soapy

Today Vanessa Marcil returns to General Hospital in the role of Brenda Barrett, and I am delighted, although I question whether Bob Guza will write a worthy return story for her. Yesterday ABC ran three classic Brenda eps, and, as Sara Bibel writes: "Wow. All of a sudden 'General Hospital' is brilliant! It’s like it's a whole different show. The dialogue is rich. The characters are flawed and multi-dimensional. The show is balanced. The mob no longer dominates the show, nor is it glorified. The production values are lush. Wait a minute. These are reruns."

I'm not thrilled that Soapnet has decided to preempt Ryan's Hope in favor of an additional showing of GH for a week and a half (RH returns on August 23)--but welcome back, Brenda/Vanessa! I wish Claire Labine were coming back to GH too.