easy for any parent to see one child excel while the other fails time and again, and not be able to change it. Obviously, whatever Zander's problems are, his parents had a big hand in getting him where he is and that's a tough pill for any parent to swallow. While I thought Cameron's responses to Zander's questions at the PCPD were extremely hurtful, I would guess they are also the truth for Cameron at the moment. He probably does wish it were Zander that died…terrible yes, but truthful and even logical. Zander is on a destructive path at the moment and could very well kill himself with drugs and danger, something he's thrived on in the past. Cameron obviously feels lost in how to deal with Zander, but he was very comfortable with Peter…it's terrible, selfish and downright cruel in some ways, but it's logical and that's all men need sometimes. Cameron is showing regret and sadness when he's alone and once with Alexis, but when faced with Zander he reverted right back to what appears to be form for him. He obviously has never been close to Zander, has never understood Zander and while I'm sure he loves him, he is taking out the hurt and pain he feels at the ruination of his family on Zander alone. I haven't lost hope yet that this will turn into something worth watching. It's complicated, blurry, tragic and realistic. Look at it this way, if Cameron had walked in, hugged a reluctant Zander and shed a tear or two…where would the story be then? Pretty much over given the speed GH runs at these days. And we'd be back to Jason and Courtney opposite Brenda and Jax in no time at all. At least this way, there is story to be played out and Alexis will no doubt figure in prominently which is a good thing. I admit to being disappointed by Cameron's reaction, but after much thought I find I'm not as disappointed as I thought I was. This is a dysfunctional relationship just waiting to be repaired and there's actually hope of that happening, unlike the Quartermaine's relationship with AJ which I've basically given up on. If tptb actually do something with that parallel they made between AJ/Monica and Zander/Cameron then I'll be really thrilled. I'm not holding my breath, but I have a little hope.

3. Scott. Scott lights up my day almost every time he has a scene. He's getting great lines, he has awesome delivery and he just plain looks like he's having the time of his life! And why not? A few months ago Scotty was a nonentity in PC…now he's front and center and eating it up. I love it. He's great with Carly, Skye, Coleman, Brenda and AJ. He brings life to his costars, almost without fail.

4. Lucky and Summer. Yep, you heard me right. I can't really explain it yet, but I find I like them better with every trite scene. I really like Summer; I think she's fresh even though some of the material sucks. I think she's cute and appealing in an almost average, but completely not average, way - if that makes any sense at all. I have rarely had any use for Lucky so I'm at just as much of a loss to explain how I feel as you probably are. I can't help it though; they are sweet and comfortable…maybe that's the key. They're like soap comfort food. They're nice to each other, they're both attractive, and they're acting like normal people who meet and do that very thing. I realize there is the whole Luke issue, but for now he isn't around which is sparing me the almost reveals and other annoying things that have all but overtaken this show. They just "are". It's relatively uncomplicated, comparatively speaking, and c'mon, it's just sweet! I actually think this may mostly be a vehicle for tptb to show us that Lucky has learned a few things. He is listening to what she says, respecting what she asks of him and not throwing everything into overdrive, as JY's Lucky has been prone to do. I'm charmed by both of them, despite myself.

5. Jason and Brenda. I don't really care if they have a romance, but I truly hope that their alliance continues. They are the only combination of the "six" that I care about at all. They are interesting and fun together and they aren't being forced down our throat - that says it all really.

6. Ric. I am still curious about who he is and what his role will be. I enjoy his scenes and am not opposed to a Liz/Ric romance though it needs to be approached correctly. The very last thing Liz needs to do is spiral off into another relationship straight from being hurt by her last one. She has developed something of a habit of that and it doesn't serve her character. A slow build would be great and I really hope to see Liz show us what she's learned over the last few years as well. Getting involved with a man whose main goal is getting in tight with Sonny may not be the best move for her and I'd like to see Liz realize that and think it through. That doesn't mean the relationship can't happen, it just means she doesn't need to act like her past never happened.

7. Alexis. *Sigh* It's not easy but I'm holding on to hope. I still hope to get an actual baby story out of that pesky pregnancy and birth thing we went through awhile back. At some point they have to let the kid out of the hospital (Hopefully before she's bigger than Michael!) and then maybe we can get some of the old Alexis back. This trial needs to end, they need to tell us who killed Alcazar already, and let us move on. I wonder if they care that I'm more interested in who killed Ida? This was an elderly lady who was crafty but charming, and she's dead! I want answers! Anyway, I want Alexis to move on. Like NOW!


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The new and improved, "I can find something to like about this show again" Sherry sat down to watch Monday's show with a great attitude and patience to spare. She could wait them out, and she would. She would sit tight until something happened that piqued her interest again and then she'd run with it, revived and recharged about what was once her very favorite show…and then it happened. Not ten minutes in, Carly marches up to Alexis and slaps her in what looked to me to be a completely gratuitous scene. I got out my TV guide, I double checked that I was not watching Melrose Place reruns on Fox…and then I proceeded to get really irritated. I watched the rest of the show and then proceeded to shout my disapproval from my little personal Internet rooftop. I was feeling better for voicing my reactions, until I remembered that this was the very first day in my new quest to find the good in the show so that my viewing time won't be completely wasted! How could this happen? My very first day, and already I had failed. I ran straight to the Eye On Soaps <A HREF="http://pub13.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=1032203276 "><u>Message Board</u></A> and called upon my good friends over there to help me see what I must have missed, because there must have been something good about the show, right? Like troopers, those ladies came through with support of all sorts, ranging from non-judgmental commiseration all the way up to a full-fledged, detailed synopsis of what WAS good on Monday's show. The latter was from Cissy, a friend who came through on several occasions this week when I needed an injection of positivism to get me back on track. She's a staunch defender of all things Luke (though AJ counts himself lucky to have her in his corner as well) and her list provided all sorts of little things from Monday's show that really weren't half bad, if not good in some cases. Like a true friend, she didn't talk about Courtney at all…and gently reminded me of my Cameron love. So, this column, and my regenerated energy in the quest to find what I like, is thanks to Cissy.

Once I was past that seemingly insurmountable problem, things started making sense this week. Let me back track a little first though. After Monday's show, I taped the rest of the week, catching minor tidbits here and there but not watching any of the shows in full. I knew some of what was happening from the message boards, so when I finally got around to watching the shows this weekend I was unsurprised by most of what transpired. What I was surprised by though, was how much I found I did like this week. I'm not sure the parts I liked are what the writers intended me to like, but who cares? I liked things, several things, in fact! I'm going to start with Monday's show and talk about how I felt about it the first time I watched it, as opposed to the second time. The old Sherry will undoubtedly have a few things to say here and there, and let's face it, she's really not wrong. I mean, I'm trying to control her but I can't exactly disprove her theories so we shouldn't discount everything she says…that would be rude. She's just slightly passé now, like that pashmina shawl everyone had to have a year or so ago (Is that when it was? Whatever, you know what I mean)…it's still beautiful and even useful but you've changed your style already. I will try to control her, but I won't be able to stifle her completely especially since she does have a good point at times. So we'll call her Passé Sherry, or PS for short. I'll label her comments as such and those of you who wish to ignore her (that is recommended really) will be able to easily do so. It may not make for smooth reading, but it will keep you on your toes at least. Now on with the show!

So, here's my take (this paragraph would all be from PS) on Monday's show the first time around. Carly eavesdropped again, jumped from A to Z with no actual facts to back it up, and proceeded to do her usual confrontational posturing. She didn't get enough of a reaction from that, so she whacked Alexis one across the face and then huffed off to Sonny where she actually acted like she was the one who was accosted for no reason. I saw no purpose for the slap, the situation didn't call for it and the scene could have had more power without it. I was completely disappointed that Alexis stood there and took it without a word and then Kristina showed up and started yammering all sorts of inexplicable crap that was the complete opposite of what she said last time she popped by (at the morgue). Instead of love your baby and skip the revenge, she was now spouting "make them suffer, they keeeeeled me!" Cameron showing up to yell at Alexis for working too much again just sealed my suspicions about Monday being a red-letter, everybody crap on Alexis day. I suppose the Ned/Faith stuff was supposed to top it off, but since I don't want Alexis with Ned anyway, I was glad she saw that.

Now, here's my take from the second time around. Alexis is basically crazy (PS - There is NO proof of that!) and I've accepted that. She probably killed Alcazar (no spoiler there, I don't have a clue how this is going to turn out, but my suspicions are that Alexis will end up responsible) and if I accept that then I must accept the crazy business because that will be her only defense. So, if she did it, she either remembers it and she's defending Brenda to ensure that Brenda doesn't go down for something she did, or she doesn't remember it but is having weird, inexplicable feelings that are making her seem "off". If we accept this then we can understand some of what's been going on. I mean, here she is, a new mom who wants only to spend time with her daughter but she can't because she did this horrible thing. So now, she has to spend all this time defending Jax's girlfriend and by proxy she's defending Jason, which is really not what she feels like doing at the moment. She's trying to get Brenda out of this without making things worse or incriminating herself. She has Ned, Cameron and now Carly, breathing down her neck. That whole scene with Carly was to make us see just how far Alexis has fallen. She couldn't even mount a response; she's a woman at the brink of losing it entirely. The dream she had of Kristina, was her own deluded inner state showing itself, and not a true Kristina sighting like at the morgue. She feels tremendous guilt, and is therefore letting everyone else walk all over her while mounting only feeble defenses. The only person she truly comes back at is Cameron, and that is because she is secretly in love with him already (PS - Did you just say that?)…Did I say that out loud? ANYway that scene, while painful to watch, was the first true sign of Alexis' diminished capacity that I've seen so far (PS - Uh, whatever but she's not nuts - the rest of them are! It's like tag-team Alexis bashing and it sucks!).

See there? I can do this! May as well stick with the Alexis theme for now since that is where my greatest gains have been this week. Fast-forward (PS - a word and action I know you are ALL familiar with!) to the end of the week. Alexis received an envelop from Ned via Zander (PS - which seems like a rather threatening way to deliver a receipt for payment, but whatever), gets very upset and marches straight to Faith's apartment (PS - no word on how the hell she knew who Faith was or where she lived) to confront Faith (?!) about it. That's just nuts! I mean really, that makes no sense. She's got the envelope in hand and everything, but she's there to talk to Faith? MmmHmm. Conveniently Ned does happen to be there, and they "chat". Things get heated immediately and viewers are left wondering what in the heck is going on here…did we miss a scene or what? No, you didn't miss anything. Alexis is a bit on the paranoid side at this point, and with good reason. Ned is being overbearing (PS - you don't say!) and since Alexis has this secret that could obviously jeopardize her future with her child, she is projecting the fear that she will be separated from her child onto Ned. She's taking out her frustration on him and she's concentrating her efforts on keeping her child from Ned so that she doesn't have to face the fact that she may lose her baby, despite anything Ned does. (PS - okay, okay. I gotta interject here because I think that's a completely wrong! I've been told that when you want to fight someone for custody of a child, one of the major issues to prove is financial responsibility. Alexis opened that hand delivered envelope and took it as a declaration of war because it WAS! Ned intentionally paid that bill, to establish financial responsibility and to show Alexis that he is doing whatever it takes to ensure that she won't win a custody battle. He has medical staff willing to testify that she was nuts in the days following Kristina's birth, and now he has established financial responsibility by paying a bill that no one asked him to pay. He had it hand delivered to send a specific message, and Alexis got it loud and clear. She's an attorney and he knew she'd recognize this ploy from a mile away, and she did. When she confronted him, already angry and on the offensive, he threatened her with revealing Kristina's true parentage if she tried to keep Kristina from him. Something she had never intended to do until he made it very clear that he was starting a battle. He did all this, while standing in a known mobster's hotel room. He did this knowing that the reason Kristina's real father can't know about her is due to his involvement with organized crime. He stood there, practically married to the mob, and told her he'd tell Sonny the truth if she didn't do what he wanted. Ned totally sucks as a parent to Kristina at the moment, and if Alexis is going to keep her baby from Sonny then she better keep her from Sonny's current enemies as well, and Ned will soon be number one on that list. If Ned were any better than Sonny, then he would know that Kristina will be safer as far away from Ned as possible for at least the period of time he is actively pursuing revenge against Sonny via the mob. Instead, Ned will use something told to him in confidence back when he was a friend, and he'll force Alexis to let him be a part of Kristina's life, thereby ensuring that the danger of the mob will be a part of her life as well. Rant off.)

If Alexis killed Alcazar, then she needs to be crazy right now and I accept that. (PS - And if she didn't, and I'm right that they are basically just ruining Alexis for fun, what do I win?) I also love that Cameron is the one she can talk to. I love their interactions. I loved him saying he was going to "watch her suffer"! That's pretty classic of Alexis, especially lately. Hopefully, once all this murder stuff is over with, we can get back a bit of Natasha again because I certainly miss that.

Speaking of Cameron, I love that Zander is his son. I'm really excited about the possibilities here. It's new (PS - it's not mob related!), it takes us in a new direction with Zander, and it involves people I'm interested in watching. Can't get much better than that.

I really enjoyed the Zander and Liz scenes this week. Liz particularly impressed me because while I don't think she had any actual right to be angry with Jason, she had my sympathy. She had a right to feel betrayed by Courtney since she was lied to, but I was a bit surprised by the vehemence behind it since I didn't see them as much more than work buddies. (PS - Remember when Liz stopped over to see if Court wanted to go shopping? Jason was there and Courtney turned her down - maybe Liz should have bought a vowel before assuming that Courtney's loyalties would lie with Liz over Jason) I deem the slap unnecessary (PS - I bet it would have worked on Melrose Place though…) and the overblown, "how could you do this to me" was uh, overblown…but the rest really worked. RH can really act when given the chance (PS - and goodness knows she's been waiting for a scene that involves more than a tray and an apron for about three months!) and she did really well with it, even though much of the dialogue was off base. I felt bad for her, I rooted for her to "win" the discussion (PS - well yeah, the alternative was Courtney winning!) and I was ticked at Jason's attitude, this from someone who has no interest in seeing Jason and Liz together again. I felt bad for her, and she had some good points. Jason was fixated on Liz being able to handle "his life" but he and Courtney have barely touched on that. He did put Liz on a pedestal and worship from afar, but jumped right into bed with Courtney. Besides that, I just can't stand Courtney any more so I'm behind anyone who wants to slap her around a bit. If we are going to have a slap or two a week, Courtney gets my vote as the most eligible cheek. (PS - mine too) I really liked Liz's scenes with Zander after the fact. I saw it as Liz knowing she really didn't have any right to feel like she felt, but not being able to help feeling it. And I can understand that. Liz often seems to feel things she has no right to feel but usually thinks she has to convince herself and everyone else that she DOES have the right, instead of just admitting it for what it is. I loved that she didn't do that this time, and I seem to recall feeling that way about previous Liz/Zander interactions. I know this is not popular, but I'm really thinking I could get into those two together. I think they have chemistry. Then again, Liz and Jason obviously still have more chemistry than Courtney and Jason could muster up if someone left them alone with a chemistry set for a week. Liz looked beautiful during those scenes; she looked sad, lonely and confused…all very real and appropriate emotions. I really liked it.

Brenda looked great during her hypnosis scenes as well. She's been dressing fine, looking better than average and acting less annoying. All of which are very good things. I love the fact that Jax is making a complete ass of himself and I love that Brenda seems to see it for what it is. I enjoyed the moments when Sonny and Brenda were on the phone, both thinking their respective thoughts about each other (at least that's the way I saw it)…they too have more chemistry than should be allowed if tptb want us to think Jax and Brenda are "it". VM did a great job with the hypnosis session, the acting was really good and I found myself mesmerized by the process. (PS - pfft, Cameron was involved, what do you expect?)

I loved Luke and Cameron playing cards and talking about Laura - the real Laura. Luke can rejuvenate my sympathy for him with just a few vacant stares and sweet words about Laura. Why don't they do that a bit more often instead of recreating crap with a supposed Laura look-alike? Speaking of that, I actually like Summer but I don't think she looks so much like Laura that the entire town would be struck by it when they see her. Scott and Lucky both feeling "something" is quite enough already, let's quit while we're ahead on that!

Courtney and Carly doing moll-bonding at Kelly's is really, really boring. (PS - It's also completely ludicrous since as I've said before, Carly wouldn't really be supporting this arrangement anyway…besides, Courtney is on the list of characters that seem to bring Carly down. She's more interesting with others and Courtney NEVER interests me anymore, so I hereby decree that we should all ff any scenes there are between these two!)

Noooo! I want Ida back! Now!

I really, really love Scott lately. You may not appreciate how much that is saying since I really had no use for him a while ago, but trust me, it's saying a lot. I smile when he comes on screen and that's a big plus.

How funny is it that Jax offered to "make it worth your while" for Scott to frame Jason? Isn't Scott rich?

Anybody seen Felicia, Bobby, Alan, Monica, Edward, Tony, Mac or Mike lately? It was something of a "power players only" week, wasn't it?

Ned to Zander: "Maybe Emily wasn't so wrong about you" …um, so what, she was right and he will make a good mob courier?

Jax is the epitome of the sensitive, caring male. He just instinctively knows that someone who has lived in fear of going insane for years will welcome the chance to lie to the world and claim herself insane before all. You go Jax!

(PS - I also have something to mention to Jax. I loved his little statement to Brenda, what was it again? Oh, that's right it went something like this: "I don't care about the truth". Hmmm, what's that Jax? When it comes to keeping the one you love with you, you don't care about the truth? You're willing to lie your butt off? You're willing to lie in order to be the hero? Uh huh. I bet I know someone who can understand that motive, but soap gods willing, she doesn't want to speak to you about that or anything else so you're on your own.)

So Deception shut down? Wow, that's really pretty bad to lose a business like that. One would think they might have at least considered selling it and putting the money in an account for Lulu. But nah, just lock the doors (PS - sheez! I hope they let Elton leave the building before they padlocked the doors!) and throw away the key.

Summer's Senator is a real idiot. Let's not waste any more time on that little thread, okay by you?

Courtney and Jason…um, no comment. (PS - Well, I have a few. Courtney: "Maybe we shouldn't be together." Jason: "Is that what you want?" Passé Sherry: "Yes, Yes, YES!" These two suck. I'm with Liz; it IS like a cute little secret club! All they do is talk like eighth graders or talk about AJ. Note to TPTB: I would rather watch AJ hang from a meat hook than watch Courtney and Jason talk about AJ, yet again. They need a new topic of conversation if they are supposedly building a life together (not that I care) and honestly, AJ is more fun to watch because even when he's being completely destructive he makes me believe he feels how he supposedly feels. Courtney and Jason…well, bleck! Anyone can fawn at another pretty person but put Courtney on a meat hook and what do you have? Uh, I don't know either, but I bet it would suck!)

I loved that Faith is Catherine's granddaughter. There are some problems, like Catherine is still using the same name so why doesn't Faith know she lives across the street, and such. But overall, it was a fun surprise. I had a moment though, of wondering if that whole thing was a set up. What if Faith were having Carly watched, found out that she was looking into what's under Kelly's (funny that no one ever noticed how grand that staircase is leading down to the little teeny storage room, lol) and researched it herself, and found out that there was a speakeasy there that closed down for some perfectly normal reason. Then she hired the old lady to toddle over there and tell this grand story, sure to scare the you know what out of Mrs. Corinthos? I mean really, that story was tailor made to put the freak out into Carly and maybe that's Faith's strategy here. If she really loved her husband then she would be out to avenge him in a way befitting her loss. Scare Carly so much that she eventually turns against Sonny, taking his family from him. Because with Carly, it's the little things that get to her and anyone who knows her well knows that the best way to get at her is to make her afraid and make sure it's about something she can't share with Sonny…that's a recipe for disaster with Carly. Faith showing up in the basement and knowing the story as well means that Carly can't just ignore it if it keeps showing up in her face. Of course, that's probably not what happened, but I had fun thinking about it. Even if they are playing it straight, it's interesting. Faith was great in those scenes!

That wraps it up for me (us). On a personal note, I have some very sad news. My beloved Microwave passed away this week. It was sudden, and unexpected. She didn't suffer, for which I'm very grateful (Wait a minute, maybe I would like to make her suffer! Leaving me in the lurch like this!). She will be dearly missed and I'm quite bereft without her. I bring this to you, not to gain your sympathies (though, hey, I'll take 'em) but to inform you that I may have less time to write until funds can be appropriated to replace her. You see she was a special sort, built in to the cabinets, etc. You know, in other words, she's expensive to replace and if we don't replace her with her kind then she'll leave us with gaping holes and no vent fan for the stove…that kind of thing. So, I will be spending much of my time over the next few weeks, reading up on how to use the stove, reading the back of boxes and cans to decipher how exactly to make their contents into something edible the old-fashioned way. At least, that's if my head doesn't explode first from the pressure of what to do with things like left over spaghetti and pasta alfredo…I mean, seriously, what do I do with all those little containers ready to be popped right in, heated and then eaten? Anyway, I'll be the lady in the black shroud if you need me for anything.

Love to hear from you, so drop me a line anytime!

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Disclaimer: I haven't watched this week yet at all so forgive me if anything actually happened that makes what I've said look any more ridiculous than it already looks, lol!