Out of some bizarre loyalty I haven't been able to pull away from General Hospital even if I think I should because at this point it so far removed from the show I fell in love with. I was optimistic about Ned's summer return until I read that he would mainly be involved with the teens of GH. I'll watch to await his response to Tracy seeing and hearing Alan. I'll get a good cheap laugh until the writers get down to using Ned as they see fit in the teen crowd. They almost always open up strong for returning characters and then simply waste them away in pointless storyline or worse yet no storyline at all (Robert&Anna anyone?). I know Guza and Co. are already dreaming up some strange, but affirming (mainly because they'll shove it down are throats much the way they are doing with Sonny&Collen) love match between Alexis and Jerry. I still refuse to call him Mr. Craig, what's the point anyway? Mr. Craig as it stood before the hostage crisis was a character with promise and possible depth. He could of been someone other than Sonny to avenge Alkie and sweep in on some good romance with Skye.. Now we just have a cosmetically altered nut-case aka Jax's brother Jerry. The bogus back-story that even more bogusly was told to Carly first was a complete farce. How much more powerful if he confided in Bobbie?

The rest of the show is a waste of filth too. Elizabeth is as far left of what her character really is and was. And it only ruins the interconnecting storylines more to see Lucky accuse her of hurting Jake. The territorial ego driven Lucky makes me cringe. I always come back to this, but could Jonathan Jackson have gotten away with this? He wouldn't even allowed the writers to mark his character in such a way. But the writers at GH don't even know where to take their characters, whether to make them enemies, mere flawed characters, or hearting good people. They hang them in the balance and use and bend characters to which ever direction that suites their needs.

And worst of all we are left with no valid, or worthty of investing in, super-couples. If any one plausible pairing even comes close to grabbing the reins it's Maxie&Logan. Screw Coop, because quite frankly he won't be the only one Maxie will be screwing. With every breath Logan passes Maxie's way we see just how made for each other they are. They are both cold-hearted sleazebags that deserve whatever is coming to them. When Logan teases Maxie that she'll get bored with Coop and want a little thing with the real bad boy he's right! Her last love proves my point perfectly. Only when he was shot and killed did she show even the slightest remorse for the way she treated him. And even then she used his death to create a sad pity party in her honor.

There's a complete one-eighty when it comes to my other soap I just can't seem to part with no matter how hard I've tried in the past. Days of Our Lives is the best it's been in years. It's kept me on the edge of my seat, making me sure to tune in daily to get the latest on the DiMera and Brady feud. If NBC truly decides to part ways with the daytime drama in 2009 then this current arching could be a brilliant way of flushing out, and finishing out, the show. I remember years going by where I could watch DOOL no more than a few times a month and still little would be new and next to nothing would have changed. But now it feels so fresh and revitalized. There seems to be a insurgence from the writers to bring forth a quality program almost daily. The post teenage crowd crowded episodes do little for me, especially since Abby is MIA and they made Mike Horton's son some generic musclebound loser. I'm also on the fence with the Belle triangle. That aside the show is nearly perfect. It took some time for Joseph Mascolo to grow back into the character of Stefano. But after some greatly written scenes between him and Tony the nuances came through. And I couldn't be more pleased that Collen looks like Sami and that likely Santos will look like E.J. Whether you're with the Sami&Lucas camp or not, it's hard to deny the amazing chemistry between Sweeny and the actor who plays E.J. Tell us the glorious back-story, the grand sweeping romance that is, in part a reason for the feud. Show us in flash-backs. Don't let the scorching chemistry be put to waste. And then the precious Sami&Lucas can remain in love and unharmed.