Michael

I actually think the construction of this murder mystery story isn't bad. If these were characters we gave a crap about (or found entertaining), and/or if death meant anything on this show, I'd actually think it were pretty decently put together. They set up a lot of red herrings and have generally explained them in logical (for Days) ways. I'm waiting for the completely random resolution -- my money is on Li, and maybe Abigail figured out he was holding Stefan and killed her? -- but I don't think it's been a badly plotted story in terms of broad strokes.

Why? That feels incredibly hateful and dangerous.

Please let this woman book a great primetime or streaming role. Sort of wish DAYS had just pulled her as a new Lani, honestly.

I think it's a combination of the suddenness and the fact that it'll be on the paid tier. If it were moving onto the free tier, I suspect the uproar or pessimism would be a lot less. I agree that the lack of lead time and the fact that we won't get a big NBC finale "event" is a huge missed opportunity. Frankly, though, I just don't think they're that concerned about losing the passive viewers who are out of the target demo. Which is obviously sad for the longtime viewers who won't continue on with the show, but in terms of business, I get the tradeoff. The streamers want active eyeballs who are appealing to advertisers, and it seems like the Peacock specials have brought those in.

I'll be genuinely -- and pleasantly -- shocked if we get anything resembling a full archive of classic episodes available on Peacock. Even highlights from each year would be something, but I'm dubious, especially on such short notice.

The person who posted this is full of sh*t and has been wrong about almost every storyline spoiler they've posted in months.

They should absolutely work on adding the full back library. That would be a legitimate draw. I know most people who come to boards like this will always treasure the idea of a five-day-a-week, 52-week-a-year soap opera, but I do think it's increasingly an obsolete form. That is not how people view things these days, and it's not helpful in winning a new or refreshed audience. I would be interested in them trying three days a week, or even better, as @Vee mentioned, 6-to-8-week arcs several times a year. There's an energy that comes from finales and premieres, especially these days, that I think daytime in general is lacking.

That's a good way of putting it. Stuff happens, but it doesn't necessarily change anything. I think they do a decent job retroactively tying threads together, but it doesn't feel like long-term story -- it feels like, "Well, this happened, and this also happened, and I guess we can make them dovetail in a way that brings stuff together," but it would be so much more satisfying and gripping if it felt like it was intended that way all along.

IMO Jake was a much better fit for BB than Stefan. He worked decently enough as Stefan, but it was an emergency recast and he didn't really feel like the (terrible) character Tyler Christopher had established at all. If they hadn't made TC's Stefan a rapist, I probably could've gone along with it -- but they had already written to the point of killing Stefan off by the time BB started airing, so then they scrambled to create Jake to give him a character with a clean slate. It all went off the rails when they rushed him into DiMeraLand instead of allowing him to be the rough outsider. Do they really think bringing him back as a rapist is going to be the hit they're swinging for?

They get a completely separate licensing fee from Peacock for Beyond Salem. If they aren't doing a separate miniseries, there's no money to redirect to the main show.

I wish we could 'like' posts here, but thank you for the tags, @victoria foxton! This is awesome and I can't wait to dig in.

I liked Jaime Lyn Bauer as Laura, but obviously it was a huge retooling of the character. They de-aged her by a decade, and her mental illness became her primary characteristic -- it would've been nice if they'd had a long-term goal of building her back into who the prior Laura(s) had been, but they basically just let her be "Jennifer and Mike's mom who spent many years in a sanitarium."

I always thought that would've been a great reason to explain her animosity toward the Hortons.

Such a good point. Mike has had some important/interesting stuff over the years, but he's always wound up a solid B-player. David got the bigger stories in the 70s and early 80s, Weiss's late-80s version was never THE guy in a major supercouple story when that was what ruled the era, and Critchlow was the definition of a supporting player until his last year or two when he had the Carrie pairing. And he's only made one brief appearance this century! This is a character they should have recast and prioritized in the early or mid-2000s, especially since Carrie returned broken up from him anyway. He'd be a little old for what the show needs now, and I shudder at the thought that they'd wind up pairing him with Kate, but he'd be a nice presence to have around. Have him take over the COS position from Kayla, usher in a new Jeremy and maybe a teenage kid we've never heard of... hell, you could try him with Nancy, once a rival of his, in a little supporting story.

MSL has seemed a little thirsty to return, but so did Miranda Wilson, and look how that worked out! I'd happily take Anne back either as a fun background character or if they actually deepened her backstory, like they had started to do with her crush on Lucas at the end of her run. I also fear what Ron would do with her -- it's such a runaway train once he gets his hands on someone he considers "funny."

Of course! Didn't mean to imply otherwise. I've just always found the casting for that family kind of absurd because they kept adding elements and retcons, and it didn't visually track based on the parent combinations we were presented. And of course they've never played any kind of Latina identity for Nicole (despite some shoehorned-in dialogue in recent years re: food, I believe) or any sense of Brandon discovering that he was not Hispanic/Latino but was actually Black.

This is where it gets tough for me, and maybe why they've held off recasting the character. Cedeno is Afro-Cuban, but... Brandon isn't. He's the child of a Black man and a very clearly white woman. Nicole and Taylor are half-Mendez, so their casting has always been off, too. Obviously it's the result of making stuff up as they were going along (and not caring enough about the specifics of race in casting), but do you proceed with a Brandon who seems visually consistent with the prior one -- and part of that story was that he hadn't had reason to question whether he was Paul's son until adulthood, so he wasn't clearly a different race -- or with one who actually is the race the character is supposed to be?

I think you could easily fold in someone like David Fumero as Brandon Walker. Or they could really make an effort to adjust the casting to reflect him being Abe and Fay's son. I know Cedeno had an Afro-Cuban background, but he always read more like Paul Walker's kid than Abe's.

I could see them doing a heavier arc for Will and Sonny, like a two-week thing the way Sami just did (or another Peacock miniseries), but I don't expect Will to be in consistent story otherwise. He's going to pop in and out for the time being. As for the ending of BS, I was shocked that Burton kinda showed up and acted! I don't give two sh*ts about Harris as a character, but there was actual effort there.

They've stopped doing that because it was making production insane. That's why VK, Marci, Lamon, and Sal all recently exited. They're using Will as much as they can with Chandler's schedule restraints, but I don't expect them to build big story around recurring players very often for the foreseeable future.

The Bope material today was really nice, and I love that they sprang for the song (and wove it into the Hong Kong gala). That said... we did all this in 2016 during Hope's standalone episode at the Horton cabin. Angel Bo appeared to Hope. Grown-up Angel Zack was there. Even Larry Welch was there to be an ass for a minute. And Bo and Hope had a goodbye dance to "Tonight I Celebrate My Love." So if this is the extent of the reunion... what was the point? I'm holding out hope for some progression tomorrow.

Kassie was cast as Eve several years before Ron came anywhere near Days. They approached Charlotte Ross first, but she wasn't available to go on-contract.

Stefano saved her and had her cryogenically frozen until Rolf later developed the technology to revive her. Standard explanation. I thought Episode 2 was a lot less rough than Episode 1. Andrew's a cutie, too. And this was a fun use of Eileen. They also didn't club us over the head with the Chris K stuff, which helped.

That was fine. They're all fine in isolation. I just feel like they club us over the head with them, and I was watching with my fiancé, who soaks up a lot of Days because of me but isn't a fan, and those things almost always strike him as weird little moments that take him out of the narrative if he's gotten into it. I think a few are fun, for sure, but they sometimes create entire scenes out of them when a quick throwaway line would work. Also the new Joey... is kind of hot? Wasn't expecting that.

This was cute. I really enjoy the intention and the history-loving energy they having going -- I just wish they'd scale back on the inside joke stuff by 50% or so. Megan's re-entrance, for a relatively nothing character who has not been mentioned in a meaningful way in almost 40 years, was pretty well done!