OMG, THIS is Why General Hospital's Dominic Zamprogna is TOPS on Our List!

I must say, I can't wait to watch. Guza gives us a good episode every other week. I'm trying to watch GH with a new mindset now. If I dumb myself down, it's not half bad...

EYE ROLL! Dominic Zamprogna was excellent but if I want to see The Godfather then I'll watch The Godfather. Guza doesn't have HIS mojo back. He's got Francis Ford Coppola's.

great  clip 
it is the godfather meeting Greek tragedy LOL 

Dz wasn't that Good ...

LMAO, and Francis Ford Coppola had Shakespeare's with King Lear, Macbeth, etc. There are only seven plots in literature. Everyone bothers from everyone. GH started as a daytime version of Dr. Kildaire. They all borrow.  Twilight's author readily admits she was inspired by Pride and Prejudice. Why when Guza does it, he's a hack? 

it is the godfather meeting Greek tragedy LOL 
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Exactly! ALL writers steal from the Greeks. LOL

I must admit, I'm excited. I got the chills when Olivia screamed.

I've enjoyed this week of GH, I just hope that next week is just as good.

I watched it and thought wow the acting coming out of GH this week!

I am DVRing this week's GH....I might add it to my soap collections.  I have tried it in the past and couldn't get into it so I am giving it another try.

I've been hearing good things about this week's episodes.

Crap can't watch the clip from work, damn work for interferring with my down time

I wish I can believe all the Guza is back, I mean we saw what he did with Franco and look how great the ratings turned out for that.  I am ok with borrowing but Guza has a tendency to rip off the worse parts.

I am sure DZ will sell the entire story.

I'm sorry, but there is being inspired by something, and there is lifting it whole cloth. Guza does the latter here. Of course the actors do a good job (I thought DZ was good but not great, MB was...MB LOL); the acting on GH was NEVER the problem.

But how many times are we going to see this kind of storyline again and again?

Not to mention, if I were a PC-ian, I would never want to set foot in a church. Nothing good ever comes from it LOL.

One word. CHARACTER! Guza's characters are as richly drawn as the stick figure in the game Hangman.

DZ is really good, and has played this role to perfection.  As compelling as this story has been, I cannot conceive of any possible acceptable way for Dante or Olivia to forgive Sonny, and further, Sonny getting off with attempting to kill an officer point blank will possibly be the worst thing ever on a soap.  I love GH, and I will not stop watching, but it is endlessly disappointing that this show has devolved into a place where this despicable character is the "star", and we are to empathize with him because he "loves" his children and is loyal to his friends.  I could  be getting ahead of myself, and maybe Guza will write it in a way that it is okay that he doesn't go to jail for attempting to kill a police officer, although I highly doubt it.  This should be the end of the Sonny character, or at least the rest of his scenes should be from a federal prison!  I know it is just a soap, and somewhat hypocritical that Helena is my favorite character, but she is written as a villain and she is treated as such.  Sorry for the rant, but this has been years in the making.

For me, nothing can top Jonathan Jackson this week, and yet another tedious "Godfather" rip-off that will probably have no long-term percussions bores me to tears.  If Sonny ends up in jail or in any way pays for shooting a man in cold blood, or if Dante doesn't ultimately forgive the man for shooting him,  then I'll look back and think that Guza's finally gotten his ish together.  They already started the whitewashing this week with Dante whining about how Sonny's SUCH a good man and he just can't stand to break the family apart, blahblahblah.  That doesn't bode well for the long term. 

And if anything, scenes like that resonate not because of the writing.  It's due to the acting (except for MB - retire already!), the editing, the production crew, and the direction.  With those talented people backing Guza's tired stories up, he's got a job for life. 

 love GH, and I will not stop watching, but it is endlessly disappointing that this show has devolved into a place where this despicable character is the "star", and we are to empathize with him because he "loves" his children and is loyal to his friends. 
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Okay, I see this complaint ad nauseum. So riddle me this. Do you watch primetime soaps like Dexter, where the protagonist is a serial killer, or Weeds, where the lead heroine is a dope peddler? What about Big Love? Damages? Why is it, that when it comes to soaps—which need to evolve more than any other dramatic form—that an amoral character being central so appalling? It certainly isn't groundbreaking. John Dixon was a lead on ATWT for years, and he was despicable. Roger Thorpe was too on GL, and Alex Marshall on DAYS. I get that GH has spent the better part of a decade transforming into the Sonny and Jason Hour, but in recent years they have taken strides to balance that. What is the answer? Even though there are finally hospital stories, which people wanted for years, and other story threads that aren't directly related to the mob,  it seems the complaints stay the same. IMO GH is much better written than any of the CBS soaps, or DAYS for that matter. I just wonder if anything short of killing Sonny and Jason—which sorry, will piss off millions of fans who aren't always online—GH ca do nothing to make peeps give it a break. JMO

I agree with Jamey (also where did Michael Corleone ever shoot his son who was an undercover cop?  I must have missed that part of the movies)

GH rocks right now and I don't know about you all but Sonny was a mean SOB in that clip and there was no darn propping going on which I see mentioned so often.

Sonny IN REAL LIFE should rot in jail as should Dexter but that doesn't mean I actually wnat the characters in jail since I can actually separate real life from soaps.

Domonic Zamprogna is a such a find and DC was sooo right in giving him the number one spot.  Thank goodness Tom Pelphrey turned down the part.

LOVING GH RIGHT NOW!!!!

 Go Jamey .......
I with you 100% 
as the mob fans and there are many like us , just don't blog that much on DC 
and By the way MB is amazing actor and he rocks that little scene not as so DZ ..

I don't watch those shows so I cannot answer but for me it comes down to knowing you are an evil amoral character and owning it, as opposed to drilling it down my throat that even though they do something amoral they do it with a heart of gold.  Sorry I don't buy it.

I love characters like Alex Marshall and Helena because they are(were) true to themselves..always evil I never needed to be convinced that they had a heart of gold, because it didn't matter to me.

I loved Sonny in the beginning because the entire canvas was not about him, he was a strip club owner and Brenda made him human for me.

I have been very happy with the way the show has been lately because they have started showing more character driven stories.  It's nto the mob that bothers me as much as the endless need to have MB and SBu on my screen every single day (or so it seems)

 OMG! I cannot wait for next week's Performer of the Week podcast now! It has been such a long time since GH has been this exciting in one week. I don't care what they are ripping off, this is good stuff. The actors on this show are knocking it out of the park left and right. It really doesn't matter to me what the story is as long as the actors bring life to it and that is exactly what Jonathan Jackson and Dominic Zamprogna are doing this week. I believe their pain 100% and it's magnificent to see acting THIS GOOD on a soap opera again!

Jamey, my favorite shows on television are Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Dexter, and Damages. All involve characters who do morally reprehensible things on a daily basis. I agree with your statement but can you honestly say that Sonny and Jason or really 99% of the characters on GH have been written in the past few years with the same depth, intelligence and nuance as the characters on the shows that I just mentioned or the soap characters you mention. I would have not a single problem if GH decided to focus solely on the mob but if Guza's gonna steal from The Godfather, The Dark Knight, etc, etc., then why not do it in a way that doesn't sacrifice character for plot. I know that's nothing new in the soap world, especially, of late but GH really does hold a special place in my heart. And maybe my main issue with GH is that I'm still living in the 90's.

Also, troymcclure, the scene comes straight out of the ending of The Godfather. The baby's being christened while someone gets popped.

Jamey - " I get that GH has spent the better part of a decade transforming into the Sonny and Jason Hour, but in recent years they have taken strides to balance that. What is the answer? Even though there are finally hospital stories, which people wanted for years, and other story threads that aren't directly related to the mob,  it seems the complaints stay the same. IMO GH is much better written than any of the CBS soaps, or DAYS for that matter. I just wonder if anything short of killing Sonny and Jason—which sorry, will piss off millions of fans who aren't always online—GH ca do nothing to make peeps give it a break. JMO"

Jamey I totally agree with everything you just said! 

GH Lover - It seems to me that you don't appreciate DZ's AWESOME acting talent in this scene because your Jason didn't have much to say in it.  Sorry but you really can't have Jason as the main focus of every single scene.  That would be totally boring. 

Jamey, you are 100% correct and the Mob influence is the ONLY reason I started watching General Hospital (I'm sure you all can tell from my moniker)....I always thought soaps were for girls and feminine men, so the only time I'd watch them is if my mom happened to tune into Y & R.  I happened to be home sick from work one day and I saw Jason and Sonny in a shoot out.  I can't remember who the shoot out was with, but I've been HOOKED every day since.  I can say that I do enjoy other story lines, and great acting, but w/o the Corinthos Mob, GH is no diff than Days of our Lives! I know they are not saints, but I'd rather watch them kill someone because that what the Mob does, than to have to watch Adam Wilson-Newman and the horrible things he's done on Y & R anyday!  I even tend to think that maybe Sonny might go to jail because that's a fact of the Mob, but so is getting off so you guys would complain if he only did a week or so in jail right...LOL!

The world is going to stop spinning - I agree with Jamey again.  

Season I would say that yes, there is still a lot of work to be done on character development in the writing, but I think that Jamey is correct when he says we are seeing more hospital and a better balance and still the complaints are the same. I think GH gets trashed much more than other shows when they are bad.  I am a huge mitch lawrence/Roscoe born fan but I have to say for example that his return this time has been dreadful. I will take MB/DZ having a showdown over mitch twirling his mustache any day and certainly over pretty much  almost everything on AMC in the last year.

I'm looking forward to this.

Jamey, agree with you 100%. Some fans of GH will never be happy and never stop bitching even if they get what they want. That includes me cause I know I bitch but I'm happy with my soap, it's not here to cure cancer, it's here to entertain and it's entertaining a shit load of people. Ratings, I'm tired of hearing about it, it realy doesn't refect daytime viewership correctly. All my friends who watch GH and don't go online or blog about it, are loving GH till no end. If Sonny or Jason ever left, ratings would go down. I know people here won't believe it but these characters are popular and have very loyal fans. It seems that online fans, for every soap, all they ever do is have fan wars over characters/couples/storylines. It's kinda a negative experience most of the time.

I think GH is a shoe in for best show emmy. With this storyline and Lucky chewing out Liz, plus it'll most likely get another best writing emmy and the groaning moaning bitching scream fest will never end. I honestly fear that some people who post here would have a stroke if that happened, lol.

This is good. But I would never ever compare this to those great cable dramas. It's apples and oranges.

but can you honestly say that Sonny and Jason or really 99% of the characters on GH have been written in the past few years with the same depth, intelligence and nuance as the characters on the shows that I just mentioned or the soap characters you mention.
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No, of course they haven't, because daytime writers don't just turn out 13 episodes a season, or 22, they have to write episodes Mon-Fri all year long. That doesn't lend itself to as much chance for nuance or style as primetime, yet many still accomplish it. I believe the GH writers do.

 A soap writer gets a breakdown on a Tuesday (if their show is lucky enough to still have breakdown writers) and has to have a script by the end of the week, that could be horribly re-written after the fact. For the aggrevation, they will make about $5,000, which to us, that might be good money, but in primetime, it would be anywhere from 13,000 to $22,000 (as a minimum). I have no doubt that Guza could do an amazing 13 week series, but having to churn out 80 page scripts every day is a beast unto itself for a head writer and his or her staff. It's the absolute hardest job in television, except maybe firing Jeff Zucker.

Soap Opera writing is a very taxing job. Not only do you have to tell story alll year long—at a fraction of what primetime writers make for five months works a year—but you also have to deal with micromanaging network execs, who fancy themselves soap writers, because they oozed in their knickers when Luke ran off with Laura 30 years ago and that inspired the to go into the business.
 
I cut writers like Guza and Carlivati slack for managing to turn out reasonably enjoyable television under such extreme circumstances.The people who write Mad Men don't have the same pressure to perform, yet look at how many primetime shows hit sophomore slumps. If Marc Cherry runs out of steam after a couple of years doing Desperate Housewives— which he did, thank God he got his groove back this season— and Michael Patrick King started to stink up the City and make us not want any more Sex during those middle years of  his HBO hit, imagine what it's like for a soap scribe in terms of trying to stay motivated and creative.

 Primetime soap writers won't be held responsible for killing a genre if Mad Men is cancelled next year. It will be simply said the show ran its course. The writers I tend to slam are the ones who arrogantly smash through soaps with abandon, throwing out the rule book and the history, i.e. Chuck Pratt. I haven't been watching GH for as long as a lot of people (92-93), but in the 17 or so years I've watched, I have enjoyed a lot of this regimes stories,  mob and otherwise, and continue to do so.

Jamey, agree with you 100%. Some fans of GH will never be happy and never stop bitching even if they get what they want. That includes me cause I know I bitch but I'm happy with my soap, it's not here to cure cancer, it's here to entertain and it's entertaining a shit load of people.
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Oh, I am not saying don't bitch, LOL. I have made a business out of bitches (thanks Luke Kerr for convincing me to do this!),  I will screech to the heavens until Liason is reunted, but that being said I still find SO MUCH to enjoy about this show, and you just don't see that on the boards. GH takes a worse beating than any other soap on the air, and IMO that is unwarranted. Maybe it's because I watch them all, and tend to compare and contrast, but I am still riveted by GH most days. I certainly can't say that about Y&R. Even OLTL, which I think is the best soap on the air, doesn't send electricity through my body the way GH does.

The world is going to stop spinning - I agree with Jamey again.  

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LMAO EET, I think you and I see eye-to-eye on most of GH, it's just that one little difference of opinion! Don't worry, I ain't done selling you on the merits of one dear, darling Lizzie Beth Webber! I'm gonna make you a fan yet!

First of all, Damages and the like are written 100% better and flesh out their characters much more in depth, IMO.  And it would help if the amoral characters that are center stage had a foil worthy of their status.  I don't know enough about the  characters that Jamey listed in his argument, but look at the PCPD on GH right now.  Mac's non-existent, except when they want him making a fool out of himself with karaoke.  Lucky has been written as the World's Dumbest Cop for years now, and trotted over to Jason's place to basically lay out every piece of evidence they had on Claudia's murder, or whatever.  Dante started out as a cop determined to bring the bad guys down, but now has been watered down to sympathy towards Sonny and his family.  Why can't the moral characters have as strong a characterization as the amoral ones?  Isn't every good story needing both a strong protagonist and antagonist?  And can't the antagonist be written as a man with good characteristics without compromising the intelligence or moral code of the protagonist?  

I was a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in its day, and they had Buffy battling the "Big Bad" in the form of Spike for almost every year of the show's inception, and Spike was as a popular character as Buffy was, and neither one had to sacrifice their essential characters to be so.  You always wanted to Buffy to win, but you always pulled for Spike too.  THAT'S good writing.

I realize of course that the story beats that happen beyond the shooting have not played out, and hey, if they write the story the way I think it should be written, then I'll gladly go on record and rescend what I'm saying here.  But Dante's talk with Olivia gave me little hope that the long-term ramifications of this stunt will turn into a good long-term story.  I'd LOVE to see Dante and Sonny just become mortal enemies and be on opposite sides with no compromise.  That would fuel story for years.  Talk about your Hamlets!  But I see the writing on the wall: Sonny walks, and Dante lets it all go in the end.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

I'm not blind.  I realize just how popular Sonny and Jason are, and I know that my little rants on a message board are never going to change things.  As long as the current formula keeps eyeballs glued, then it will continue on the same course.  And loving the bad boy is a time-honored tradition.  But just for once, there ought to be worthy adversaries that people who don't like the mob can get behind.

What hospital stories?  You mean, Mike getting beat up and giving Patrick and whoever that blonde chick is five minutes to decide on treatment and then drop the story?  Or Lulu using the hospital as a place to rip Liz a new one over her sleazy affair?  Or Maxie conning some morgue guy to get a autopsy report?  I guess my idea of a hospital story differs.  There was an opportunity when they decided to do this sudden change in Chiefs of Staff, but that apparently would have required things Guza doesn't like: Using Leslie Charleson for more than five minutes every two months; Writing a story that lasts more than a week for someone other than the mob people; And hiring a contract actor to play a role OTHER than mob guy #30,240.

Yes, there have been other story beats playing out, but please - the mob takes up 80-90% of the week.  It's just a fact.  Lulu and Dante could be a love story about them, but it's tied up in - surprise, surprise - the mob story.  The Nik/Liz/Lucky thing has definitely been a non-mob story, but it's had about 2 helpings of story that they've tried to serve to about 1200 people.  The past few months have been a merry-go-round of the same thing. 

Incredible. Dominic Zamprogna and Maurice Benard sizzle. Can't wait to see the full episode. And I totally agree with him being the best newcomer of the year.