I haven't written an editorial in a long time. Mostly because of life in general keeping me otherwise occupied but also because it's just not very fun to write about General Hospital when I'm not enjoying it. However, the long awaited return of Elizabeth Webber's parents has left me with more thoughts than a few tweets can contain. I have a lot of mixed emotions about how this story was executed.
Worst Parents Ever
I'll start first with what I like about this story. The writers didn't shy away from making Jeff and Carolyn Webber the villains. A young Liz confronted her father's lover, resulting in the woman taking a fall down the stairs, needing a blood transfusion and then contracting Blackwoods disease. The incident traumatized the teen and her parents handled the situation by trying to erase it all through manipulation and sleeping pills until they finally decided to just wash their hands clean of their daughter.
Parenting in the '80s and '90s was a little bit different than it is now. There were certainly plenty of wonderful parents but a lot of things that were acceptable then wouldn't fly today. Mental health care for children has evolved over the years. There wasn't as much research done on the subject which often lead to struggling young adults not getting the help they needed. It was socially acceptable to treat an energetic child with ritalin simply to make them easier for parents to handle. Jeff and Carolyn relying on medication to try to control their daughter is sadly realistic.
When something happened to a child, things weren't handled with the expected urgency that they are nowadays. There were no Amber Alerts when a kid went missing. It was common practice for police to assume that a child was a runaway and wait before taking action. Nowadays people realize that if a kid goes missing whether they runaway from home or not, there is still cause for concern. Liz ended up at her loving grandmother's house but her parents should have been worried when she ran away from home.
In a nutshell, Jeff and Carolyn are every bad adult from the '80s and '90s rolled into one very awful parental unit. Older sister Sarah followed the rules and therefore stayed in her parents' favor. Meanwhile, Liz was the rebellious one, a free spirit like most artistic types.
Liz didn't pretend everything was okay when her father had an affair. She confronted an adult which lead to an accident and she was held responsible for a tragedy that the adults created. Her parents tried to fix the situation in a way that would not expose their own poor choices. Liz running away wasn't seen as something to be concerned about as it made it easier for the doctors to keep up appearances. And when Liz was raped it was likely seen as a consequence of what her parents perceived as bad behavior.
Yes, Jeff and Carolyn are the worst in a very real sort of way. The reveal that they are bad parents fits with the little history we have of them in relation to Liz's 25 year journey on GH. This is hard to watch but I do see value in telling this story. All three actors have done a wonderful job, in particular Rebecca Herbst.
"They muddy the water to make it seem deep"-Friedrich Nietzsche
There is more than enough story to be told with Liz and her parents. She should have confronted her parents after all these years because she needed to do it for herself. It was unnecessary and, quite frankly, insulting to tie Liz's past trauma to her current beau Hamilton Finn. As Soap Opera Digest pointed out in a recent issue, "Liz fans don't always agree, but they were pretty unanimous about what they wanted from this story - touted as one meant to honor and celebrate Rebecca Herbst's 25th anniversary in the role of Liz - which is that it be rooted in the character's on-screen history and centered squarely around her, and not the man in her life."
I've been trying to wrap my head around why the writers at GH would think this was a good idea. Not only has the pairing of Liz and Finn gotten a terrible response from the audience, but this changes both characters' histories in a way that was unneeded. Adding Finn into the mix took what should be a thought-provoking character study for Liz and turned it into a convoluted mess so that Finn could have more than a supporting role.
We've already been told the story of Reiko's death and Finn's grief. It was used to set-up Finn's romance with Liz's sister. In that version of the story, Finn's research lost funding due to Hayden's father's ponzi scheme. Reiko contracted Blackwoods because she stayed with Finn while he completed his research. He also got the disease himself, becoming addicted to drugs as he mourned his loss and searched for a cure. Fans - especially those who are already upset that Liz's own grief over her husband's death was glossed over - don't care about Finn's offscreen wife so why is it being explored yet again?
This recon also plays with the timeline of events and character ages in a way that makes it hard to hit the "I believe" button. People assumed that Finn is older than Liz but the idea that a 30-something Finn and Reiko were hanging out at the same office parties as the Webbers while Liz was just a kid is a little weird to think about.
Wouldn't the Webbers realize that their daughter is dating Reiko's husband? Wouldn't Finn know who Jeff and Carolyn are? Would he have met Liz when she was a teen? If so, why hasn't this come up previously? It's a little weird and not in a good way that Finn ended up dating two of Jeff's daughters. Hopefully, Sarah doesn't have a lizard-loving ex-boyfriend in her past.
Twist and turns and unusual familiar connections can be soapy. This isn't soapy. It's skeevy. If the idea was to create angst to get viewers onboard with Liz and Finn's romance, someone made a mistake.
Finn's patronizing behavior towards Liz and her sons is an issue that can't be fixed by telling the audience that 1) it didn't happen or 2) that he's the victim of Liz's family. It doesn't suddenly make the viewers feel sorry for him after seeing him corner her child in a room and shouting accusations or refusing to give Liz much needed space to deal with the loss of her husband.
What Now?
It feels a bit naive to wish for the story to be Liz's and not Finn's at this point. I'm extremely disappointed that Rebecca Herbst's 25th anniversary was used to try to fix the mess the writers have made with Finn. Especially since fans have been complaining about the character's overbearing behavior for more than a year thus allowing plenty of time to course correct outside of Liz's relationship with her parents being explored.
It would be wise now that the reveal has happened, if the story refocuses on Liz dealing with her unresolved trauma and healing herself. Liz should be the hero of her own story in the end. This should be her story.
For some more thoughts on this story, please check out the commentary from Soap Hub, Desire for Drama, and Soap Opera Central.
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