Port Charles Chuckles

I've Heard it Before

 

Carly's slap of Sonny last week was pretty awesome (has anyone made a .gif of that yet?  Because I totally need one), as were her numerous verbal smack-downs. 

 

 

I'd really like to be able to take a minute to enjoy Sonny getting his clock cleaned, unfortunately there are two major problems that prevent me - -

1.) Carly, of all people, really has no right to criticize the way Sonny conducts himself when she has been standing behind him for the past decade encouraging and benefiting from his violent behavior

and

2.) We've heard it all before. 

 

This is not the first time Carly has condemned Sonny and sworn she was finished with him, it's not even the second.  Remember when Michael was shot and she insisted Sonny give up custody?  How long did that last, a year?  How long before Carly forgets how dangerous Sonny is one more time? 

 

Seriously, if the woman can get over him causing her son to be shot in the head and brain-damaged, what can't she get over?  I love Jax dearly, but I'm concerned he will be a forgotten footnote in Port Charles history (like AJ Quartermaine) by sometime next week.

 

However, before I completely flip-out, I remind myself how important context is.

 

I must still be in that giddy honeymoon faze where I don't mind that he leaves wet towels on the bathroom floor, or his coffee cup never quite makes it all the way IN to the dishwasher, because I can't help but think "yes I've heard this all before, but I've never heard it from Garin Wolf before".

 

And for right now, that makes all the difference, because I'm willing to let the story play out a while before the vein in my forehead starts throbbing uncontrollably and I turn into an emoticon-abusing unhinged cyber-rant-er once again.

 

Take the cover of Soap Opera Digest's August 30th issue for example, it has a banner across the top proclaiming: GH ACTRESS AXED, and my first impulse was to breathe a sigh of relief after initial panic because I realized that with Bob Guza no longer in charge, a character was probably not going to literally be "axed" this time around. 

 

I shouldn't have to worry about these things, damn you Guza for scaring me.  On the plus side for Garin Wolf, the bar is SO low that all he needs to do is step over it in order to please me.  I admit I'm thrilled Siobhan is out, but am a little annoyed that he chose to kill her off, it reminds me a little too much of Guza and his itchy trigger-finger.  Whatever happened to characters simply leaving town?

 

Well, there is Jax.

 

And that was a smart choice.

 

I guess I'll just have to be patient for a bit longer, only time will tell if viewers really have heard it all before. 

 

screencaps courtesy of Lisa W.

A Difference of Opinion

 

Call me a weenie (and many have, for many different reasons) but I strongly considered avoiding discussion about anything serious today (mainly Sonny's murderous intentions), because I just couldn't stand the heat from my fellow General Hospital-enthusiasts who feel that my criticising Sonny's gun-toting rampage while looking for baby Joss somehow makes me insensitive to people who are suffering from bipolar disorder.

 

Dude, implying that Sonny's violent behavior is due to to his bipolar disorder is insulting to those real people who truly have the disease and struggle with it everyday and still manage not to run around town with guns drawn every time some little thing doesn't go their way.  Seriously, that Drew Barrymore/Chris O'Donnell movie did a better job with accuracy on the subject.  Calling Sonny's current rampage a "bipolar-storyline" is like referring to Adolf Hitler as "misunderstood" - - it's effing ludicrous. 

 

Sonny was stone-cold sober and on his medication both when he shot Dante in the chest AND when he ordered the car-bomb that nearly killed Kristina, among his numerous other transgressions over the past five years.  Sonny Corinthos is a deplorable human being.  He is a violent, power-mad tyrant, who behaves like a petulant child when things don't go his way.  Sadly, due to the nature of his business, he's usually ARMED at the time.  That is who Sonny IS all of the time, it has nothing to do with his disease.

 

Truthfully, I have often wondered how poor Mo feels about the bastardization of bipolar disorder when it's mentioned in Sonny's storylines, given that he has real-life experience with the disease himself.  Alas, viewers will probably never know his true feelings on the subject as long as he is under contract to ABC.

 

I also take umbrage at those who think that my criticising a particular storyline or character means that I am criticising the actor or his performance within that story.  I never said that Maurice Benard wasn'tgiving a fantastic performance as a power-mad gun-toting jealous soon-to-be ex-husband.  I simply said that Sonny Corinthos was coming across as a brainless simeon, and I stand behind thatassertion whole-heartedly. 

 

Any pangs of sympathy that I may occasionally feel for Sonny Corinthos (and there are some) is due solely to Mo's terrific ability to elicit empathy from his audience, and is in spite of the terrible material he's routinely given.

 

Speaking of missed opportunities, I hear that Scott Clifton was quite the revelation on One Life to Live as Schuyler (old news) and is embroiled in pretty heavy story over at Bold and Beautiful as Liam right now, which leads me to wonder about the possibility of a return for Dillon Quartermaine in the future.

 

I happen to follow Scott on twitter, and he is highly amusing.  I leave you with a post from last night captioned "An exclusive look at the private life of Scott Clifton and his girlfriend...after dark" - -

 

 

 Ha!

 

Seems relevant to the current discussion somehow.

Planet of the Apes

 

So, I am only part way through the week as far as watching my recordings of General Hospital, but I just had to pause to comment on Sonny's rabid search for Joss this week.

 

This is how Sonny Corinthos searches for a toddler, ladies and gentlemen - -

 

 

And also, one violently throws innocent carseats around if there is no barware handy.

 

That is all.

 

ETA:  Curtis, I changed my title in your honor