Everything Right (And Wrong) With General Hospital In 2023

Of the four soaps left on the air, there wasn’t one that gave us a consistently good year in 2023. General Hospital definitely had its moments that kept us tuning in but there were also clunker storylines, missed opportunities, and quite a few things that made us go ‘hmmmm…’

Here we highlight what GH did right and what it did wrong while giving honorable mentions to the good and the bad that was the year that just passed.

What Went Right On The General Hospital

GH started the year on a major high note. A pregnant Esme (Avery Kristen Pohl) had just leaped off the parapet and woke amnesia, Heather Webber (Alley Mills) was revealed to be The Hook serial killer, Vanna were still on the run, Victor Cassadine had a mad plot to destroy the world brewing — and we couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

By April, our new young pairing of Spencer and Trina, also known as Sprina, threw it back to the 1980s when they ended up as Victor’s prisoners on The Haunted Star. The adventure solidified them as a bona fide supercouple, with Spencer presumed dead for about a day, but then emerging in the snow to have Trina perform a running leap into his arms for an embrace to remember. The plot also gave us soap vets Genie Francis (Laura), Charles Shaughnessy (Victor), James Patrick Stuart, (Valentin) Finola Huges (Anna), and Emma Samms (Holly), but in the end, Sprina was the story.

While Sprina stalled for a few months after the Greenland adventure, a magical trip to New York City gave them the romance fans craved — as well as the love scene that was more than two years in the making for this popular pair.

Two other couples gave us more mature love stories that were highlights in 2023. After six years, Valentin and Anna were officially together after being on the run for months, which culminated in Valentin nearly dying in Greenland at the hands of his own father. When they returned to Port Charles, they tried to give things a go, but Anna’s stalker story and Valentin’s bonehead move to not tell her that his teenage daughter, Charlotte (Scarlett Fernandez), was (one of the people) stalking her got in the way.

By Halloween, that frustrating yet riveting story gave us a soap twist we never expected. Thinking her stalker had just broken into her new apartment and was holding a weapon, Anna fired her gun and shot Charlotte, who was standing there in the dark holding a flashlight. Thankfully, Charlotte survived, but the story led to Vanna’s angst-ridden soapy break-up. We know it’s just temporary because this pair is too good to keep apart for long, but we love how they followed the soap path of at least one tumultuous break-up months after becoming a couple.

Yes, it was love stories that kept GH going in 2023, including the love story of Sonny (Maurice Benard) and Nina (Cynthia Watros) that began with an egregious lie in 2021 with this year ending amidst a big secret. Nina is the one who tipped off the SEC to Carly (Laura Wright) and Drew’s (Cameron Mathison) insider trading mess. Still, that doesn’t mean Sona’s love story didn’t capture our hearts. When the messy things both of them do are not getting in the way, Nina and Sonny can be their true authentic selves with one another.

The chemistry between Maurice Benard and Cynthia Watros is palpable and we can tell how much they love working with one another. They complement each other and Nina brings a smile to Sonny’s face when all Carly did was bring exasperation to his life after years of an on-again/off-again toxic relationship that proves they are better off as friends.

Honorable Mentions: The Things We Loved

GH outdid itself with Epiphany Johnson’s memorial honoring the late Sonya Eddy. It also turned around a hated new character and made him lovable when the show decided to pair ne’er do well con man Cody (Josh Kelly) with put-upon tortured Sasha (Sofia Mattsson).

Of course, we can’t forget the return of Jane Elliot as Tracy Quartermaine. No matter how lackluster the writing, Elliot brings a sharp wit and bite into every line she utters — along with a whole lot of heart when the moment calls for it. Let Tracy stick around forever and we’ll always tune in when she’s on.

What Went Wrong On General Hospital

GH, a hospital show that has told some of the most compelling medical stories in soap history (Stone’s AIDS, Monica’s breast cancer, Maxie’s heart transplant, to name a few), gave us one of the most offensive cancer stories we’d ever seen on TV, starting with Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) refusing treatment for leukemia because she learned she was pregnant. Whether it was a coincidence or not, Willow made her decision just as Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, leading women with cancer to be denied treatment in some states due to new and restrictive abortion laws.

When Willow finally decided it was time to treat her cancer, it had progressed to stage 4. Most people do not come back from stage 4, but Willow did. Even when we were told she was on death’s door, she looked fantastic. It was April when Willow’s life nearly ended until Leisl (Kathleen Gati) came through as a last-minute bone marrow donor and by fall, Willow was good and new and back at work. All this story did was tell us that you, too, can neglect to treat your cancer and then end up just fine.

Sadly, 2023 was also a year of forcing couples down our throats who have zero chemistry — case in point Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) and Finn (Michael Easton) and Carly and Drew. ‘Fiz’ just fizzles and nothing has changed in the more than two years GH has been trying to make something out of nothing. And Crew seems to have been thrown together just to give Carly and Drew something to do. We don’t see the passion with either pan and neither do most fans.

In fact, when GH teased Carly with Brennan (Charles Mesure), the crooked head of the WSB, fans immediately jumped at the chance to see Carly with a man who could keep her on her toes and not one who puts the audience to sleep.

The soap tried to give Carly and Drew an angst-filled story with the SEC mess but all that did was make them look like over-privileged fools who had no clue they actually did something wrong. Nina was made out to be the villain for turning them in. And yes, while Nina made that move for very petty reasons, it didn’t change the fact that they committed a crime. And let’s not forget, the only reason Drew ended up behind bars was because he sent himself there, rationalizing Carly’s little girl, Donna, needed him more than his own child, Scout. Say what?

This story went from bad to worse when Drew was sentenced to a much harsher sentence than agreed to in his plea deal, leading Carly, Drew, and their pals to lament that a man like Drew — a Navy SEAL of all people — didn’t deserve to be in jail despite committing an actual crime. Talk about feeling you’re above everyone else. Carly then had Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) commit a crime when she blackmailed a federal judge to get Drew released early. But somehow, Nina, who did NOT commit a crime when she had Martin tip off the feds, is the villain in this story. Sure.

And finally, there is Esme. When the year began we thought a brief stint with amnesia and then a stint in Pentonville would lead to her being partially redeemed, turning her into a shades-of-grey character along the lines of Ava (Maura West), Carly, and Nina. Instead, Esme’s amnesia lasted a full year, she never paid for any of the horrible things she did, and she got everything she wanted. Thanks to Laura (and Trina’s good nature), Esme roamed free, got to keep her baby, became Laura’s houseguest for a year, landed a cushy job, and went about life as if she didn’t drug Trina before making a sex tape of Josslyn (Eden McCoy) and Cameron (William Lipton), while setting up Trina for the crime.

Honorable Mentions: The Things We Hated

The biggest problem with GH is that it has too many characters and too many stories so that we don’t see who we want for weeks, stories get dropped for months (or even years). What happened to Heather hinting to Esme that she may have killed her adoptive parents? What happened to Spinelli’s (Bradford Anderson) Society Setups mess? Every once in a while we remember that Mac (John J. York) is Cody’s real dad, but whatever happened to that childhood secret between Cody and Dante (Dominic Zamprogna)?

Either tell a story or don’t. We hope that’s something GH remembers in 2024.

General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for times. Remember, you can always find the latest GH spoilers, recaps, and news on Facebook at General Hospital Daily. Also, meet fellow fans and talk all things GH with our Facebook community group.