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On several recent occasions, while watching General Hospital, I've realized
that what I've just heard the characters say made no sense. Thinking that I must
have missed or misheard something, I have rewound and replayed the tape. Unfortunately,
what I've found too often lately is that I had not missed anything. The dialogue,
in fact, made no sense.
In a recent episode (January 22, 2001), Alexis comes into Sonny and Carly's
penthouse looking for Sonny. She finds out from Carly and Johnny that although
Sonny had left the hospital (following his shooting), he had not come directly
home, but had gone on an "errand." Carly is worried about Sonny and
upset that he had not told her what the errand was. Alexis is distressed by her
fight with Ned earlier in the day and is presumably looking for Sonny to discuss
Zander as well as her personal problems with Ned. As Alexis wonders when Sonny
might return, Carly becomes more agitated:
Alexis: But he said he would be back eventually?
Carly: Well, I told him he shouldn't even go in the first place. He should be
here with me. But he didn't listen to me. He never listens to me. I mean, the
guy's going to do what he's going to do.
The scene fades out to Sonny at Lily's grave. The act ends. When the next act
begins, the scene is back at the penthouse:
Alexis: You and Sonny fight a lot, don't you? I hear it from my apartment.
Carly: Oh, no, you're not going to try to make me feel better, right?
Alexis: But the interesting thing is, is that when all is said and done, you seem
to come together.
Alexis is trying to reassure herself that she and Ned, just like Sonny and
Carly, may be able to save their relationship. Carly, who knows nothing about
Alexis's fight with Ned, interprets Alexis's comments about her fights with Sonny
as barbs directed at her. So Carly snaps:
Carly: Why are you here?
I believe that what Carly means here is something like: I know you're here
to see Sonny. I have already told you that he's not here. Unless you have something
to say that will comfort me, you should leave. And I am certainly not going to
stand by while you insult me.
So far the dialogue makes sense even if Carly and Alexis don't quite understand
each other. And then come two clunker lines that make no sense:
Alexis: I don't know.
Carly: Oh. OK.
What? I rewind the tape. Alexis says, "I don't know." Carly says
"Oh. OK." I notice that both Nancy Lee Grahn and Sarah Brown look uncomfortable
as they say those lines. I scratch my head and watch the rest of the scene as
Carly and Alexis discuss Carly's reluctance to marry Sonny on her wedding day.
But the two lemons of lines continue to bother me. If I try hard, I can half-justify
Alexis's "I don't know" as meaning that "I'm really upset about
the fight Ned and I had and I want to talk to Sonny about it while pretending
to talk about Zander." But why would Carly accept "I don't know"
as an answer when she wasn't really asking why Alexis was there. Carly was really
asking why Alexis was being insensitive and insulting. An appropriate response
from Alexis might have been something like "I can see I've upset you. I'm
sorry--I guess I was being insensitive. I'll come back later." Or Alexis
might have told Carly about her fight with Ned and admitted to Carly that she
was trying to reassure herself that there was hope for her relationship. With
either response from Alexis, Carly might then have relaxed a bit and allowed Alexis's
questions about Carly's relationship with Sonny to continue. But for Carly to
accept "I don't know" from Alexis was incomprehensible.
Another bothersome bit of dialogue occurred on a prior episode (January 19,
2001). Here, Lucky has just found out that Zander has jumped bail and that Emily
is missing from the boarding school. He figures out that the two must be together
and tells Elizabeth that he thinks he knows someone who can help locate Emily.
We next see him knocking on Alexis's door:
Lucky: Hey. Not who you were expecting?
Alexis: No, actually--it's all right. Come on in--and be careful of the glass.
I broke a vase by accident.
Lucky: Um--the person you were expecting, was it Zander?
Alexis: I'm sorry, I can't discuss my client with you.
Lucky: Mm-hmm. Do you know where he is?
Alexis: I'm sorry. I can't discuss--
Lucky: Yeah, so am I--for Emily. Do you know where they're headed?
Alexis: If Emily is with my client, I can assure you that--
Lucky: Well, who else would she be with?
Alexis: If Emily is with my client, I can assure you that he will do whatever
he can to protect her.
Lucky: Half the world is after Zander--Sorel, the cops. Sonny, for all I know.
You can honestly look me in the eyes and tell me that Emily's safe?
Alexis: Try to understand my position.
Lucky: All right. You were--Emily was supposed to be your bridesmaid. You guys
are practically family, but all of a sudden that stuff doesn't matter? You know,
all you care about--all you care about is your career.
Here's my problem with this exchange. Lucky is there to elicit Alexis's help,
but from the very first sentence there is an undertone of hostility in Lucky's
words. What makes him think Alexis will help him when he's practically chastising
her for protecting Zander from the very beginning? And why would Alexis, high-powered
attorney-at-law, plead"Try to understand my position" to a hostile teenager
who demands that she look him in the eye? The answer is that this scene has little
to do with Lucky asking for help and everything to do with Alexis getting another
message about how she places attorney/client privilege ahead of her feelings for
loved ones. In this scene, Lucky is a substitute for Ned who has just left Alexis
after accusing her of protecting Zander, despite the danger he poses to Emily.
Ned has a legitimate basis for his position since he, having been left at the
altar by Alexis, thinks that Alexis does not value personal relationships as much
as she values her position as an attorney. And even if Ned is not right about
Alexis, he is entitled to his view having been her lover for the last four years.
The problem with Lucky accusing Alexis of caring only about her career is that
Lucky has no reason to believe one way or another about Alexis and her attitude
toward her career. Lucky rarely interacts with Alexis and she says little in the
exchange above that would lead Lucky to accuse her of putting her career ahead
of family.
My final example of disappointing dialogue is from the episode that aired on
February 2, 2001. Carly has seen the proofs from Elizabeth's photo shoot and has
noticed that the middle set of pictures (taken by Lucky, as Carly had observed
in a prior episode) is superior to the photos taken by Theo, the photographer.
She approaches Lucky in Kelly's Diner:
Carly: Lucky? Hi. You got a sec?
Lucky: For you? No.
Even a first-time watcher would figure out right away that Lucky is not fond
of Carly. (And veteran watchers know all sorts of reasons why Lucky would mistrust
Carly.) So Carly has a tough job ahead. Lucky is one cool customer. After a brief,
unrelated exchange with Emily, Carly and Lucky continue:
Lucky: Make it fast.
Carly: Do you want to earn 1,500 bucks tomorrow?
Lucky: Doing what?
Carly: Shooting Gia.
Lucky: Excuse me?
Carly: Come on, like you did for Elizabeth.
Lucky: Oh, well, we were just kidding around.
Carly: Well, the shots are not so bad.
Lucky: Really?
Carly: Yeah. I'd be happy to show them to you if--
Lucky: If I help Gia out, right?
Carly: It would be a great opportunity for you to get some experience if--
Lucky: By giving Gia an advantage?
Carly: Look, Lucky, if Elizabeth isn't up to the competition, then--
Lucky: Oh, no. She is up to it, believe me. But why should Gia get a practice
session? Elizabeth didn't.
Carly: Mm-hmm. Because your mother now has to pay for a whole new shoot because
Elizabeth was so nervous, so I'm just trying to save Deception some money.
Lucky: Mm-hmm. Right.
So far, Lucky is not buying anything Carly is selling. And then we get an abrupt,
unconvincing shift:
Carly: Fine. You know what? I'll call the studio, and I'll see if I can
cancel.
Lucky: The one Elizabeth was in?
Carly: Yeah. You would have access to all the equipment and all the time in the
world that you want, but if you're not interested, then--
Lucky: $2,500.
Carly: Two grand. That's my final offer.
Lucky: OK, you're going to be willing to pay an amateur that kind of money? There
has to be some kind of catch here, Carly.
Carly: Take it or leave it.
Lucky: You just got yourself a photographer.
So what changed Lucky's mind? Was the idea of being a photographer so appealing
to Lucky that he was able to cast aside his distrust of Carly? Was he so intrigued
by the studio and its equipment that he was willing to help Elizabeth's competitor?
That's certainly what the exchange seems to imply. As soon as Carly mentions the
studio, Lucky suddenly becomes interested. By the time Lucky says "$2500,"
he's already agreed to do the job and is just negotiating for better pay. But
just to show that he's nobody's fool, Lucky gets to tell Carly once again that
"there has to be some kind of catch here." The real catch is that Carly
tells him nothing, and after some empty posturing, Lucky goes along with Carly.
The three examples I've given demonstrate various deficiencies of dialogue.
The first one--the exchange between Alexis and Carly in the penthouse--shows poorly
phrased dialogue. The second one--the exchange between Lucky and Alexis in Alexis's
penthouse--shows dialogue inappropriate to the character stating it. The third
one--the exchange between Carly and Lucky at Kelly's--shows unconvincing dialogue.
All of them suffer from a writer's or editor's lack of attention. All of them
could have been prevented or cured by a good script doctor.
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