Khan

But, look on the bright side: if DAYS had dropped Drake, he might have landed fairly quickly at another soap. (My money says AMC. He would have been a good fit over there, I think.)

The attitude seems to be, "If you don't want to have babies, then don't get pregnant!". Which would be fine, if human beings actually COULD refrain from having sex (to say nothing, of course, of the cases where the woman or girl is impregnated by their rapist or molestor). But asking a human being who is at least aware of sex to abstain is like asking me NOT to eat that pint of Baskin-Robbins that I have in my freezer. I mean, you could ask, but you'd just be wasting your time.

Welp. Look at it this way: now Rita's free to go back on the '70's oldies circuit with Maria Muldaur and the dude who sang "Magnet and Steel."

Ah, but remember: Justice Alito believes the constitution should be interpreted as its' originators intended - which means, the only ones with any rights whatsoever are white, Christian men who own property (including black people).

Well, IDK whether the story would have worked any better - Gene Palumbo was just not the writer for a story like "A Tale of Two Romans" - but if the idea is that Drake's Roman is not the real Roman and that Wayne's Roman is still alive, then that's what you lead with first. Then, at a certain point in the story, you lower the other boom: Marlena is alive, too! God bless Dee, but I think she put DAYS in a very awkward spot by insisting that Wayne return as well. Either she could have returned without Wayne, or the show could have taken its' chances and replace Drake with the man he had earlier replaced, but trying to satisfy Dee and hold onto Drake at the same time was always going to be a challenge, no matter how good the story.

In a way, ATWT apparently did the same thing to Lisa in the '70's, transitioning her from the show's chief troublemaker to...well...less of a troublemaker, lol. However, the show wisely offset declawing Lisa by introducing Joyce as the diabolical third wheel in Lisa and Grant's relationship. Perhaps, DAYS should have tried a similar tactic, allowing Sami to mature and mellow somewhat, while introducing a new troublemaker who would make life hell for Samantha Gene.

Great. Just what we need. A surge in HIV and STI's.

I will give Michael Filerman and Camille Marchetta credit for bringing FC back to basics in S8 and renewing the emphasis on the winery, as well as on the class conflicts among the Channing/Giobertis, the Agrettis (Frank, Nick and Ben always struck me as being less affluent than Carlo and Melissa) and the Ortegas. Even Maggie gets something else to do in S8 besides drink and cry over her problems with Richard, I think, lol. Compared to the Freilich-produced seasons, however, S8 felt dull and plodding; and that, coupled with the regrettable decision to kill off Melissa, resulted in viewers thinking FC had jumped the proverbial shark. IIRC, too, Swan's Richard came across more like a mercenary than the sophisticated mogul that Selby's would become.

It also seemed to come from out of nowhere, since I don't recall John having had much to do with Lawrence or Vivian up to that point. For me, it was an odd and disjointed way to blend two storyline bubbles into one. By the way, I won't argue with you that making John and Roman twin brothers was the cleanest and easiest way out of the mess. Again, though, it seemed like TPTB wanted to avoid what was sensible and simply shock the audience into tuning in, which set a bad precedent, IMO, for what was to come. Here's a thought: what if TPTB had kept Dee's return under wraps and instead had brought Wayne back first?

That's possible. Remember, Dee and Wayne were popular BITD. Therefore, TPTB might have assumed that Roman/Marlena fans would be SO thrilled to have the original Roman back that they would forget all about Drake. At the very least, they likely thought they could parlay Drake's own popularity into having TWO supercouples on the show: Roman/Marlena, and John/Isabella. Unfortunately, three factors went against everything going smoothly, or according to plans: 1) the piss-poor planning of, and lukewarm reception to, the "Tale of Two Romans"; 2) the off-key writing for Wayne's Roman once he had returned, an issue that was apparent even before JER put the final nail in Roman and Marlena's coffin; and 3) Staci Greason's decision not to re-sign, which torpedoed the show's chances of developing John and Isabella any further as a duo.

Agree. In fact, I've been saying for YEARS that John being Stefano's son was the only outcome that would have made sense, and that the show was avoiding the obvious, likely because they were more concerned with shocking viewers than with being logical. Hence, all the ridiculous retcons to his past that invariably land with a thud with an audience that is truly past the point of caring. (But, of course, whenever I argue the theory, I'm always argued down. But Stefano has tried many times to kill John, they say. Why would Stefano try to kill his own son? As if Stefano would be above murdering his own son simply because his son had proven himself to be disloyal to him. Anyways.) And I also agree that, on the face of it, the "Tale of Two Romans" had potential. Of course, it wasn't something I would've done, had I been the HW. (At best, I would have said that John and Roman were twins, that John was stolen at birth, and that Stefano (and Victor) had somehow tracked him down and brainwashed him into becoming The Pawn). But, the idea behind it was certainly creative. It's just that its' execution is what ultimately let it down. It was clear the show didn't really know who John was supposed to be once he was no longer Roman, so they kept stalling, hoping to come up with some explanation for how he came to be that would "stick." In the process, the story became far too convoluted; and when they finally landed on the idea of making him the presumably dead Forrest Alamain, it didn't have the impact it should've, not just because the Alamains were gone soon after, but also because the folks at home had simply moved on. That's my theory, anyway, and I'm sticking to it, lol. Ironically, though, it would solve what I still think is Belle and Shawn's biggest problem - which is that they're together in the first place, lol. Of course, you'd still have the issue of Claire, but I think that's easily resolvable, too. Either we learn Sami did succeed in switching Belle with another infant OR Claire dies by her own hand after learning that her parents are in fact brother and sister and that she is a product of incest.

Agree. Not that daytime soaps don't have plot holes - Lord knows they do! - but I don't believe the primetime soaps were plotted as meticulously as the daytime soaps even WITH a "bible" for each season. With the primetime soaps, details often slipped through the cracks, because they had only so many episodes per season (with hiatuses), and because they were less concerned with the slow, steady build and more concerned with the instant, weekly gratification. Watching one episode of a primetime soap was supposed to be equivalent of watching a week or two of a daytime soap, so, again, not every "i" was dotted or "t" crossed.

IDK why, but I feel like that might happen in the very last episode of DAYS. Sort of like how OLTL's Allison Perkins told Clint and Viki toward the end of the show's network run that both Jessica and Natalie were Clint's biological daughters all along.

DAYS has never even TRIED to retcon Ben's past as the Necktie Killer, and that's what annoys me the most about him. I mean, come on, just say it was Jordan or Clyde doing all the killings and get it over with, lol.

I give up trying to make sense of John's backstory. It is what it is.

I'm always amazed by the fact that Mickey Gilley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart were cousins and played piano together as children. RIP Mr. Gilley.

Exactly. Just as "abortion is good for business," per @marceline, so, too, is legislature that protects the rights of LGBTQ citizens. Frankly, I've learned not to put too much faith or stock into millennials. Millennials seem content sitting on the metaphorical sidelines, calling the rest of us "sellouts" for compromising (which is the dirtiest of words to them) and saying we're all the reason why everything has turned to [!@#$%^&*] and nothing in this country (or world) is worth saving or even fixing. (Nope, says your average (white, upper-middle-class) millennial, it's all gotta be burned down. Today. Now.) Millennials have been raised to believe that they're so gifted and precious in everyone else's eyes that they have an almost pathological disinterest in learning anything about anything that happened before their time. (I'm still rolling my eyes over the fact that Pete Buttigieg apparently had no idea what "Leave It to Beaver" was - which is minor and inconsequential, but still!). Millennials loathe us, because we don't flinch and holler and riot at every insensitive joke, and because we believe that one that should actually pay their debts, instead of expecting the government to cancel them. And those millennials who DO vote (and not just groan and meme about Gen X'ers and boomers, or disrupt otherwise peaceful protests and boycotts, so they can score likes on social media) do it while holding their noses because "he/she isn't Bernie (or AOC)." So, if it's up to the millennials to save us all? I'd just as soon go the way of the dinosaur, thank you very much.

Same goes for LGBTQ protections. Remember North Carolina's hideous "bathroom bill"? IIRC, the NC legislature was gonna let that stand as it was...until the NBA and other corporations threatened to boycott the state. Moral of the story? Money talks, and the rest can go to hell.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks, @victoria foxton. Is T.R. getting ready to slap her, or heal her in the name of Jesus?

They're CHANNELING Allie? She's not dead!

This is what I'm saying.

Well, it's not a full and total dismissal from the airwaves, but I guess it's something.

Greg Abbott always looks as if he's made another poopie in his pants. @marceline was right: this country cannot survive minority rule. Sooner or later, it's all gonna end in bloodshed.

"Clink/Boom" was good. Patrick Mulcahey did a masterful job (as always) of making it feel less mechanical (his word). But don't get me started on the Tin Man, lol.

TBH, I was going in and out on GH at that point. To me, GH fell apart pretty quickly once Claire Labine left. According to the ever-reliable iMDB, Leslie Horan had auditioned for Karen, Niki Langton and Carly before landing Miranda. So, perhaps, the show decided to throw her a bone? Me neither. But I wouldn't trust Frank Valentini to cast her properly OR his goons to write for her properly either.