Our General Hospital Take: Recasts in Hot Stories?

When a soap story takes center stage, there’s something to be said for familiarity. “General Hospital” writers had quite the challenge when they learned two new faces on old characters would play out the summer’s hottest plots.

A Writing Nightmare?
Both writers said they had to just plow through with the story, but we wonder if that was the best idea. As we watched Nikolas give Ava the grand tour of Cassadine Island over the last few days, something just seemed wrong.

While Nick Stabile is a fine actor, he’s just not Nikolas. Clearly, the plan is an odd romance between Nikolas and Ava, but couldn’t the writers push that back when they learned a new actor would assume the role. We saw about three days of Tyler Christopher’s chemistry with Maura West. Since then, it’s all been Stabile.

When Christopher returns, this newfound camaraderie between these two unlikely souls will seem odd and forced. Watching Jason threaten Nikolas today also made us feel he was threatening a stranger. Christopher and Billy Miller built up a sharp rivalry, and today that rivalry fell flat.

Two New Actresses Debut the Same Day?
That brings us to recast #2. For months we’ve waited for the moment when Maxie finally meets Claudette–and who meets Claudette? Well, it sure didn’t seem like Maxie. We find it odd that there was absolutely nothing GH could change in story plans when Claudette’s first scene arrived the same day as Molly Burnett’s first scene as Temp Maxie.

[relbar link=”http://soaphub.wpengine.com/general-hospital/gh-star-william-devry-to-do-double-duty-as-reality-tv-host/” text=”GH Star William deVry to Do Double Duty as Reality TV Host”]We already know Kirsten Storms returned to the set, so couldn’t this story wait just a tad? Having both Bree Williamson and Burnett debut on the exact same day was just too much to take.

Yes, recasts happen–even emergency recasts. But, two in a row as brand-new stories and pairings heat up for the dog days of summer certainly makes the sizzle fizzle.

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