TV Review: General Hospital: The Night Shift - "Skin Deep"

"Skin Deep" didn't have the super slick feel "Frayed Anatomies" had and the pace felt a bit slow, but the intricate and interesting storylines had me wishing the Night Shift could cross over into the daytime more.

It's become painfully obvious, however, you can't look at NS as an extension of GH not even when it comes to the very basics. Robin and Patrick have never discussed kids in the Night Shift realm, but on the parent show it was a huge blow-up not all that long ago. Even the way characters are paired is showing signs of becoming different than what you see on GH. It appears Jason could become a threat to the Doctors Drake and Scorpio, Maxie Jones might be looking past Cooper to the hot new Dr. Julian, and what was that with Dr. Lee and Stan at the tail end? But I get ahead of myself…

First we learned that another major General Hospital character had been sentenced to the night shift. Jason Morgan reported to Epiphany in the beginning of the episode with his court order for three months of community service for shooting Spinelli in the foot. He was assigned to a janitorial role and was available throughout the episode to give us a peek inside the head of the mysterious Toussaint, rekindle his long friendship with Dr. Scorpio, and run interference when Spinelli showed up for therapy, and to conveniently run into his angel of mercy, student nurse Jolene.

Also receiving punishment of a totally different nature was Maxie Jones, who we learned had a staph infection on her posterior, presumably from her handcuffed sexual escapade with Cooper in the supply closet. Enter Dr. Julian, the cardiologist, because this particular strain of staph can do a nasty number on her transplanted heart. As Dr. Julian admitted his past to Maxie, we learned he would rather be playing guitar than practicing medicine, but being a doctor was what his very wealthy family expected of him. Does this mean he's a non-enthusiastic, somewhat of a hack doctor? No, he's the best, or so he says.

The Emergency Room was much more quiet this week as we only saw one new patient come in, one young woman who insisted she see a male doctor. Robin went looking for Patrick only to find him receiving a shoulder rub from the lovely Layla. That was enough to get Robin to begin turning green. What Layla started, the pretty patient who had been recently divorced notched up when it was revealed she wanted Dr. Drake to examine her recent breast enhancement and pass judgment on it – but not as a doctor. It seemed the woman should have been there for counseling with Dr. Winters, but Patrick did a bang up job getting below the surface, both in the way he displayed how much he's grown from the playboy we were first introduced to and in offering the woman sound advice in believing in herself.

Article Author: Connie Phillips

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she's not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. …

Visit Connie Phillips's author page — Connie Phillips's Blog