By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman
Even when the plots of our soap operas drag or are otherwise unsatisfying, there are always actors who make our day. I named some of my favorites here a while back. Now, here are some more, all on General Hospital:
Anders Hove: GH’s own bad grandpa (ABC Photo)
Anders Hove plays Faison, a classic villain who has been in and out of Port Charles going back to 1990. He’s Danish and with his long hair and wrinkles is perhaps the most bedraggled looking character on all of daytime TV. His visits usually have to do with his obsession with lady love Anna Devane and with his favorite diabolical undertaking, kidnapping. This time he’s in town after revealing to Anna that her daughter Robin (who his bossy wife Dr. Obrecht abducted a year and a half ago) is still alive.
Hove’s latest visit is so much fun because we’re getting to see the domestic side of the Great Dane. He’s continually in conflict with Dr. O, his quarrelsome spouse from hell (the outstanding Kathleen Gatti). The two fight like the old married couple that they are. This time he’s also fighting with evil daughter Britt (does the apple fall far from the tree?), who has introduced him to his “grandson” Ben, who is not biologically Britt’s son. It’s hilarious to see this villain kiss his “baby.” We hope Faison sticks around, even if at the moment he should still be in jail for impersonating Duke Lavery.
Finola Hughes
Finola Hughes is always a treat since her spy/police chief character Anna Devane came to town in the 80s. She is what soap women rarely are: career oriented and mature but still vulnerable and brimming with emotion. Now she’s obsessed with finding her daughter Robin, who has thought dead for some time but is still alive.
The most interesting recent Hughes moment came with her impersonation of the vile Dr. O, who wore a mask impersonating Anna. She was an actress pretending to be a character pretending to be her character. Tricky stuff, and Hughes made it a jolly tour de force, complete Dr. O’s signature hauteur. Elsewhere, she played herself with equal charm in some marvelous scenes with Hove.
Bryan Craig. We’ve been very rough on Craig who plays Carly and Sonny’s son Morgan. As Kiki’s husband, he was very weak. However, since Morgan has hooked up with older woman Ava Jerome (the outstanding Maura West), Craig’s performances have gotten better. Perhaps working with the accomplished West buoyed him. Now he’s a lot more forceful. Going forward, it should be interesting now that he’s discovered Ava’s brother Derek is really his father’s enemy, mob boss Julian Jerome.
Ilene Kristen. Here’s a big soap surprise. It seems that GH is incorporating the old soap Ryan’s Hope and Kristen’s character Delia Reid Ryan into its own storylines. Sam and Silas will go to the Upper West Side bar to find out if Delia is really the mother of Ava Jerome. We can hardly wait to see Kristen (formerly Roxy on One Life to Live), who is always kooky and funny, in her two appearances scheduled for this week.
I can stand to watch Faison and DR O. But I am SICK TO DEATH of jerry jacks. Enough of him he is just evil personified. ENOUGH. The show is good right now, a lot of characters ,Britt, Nicolas, Robin, the wedding, and I am really looking forward to the Scorpios and Scrubs reunion. I am especially enjoying Robert and Anna together in the lab driving each other nuts. They need to get their spy stuff on, and get the better of Jerry. I know, I know November sweeps. lets get on with it. I am NOT looking forward to another mob. I hate the gummy bear mob. Where the heck is AJ.? Monica and the Q’s. Michael is going back to the stupid little shit mode. When he was with AJ he was well liked and fans couldn’t say enough nice things about him. Sam and Silas I also like but Poor Sam related to another mob family. Shouldn’t Alexis screen the guys she meets before she has a kid with them!
Marlena, Girlfriend, are you having a brain burst???
You left off the Queen of Daytime, the one and only, Robin Mattson!!!
Glad you are back… Marlena!!! Another great column!!!
I too love Finola and Anders portraying Anna and Faison!!! Finola has always beeen fabulous… but Finola playing Kathleen playing Dr. O playing Anna has been sheer perfection!!! She is amazing at making the same gestures and movements of her eyes and body that are pure genus!!! I love her scenes with Anders/Faison. Faison really loves Anna and it makes him human… even when he is his most villianous. I love his scenes with Kathleen as Dr. O too! They were great together on Cassadine island when he was so cruel but sheer joy when they arrived at Wyndemere when they were the Cranks! I am loving the ensemble scenes with so many of my favorites!!! I love Tristan and Finola together and bantering together in the lab. Can’t wait for Anna and Robert and Robin to reunite!!! I would also like to see Faison and Dr. O stick around or at best come back often.
Morgan with Ava is getting somewhat better and more tolerable but… he ‘s not yet there for me.
I adore Ilene and can’t wait to see her scenes!!! Great choice for Ava’s mother and tying in the Delia Ryna character from Ryna’s Hope is delightful!!!
We are in for a rocking Halloween and November sweeps!!! Can’t wait!!!
Whoever made the decision to have Anders/Faison dress up as Beetlejuice is genius!!! He was sheer perfection as Beetlejuice and the scenes with Spencer and Leslie along with Dr. O and all of the rest were inspired!!! Oh… how I wish we could have Faison and Dr. O live on Spoon Island for awhile… such a riot… too funny for words!!! Well done Anders!!! Well done GH!!!
On another site, someone was concerned that it is too easy to cheer the villains and not the heroes on soaps these days. I hated the days when everyone though Sonny was so sexy and sooo sympathetic as a slimey criminal…and the best example of repugnant up-side-down moral standards.
But I’m afraid I am guilty of cheering on the villains sometimes, myself, and I suspect here is the problem:
superb casting. Shows hire such talented actors to play villains that they get to be a joy to watch. The actress who plays Obrecht is simply marvelous–often a bit over the top, but really fun to watch. And Connie playing Helena is so experienced, so talented… again, abit cartoony, but fun to watch. The actor who plays Jerry Jacks is another big talent, and a charmer, to boot. Faison? Delightful. But I don’t long to see them win–not at all! I realize they are the stumbling blocks to complicate our heroes’ lives and plotlines. I still wait for the good guys to win and cheer when they do, but meantime, what fun!
What bothers me right now is stupidity on the part of our good guys. Nik finds Robin in that lab and they have a long chat before they move out of that lab with the locking door. Anna and Robert enter same lab and talk and talk before moving to leave the room–almost as if they were waiting for Jerry to return and lock them in? This stuff often annoys and it is unnecessary to the story. This stupidity factor is why it seems the bad guys are winning. Put the good guys in danger and they seem to lose their brains and cunning. When Nik took Robin up to the main room, why didn’t they take the time to tie up Obrecht and immobilize her? She could still give them trouble, and we knew Jerry was coming. Nobody ties up Faison, the escaped maniac? You don’t leave really dangerous bad guys with their hands and feet free! Geesch! But Obrecht and Faison bickering–oh, so delicious. Whatever one says the other contradicts, and in whatever language they fall into. And driving their daughter mad in the bargain!
This story has especially good villains and I don’t want to see any killed off, just locked up, because once they are locked up, they can always wait a few years and turn up more interesting evil. Well, maybe not locked up right away because personally, I kind of want to see and hear Obrecht perform Karaoke at the Rib again!
Anna is glorious, a thing of beauty and such talent that she should be the centerpiece of this show, entirely. I am so sorry she had to lose her best copper in John Mcbain. But she is simply superb whoever she is with and I was chortling with such pleasure as Finola was impersonating herself, impersonating Obrecht who was impersonating–oh, nevermind.
What joy to see Ilene again, too. Roxy’s gift for malapropisms were among OLTL’s great pleasures. I used to practically fall off my chair as she’d toss out yet another mangle of language so off-handedly. So here’s my lightbulb moment and a super suggestion for headwriter Ron C: Move Delia to PC and into Kelly’s as manager. No one really seems in charge there now. And her moments with owner Luke would be priceless. She could also remove BLT’s from the menu if she got tired of Heather showing up or others getting BLT takeouts for Heather. (Oooo…she’d be on Heather’s list then, wouldn’t she?!)
I realize the show has too big a cast now, but couldn’t they work in Ilene somewhere? Please?
I loved Marilyn Henry’s post. I can add nothing further. Bravo!
I agree with all of your choices of actors. Interestingly, I encountered Finola first when she was Alex, and then Anna herself on AMC in the late 90s — and I loved her there although I will say Alex and Anna were played almost exactly the same, so I was much more impressed with the way she played Dr O disguised as Anna. Brava. I also encountered Faison back around 1993 when his character came to Loving, and I think Ava and Jeremy chased him (including to Universal Studios where King Kong took a liking to Ava.)
And I always love Ilene.
Still–I know this is campy GH, but I really can not say I’m happy with the stories these poor characters are currently playing. And, having seen a lot of Ryan’s Hope from the SoapNet run, this really felt like Ilene playing Roxy much more than how I saw her play Delilah. I wouldn’t be surprised if writer Ron Carlivati wanted Roxy, but due to the current online OLTL mess couldn’t license her while ABC still owns the Ryan’s Hope characters. It was nice to see that Ryan’s Bar now uses AMC’s Krystal’s set though 😉
This week’s column is only 99 comments short of the one from two weeks ago —
An Excruciating Episode of The Young and the Restless — which just hit the 105 comments number.
Girl, they still back there talking about it and show killing witch Jill Farren Phelps.