It seems to me that Hogan is taking his time and fleshing out the characters and putting his own stamp on them, a move that would be very important to a character driven writer, so while the SLs might not be moving as quickly as some people like I don't mind as much because I like the way that Hogan seems to be envisioning the people of Salem.

I'm glad he's backburned EJ and is building other stories.

I don't like EJ, and the show is banking too much on him.

steve amen to you may God bless you EVERYONE need to read the 3rd paragraph its so true thanks steve took the word out of me brain eveyone was getting on me kus i x pect more from my show people keep saying be patient well i have been for like 3 years to 5 years how much more do i need

I agree too that it doesn't hurt to discuss things and have opinions on them. And I don't feel it is too early to discuss what people like about Hogan's work and what they don't like.

As I have tried to tell some I still catch the show from time to time. Last week I watched more than I have watched in a long time. I watched 3 of the 5 shows last week. I just finished watching Friday's show for a 2nd time on SoapNet this morning. Sad to say I still missed all 3 times it was on the Thursday episode that I so wanted to watch.

It is just my opinion but Days is still not for me. There are a lot of things I like but there are still so many things I don't. I agree with King and others the show is just boring to me. Friday's was equal with what ATWT has been lately and it has been a big snoozefest. And I am one who loves Family moments and hardly ever find them boring. I love that just like ATWT the day to day writing is a lot better.

I will still disagree that Hogan inherited a mess. A lot of the mess had been cleaned up before he got there. I know that he is still working with JER's stories, but while Beth was there she was able to make JER's stories interesting. Hogan has not done that for me yet. I don't know what the difference is but since June, Beth's time on the show is the only time that I have enjoyed the show. I loved Days during Zach's death this year, then the show got terrible, it got really messed up during the "ghost writer", and then greatly improved under Beth.

Hogan has done some things good. He has been better at letting fans know what is going on with the show, and I like that. He writes family stuff good, and mixes things up. I like that. I like seeing different people interact with one another. He is really good at that, and he is doing a good job (in the few times that I watch) setting stories up. He has always been good at that though.

I think his biggest mistakes have been bringing in new characters right from the start. They were not needed from the get go of his tenure. He should have come in and concentrated on the departures he had to take care of, sure up existing characters, and then after the show got out of transition (as many are calling it) gradually introduced new characters. I know some will say that except for Willow the other characters are not new or are tied to existing families - it still does not matter they are new to the majority of the new viewers or this generation of viewers.

During this transition period Days fans have had to accept 5 new characters: EJ, Stephanie, Willow, Nick Fallon, and Benji. Plus to many new fans they have had to be reintroduced to Steve and Kayla. That is alot while a show is in transition. And 3 of them in Hogan's first 6 weeks on the show. Add to that getting used to a new Shawn D, and saying goodbye to old favorites.

My daughter that still watches some says it just seems like there are too many new faces on the show to get used too.

Having to take time to establish new characters and reintroduce them to a new audience takes away from the stories too. And all the changes at one time is a turn off for many viewers. I think he should have spaced them out some more. JMO

I think the biggest thing that I love about Days is the fact that it is better from day to day. That is what I hated most under JER - the day to day writing. It sucked. Now the diologue makes so much more sense, and the characters don't seem so dumb. I know alot of that is due to Hogan, but it was already greatly improved under Beth.

In the few times I have watched the show in the last 5 weeks (probably about 12 episodes in full) the things I hate the most are WILLOW, and I absolutely detest the character of Stepahnie now. She made me so sick on Friday's show. I can't believe that Hogan studied the history of Days and still decided to go this route with Stephanie. I mean this story with her has already been done twice on Days with Sami and Chelsea. If Stephanie is going to stay around, she needs more to do than whine about her parents.

I know that many will not even want to read my opinions on the show. I will always hold a special place for Days in my heart, and I always wanted the show to be better. And I still do. I do not want to see if fail. Hogan and I just disagree with the direction the show wants to go in. I still wish him well with the show, and hope that it can come out of it's ratings doldrums. Hell I want all of daytime to do that. I just think he is going to have to do alot better than he is now to get many of Days fans to come back. And just bringing back old favorites is not the answer either. You have got to step up the stories or the viewers that come back for the returns are just going to go away again.

at first i didnt like EJ but he is so damn charming he has this charm to him I LOE EJ and FRONT SCREEN HIM

I'm glad he's backburned EJ and is building other stories.

I don't like EJ, and the show is banking too much on him.

i have no problem being days head writer beings i am a writer myself and the fact i am in school for it now

Not to be rude, but if Days fans are that unhappy with Hogan, I'll gladly give him a warm hug to come back to ATWT. I never wanted him to leave ATWT. He's done so much to make ATWT great. It took about a year for Hogan to get ATWT on track. Days will get "there", but it will take some time. He can't move his magic pen around and make Days #1. Saying to "fix" up Days is easier said than done. Why don't you try being a HW at Days and see how much vigorous work it is? Then you will see how much work and thought goes into writing.

BTW, I LOVED Hogan's work at ATWT and I'm willing to wait for him to repair Days. If you can watch JER's crap for so long, why can't you be a bit more patient with Hogan? His writing is excellent. I've seen a bit of Days and his stories aren't in "GO" yet. I see lots of JER's hack writing still. Hogan's touching it up, but the JER remains are present. It's going to take some time to exterminate everything JER. Once Hogan's stories are in "GO", you'll feel like you're on a roller coaster ride. If Days fans don't want Hogan, there's always JER to take the reigns.

I agree too that it doesn't hurt to discuss things and have opinions on them. And I don't feel it is too early to discuss what people like about Hogan's work and what they don't like.

As I have tried to tell some I still catch the show from time to time. Last week I watched more than I have watched in a long time. I watched 3 of the 5 shows last week. I just finished watching Friday's show for a 2nd time on SoapNet this morning. Sad to say I still missed all 3 times it was on the Thursday episode that I so wanted to watch.

It is just my opinion but Days is still not for me. There are a lot of things I like but there are still so many things I don't. I agree with King and others the show is just boring to me. Friday's was equal with what ATWT has been lately and it has been a big snoozefest. And I am one who loves Family moments and hardly ever find them boring. I love that just like ATWT the day to day writing is a lot better.

I will still disagree that Hogan inherited a mess. A lot of the mess had been cleaned up before he got there. I know that he is still working with JER's stories, but while Beth was there she was able to make JER's stories interesting. Hogan has not done that for me yet. I don't know what the difference is but since June, Beth's time on the show is the only time that I have enjoyed the show. I loved Days during Zach's death this year, then the show got terrible, it got really messed up during the "ghost writer", and then greatly improved under Beth.

Hogan has done some things good. He has been better at letting fans know what is going on with the show, and I like that. He writes family stuff good, and mixes things up. I like that. I like seeing different people interact with one another. He is really good at that, and he is doing a good job (in the few times that I watch) setting stories up. He has always been good at that though.

I think his biggest mistakes have been bringing in new characters right from the start. They were not needed from the get go of his tenure. He should have come in and concentrated on the departures he had to take care of, sure up existing characters, and then after the show got out of transition (as many are calling it) gradually introduced new characters. I know some will say that except for Willow the other characters are not new or are tied to existing families - it still does not matter they are new to the majority of the new viewers or this generation of viewers.

During this transition period Days fans have had to accept 5 new characters: EJ, Stephanie, Willow, Nick Fallon, and Benji. Plus to many new fans they have had to be reintroduced to Steve and Kayla. That is alot while a show is in transition. And 3 of them in Hogan's first 6 weeks on the show. Add to that getting used to a new Shawn D, and saying goodbye to old favorites.

My daughter that still watches some says it just seems like there are too many new faces on the show to get used too.

Having to take time to establish new characters and reintroduce them to a new audience takes away from the stories too. And all the changes at one time is a turn off for many viewers. I think he should have spaced them out some more. JMO

I think the biggest thing that I love about Days is the fact that it is better from day to day. That is what I hated most under JER - the day to day writing. It sucked. Now the diologue makes so much more sense, and the characters don't seem so dumb. I know alot of that is due to Hogan, but it was already greatly improved under Beth.

In the few times I have watched the show in the last 5 weeks (probably about 12 episodes in full) the things I hate the most are WILLOW, and I absolutely detest the character of Stepahnie now. She made me so sick on Friday's show. I can't believe that Hogan studied the history of Days and still decided to go this route with Stephanie. I mean this story with her has already been done twice on Days with Sami and Chelsea. If Stephanie is going to stay around, she needs more to do than whine about her parents.

I know that many will not even want to read my opinions on the show. I will always hold a special place for Days in my heart, and I always wanted the show to be better. And I still do. I do not want to see if fail. Hogan and I just disagree with the direction the show wants to go in. I still wish him well with the show, and hope that it can come out of it's ratings doldrums. Hell I want all of daytime to do that. I just think he is going to have to do alot better than he is now to get many of Days fans to come back. And just bringing back old favorites is not the answer either. You have got to step up the stories or the viewers that come back for the returns are just going to go away again.

I appreciate what you have to say, SteveFrame. I think it's important for us regular viewers to listen to the POV of the lapse viewers like yourself to see what's wrong--to see why Days' ratings haven't improved in the past several months. Days might not be able to get you back as a regular viewer but if TPTB read this board and take into account the reasons why you and others have decided to stop watching the show, then this feedback on Days is worth it.

You might be right that Days has a lot of new faces (even though in Shawn's case, it's a recast) which might be a difficult thing for fans to adjust. Also, HS has a different style than JER and even Beth Milstein. I know that it's been a little offputting for some people how he goes quickly from one scene to another w/o getting the reaction of another character. I'll give you an example. On Thursday's show, which you didn't see, Abe tells John that Marlena has been found (at Smokey's cabin). In the next scene, we have John greeting Marlena. I've seen several posters comment on the fact that they didn't see Sami/Belle react to Abe finding Marlena, even though they shared the scene with John/Abe. They're used to the soap convention, where the audience see the characters' reactions to the scenes and they miss that intensity built w/in the scenes when the audience reacts along with the characters. Hogie started the constant cutting of scenes to move onto the next action scene in 2004. I can't remember exactly what the technique is called but I do remember reading about it in an article back then. That's my beef with him. I know in the article back then, he said that he adopted the technique to make the show fast-paced--blah, blah, blah---but I think the scenes lose something when we don't see those reactions from the characters....

I like Days overall right now. However, I don't think that Hogie has hit his peak yet. I'm still waiting for an Emmy-worthy episode from him. He's got till Dec 15th to write an adequate episode that he can submit to the Emmys' panel. Time's ticking away and he better start getting crackin'!!

By the way, sema, this Days' fan is very satisfied with Hogie. Sorry, you can't have him back on ATWT!!

this is very true someimes it is ok that he does but sometimes it seems ou of wack like i am mad kayla and steve stayed in the hospital for what two weeks but yet johm n mar did all hat ring-a-moroe with the plane, smokey robinson the ankel and bak in salem in like a days ime kome on DAYS IS GREAT he is bilding characters and relationships i get it i love it now get the stories moving

You might be right that Days has a lot of new faces (even though in Shawn's case, it's a recast) which might be a difficult thing for fans to adjust. Also, HS has a different style than JER and even Beth Milstein. I know that it's been a little offputting for some people how he goes quickly from one scene to another w/o getting the reaction of another character. I'll give you an example. On Thursday's show, which you didn't see, Abe tells John that Marlena has been found (at Smokey's cabin). In the next scene, we have John greeting Marlena. I've seen several posters comment on the fact that they didn't see Sami/Belle react to Abe finding Marlena, even though they shared the scene with John/Abe. They're used to the soap convention, where the audience see the characters' reactions to the scenes and they miss that intensity built w/in the scenes when the audience reacts along with the characters. Hogie started the constant cutting of scenes to move onto the next action scene in 2004. I can't remember exactly what the technique is called but I do remember reading about it in an article back then. That's my beef with him. I know in the article back then, he said that he adopted the technique to make the show fast-paced--blah, blah, blah---but I think the scenes lose something when we don't see those reactions from the characters....

I agree with Mitch and HoganStays. The show, in terms of dialogue and characterization, for the most part has greatly improved. He has done wonders for John, Marlena and Belle, who were dowrnight horrible under Reilly. He has brought Mimi back to where she should have been for the last year, as a supporting character. Victor is back in full force. He did away with the near-incest of Max, Chelsea, and Stephanie (and I believe that if JER was still writing, we would be suffering through this triangle STILL).

There are some things that need improvement. Chelsea has now become Sami-lite and it's boring. Hope waffles too much. Sami regresses and matures from episode to episode. Willow is a useless douche. And it would be nice to have someone on this show who can accept the fact their parents will not be together!

But we're still in transition. I don't expect Hogan and the writers to work miracles in the two months they've taken over. If that's what people are expecting, they're going to be disappointed.

The show has made a HUGE improvement since Hogan took over. Never did an episode pass by before, where we didn't have at least one flashback. There was no concrete material before.

I don't mind the pace of the show one bit right now because I find it is much faster that what it used to be.

you know ... now that I think about it, the episodes have been flashback free haven't they! I didn't realize it till now. Look how much Hogan does in a single episode ... no wonder JERk had to dedicate half the show to the flashbacks.