General Hospital Emergency: Couples Who Fizzle Before They Can Sizzle

Soap operas are supposed to be about love and romance, but lately, it seems that General Hospital never got the memo. While there are a plethora of potential pairs in Port Charles with plenty of chemistry whose love story just can’t get off the ground, we also have pairs with zero chemistry being forced down our throats, and still others that just have no conflict at all.

General Hospital Couple Catastrophe

It’s been a long, slow burn for Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) and Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) as fans who saw their potential waited years for them to finally admit they shouldn’t be enemies and maybe they should even be more than friends.

We understand that Stuart has been filming a new sitcom for Disney, but there were six months between their first kiss on July 4 to their last kiss on New Year’s Eve. If things had moved faster during the latter half of 2021, maybe it wouldn’t be so frustrating for Vanna fans to have this forced hiatus where we can barely even get them in scenes together.

Then, there’s Harrison Chase (Josh Swickard) and Brook Lynn Quartermaine (Amanda Setton). They grew closer while living together and pretending to be Bailey Lou’s parents. They came this close to kissing the night Peter August kidnapped her, and they finally locked lips in the hospital corridor, and finally, we said, finally, GH is getting somewhere with the couple known as Chalynn.

Apparently, we were wrong. All they have done since that hospital kiss is go backward — all the way to high school it seems. Now, all they do is act like two teenagers who can’t let the other know they are interested as they analyze text emojis. This is sweeping soap opera romance? We don’t think so.

GH Needs To Free Maxie and Austin

Let us not forget the forced pairing of Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms) and Austin Gatlin-Holt (Roger Howarth). For some reason, Maxie seems to believe if a man delivers her baby in the woods on the side of the road, then she has to fall for him and date him. She already tried this with Peter August (Wes Ramsey), and look how that turned out. Or maybe don’t because, like Maxie, we’d like to forget.

Perhaps Maxie just needs to take a break from men for a while and concentrate on her young children. That can free Austin up to be with someone he actually has chemistry with, and that’s Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud). Rather than trying to find magic where there isn’t any, GH needs to utilize characters that work together when they see them.

Where’s The General Hospital Drama For Sam And Dante?

Finally, what happened to Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco) and Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna)? This was a pair that came out of nowhere and grew on us, but they are now the soap’s happy couple that solves mysteries together with no conflict at all. Sam’s alleged-dead ex-husband returned.

That was built in conflict right there, but we learned that Sam was torn over who to be with off-screen rather than on. She finally chose Dante, and Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) essentially, said, “Sure, no problem,” after brooding for half an episode.

GH needs to fix this love in the afternoon problem, stat, so viewers can become invested in a couple and get the payoff they deserve.

General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Port Charles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on GH spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.