So, if you’re a General Hospital fan you’ve no doubt been giving some thought to this crazy situation with the three characters brought over from One Life to Live. I don’t want to re-hash the reasons behind the decision to give the actors completely new characters…it was a legality issue and I support them keeping the talent any way they can. And if anyone can pull off bringing three actors back as three completely new characters it would be the team of Ron Carlivati and Frank Valenti. What I do want to weigh in on is the new characters themselves.

Let’s start with Michael Easton (because I confess to having been in love with ME since his “Days” stint as Tanner.) RC and FV were in a tricky situation. ME had already played the double role as the crazed Stephen Clay (vampire Caleb from Port Charles days). They couldn’t bring a potential romantic lead back as a crazed serial killer, so they went with the brother of said killer Dr. Silas Clay. So far so good. He’s an intelligent character with a reason to be in town (getting custody of his nephew Rafe), and he has already clashed in that “Oh yeah they’re gonna do it one day” way with Sam! Woo hoo! Unless they mess it up by making his identity questionable and hinting he could actually be Stephen, I’d consider ME a successful transition.

Then there’s Kristen Alderson. I have to admit to never really liking Starr. Even on OLTL, and I may have unfairly blamed the actress. I like this character Kiki – although the name is annoying. Her acting is as different as her hair color, and making her the lost Quartermaine heir is genius connection! One caveat – something’s gotta be up with that. There’s obviously a potential triangle brewing with Morgan, Kiki, and Michael, and she’s got great chemistry with both. BUT wouldn’t she be Michael’s cousin if she is really Franco’s daughter? Ick!

And Franco leads us to Roger Howarth, by far one of the best actors on daytime. I’ve loved him as Paul Ryan (ATWT), Todd Manning (OLTL,GH) and now as…well, I don’t know who. However, all signs point to Franco, another evil serial killer character. This is the only situation where I find myself praying that Ron and Frank have something up their sleeves. I want and need to like Roger and I can’t see how you ever redeem the character of Franco. As the show ended today (5/28), the characters assembled at the Haunted Star obviously recognized him and not in a good way. The previews showed Sam yelling, “Is my husband alive?” So, obviously not Jason. I’m still hoping against hope he could be Jerry, because for some strange reason I think he could be redeemed somehow, but Franco? Ick! Again.