Paula's Soapbox

Wednesday's General Hospital was like a breath of fresh air to me. Kristina's conversation with Sonny served as a reminder that she is the one true victim in this storyline. It also allowed viewers to see that her attempts to forget what happened to her is clouding her judgement. And it was nice to see that she is still making an effort at keeping Ethan out of trouble because it makes her seem less villainous . As long as GH keeps showing more moments like these I might eventually be able to buy into the fact that she blamed Ethan thinking she could protect him, while appeasing Kiefer in order to protect herself. Perhaps the portion of this episode that pleased me the most was Carly figuring out that Kiefer is to blame for Kristina's attack. Obviously she will have to prove that now, which will give GH an opportunity to throw her into scenes with Bradley Cole, (hello Guiding Light fans) but it was such a relief to hear someone finally suspect Kiefer. I was beginning to thin...

The Kristina abuse storyline on General Hospital continues to get worse with each passing day. As if the show's portrayal of her as the villain in this whole scenario weren't enough, one of the main characters essentially justified the attack to the accused on Tuesday's episode. Obviously I am referring to Luke, who apparently is so open-minded and non-judgemental that he has even found a way to understand the beating of a 17 year old girl. Granted Luke was talking to Ethan, who obviously did not commit the crime he is accused of, but for Luke to say that he "can see where a guy would snap and...do something that he didn't intend to do" after what Ethan experienced, is reprehensible. I guess I should not be surprised given Luke's history, but what Ethan experienced is known as a bad day. If Ethan can't handle being told off by the older sister of a girl who has a crush on him the same day said crush was expressed I'm amazed he made it through high ...

General Hospital's compelling, informative story about the reality of relationship abuse among teens took a different direction this week. This storyline should have focused on one single victim of abuse, Kristina. That is the only way to present a story of this nature if the motive is to educate and raise awareness. Instead there are too many other victims involved in Kristina's situation for it to be much more than background for the other aspects of this storyline. First of all too much focus is being placed on how this situation affects Sonny and Sam, not to mention Ethan. Obviously there needs to be some mention of Sonny and Sam's past abuse otherwise that would be ignoring history, but their painful memories should not be the primary focus unless the overall goal is to garner sympathy for Sonny. I certainly hope this is not the case. I am pleased that there have been references to the fact that it is normal for victims of abuse to protect their abuser because I am not...

In previous posts I have given a lot of praise to General Hospital for their decision to tell a story about a teenager involved in an abusive relationship because I believe that teenagers and parents alike need to know that this happens and what can be done to prevent it. I also believe that when a show decides to take on this subject matter they need to be careful about the unintentional messages they are sending in their efforts to tell a story. For the most part General Hospital has been able to tell a story of an abused teenager both accurately and sensitively, showing both the mental and physical elements that make up abusive relationships. And I continue to applaud the show for ending every episode that features Kristina being abused by her boyfriend with helpful information for the viewers. However, this storyline took an irresponsible detour on Friday and I am not referring to Kiefer's escalated act of abuse. Although that was difficult to watch it was realistic, and a cert...

As many of you know I recently had a bout with the flu, so forgive me if my latest assessment of General Hospital is less than accurate, or coherent. However, I have been getting this strange feeling of deja vu the past few weeks because when I watch this show now it seems like I may as well be watching episodes from a few years ago. Jax and Carly are involved in a power struggle within their marriage, which involves Sonny. Michael is the center of everyone's focus and concern. Spinelli and Maxie have been involved in yet another caper. Liz is struggling with the fact that she cheated on Lucky. Johnny is public enemy number one. And Tracy is once again obsessed with Lulu's love life. I know that soaps like to recycle their storylines, but I am not sure why this soap feels the need to go back over all their old storylines using the same cast of characters. Of course this might be tolerable if the dialogue was intriguing enough to break up the monotony, but I am not sure how many...