Paula's Soapbox

I think I speak for most people when I say that GH revisiting the Franco storyline is beyond terrible. It appears that they are trying to redeem this character, not a foreign concept in soaps. Villains turn heroes all the time in this genre; but Franco is not redeemable.  Even if we were to take his DVDs at face value and assume he didn't want Michael hurt, he wasn't beyond exploiting the rape to torture Jason --- remember Francophenia? The writers don't seem to, or they just don't care, which is worse. They would also have us believe that Franco only did the things he did because Jason somehow rejected him.    How could that be? Franco was torturing Jason before Jason ever knew he existed! And don't get me started on how every character thinks Franco looks exactly the same as he did a few years ago. Franco doesn't look like Todd and Kiki doesn't look like Starr, just add some hair dye and the audience will be none the wiser...right!  On top of the Franco...

Ever since Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo's highly anticipated return to GH, viewers have been hearing about this mysterious Balkan character who was out to hurt Brenda. For a while I assumed the Balkan was Franco because of the scene below where he is on a plane looking at Brenda's photo and talking to someone on the phone about wanting to work with her. [no copyright infringement intended] Of course that assumption was proven wrong once it was revealed that the Balkan was out to get Brenda for killing his son. And even with all the inconsistencies on GH I'm assuming they know that even their viewers can't suspend the reality of disbelief enough to buy that Franco could have a son old enough to date Brenda. The reveal that Theo Hoffman is actually the Balkan should come as no surprise, at least it didn't to me for a couple of reasons. First of all my expectations were already low going into this storyline because of the huge disappointment that was CO77X. I had...

I doubt if I'm alone in saying that there is a lot wrong with General Hospital these days. While it continues to be one of my favorite soaps there are many changes I would make immediately if I had the power. Below is a list of the top ten suggestions I have for the way the show could improve. 1. The Claire/Sonny storyline needs to be dropped. It isn't working. Their conversations are boring and the context of their relationship is, well...icky. 2. Amp up Lisa's craziness. Despite my earlier distaste for a Robin/Patrick/Lisa triangle, the obsessed ex-girlfriend angle is working. It's interesting and very soapy. 3. Ronnie needs to be established as either a cop with a chip on his shoulder or someone who works for Franco. So far I haven't been able to tell whether Ronnie falls more on the side of good or bad because this character hasn't been clearly defined. 4. Brenda's life away from Port Charles and the people that surround it need to become an int...

When it was announced that James Franco would be joining General Hospital for a brief acting stint, my hope was that his presence would generate renewed interest in the show. And while he may have achieved this feat on some scale, his character Franco and the storyline attached to him seems to possess a polarizing quality that sparks either love or hate, with little room in between. For the most part I was intrigued by Franco's character and this storyline. In fact on certain days it was the only interesting part of General Hospital amid the sleep-inducing love triangles involving Robin, Patrick, Lisa, Lucky, Liz, and Nikolas. Overall though I would have to say that the Franco storyline failed to live up to my expectations. There were many disappointments along the way, not the least of which was the revelation that CO77X was only a booking number with no profound meaning. Perhaps the biggest disappointment though, and in my opinion a great oversight, was the fact that Franco had n...

In the midst of all the chaos surrounding Franco's latest antics, more on that later, I could not help noticing Lucky and Maxie's reactions to the safety of his hostages. Neither one of them seemed at all concerned with Sam's well being. When Maxie thought someone might have died in an explosion her initial reaction was to hope that it wasn't Lulu. This made it seem like Lulu was the only one she was concerned about even though she and Sam were friends long before she and Lulu ever started speaking to each other. It seems rather strange to me that Maxie wouldn't at least be as equally concerned about Sam as she was Lulu. Still, I can kind of overlook a little insensitivity from Maxie, primarily because she has a tendency to be that way a lot, but also because Lulu has become like a sister to her since Georgie's death. In addition, Maxie feels guilty about letting herself be used by Franco, not to mention the fact that if that had never happened she would have li...

General Hospital fans have spent several weeks searching the Internet for clues about the mysterious CO77X tag that was introduced as part of the Franco storyline. This tag even made it into Google's top 10 searches on October 21st, as viewers tried to find some insight into its meaning. In fact there were numerous theories about what it might mean and what impact it might have on the show, but on Monday's General Hospital all of those theories were quickly dismissed, revealing a simplistic explanation for the tag. As it turned out CO77X was Franco's booking number from a past arrest, and something he now uses as a tool with which to taunt police. I must say, as one of the many viewers who spent hours playing amateur detective in an attempt to solve this mystery, I was very disappointed by this revelation. These days soap operas rarely have storylines that capture the attention of viewers the way this one element has, and it is even rarer for a movie star to request a role ...

In the weeks leading up to the introduction of the Franco character on General Hospital, viewers were treated to countless montages featuring the mysterious CO77X graffiti. Since then there has been non-stop speculation about the meaning behind this tag and how it may affect the course of the show. Recently there have been fewer CO77X sightings, but there have been several episodes featuring Franco so I thought it would be a good time to revisit CO77X in an effort to unlock this mystery. This week Jason received a painting from Franco listing the seven deadly sins of vanity, envy, gluttony, lust, wrath, greed, and sloth. Seeing this made me wonder if one of the "7's" in CO77X represents these seven deadly sins. This may seem a bit obvious, but looking back on the scene where Franco is shooting red paint balls at the pictures of people close to Jason, there are seven people on the canvas besides Jason. Taking this one step further it seems logical to assume that Franco...

When Jason received the photo of Maxie laying inside the chalk outline, I expected that he would have an immediate reaction to the axe handle and basket that were in the photo. Instead, neither he or Sam seemed to notice them or their significance. In fact Jason's only reasons for thinking that this picture was somehow linked to the picture of "Claudia" seemed to all be based on the fact that he received both pictures within a short period of time. Never mind the fact that both of them contained elements from Claudia's murder scene. Franco may want to reconsider sending messages through his artwork because apparently symbolism, even in its most obvious form, is completely lost on Jason. These are scenes from when Jason received each photo. The axe handle and basket are clearly visible in both. Pause the first video at 1:33, and the second at :20 to compare the two simultaneously. "Claudia's" photo [no copyright infringement intended] Maxie's photo [n...

Spinelli should be grateful that Maxie did not want to marry him because obviously it does not take much to turn her head. Granted she and Franco have great chemistry. And of course General Hospital could not have a movie star join the show without giving him a "love" interest, but Franco made Maxie look like a foolish young girl. In fact as the days pass I think Maxie will find that she has a lot to be embarrassed about. Not only did it take very little for her to cheat on Spinelli, but she essentially slept with Franco on a dare, all the while convincing herself that she was in control of the situation. However, Franco was the only one that really got anything out of their encounter. He was able to use someone close to Jason for his perverse mind games and get that same person to basically insist on sleeping with him, all without ever having to agree to do the Crimson shoot. From the moment Maxie met Franco it was obvious that she was attracted to him and did not trust hers...

Franco's highly anticipated art exhibit was unveiled on Monday's General Hospital, provoking a spectrum of reactions from observers. Luke assumed Franco was nothing more than a fraud, peddling shock in exchange for money, while Dante couldn't take his eyes off of the presumably fake crime scene photos hanging on the wall. At one point he noted their familiarity which makes me think that they were recreations of actual crime scene photos. One photo in particular showed a body positioned in the same way Franco arranged Joey Limbo's body. Taking this into account it would seem that either Franco is manipulating crime scenes in order to send some sort of message or he is manipulating current crime scenes to look like previous ones. And while this can be nothing more than an educated guess until more information is revealed, one can be certain that Franco is fixated on Jason. Even his brief conversation with Sonny did not seem to hold as much value as the mere possibility of...

For about a week General Hospital fans have undoubtedly played the minute-long James Franco promo over and over again, trying to gain some insight into his contribution to the show. Included in this promo was an image of Claudia's body inside a chalk outline, with her head surrounded by a pool of blood. Upon seeing this image, speculation immediately began that perhaps the mysterious, and aptly named, Franco had retrieved Claudia's body from the ground in order to snap pictures of it. Today, viewers saw a close-up of her body within this chalk outline, but as it turned out this wasn't Claudia at all. Instead this body was revealed to be a model dressed as Claudia who was presumably allowing herself to be photographed by Franco. Obviously these pictures will be sent to Jason as part of some sinister plot, even as he tries to figure out who sent the picture of Claudia wrapped in tarp. To be honest, I find the real mystery to be how someone could move quickly enough to take a ...