I like Carly again. I'm so happy. Thank you ABC. This week as the Train Crash Saga continued, Carly version 4.0 was unveiled. Carly had several "flashbacks" as she ran into various people from her past and in those flashbacks I sighed with relief that the character I loved has emerged from the ashes like a Phoenix. She had chemistry with Lorenzo. She had chemistry with Jason. She had chemistry with Sonny. Hip Hip Hooray! (My 3 year old grandson Nicodemus says this a lot and I miss him, so I worked that in just to cheer myself up.) Tell me readers; do you like her, too?
Okay, I got that declarations out of the way, and now I can begin the usual nitpicking. As the rubble and debris rained down on various characters, I kept secretly hoping a boulder would drop on Courtney so I wouldn't have to have to hear another person say "Courtney, you need to sit down and rest, you have to take care of you and the baby." Courtney of course, didn't listen, having learned nothing from her last miscarriage, and kept trying to lift boulders. At least she wasn't playing Kung-Fu Barbie and kickboxing with any thugs this time around. She didn't seem to grasp that she was IN THE WAY. I realized she was in the way, and if I had been in the tunnel with her I would have pushed her into the path of a falling piece of debris so she'd get conked on the head and shut up.
Of course, if Courtney was anything like Manny, a 200 lb rock on the head wouldn't even faze her. That dude has been shot and had things fall on him and he just kept coming like the monster dudes in the Friday the 13th and Halloween movies. You know, the ones where the bad guy is lumbering along with an axe sticking out of his head, a knitting needle through his chest, an egg beater protruding from his eye and the chick, who is always nearly topless and trying to keep a piece of material carefully placed over her nipple is running at break speed and the Lumbering Monster Dude still catches her. Manny with a bullet wound can keep up with Sam and Carly and other non injured and fairly fast running ladies. Makes no sense, but what drama would there be if no one was trying to kill anyone in the tunnel? (In case you didn't recognize it that was sarcasm.)
Without the violence, there is still plenty of drama in the tunnel. Thus, to my point of view, the violence is unnecessary. We had Alexis delivering a baby in the tunnel which should have been delivered caesarean, and also finally reuniting with and reaffirming her love for Ric. We had Reese with some mystery wound in her side (which in reality is just the body blow of being without a contract and getting canned) - we had Jax and Courtney escaping a cave in. They thought it left Nikolas crushed, but miraculously he got out -and not long after they did I noted...Hmm, seems if they had stuck around for 5 minutes, maybe he could have used a hand digging out? We had newlywed Lucky bleeding to death and only his love for Liz kept him holding on until help arrived. We had the new and improved Lulu raging against her father's lack of parental involvement, we had Skye and Lorenzo on the outside pining away for the people they loved inside, and various other moving and non violent drama.
A couple of items on which I need clarification...
Number 1) GH called in Lainey, a psychiatrist to go the rescue scene as they needed "All available medical personnel" on hand. So then, where the heck was Bobbie, and why were Alan and Monica at the hospital bickering instead of being present at the crisis scene? Just think if only Dr. Meadows had been called, Alexis could have had someone to yell instructions down the tunnel to Emily, but, no, it seems they only needed Lainey, the shrink...
Number 2) Mac sent his people digging through the mountain- you know the trained professionals who respond to disasters regularly? Now, his people are apparently still trying to get in, while Luke, Jax and Lorenzo have been in and out of the tunnels about 11 times and are drawing maps for Jessie and the other "pros"? Funny.
I love November Sweeps. It's been a wonderful week on our beloved show. "Music and Passion were always in fashion" as the song says. (Copacabana by Barry Manilow for those of you to young to recall that gem of a lyric.) I want to say again, Hip Hip Hooray, I like Carly version 4.0. And if you miss Tamara Braun, you can catch her on the sitcom "Freddie" this week - I surely enjoyed seeing her last week. Now that we have a better Carly I can be happy for Tamara's success outside of GH. I admit, I'm a little selfish, if we still had a bad Carly, I would be mad that she traded us in for Freddie. The thing I want to ask is this; if the writers can write like they have been writing the past two weeks, if they have all this wonderful drama and suspense and such in them, why do we only get to see it in May and November during ratings sweeps? Guys, I swear, if you wrote this well every week, we'd all call a friend and double your audience for sweeps. Honest. No need to hold back. No need to kill time on stuff like "The Dead Man's Hand" storylines. And, let's not fail to mention that if we made a drinking game of downing a shot every time Maxi body slams Jessie and begs him not to do his job because it's too dangerous, we'd all be hammered by the first commercial break.
What will happen tomorrow dear readers? Will Molly learn to speak before Kristina does? Will Michael run away from Leticia to go see Mommy the same time she's running away from Rose Lawn to come and see him? Will Courtney try to move some furniture in the antique train car to feng shui it and ease her stress? Will Manny be impaled by a railroad spike and keep trying to lick Sam's cheek with his nasty tongue? Will Tracy and Lulu get to the Hair Pullin' Stage of their cat fight?
