Days: Coming Out In Salem

[Vee]

I have wanted Will to grow up to be Sami's gay villain of a son giving her hell since Christopher Gerse was still in the role. So this works for me. He is karmic vengeance upon her.

I think what they're doing well here, with Sonny, is illustrating two utterly different types of homosexual characters on the same canvas. Sonny is a functional, well-adjusted young professional. Will is a naive, damaged long-time only child from a broken home. Whether or not they become romantically involved, the dynamic at play on the show with both of them together or separate in the same environment is very important to normalizing gay and lesbian characters on daytime, IMO, what little of daytime is left before hopefully an eventual rebirth. OLTL did this too - showing multiple gay and lesbian characters of multiple types, professions, personalities - but though I loved that storyline, it was very different. Nick, Amelia and Delphina were more thumbnail sketches of people as opposed to Kyle Lewis and Oliver Fish. What's happening on DAYS is much slower and more carefully layered in terms of two legacy children.

[DRW50]

Yes, but Sonny is barely above extra status. If he's just there to be the non-Will than he's irrelevant.

If Will's story is about Sami, then I'm not sure he's going to be interesting as a character. There are already so many characters who mainly serve Sami's story. If Sami having a dying or presumed dead child a few times a year isn't going to change her, then Will won't either. It will just make her a martyr, or involve some kind of forced irony which doesn't suit any of the characters. So far anything Will does is solely about EJ and Sami, and some sketch of the damaged gay.

[JackPeyton]

I love this.

I totally buy this life in general is hard to deal with - gabi dumping him, seeing sami cheat & ruin his siblings potentoal for a happy childhood he didnt get, him struggling with these feelings, the website drama, everything else is adding up. He cant deal with it just like he cant deal with being gay. So he is acting out, lashing out. It happens every day to tons of kids. And will is at the [perfect age for it to happen. The added twist with EJ is just delicious and soapy.

Sami does deserve this, and it will be great to see it play out. I love the will/marlena dynamic and that will hurt her even more. Sami has brought this on. Will shouldnt be the perfect, well adjusted kid he has been. Sami has out him through hell, never gave him any kind of stable life, created him as a plot to hold onto one man, and messed up his childhood. Thats why him seeing her put the stability Rafe offers his siblings in danger works for him hating Sami. Tho i wish it was played up, and maybe it will be.

As for the gay aspect, i dont care when he makes out with sonny or anyone else. This isnt a romantic storyline.he refuses to deal with or accept that he is gay, and the seed has been planted for months. He blames Sami for it in a way. Id much rather see him have a spiral into 1995 Sami and make her life hell while avoiding dealing while Mar trys to help him instead of him procaliming he is gay, be turned into a GLAAD poster child, and have a sweet kiss with Sonny before being ignored.

[DRW50]

The thing with 1995 Sami was her obsession with Austin above all else. They can't do that with Will because the network isn't going to want to focus on his love life. So that just leaves Marlena/Sami redux, and is there anything in Will's life that would make him as vile as Sami was at that point?

If it's about plot and not about characters, then that means Will himself is meaningless. So that just means the story is going to be about what gives Sami more drama.

[JackPeyton]

You dont think watching Sami about to put his siblings through what she put him through would make him absolutely hate her? I sure do.

it may rely more heavily on plot that character to get started, but it is definatly about the characters and they are being more true to themselves or who they should be than they have in many, many years. They set up, in a pretty believable way, that Sami would sleep with EJ, that Will would catch them causing him to hate her, and they have set up with will/mar closeness and kept the mar/sami animosity. You seem to be trying to pin point the will story to one specific angle, when the show is definatly playing up many sides, many relationships, many parts of it. Days hasnt done a story that involves so many different angles, parts, characters, and possibilities in a very long time.

You say you dont buy Will hating Sami, I say i never bought him NOT hating her. Thankfully they brought up today that he hated her so much that he moved in with carrie and austin overseas to get away from her. From the moment he returned he should have hated her.

I think the show too heavly sold the will is 90's sami and ejami is jarlena, when its just similar, not copys. not even that much of the same. more of homage. when will saw sami sleeping with ej, it wasnt about how it hurt him or his dad like it was with sami and marlena, it was about her screwing up his siblings lives the way she did his. about him realizing she hasnt changed like she claimed to have. he should have years, a lifetime, of rage build up inside him waiting to come out. this also creates a situation where he can blame sami for his not being attracted to women, as the show touched upon today, but thats not the root - and thats where marlena will come into play. to help him deal with it, accept it, try to mend his relationship with sami, and maybe hers with sami as well. I dont think this is a story about sami at all, its one she plays a role in just as marlena does. Hopefully Kate too can be brought into this sooner than later, because her relationship with Sami has transformed over the years into a rather pleasant one.

[DRW50]

Based on their history together, I don't think it would. She's busted up their family life in ways more bewildering than this and done things more difficult to understand, like having sex with EJ only a year after he'd raped her. He would be disgusted by her actions but they're not exactly shocking. I don't believe this would be enough to send him into violent outbursts, demanding hush money, or becoming a flunky to a man he supposedly hates. If that isn't enough then that means I just end up thinking they're saying his sexual orientation is causing all this ugliness, which seems very fill in the blank - anyone could have had this story, and it probably would have made more sense for someone like Chad.

I can see where it might involve a lot of people but most of those people are people Will is pushing out of his life to fit the story, so the relationships are less valid. That just leaves EJ/Sami dominating the story, and then perhaps, in time, Sonny, who is mostly just a cipher so far.

[EricMontreal22]

PLEASE tell me that is a direct quote, cuz for whatever reason it just cracks me up. I can so picturte saying to a relative next time they ask if I have a boyfriend "Yo, relax, my generation likes to be friends and make love..."

[beebs]

THIS.

I'm more engaged in these stories than I've been in ages, just because the pacing isn't so speedy. They're taking their time to build layers of story up, the climax of these stories will be much better in the end. THIS is why I watch soaps, not Higley's stupidity.

[Khan]

Here's more from TV Guide Online (apologies if this has been posted here already or elsewhere):

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Chandler-Massey-Interview-1040249.aspx

[Khan]

And for once, I think, a soap (DAYS) is taking a risk the right way, telling this potentially controversial story in a traditionally soapy way, rather than rushing everything for some annoying insta-supercouple (ironic, since DAYS practically invented the concept) like ATWT's Nuke and dooming the whole idea to failure.

[Vee]

I think it's far too soon to say, "oh, we'll never see Will in a major romance." We don't know that at all. What we do know is that this storyline is organic to who he is, who his mother is, his family, and it's a profound personal conflict that is much more serious and dramatic than just "I like cock, what do?" That makes for soap opera. Will being gay is only PART of the drama. It drives drama for him, and it will surely lead to romance down the road, but it does not become his sole defining or story characteristic.

[Khan]

Exactly.

[Michael]

Those points are valid, but this is the first time in Will's entire life that Sami has built a real 'family' for him. She and Lucas were never happy together for long -- it was a big merry-go-round of busted-up weddings and reunions and stupid schemes. Since her marriage to Rafe last year, it's finally Sami, Will, a father figure, and the little kids all in one household. And now Sami's gone and fucked it all up. I totally buy that angle.

That's how I feel. And if they're willing to show him kissing a guy as he spins out and comes to terms with his sexuality (I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt here and presume we will see it, rather than just someone making a shocked face while watching them kiss offscreen), then I can believe that they'll at least address his romantic life when it comes to that.

I'm always wary when Days announces any story, because they have a unique way of making things insane in previously unexpected ways, but this sounds like a way of telling a coming-out story that isn't just one parent having a moral opposition to homosexuality.

[Khan]

Of course, there still will be detractors, claiming that DAYS is insinuating that "familial strife = gay."

[Vanguardian]

I'm starting to wonder if Higley's "insane" plan that Corday and company didn't want to happen was that Will was to be written as gay and full speed ahead with the drama involving family, friends, and Sonny being his boyfriend-to-be. Perhaps under Higley, Will/Sonny would've been lovers by now. I say this because Will's impending story NOW sounds a lot like a Sami/EJ plot point. You can even dispute whether or not Will is actually gay because of the emphasis on seeing his mommy act like a tramp. I've noticed Will saying that "he just doesn't want to be like his mother." His story sounds more like it's about HER! Even Will's discomfort with Gabi can be explained in other ways that are not gay-related. He's unable to get close to Gabi because, again, he doesn't want to be like Sami: Sexually irresponsible, jumping deeper into relationships with people without any forethought. He's unsure of himself because of Sami, and he loves Gabi too much to hurt her the way Sami has hurt the men that she supposedly loved (one of whom was Will's bio father Lucas). I'm thinking along the lines of some total "Dr. Phil" kinda sh!t but it's JMO.