The Mobster's Son and the Stripper: GH

Once upon a time there was a young man of barely eighteen, who was imprisoned after slaying his stepmother to protect his mother and baby sister. This young man was called Michael and his newfound captivity held more danger than all the ports in Port Charles.

 


Shortly after his imprisonment began, Michael became the victim of a sinister plot in which he was forced to submit to the sexual advances of a fellow inmate. Michael's spirit was broken and it seemed like he might never recover from the harsh realities of prison even after he was freed.



Then one day fair maiden Samantha offered Michael a helping hand. It seemed she had come across a lovely lady called Candy who routinely abandoned her clothes in the presence of men for monetary compensation.



As luck would have it this lady was willing to offer herself to Michael as a way of helping him overcome his fears of intimacy; but alas young Michael was too inexperienced, too broken to appreciate Candy's kind gesture.



Then out of the blue one day young Michael and the lady who now calls herself Abby found they had much in common and soon began wasting away the hours talking about their broken lives as the mobster's son and the stripper.




Not exactly Cinderella is it? Although General Hospital seems determined to create a fairytale out of the Michael and Abby storyline. I realize soap characters meet in a variety of mostly unsavory ways and that the couple that would be called "Mabby" are slowly gathering a following, but I cannot get past their initial meet-cute (see Easy Love). If someone, say Jason, had hired an older man to sleep with Kristina, Jason would be considered a creep and said man would be called a pervert, right before Sonny planted a bomb in his car.


I think it makes sense that Michael would find it easier to confide in Abby instead of a therapist because he has not exactly had a conventional upbringing; but I cannot get over the fact that Abby seemed to jump at the chance to sleep with a damaged eighteen year old stranger. If they had met in almost any other way I would probably like this pairing. If Sam had simply presented Abby to Michael as someone he could talk to, not sleep with, there might be a really poignant story here in which two people had finally found someone they could relate to. That is a story that could capture my interest and that is a couple I could grow to love. If that is to happen at this point, however, General Hospital is going to have to work overtime to make me forget this couple's twisted beginning. Of course if the rest of the show continues to revolve around Brenda it may not matter to me so much.