General Hospital’s Michael “Sonny” Corinthos Jr. (Maurice Benard) and Caroline Benson’s (Laura Wright) romance has been filled with ups and downs resulting in numerous divorces and remarriages. However, it is the undying love between these two characters that always help them find their way back to each other.
In the General Hospital Collection: The Best of Sonny & Carly, fans of the long running daytime drama got the rare opportunity to relive the magic of this super couple with 20 pivotal episodes highlighting their relationship. The episodes were available on abc.com/sonnyandcarly through February 12, 2019.
I review this collection offering my opinion why I feel the Sonny and Carly’s relationship works. See what I have to say below.
Disclaimer: This is a review of The General Hospital Collection: The Best of Sonny & Carly. The opinions expressed are that of the writer and not The Nerdy Girl Express and may differ from those of other General Hospital fans.
Michael “Sonny” Corinthos Jr. (Maurice Benard) and Caroline Benson (Laura Wright) are two strong-willed and stubborn individuals who aren’t very much different. Both had non-traditional upbringings where their families weren’t exactly The Brady Bunch. Sonny was abandoned by his father Mike (Max Gail) and suffered abuse at the hands of his stepfather. Caroline (known as Carly) is the daughter of Barbara “Bobbie” Jean Spencer but was raised by Frank and Virginia Benson. She came to Port Charles to make Bobbie pay for giving her up. To that end, Carly had an affair with her birth mother’s husband Dr. Tony Jones (Brad Maule). A chance meeting and a game of pool with Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) at Jake’s changed Carly’s life forever and introduced her to her soulmate Sonny.
It’s hard to believe that Sonny and Carly’s romance didn’t start out as hearts and flowers. Wrongly assuming Jason was involved with Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst), Carly (then played by Sarah Joy Brown) sought to dull the pain and hurt by sleeping with Sonny. And viewing her as trash and believing his friend deserved better and should see Carly for the slut she was, Sonny complied. But after doing the deed, the two immediately realized their mistake. But Jason found out about the tryst.
General Hospital Collection: The Best of Sonny & Carly featured episodes showing how Sonny and Carly often married as a way for Carly not to testify against him when Sonny faced prosecution for his criminal activities. But underneath, their feelings for each other came to the surface. When fear for his life and the safety of their family was in jeopardy due to his mob ties, Carly (Tamara Braun, now Dr. Kim Nero) took the only action she could to ensure Sonny wouldn’t end up dead on the end of a rival’s bullet. Thinking she set him up, Sonny threw her out of their penthouse. They eventually found their way back to each other and remarried. Sonny and Carly have married each other five times.
Maurice Benard (Sonny) faced the challenge of acting opposite four actresses playing Carly (Viewers often forget Jennifer Bransford was the third actress to portray Carly for a short time prior to Laura Wright being cast as the current Carly). And he didn’t skip a beat. You felt Sonny’s love for Carly regardless of what actress played her at the time. Benard deserves kudos for this as although the Carlys were excellent and retained most of the elements of the character (recast Carlys Braun and Wright deserve kudos as well. Although Bransford did her best interpreting the material, I can’t speak for other viewers but she never felt quite like Carly to me), their acting styles were of course different. Watching the episodes again however, I could easily see Carly mature through Braun and Wright’s performances which helped make the recasts flawless.
I believe what make Sonny and Carly work as a couple is that they don’t feel they need to change themselves or make excuses for who they are or what they’ve done in their pasts. They know the other has lied, cheated etc. They know they often aren’t “good people.” It’s this total acceptance of each other and the “what you see is what you get, love me for me” attitude that brings them back to each other time and time again. I don’t think Jax (Ingo Rademacher) or Brenda (Vanessa Marcil) got this and wanted to change Carly and Sonny to fit their expectations.
My favorite episodes in this collection were the one during The Metro Court hostage crisis and the one after Sonny was shot where we got to see all three Carlys (Brown, Braun and Wright….sounds like a law firm!) perform opposite Maurice Benard in the same episode.
I enjoyed General Hospital Collection: The Best of Sonny & Carly. It brought me back to the early days of this couple and it was great seeing Sonny and Carly’s history again. I commend abc.com for offering these collections and hope we’ll get more. Might I suggest two: General Hospital Collection: The Best of Luke & Laura and General Hospital Collection: The Best of Frisco & Felicia?
Comments? Sound off below. Or tweet @thenerdygirlexp and @stacyamiller85 .
Photo Courtesy of General Hospital Official Twitter
Comments? Sound off below. Or tweet @thenerdygirlexp and @stacyamiller85 .
Related:
TheNerdyGirlExpress 
Reblogged this on stacyamiller and commented:
The article I wrote for The Nerdy Girl Express.
LikeLike