Soap Net Suprises Me

**Cross posted at Aspergersville**

Way back when, I used to watch General Hospital religiously. I fell out of watching it-until Ed and I began dating. It ends up he was a closet ABC soap watcher, thanks to years of coming home from school to find his mom watching. Each night, when he and I talked (long distance relationship), he'd ask what happened on GH that day.

I got back into it, taping the shows and fast forwarding through the commercials. Then I stopped watching. He still watches, off and on-going months without watching, then catching up in a week. Soap Net helps the casual viewer get back on track. Meanwhile, I could watch for a year and I'd still be bugging him "who's that?"

There's a spin off show that is only featured on Soap Net, General Hospital Night Shift. The story lines are supposed to run concurrently with what happens on GH, with many of the same characters. It was on tonight, and wow, I recognized three characters.

With that, one of them (Jagger Cates) was holding a sleeping boy of four or five, while talking to a medical professional. I was surfing the net, not really paying close attention to the show (Ed was), but I heard "ASD" and looked up. In an interesting twist, the soap has decided to educate and inform about the Autism Spectrum by having a young child diagnosed with this disorder.

It'd be cool to see this story cross over to GH to get more exposure for ASD and what living with a child on the spectrum is like, but hey, we'll take any exposure that the networks will give. Especially when the writers are consulting with Autism Speaks to ensure that the storyline is accurate and sympathetic.

In this case, Jagger is going through the whole range of emotions that a parent goes through when a child is diagnosed. I think I may have to begin watching, to see how this story line plays out.

Art imitating life, whodathunk it?

Comments

ligirl said…
I'm happy to hear that it is getting more exposure! Just so you are aware, I watch DOOL ("Days of Our Lives", in Soap Opera Digest-speak) when I can, and they feature a prominent couple whose young (about 3 or 4) son has recently been diagnosed with Autism. Right now it is a minor storyline, mainly dealing with how the mother (her character IS a doctor) is accepting it and doing reading and research to try to help her son, but the dad was having trouble accepting it, and their marriage was suffering because of it, but Dad has recently begun to come around. Perhaps they may make this a major storyline in the future!
Joyce-Anne said…
It's about time. Autism is a real issue that many parents deal with. Having even a soap talk about it will help bring people on the spectrum to the forfront and hopefully more studies on why and how this happens.

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