Good 'ole "DAYS"

[daysfan]

One reason why JER did do Marlena was like you said he wanted something shocking. Everything with JER is for shock.

A problem with Ernesto though is that only long time viewers would have been "shocked". Because at the time, alot of the viewers were young people who had started in 2001 or people who started watching during JER's first time at Days. That was what the majority was made up of especially since it was after that Salem High mess.

But it would have made a good story if written correctly. Ernesto would have had motive, GOOD motive. For killing Doug, killing Maggie, killing Victor if it turned out that way, but I could not see him killing Tony or Roman(unless he didn't know John was NOT Roman), unless it was a way to cause greif for Bo and Hope.

But it certainly would have gotten my praise when it came to Victor. Ernesto was the perfect guy to kill/try to kill him, and Jan(even though Nicole made a deal with her to do it) just wasn't the right way to kill off Victor Kiriakis....I love Jan, but an unstable girl still living in her Highschool days killing a man as evil, strong, and powerful as him? No way.

[PhoenixRising05]

The SSK was fine up until the Marlena reveal despite some plot holes (which is also when I feel Corday jumped in to interfere for the first time) and then it gradually went downhill. Doug's death was senseless and made no sense. First off, Bill and Susan were promised neither would be killed. Secondly, I read on here and many other boards that Tanya Boyd was out and then it all of a sudden became Doug. We also had uncertainly surrouding Victor's death. It was announced John Aniston was out but the mags could never seem to fish out what was going on with him. It took weeks just to get the fact that he was out confirmed. There just seemed to be so much in the way of changing gears and re-writes. I don't even think Alice's death was planned originally. Then, we had that controversial Celeste/Marlena scene where Marlena appears in a black hood and says "THAT EVERYONE IN SALEM IS GOING TO DIE." Well, that never happened and I have a feeling the story was going down a gothic path. It totally lost it's gothic feel once the island began. Everything got cartoonish and stupid around then and then even the island crap got changed and condenses due to fan backlash. That is why we got castle from hell.

I think Ernesto being the island mastermind would've been great because, like Larry's return in 2002, it would've been unexpected. Sure, the majority of fans wouldn't know him due to most fans being recent but none of them knew Larry. Days and B&C made sure they explained full well who he was to the audience and the story worked. If Days did that with Ernesto, the island story would've worked and I could see Ernesto pulling off the island scheme due to his illusionist reputation. Ernesto being behind it would've salvaged story but instead we got Tony as a whackjob and a sci-fi piece of crap.

If Days ever does a serial killer story again, it needs to be written and executed properly. Days has done some of daytime's best so I know if they do it right I can work. I just feel they should wait a little while longer as the SSK/island story made death a joke in Salem so you want to make things serious and ground the show a little more first before you do another mass murder story. The SSK's first 6 months were great but there were still alot of plot holes that never got resolved. The next few months after that were ok but the plot holes became more prevalent with time and by the time we got to the island part it was a mess.

[KLN]

Really? You just randomly go up to people in class and tell them what's happening on your soap as if the characters are real people?

[sungrey]

I knew there was a reason I shouldn't have opened up this thread.

[Mason]

LOL at Kenny and sungrey!

[darraholic]

Marlena being the killer was not shocking. Me and my mother pretty much picked her right away. I don't really think JER knows what shocking really is.

[Pest Spray]

It was amazing. Until Marlena died, and it all went downhill.

[psychofan]

I guess it went downhill, but I still enjoyed Melaswen....other than the Jack stuff.

[Mason]

Yeah, same here. We saw it coming long before the actual reveal.

[psychofan]

But HOW?!?!?! I NEVER guessed it until the episode of the reveal when Doug said something like "Where were you?" and she was like "a dressing room" , but Doug had checked all of the dressing rooms.

[Mason]

It just seemed so obvious (and yet ridiculous enough for Reilly to be true).

Marlena poisoned at Caroline's wake was the first indication, to me.

And we all know how JER likes to use Marlena for his big, out-there stories. Possession, anyone? I just wasn't shocked at all at the end of that episode when the camera panned up to reveal Marlena holding the syringe.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Add me to the list of people who hated the Salem stalker Storyline.

The best and most emotional part for me was watching Maggie die. That was the best acting Days has produced in a while. It's too bad that they had to kill Maggie, to give their best actress (Suzanne Rogers) some meaty material.

Other than that, pure crap that ended up hurting the show in the long-run.

[RionPassions]

I loved this story. FINALLY a serial killer story where characters we actually cared about got killed, instead of lame-ass day players. THIS is how you do a serial killer story right! Now things went awry once Marlena woke up on the island, but I don't count that as the Salem Stalker storyline. That was the beginning of the Melaswen Adventure. The Salem Stalker and Melaswen Adventure, while one lead to the other, are two separate stories. The Salem Stalker story ended when Marlena took a dive off her penthouse balcony, which was followed by an epilogue/resolution that ended with her being buried alive. The Melaswen Adventure kicked off the same day when she found Alice in the fake Salem Place.

[darraholic]

That's what I told my mom at the begining. JER loves using Marlena. Plus her trip to Colorado when Abe was killed was another red flag.

[KLN]

Actually, I thought that Marlena being the serial killer was too obvious for it to be true, given how Reilly loves to use her in his 'shock' plots (Possession!). Because of that, it surprised me that he actually went there with her again.

Of course, Thaao ruined the shock by spilling it all to overseas magazines, thus everyone knowing the truth over a month in advance.