DAYS: December Discussion Thread

[Cheap21]

^^^^^ Thats a very great assessment of where they are at now and IA

[Michael]

That Susan bit had me ROLLING! I don't think Brynn Thayer did an awful job, given what she had to work with (she actually nailed some of the inflections), and the writers certainly got the Susan writing down, but not showing her face was hilarious.

One little touch I loved was Kate and Chris discussing "Glorianne's salon." That was the place Mimi briefly worked in 2004, or 2005, or something.

[JackPeyton]

Ok, I have to go on about this for a moment. The Will/Sami/Marlena (and their family) dynamic is amazing soap opera.

In the christmas tree trimming episode, when Sami said to carrie "Who do you think you are?" and "My mother, not yours" it was such a honor to their relationship and history of the years. Carrie has always, and all always, be the perfect daughter to Marlena. The model that Sami holds herself too, more so than Marlena does. What a wonderful time it would be to bring Anna back, by the way. I also loved Sweeneys facial reaction to Carrie moving back to salem, lol.

Moving on, When Marlena went on, and on, and on, and on, and on about John in Sami's house it again showed pretty much their entire history. Marlena disregards Sami, doesnt think about her, and does what she feels like. It was completely, totally inappropriate for her to even mention John given how Sami feels and knowing she wasnt wanted there. So to go on and proclaim his innocent and even heroize him was actually kind of sick to watch. I loved it when Sami snapped. And i loved that she has regressed to 1995 Sami in that moment. Because ion this situation, with Marlena/John, and Carrie/Austin, she should ALWAYS be that insecure, damaged girl she was. Well, as long as she doesnt seek help via therapy to deal with all of her issues anyways. Part of the reason the martyr Sami did work in part for me was in the absence of Marlena and Carrie. With them back, martyr Sami needs to vanish. Anyways, Sami blaming MarJohn for "every" bad thing that has happened to her because of their selfishness was amazing. True or not, it is the view Sami has, and should have.

Will watching Sami call marlena out on being disloyal, selfish, careless, and damaging her life was too much for the kid, and his snapping totally worked. Not only because it is exactly how he is secretly feeling about Sami, but because he is much closer and has a much more loving relationship with Marlena. It wasnt him being mean or nasty to Sami, it was him sticking up for Marlena, IMHO, and calling Sami out for being just as bad as she sees her mother. His grinning during Rafe talking about the rope as a symbol of his marriage was great, and Sami;'s dig to Marlena "you would have known had you asked me anything about my wedding" LOL!.

Marlena stopping Will from trashing Sami and Austin taking him aside was again, totally tru to character and honoring history. Will bringing up the lie of his paternity was fantastic. The way Sweeney played the hurt and confusion, the way Chandler plays the sadness and rage. The way D Hall, well she doesnt move her face but she trys, all works perfectly together. "Im just pointing out shes a bitch, whick makes me the son of a bitch. Oh im sorry, am i out of line?" THIS is the son of Sami Brady.

And again, Marlena anaylizing Sami;s situation instead of ya know, hugging her. Telling her sorry, it will be ok. Its just a phase and he is dealing with a lot and she should understand that and shes here for her if she lets her was again VERY telling of Marlena's relationship with Sami. Tho, i did love the look of love they shot eachother at the end in the square.

What i am loving the most about all of this is the layers, the depth, the history to it. It is NOT a simple thing. It isnt will saw sami sleep with ej and hates her and sami is suddenly hating marlena again. There is SO much more to it than that, and they are actually playing it all up. Will is dealing with a lot. being 18 is hard. Dealing with ones sexuality is hard. Seeing your mother have sex with a man who tortures her and makes her and your familys life hell is sick and adds to the pressure. Keeping that secret to try and keep your siblings life together is a lot. being dumped is a lot. It is all just a lot, too much. And he is keeping it all inside and not letting it out. He is now turning to the bottle a bit and he is lashing out. He is so scared and angry and he blames Sami for all of this because its easy. Then Sami, she has a lot going on too. Shes supporting her family for the first time ever, she is wracked with guilt over what she did with EJ, she is uneasy about this thing going on with Will, she is dealing with Marlena and Carrie being back in her life - the two people who always make her feel less than. And Marlena is trying to be there for Will, who is shutting her out. She is dealing with all of this John stuff, and this is a very real threat to them being together. All three of them, three generations, have so much going on that all comes back to eachother and none of them are opening up. I can not wait to see more of this play out.

literally, in a matter of days this show has gone from one of the lowest points its ever been to totally fascinating and dynamic.

I am also loving the Abby falling for Austin and Chad/Melanie thing blooming. The Alice's Mysteries story is great and such a tribute to FR. However everything else really needs to be amped up. The Madison vs Kate story is a total bore and the only highlight is the performances, and that wonderful Kate/Sami scene. The mayor story is just so stop and start and up and down, it needs a path. then there are these odd half storylines that come and go, idk. And characters like Nicole, Sonny and Daniel clearly have no direction as of now. Oh, and i liked Susan today. Interesting that Marlena has kept in touch with her.

[DRW50]

Isn't Daniel just kind of doing what he always does? I thought all his stories were about women he "saves" and how they screw up or are weak.

I'm not sure why Sonny is on the show. Unless they give him some good material with Justin and Adrienne I'd say write him out. There are already so many teens who seem to have no real storyline or characterization.

[Cheap21]

Im sure he was specifically brought on for Will's sexuality storyline. When that comes out, Sonny will play a more integral role. They had his own thing going with T bashing hm but the new writers seem to have dropped that character

[JackPeyton]

Sonny is there for Will, and we all have known that from the start. I am fine with him not doing much and being established before a relationship with Will. I enjoy is friendship with Chad and Melanie. I just wish we saw more of it.

Also, I COMPLETELY disagree with the assessment of Kate and Sami, but am exhausted from the above mega post, LOL. I will get into them soon.

[DRW50]

You're right, but at this point I'm not sure why a viewer would care what Sonny has to say. To have him on there to give Will a pep talk or be the "good" to Will's "bad" would just seem like an awkward attempt at balance. There's no real point. And no soap is going to tell any type of romance, so that's also pointless, IMO. Unless they move him away from a story with Will I think he'd be better off leaving the show.

At this point if anything did happen with the two characters I think it would lead to a lot of "this is boring," "Sonny is boring, he's so unfair to Will," and so on. If they're going to tell a story about Will being the new Sami, then I think they should just not focus on love life at all. I'm sure there must be some other role Sonny could play, if they keep him around.

[JackPeyton]

I dont think he is supposed to be good to wills bad. I think he is supposed to be someone who WIll can lean on, someone who has been through it before. I think eh is there to support him and we have been shown through his time on the show that he is that kind of a guy. A good guy, an understanding man, a person there for his friends.

The story cant be judged before its been started. And you are really stuck on this will is evil thing arnt ya? Even Sami at her worst wasnt evil.

[Cat]

Awesome post and ITA.

Chandler Massey, Alison Sweeney and Deidre Hall were so on point in Tuesday's episode, it's not even funny. Without the DHx2 scenes (I am so over self-sacrificing John SHOUTING HIS LINES), Marlena fits like a glove on this canvas. I remember watching in 1992 when Sami and Marlena had this incredible bond -- and then she walked in on Marlena and John doing the deed in the Titan boardroom table. All this history is coming home to roost. I actually LOL at Will laughing at his mom, or hugging Marlena and turning around to give Sami a look. CM is having so much fun with this.

[DRW50]

Sami was pretty close to evil at times (didn't she deliberately cause someone to lose a limb - or am I just mixing up stories), but I agree Will isn't evil. I just think that he will be similar to Sami in being damaged and a self-loathing mess. If you have Sonny supporting this mess, then unless we're suddenly going to see a lot more of Sonny, why should viewers care? Sonny is, what, a PSA? Or an attempt to dispel bad stereotypes? At best, he'd seem like filler in Will's story. At worst, he would actively drag it down, and people would see him as being this dullard or holier than thou type taking away from the stronger material.

Sonny is a cipher, and unless they have any plans to change this I don't see why he's around.

[JackPeyton]

I do not recall her causing someone to lose a limb. The most evil thing she did was likely lying about Will's parentage, TBH. She was no saint, and she did a lot of bad things and caused a lot of harm, but usally with little to no intended malice. She did what she thought she needed to do to get what she thought she deserved.

He is damaged, and he is self-hating at this point, but i think it is totally, completely true to life. I personally had the sonny experience, parents that didnt care, i didnt much care, it was pretty happy go lucky. thats a rare thing tho. I think that is what Sonny represents, the other side of the coin. He is totally at ease and loves who he is, and Will is completely uneasy and hates it, and hopefully they get into his reasoning of why because id oubt they will make anyone in his family have much of an issue with it, likely he isnt ok with it because of society at large. but moving on, as to why fans should care, why not? why should they care about anyone on any soap? just because they have been on the show for yars? not everyone will care about sonny and his view, but plenty will. because he will (likely) be trying to help will accept it and deal with it and be ok and stop lashing out and being angry. Personally, i like him because he is a total good guy. Nice, easy going, laid back. Boring? Sure. But i am fine with that. Not every character needs to be life or death dramatic at the drop of a hat. That said, they definatly need to start using sonny more and tell some sort of story. Have abby and Chad break up and have Sonny & Chad go out on double dates, or let them move in together so we can see more of there friendship and maybe learn more about him. have Abby turn to him and confess her love of Austin and let him be there for her. Something, anything. But then again, look at Will. He has been back on the show for like three years now, and this is really his first story line. He was filler in the mia baby drama before and thats it until now.

[DRW50]

I thought Stan was a big part of that story where Philip lost a leg. Didn't Stan help cause that?

Yes, but Will had all kinds of history and interesting relationships with longstanding characters. They weren't necessarily utilized, but they were there. Sonny doesn't have much of anything with anyone. We rarely see his parents and his relationship with everyone is very simplified. At this point a, "Hey, it's OK, everything will get better" role could be filled by a counselor, or some random character who shows up for a few episodes. It would probably have as much impact as Sonny would.

If they don't care, or should I say ,aren't given a reason to care, then there's no real reason for the character to be on the show.

[JackPeyton]

I think Philip lost the leg between the recast, but im not sure.

Again, i think Sonny plays a MUCH bigger role than that, just not in this phase of the storyline.

But this can be applied to nearly every character on any soap, at least at one time or another.

[DRW50]

Yes, it can, but when you are brought in with a fair amount of fanfare, and are related to some pretty popular characters (and in Victor's case, a fairly prominent character), and you just sit around for months and months with barely a personality, much less a story, then why are you there?

Beyond encouraging Will to accept himself I'm not sure what else they would do with him. Based on other soaps, anything beyond a friendship would be very poorly done and probably cause some backlash the soap would shy away from. So I'd much rather see the characters put into other stories which aren't going to try to segueway into a story that will never be told.

[Antoyne]

My god Carld2, have you EVER liked anything on any Soap?