carolineg

Agreed. Again, I don't really care about Leo, but there are definite layers there with his abusive father and finding love with an older man and a chance at redemption. But, nope, just scheming away for money.. ZT played Sonny really hopped up today. I could see a progression of Sonny staying in Salem and being lonely without Will and turning to booze at first to relax and then it escalates. I wouldn't mind an addiction story and if Chandler isn't available I wouldn't be against Leo having a heart and helping. I also want some Leo and John scenes. I liked them when he thought Leo was his son.

Am I the only one who actually wanted Leo not to be scheming? I am not a Leo fan and could care less about him, but this all feels so predictable. I don't think this is leading to Leo/Sonny- I think it might be leading to an addiction story with Sonny.

JA's Eric was introduced right after JT's Roman was. Carrie enlisted Eric to find out if Sami still had amnesia (she didn't) and was involved in exposing Sami at Sami/Austin's wedding. He also had a mysterious past that he was running from in Colorado-which seem to imply he might be gay-but was something else entirely and overall not even important enough to recap lol. He then worked with Sami to get Roman/Marlena back together for whatever reason they had. Overall, GV has had much more story over the years as Eric. It just has never been very coherent IMO. Except for the Nicole romance, it's almost like two different characters. JA's Eric was never overtly religious or showed any interest in priesthood, but he was a photographer which is a thread the show still carries.

Brenda/Brandon were really good. I feel like Sami/Eric were close when JA was first cast. I remember Eric saying he had a twin sense with Sami and Sami actually cut herself to appear like she was sad or in pain so Eric wouldn't guess she was lying about something. It was always a missing thread to leave Eric in Colorado. His entire family is imploding is Salem, but Eric's just living with his grandparents lol. I don't think it would have been hard to find a teen actor to play Eric when AS was cast. I wonder if JER just didn't care and didn't bother. But you are right, I have never felt much twin-closeness between GV/AS nor do I think they look alike at all.

I like Eric/GV/JA a lot, but Eric has always been the forgotten twin lol. The show spent so much time on Sami that Eric basically had to be a nice guy and the show really missed out by not bringing him on earlier when they brought AS on. They wasted JA his entire run with pointless pairings (you know Nicole/Eric Version 1 was lame) and no real story. With GV, the show has tried a lot with him, but the priest stuff is a little weird for someone from a family that's not overtly religious (at least his parents aren't). Eric is bland, but I prefer him to both Rafe and Brady. GV is hot, has charisma, and good interaction with his co-stars. He's not going to win any acting awards, but he fills a role on the show that I like.

Yes it was lol, but Craig has been nothing if not completely insensitive this whole return. I liked them reminiscing. That was nice at least. I do think PD and KS work well together. It's a very soapy thing to invite your ex to the wedding. I don't think anyone does that in real life, but Roman, for example, went to John/Marlena's wedding. That's weird too.

Nancy and Craig were okay? I didn't mind Leo and Gwen either. So nothing of note happened.

I would vote for GH and Days in 1996 as the best soap those years GH: Clink/Boom, Brenda/Jax/Sonny, Jason/Robin, Carly's intro-not as depressing as 1995 Days-Aremid (better than any 90's story), Paris (silly, but enjoyable), all the triangles really ramped up this year to me. There wasn't any payoff, but I would still put it above 1997.

KL's introduction as Brady was rough. He wasn't just resentful and bratty-he was awful and abusive to Marlena lol. Sorry your lame mom croaked when you were 3 months old, and you were not the golden child that Belle was, but half the time you were living with Marlena even when John was with Kristen. We had no indication that Brady suffered at all as a child. Marlena named her freakin child after your mother before she knew it was John's. But Brady was sad their were no pictures of Isabella in the living room and Marlena hated Isabella? Whatever show. Brady dressing as Gay Zorro and running around Tuscany with a toy gun and getting shot by Roman was good times though lol. I don't get Belle's reaction either. Especially with Shawn being so supportive about the 'things' Belle did while she was presumed Possessed, but I do think if she explained to Shawn she was scared Jan's baby would ruin their lives like her birth did to her mom and said she had irrational resentment that Shawn should have known the difference I could at least understand her point of view. Not agree with it, but understand. This show has no depth. RC pretends to love history, but there are scenes where history can be played in the dialogue but just.........aren't. It would have been nice if John took the stand that Shawn was raped and told Belle that. He has experience with that with Kristen/Susan and Gina, but John didn't take any stance except it will all work out. Maybe Marlena will? Unless she's too busy partying it up at the gender reveal shindig still.

The show really never has and that's why I am so disappointed in Belle. She really had so much to build on and she was basically the perfect child without any issues. The only thing that I will say about Belle is she had a very romantic view of love and marriage that I think has carried through the character. She romanticized her parents love and when Shawn didn't provide what she wanted she looked elsewhere, but that motivation wasn't told. I think I almost would have preferred Brady/Belle to be the opposite of what they were, but that may have been too much like Sami/Eric. Not saying I would want Belle to be a psycho like KL's initial Brady, but have more resentment and anger. But Brady's trauma was literally resolved through an action figure Marlena bought him as an adult so I am probably asking too much. At this point Shawn should just say listen my sister married a serial killer and got over that lol. You can't get over some weird devil [!@#$%^&*] your mom did to us?

I agree. I think Belle should have been at least a bit of a wild child or very bratty and spoiled. Her upbringing was also all over the place with Marlena being kidnapped, possessed, John w/Kristen etc. She spent more time with Chelsea the nanny than her parents, but KS's Belle was extremely well-adjusted and was said to have an idyllic childhood. There should have been more trauma about what Sami did and said to her, but that's not how the character was brought in. I also think Roman should have had a bigger role in Belle's life than he ever did even with Josh Taylor. Like he always would think of her as the little girl he lost, but the show never played that beat and it would have been an interesting conflict for how John was with Sami/Carrie. Anyway, the show should have delved into that more when they got MM because that's the type of character she could play. MM tries so hard to be perfect Belle and it comes off boring. If both Shawn and Belle acknowledged how shitty their childhoods were and how crazy their parents actually were as well and talked about it I might care about them. But, as usual with Days, there are beats to play with rich history and it just doesn't happen.

I am kind of agreeing that Jason can't be effectively recast. Not that I think Steve Burton is that awesome, but he does have something that works. He is generally cold, but can play a good straight guy to humor and has good chemistry with co stars. There is something robotic about Steve that makes it work I guess. Jason Brooks, Billy Miller, Cameron, etc have too much emotion to play Jason the way he's been for the last several years. I don't really think Jason needs to be recast. He can rest for awhile lol.

Exactly. I get the show's concept is true love wins, but Shawn/Belle aren't their parents. The end up paling so much in comparison that I would love for them to either say they gave it their best shot or just aren't in love like they were when they were teens. I don't think Shawn wants to be with Jan, but maybe he does appreciate her (misguided) undivided love and devotion lol. And I think there is something to the fact Belle thinks her conception ruined her mom's life and has the same fear about Jan. It was just a throwaway line, that John ignored, but if she brought these fears up to Shawn it would make her reaction a little more relatable. Anyhow, I can't believe it took Ron this long to make Gwen/Leo bff. Gwen has lived a life. Bff with Claire, Jake's ex, Jack's daughter, Leo's bff, that's a lot for a character no one likes.

I was thinking of Linda Dano and Robin Christopher's Skye when I said that lol because they both play really good drunks, but I couldn't think of anyone on Days that ever did. Drunk Belle was okay after the initial OTT stumbling scenes, but, again, I don't think John's advice was that helpful. There were ways John could have used his experience with Kristen/Susan to correlate how Shawn felt but that would be way too deep for Days. As I said, the true love always wins mantra is why Belle is so f***ed up to begin with plus her weird issues with her conception thinking she ruined everyone's life by being born still.

Yeah, Drunk Belle wasn't very believable in her first scenes when she was really drunk, but rarely do people on soaps play good drunks. I don't really get the point of Allie's cake. Was it to upset everyone? Give the wrong gender? Ruin the lame party? If it was real blood and Allie/Devil acted all freaked out saying she didn't do that it would have scared people, but it just being syrup was just a cake with the wrong color filling-the cake's not even ruined lol.

Yeah, the red cake filling was stupid. Who cares? Again, the party would have been better if there were more people. Victor is her grandfather-was he not invited? Even something as simple as Roman, Marlena, and Kayla bringing their significant others would have made it seem like more of a party. Nothing is a big deal because every party has like 5 guests lol.

I asked the same thing in another thread. Henry's father was evil and the conception was rape. It makes even more sense to use Henry. I had to laugh at EVERYONE asking Shawn where Belle was. No one has ever been that interested in Belle since her birth lol. Was AllieDevil hugging Marlena and telling her they missed her a sign? Is this devil thing going to go full circle and come back to Marlena because I can't..

The very legendary Charity Rahmer? Yes I do. Rumor was she was literally a decoy for fans to accept Martha. Which worked because Martha could at least memorize lines and realized hitting on her dad was not an appropriate character trait. 😂

I think Belle is in the wrong on the Shawn stuff, but I do think Martha does better playing the bitch or being snarky. I think the show spent years making Belle into a mini-Marlena and it's just not Martha's strength as an actress. To me, she is someone that works as an icy character, which isn't really what the character is about and that's why I dislike Belle, but anyway.....Belle needs to be a character somewhere in between Sami and Carrie because right now she is Carrie 2.0 and Christie is much better at filling that role as a mini-Marlena. I have never been a fan of Belle, but when Kirsten Storms arrived Belle was a much sunnier, warm character-at least what you think John/Marlena's kid might be like. MM's Belle doesn't seem like she takes after either of her parents, but I don't think the initial idea of the character ever changed if that makes sense? I am glad Shawn/Belle are getting a story because they do deserve an A story on this show, I just wish it wasn't so silly. I think if the writing on this had any depth Belle shouldn't be angry about the lies, but something about Shawn not knowing the difference and equating it to his/her parents. Saying John/Bo would know the difference and bring up her skewed vision of soulmates she got from her 'love conquers all' parents lol. Even John's advice today was love conquers all-no worries Belle lol. I don't think Belle/Shawn really work and both have a belief that they are forever soulmates because of their parents IMO and hold on to something that really isn't there. But that was a very rambling take on them as a couple not really about the story lol.

I definitely don't want to overhype it lol, but it was a solid improvement over yesterday. But I always find the Brady/Blacks more interesting than the Sarah/Xander/Hernandez side of the show. The problem with Days is they consistently put their "worst" stories on in one episode then their less "worse" stories on the next day. I know that's sort of the normal formula, but if they split up some of those stories or scenes on different days it might not seem as painful. Sarah, Ava, Rafe, Gabi, Gwen et all is a lot of bad for one episode.

From what I saw, it was much better than yesterday, but obviously the bar is very low there. No Sarah story today. Just gender reveal and drunk Belle.

I'll play the devil's advocate and say not for the current show. Eric is close enough in age to be at least believable. Even though the Sarah is older and Carrie's age-I feel like Carrie/Eric/Sami/Belle/Brady are all much closer in age than they should be. But I think everything else is so stupid, something less stupid starts making sense to me lol.

I don't think I am being over dramatic by saying today was one of the worst episodes of Days I have ever seen. WTF is this Sarah nonsense? What the hell are Maggie, Xander, Tony, Victor etc doing? Maggie blames Anna? Like who cares? You just gave your grown ass daughter crayons instead of getting her medical attention. All these people are placating her as a child, but telling her alarming information about her as an adult and no one is trained to do this. Yeah, Victor, I am sure Maggie has all the skills to get Sarah through this lol. And LG remains awful in every capacity. And Xander..... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I guess I'll marry Gwen now since Sarah is sick and won't recover. Seriously? How are we supposed to root for Xander/Sarah ever again (not that I did)? This episode made me wish I was watching Ben/Ciara's gender reveal instead.

I totally forgot she did the ghost version of Kate. Clearly MW was willing to appear all along-they used to trot her out once a month with Coleman. To be fair, she missed a lot of crap that happened to her character, so let's say she even read the synopsis of the DID story, how would anyone play that? Kelly Sullivan certainly couldn't do it in real time.

It's too bad. I really like MW's Kate. What a wasted, interesting character. Honestly, I would have hate to see MW play that silly DID story so I guess it worked out. For some reason I thought WK/RS's divorce was pretty acrimonious and, unlike the Wagners, they had very little contact outside their child. I am curious about the Finola question too. Interesting. Could it have been something pre-taped?