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2 hours ago, DynamiteKiddo said:

Cool twist with Gwen/Abby.

That was a cool twist that I didn't see coming, but I wonder how they're going to explain it. Why in the world would Gwen have decided to spike the drink of a total stranger with a psychoactive drug?

56 minutes ago, ranger1rg said:

She is awful. The girl must be related to someone.

Maybe she's Charity Rahmer's Australian cousin. 

3 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

After today’s episode I can say that I don’t really have a problem with new Claire’s acting. My problem is that she looks way too old to be Claire.

That's funny, because new-Claire's acting choices were bugging the hell out of me today. I tried to give her a chance, but I think the new actress just isn't working in the role. She's giving such a generic, personality-free performance that it feels like she wandered over from the set of Y&R by mistake. 

9 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I liked it a lot too. The Sami/Ej saga, the Maggie/Victor pairing, Alice’s memorial, I thought it was all great. Surprisingly it was written by Dena Higley. She must have had a really good co head writer back then, which she definitely didn’t have in her final stint in 2016-2017

Exactly. I think she was co-writing with Chris Whitesell, and Gary Tomlin was exec producing. I also liked that period a lot. I was searching for a new soap after GL got cancelled, and I thought Days was the strongest of the bunch at the time. 

5 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Lol yes.

 

And it’s supposed to be summer in Salem, yet half of the cast is dressed like it’s winter. DAYS will never win an Emmy for Best Costume Design.

Maybe Marci Miller IS styling herself. The dress is definitely in keeping with her bland, Stepford Wife performance. 

4 hours ago, Cheap21 said:

But that was like 15 years ago. How is that relevant to the person Nicole is today? It seems hypocritical especially since Sam was just as terrible as Nicole was. And did she really have to use Jan, whom herself was psychotic and not all that credible. If that is the route Sami wanted to go, she could have used an actual victim of Nicole

Well, first she tried to show that Nicole murdered Deimos, but that was ruled inadmissible because her only evidence was the fact that Eric had once (stupidly) told her about it. So she had to go back even further in the past to make her case that Nicole was a murderer (or attempted murderer) and thus an unfit parent. And now she's blown up her relationships with both Belle and Eric, and it's glorious to watch. 

7 minutes ago, Mitch said:

 No, Rick needed an all American nice guy and if you wanted him sexy (and straight) I would have gone with that guy who played Mike on DH..(Tuc Watkins made me think of that..) James Denton, who always plays the quite parts but comes across as a nice solid guy you can count on...

 

James Denton is DILFy goodness, but he was still on Desperate Housewives from 2004-2012. And besides, GL already had too many hunky middle-aged guys who fit that mold and who they didn't know what to do with (e.g. poor Kurt McKinney). If they really had to recast Rick, then Matthew Ashford might have been a good fit for the character. But they could have served MOL better by bringing back Krista Tesreau's Mindy back earlier--they could have been a really cute supporting couple. 

9 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Also I have to say, that's gonna be a big HELL NO on Baby Bo Weston. Didn't really see the point of Ciara dreaming about the life she could have with Ben. Actors are always talking about scenes being cut for time; all those scenes could have been cut.

 

I can't say that I actually enjoyed those Ciara dream sequences. But I did appreciate what the show was going for there. For the Cin fans, this was an opportunity to see some of their fanfic play out onscreen. And for the rest of us, it was like the show was saying, "See the years of schmoopy nonsense we just saved you from?"

51 minutes ago, Fevuh said:

Omg people still say this.  I grew up watching ATWT in the late 70s and the entire Farm family Snyder clan was the biggest fresh air to hit that show.  No one had a real middle class country family.  

And so the Hughes and Stewart families on ATWT - when the writers who created them passed away they should have been phased out?  My lort 

I came to the show pretty late (around 2000), so I probably didn't get to see the Snyders in their heyday. But since I can't think of any story I liked in the show's last 10 years featuring any of the Snyders, I do in fact wish they had been phased out. 

And if people on these boards can go on and on about how the Coopers on Guiding Light (who were introduced around the same time) were interlopers who should have been written out, I think it's fair to feel the same way about the Snyders. 

2 hours ago, Manny said:

I think one of the reasons for sure is that today's writers are either not strong enough or are not allowed by the managers to develop the new characters in the same way that classic writers (Nixon, Philips, Bell, Marland) were able to. So a lot of the new characters just fall flat and are not interesting enough.

 

But there is also the point that someone else brought up that today there is so much more outlets where people can complain, so it might seem like the viewers are more vocal, when in fact today is it is just easier to complain. Before you actually had to sit down, writing your letter and go to the post office to mail it to the studio. While today all you have to do is log into twitter or facebook or whatever and just speak your mind within minutes. 

And of course, history is kind to those "classic" writers. All the ones that you mentioned introduced plenty of new characters who were total duds, but they get remembered for the characters they introduced who lasted. (Interestingly, in the case of Marland's ATWT, a lot of the show's most iconic characters were introduced either before or after his long head-writing reign, and the ones he did introduce, like Holden and his kin, arguably should have been phased out after he passed away). 

7 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

With Ali Sweeney also staying, I'd love to see a Lumi reunion.

I'd also love a Lumi reunion in the end, but I wouldn't mind seeing a Sami-Lucas-Nicole triangle before we got there. 

12 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

I think Ron C has trouble writing for Hope because she's a hard character to put in a character trope.  She's tough, can bend the rules, flawed..yet at her core is a good person.  KA has a colder and steely way of playing Hope..that makes it impossible for Ron C to write for since he loves OTT actresses.

I hear what you're saying, and I wish that the show had been able to convince KA to stay. But airtime is a limited quantity, and if the show has a lot of talented actresses in KA's age range who offer warmer, more colorful, and more varied performances than KA does, then isn't it only fair that they get some of her airtime? 

Just gonna leave this here for anyone who wants to use it. 

1 hour ago, ranger1rg said:

Those Will and Freddie goodbye scenes were about as unemotional as you can get. Just nothing special about any of them. 
 

A weak exit for two important characters because the actors portraying them didn’t give a damn.

I think that Chandler and Freddie are a mixed bag in terms of their acting--terrible in some scenes, pretty good in others. And they definitely seemed to be giving a lot of lazy, half-hearted performances in recent years. 

But for me, the leaving scenes worked pretty well, since they were paired with real pros like John Aniston, Wally Kurth, and Deidre Hall, who helped wring some real emotion out of those scenes. 

53 minutes ago, Antoyne said:

I can't say enough good things about bringing Sami back and immediately putting her back up against Nicole. The rivalry has also revitalized Nicole immensely from the sobbing mess they had made her for years. It's also a natural rivalry that's been going on for what 20 years? These two should NEVER be friendly ever.

 

I just need some more Kate and Sami and I'll be as happy can be.

 

Also love having JKJ back as Phillip, as he's really the only actor I actually consider Phillip. Kyle Brandt was TERRIBLE, and the less we say about JPL as Phillip the better.

Agreed with all of that. The show's making some really smart moves right now in terms of casting and writing. And I appreciate how they're finally writing Justin with a bit of an edge. He's gotten in some wonderfully witty retorts in scenes with Sami and Bonnie recently, and it's so much better than the generic "nice guy who finishes last" they'd been writing him as. 

And also, how great is it that Kate drinks "late morning" martinis?

LOL at Xander head-butting Phillip. And am I the only one who wants Lani and Kristen to take their babies and run away together? 

I guess the streak of great episodes couldn't last. All I was thinking when I was watching today's episode is how offensive it would have been if this had actually been how they wrote out Rafe and Gabi for good--getting rid of a Hispanic family that's been on the show for over a decade by suddenly saying that their criminal father is wanted by the mafia, so they all have to suddenly go into hiding in Mexico. 

54 minutes ago, Fevuh said:

ABC would be smart to do a The Chew reboot and NBC could try anything because nothing is saving Days now.  Do a 5th hour of Today and they’d likely get better ratings on the cheap.  CBS is biding its time.  Without Y&R towing the line for B&B it’s doomed and Y&R waited too late to make writing changes.  My whole family were CBS watchers and kept watching ATWT and GL until the end:  We’ve all stopped watching.  I don’t think GL with its home video cameras fell below a 1.5.  Funny stuff.  

I know we all have the same argument over ratings almost every week, but have you SEEN just how far the prime-time ratings have fallen over the past decade? I was looking at a recent Nielsen report, and the #10 primetime show had only a 2.5 households rating and 3.8 million viewers overall. Compared to that, daytime's declines don't seem so bad. And shows like Days are driving viewers to the networks' streaming apps. Given the current state of network TV, I think the networks would be foolish to cancel any of their soaps (although they probably will continue to tighten their budgets). 

I love how SoapDirt added random exclamation points to try and make those Y&R storylines sound exciting. It didn't work. 

I kind of love the way they're stretching out the narrative suspense with the Ciara/Ben thing. It's classic soap storytelling, and it gets me eagerly looking forward to the next episode. The Gabi/Gwen rivalry is also great, and for once I loved a scene with Eric. Great character stuff and use of history in those Sami/Eric/Nicole courtroom scenes. 

Wednesday's episode was equally strong, and I especially loved the scenes with Sami and the judge. With the exception of those A Martinez scenes (which felt a little flat to me), Days is really on fire this week!

Glad to have him back, since he's a really good actor, and the show could definitely use more young men in his age range. And I hope the rumor above is true, because that could stir up all kinds of juicy drama (especially involving the underused Steve and Kayla). 

13 minutes ago, carolineg said:

 

I think the actresses have a lot of say in their wardrobe.  CB and Vk are always dressed on the sexy side even when it doesn't fit the character or situation. Compare that to Kate Mansi or ORK who were always dressed on the  more conservative side.  I definitely think it's more of a personal choice than a creative one with Ciara.

I wonder if this is the case with the actors as well, or if they keep telling Brandon Barash, "Unless you want to get fired again, you'd better put on these little black underpants that show off your bulge!"

5 hours ago, RavenWhitney said:

Am I the only one who wants Ben to kill Ciara; she totally deserves what he's about to do. I don't think Ron intended for fans to wish Ben finally gets someone who is stupid enough to bring it on.  Bye Ciara. Maybe Paige can teach you how to move your brains from your boobs to your head. LOL. And why does the costume designer dress Ciara like she's Adrienne Barbeau on Maude?

I just like the novel sensation of actually not knowing where this story is headed. Like, normally, you wouldn't break up a hot young couple with a rabid fanbase by having one partner strangle the other to death. But it seems like Ron might actually be willing to go there. 

I also like how Ciara, who at this point has spent years defending Ben and downplaying the severity of his actions, was finally genuinely upset when he took her to the murder scene and forced her to realize exactly what he'd done to Paige. I like to think this is the show's way of saying sorry for writing such a glib "redemption" story for Ben. 

Some really good acting today, especially in that scene with Sami and Justin, but also (surprisingly) in the Ben-Ciara scenes. And I love that the show is finally writing Nicole as a s***-stirrer again. I was afraid that marriage to Saint Eric had permanently turned her into a Stepford Wife.