There is a nagging belief for some that somehow Corday and NBC ruined James Reilly's great story, and if only he'd gotten to do it the way he wanted all the numerous beloved characters' brutal, tacky deaths would have been totally worth it and the payoff would've been great.

I do not believe that at all. I watched the show during the original SSK story. It was awful IMHO, from start to pitiful finish. The writing was awful. I thought most of the acting was awful as a result. The murders were what Reilly does - tacky, exploitive "movie ripoff" and jokey "ironic" deaths, usually very gory and laden with cheesy Karo syrup. Almost no single clue ever panned out or meant anything, and it was all an excuse for him to fall back on his oldest trick - use the character of Marlena and the talent of Deidre Hall as not a woman, not a mature female character, but some kind of crazy movie monster/camp mascot who can do anything, anywhere and always be forgiven.

The resulting rewrite was awful because the original story was awful and the writer was awful, if you ask me. There was no way that story, as written, with those deaths, was ever going to be some unseen masterpiece "if not for the executives." The truth is James Reilly's gimmick died a long time ago.

I agree, Vee. I personally don't get where the impression comes from that the SSK storyline was well written. It wasn't, it was one big long cheesy gimmick based on shock value.

It wasen't well written, but up until they sent Marlena through a frickin' gate down to an island, it was an entertaining story. Deidre Hall shined, John & Marlena had their angst, Bo and Hope worked together to catch the bad guy... It was some good stuff in there.

John told Bo or someone last week that they DNA tested that corpse and it proved it wasn't Stefano. I know John wasn't at that DiMera island but John specifically said DNA tests were done on "corpses" to show that they weren't Stefano.

They are trying to make sense of it but what was done with Stefano and Tony via JER was really horrendous.

Different strokes for different folks. I rolled my eyes through the entire thing.

JER has an emmy for what? What year?

Oh my god. After watching that montage, I gagged. How did the cast keep a straight face?

Seriously, I cannot believe JERk actually has an Emmy.

a GOOD writer would not ignore hitory though. At least they shouodnt

Sheffer can do whatever he wants. Writers ignore history all the time. What makes him special?

right what was the point o f Clin being on that island or invlvd in that story on the island?

Did Colin die again? Aww Bart. I miss Bart.

The Salem Stalker was a great story, but I'll admit it went wrong when he had Roman and Marlena, and John and Kate kiss for the Olympics cliffhanger. That's when I stopped watching on a regular basis. That, combined with Kirsten Storms' departure, made it easy for me.

Anyway, I do think Corday interfered with JER's original story, and JER decided to retaliate with less-than-entertaining stories in the following months. So if you want to blame anyone for the second Reilly era, blame Corday. He's proven himself to be a total @$$hole over the years. Look at Passions--it's wildly entertaining because no one interferes with JER's writing.

right what was the point o f Clin being on that island or invlvd in that story on the island?

I think the only part of making Colin alive was to make Nicole innocent of murdering him.

Yet if JER wanted to rewrite or ignore history, you'd be moaning about it ad nauseum.

JERk isn't talented, and given the chance he'd rewrite Maggie's memorable alcoholism storyline with her being addicted to midget porn.

We've visited that before, but...

JER's sole Emmy was not for any of his work for Days. It was for his work on Guiding Light in the early 90s, in which case:

1) he was only a co-Head Writer as Guiding Light was a collective effort for at least 2 years after Pam Long left.

2) there was absolutely NO way Reilly would have been able to write what he wrote on Days or Passions, because he had nowhere near the same freedom on GL that he would enjoy on Days or Passions.

Oh I completely know what you're saying, but the fact that he's even allowed to have an Emmy on his mantle is a travesty. I'm surprised it hasn't melted yet.

So did Colin blow up with the island?

All writers ignore history, some just do it more intelligently than others.

I agree, Vee. I personally don't get where the impression comes from that the SSK storyline was well written. It wasn't, it was one big long cheesy gimmick based on shock value.

I agree. There were so many holes in the plot along the way that it became laughable. And I'd like to add that along with it being one big, long, cheesy gimmick based on shock value, it was also immeasurably painful for me to watch. It broke my heart to see beloved vets killed so violently. It was also very hard to stomach the fact that they chose to kill off vets almost exclusively while leaving untalented newbies unscathed. Seriously, it still bothers me, and I look back on that time with absolutely no admiration. I just try to forget about it.

That's a good point. Why kill off people who can act and leave people who can't? Days still doesn't put enough of a premium on its acting talent (and who's actually got it) when it decides its storylines and screentime.