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I’m really hoping that the ripple effects of Clyde being escaped and on the run, things like Wendy’s PTSD about the kidnapping and Lucas needing to continue to be in hiding, mean that we are going to pick up on that and the Salem PD (or maybe the FBI or someone) with hunt Clyde down and kill him.
As I posted in the citations thread, I really enjoyed the mother/daughter scenes with Nicole and Holly yesterday. The performances and the writing both felt strong.
I would say that most of the show has been good lately. This christening leading up to Holly’s confession was fun. The only negative for me was the absurd way the show wrote Kate out of the scenes. It’s not that I needed her to be there, but the idea that she was at the DiMera mansion helping the caterers from the Pub to set up and clean up (and therefore off screen) is really silly. It would have made more sense to say she took the driver who had been in the car accident to the hospital to get checked out.
I’m sad to see Jamie Martin Mann leaving the role of Tate. I thought he was really great in the part. But I’ll be interested to see what the new actor brings to the role, and I wish JMM all the best in his educational pursuits. It was nice to hear that Stephen Schnetzer will be reprising his role as Julie’s brother, likely for Doug’s funeral. We’re still not getting much other information about who will be there, but I can say right now, if Kristian Alfonso is not a part of this, I don’t know that there’s any excuse or reason that could satisfy fans. I honestly think scores of people would cancel their Peacock subscriptions in fury.
I watched the Weakest Link episode with the DAYS cast the other day, and it was a lot of fun! It was nice to see Martha Madison, Zach Tinker, Victoria Konefal and Lindsay Arnold back on screen. It would be even nicer if they were back on DAYS!
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Melissa Reeves joins a growing list of DAYS alumni returning to Salem for a visit. According to TV Insider, Reeves will be back as Jennifer to celebrate Thanksgiving in Salem and to participate in the episodes surrounding Doug’s passing. I think I like Cady McClain as Jennifer more than most fans, but it definitely still feels like Reeves is the true version of the character, and I’ll be glad to see her back onscreen.
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I’m glad that some of these things are finally starting to come to light, with all that Konstantine has been up to and Sloan’s lies about the baby switch starting to come out. I wonder how much longer the material written during the strike will be airing. The strike ended in late September, so we must be getting close. I’m eager to see if Ron came up with any great ideas when he wasn’t working during the strike.
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The idea of Ava working at the Pub was bad enough, but seeing her in the apron and also doing a crappy job was nauseating. The confrontation between Kayla and Ava a couple of weeks ago was so good, with Roman joining in to support Kayla and tell Ava she can pound sand if she thinks she staying in Harris’s room, and for some insane reason, the show immediately walked it back, with Ava now both living and working at the Pub. TPTB are thrusting her on the audience and on the other characters, and it really sucks.
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It’s crazy to me that the characters are spending so much time trying to figure out why Gil would have killed Li, and that their best guess is that he showed up to an apartment Ava shared with three other people and was so shocked to see one of them there that he had to murder that person. It makes no sense at all. It occurred to me that maybe Rafe and the general public don’t know that Gil worked for Clyde, but why wouldn’t they know that by now? And even Stefan, Ava and Harris seemed stumped about the whole thing, even though it seems extremely likely that Clyde would have had Li murdered and framed Gabi in order to blackmail Stefan. At this point, I would say anytime someone in Salem is dead or missing, they should ask themselves could Clyde be involved and what he would have to gain from it. He’s usually the perpetrator!
I am also a little confused by the logistics of the story. (I know, why get into logistics for a show that aggressively exists in its own reality? They had Mother’s Day on what was clearly a school day and a work day.) So Gabi is in prison awaiting trial for Li’s murder? Still? If the case has yet to go to trial, why is it that the police commissioner and the accused’s husband are the ones petitioning the DA to take action rather than Gabi’s lawyer? Even though EJ was a jerk about it, I kind of see his point. They have nothing to counter the fact that Li named Gabi as his killer and haven’t even presented a remotely credible motive for Gil to kill Li.
Speaking of EJ, I also think the storyline would be considerably more interesting if EJ did what honestly feels like the more believable action for him and just told Nicole the truth about the baby being alive without telling her that Eric is the father. Given everything that Sloan did and the number of crimes she must have committed in the process, I’m sure EJ could demand her silence on the paternity issue in exchange for some degree of leniency. EJ giving Leo a bunch of money to keep the truth a secret feels like the last thing he would want to do, considering how much he hates parting with his money. I also, while we’re at it, don’t believe Kristen would actually want to run DiMera. It feels like such a dull move for her. The show has lost sight of a lot of these people having personalities beyond just ambition and backstabbiness. It’s frustrating to watch.
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So the regular writing team is back as of Friday’s episode, and in two of the opening scenes, they took shots at the strike writing. That just seems so petty and annoying. I’m sure the writers must have strong, if somewhat complicated, feelings about people doing their jobs while they were on strike better treatment for everyone in their guild, but the truth is that if no one had been writing the soaps while the regular writers were out, the shows would cease to exist, and all these people would be jobless.
Anyway, there’s a lot of big stuff happening now, which should at least be exciting for the next couple of weeks.
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Well, a couple of weeks in, and I think the writing team needs some major changes, including at the top.
In Friday’s episode, Kristen directs Stefan to some emergency provisions he can use to go on the run with Gabi after he breaks her out of prison. He thanks her profusely, then goes to the family safe in the living room, to which apparently they all have ready access, and finds, in addition to the money and contacts, a sealed envelope of DNA results proving that EJ is not Jude’s father. High drama! Not. This is incredibly stupid for several reasons. One – Kristen is just keeping her stash of on-the-run preparations in the safe with everyone else’s secret stuff? Absolutely not. Two – EJ doesn’t even have physical DNA results proving that he is Jude’s father. He had Rolf run the tests and tell him the results over the phone. Are we meant to believe that Rolf printed out a copy and mailed it to EJ from wherever he is hiding out? Three – If EJ did have printed results proving that he is not Jude’s biological father, why would he keep them? He never intends to reveal the truth to Eric, Nicole or anyone else, so he would have redacted, shredded and burned any evidence suggesting he might not be Jude’s biological father. Four – Even if EJ did for whatever reason want to keep these results, why in the world would he just stick the envelope in the family safe with everyone’s else’s nonsense and where Kristen and Stefan, with whom he is constantly fighting, could just go and get them? Packing this much nonsense into about two minutes of airtime requires a good degree of willful ignorance. We deserve people writing this show who are at least trying to make it make sense.
Sadly, this is just one of many, many examples of things that do not make any sense. The Maggie/Konstantine wedding and subsequent fallout was like a farce, especially the moments when Justin gets an alert about embezzlement on his phone and in about 15 seconds, they’ve decided that there is insurmountable evidence against Konstantine and the whole thing blows up. Marlena wasn’t even at this wedding, after being in on the whole plan, for no reason at all. She was just seeing patients as per usual, even though she was concerned about John, the brainwashing, and all that was happening with Maggie. Nothing that’s happened in the baby switch storyline in the last couple of weeks makes sense. Eric is going to get a publication divorce from Sloan and move on. He’s not going to follow up on how Melinda, the person who arranged the so-called adoption in the first place, is not only not arrested but still the DA? The show clearly wants us to feel like Paulina is the victim and EJ the villain in their story, but I have a hard time seeing on what grounds. Paulina fired EJ ostensibly because he wouldn’t reopen Gabi’s case, and rehires Melinda, who immediately also refused to reopen Gabi’s case AND hid evidence, not to mention had just committed a crime with the baby switching. Paulina also exposed several people to radioactivity because she was tired of being stuck in isolation at the hospital, and the combination of Chanel being missing and her being the mayor gave her an excuse to leave and a means to attempt a rescue. People online are rightly furious that the lead character on the show currently seems to be Ava, who has appeared in more episodes that anyone. Again, I cannot see why this would be happening. Ava is a murderer, kidnapper and rapist who has terrorized so many people in this town that I don’t understand why anyone would even speak to her. That fact of her both living and working at the Brady Pub is truly appalling, and I honestly hope Kate finds a reason to murder her in her sleep. Speaking of awful characters who need to be killed once and for all, why oh why would the FBI give the Salem PD first crack at Clyde Weston, who has escaped from prison under their jurisdiction more than once and who has proven himself just as capable of committing his crimes while incarcerated as he is when he’s free. I really don’t know how much more I can take.
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^I haven’t been watching the show and just reading about the storylines makes my head hurt! (; I am sure the performers are knocking it out of the park, they always do, but at least for me none of what I read is happening on the show is appealing and making me feel like I am missing out (I simply don’t want to spend any more money on cable, it’s already too high for me).
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^^That’s totally understandable. Considering that the storylines are not great, the show continues to heavily feature characters who should not even be on, and the reasoning and motives are often extremely thin, I can’t blame you.
I do have to take back some of my criticism of the story, as the explanation for why there was a printout of the DNA results in the safe was more plausible than I thought it would be.
In Friday’s episode, Kristen directs Stefan to some emergency provisions he can use to go on the run with Gabi after he breaks her out of prison. He thanks her profusely, then goes to the family safe in the living room, to which apparently they all have ready access, and finds, in addition to the money and contacts, a sealed envelope of DNA results proving that EJ is not Jude’s father. High drama! Not. This is incredibly stupid for several reasons. One – Kristen is just keeping her stash of on-the-run preparations in the safe with everyone else’s secret stuff? Absolutely not.
Two – EJ doesn’t even have physical DNA results proving that he is Jude’s father. He had Rolf run the tests and tell him the results over the phone. Are we meant to believe that Rolf printed out a copy and mailed it to EJ from wherever he is hiding out?Three – If EJ did have printed results proving that he is not Jude’s biological father, why would he keep them? He never intends to reveal the truth to Eric, Nicole or anyone else, so he would have redacted, shredded and burned any evidence suggesting he might not be Jude’s biological father. Four – Even if EJ did for whatever reason want to keep these results, why in the world would he just stick the envelope in the family safe with everyone’s else’s nonsense and where Kristen and Stefan, with whom he is constantly fighting, could just go and get them? Packing this much nonsense into about two minutes of airtime requires a good degree of willful ignorance. We deserve people writing this show who are at least trying to make it make sense.That said, the idea that Nicole got this backup copy of the DNA results after the first ones disappeared is silly enough, nevermind that it meant enough to EJ to put them in the safe, but not so much that he remembered to even look at them at any later point. I also don’t for one second believe Kristen opened that safe to put her money and contacts in there and then just left a sealed manila envelope alone. She would have looked at what was in the envelope the second she saw it, which is why none of the DiMeras would ever share a single safe for their own personal secret stuff. But this feels more like typical soap convenience mixed with poor character writing, not quite the level of egregious I was thinking.
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I started watching DAYS earlier this year sitting with Mama while she’s been sick (doing better). It’s not great by any stretch, but I’ve seen worse. There are some contrivances, yes, but some are giving it their all. Some, well, thank goodness they’re pretty. I’m glad they wrapped up the Konstantin story. It seems like they are trying to rush end some things (started during the strike maybe?) to start some new things. The next few months should tell a lot.
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I went to see The Day Players (Wally Kurth, Eric Martsolf, Brandon Barash, and Carson Boatman) in New Brunswick, NJ, this past Sunday, and it was a blast! The guys seemed to be having a really good time on stage. They sounded great and clearly they really enjoy spending time together. To any fans of DAYS who enjoy live music, I would highly recommend seeing a show near you if you get the chance!
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I can’t believe we’ve waded back into Li’s murder to make the explanation even sillier than it was before. Swapping one back resolution for another is really not worthwhile here, especially when they continue to act like the evidence against Gabi wasn’t compelling enough that any DA would have had to prosecute that case.
But the DiMera feuding has been fun, especially because it’s nice to see them fighting over something that not the ridiculously inconsistent power position at DiMera Enterprises. (How, in a company where we have repeatedly seen shareholders come together to vote a CEO in or out, did the board just appoint Kristen CEO without the shareholders even knowing about it???)
I feel really bad for EJ and the way the writers made him such a sucker the last couple of weeks in trying to keep this secret from coming out. The nonsensical knots the plot twisted itself into to get here were really not great, but it will be interesting if EJ starts acting like the villain everyone says he is but, based on their behavior, no one really seems to believe. The scenes with EJ and Holly were my favorite in the whole ordeal so far. EJ got the chance to explain himself and own his misdeeds to someone he knew was disinclined to have any real sympathy for him, and Holly’s mere presence was a reminder that Nicole is just super focused on her new baby with Eric. She up and left the mansion to find Eric without so much as a word about Holly, then at the end of yesterday’s episode, said she just came back for her things and to give EJ his rings back. It makes me wonder if Holly may continue to live with EJ at the mansion when Nicole is gone at the end of the month.
While the show has had good moments, some of the things that are happening are concerning. Launching a whole self-referential storyline about Body & Soul is kind of demented. We’re already watching the show. We don’t need to see a storyline where it repeatedly justifies and even exalts its own existence, especially considering how not great the show is right now. The other inside things they’ve done is to start writing the Bobby/Everett story as if Bobby is the alter and Everett is the host personality. I realize this may have been a case of the strike writers going a direction that was not intended by the regular team, but they should have just swallowed it. We’ve already been told about Bobby having a whole on-record existence with parents and a history, where Everett Lynch apparently took his name from the middle name of a fictional character and his mother’s maiden name.
I also must be said — the show gave us one brief scene of AnnaLynne McCord’s characters pacing in a dungeon somewhere and has since only talked about whether or not this person could be Abigail, but does it not warrant police involvement that there is a woman, whoever she may be, just being held somewhere?
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Nicole is a real piece of work. She goes into The Spectator and starts telling Leo off, as if he didn’t go to her house and tell her and EJ that that baby was alive. And you know what he got for it? A black eye and threats for worse. She further had the audacity to ask him to testify against EJ, because she wants him put in jail. Nicole being this mad about EJ lying about being being Jude’s father is fully justifies his decision in my mind. It’s not like this happened when she was a single gal torn between two guys and EJ used it to trap her. She was already in a committed relationship with EJ and living with him when she conceived that baby with Eric while under the influence of drugged biscuits. That was one of like 27 things that EJ just flat out forgave Nicole for, without strings or judgment. I get her wanting a divorce, because she sees this as her chance to be available to get with Eric, but this thirst for revenge from her is honestly rather gross.
I thought the EJ/Marlena conversation was very good, though. Also, some of the Marlena/Leo scenes have been ridiculous to the point of hilarious, but I don’t mind them. I think the show is trying to do some character rehab for Leo and make him more likeable, but I’m just seeing a lot of whining on Twitter from fans who have dug in their heels on hating Leo.
Looking forward to this double wedding disaster this week. It’s exciting that Sonny, Paul and Andrew will all be back in town for it.
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Some of the excuses they use for people not going to weddings are hilarious. It seems like they could have just gotten Charles Shaughnessy and Patsy Pease to show up for a couple of days, especially considering how many extras are at this double wedding. Kayla, Theresa’s aunt and basically Sarah’s best friend, has to work? Okay. Though this would all be less weird if the show didn’t insist on making it a double wedding. It really should just be Xander and Sarah’s wedding, and then we wouldn’t have to make excuses for all the Bradys who aren’t showing up. If they wanted Theresa and Alex to be married, they could have just had Theresa push for a private marriage before their actual wedding.
But on the bright side, I’m always thrilled to see Sonny, Paul and Andrew, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the wedding drama this week!
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