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Credit Where It’s Due: General Hospital Is Doing Something No One Other Soap Is Right Now — and Doing It Spectacularly Right
Monday, April 18th, 2022
The other shows should sit up and take notice.
We complain — loudly and a lot — when one of our soaps misfires. So it’s only fair that we also cheer when one of them hits an absolute bullseye — and that’s what General Hospital has done with its teen scene.
The show’s kids aren’t islands. They’re not adorable moppets that get broken out every holiday or PYTs that only move to the frontburner over the summer. They’re a fully fleshed out, fully integrated part of the canvas — and they have been for years.
More: Maurice Benard’s daughter — her life in pictures
As a result, we really know Josslyn, Cameron, Trina and Spencer. We saw Joss go through the loss of first love Oscar and watched Cam and Trina awkwardly navigate their feelings for one another. We were there as Spencer accumulated the baggage that now weighs down his relationship with his father. So we don’t just like them, we get them.
Here’s the weird thing: No other soap is writing its teenagers so well. Days of Our Lives doesn’t even have any. Neither does Bold & Beautiful (and when it has introduced young characters in recent years, it’s tended to strand them in Forrester-intern limbo land). Young & Restless has done about as much with Moses and its new Faith as it did with Lily and Cane’s twins.
In other words, not much.
More: Nicholas Alexander Chavez’s ‘half-true’ story
We don’t get it. The soaps always make a big fuss about wanting to attract a young demographic — and they have General Hospital showing ’em how it’s done on the daily — yet three outta four shows aren’t playing that next generation. (At least not playing it well.)
Check out the latest additions to the 2022 collection of General Hospital cast portraits in the photo gallery below.
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<p>Prepare to feast your eyes on the official ABC portraits of the cast of <em>General Hospital</em>: solo shots, couple pics and, as you can see, some pretty amazing group photos, too. First, though, let’s suss out just who’s who…</p>
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<p>… plays Sonny Corinthos, the dimpled don who can impregnate a woman by doing no more than flash a smoldering gaze like… Ack! Like <em>this</em> one! Look away before it’s too late! Look away!</p>
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<p>… cranking up the heat on Sonny’s smoldering gaze.</p>
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<p>… now with more pepper in Sonny’s hair than salt.</p>
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<p>… serving up a reminder that Sonny is always “one to watch.” Get it?</p>
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<p>Because that was not the last picture — surprise! Here’s Benard with a marginally different T-shirt!</p>
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<p>… is Carly, Sonny’s mercurial ex-moll, who can go from “till death do us part” to “if looks could kill” faster than you can read this caption. And that’s even if you’re a <em>mega</em> fast reader.</p>
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<p>… doing Carly’s best “Who, <em>me</em>?” expression.</p>
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<p>… flashing a warm smile that says, “Eh, who needs the Metro Court, anyway?”</p>
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<p>… never fails to turn heads. In this case, her own. But you know what we mean.</p>
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<p>… competing with the sun to determine which of them is more radiant.</p>
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<p>She’s in black, yes, but don’t you <em>dare</em> call Carly basic.</p>
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<p>… brings to life Dante Falconeri, the PCPD detective who is… Oh, awkward. He’s the firstborn of the city’s most notorious mobster. Let’s focus on Mom instead, shall we? Next picture…</p>
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<p>But we really <em>are</em> heading toward the mother lode. Honest, we are.</p>
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<p>… portrays Olivia Quartermaine, the Bensonhurst babe who married so far up, she now lives in <span style="text-decoration: line-through">her Richie Rich husband Ned’s</span> Monica’s mansion.</p>
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<p>… is money, as the kids would say, as Ned Quartermaine, the heir apparent to grandfather Edward’s fortune — <em>and</em> his testiness. Good luck with that, buddy!</p>
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<p>… striking a pose that lets the world know that Ned is an ELQ MVP.</p>
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<p>… is Leo Quartermaine, Olivia’s son with late mobster Julian Jerome and Ned’s adopted son.</p>
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<p>… builds a bridge to Brook Lynn Quartermaine, the feistiest firebrand this side of her mama, the much-missed Lois Cerullo.</p>
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<p>… issuing a reminder that Brook Lynn doesn’t have to wear bright hues to be a colorful character.</p>
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<p>… serving glam to the nth. Maybe even whatever comes after the nth.</p>
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<p>… and ‘it’ is glam to the oth. Not the nth but the oth. Thank you for your and Brook Lynn’s help in clearing up this matter.</p>
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<p>… walks mile after mile in the shoes of Michael Corinthos, the corporate-minded offspring of Carly and <span style="text-decoration: line-through">A.J. Quartermaine</span> Sonny. Never mind that scratch-out; those in the family or its “business” know better than to discuss it.</p>
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<p>… defying Michael’s reputation as a buttoned-up type by altogether skipping that top button. That’ll show <em>us</em>!</p>
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<p>… is Michael’s girlfriend Willow, a sweet-hearted former schoolteacher who learns every day that in a town like Port Charles, it’s easy to get it wrong when you’re trying to do right.</p>
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<p>… offering us the sweet smile that’s going to make Willow such a great nurse.</p>
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<p>… looking for all the world like the calm before the storm.</p>
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<p>… demonstrating how Willow takes news that’s best received sitting down. There’s a <em>lot</em> of that kind in Port Charles!</p>
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<p>… giving us a hint of what <em>All My Children</em>’s Jenny Gardner might have been like, had she survived that awful jet-ski incident.</p>
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<p>… plays Wiley Corinthos, Michael’s son with the late Nelle Benson and, for a time, the kid most likely to be the potato in a game of parental hot potato.</p>
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<p>… played Harmony Miller, Willow’s late mother who, even after leaving the cult in which she raised her daughter, was still keeping plenty of secrets… like that she wasn’t actually Willow’s mom. </p>
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<p>… rocks as Carly’s chip off the ol’ block, Josslyn Jacks, a Ms. Popularity with enough fire in her to reduce to cinders anyone crazy enough to hurt her nearest and dearest. While maintaining a 4.0 GPA, we might add.</p>
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<p>… serving the side-eye that has reduced most of Joss’ detractors to rubble. (We love Joss, and we’re even feeling sorta rubble-ized!)</p>
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<p>… is Dex Heller, the ab-fabulous mystery man whose first step in Port Charles was onto a minefield that is as unlikely to leave him unscathed as he himself is to wear a shirt. (Translation: not very.)</p>
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<p>… here demonstrates the <em>Home Alone</em> OMG expression that the audience so often wears as they watch Nina Reeves make one questionable choice after another.</p>
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<p>… keeping Nina chill even as her storyline gets hotter, hotter, hottest.</p>
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<p>… missing the scarlet letter “A” that Carly would like to affix to Nina’s blouse for sleeping with Sonny.</p>
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<p>… back to show off the “Whatevs” expression that Nina reserves for her face-offs with Carly.</p>
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<p>… is the real-life alter ego of Alexis Davis, a former attorney and occasional hot mess who knows the law inside and out. As in, she hasn’t just represented criminals, she’s served time herself.</p>
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<p>… turning out the ultra-serious look that lets us know that Alexis means business. And not the funny kind, dang it!</p>
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<p>… plays Alexis’ oldest daughter, Sam McCall, P.I., mother and all-around action figure. She’s kinda like Nancy Drew with a better right hook and edgier wardrobe.</p>
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<p>… this time, with an expression that asks whether we are really questioning the last caption. Um, no. No, ma’am. Never.</p>
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<p>… brings <span style="text-decoration: line-through">back</span> to life Drew Cain, the “late” Jason Morgan’s “late” brother. Until an accident and some serious plastic surgery rearranged Drew’s face, he shared not only his twin’s taste in love interests but his handsome mug, too.</p>
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<p>… reminding us that Drew’s always looking for stubble. Er, <em>trouble</em>.</p>
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<p>… after what was apparently not a metaphorical close shave.</p>
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<p>… <em>has</em> to have seen it all in her years as Monica Quartermaine. The actress is the soap’s longest-serving cast member.</p>
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<p>… is Elizabeth Webber, the nurse you most want to administer your shots, if only because she can distract you with tales from her bat-[bleep]-crazy life. Pro tip: Ask her about the time she married a serial killer whose homicidal tendencies were contained in a brain tumor.</p>
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<p>… demonstrating Liz’s preferred method for trying, always trying, to leave her troubled past behind her. Don’t turn around, whatever you do!</p>
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<p>… working the plucky expression that has seen Liz through the toughest of times.</p>
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<p>… looking not at all like a Maroon Five but a Maroon 10.</p>
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<p>… makes it a point — see what we did there? — to enliven any scene as Cameron Webber, the teenage dream whose life has been, not to put too fine a point on it, a nightmare.</p>
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<p>… scrubs in as Dr. Hamilton Finn — Finn to his friends. Also Finn to pretty much everyone else. No one wants to compete with the musical to be called Hamilton anymore.</p>
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<p>… threatens us daily with cuteness overload as Violet Barnes, Finn’s daughter with… Say, where <em>is</em> Hayden, anyway? By the time you read this, we may already be finding out.</p>
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