Magically Soapalicious- why General Hospital is the best soap on TV right now.

Dear readers, I know I have been away for a while, and you thought I had retired completely. Nope. Just having an adventure!

My wonderful husband Jeff, who pretends he doesn’t watch GH, took me on a glorious Transatlantic cruise and then we spent two weeks roaming around Europe. You’re thinking, “Wow, she must be rich!” Again, Nope. Just a retired travel agent who kows how to take advantage of cruise line repositioning cruises. The starting fare for a cruise that started in Ft Lauderdale and ended up in Amsterdam was $699.00 per person. I swear I am not making that up. Yes, it’s one way. Yes, you have to fly home. But again, the one-way air fare was less than you imagine. 

But, back to soaps! I was away for an entire month and had zero access to streaming my soaps. When I came home, I had a month worth of GH, YR and BB to catch up on. 

First, a shout out to Paramount+ – I was able to watch all episodes of Young and the Restless and Bold and Beautiful because they keep entire seasons up and I love them for that. Now, a complaint about Hulu. They do NOT keep episodes up very long and I was only able to catch up on April 15- May 1- as they had already delayed the first half of April’s episodes by the time I returned. Boo. So, I missed Sonny finding out Natalia was a big fat liar, and I wish I could have seen him blow up on her. He DID blow up on her, didn’t he?

But after watching multiple episodes of multiple soaps for weeks now, I have concluded that GH is the far superior soap. Don’t get me wrong, I love YR and BB, but GH runs circles around both of them in storyline, excitement and acting. 

Why are YR’s ratings higher than GH? I have never understood this, and now more than ever. Right now, on YR for a month, the main storyline is that some secretive guy named Aristotle Dumas is reaching out to people in Genoa City. Who could he be? And Claire’s grandpa doesn’t like her boyfriend. We did find out Alan was Martin, but we all figured that out month ago. Also, no one is sure if they trust their new cousin Damien. And Diane redecorated the Abbott house and worried for weeks that no one would like the sofa and lamps she picked out. OMG, It’s so dull! 

Meanwhile in Port Charles;

• Kristina cut the brake lines on what she thought was Ava’s car and nearly killed Ric and Elizabeth. Now Ava and Ric are blackmailing Alexis to keep Kristina out of prison! Alexis is embezzling from Ace!
• Lucky knows about Kristina’s hand in the accident and is trying to help Alexis and Kristina find the missing car that Ric and Ava are hiding as leverage. Lucky is just about to tell Elizabeth what he knows! Will that tank their budding romance?
• Brook Lynn had a ONS with Dante years ago at summer camp when they were teens, got pregnant, gave her baby up for adoption, and her mom Lois who was supposed to handle a closed adoption instead had her cousin Camilla raise the baby. The work between Amanda Setton and Rena Sofer should earn them both Emmy nominations.
• Gio, her son, is living in the same house with her and she didn’t know until Gio overheard a conversation and announced it to the whole town while smashing his violin at the Nurses’ Ball! (Giovanni Mazza is absolutely crushing his role as Gio Palmieri.)
• Dante just found out he’s a dad again! Lulu is heartbroken over the chaos she caused! Lois and Olivia are cat fighting over their grandson! Tracy welcomes Gio into the Q family in the most tender way it made me weep! Ned is furious that Lois lied to him for 22 years! Sonny has a new grandson and comforts Lois when no one else will speak to her.
• Gio storms out and Emma goes with him, very reminiscent of a teen summer romance of days gone by. I am loving them together! At first, I was mad about recasting Emma, but I have fallen in love with the feisty Emma brought to life by the lovely Braedyn Bruner.)
• Willow and Drew think they have their custody case all wrapped up to get full custody of Wiley and Amelia and a brand new exciting Michael Corinthos shows up in town, played by the dashing Rory Gibson, with zero burn scars, giving me a young Tyler Christopher/Prince Nikolas vibe, and shocks the town by bursting into the Nurses’ ball as Wiley leaps into his arms and they leave together! As Jason blocks his creepy brother and Willow from leaving.
• Nina puts the pieces together and realizes that Sasha’s baby is not Jason’s but Michael’s – but decides to sit on the secret because she doesn’t want Willow to get custody of the kids and move to D.C. with creepy Drew! Also, the bombshell still hasn’t dropped that Nina and Drew were lovers!
• And what about Drew? This is not the upstanding, kind, military vet we once knew! Speculations are flying that someone switched lives with Drew in prison, and maybe Drew is the presumed dead Shiloh which would explain his crazy obsession with Willow!
• Whew! I’m getting winded just writing and I am not even halfway through the EXCITING storylines on GH right now. Why aren’t more people watching???
• Joss is a secretly a WSB agent trainee, and she has a very steamy handler named Vaughn played by the dreamy Bryce Durfee. Joss is infiltrating some creepy professor’s office played by YR alumni Daniel Goddard, snagging an internship she got by stealing Emma’s work! What is he up to? Is Emma in the WSB, too?
• Against all odds, Kai’s surgery is a success, and it seems he may live to kick a football again. He and Trina take their relationship to the next level and become lovers!
• Danny and Rocco sneak away to a college party and Rocco nearly dies from alcohol poisoning!
• Drew is blackmailing Portia for changing Heather Weber’s test results and now; to add to that, Portia was an accessory to drugging Drew and hiring a hooker to stage a drug fueled night of cheating and body shots!
• Curtis is forced to print fluff pieces in the Invader to keep Portia from losing her job, medical license and potentially going to jail! But now that Curtis knows all the facts, he is rethinking everything and getting close to his ex-Jordan again!
• Drew is framing Tracy for drugging him and had her arrested at the Nurses’ Ball even though he knows she did not do it. He’s the devil!
• We have new villain Sidwell, who is the kind of villain I love -he’s handsome and charming on the outside, but you know his heart is pure evil. He’s wormed his way into Port Charles society courtesy of Lucy Coe, partnered with Deception, and Sonny is even considering selling the docks to him and getting out of the mob! After Sonny’s heart surgery and Jason being Danny’s only parent, they are both considering if this is the time for them to exit their loves of crime.
• Laura is fighting for her job with ADA Turner breathing down her neck, Drew trying to drive her out so he can get his flunky Ezra Boyle in the mayor’s seat to greenlight all his stupid ideas. Sounds familiar.
• Carly and Jack
• Brad has left down after telling Drew all the dirt he had on Portia and Lucas is now dating Sidwell’s son Marco Rios. Marco seems nice, but he’s his Dad’s attorney, so is he clean or dirty? TBD. But he sure is pretty.
• There are two potential pairings being chem-tested right now, Cody and Molly and Cody and Lulu. Which one of these potential pairings most interests you? 
• Also, Ric is still crazy about Liz, but she’s with Lucky and he’s with Ava. But if Liz dumps Lucky when she finds out he knew who caused her accident and kept it from her, does that open the door for a Liz/Ava/Ric triangle? Juicy.
• Then we have a secret relationship -Isaiah and Jordan who started dating but now are pretending they’re just pals because of her scheme to become a trusted person in Sidwell’s circle. I like those two together, so I hope they are not on hold for long.

So, I ask you WHY DOES YR have 3 million viewers last week vs GH 1.7 million viewers? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND! If viewership was based on pure merit, GH would have 8 million viewers this week. Every second was “Must See TV”! But a lot of soap viewing is habit based, and history based. I challenge all of GH fans to become GH evangelists and start telling your friends how exciting GH is right now. Find your friend who’s a YR fan and ask them to try GH for two weeks! 

I hope ABC wins all the Daytime Emmy’s for writing this year. It’s well deserved. When the writers bore me, I certainly say so, so now that they have me on the edge of my seat every day at 3pm, I want to sing their praises to the heavens. 

Thanks for listening to my soap rant!

Love, your friendly Soap Diva, Tamilu.