So, we’re on NIGHT SHIFT week three, and I have to admit that I do think season one was stylistically better. The writing was tighter and the production values were slicker. But the content this season feels more true to what GH is. Shameless soap hussy that I am, I’m pretty easy to please as long as you hit all the basics: family drama, romance and shirtlessness. 

Now, on with last night’s episode. 

The only thing more baffling than the size of Robin’s apartment is the size of her pregnancy padding. Mind you, this is something I noticed on GH, too. I’m not exactly a giant myself, but Kimberly McCullough is a tiny woman and Robin’s, what, six-seven months along at this point? Most of the time it looks more like she’s just gained some PMS water weight. Or maybe she had a plate of cheese fries and one beer too many. So when Robert gleefully exclaimed, “You’re pregnant!” I was like, “How can you tell?” I know that, realistically, there ARE many women who don’t gain much weight during their pregnancies but for soap opera purposes, the visual does help. Get that girl a bigger baby bump or she’ll be giving birth to a 20 piece order of buffalo wings. 

My confusion over the fluctuating size of Robin’s belly aside, NS is doing a great job of integrating actual medical cases with plot — and that’s as it should be. Thereshould be thematic carryover and surgeries and tense moments in the ER. Befuddled Robert flailing around, yelling, and then thinking it was the mid-1980s… that was priceless. He name-checked Sean Donnelly, Luke, the DVX, AND Faison! And how cute was poor Kyle in the supply closet with him? (Make your own closet joke here.) I loved how he ended up just going with the flow. 

I also appreciated Jagger mentioning Karen again and citing how her death impacted him. One of my biggest pet peeves with PORT CHARLES was how they broke up Jagger and Karen off screen and then proceeded to act like Karen had only ever loved the Scanlon brothers. Grr. Jagger and Karen went through too much, and Jagger is too good of a guy, to have had that love story be dismissed in such a fashion. Hmmm…I sense a future post on the subject of broken up couples. But let’s move on to the actual couple developments on NS. 

I still don’t get why Toussaint would leave touring with the Saints to empty bedpans in Port Chuckles, but I’m willing to hand-wave it away, because I love Billy Dee Williams and think he and Sonya Eddy’s Epiphany are just wonderful together. As for Leo and Saira, Ethan Rains and Azita Ghanizada have chemistry in spades, but the whole science vs. woo-woo debate is BORING. Leo having such a short fuse about alternative medicine and mental illnesses makes him look like a narrow-minded jackass. Meanwhile, Saira is such the compassionate earth mother that she’s practically Saint Saira of the Blessed Acupuncture Needle. It’s a pale shadow of the surgery vs. drug therapy Patrick/Robin conflict of yore. My solution? Drop it and just have them make out all over the hospital! ‘Cause their smooch up against the lockers was HOT. 

Toldja I was easy to please. ;).

originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com