j swift

On 12/7/2023 at 5:33 AM, Xanthe said:

Thin air is where a lot of characters appear from, especially love children

That's the leap of faith that frequently annoys me on soaps.  A character moves to town, and years later multiple people from their past happen to move to the same small town.  People like Sandy and Victoria makes sense because they came knowing that their parent lived in Bay City.  But, Lucas happened to share a past with Felicia on the East Coast (I assume they grew up in the mid-Atlantic region) and Sharlene on the west coast (I assume they met when she was a sex worker in San Francisco). And then, by chance, ran into both in a small town in the Midwest?  That strains credulity, but it is a constant issue for legacy character written by successive writers, who suddenly exist as if they grew up in the soap town despite long term viewers knowing that they moved there as an adult.

I barely recall Somerset, other than the opening and my excitement as a kid to be able to watch the first episode of a soap opera.

So, I read the wiki on Joe Sirola and it revealed some interesting facts.  First, of course, there's no reference to Somerset (no respect for daytime in Wiki-land).  Second, he was a sales promo manager for Kimberly-Clark.  And third, his co-star on The Montefuscos was future AW star John Aprea (the actor so nice, they cast him twice).

I think there are issues specific to breakdown writing that I would criticize on a Jamey episode.

1. I don't think they are well-balanced, every soap uses short scenes, but there's no rhyme or reason to the order of how scenes progress in an episode.  Two people will talk about something, then in the next scene people are talking about a different topic, then cut to two other people talking about the same plot as the first scene.  Those shifts don't make sense, and it doesn't build to anything.
2. My constant critique of a Jamey episode is that it is disorienting what time of day it is in Salem.  Holly's getting home from school, people are eating dinner, and others are going to bed.  They don't seem to exist in the same timeline.
3. DAYS will frequently feature a story for a few episodes and then switch to another story.  But, when we return to the first story, it is as if characters have been frozen in time, as they haven't moved or spoken since we last saw them.
4. There's not enough interaction throughout the town.  E.g. Stefan still hasn't told Chad that Clyde is threatening him, despite them having two scenes together since the story began.  When the ladies were kidnapped and feared dead, Paulina never reacted to the news.  It is the same people talking about the same thing every episode.

to add to @janea4old's excellent summary, I cued the interview to the second that Jamey announces returning to DAYS (so, you don't need to watch the whole thing)

I feel compelled to add that as much as I find his online persona grating. It is remarkable that this fan from Texas, who went to a small community college, and wrote PR releases for the CDC, wound up fulfilling his dream of writing on a soap.  While, I might celebrate it more if he wasn't so busy always congratulating himself, it is notable.

Why is Valentine now in denial when it comes to Charlotte? 

I assume the scene with Anna was written to rehash the plot, in order to both tie up loose ends and reinforce the idea that Charlotte's not responsible for the stuff that Pikeman's people did.  But, it felt clumsy for Valentine to suddenly not understand Charlotte's capacity for evil.  Also, it seemed like it would've made more sense if that scene was with Kevin, or even Ava. 

And why do both Charlotte and Violet speak as if they're BFFs with Anne of Green Gables?  These dialogue writers need to meet a little girl and hear them talk.  I expect that they'll be both looking forward to a new petticoat with a matching parasol from Father Christmas this year because no kid born in this century talks like them.

Daddy, when will you give Aunt Liz a ring? STFU kiddo, no girl her age cares that much about their father's romantic life.

Papa, I need to protect you from evil!! Go play with your hoop and stick and stop bothering the adults.

TL:DR from Jamey Gidden's YouTube interview today, he's back at DAYS as a breakdown writer.  He remains as pretentious, derivative, and lacking in self-awareness as ever.

Also he admits to never re-writing a draft more than once.

The good news is that more people will read this thread than watch the Daytime Emmy's, so the validity of accolade is hardly worth it. 

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

Poor Shane.  Everyone just asks him for favors now.  He probably can't even get his real job done.

I had exactly the same thought.  The man is busy delivering briefcases around the world. Stop asking him to Google stuff for you.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

Being Alex's housekeeper sounds like an easy job.

Except when they've got to clean that couch

7.3/10

Nice writing for Chad today.  How unusual for a guy on DAYS to just be honest, admit that they're conflicted, and have a mature conversation.  I swear, the juxtaposition between episodes is nutty.  We go from bonkers baby talk between Dimitri and Leo to superb romantic drama with Tripp & Wendy as well as Chad & Stephanie.  My only gripe is that I wish Stephanie had a talk-to other than her mother.  I'm hoping for a Stephanie and Jada friendship.

There's still a lot of telling me that women are into Everett because he's so romantic, and not showing me.  He's not creative (ie he needed Stephanie to tell him to write the article about Leo), he's not charming, and he's not that cute.  So, I don't get the appeal.

Maggie's come a long way fashion-wise since marrying into wealth.  I mean, who've predicted Maggie from the Simmons Farm would be wearing a leopard-print coat to dinner?

59 minutes ago, Gray Bunny said:

Jeezus, so one of Tom & Alice's kids was lost in the Korean War in the early 50's, and their great-grandchild David is in his twenties by the mid-70's. Just how old were Tom & Alice and when did Alice start popping out children? 

Ah ha, you've unlocked the McConaughey exception to SORASing,

As the younger ones age, the older gen stays the same

5 hours ago, janea4old said:

Jennifer was living in Laura's house there, settling the estate

That makes sense, but didn't Jennifer and Shawn also go to rehab in Boston?

And what happened to keeping Bo's placement a secret from Megan?

Is it confirmed that Bo and Hope are also both in Boston? As well as Shawn, Ben, and Ciara (and their kids)?

Because I recall when Bo was first hospitalized that there was some exposition about them keeping his whereabouts a secret from Megan.  But, by the time Victor died and Shawn went to rehab, it seemed like they were all in Boston.

Amusingly, I bet it would drive some fans nuts if Salem suddenly relocated from the Midwest to Massachusetts.

I'm always surprised by the popularity of The Thorn Birds.  Not just because of the bonkers nature of the romance, which would be odd to criticize because that it is the central point of the story.  I mean, if you don't want to watch a priest being lusted after by an old woman but falls in love with her teenaged niece, then this is not the miniseries for you.  It wasn't like they tried to hide the conceit in the marketing.   But, by the finale there's no pay off, so it builds to nothing.

Spoiler alert everyone dies, nobody gets a happy ending, there's no mystery or revelation.  It just randomly ends on the grandchildren's generation.  I guess Ralph finding out that he fathered Meggie's son is something.  But, by then he's taken all the money, and he's lost any sympathy.  So, the appeal alluded me.  And controversially, while I like Rachel Ward, I think Barbara Stanwyck is overrated and her performance was given a lot of assistance from the score. 

The Alexis doll is good, but poor Krystal is a mess

Meanwhile, doll_dream_closet on Instagram makes the most amazing recreations

25 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

Was Jake's brother presumed dead?

no, but he did appear out of thin air, and I don't recall that there was ever much focus on Jake's father

7 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

The question of new characters reminded me of my least favourite mechanism for introducing new characters: the dead fakeout

I don't know if Kevin Anderson fits that brief, but I enjoyed that plot.

The logic was questionable, but there was real potential in giving Jake a brother who was sort of his antithesis. Also, it helps that James Goodwin is such a charismatic actor in the role.  A far cry from his previous work.  And Kevin was written with a degree of complexity that it was always difficult to pinpoint his motives.

Was she actually 92 this year?  That's remarkable

2 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

You’re welcome. Do we have any ideas on the identity of the actress who dove for the purse with the Jaguar clasp?

Considering a Jaguar clasp is indicative of a Cartier purse, it is hardly TJ Maxx quality, and worthy of a dive

Jack must be very rich, because IRL a decade ago, John W. Henry bought the Boston Globe from the NY Times for $70 million dollars.

Ken Corday The Days of our Lives: The True Story of One Family's Dream and the Untold History of Days of our Lives (2010)

But, of course, times changed by the 1980s Roman Brady and Cal Winters specifically mentioned Vietnam in their backstory.

6.3/10

Lesson learned today is that one of the tell-tale signs of scab writers is the use of flashbacks to scenes written by non scab writers.  I know DAYS used flashbacks a lot, but we saw the same strategy in early scab scripts on Y&R and GH.

I really like Tripp and Wendy.  They're smart, they aren't oblivious to their surroundings, and they ask the right questions.  They are also a juxtaposition to Dimitri and Leo, considering that they were created by the same writer.  D&L tell us that they're in love, but it never feels organic.  Possibly because they are so silly most of the time.  Wendy and Tripp feel sincerely in love.  They speak like young professionals.  They don't use cute nicknames for each other, and they aren't hiding anything, when it makes more sense to be honest.

Jack and Jennifer own a newspaper in Boston?

Shane has access to information about the owner of shell companies?

Also, I'm not trusting Eric to be a stay-at-home Dad.  When he figured out that he and Sloan don't have a nursery the first thing he went out and bought was a baby gym, rather than a crib, or some diapers, or formula, or baby bottles, or onesies, or...

Doesn't PriceTown have a baby department?

I know Esme has amnesia, but why has nobody told her that she's rich?

7 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I know no one really works on soaps, but most of the characters at least reference the jobs they have.

The one that gets my goat is Stefan.  He fought so hard to be CEO.  Then, once he got the job, he buys The Bistro and neglects the company.

I mean, EJ went to work the night of his wedding and Sloan went in two seconds after her baby arrived.

11 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Eric does seriously need to get a job though.

Isn't he a photographer?  I recall he was going to have a gallery show of his photos recently.