carolineg

Sarah would be the easy way out. She has a mental illness/hallucinations and it would be so Ron. They had to throw in those random scenes with Marlena to set it up real quick. Idk, it's where I think it's going, but I'd be happy to be wrong.

I am pretty sure @Noel is being facetious about Abby deserving to die but I could be wrong lol. How IS Gwen just waltzing in and out of the prison? I think everyone has sort of covered the Abby situation and the fact she will be back with a baby in tow most likely. A couple of random notes from today- I actually thought EJ/Belle were kind of hot today. That kid that plays Thomas seriously looks like he could be Billy Flynn's child. I am never one to ask for more Sarah, but the Sarah/Marlena and Sarah/Gwen scenes should have been more than they were. Is this just a rush to make Sarah a suspect because she is having hallucinations? In fact my money is on her actually being the killer.

The S&B scene is from when they were on a plane to DC for an Eddie Maine gig. They were "broken up" at the time, but still into each other. To avoid Sonny finding out Ned is Eddie, Brenda seduces Sonny and they finally have sex in Washington DC and get back together. Sonny/Brenda used to have a lot of these cute little fantasy scenes early in their relationship and while this particular scene is silly it's on brand for them at the time. That TK/JB kiss looks awkward. Even though JB was forgettable a lot of important stuff happened to Carly during her brief stint.

I was thinking it was really strange Gwen was left alone with her ceramic mug shards. She could have stabbed Abby or a guard with them. I also found Jan going into labor hilarious. Marlena was so nonchalant and irritated by the whole thing. I don't know if Deidre Hall decided to play it that way, but the complete lack of urgency from a medical Dr. about the whole thing made me chuckle.

I watched. It wasn't a terrible episode. Abby smashed Gwen's jail mug she made for Jack, Gwen vowed revenge, Susan was annoying, Jan went into labor and Marlena barely made the effort to get her to the hospital, Clyde offered Lucas a 'work' oppurtunity, Shawn/Belle/EJ argued, and Kate and Chad were talking about something but it was boring. Probably Sami's kidnapping. Things happened. It was watchable.

Ha! Ha! That shirt was really ugly and Belle usually looks okay, so she may have been drunk when she put it on in the morning. John also referred to Belle as Sami's baby sister which is technically true, but they have looked the same age since 2005. Perhaps John's drunk as well. I know we are supposed to be on Belle's side, but she's acting like EJ is the only person she can turn to when she has 2 brothers and her good buddy Chloe on the canvas as well. I give Jan a pass on the cheeseburger stuff. She was in jail or a coma for the last 20 plus years. I'd want a lot of cheeseburgers if I was her as well.

I thought it was a good episode as well. I sort of understand Marlena being guilted into helping Jan. I had to laugh at Belle saying John, of all people, favors Sami. Sami would disagree.🤣 I liked the mix of characters and the story today.

100% agree with Robin, Brenda, Karen, Stone, Jagger, Jason etc. I loved Carrie, Austin, Sami, Lucas, but outside of Sami they weren't really teens. I considered it more young adults Agree with Lucky, Liz, Emily, Nik as well. I would add Shawn, Belle, Mimi, Phillip, Brady et all on Days. They had way too much story, but as actors and characters I thought it was a pretty decent group. I also thought the college group of Stephanie, Chelsea, Abby, Nick had a lot of potential with decent actors as well. Starr, Cole, Langston, etc fall into a similar category to me. WAY too much story, but not a bad group of characters/actors in theory.

Thanks! I'll have to check out recaps to see what Mike was up to during that time. I will always be curious who made the decisions and why during that time because it seems like what press is available varies so much from who was actually writing the show.

I took it to mean the same thing. Even though Tripp didn't die instantly and you would assume the Devil had time to switch bodies, but whatever. I was glad it was over.

I think the problem with Maggie (outside writing-which agreed) is that she doesn't have strong enough ties to the canvas to be the matriarch. She has mostly left the Horton side behind to marry Victor and when she doles out advice to people like Brady, Will, Sonny, etc you left thinking why they aren't just talking to their parents or grandparents about it. She lives in a Kiriakis bubble and even if the writing changed or shifted she has spent years like that so any bonds she created would seem random at this point. In theory, Jennifer would be more likely because she has stronger ties with more of the cast.

Did any of these actors actually pop up periodically? I think Mike/Donna might have appeared once or twice more to finish up their stories and obviously Sam cam back to die, but they were never used in a recurring capacity, correct?

Yeah, I would definitely consider all these ladies in bold older female leads not matriarchs. But, with the nature of soaps, all these ladies were once younger female leads for the most part. I think it's hard to slowly evolve into a matriarch when you lead story for so long. Alice Horton, Lila Quartermaine, Bert Bauer, Nancy Hughes, etc were set up to be in that role and didn't evolve into it. I think a soap could start setting someone up but people like Reva, Nikki, Marlena, Erica still lead their own stories or did when their soaps went off air, so it was difficult to transition them. I get what you are saying about the perceived evolution of a matriarch changing in this day and age, but I would argue that it just doesn't exist because there isn't any time for those nice little family/character scenes with the pace these shows run at.

Agreed. That was my first thought when the question was asked. I guess Marlena, Julie, or Maggie on Days would come the closest. I think Ron is trying to make John/Marlena the new Tom/Alice, but they just aren't lol. Maggie is probably the closest in personality Alice, Marlena has the most connections and gives the most advice, and Julie makes the most sense due to longevity/age. But none work. I can't think of anyone on the other soaps. Monica on GH crossed my mind, but most her relatives/children are dead and she's rarely on.

Thank you as always @JAS0N47 for all your knowledge. So interesting! I wish there were more articles available about this era. I wonder if NL watched the show before she started writing these new characters. The idea of a mysterious family like the Chandlers is intriguing, but instead of creating an entire new family it seems like it would have been wiser to just add family to certain characters instead as a lot of non-Horton leads had very little family in Salem. Thanks! Jessica is still a dud, but those were very nice words by JBS about Philece.

If it lasts for the next decade and the kid is played by an obnoxious red head we can talk. But would you expect anything less from the Golden Spawn of the original Golden Spawn? 🤣 It's definitely not lol.

I don't even understand what Julie is trying to do. She just looks like an insane person. The husband stuff is weird. I still don't really understand why Kelley is having such bad anxiety. I get Julie is a lot, but when they played back the clips it looked like the other roommates were engaging in the conversation with Julie about porn or whatever and weren't offended. Kelley has the absolute right to say those conversations cross her boundaries and the appropriate response from Julie would have been to respect those boundaries, but I don't understand why Kelley is freaking out so bad. It's only a week. She was on reality tv, she did an MTV challenge and her husband's an actor. I understand anxiety is very serious, but (unless we are not getting the full story) Kelley has skipped out on numerous cast events, nights out, etc and picks and chooses what she wants to do. If we are being honest, Kelley didn't bring much to the table in her OG season and I don't think I would have missed her on this if she just passed on coming back. I remember Kelley being my favorite in her OG season, but now I am not sure why lol. I feel bad ragging on Kelley, but I don't really understand what her problem is or why it's so severe she can't stay an extra day. I guess it might be an editing problem, but even with Julie being an absolute nut it seems like the cast is chilling and getting along 95% off the time. I mean was MTV planning to spring the ex Peter on her or something?

So Laemmle had to write out these characters and create new ones? I wonder if she even knew that going in or what it would entail. PFS had a much clearer idea of what she wanted to do and where she was going with these characters and new families. PFS also shifted the shows tone a lot to fit the new characters while Laemmle just kept the tone of the show basically the same and inserted new characters doing similar things lol. The show just seemed 'younger' and 'fresher' even if PFS was ripping off GH. I always felt Days in the late 70's and early 80's were giving their youngish leads such dour, sad stories that were 'too old' for them. IMO, it was much more entertaining to watch Marlena/Roman do action/adventure stuff than watching Marlena loose a child, get cheated on, get divorced, and get raped in a year or so. But I can understand fans missing the more psychological, character driven drama of the past. I think Laemmle's failure and the failure do make significant ratings gains lead to PFS being able to change the show to her vision without much push back.

I do appreciate NL's fearlessness in firing all those actors and revamping (whether it was her decision or the networks), but it doesn't really seem there was a plan for those new characters. I agree it just alienated viewers and didn't bring new ones in. But I do appreciate the fact the show was willing to try I guess. I just think the focus was off and the new characters weren't very good. Outside the writing, I think casting was a huge problem as well. Gloria Loring worked as Liz despite the writing and I think if some key parts had more charismatic actors the change would have worked better.

Dowdy is the perfect word for Jessica and she was a huge stick in the mud. It's one thing to be sensible, but it's another to be too scared to have fun. I don't know why these guys were so into her. Her mother, the NUN, had more sex appeal lol. I am sure JBS is a lovely woman, but it was bad casting. It's telling they never really brought Jessica or Josh back (outside making their son a psycho). I would agree Stephen Brooks was too old. I didn't think he was too dour. I liked him. Granted, most of the Josh stuff I saw with him was via Marlena edits, but he seemed like a decent, likable guy through all the Kellem rape stuff. That being said, it looked like the show was going to pair him with Marlena not a teenager so it was a lot easier to like him. It is a strange choice to bring in a bunch of over 30 characters when trying to revive a soap. And I am not sure why you bring in Kellam as a villian when you already have a similar villian in Alex. And if you were trying to do a teen scene I don't know why you get rid of Donna. Donna is annoying af, but we spent years watching her BS while she was the ONLY teen on the canvas and then you bring more people her age on only to dump her. David/Mike just seem like they have one bungled storyline after another. Saddling Mike with a dying wife for so long and David having a kid when Julie was about 35 seems all bad. It's almost like Days was purposely skewing to an older audience.

I feel like Days tried with her. She got interesting backstory/parents, a decent love interest, and a lot of story. It might be all the writing/production shifts, but Jessica/JBS never sparked the way the show was hoping or she should have. I don't blame them for losing interesting. Jessica wasn't terribly likable. And Josh was too old for her lol. Idk, for some reason I think Donna would have been more interesting in Jessica's stories (outside Alex/Marie as parents). If I recall from beebs recaps there was another character pre-Jessica that they were setting up to be Marie/Alex's daughter and they dropped her, but instead of recasting they created Jessica and gave her the same personality traits and story lol. I think it's a combo of all these things that was a failure and it's a shame because she should have carried years of story. But I also think Melissa should have carried years of story and she did, I guess, but it was mostly unmemorable.

I have never gotten Jessica's popularity or Jessica/Josh. Josh is fine. First actor is fine. Second Josh is not nearly as good. Jessica has always been a drip to me and the DID was just a way to make her more exciting, but she's not. I don't know if it's Jean Bruce Scott or the writing because on paper Jessica should be an awesome character.

I mean resembling MB isn't really an issue. He doesn't resemble Carly/AJ much lol-Maybe if BW and TB still played the roles (except for the height...). Regardless, I would be open to a Michael recast. CD has been given plenty of chances to do anything exciting and show chemistry with any leading lady. I would also agree GH does a great job with temp casting.

The sets are awful. I could see if that set decoration fit the character or something, but Hope would never have such hideous wallpaper. I have doubted numerous decisions Hope has made over the years, but I can never buy she would decorate her house like that or that Shawn/Belle would keep it that way lol.

This Belle/Shawn/Jan stuff is so weird. Shawn and Belle have had about 4 conversations about all of this and she's filing for separation. Shawn is being an idiot, but this is looking like an excuse to make it okay for Belle to hook up with EJ more than irreconcilable differences. And don't even get me started about Marlena considering taking Jan as a patient.....