GH: Night Shift Episode 9 - "Gutter Ball"

If Night Shift has taught me anything, it’s that you can be a complete idiot and still get to write a television show (a sad discover) and that I should always trust my gut. The former is self-explanatory, the latter refers to my initial reaction over this show. When I first heard about Night Shift I thought wow, this is dumb. because:

#1 spin-offs never work unless you count Laverne and Shirley and
#2 didn’t GH already try this with Port Charles and didn’t it tank?

A few months later I heard Robin and Patrick would be the stars so then I thought

them + cable = hot

Then I heard that what happens on one show doesn’t affect the other and thought weird, but okay. And then I heard Steve Burton was coming aboard and I returned to my original diagnosis that this show, beyond a reasonable doubt, was going to suck. Last night pretty much proved my point.

I have never been so angry about a television program in my entire life. There is no word that Webster could supply that could accurately describe how furiously enrgaed I was and how much I hate, deplore, despise, abhor and loathe that poor excuse of a show. I seriously had to get a night of sleep in order to lessen my anger long enough to form a coherent sentence that was more than a string of expletives.

Screw all the random subplots, this week I’m focusing on the supposed stars of the show, or as I like to refer to them, the imposters.

If you were a Night Shift viewer who had never watched General Hospital, would you like Patrick and Robin? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t. Since the first episode the only substantial scenes they’ve shared involved arguing and yelling.

So for all of you fortunate people who were lucky enough to miss the evening's debacle, the major highlights are:

Patrick & co. performed rogue surgery on Lainey’s dad
Robin was not part of the OR team because she had to meet with the social worker
Robin was given permission to temporarily take the baby home
Patrick and Robin broke up
Robin found out the baby’s daddy showed up to claim her
Patrick kissed Leyla

Naturally you’d think that I would be angry over the break up, but I wasn’t. It’s a soap and it comes with the territory. It was a bittersweet moment and I think both actors did a great job with what they were given, but I couldn’t get completely immersed in the scene because they already aired the whole thing in this week's commercial. Besides that, it was too short and Patrick just sat there like a mute.

Robin: We need to figure this out.
Patrick Yeah.
Robin: I just want you for a minute not to be defensive okay? Neither will I. I belive in fate. I believe that something bigger than you and I put this child in my life. I mean she shouldn't even be here right now. She should be going home with her mother, a single woman that's HIV positive. That's what Stacey would have wanted. You know what? Maybe I'm second best, but I am the closest thing that little girl has to her mother's strength.
Patrick:You should be nobody's second best.
Robin:I'm not ignoring your feelings. I didn't think I was ready either, but I held that little girl in my arms and I knew I couldn't walk away. I don't want to change you, I don't want to force you into something that doesn't make you feel comfortable, but I honestly don't think I could live with myself when I'm here, ready to love her.
Patrick:Then you know what you have to do.
Robin:I'm not choosing her over you, I just know that you'll get along fine without me, but I'm not sure Anna should or can.
(Patrick kisses Robin's cheek. Robin walks away in tears.)
Patrick:Robin, you're going to be a wonderful mother.


I felt like Patrick didn’t even try to fight for Robin. Maybe the writers were shooting for a " he loves her enough to let her go" scene but they fell woefully short because the surgeon just appeared lazy and almost apathetic. GH Patrick would have fought for Robin before letting her go. I felt like NS Patrick gave up too quickly. The fact that I have to distinguish between the two shows is a major issue I have, but I will address that later.

Timing has always been an issue with me on this show. Case and point in one scene Lainey was in the locker room chatting with colleagues, in the very next she was walking off of the elevator. I’m no art school graduate, but to me, that just seems like sloppy editing and poor planning. The timing that particularly irked me was the shift between lockerroom Patrick and rooftop Patrick. Lockerroom Patrick was sincere as he and Robin broke up and for the first time in forever I saw the real Patrick. He was devastated that Robin left and you could tell by the look on his face and the tears in his eyes. Three seconds later in the customary ending montage, he’s on the roof flirting with Leyla and then proceeds to kiss her because he "wants to." Back up. He just broke up with the supposed love of his life, yet he's able to kiss the pink tramp without a second thought? Yeah, that screams love.

I know, I know, the writers are going to be all well, "Patrick’s a playboy and he’s hurt." Um, no that doesn’t fly. You just spent the last year and halftwo years trying to convince me that Patrick is a changed man and only has eyes for Robin and that her jealousy is completely unfounded.

All I have to say is a big, fat B.S. to that !!!

Truthfully this would have been easier to take if Patrick and Leyla haven't been flirting for weeks. I could have looked at this as an impulsive reaction to being hurt, but now, I don't know. The lead into this makes it look pretty bad. I’m sure they’ll try and justify this later with an oh well Patrick and Robin weren’t technically together when he kissed Leyla so it wasn't cheating which to me, at this moment, is not even the point. The point is the time it took for Patrick to revert to form. It makes him look like an unfeeling ass, which I have been told countless times by YOU,writers, is not so. Herein lies my biggest gripe with Night Shift - the fundamental shift in the personalities of the characters.

I don’t care if this is alternate reality or whatever the hell you want to call it. Why as a GH viewer should I be punished for watching both shows? I watch soaps because I know the characters and I have a sense for who they are since I see them basically 5 days a week 52 weeks out of the year. I’m comfortable watching them. Why would you completely change that? To benefit a new viewer? How exactly does that work? I’ll tell you right now that it doesn’t. Number 1, you’re alienating long time viewers who have come to expect certain things from these characters. Number 2, I can guarantee that 99% of the viewers watching Night Shift tune in because they watch GH. And number 3, any unfortunate new viewer who may have stumbled across said show, would have changed the channel in the first five minutes, because as mentioned before THE CHARACTERS ARE COMPLETELY UNLIKEABLE.

I will reiterate that I completely understand that drama and angst come with the territory, but this is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t get why the writers feel the need to be so completely self-destructive with characters all of the time or why they are so uncreative. A third-party is an incredibly unoriginal storyline and it’s a shame to waste something so lame on two great actors playing two characters with such interesting backgrounds that could be an endless source of intriguing future storylines. Why must the writers create another heartless bitch (i.e. Leyla)? She has been after Patrick for weeks which is not alright when someone is involved with another person. Adultery/cheating is so old and I can pretty much guarantee that no one enjoys watching it.

I am back to counting down the days to the end of this God-forsaken show, but I'm still a tad peeved because it looks like this crap will continue on General Hospital once Night Shift is mercifully ended. There are rumors flying (although it may have been confirmed by now) that Leyla will cross over to General Hospital and I honestly do not think I be able to swallow this crap on daytime. And how is this supposed to work anyway? Can we pretend that the NS stuff didn't happen? I mean GH Jason was in jail while NS Jason was a janitor so would it follow that NS Patrick is an ass and GH Patrick is sweet? What about the breakup? Since it happened on NS then are they still together on GH? If they're expecting storylines to crossover, then will they break Robin and Patrick up on GH just to even things out? Two breakups? Oh goody!

In all seriousness I do have one question and if anyone has an answer for me, I would love to hear it:

What the hell did we do to deserve this type of torture?