Days: Week Of July 21st

[Antoyne]

Well that makes the scenes a bit better, because honestly with Ava becoming one of my fav. women on the show, Kayla's sudden attack of flat out bitchiness just made me dislike her even more so than before.

[theherowithin]

I'm not feeling Steve/Kayla this time around. Something is missing, and they are rather depressing.

[DaysFanatic777]

Back in the Day, Steve and Kayla had SUCH explosive chemistry...It was incredible to watch their build-up, marriage. and subsequent fall. They came in at the end of the supercouple era (in my mind from 1979-1989), and their wedding was the most watched Days episode of all time, dethroning Doug and Julie's 1976 wedding from it's high perch. They seemed bankable.

Bo and Hope made it the second time around. I would even say Tony and Anna are working for me now, when they are on...So it's not like it's impossible to reconnect an old supercouple of old.

It almost reminds me of Roman and Marlena's reunion in 1991-1993. The second time for them was not twice as sweet. Roman and Marlena's relationship saved Days in the early 80's, and brought the show back to ratings dominance. Say what you want about other factors...but Roman was the first Brady cast, and his relationship with the show's most popular character at the time (Marlena), gave birth to the Brady's. Roman's rivalry with Stefano gave rise to the big fued as well. Roman and Marlena breathed fresh life into Days (and IMO, altered it for the worse...but thats another post), but in the 1990's, no dice. People didn't buy it, and eventually, Sheri Anderson and Reilly re-wrote the story and undid the couple. When they did, once again, the ratings rose.

Steve and Kayla would have hit it off by now if it were going to work this time. Even their scenes lately just don't work for me. They can't keep the chemistry going. It's not working.

TPTB (Ed Scott, since he's the lone one with sense), need to go in another direction. Both actors are good (I'd say Nichols is one of the best on the show, right there with Reckell), but they need a new direction to shine, and who knows, maybe thats what we need, some time apart, to buy this couple again.

[Toups]

It was a mistake for S/K to reunite so quickly. It should've been at least a year, a year and a half, maybe in two years before they reunited. Like any other couple, there needs to be obstacles, something that threatens their relationship.

They should've gone the Steve/Billie route, and then circle their way back to S/K. Or they could've brought Kayla back engaged to a guy, someone who she's madly in love with, and they wanted to get married in Salem. Then it's revealed Steve's alive......Kayla still has feelings for Steve......she helps him regain their memory.......they have an affair.......she gets pregnant.....who's the daddy......Steve's the daddy.....but Kayla's husband turns out to be evil and he switches the paternity........yaddy yaddy yadda......there's at least 2 years worth of story. LOL Sure it's something we've seen before, but it keeps S/K together, yet apart, which is what I love to watch.

[koos]

I'd almost forgotten that Ed Scott's even still at Days. The direction is back to total suck, the scenes all last 5 seconds, there's virtually no cinematography...

[Ives]

Regardless if Steve and Kayla had addressed the Ava situation months ago, I still think Kayla is 100% justified in having animosity toward Ava. This is the woman responsible for killing 4 people, including Kayla's father in front of her eyes, and endangering a whole plane full of people. Ava then kidnaps and shoots Hope, holds Steve, herself and Bo hostage and threatens to kill them and steal Kayla's baby. I know they do redemption fast food style nowadays but, seriously, how can it be hunky dory that this crazy-ex who threatened her child and has ties to the mob is going to move in across the hall from them.

Honestly, I think Kayla's persistence in diagnosing Ava's drug-mix up business the day after Ava points a gun and tries to shoot her shows Kayla's good character. And then she treated Ava politely when Ava snuck into the NICU to take a picture of Joey (umm, that would put some warning bells off in my head) and she even encouraged Ava to take her family's money and use it for some good (which reminded me of Kayla encouraging EJ to be his own man and not live under his father even while EJ was tormenting Steve).

Just because Ava is "drug-free" does not mean that she is not dangerous and must be liked and trusted by those to whom she directed the most harm and hurt. IMO, I am not sure whether all of Ava's bad acts and decisions were solely the drugs. Ava and Steve were clearly involved in the mob business before. And, at the end of the day, Ava is responsible for Grandpa Shawn's death just 6 months ago.

For those that don't like Kayla, maybe it would not bother them that Kayla was NEVER given any chance for any voice or reaction after leaving the Vitali mansion. But even from a storyline and plot perspective, how could a couple like S&K NOT have any fallout or follow up after all that went down? Isn't the emotional consequences and complications the whole purpose of such stunt acts. As a Kayla fan, it was painful that her perspective, feelings and reactions were shoved aside to rush along Ava's redemption. It is the same thing that happened with Steve after EJ tormented him last year.

[Ives]

Double Post - sorry

[Ives]

I totally agree with you, Toups, that S&K's return could have been handled so much differently and so so much better. I could probably say that for many of the storylines they have been given. lol For me, a huge problem is the lack of emotional payoff after a particularly angsty storyline.

That said, chemistry, of course, is in the eye of the viewer. For me, I still find that Stephen and Mary Beth have amazing chemistry. In fact, it is their chemistry and talent that have kept me watching and a fan even while their storylines as a whole have been consistently lackluster - they are able to bring emotion to scenes and moments that keep it compelling. Case in point were their scenes earlier this week. Sure the scenes came late and were too little given all that happened, but in the 7 minutes they were given, Stephen and Mary Beth were able to convey the deep emotions between S&K and draw me in. And the natural chemistry that the actors have together help that to happen, IMO.

So I would not say their return is anywhere close to a "flop." Sure some people will not like them and some boards have stronger biases than others. But that goes for all characters. For any S&K friendly place I hang out, there are a significant number of fans that did not see their first run but are still big fans now. There are quality commentators (Serial Drama, for example) that love S&K and S&K have fairly consistently done really well in general polls like Hot Off the Net. I am not trying to say that these things mean that S&K are THE most popular characters or couple - I am just offering them as tangible examples of why I think that their return would broadly not be called a flop (even if for some individual viewers that is the case for them).

At the end of the day, though, I can't think of many storylines in the last two years that I have found particularly compelling. Even those storylines that would seem to be hard to make lackluster (Shelle On the Run, Santeen, John's return, etc.), none of them have totally pulled me in and hit the emotional beats that I was expecting.

[marlenafan]

Sounds like you want JER to come back

[JackPeyton]

i do think SN & MBE work well together, but i dont see any chem between them if anyone understands that.

i am loving jawn/ava so much.

the scenes with sami/patch/kayla were good.

poor morgan.

loving the philip storyline.

[Toups]

Yeah, I had no problems with Kayla going off on Ava too. We should've seen these scenes happen a lot earlier and it's sad to think we would've never got them if SN/MBE didn't go to Ed Scott. It's so obvious Dena doesn't care about playing all the beats. Also, Ava should've been Kayla's rival. Now Ava's sucking face with Jawn? That makes no sense. Ava should've been in the Steve/Kayla story. Ohh...and isn't Ava super rich? Why is she looking at middle class apartments? Go buy a house or a condo!

LOL Or someone who knows and loves JER's 1st tenure but also knows his strengths and weaknesses.......someone like me.....yeah....let me HW the show. I'll bring back the 90's JER for sure!

[Ponz]

I wouldn't call their return a "flop" but I think it's fair to say that they haven't resonated with younger/newer viewers to the extent they should/could have. I attribute that to the writing for the most part. I think the biggest mistake was isolating them from the established characters that would've given them most traction with the post-1991 audience (first with Jack leaving in 06, then with backburning J&M/Bope in early 07). Instead, they interacted with newbies (Stephanie) or obscure blasts from the past (Adrienne, Benjy). S&K are a big part of DAYS history but they were introduced in a way that completely negated this.

I also agree with Toups in that Hogan failed to give them the kind of high-stakes conflict needed to make them rootable for younger viewers. IMO, it was silly to claim that Kayla had had no significant relationship in the 16 years he was "dead" and a mistake reunite them within 5 months of his return. Both decisions squandered tons of good angst and made the whole reunion seem "too easy".

[Soapfan1]

I'm Really Enjoying Phillip/Bo Scenes

[koos]

Kayla should definitely be feeling total animosity towards Ava. What pisses me off is how Ava has been hanging out at the Brady Pub nonstop since her release. That just would *not* happen, under any circumstances.

[marlenafan]

I am all for you being HW!!! I am sure you can do much better in your sleep than Dena can ever do awake after 4 cups of coffee! lol I will be doing my online petition POST HASTE!!!