Writing the best and worst list for General Hospital's past year felt a little different than the year before — which is a good thing. They say change can be scary, but in the case of this long-running sudser, it was absolutely necessary. Was GH perfect in 2025? Absolutely not! But there has been a slight rebranding that we can appreciate.
GH let go of a few things that weren't working. Natalia exited after the powers that be finally admitted there was no way they could fix the awful character they had unfortunately saddled Eva LaRue with. Michael Corinthos was granted a much needed recast — Facebook grannies be damned — and finally became the edgy romantic lead he was meant to be. The Spencer family revival went nowhere, leaving behind only Laura and Lulu.
On the positive side of things, entertaining fan favorites such as Liesl, Valentin, and Brad made returns. Poorly introduced characters Gio and Cody found some purpose and fanfare. The Quartermaines continued their recent resurgence. And toward the end of the year, the show felt more focused overall — which is something we can't take for granted, as longtime viewers know.
With all that in mind, here's our list of the best and worst that GH had to offer in 2025.
The "At Least You're Pretty" Award for Dumbest Character - Harrison Chase
Jenn Bishop: The puppy dog's loyalty to Willow is just stupid. He should very well know that Willow isn't an honest person — after all, his ex-wife cheated on him with his best friend after only marrying him because she thought he was going to die. Yet he's convinced she can do no wrong, and his willingness to insult his wife and her family over someone who has continually caused chaos in his life will no doubt come back to bite him. It's not lost on me that this is a bit of a replay of his past offscreen/only-in-flashbacks relationship with Willow's twin Nelle. Perhaps the writers think they're being clever here, but Chase supposedly learned his lesson after that bad romance. Here's hoping he gets to be a grownup in 2026.
Jeff Giles: Much as it pains me, I have to agree that Chase earned this award last year. Josh Swickard is an appealing performer who can do much more than he's been asked to, but for whatever reason, the writers have decided that his character is good for nothing more than rushing to Willow's defense, risking his career in the process. I guess last year was still a little bit of a step up for Chase — at least he didn't spend weeks on end babysitting — but he needs to get back to being a decent detective and a stand-up guy. Port Charles needs heroes, and Chase is more than capable of being one.
Best Character - Tracy Quartermaine
Jeff: Thank goodness Jane Elliot was bored by retirement. One day, GH will be forced to find a way of moving on without Tracy Angelica Quartermaine, but until that day comes, we can all be grateful that Elliot decided she needed to give us more of her magic. I suspect we're past the point where Tracy can be expected to carry a ton of story, but that's fine — even in smaller doses, she's the type of seasoning that can improve any meal. Not that there will ever be any hope of actually replacing Tracy, but the writers really need to start thinking about what they'll need to do in order to position anyone as any kind of successor to her legacy. Brook Lynn is the obvious choice, but she's got a long way to go.
Jenn: Tracy is the grand dame of GH, the complex yet lovable matriarch that every soap needs. She adds a certain needed life to a canvas that often feels drabber than it should. Tracy's a character that the audience can truly love when they're supposed to, and love to hate when they need to. I agree that GH will eventually need to find its next iconic character, but I'm going to enjoy the heck out of Tracy's delightful snarking in the meantime.
Find a Cure for It Already - Back from the Deads
Jenn: Before 2025, rumor had it that GH had set a very strict "no more back from the dead" rule. If that rumor was true, then it only managed to prevent the few returns that actually made sense at the time. Morgan, Spencer and Franco returning would have been easier stories, for the writers as well as the audience. GH made a very big deal out of Britt and Nathan being very, very dead. Yes, both characters are popular, but so far, pretty much zero explanation — or entertainment — has been provided with these returns. Hey GH, let's not do this again!
Jeff: I think a lot about my interview with Michael Malone for the One Life to Live book, and one of the quotes I keep coming back to is the moment when he started talking about the appeal of soaps as a medium where "death has no dominion." It makes a lot of sense — I mean, who wouldn't want to live in a world where burying a loved one might not mean the end? I think most of us can agree, though, that the Back from the Dead button has been pressed way too many times by this show. If no death feels permanent, then there's no reason to care about a character's exit, and once that happens, a complete erosion of emotional investment isn't far behind. We need a complete moratorium on returns from the dead for a really long time.
Thanks For Nothing Award - Lucky's Quick Exit
Jeff: Here's where I confess that I missed much of the '90s in Port Charles, and my first Lucky was Jacob Young's. Perhaps as a result, I've never really cared much one way or the other about anything this character has done, and when the news broke that Jonathan Jackson was coming back again to reclaim the role, I really didn't see the point. As it turns out, the writers didn't see it either; from playing poker with Sidwell for days on end to moping aimlessly around Port Charles for weeks on end, the 2025 edition of Lucky was a character in search of a purpose that no one ever found. When he left town yet again, he lifted so cleanly off the canvas that it was almost like he was never there.
Jenn: Unlike Jeff, I did watch GH during Jonathan Jackson's initial run on the show. I think Lucky and Liz's young relationship is one of the top teen romances — not only on soaps, but on TV in general. The poor writing for them as adults has taken a lot of what made the couple popular away, but it feels like the writers didn't even try to recapture the spark that was once there. After months of a lot of boring nothing designed purely for the Emmy bait, Lucky's proposal to Liz was pathetic, not romantic. I was happy she chose herself over him and even happier he left town. Jackson may have gotten an Emmy, but there was no reward for viewers.
Most Intriguing Potential Couple - Carly And Valentin
Jenn: Carly is one of GH's lead characters, one who's always front-burner with multiple storylines. So why is it that her pairings for the last decade or so have sucked big time? I suspect that the powers that be are just pairing her with Q points rather than what actually plays well. Her pairing with Drew is arguably one of the worst missteps GH has recently made, and the follow-up with Brennan hasn't faired much better. This is the main reason that I was so pleasantly surprised when GH started to tease her with Valentin. Valentin is a bit naughty, dripping with charm, and has a big personality that can't be overwhelmed by Carly. I don't think Valentin and Anna are done, but they are done for now, and I'll enjoy Valentin with Carly in the meantime.
Jeff: Some of you are still hoping for a Valentin and Anna reunion; others dislike Carly so much that there isn't a pairing she could be part of that would earn your approval. I understand both of these positions, and yet I remain cautiously intrigued by the glimmers of something potentially developing between these two. Carly's such an overbearing character that she needs a really strong love interest, or she'll just eat him alive; Brennan is the latest example of this. While Valentin definitely has an unfortunate tendency to turn into a blubbering softie when he falls in love, I don't think he'd take any guff from Carly — especially not if they fell into the type of no-strings situation that tends to turn into a real daytime entanglement. Plus, as I've said before, a Valentin/Carly coupling would infuriate so many people that it might be worth trying for that reason alone.
Best Recast - Rory Gibson As Michael Corinthos
Jeff: No surprises here, right? I've been singing Rory Gibson's praises since he strolled into the Nurses' Ball and walked out with Wiley, and that doesn't seem likely to stop anytime soon. For years, the show wanted us to believe all sorts of things about Michael that were laughably out of sync with the way he was being played, but thanks to the smoldering energy Gibson brings, this version of the character can do it all. Savvy CEO? Legendary lover? Ruthless rival? Check, check, and check. I know some of you still see him as a mewling mama's boy, but as far as I'm concerned, the sky's the limit for Michael now.
Jenn: There have been times when I've enjoyed Chad Duell's work. That being said, I think the character of Michael had outgrown him. He never quite seemed strong enough to live independently of Sonny and Carly, and a recast was sorely needed in order to cut those cords and let the character be a full-grown adult. Rory is very different from his predecessor, and that's a good thing. He's been able to quickly take Michael into a sexy, dark new era that would otherwise never have happened. I believe he could run a company, romance the ladies, win against his enemies, and other adulting activities without any help from his mommy.
Long-Running Triangle We're Over - Jordan And Portia Fighting Over Curtis
Jeff: As a long-running triangle — or quadrangle, whatever shape you prefer — the tepid saga of Curtis, Portia, Jordan, and Isaiah is painfully past its sell-by date. Whether he's with Jordan or Portia, Curtis is a judgmental scold; whether she's with Curtis or Isaiah, Portia is two scenes away from impulsively telling a ruinous lie; and Jordan simply deserves better everything. But it's worse than just poor storytelling — as I've written many times, this is also a brutally clear-cut example of the show segregating the canvas. It's worse than the bad old days, when non-white characters were thinly written props; every character here has a deep history and has led solid stories in the past. Sidelining them like this reeks of racism, and it's by far the biggest issue that GH needs to fix.
Jenn: Curtis used to be a fun guy, but now he's just a self-centered jerk who thinks too highly of himself. Triangles don't work if the person at the center lacks the type of charm that makes it understandable that people would fight over them. Despite the budget spent on weddings, neither pairing of Jordan and Curtis nor Portia and Curtis has had a solid fanbase. I agree with Jeff that this triangle — now quadrangle with Isaiah — seems to carry on for racial containment purposes.
Best Couple - Emma And Gio
Jenn: In 2025, Gio went from useless character to interesting. While part of that is due to a paternity reveal story that gave him more to do than smile while playing a violin, the other part is his sweet young romance with Emma Drake. I admit I wasn't very keen on the idea of legacy baby Emma being paired with Gio when I first saw where things were going, but I was pleasantly surprised by how endearing this pairing ended up being. The actors have an easy chemistry together and have succeeded in outshining the rest of the show's romances. The best young adult romances give the audience that blissful feeling of first love, and Emma and Gio have done just that.
Jeff: This is a close call for me, but I'm going with Emma and Gio, who get the nod over Cody and Molly simply because they haven't forced us to watch weeks of drawn-out contrivances. Both couples are sweet little rays of sunshine, though, and as a foursome, they offer a pleasant reminder of what can be possible when the writers stand back and let the sparks fly.
Worst Couple - Carly and Brennan/Drew and Willow
Jenn: I said last year that unless anything major happened, I'd pick Drew and Willow as worst couple for 2025. Well, some major things happened for the pairing. The Who Shot Drew storyline and Willow's new dark side were certainly interesting, so I did debate whether or not they deserved this award. But the truth is that even with all the soapy attention given to them, I still think they're awful. I feel like some of the things that should have long been explored — such as the roughly two-decade age gap between them, Drew's sudden personality change, why these two would be that obsessed with each other to begin with, etc. — continued to be ignored. Mostly, I just find them kind of icky to watch together. Maybe this next year will be better, but really I just want Willow to have hate sex with Michael and Drew to move to DC.
Jeff: Picking Worst Couple is easy. I'm a well-known Carly hater, but I think even her most ardent defenders would be hard-pressed to argue that watching Carly and Brennan make woo has been anything other than painful since Chris L. McKenna took over the role. The absence of chemistry is so severe that not even the theoretically high stakes of Carly secretly working to ruin Brennan can generate any excitement. They're still easier to watch than Carly and Drew were, but that isn't saying much.
Worst Story - Spy Kids With Joss
Jeff: When Ron Carlivati revived the WSB after years of Bob Guza pretending it never existed, I was delighted. In retrospect, however, it might have been best to leave things as they were. The GH of today simply doesn't have the budget to prop up these stories anymore; instead of going to Mexico or Mount Rushmore, we're lucky if we see a patch of grass or the parking lot, and as a result, everything the Bureau does feels sadly small. But you know what's worse than watching actors pretend to save the world inside an eight-by-ten-foot "lab"? Watching a barely-out-of-high-school character abruptly replace "volleyball" with "espionage" at the top of her list of interests. Tracking your boyfriend's murderer down to an isolated cabin and shooting him in cold blood shouldn't be anyone's idea of a qualification for government service, and that's just one of many, many reasons that Joss' new career has been a complete and total bust. I think Joss is a character with potential, and I think Eden McCoy could grow into a true leading performer if she's ever given the right material to work with. At this point, however, that feels like a really big "if."
Jenn: I'm one of those who wanted Joss of the Corn to grow up to be a goth who hates fascists. The writers chose not to go that direction, but they've also failed to pick a good direction to go in altogether. The only things they've managed to set in stone for Carly's daughter is that she likes to have a lot of sex with older men and her boyfriends die. Yuck! 2025 saw her go from being a med student to becoming Discount La Femme Nikita. This is just the latest in bad ideas the writers have had for Carly's heir apparent. I feel the powers that be at GH know Joss is an important legacy character, but lack the talent to know what that should look like. Why not keep it simple and have Joss go to business school and intern at the Metro Court? Follow in her parents' footsteps. GH has the budget for that and it would give Joss opportunity for a lot of interaction with the cast.
Best Story - Goodbye Monica
Jeff: Admittedly, there were probably far better ways of honoring Monica's legacy than suddenly coming up with a long-lost sister she never mentioned. That being said, bringing in Erika Slezak as Ronnie Bard was solid stunt casting, and her short-term stint served as a good catalyst for a flurry of Quartermaine-centric shenanigans that ended with Tracy holding the keys to the mansion. As I said at the time, having Slezak on the set for a short period brought out the best in the writers by forcing them to begin and end the story fairly quickly and decisively. There might be lessons to be learned from this.
Jenn: Monica's goodbye wasn't perfect, but it made the audience feel something. While it was fun for me as an OLTL superfan to see Slezak again, the best parts of this tale were seeing characters like Tracy and Jason mourn someone they dearly loved, regardless of how complicated their relationship was with Monica. This was a good use of history and a respectful way of honoring an actor who gave so much to the show.
Story That Should Have Been Good But Wasn't - Who Shot Drew?
Jeff: There was so much potential here. The writers spent weeks giving half the town a reason to hate Drew's smarmy ass, and then they arranged a long list of suspects so almost anyone could have been plausibly responsible for putting a pair of bullets in his back. And then, apparently exhausted from all that solid work, they switched from "Agatha Christie" mode to "frantic preschooler" mode, tossing out meaningless twists as breathlessly as a toddler telling a story after getting hopped up on too many juice boxes. To be totally fair, though, the story's not done yet — and after the long-awaited reveal that it was Willow who pulled the trigger, I'm suddenly invested again.
Jenn: I think this story is going to hit some interesting beats in 2026 and I understand why it ended up on a few "best of" lists. That being said, it didn't quite hit its mark last year. The story dragggggged and wasn't anywhere close to the fun whodunnit it that it very easily could have been. Having the PCPD question a random suspect once every few weeks was not exciting to watch. The writers missed the opportunity to give the audience a mystery to follow and discuss amongst each other — a.k.a generate quality buzz. While the reveal that happened this month was pretty cool, the story got lost along the way.
"You Really Wrote That" Award - Rocco's Mommy Issues
Jeff: When Britt Westbourne "died" and left the show in 2023, did you even remember that at one point, she'd stolen one of Dante and Lulu's embryos and impregnated herself with it in order to trap Patrick Drake into a relationship? I mean, okay, you probably remembered it. But at that point, it was so far removed from who Britt had become that it seemed destined to remain in the past. One imagines, then, that the writers felt like they were being super duper clever when they decided to exhume it — first by having Brook Lynn weaponize Rocco's past against Lulu, and then by bringing Britt back to life as someone who was suddenly deeply interested in his well-being. Give them points for at least trying to leverage history, I suppose, but whatever their reasons for writing it, this has been one bafflingly strange storyline — one that ate up most of the attention surrounding Britt's return from the dead when she came back to Port Charles, but has been largely forgotten more recently. Wherever Britt's story goes from here, it seems painfully obvious that her newfound maternal instincts don't need to be a part of it.
Jenn: There are plenty of fans who wanted Britt back. I doubt many (if any) wanted her back so they could see some bizarre and slightly offensive story about Rocco thinking she's his mom instead of Lulu. Sure, once every blue moon, Britt would ask someone how "Ben" was doing, but it wasn't a big enough part of her life that she and Liesl would suddenly feel the need to claim him as their descendant. I think it's obvious that Britt's return was a bit of a last-minute rush job, so I can understand there being some flaws, but what exactly were the writers trying to say with this story? Were we supposed to think Lulu was in the wrong for not wanting her son to associate with a criminal who stole him and tried to pass him off as her own? Were we supposed to feel sympathy for Rocco while he was being snotty to his just-woken-up-from-a-coma mother? And what exactly were we supposed to think of Britt in all this mess? This just felt like the writers were punching the (mostly female) audience in the womb.
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