This Week in Soap Babies (Part 1: General Hospital)

Can we all just pause to say awwww.

Now that that’s done (for the moment), let’s fast forward for a moment and say could they please quit with the pregnant women delivering the babies safely in difficult circumstances and then crashing?  Please.  Blurg.

Then, going back, so much of the last couple of weeks of GH did in fact give me faith that there are some people in there who do know how to write this show.  Who do remember what it’s about.  As a result I actually enjoyed not insubstantial parts of the show.

At the centre of that was the one-two punch of Robin and Patrick’s wedding/Emma’s birth and the Hospital itself.  Those two things being irrevocably tied.  As they should be on a show called General Hospital.  

Two legacy characters (one much more than the other, but both tied to the canvas regardless), both of whom work at the Hospital, with almost all their friends working at the Hospital, and everyone coming together for a wedding and a birth.  Which was delivered with a charmingly appropriate mixture of romance, drama, comedy and family.  That’s what this show is about.  That’s what I enjoy.  

The dynamic they’ve established between Robin and her girlfriends initially seemed forced to me, but in recent times it’s really started to work.  Seeing Patrick and Coleman, and Robin, Liz, Epiphany, Lainie, Kelly and Nadine hanging out at the shower/hen’s night felt so relaxed, so real, and frankly like a completely different and better show than the mob-iverse going on in the other half of the show.

And then they deliver a wedding (and hopefully will deliver a second one shortly) where only people who should have been there were, and everyone who should have been there, with the exception of Noah, was either there (Bobbie, Edward, Monica, Sonny, Jason, Jax), or had their absences explained (Robert, the Spencer-Cassadines).  In strong contrast to the last “wedding”, there were no WTF guests. No Carly, no Zaccharas.

But it was the family stuff that really got me.  Anna, Mac and Maxie being the centre of proceedings - which Anna written like Anna again - and Mac’s role in all the girls lives being continually highlighted.  I have always loved the way that Maxie (and Georgie, sniff) goes back and forth between calling him “Mac” and calling him “Dad”, which feels so natural.  And I look forward to that rumoured actual wedding later in the month when we might actually get Robin walked down the aisle with Robert on one arm and Mac on the other.

Finally on this note, my favourite baby-related lines:

Patrick: “We have decided on Milicent.”
Anna: “Oh, shut up.”

Patrick: “This is great, I don’t need to be over-protective, we’ve got Mac here.”

Welcome Emma Grace.

Also not too bad in the last couple of weeks has been Laura’s return.  I have issues with the story, most notably with their continued relentless mission to turn grey, troubled Scott into a complete loon, but that has been nicely balanced out by Laura the truth-teller.  

I mean, holy cow, is that another person pointing out hypocrisy on this show?  I think it is.  No wonder they don’t want Laura back on the canvas full time.

So I’ll take a Spencer-Cassadine family adventure story while I can get it, because as with the Scorpios, I’m a sucker for family bonding of all sorts.   Even if I think the stuff with Scott and Laura would have been less weird if they had actually shown the flashbacks, rather than just the kids looking through the photos.  Though that helped.

Plus: “How far do you think you’re going to get with a mental patient in a nightie?”

I am disconcerted that Laura now has Monica’s haircut though.

In other matters of much vaguer interest:  “We’re not the Borgia family…we’re probably related to them though aren’t we?”

“If I become the 25th Mrs Sonny Corinthos…”  No denying that Claudia’s been getting some great lines, but her idea that to avoid marrying Sonny she must marry Jason (or anyone else) is so ridiculous. For God’s sake woman, you’re in your thirties and having super sex with a hot ambiguous lawyer, what on earth are you thinking?  Though I confess, the only way a Sonny/Claudia marriage of mob convenience would be interesting to me would be if she didn’t fall for him at all, but instead kept schtupping Ric behind his back.  Which will obviously never happen on this show.  Claudia's such a frustrating character.  All the different layers and problems she has are good, but frustrating as hell as I wind up on feeling any desire to watch her about half the time.

As for the rest: blah.  Whatever the hell is going on with the Sam-Jerry thing I don’t care.  At all.  And I simply cannot watch Sonny.  

Oh yes, and how does a show recruit Jason Cook and then it take over two weeks of me watching again for him to actually appear on screen?  That was ridiculous.

Caps courtesy LiznJase.

Comments

[Mary]

I'm LOVING all of the Scorpio-Drake stories, including the new brother, Matt, and even Spinelli. Way to go GH!! I have never been so excited to tune into GH since the Luke/Laura, Frisco/Felecia days! GREAT stuff! Can't get enough of Robin/Patrick & now Emma!

HOWEVER, thank goodness my fast forward remote works so I can quickly move over all Sonny/Carly/Karpov/Sam/Jason/Jerry scenes. Those people and their storylines are totally dull and are of no interest to me!! Please please please take those people away or in another direction. Make them REAL (or as real as a soap can be) and likeable. There is nothing likeable nor remotely interesting about these characters!!

As a long time GH fan and now a Robin/Patrick addict, I beg the writers to focus on the people at the hospital, including the Spencers, Cassadines and of course the Qs. Take the viewers into their homes, their jobs and personal lives, with an adventure on the side now and then. And for goodness sake, let Karen Harris & Sri do the writing!

[Lisa]

I totally agree. When I was watching the Scorpio-Drake episodes, I was smiling and realizing that this is what soaps are about. I enjoyed each moment. I fast-forwarded through the mob stuff. The family stories are the best - Spencers, Scorpios - keep 'em coming PLEASE.

[Noelle]

This has been the best two weeks of GH in a long, long time. And Robin & Patrick/ Scorpio and Spencer families are the reason why. This is what a soap should be. The birth of baby Emma was romantic, dramatic, fun, heartwarming, and very poignant. I loved every minute of it. I want to see more of Robin, though. And Mac is wonderful. Why doesn't GH give this man a story? I hope GH gets tons of good feedback for the Scrubs almost wedding and baby's birth. It was fantastic, and I want more!

[becky_jean]

As a long-time Scrubs fan, yep, let's just say:

awwwwwwwwwwwwww ....

Too adorable. My favorite parts were the almost-wedding and the uber-adorable Emma. Patrick holding that baby, well, there just are no words for that.

All the family stuff was fabulous. It made the absence of Robert & Noah even more glaring to me, but I'm dealing with it. Please, GH, give Patrick some decent family (meaning, don't make Matt a jerk and return Noah's integrity please).

I hoped we were going to get actual Laura & Scotty flashbacks. What a wasted opportunity when you have the same actors playing the roles then & now. I've loved watching Laura with everyone. I hated it when it was just Lulu. Genie radiates warmth and seems to cast a glow over everything and everyone around her, even when she is playing irritated and frustrated Laura.

These dysfunctional but loving family scenes would be so much better as a focus for the show than the mob family mess. There was one day that the only time I hit the fast forward button was for commercials. I could not believe it.

Alas, that did not last long and we are back to Sonny and Jason and all things mobular, and I just don't care to watch that.