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"Port Charles" More at IMDbPro »

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24 reviews in total

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Show Keeps Getting Better and Better, 12 November 2002

Author: radrobd from California

Ever since the show adapted its "book" format, the show has improved dramatically, both in writing, acting and quality. No longer the little stepsister of "General Hospital," the show has molded its own image by creating daring, supernatural plots that engage viewers. And the book format allows the plots to move at a fast pace, as opposed to the slow payoff for other daytime shows. The best book by far has been "Tainted Love" which introduced Michael Easton as vampire Caleb, but not Easton's back in the new book, "Naked Eyes," which so far looks promising. If you haven't checked out this show yet, I dare you to watch for week and not get hooked!

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Underrated Soap, 6 August 2006

Author: senoreveretto1976 from United States

I believe this show was not given enough of a chance by that idiot Frons. It should still be on the air and ABC should have programmed it between "One Life to Live" and "General Hospital" so it didn't have to compete with Y&R - this was the problem plaguing shows as far back as "Ryan's Hope" in the 11:30 time slot. While I really did enjoy the 1997-2000 "regular format", the arcs were a definite bold move in the right direction - very innovative and certainly nothing that was being done by any other show! I especially loved "Time in A Bottle", "Tainted Love", "Secrets", and "Surrender". Not such a fan of the one where Alison became a vampire bride, but they were coming back. The least they could have done was a finale!!! Thanks a lot Frons - you jerk!

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Port Charles has an amazing cast, frequently wasted in stories that make no sense whatsoever!, 13 August 2002
Author: Heather Irene Maclaren from Sangre de Cristo Ranches, Colorado, USA

I have watched Port Charles from Day One and I have been consistently amazed by the highly credible performances of the energetic and charismatic cast of young performers, such as the consistently credible Nolan North as Dr. Chris Ramsey, Sarah Aldrich as Courtney Kanelos, Colton James as Neil Kanelos, Lisa Ann Hadley as Julie Devlin-Ramsey and Brian Gaskill as Rafe Kovich Sadly, I have also watched Port Charles fall from a high rating of 2.7 to the bottom of the barrel at 1.5. The fault lies NOT with the performers but with the story direction - the storylines are often murky at best and and just plain dumb at worst! My Direct TV Guide STILL claims that Port Charles is a show about 'young doctors and nurses as they pursue their careers.' But, at some point, this idealistic beginning (which garnered a 2.7 rating) got lost in the shuffle, as Port Charles sank deeper and deeper into a morbid fixation on 'pure evil' and journeyed off into an attempt to see how many bad horror movie rip-offs they could get away with foisting off on the public! In those instances when Port Charles threw away the fixation on evil and let a little happiness creep in - the ratings rose accordingly - 'Miracles Happen,' which showed Julie returning to bid an emotional farewell to her true love, Chris - received a 2.0 rating - the highest that Port Charles had received since veering off into the strange territory of 'Nothing But the Supernatural!'- in storylines suddenly called 'arcs.' With their talented cast of young performers, Port Charles COULD have been great. While the TV Guide promised a show about doctors, nurses and their careers; and ABC promised that ALL ABC shows would be 'returning to their core and delivering more romance; and Soap Net promised to be the channel that delivered 'Love, love, love' - Port Charles ran aground on the dangerous reefs of 'Too Many Broken Promises.' If only ONE of those promises HAD been kept, Port Charles would not only STILL have a 2.7 rating, they would be an hour show by now and be named FREQUENTLY when Emmys are being handed out. If only the stories being told by Port Charles had ever lived up to the brilliant cast, Port Charles would have had it made! Sincerely, Heather, Sangre de Cristo, Colorado, USA

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
One of the weirdest soaps since "Dark Shadows", 10 October 2004
Author: k_dizzle_scarface_nizzle from Ozark, Alabama

When this GENERAL HOSPITAL spin off first hit the airwaves in the summer 1997, it had originally centered around a new group of young interns living, loving, and working at General Hospital. To inspire GH viewers to watch this show, longtime GH characters Scotty Baldwin, Lucy Coe and Kevin Collins crossed over to PC. About four years later, the format switched to story arcs, and vampires, angels, demons, and werewolves abounded. Lucy Coe, one of the long-running characters on GH became a vampire slayer on this show. One of the characters on this show was Livvie Locke, who was the long-lost daughter of Kevin Collins. Alison Barrington, granddaughter of Port Charles' society maven Amanda Barrington was also a presence here. Unfortunately, this show was cancelled way before its time.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Wonderful Soap Opera *possible spoilers, if you haven't seen the show*, 14 September 2004
Author: iawen_of_lorien

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Before I ever saw an episode of this show, I thought it was dumb that they were doing supernatural things, especially having a vampire on the show. But a friend convinced me to watch it and boy was I hooked. Even through all the supernatural things they did, it was the classic elements that made the show so good. Wonderful acting, although they wasted their best talent (which most soaps do actually) in Nolan North as Chris Ramsey; strong ties of human relationships (including a heavy importance of family and friends, which isn't really seen often on soaps but adds so much). If ever a soap did supernatural the right way, it was this show.

The later arcs got a little tired but their "classic" time, being the arcs of Tainted Love, Tempted, and Miracles Happen, kick butt. Kudos to ALL the actors in these three arcs; they made this show what it was.

The last arc was promising though, and rumors had it that the next planned arc would have shown more of the Ramsey brothers together, which I always ached to see more of. I love familial relationships, especially between siblings, and tire of seeing soaps use the dead plot of ruining family relationships over love. That's why I was happy to see Chris and Jack's relationship do just the opposite. It's things like this that made me love the show so much and value so much the tapes I have of this show.

I just want to say one more thing about the acting: what a superb ensemble cast. All the actors had chemistry with each other. No matter who was on; be it Chris and Jack, Kevin and Lucy, Ian and Eve, Frank and Karen... even people who didn't have a whole lot of scenes together (Jack and Eve or Chris and Alison), they still worked together beautifully. That is why Tainted Love and Tempted were so successful: these arcs demanded that of the actors.

What a shame that Port Charles is gone and Passions is still on the air.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Nice Change, 5 December 2002
Author: swanee25 from United States

I turned into PC during the end of Tainted Love. I love the story arc idea, at least each series has an ending. It's not as overpowering as Dark Shadows and it has interesting twists. The actors are colorful and the supernatural story lines are intriguing while keeping to the typical "love triangle" of ancient soaps. Brian Gaskill and Erin Hershey shine as the Super Couple. Lynn Herring is great, "Livvie" is the typical "soap bad girl, and "Caleb" speaks for himself. The show definitely needs more air time. I would love to see it go to one hour!

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
I love this show!, 28 September 2002
Author: Amanda (PNEMO) from Buffalo, New York

This show rules! I know that it's a soap opera and most people probably think that all soap operas are dumb, and I wouldn't know because this is the only soap opera I watch! My sister got me hooked on it a couple of years ago, and I've watched it as much as possible ever since. It seems like most soap operas are always just talking about stuff like their long lost twins, or who's the father and such, but this show is more exciting than that. They've had kidnaps, going back in time, vampires, angels, magic candles, a cute angel who found his way back to his true love and a evil spirit called the Avatar! The story themes change every 13 weeks. This Friday just ended a book entitled Torn. And Monday it's going to start the next book called Naked Eyes. Before that they've been called Fate, Time in a bottle, Tainted Love, Tempted, Miracles Happen, Secrets, Superstition, Torn, and now Naked Eyes! This show is seriously under rated and you should really check it out! It's on at 12:30 pm eastern time on ABC. Once you start and understand who everyone is, you won't be able to stop! Check it out, it's really great! ~~**Amanda**~~

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
ABC Should Have Kept "The City"....., 10 February 2001
Author: Trey-Trey from USA

When Port Charles debuted in the summer of 1997, the show had potential and hope. Put seven interns in a hospital and Lucy Coe in her own element and you have the perfect material for a half-hour show. After The Cullingtons left the series, I really felt like the show lost it's identity: doctors in a hospital. Their workplace, what they do, how they function, what are their emotions if they lose a patient, what are their consequences if they act out of poor judgement.

Then, came Courtney Kanelos, Rachel Locke, General Homicide and DV(four things I cringe at when I think about the show) and you have a big trainwreck. Storylines that once focused on the characters, now centered on the plot.

I didn't really care if DV was Scott's dad or that Rachel came to town with a chip on shoulder. That is, until after Executive Producer Wendy Riche left PC, some bright genius decided to replace Riche with Julie Carruthers. Upon her arrival, Ms. Carruthers let the weak link Scott Hamner go and replaced him with Karen Harris. She put the hospital and the drama BACK into PC, where it belonged. And thank goodness, someone had the sense to turn Rachel into the town pariah rather than a Sheila-copycat!

PC became a community under this format, storyline developed, moved at a fast pace and ended, but there was always a new chapter for the character.

I liked the storylines under Carruthers/Harris: All American Guy who could contract HIV? Pill Popping Doctor revisiting her sleazy past? Rich bubbleheaded hospital voluneer seeks gangster with a heart of gold? Down-to-earth careerwoman competing for a board seat against a slimy therapist?

It was good TV folks. If you hadn't seen PC during the past three years it was on the air, then was the time to tune in.

But, some nutcase at ABC decided that Guiding Light's resident hacks, Jim Brown and Barbara Esenten, could perform emergency surgery on PC, a show that didn't need saving. Now, everything is plot, plot plot. "Screw character development. The audience is too stupid for that." I suppose they concluded.

The book format is so dumb, words can't describe it. Isn't the purpose of watching a soap to see DIFFERENT characters? Ian, Kevin, Eve and Lucy are front burner constantly while leaving talented actors who deserve a shot at a good storyline(Nolan North, Marie Wilson, etc.) out in Storyline Siberia.

For all this was worth, ABC should have kept The City. The plots seemed interesting on that show and they were actually beginning to gel until ABC decided to cancel it for this drivel.

Once can only hope when someone at ABC will decide to pull the plug.

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4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Show axed: Actors relieved, 4 September 2003
Author: GodsStar from United States

It took only moments for me to formulate an opinion of this show. Once again, the brilliance of acting must suffer to mind dead scripts geared toward the key demographic that is, painfully, thirty and under.

Soap opera actors are a breed apart. They are called upon to learn pages of dialogue, just for a single show, CONSTANTLY. The actors here are no different. I can see that if they were given a REAL script to work with they could be extremely dynamic. Unfortunately, the need to work or contractual agreements kept them chained to this rehashed GARBAGE. This re-treaded idea that was sorry when it was "Xena", which was borrowed from the Hercules sagas [The Legendary Journeys] [[garbage], which borrowed from old Sinbad story lines that was campy GARBAGE back in the sixties and seventies. The actors must be positively relieved to not have to be chained to this foolishness any longer.

You see we are in a midst of a full blown ANTI RENAISSANCE of creativity. To actually NOT blatantly "borrow" from someone ELSES ideas that worked in the past is unheard of. This generation believes that since there's about one hundred years of recorded media to "borrow" from that they don't have to "waste time" by thinking up something NEW. Young people don't see the need to ABSORB knowledge when you can look up anything you need to find on the internet. This rubbish hit me in the gut as hard as when I heard the singer Little Romeo, "borrow" from Biz Markie's song "Just a Friend" a few years ago. That "artist" had borrowed from a song barely a decade old. I'd already been forced to live through the seventies AGAIN. How soon will I find myself looking @ kids with tall, box cut haircuts and "Cross Colors" yet again?

I've said it to friends and I'll say it to those who read this: I STILL remain optimistic that ONE DAY I will turn on a radio and NOT here music from MY past rehashed and desecrated by some blithering X or Y generation buffoon. ONE DAY, I'll turn on the television and NOT see herds of people contriving "reality" for some moronic coward living for free in his parent's basement to WATCH because he's too scared to go outside and experience it HIMSELF.

Now.I await rebuttals against what I've written here, no doubt presented in ALL CAPS, run together sentences, ridiculous grammar and lots of sentences using lowercase " i " to refer to themselves with. You'd think a generation raised on computers would know how the spell check function works on their word suites but then again, who do you copy THAT from?

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5 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Great Show Goes to Hell--minus handbag, 25 September 2002
Author: vivalarsx from Portland, Oregon

I watched this show from Day One, and it took a little while to get going, but once it hit its stride, it was a marvelously smooth machine. I hate one-hour soaps, more filler than plot, and hadn't watched a soap regularly since Ryan's Hope went off the air). Once we got to murder and business intrigue and mismatched couples, the show took off. Unfortunately, the ratings did not, and the producers took the low road and decided to scrap all credibility and introduce supernatural storylines. Well! I thought the time travel arc was @ least well-written enough that it had a modicum of credibility (for all its fantasy elements, the storyline was fueled by Frank searching for his "lost" love). After that, it was all downhill. The vampire saga was sub-retarded, and it lasted for not one arc but TWO. I suffered through the angels, but stopped watching completely once Eve was killed. I even stuck w/ it a couple more weeks just to make sure she didn't come back as a zombie--which could have happened on this ridiculous potboiler. The core cast has always shown extreme poise under the conditions in which they are expected to perform, and I would gladly return to a show with problems that involved real human beings. If you're going to rip off another soap, at least have enough couth not to steal from the worst of the worst "Passions"! Good heavens, do these people know nothing?! If this is being a soap producer, then where do I sign? I could pretend to be as dumb as the people who drove my beloved little soap into the ground. There: tirade over!

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