General Hospital: What A Difference A Writer Makes

General Hospital had been feeling a little stale this past year as storylines seemed to drag on and on and odd things happened with very little to tune in for as stories made little sense and also seemed to be forced down our throats.

General Hospital Check-In

Well, in the last month, something has changed and that change has coincided with a brand-new co-head writer. Sometimes soaps need to new blood and that’s exactly what we now have with GH.

The head writing team of Chris Van Etten and Dan O’Connor have officially taken over after first Jean Passanante and now Michelle Altman have retired from the soap world. With it, they decided what GH needed were some old characters with new faces. And let’s not forget the quick end to characters and stories that just weren’t working.

By old characters with new faces we mean Nikolas Cassadine and Brook Lynn Ashton, two legacy characters that can do so much for this soap and their respective core families.

Nikolas is now played by Marcus Coloma, while Brook Lynn is now played by Amanda Setton of One Life to Live fame. In just a few weeks, both have proven their chops and that they can bring new life to any scene. Nikolas is now driving story with Jax, Valentin, and Ava. What Brook brings, we have yet to see but we know we like her.

Out With The Old

The ill-conceived character of Kim is gone. (A character Tamara Braun gave her all, but was written into a corner.) Perhaps she wasn’t given the send-off we wanted — who didn’t look forward to seeing Kim go all-out fatal attraction — but the new regime realized once she attempted to rape the real Drew (Billy Miller) and pretty much managed it with DrewCo (Roger Howarth), there was little that could be done with her and Kim was swiftly sent out of town.

They also seemed to realize Faison’s son is just not a good guy and those Henrik Faison (Wes Ramsey) roots are coming out in full force now. Sure, Maxie (Kirsten Storms) still thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, but we know he’s not. He already had Drew allegedly killed and just ordered hits on both Andre (Anthony Montgomery) and Franco. Great guy, you have there Maxie. Now, we just need confirmation he is not Anna’s (Finola Hughes) and the General Hospital clean up on aisle 5 will be complete.

A Hot Mess We Love

The Wiley baby switch story is still a big ol’ mess and although we want it over, this big ol’ mess is now a positive thing. This story branches in so many directions, it’s hard to keep up.

We have Willow (Katelyn MacMullen), the woman who thinks she’s Wiley’s mother, but who has yet to learn her own baby died. We have both Liesl (Kathleen Gati) and Julian (William drVry) knowing the truth. Then there’s Wiley’s real mom, Nelle (Chloe Lanier), who obviously knows what’s going on since the sociopath sent the switch into motion. She’s currently sharing a Pentonville cell with Sam (Kelly Monaco), Wiley’s godmother.

Just this week Wiley’s adoptive dads, Lucas (Ryan Carnes) and Brad (Parry Shen), were in a horrific car accident caused by Julian, who decided he’d had it with Brad and cut his brakes. Brad is fine and Lucas lays in a coma after hearing Brad blurt out the truth just before they hit Kendra’s car.

The accident also ended the Kendra story, one we wanted over and was thankfully, put to rest sooner rather than later.

General Hospital: Must-See Soap

In short, General Hospital feels like a soap opera again and one we can’t wait to see. Plus, we have Maura West being Maura West, Michael E. Knight lighting up ABC daytime again as Martin Grey (Tad Martin/Edmund Grey?) — and sparring with James Patrick Stuart’s Valentin. What more can we ask for? General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes.