Love the facial expressions and the tone of voice from both of them.  LOVE IT!

But my DARN DVR decided to not record ANY SOAPS today!!!! Of course this is the one day I actually go into the summer job during the day instead of at night!

Feel better now. Just needed to vent that out. Good thing for Soapnet.


Thanks to Jessica at Lookout Point for banners.

I think the thing that makes some couples work and some not is the chemistry between the ACTORS playing them...not the personalities of the characters themselves or what they do or don't do onscreen. Jason and Kirsten worked as Shelle because they have chemistry, and not just chemistry when they are doing a love scene. They have chemistry when fighting. That's why I'm enjoying watching them as Matt and Maxie. They are making the characters spark together because they spark together as actors. That's why I can't get into a Maxie and Spinelli pairing. Spin's not the kind of guy who is going to dare make Maxie mad by ever fighting with her and even if he did...he'd let her win. I just don't see that kind of chemistry with Kirsten and Bradford. Matt's the kind of guy who won't back down which is what makes watching Jason and Kirsten playing these characters so exciting. Matt will give Maxie a run for her money, and what is now irritating her will soon be the spark that won't be able to keep her away from him.

I say this not because I don't like Matt and Maxie, because I do like them. They have a good spark together, however, I see spark between Spin/Max as well.

The reason I say characters need chemistry along with the actors' chemistry is because GH has a history of putting characters who used to a part of other soaps' supercouples in order to capitalize on the former couple's popularity. GH has failed at these attempts in the past. Stephen Nichols as Stefan Cassadine and Mary Beth Evans as Katherine Bell did not work. Nancy Lee Grahn as Alexis Davis and Lane Davies as Dr. Cameron Lewis did not work, even though they had worked on Santa Barbara as Julia Wainwright Capwell and Mason Capwell. Both of these pairings clearly worked on the original soap chemistry wise, but did work in their second pairing on different shows in different situations.

The Stefan/Katherine pairing didn't work, in my opinion, because Stefan was a complicated character who didn't do well with the traditional soap opera love story. There are other reasons as well, but I thought Stefan worked more as a stand alone character than he did with any pairing. The pairing also didn't make sense in that neither character was in each other spheres/storylines than suddenly they were together.

As for Nancy Lee Grahn/Lane Davies, they were a boring pairing on GH. This may have been in part due to the fact that the writers seemed to avoid writing for Cameron Lewis. If written correctly with Nancy and Chad Brannon, who played his son - Zander, I think the character of Cameron Lewis would have been more interesting.

Now, if Matt and Maxie get together on GH, I'm not saying they won't work, I'm just saying that the characters and the actors need to be right in order for the pairing to work. It's a bit early to tell, but at the moment, the actors and characters are sparking. The writers need to be careful how they proceed so that they don't end up with the failures I mentiones above. I think a slow build is a good idea for them, even if other pairings come before the pairing of Matt and Maxie for awhile.

Lissie


Lissie's Fics: http://www.network54.com/Forum/181424

that will allow the actors natural chemsitry together to cause a spark between their characters. I am hoping that there will be a period of she and he still disliking each other and fighting because I actually think Jason and Kirsten do a great job fighting onscreen. I'm kind of hoping that they will show Maxie to sort of start to be interested in a relationship with Matt only to discover that he's involved in the fake drug issue. This may keep them apart for awhile, and allow them to build Matt's character during that time.

Then we can see if their relationship will work. I don't disagree that it's not always wise to try to pair former "couples" from another soap together again, but I think the difference here is that time, in terms of years, has passed since Jason and Kirsten have worked together, and their characters on Days were also played by other people. It's been a nice long while since they've been Shawn and Belle together. If I remember correctly it wasn't that long between Days and GH when Steven and MaryBeth were together again. There wasn't much time that had elapsed between them playing Steve/Kayla and starting on GH.

I don't really know about Alexis, but I do remember them on Santa Barabara. I'm not sure how much time passed between them working on SB and GH. It's quite possible that enough time has passed between them working on Days together and now that this could work. I'm not saying it will, I'm just saying that every situation is different. It may work this time. You never know.

Even if it doesn't......Jason and Kirsten working together...regardless of how or when their characters get together....I haven't been excited about watching a soap in I don't know how long. They have given me a reason to enjoy soaps again, and for that I thank them.

I actually looked forward to watching GH last night on DVR. This is the first time in over a year that I have actually looked forward to watching two characters on a soap. I have been coming to this board since the beginning and the old Shelle Fanfics and chatter since 2000. But, for once in a long, long time, I couldn't wait to log on this morning and see what the buzz was. I hope they can strike gold twice with these two. It's going to be a good ride!