Thus far, the new headwriting team at General Hospital has for the most part been killing it. Heck, you’d swear Elizabeth Korte and Chris Van Etten were actually watching the same show we are and saying, “Wow, that doesn’t work; let’s change it.” Consider…

So far, the duo has picked up the pace, gotten Sonny back on his bipolar medication, mended fences between him and bestie Jason, started removing the target from Ava’s back and repairing her friendship with Nina.

Returned Brennan to the canvas, set the stage for Lulu and Lucky’s returns, played the long-awaited Mac/Cody reveal and kept Tracy exactly where we want her: front and center.

Mind you, not everything that Korte and Van Etten have done has been a slam dunk.

Sonny getting into the cosmetics business is about as believable as Jason wearing something other than a black T-shirt or Carly admitting that she was wrong.

Keeping homophobic Natalia around and, worse, pairing her with the show’s leading man is hella tone-deaf (especially in the wake of Jacqueline Grace Lopez’s firing as Blaze). And as for Michael/Willow/Drew/Nina…

Eh, the new duo inherited that mess and, presumably, is trying to back out of it as quickly as possible. We don’t know what to do with Drew, honestly, but we do know that a pairing with Nina ain’t it.

The edge he’s had since they hooked up is an appealing change, but their boom-chicka-wow-wow relationship is a non-starter. (“Ick” is not generally the response you want from the audience.) 

Drew and Willow are even worse. Hero worship notwithstanding, wouldn’t it make more sense if she was going to feel a pull to someone other than her husband just because he isn’t her husband for her to think “what if” about ex-boyfriend Chase now that they and their spouses are all living on the Quartermaine estate? Eh, we have faith that Korte and Van Etten will fix that asap.

So what’s left on their to-do list? Since there doesn’t seem to be anyone in Port Charles or in the audience that Cates hasn’t rubbed the wrong way, his goose would seem to be cooked.

(We tried to defend him, but at this point, will anyone be sorry if/when he’s killed off?) Valentin is already headed back to the canvas. (Maybe in cuffs but still.) Perhaps Jake could be brought back next; it seemed like a real copout for Jason to buy his way out of the doghouse with his son.

Trina needs a new flirtation that isn’t Gio. (Sweet as he is, he comes off too young for our sophisticated heroine.) And Ric should be chemistry-tested immediately with Ava and this version of Nina; either of those pairings would be a scheme-y blast. (You’ll recall that in Ric’s storied history is a marriage to the OG Nina!)