Why All The Hype, General Hospital, When It All FALLS FLAT???

This year has been the year of the hyped appearances that barely drive story and make absolutely no sense on General Hospital (GH).

First, we were thrilled to see Hillary B. Smith as Nora Hannon Gannon Buchanan, legal eagle extraordinaire–who spent three weeks in Port Charles doing exactly what Diane (Carolyn Hennesey) could have done.

She was around to help Valentin win Charlotte and then oddly defend Olivia Jerome, not even noticing she looked exactly like Alex Olanov, an old foe from Llanview. This was the one return where the former ABC soap star played her iconic character, and GH still didn’t get it right.

The other two guest-star shots were even more bizarre and unbelievably pointless.

Forget for a minute that the Man Landers story was only around to give Nathan something to do while Maxie was away–and that Maxie was only away because Kirsten Storms needed a leave of absence.

Clearly, this plot was put together at the last minute, but when Amy and Nathan met the publisher and she was played by All My Children’s Jennifer Bassey, we have no idea why she had to play a publisher we never heard of.

Why couldn’t Bassey play Marion as a publisher? At least we would have had some sort of connection to the character who was around for only a brief few scenes. Instead, she was a random publisher, and again, did nothing to move story.

And the most baffling guest appearance of all came from James DePaiva as Dr. Bensch (Bench? Like the one they all sit on in the park all summer). Blink, and you missed him give Sam the wrong diagnosis when there were plenty of other doctors in town to do the same.

We have no idea why Sam needed a random doctor and why a popular actor like DePaiva was hired to play a random doctor.

Seeing these familiar and talented faces has been fantastic this year, but then we’ve been left wanting more as they seem to have no real purpose on the show.

General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC. Share your thoughts, leave a comment in the section below. Win exclusive member-only GH spoilers, prizes, and more: sign up here! Also, join the conversation on our Facebook page.