(I suspect contempt for the whole genre too.)

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/ti...5753273165.html

Time to call it a cliched hotchpotch

By Catherine Deveny

November 24, 2007

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The happiest day of our lives may be when those sands through the hourglass stop falling forever.

THE ANSWER IS NO, I don't know what I was thinking. After my recent The Bold and the Beautiful distraction, maybe I can officially be filed under barking mad. It's possible that behind this cynical maverick facade there's a desperate housewife crying out for an escape from a loveless relationship, an empty life, a dark secret and a prescription drug addiction.

After discovering, a few weeks back, that B&B is the world's No. 1 drama series, I logically assumed Days of Our Lives had been boned, axed and sent to live on a farm in the country. Not so. Days of Our Lives is still on. Every day. And I don't know who watches it either.

Curiosity got the better of me and I switched on Days just to check out if they still had that "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives …" opening sequence. And bone me stupid, they still do. Large hourglass, dramatic voice-over and strings in octaves. Suddenly I was eight years old, I had an earache, could smell ironing and had just finished a bowl of chicken noodle soup. Because Days of Our Lives was what everyone in the world watched when they were home sick from school during the 1970s.

Days of Our Lives has been on air since 1965. Many of the original cast members have been dead for years but that hasn't prevented them from continuing to appear in the show. Doug and Julie, Bo and Hope, Marlena and Roman and Patch and Kayla are still robots in people suits pretending to be actors. Frances Reid is 93 years old and still plays the role of Alice Horton. Someone give that woman a medal. And some stewed prunes.

Over the course of one episode the viewer is guaranteed storylines involving abduction, stalking, transplants, rape, amnesia and deceit. All wrapped up in low production values, heavy make-up, big hair and acting so appalling the cast could work on McLeod's Daughters.

I watched three hours of Days and it was a hotchpotch of cliche dialogue that could have been pulled out of a hat; "Don't you die on me", "I don't know what I would have done without you", "I'm not going to let anything happen to you" and "You're here and you've got you memory back." If someone said, "You don't really know me" or "this is hurting me more that it's hurting you", I would have run around the room yelling "BINGO!" But kill me now is what I muttered as I finished a packet of Mint Slices to anaesthetise my self-hatred.

If the credit warnings about life being "like sands through the hourglass" are not enough for you to consider your limited time and have you run screaming from the room, the advertisements for on-site dry cleaners, Jenny Craig, Carpet Call and Temptation audience members should. And when I say you, I don't mean you because you don't watch it.

Days is the kind of Sovereign Hill of daytime drama. In the landscape of television, it is road kill. Road kill that's been there for more than 40 years.

Wow. That. is. MURDER! I mean, it's bad, but that bad?

blah, yeah, I hate it when people who know nothing about soaps try to write/talk about soaps. So obnoxious.

She's watching January stuff, so yeah it IS that bad (and well, J&M and B&H are barely on, so). However, that woman sounds annoyingly obnoxious.

Edited November 25, 200718 yr by Pest Spray

lol, I love when people who don't even watch soaps try to comment on the genre.

Wow...yeah.

People should not be allowed to write about things they clearly know nothing about. Even if this person was talking about January, it was never that bad.

Now, if she were writing about Days in 2005, that would make sense since the dialogue was very cliched and just amateur-like. The show right now is superbly put together and is getting better by the day.

lol, I love when people who don't even watch soaps try to comment on the genre.

You have to remember that in Australia, they're like 7 MONTHS behind, and it

probably is that bad.

Not to mention the ratings over there are so bad, Ken, Marlena, Thaao and John

went over there for a publicity blitz.

Still no ratings.

Another key point is that she was watching "Days" in its glory days--the 1970's--when

it was the best written, most compelling, romantic, addictive family oriented show

on television.

People on this site mainly remember the "action adventure version" of DAYS from the

1980's up to now. They don't remember the EMMY WINNING 1970s "Days" when Susan

Flannery (Stephanie, B& along with Doug and Julie, Mickey and Maggie and the lady

who plays Laura's mother on "General Hospital" were young, vital mega stars under the

direction of Bill Bell's marvelous storylines and Pat Faulken Smith's exciting way of

executing those stories.

When you put all that together, plus the terrible ratings in Australia (as she said, nobody

watches the show over there anymore), I can definitely see why she wrote that column.

I do LOVE Ed Scott's new improved "DAYS", though. Even with a low budget, he has

totally revitalized the show's "soapy" value and is making it very compelling and interesting.

Anyone with two eyes can see his stamp all over Hogan's writing. He's obviously having

a lot to do with the BREAKDOWNS, because his touches show in every scripted episode.

A good example was Marlena reading the wedding invitation at the very beginning of

Friday's show to let "samplers" know there would be a wedding that day---that's Ed

Scott.

He's also the one who FINALLY brought Shawn, Belle and Philip to life by making it a

soapy-soap story and involving their parents (something Hogan has not done in the

entire year he's been there). Look how much more fascinating they are with Hope and

Bo tied up in their mess? That's Ed Scott's touches and the campus rape story he

brought with him is working out fantastically--because he hired the right casting director.

If only they'd get back to making Marlena the "centerpiece" of the show, they could rise

up from the ratings cellar.

Marlena has been ratings gold since 1976. She's never failed to bring up the ratings.

I love Sami, but she's just not a great heroine. She was better as a villainous. E.J. is

perfect and I credit him being the one who makes their story halfway interesting.

Marlena should be the star, though.

Why does the writer have to devote as much time to soaps as we do before forming an opinion? If it takes more than 3 episodes to tell whether a show works or not, something is very wrong. She had a longtime viewer's familiarity with the genre from childhood, and a fresh perspective because of her years away from it. That's pretty objective to me, but I will fault her for rushing to advocate cancellation and not offering constructive solutions, which is no better than banishing all negative opinions. At the end of the day I wouldn't want to be one of those people who obviously gives soaps a free pass for inanity that they'd never embrace in other entertainment.

Catherine Deveny is not specifically a TV writer.

She writes weekly columns that regularly cause a flurry of letters in the next days paper.Sometimes she makes sense, but often she deliberately sets out to bait a particular group and they buy right into it and respond.

As for TV journalists in general,they tend to be disparaging of soaps,rather than takng the time to understand the genre.

That really is such an obnoxious article.

What gives this woman the right to rip through the show when she's only watched three episodes?

Days is really bad at the moment. I admit that, but I think I have a right to that opinion since I've watched the show for years.

Australia is so far behind and they even skipped four years of episodes. Soaps aren't as popular in Australia and Days is treated pretty poorly over there.

The woman wouldn't even now anything about soaps. The don't show Guiding Light, As the World Turns, General Hospital, One Life to Live, All My Children or Passions there.

She can't even spell the title correctly.

Edited November 25, 200718 yr by ryan

Right know Sami is a bit annoying, i miss her crazy self, but everyone really must admit, that Allison Sweeney is one great actress, along with Peter Reckell, Brian Datillo, Suzanne Rogers, and more i dont think you can call Days, that bad of any cast, was she comparing it with BB, cause Susan Flannery is great, but i kind of think the other castmembers are kind of usual actors!....

Edited November 25, 200718 yr by Andrew

ALL I have to say is that, after 40 years, and people still talking about the show - DAYS must be doing something GOOD!!!!!!! -

This woman mentions bad acting and poor production qualities. Obviosuly she hasn't watched any other soaps. While DAYS might have one or two bad apples, I would say that the show is pretty good in that department. As for production quality, well the fact that we have Ed Scott says it all; plus at least all of Salem doesn't live in a hotel.

Sorry, MichaelGL, have to disagree with you on that one. DAYS has always been known to hire models, not actors. This is why they almost never have actors or actresses nominated for Emmys. Any soap that would keep an over-the-top , scenery chewing ham as its lead actor (until recently) for years and years is not looking for quality.

Sorry, MichaelGL, have to disagree with you on that one. DAYS has always been known to hire models, not actors. This is why they almost never have actors or actresses nominated for Emmys. Any soap that would keep an over-the-top , scenery chewing ham as its lead actor (until recently) for years and years is not looking for quality.

I agree to an extent, but I always have to point out, that outside of its late 70's heyday, Days never particularly had a good reputation with the Emmy's. Many like to criticize the new Emmy system and how it completely shuts Days out, yet things weren't much better for the show under the old system. Though it got some nominations, the last time Days won an Emmy for acting was 1988 - Billy Warlock for Outstanding Younger Actor. Not to mention its only wins for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team date back to the 70's. Many reasons can be attributed to the show's virtual neglect by the Emmy's, sloppy casting - yes? But it goes deeper than that, I think Ken Corday, in particular, has a HORRIBLE REPUTATION within this industry, which hurts Days and enables the industry insiders to think of the show as a joke. It's not simply an NBC issue either, because while Santa Barbara was dominating the Emmy's in the late 80's/early 90's, and AW was still capable of winning Emmy's for acting, Days wasn't winning anything.