A Critic’s Review Of General Hospital: Hits, Misses & A Chef’s Kiss

When it comes to General Hospital, every fan has their own opinion – and Soap Hub is no different. For five days, we sat and watched the good, the bad, and everything in between, and now we offer you a handy review, and a cheeky critique, of the GH week that was.

General Hospital: A Critic’s Personal High And Lowlights

Man, were those one-on-one scenes between Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) and Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms), Ava Jerome Cassadine (Maura West) and Laura Collins (Genie Francis), and Cameron Webber (William Lipton) and Scott Baldwin (Kin Shriner) great or what?

The convos didn’t progress the story in the slightest, but they were sterling examples of soap operas at their finest. Heartfelt interactions, rooted in character, wholly relatable and comforting, bolstered by effortless performances from top-notch talent.

And Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) dying in the arms of her mother? *Chef’s Kiss* Perfection!

Where I think General Hospital dropped the ball was in the immediate aftermath. Spencer Cassadine’s (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) reaction to the news was suitably devastating, but I wasn’t much moved by Nina Reeves’s (Cynthia Watros), Brad Cooper’s (Parry Shen), and Maxie’s, and even though I’m slowly but surely starting to warm up to Cody Bell (Josh Kelly), his grief rang especially hollow. If anything, I got the most choked up when a concerned Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner) asked to give Cody a hug and then wrapped him in a tight embrace. Pity, she was comforting this relative stranger rather than her own daughter.

Further GH Musings

* Best General Hospital Exchange:

Ryan: That’s rich. You spend a lifetime ignoring that Esme even exists, and now your what — Joan Crawford?
Heather: Joan Crawford? I like wire hangers.

* I see that General Hospital is desperately trying to recapture the magic that was Franco/Liesl via Austin/Liesl. Roger Howarth and Gati still have oodles of chemistry, no doubt, but it’s never, ever going to be the same, so why even put forth the effort?

* Mercenary Martin (Michael E. Knight) for the win!

* My favorite soap opera trope: amnesia. My second favorite trope: bad girls pretending to have amnesia in order to lull their foes into a false sense of security.

* The takeaway from Curtis Ashford’s (Donnell Turner) and Portia Robinson’s (Brook Kerr) scenes on Thursday’s airshow? Britt’s dead but life goes on. Here’s a plant, tend to it to pass the time.

* Unless I have proof positive set down before me, I refuse to believe that Heather Webber (Alley Mills) was the character originally slated to be The Hook. For one, it makes no logical sense — not that that has ever stopped Chris and Dan/Dan and Chris before — and second, you’ll never convince me that a trained Marine couldn’t fight off a septuagenarian. No way, no how. As per usual, this has been a storyline constructed via a make-it-up as you go along/throw something up against the wall and see what sticks fashion.

* Wyndham’s shout-out. Squeal!

* You want to know why I hate Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy) — AKA Carly 2.0 — so damned much and will never, ever let up on her? She cheats on her boyfriend and then has the audacity to interrupt the afterglow to besmirch Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and his character.

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