Let's face it, Sheffer has his work cut out for him if he wants to make Days exciting again. Here's my list of what he needs to do to fix it.

In no particular order:

-The classic supercouples (John/Marlena, Bo/Hope, Patch/Kayla) are above love triangles. If they must be separated for some reason, let it be for internal reasons, not external forces like Billie, Patrick, Roman, Kate, or whomever.

-Don't even let the young couples THINK about marriage or children!! Let's face it: Belle, Shawn, Philip, and Mimi are still quite young to be dealing with marriage and children. Slightly older couples like Carrie and Austin, and Sami and Lucas, are at the point where they should be thinking about those things. Let the young ones be young and act like young people! This goes for Max, Abby, Chelsea, and Stephanie especially.

-Let the bad guys get punished: Sami, Kate, and Chelsea are three of the most wicked and vindictive characters on Days, yet they almost always get away with their crimes. Let these !@#$%^&*]es get busted once in a while, and have it hurt!!

-Backburner or fire useless characters like Roman, Abe, Bonnie, etc. Give EJ a purpose and quick, or get rid of him too.

-Use the veterans as more than just props or supporting characters. Maggie was never more interesting than when she was a target of the Salem Stalker. Ever since her return from the dead, she's either been in a convuluted love triangle or reduced back to her prop babysitter/restauranteur status. Why not have her struggle with alcoholism or contemplate cheating on Mickey? If not that, have her think about expanding Chez Rouge, or have some other restaurant come into competition with it.

-Speaking of veterans, reunite Victor and Caroline! Sorry Grampa Shawn, but you just don't have the same chemistry with Caroline that Victor does. Wouldn't it be interesting to deal with a divorce story between senior citizens? Imagine the ripple effects and the dramatic consequences, especially for Bo and his family.

-Bring back the romantic and wild escapades from the 80s. Patch/Kayla, Bo/Hope, and John/Marlena should be saving the world from evil villains and going on high-stake missions with romantic consequences, not dealing with an abusive ex-husband or falling for a younger man. Days has the perfect opportunity with Patch's amnesia to craft an intricate, intriguing, entertaining, and exciting epic romantic adventure that could span the globe! Imagine these couples teaming up to recover Patch's memories and track down Stefano DiMera. They could even weave old favourites like Shane, Kim, and Jack into the story, even if only for a limited period.

-Don't go completely realistic. If I wanted to watch a dry, bland "slice of life" show, I'd be watching CBS, not NBC. Days should still do wild and outageous things, but only if they make sense. If it hadn't been done before, I'd suggest burying another character alive. Wild, yes. But not stupid or innane. This is the show where three prysms could cure a brain tumor, and a prominent psychiatrist was possessed by the devil not once, but twice. A little microchip implanted in a brain here or there can't hurt.

Please comment on mine and create your own list if you want!

I agree with everything you said except your last comment. The microchip in the brain has been many times before, most specifically under Reilly.

I don't want Sheffer to make it too unrealistic, but I just want big mysteries with logical climaxes. The words "logical climaxes" are words JER does not understand.

I just want to sit back and enjoy the ride. On September 5, I'm going COMPLETELY spoiler-free.

Um, when was Marlena possessed the second time?

-Don't even let the young couples THINK about marriage or children!! Let's face it: Belle, Shawn, Philip, and Mimi are still quite young to be dealing with marriage and children. Slightly older couples like Carrie and Austin, and Sami and Lucas, are at the point where they should be thinking about those things. Let the young ones be young and act like young people! This goes for Max, Abby, Chelsea, and Stephanie especially.

Shawn, Belle etc are not teens anymore. So there's nothing wrong with them having kids. What Mimi went through with Rex only makes them more human.

I like your ideas. One thing I would change is to focus the karma more on both Kate and Chelsea. Sami has had some payback for her bad deeds. Everyone in town always complains about her behavior but Kate's in particular is never addressed.

Um, when was Marlena possessed the second time?

During the Salem Stalker storyline, after she was arrested.

I agree with you Rion... except for the part about the microchip (Princess Gina and John like storyline all over again) and I do not want Malena to be possessed again really.... not like last time....

Here is my list....

-Bring back Jan if they are going to do something with Shelle.. I mean Mimi is lame and deserves to go jump off the Empire States buildiing, Jan has potential and she makes the storyline worth watching, mabye she should even kill Mimi herself and then a whole new murder thing begins.

-Do SOMETHING with Philip and not have him just be the guy that goes with Belle everywhere, make Philip evil like Victor was and help Jan and/or Mimi keep Shawn and Belle apart.

-Have Victor become evil again and mess with people's lives, especially Shawn Sr. and Caroline.

-For ONCE just have Kate be exposed to alll that she has done... I am tired of her always bring able to cover her tracks.

-Pair Max up with someone else then his two NIECES. For heaven sake he acrs like a Brady and is one but he still goes out with his nieces.

-Give Abby more of a storyline then what she has no, make a bigger character out of Josh mabye and have him do someting evil.

-Recast Will and five him a storyline.

-Bring Kim and Shane back to spice Days up a little bit and have them go on adventures like Rion said, along with Steve/Kayla, Bo/Hope and John/Marlena.

-KILL PATRICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with every single thing you said, Rion.

Well I agree with alot that you said, but disagree with some too. I want some of Sheffer's camp element that he had on ATWT, but I don't want him to go too overboard with it. And I don't want to see possession, or the brain chips, or anything like that again.

I want Days to continue on the traditional trend that it has been on for the last year. Just add mystery, suspense, love, and a little camp and that is all that is needed.

I will say that your desire to have the big couples together and only have inner conflict will not be able to last long. All of these couples have been together for so long now, and there is not a whole lot of story left for some of them without the traditional triangle. I don't think Sheffer will be dumb enough to do a triangle for any of them for awhile except for Patch and Kayla. Since they have not been in a triangle or quad, he may go that route with them. Sadly some of these couples are getting to the point that unless they are separated or have conflict brought on from outside source, writers only options are to backburner them. And I don't want to see that for too long at a time. Maybe each couple can take turns for awhile on it.

I also don't have a problem with Shawn, Phillip, Belle, and Mimi (that age group) settling down. It is time for them too. None of them are in college anymore. It is time for them to settle into a profession, and even start to plan to have children. It is a natural progression for them.

Bring back Matt Ashford as Jack and give him a real story with Steve and Kayla!

During the Salem Stalker storyline, after she was arrested.

I wouldn't call that a possession. They believed she was possessed for one second, then she snapped out of it.

I really would like to see more characters at work and be involved in business-related stories. Y&R does a good job with this. I'm not saying DAYS has to get down every little detail, but right now the only characters that work are Lexie, Max, Abby, Tek, Roman, Abe, Lisa the Brady Pub Waitress, and Caroline. We know Bo pops in at the station every now and then, Bonnie has Alice's, and Maggie has her restaurant. Frankie sometimes does his lawyer thing, and Mickey is never seen, so I assume he's at work all day. Shawn does come to the garage every now and then, and EJ races cars and is pretty well-off. And Patrick is joining the police academy.

However...

Mimi is supposed to be middle-lower class. How can she afford her Tammy Faye makeup kits and hooker clothes? I know Belle and Philip come from well-off families, but come on, get off your butts and get a job. And what happened to Highstyle? We don't see Sami, Carrie, Austin, and Lucas running this company. Where is the money coming from to fund Sami's seventh failed wedding? Same goes for Billie, Hope, and Jennifer. It must be nice to stay home all the time, and if they're not doing that, they're eating out everday and wearing different outfits all the time.

Other then that, if DAYS continues what it's been doing since late June, then I will be happy.

The show's on the right track now, and Sheffer will only make it better. Having said that, I agree with most everything that's been said here. My two cents.

1. Kill Patrick. The sooner, the better.

2. Reunite Shelle. If we have to wait a little bit to see how Brandon Beemer plays on-screen with Martha Madison, so be it.

3. Have Kate pay for her crimes. I wouldn't be above killing the character because there would be at least 20 suspects in her death.

4. Give the supercouples a break. They've been through so much in the last few years that they deserve to breathe and slowly be brought into Hogan's stories.

5. Above all, first and foremost, NO serial killer plotlines. Once was enough.

This sounds like fun and I'll join in on adding my list to the fixes Hogan must do...

-I agree with Bree about bringing back occupations for the characters. DAYS could really go back to the classic business-storylines with Titan. You have Carrie and Austin (who will be leaving soon), Lucas, Billie, Belle, Victor, Kate...they could all have drama in the boardroom. Hell, bring back Julie and throw her into the mix as well.

-I want mystery back in Salem. When I'm talking about mystery, I'm not talking about some lame glove storyline where the culprit is predicted the first week we see the "mysterious" figure lurking around town. Hogan needs to think up some huge storyline that isn't so predictable. I'm sure he can do it.

-And Rion, while I agree with what most you said about the supercouples on the show, J/M, B/H and S/K, there won't be much storyline left for them if they're not thrown in a triangle now and then. Sure, John and Marlena and Bo and Hope can do without a triangle for a couple of years since that's all they've done for over 10 years now. Steve and Kayla fans, it's time you sucked it up and sat and watched while your favorite couple got split up by an outside force. It happens! And now, with Steve not even remembering Kayla, now is the best time to go through with this. Nichols and Pinson have great chemistry together and I think Billie and Steve would be hot and believable.

sungrey, your suggestions are so off and on with me that I have to comment a few of them.

1. Kill Patrick. The sooner, the better.

Completely AGREED! This is the biggest waste of a character I've ever seen. In the 2 years that he's been on the show, what do we know about him? NOTHING!

2. Reunite Shelle. If we have to wait a little bit to see how Brandon Beemer plays on-screen with Martha Madison, so be it.

DISAGREE! Shawn and Belle are played out. The classic SHELLE was only great because it was cute seeing teenagers Jason Cook and Kirsten Storms grow up on screen. It ain't cute anymore. Madison and hopefully Beemer are more mature and the teenbop romance needs to be cut forever. Just keep them as friends. The couple is to contrived.

3. Have Kate pay for her crimes. I wouldn't be above killing the character because there would be at least 20 suspects in her death.

Why all the hate for Kate? You know the minute the board reported that Lauren Koslow was fired, this place would be in an uproar. She is the character on the show that fans love to hate. She is a great character to have on the show. With Reilly at the helms, she is nothing more than a meddling mother, but when you have a genius writer like Hogan, I think Kate can become a top-notch character.

4. Give the supercouples a break. They've been through so much in the last few years that they deserve to breathe and slowly be brought into Hogan's stories.

DISAGREE! Okay, so we give the supercouples a break and then what, bring the Belle/Shawn/Mimi/Philip or Sami/Austin/Carrie/Lucas quads to the frontcenter. People complain when their "supercouples" aren't spotlighted and then they complain when they are. Sure, BOPE and J/M need a break from the triangle storylines, but S/K are fresh right now and could use a triangle to spice up the storyline and prove how much of a super couple they really are.

5. Above all, first and foremost, NO serial killer plotlines. Once was enough.

AGREED! Death is such a joke on this show right now. No one should die for at least 3 years. Need to write out a character? Send him packing to another state. NO MORE DEATH!

During the Salem Stalker storyline, after she was arrested.

She wasn'r possessed. They suspected she might be and went through the proper procedure. There was no demon.

And Drew, totally disagree with you about S/K. When they've been together again for a while, okay, but they have enough obstacles right now. A triangle would sweep those under the rug and destroy loads of potential.