I’ve been worried lately that my muse columns might be too negative.  I seem to write about the stuff that annoys me more than I write about the stuff that keeps me tuned in.  I’ve been watching GH for twenty years now so they must be doing something right.  So, I thought I’d try to write a more well balanced column that included the good things and the bad things.  So, for every negative thought I had for the year 2006 I’d try to come up with something positive.  Here we go: 

Good:  Breaking up Sonny and Jason.

Bad:  Not believing for a second that the “split” would actually last longer than a month or that Sonny or Jason would leave the mob for good because of their breakup. 

Good:  Giving great, funny scenes to Milo, Max and Epiphany.  That scene where she told off Ms. Sneed and then Sam the other day had me rolling! 

Bad:  Not giving enough great, funny scenes to Coleman or Alice. 

Good:  Pairing Carly and Jax.

Bad:  Not giving Jax and Carly hardly any other storyline other than, “Will she run back to Sonny?”  Can we say, “LITTLE JOHN/SPENCER WAS KIDNAPPED!!!”  Instead of writing the lame story of Carly marrying Sonny AGAIN they could have Carly trying to help Emily and Nicholas find the baby that she and Jax loved.  This could be the reason that Jax comes back.  You would think he’d want to help.  They could at least write a scene that has Carly getting in Nicholas’s face about how they tried to prevent this very thing from happening because they knew what a psycho Helena was.   

Good:  Bringing back the vets.

Bad:  Making it pointless to have brought back the vets when they are doing nothing with them.   Oh, and doing absolutely nothing with the vets who have always been on the show.    

Good:  Pairing Robin and Patrick.

Bad:  Give them more airtime/storylines.  I keep reading and hearing about how many people love Robin and Patrick.  But, they are almost in their own little bubble.  What happened to her dad?  Where’s her mom?  Where’s Patrick’s dad?  Connect this couple to other people on the show.  Quit giving me the AIDS after school special.  Have her help out her bitchy “sister” Maxie.  Let her interact with Mac.  What ever happened to the apology Robin needs to give Patrick concerning the time he caught Maxie with Lucky and Robin said he was lying because he had the hots for Liz?  Am I the only one who remembers that?  He was the first one to suspect something was up and Robin refused to believe him.  Just an example of how the two of them have been shortchanged.  They could be more involved with other characters.  Patrick doesn’t even talk to Carly anymore either. 

Good:  Breaking up Emily and Sonny.

Bad:  Breaking up Emily and Sonny only to have him obsess over Carly again.  Get a new storyline.  How about how they broke them up and now they try to act as though they weren’t a couple?  There were some good things about them.  I like how she got him his therapy.  That was interesting.  I liked how Emily told everybody they were basically dumb to not make him get help.  No one else in his life pushed him to get diagnosed and get some medicine.  But quit trying to hide the fact that they ever existed…like they were some dirty little secret.  Don’t they ever bump into each other?   I mean Jason and Liz bump into each other on a daily basis but you’re telling me that Sonny never sees Emily when he pops into the hospital where she freakin works?   

Good:  Reconnecting Liz and Jason and making it believable.  I’ve read that some people think their relationship came out of nowhere.  I disagree.  They used to be friends.  They interacted some over the years.  They just stepped things up a bit when they began having problems with “the love of their lives” (Lucky and Sam).  Who do you turn to when you began having trouble with your significant other?  You begin to reconnect with the people who were there for you before you got so caught up being in LUUVV.   It seems believable to me. 

Bad:  Ric reconnecting with Liz.  In this case I think that it was just too sudden.  His wife has cancer and now all the sudden he thinks Liz is the love of his life?  Ric has always been off his rocker but they are making it seem as thought Alexis and Ric never loved each other at all.   It wasn’t that long ago that she was giving birth to Molly in the tunnel and he was praying for her to pull through.  I know Liz and Ric interacted some since their breakup but it’s just too convenient.  It’s like they HAVE to make Ric in love with Liz again because she’s carrying Jason’s baby.  If anything, the way Ric obsesses over Jason I think it’s Jason that he’s really in love with.   

Good:  The virus storyline.  I like that they have actually came up with a storyline that involved the hospital.

Bad:  Not using three major hospital employees more effectively in their storylines:  Monica, Alan and Bobbie. 

Good:  Giving Sam a family/connection with someone on the show.

Bad:  Making Alexis her family/connection with the show.  I just don’t care about the two of them together as mother and daughter.  I’m so tired of Sam acting as though Ric made her have sex.  It’s almost as though before Sam came along Alexis and Ric had a better marriage.  They could have chosen a different route with these two.  Wouldn’t it have been interesting for Sam to have learned about how crazy her Cassadine family was/is?  Does Helena even know about Sam yet? 

Good:  Bringing back Laura.

Bad:  Making her reunion with everyone so lame.  How can you have Thanksgiving/Christmas without Lesley and Bobbie?    

Good:  Making Jason a father with Liz.  Is my Sam hostility too noticeable when I say that? 

Bad:  Dragging out the same tired assed pregnancy story.  Oh, my gosh!  Who’s the father?  Oh, my gosh…she’s not telling the real father the truth that he’s the daddy!   Yawn.   

Good:  I was sad to see Tony die but he had some great ending scenes.  I also liked the scenes with Bobbie and Carly when Carly was worried she wouldn’t want her at the funeral because of their past history.  I like it when GH revisits the past. 

Bad:  Having Bobbie too Pollyanna about his death for my liking.  

Good:  Having Carly and Robin interact less.  I got so tired of hearing about how Robin ruined her life.

Bad:  Making Robin spill the John/Spencer secret.   Can we think of anymore ways that Robin could be written so that people hate her more?  Give the baby-secret-blabber a break.   

Good:  Having the guts to carry through an abortion storyline with a major character.

Bad:  Having LuLu tell the whole world about it.  I would imagine the event is a private and painful experience that would be shared with a few intimate friends and family members. Am I alone in my thinking?   

Good:  Making Skye into a Mob lady.  (OK, so this is more of a 2007 storyline.)  I’m game for any chick to be given free reign into this man’s world.  Bring it on, Skye!  Show them how a woman gets the job done!  Hopefully, the writers won’t make her a lame Mob lady. 

Bad:  I really don’t understand how she ran away from Lorenzo when pregnant and now she’s all about setting up house with him.  He hasn’t changed his ways so why did she change her mind? 

Good:  Seeing guys like Jax, Patrick, Luke or Jason cry.  Their tears are very manly to me.

Bad:  Seeing Lorenzo or Nicholas cry.  I like these guys but not their sissy tears.  I’m not real sure what it is that they’re doing wrong but make it stop, please.   

Good:  Pairing Luke and Tracy.

Bad:  Dropping Tracy’s screen time and storyline whenever Luke leaves town. 

Good:  LuLu interacting with Tracy, Dillon, Maxie, Luke, Carly, Milo, Sonny, Spinelli…pretty much everybody.  The girl does great with everyone.

Bad:  OK, I take that back.  I really did not enjoy the road trip with Jason.  I did not enjoy all the arguing.  But, I did enjoy the verbal banter with Sonny.  The faces Sonny was making when she was drunk were great.  I love me some Jason but he doesn’t need to save every girl on the show.  Every girl does not need to fall under Jason’s spell.  Plus, the whole thing scared me.  I was worried they were trying to find the next Sonny and Emily.  Ick. 

Good:  All the villains:  Helena, Ric, Maxie and Manny.

Bad:  Can we make the villains more than one-dimensional so that they can stay on the show longer?  Manny had to be killed he was so bad.  Please, give Ric more depth before he has to be written off, too.  Maxie needs more moments to show her soft side, too.  Can she please do something nice for her sister?  Give her some self-esteem, too.  She either makes me want to slap her for being so mean or she makes me want to slap her for being so pathetic.   

OK, GH here’s looking at a new year.  Surprise me with something new.  Make me like me Sam.  Have somebody leave the mob for real.  Have Carly and Sonny REALLY fall in love with other people and just use each other for friendship.  Anything is possible right? 

Heather