“There’s another woman I will always love who I haven’t seen in a very long time,” Sonny tells Reese after discussing his feelings for Carly.  We all know who he’s talking about and I couldn’t help but look back longingly at the days of Sonny and Brenda.  How much I wanted them to be together in spite of themselves and the danger that surrounded him.  The nervous butterflies I felt when he finally gave into what he was feeling and kissed her in the alley.  How my heart broke with hers when he left her standing in the rain so he could be a father to his unborn child.  Those were the days where I was truly invested, not only in the individual characters, but also in the pairings they were a part of.  It wasn’t only Sonny and Brenda.  Before them we had Frisco and Felicia, Robert and Anna, Luke and Laura.  After them we had Jason and Robin, JJ’s Lucky and Elizabeth, Sonny and SB’s/TB’s Carly.  But now even the latter two don’t resemble any version of the true supercouple that I have long since considered a staple of any soap opera worth watching. 

Let’s face it, many of us watch our soaps day in and day out as a means of escape.  For one hour every day we live in Port Charles with the rest of the Quartermaines, Cassadines, and Spencers.  We tune in to see what will happen to our beloved “friends”, more often than not concerning ourselves primarily with their love lives.  We want to see two people fall in love.  We want to see them fight the odds and be together.  We want obstacles put in their way, but we also want them to overcome those obstacles and come out stronger than ever before.  We basically want something to root for – something that will make us come back wanting more each and every day.  But that’s not the case with the current couples on the canvas.  Individually, General Hospital has some of the strongest characters of any soap.  Where else can you find a Luke, Sonny, or Alexis?  But if the powers that be don’t start figuring out which couples they want together and why, no amount of super characters will make up for the lack of supercouples. Let’s take a closer look at the ones we have on the table:

Sonny and Carly/ Sonny and Reese/ Carly and Lorenzo

Maybe I’m still not over Tamara Braun’s exit or maybe I’m just not buying Jennifer Bransford’s version, but Sonny and Carly aren’t working for me right now.  I know that Sonny is with Reese this month and Carly just married Lorenzo, but we all know that the true couple here is Sonny and Carly- whether we like it or not. 

If only they had given us Carly and Lorenzo when TB was still around.  The chemistry between the two was undeniable – you could tell he loved her by the look in his eyes and the way that he spoke to her.  She was her feisty self but with just the right amount of vulnerability that made you see he was making her feel something she had never felt before.  She was finally out of Sonny’s shadow and there was someone wanting to love her for who she is – not just for the fact that she bore him children.  And she didn’t have to say this out loud every few minutes to convince herself – we saw it in her eyes and in the tone of her voice.  There was potential for the kind of real triangle we haven’t seen since the days of Jax/Brenda/Sonny - where there were two strong camps on both sides and either choice Brenda made would have kept viewers invested.  Instead, this triangle is surfacing with JB playing center stage. But her chemistry with both Ted King and Maurice Benard doesn’t give either couple any rooting value.  The writers need to find a way to make TK the leading man he should be – perhaps pair him with Skye or throw someone new into the mix.  We all know he has a thing for pregnant women in distress – maybe he can fall for Liz while she struggles with the possibility of losing the man she loves because she is carrying another man’s baby.  Either way, Lorenzo is not likely to be the victor at the end of this battle for Carly so they need to find a better use for him before another soap picks up on what we the viewers have been asking for since he first came on the scene. 

This brings me to the unfortunate end result of Sonny and Carly.  Clearly, Reese’s character direction was abruptly changed when JB made her entrance as Carly.  Reese was originally a caring and sensitive woman who used her grief over losing her own son to help others find their missing children.  But then in what seemed like one day (namely April 18^th when JB debuted) she morphed into a woman whose only purpose in life was to bring down the girl who “caused” her accident and “took over” her life when she was in high school.  What?  That doesn’t even make any sense.  Yes, it seems Caroline Benson betrayed Charlotte Roberts by sleeping with some man, but these things happen and in no way can you blame a car accident on it.  We see in the flashbacks that Carly wasn’t in the car and she didn’t tamper with the car (please writers don’t even think of going there) so it isn’t all adding up.  Furthermore, other than taking her name, what did Caroline Benson do that was so bad and deserving of such wrath?  When Carly first explained her reason for using “Carly Roberts” she spoke highly of her best friend from high school. She said she respected and admired her and because of that, took on her name after she was presumed dead.  Personally I don’t see that as such an insult.  Either way, Reese is turning out to be the sacrificial lamb in an effort to make viewers form some sort of connection with JB’s Carly.  I admit, if I had to choose between Reese and Carly for Sonny I would have to go with Carly- but it’s only for history’s sake and not because I care.  This is sad because I want to care – I used to care.  It took me a long time to truly believe in Sonny’s love for Carly, but I did. The writers need to find a way to make us viewers root for this couple if they plan on keeping them together for the long haul, especially if they’re going to center so many other stories around them such as . . .

Jason and Sam

I like kids as much as the next person, and I know that Jason sees Michael as his son, but I just don’t see why Sam’s entire storyline is revolving around the 10 year-old son of her old boyfriend and his ex-wife who hates her.  We have Sonny and Carly dressed to the nines attending a charity gala at the same time we have Sam taking Michael, their troubled son, to therapy.  Who is there to take care of Michael when the hurricane strikes?  Sam.  I realize this has been done as a way to tie Sam (or some sort of Sam twin) to the Dr. Thomas and “Jason Quartermaine turned Morgan” storyline, but I hope they quicken the pace and get that side plot started already before I find myself wishing it was Jason’s sperm that somehow got involved with . . .

Lucky and Liz/ Jax and Courtney

Lucky? Lucky? Where for arte thou Lucky? This can’t possibly be the offspring of the all-powerful Luke Spencer and his angelic wife Laura.  What man in his right mind would let the woman he loves have a biological child with another man to cover his medical bills when he has so many other options available to him?  Yes - $50,000 is a lot of money in the real world- but in Port Charles that’s like subway fare to most people.  Lorenzo just offered to pay $20 million so his wife could run some charity wing of the hospital and you’re telling me Lucky can’t ask his aunt Carly to give him a loan for a mere $50,000?  His father just married a Quartermaine and is doing everything he can to help his sister Bobbie in her legal battle with Durant. Can’t he force Tracy to give him the money to help his own son?  No – neither of these would work because of Lucky’s insurmountable pride?  Again – that just doesn’t make any sense.  Could it really be more humiliating to owe money to your brother than it would be to have your girlfriend carry another man’s child to pay off your debt?  And to make him so obtuse about the whole situation to the point where he gets angry with Jax for buying Cameron a toy makes me wish he never even came out of the coma to begin with (maybe Liz would have found her way back to Ric or ideally Jason by now if he hadn’t).

No young couple had as much super couple potential as JJ’s Lucky and Liz of yesteryear and when they recently got back together I was actually happy for them.  I was thrilled that Liz found her way back to her first love, to the man that made her feel safe and secure.  Rebecca Herbst is by far one of the most talented actresses there is and you can put her in a scene with just about any man and there will be some amount of chemistry there – case in point Jax.  All of a sudden I’m confused who I want with who in this reproductive foursome.  I’ve always liked Jax with Courtney and the way they laugh and smile with each other (something she never did with Jason).  I didn’t expect to want them to break up so shortly after they got married and I’m still not sure I really do.  But the writers are destroying everything that was good and pure about Lucky and Liz to such a degree that if I had to choose between Courtney’s happiness and that of Liz’s, I would choose Liz any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  She’s the only one with some serious rooting value here- so again, the writers need to decide who they want paired up with who and give us a couple to support.  Instead they’re adding a third couple into the fold, namely…

Nicholas and Emily 

It’s too soon to tell whether Nicholas and Courtney would work as a couple but after all the time and energy spent getting Nicholas and Emily together to begin with, I’m inclined to just leave them together even if I don’t particularly care one way or another about them.  It would be hard to imagine them truly loving anyone else after listening to them gush about each other for so long.  The writers are toying with the idea of bringing Emily into the Sonny-centered drama but the way I see it, Natalia Livingston, Emmy and all, doesn’t have the acting chops to keep up with someone like Maurice Benard.  Can anyone say Angel or Hannah?  Just because someone at ABC worked their magic and got her that gold statuette doesn’t mean she could actually handle Sonny Corinthos in any way, shape or form.  She can barely hold her own against her real life boyfriend who seems to have outgrown his role as the prince of Port Charles.  Tyler Christopher blossomed when he played an amnesiac- and those scenes in the psych ward should have earned him the Emmy.  Before he went to jail (or Into the West according to Spielberg) I actually wanted him and Emily together as strongly as I wanted her to choose him over Zander the night of the costume ball.  There’s a reason they became a couple to begin with and I hope somehow the writers remind us of that very reason before we start wishing Emily would just go on the run again, much like . . .

Jesse and Maxie/ Diego and Brooke

I am shocked to say this but the only couple I am actually rooting for at this point in time is Maxie and Diego.  I don’t know what it is about these two.  Maybe I’m just a Belle fan looking for something like the Shawn and Belle romance from Days of Our Lives that I grew to love.  Or maybe I finally see the potential in Ignacio Serricchio as a younger leading man.  Either way, I’m waiting for these two to get together and become the next young super couple in every sense of the word.  What could be better than the daughter of the police commissioner and the son of a well-known criminal fighting their way towards true love?  Diego shines in his scenes with Maxie, finally acting comfortable in his own skin.  As much as I like Brooke, there’s just nothing to do with her anymore.  Ned and Lois aren’t there and unfortunately the only person she really had any chemistry with was Dillon, who is her biological uncle, so they can’t go there unless they start to re-write history once again.  But KS is making Maxie her own and bringing a level of mature sensuality to the character that reminds us she is in fact the daughter of Frisco and Felicia.  These two are making me want to tune in and while Jesse seems to be working for now, I truly believe Maxie and Diego should and will come out the reigning couple.

So here we have it, in a world that revolves around the concept of a super couple, I only see one with any rooting value right now.  And it’s a couple where one is a recast and one is still, for all intents and purposes, a newbie.  General Hospital has the most talented cast, the most intriguing characters, and the richest history on which to base future storylines.  Just give us a reason to watch and we’ll be there – pom poms and all!!

The Last Word

You asked for it, you got it. Jill Farren Phelps, GH Executive Producer has confirmed that audience outrage and outcry over Michael killing A.J. did indeed prompt a change in storyline direction. This should be good - backpedaling and writing revisionist history to make this about face make sense. Considering how long its taken to address the consequences of action that happened months ago, it shouldn't be all that much of a problem to forget what you saw and go with what you're going to get to explain the "mystery" and repressed memories. As saddened as I was, as the rest of you, that GH chose to make a murderer out of a 9 year old, once they did and the pattern of the drama was shaped, I'm sadder still that they didn't have the courage of their convictions to craft the story and play it through. Had we dispensed with the overexposure of Carly and Reese to focus more on Michael's emotional turmoil and what effects that might have had on his family's emotional life, including the Quartermaine's, its impact might have made a dent. As it stands now, aside from exonerating a child, this latest twist is too late to relate back to Michael, instead it will be a plot device to drive Jason. Which I don't really mind actually, I can't wait for the character of Jason to find some inner depth that is connected back to who he was - it can only make him less one-dimensional, and that's not a bad thing at all.   Max

I hope you enjoyed this week's Guest Writer. She's a long standing GH viewer who was brave enough to take a stab at it, and gracious enough to act as my stand in. I think she did a great job, how about you?