DAYS: August 2014 Discussion Thread

[jo.frank88]

Thoughts for the week..

1) I'll just sum it up with this...Kristen's return should have been SUCH a bigger event! I don't even mean from a budget standpoint... but from storyline.

2) Great acting scenes from Ali and Jams this week. I still love their chemistry together.

3) I AM really enjoying Ben/Abby slow build up. I'm actually looking forward to the upcoming triangle... I just really hope that Mansi renews her contract :/

4) Huge props for having a flashback on Monday's episode from John/Marlena circa 1999... love the throwback to the Golden Days.. and I also appreciated the throwback and respect of history of Kristen mentioning that she used to be a Social Worker.

5) Line of the week comes from Sami.. to EJ... "It's too bad I don't know as much about art as some other women."

[Khan]

I only pray Will's next husband takes him shopping.

[cassadine1991]

Definitely! Also he brings out a different side to Will and there needs to be more passion and heat

[SouthOfSoap]

Friday was generally a snoozefest with Jordan/Rafe/Clyde/Ben/Abby. But the Abby/Jordan scenes were actually quite good actually - I like when the writers go for depth in scenes like that.

Lauren Koslow is so fantastic, there are no words.

Those final scenes with Will and Sami were excellent - the way Sami kept her cool but expressed her hurt and disappointment in Will was heartbreaking. After a decade of hating Sami, she really has been fantastic this year and Ali is delivering the bester performances of her career here.

I hate Adrienne's haircut - she looks like she volunteered to have her hair done by special needs apprentices.

Thanks, I hope he is ok

[Skin]

I see this as being realistic though, Sami has no friends and she has no real support systems that are unconditional, and beyond tentative alliances. Even now with her "best friend Kate", this relationship is purely designed to ruffle EJ's feathers, and if those priorities change, Kate and Sami may very well turn on each other just as easily.

People love Sami based on her behavior, and what she does for them based off of her toeing the Brady party line. No one really has ever loved Sami, which is something we have seen for decades now and I think it's realistic to show that here again. Sami has had to fight tooth and nail for someone to even half way see her point view during this storyline (Adrianne), and even then she has been scorned and forgotten about by various members of her family with only lip service to validate her pain (Kayla, Will). This echoes the larger issue which is Sami has always been the unloved, uncared for black sheep of the Brady clan. I don't know why people are shocked by this display though, I mean the only one who truly stood beside Sami through the Bernardi situation unequivocally last year, was EJ. He was the only one who truly stuck his neck out for her last summer, when she was at her most vulnerable.

If her family members couldn't be bothered for her during a murder trial, why would they be sympathetic to an infidelity from a man their family can't even tolerate? Yes Sami has no support from her family, but this is simply belaboring a point that's always been verified and well documented since the characters inception. Her family's apathy and their conditional affection for her has always led to her being starved of any kind of true connection and has led to her pathetic love life, with her chasing suitors who despise everything she is. It's one of the reasons that Sami doesn't truly know how to love anyone, because she can't love or accept herself, a learned behavior from what she has seen from her family.

Agreed. She's hitting every mark perfectly since the twist that Sami know about the affair all along. I've been continuously impressed with her performances these past few months. She normally only excels in big confrontation scenes and reveals, where she aggressively over plays and overstates material for dramatic effect -- but she has been hitting every single mark perfectly and giving multiple dimensions to her performances in strong contexts. She's been great at showing chips of vulnerability when confronted with Rafe and EJ's amity for younger women in Jordan and Abby, her heartbreak over EJ's infidelity, her vengeance spree and her pain at not being validated nor having the right to truly be angry at Abigail. All of it has been great to watch. I know a lot of people say Sweeney is too over the top at times and painfully one note as an actress, but she's made great choices of being aggressive at times, under performing certain material and elevating scenes that may have gone under the radar to viewers in a different context.

[Michael]

The thing about this Sami story that's interesting is that she would have gotten sympathy if she had handled this like a normal person. If she had gone to Marlena or Will heartbroken about having been cheated on and called off the wedding, they'd have shown her sympathy. But she found out and then married the guy, but not before setting in motion an elaborate scheme to send him to prison and steal his company. I'm glad she did what she did, because it's way more entertaining, but she hasn't really shown anyone how hurt she is by this.

The one semi-false note to me is that Sami keeps saying Abigail pretended to be her friend. She basically railroaded this girl into teaching her about art and baking cupcakes with her kid, and Abigail tried a zillion times to back out, but no one would let her. Not that it excuses Abigail's role in the affair, but like… she never really pursued a friendship with Sami.

[SouthOfSoap]

I'm not sure Sami would have got sympathy. Her family have washed their hands clean of her when it comes to EJ. "Fool Sami once, shame on EJ. Fool Sami a million times, shame on Sami". If they couldn't even bother to put up any pretense of support for attending her wedding, they wouldn't now. Perhaps she would of got some fake sympathy, but they aren't sorry this happened because it gets Sami away from EJ. They can't be supportive either, because they reckon it's only a matter of time before she takes him back again. They (Marlena, Roman, Eric, Will, not Caroline though) have support fatigue for this neverending mess in general. As in real life, there comes a point when families simply throw their hands up in the air and realize that the only person who can help Sami is Sami and she's her own worst enemy.

[Skin]

I don't even think it's specific to EJ though, I can't remember a time when Sami was really genuinely supported by her family outside of the Hogan era when he reset her character into becoming the Brady signature heroine. And even that was more DiMera's vs. Brady, Hatfields and McCoys then anything truly salient to Sami's moral character. Sami doesn't get support because she is not a Brady good girl, I think at the end of the day that's it. Over time other writers have set the record straight and Sami is now back to where she should have always been in the beginning. Ultimately it makes sense why her family has washed her hands of her, considering all the past deeds she has done and how poisonous her actions have been to pretty much the entire community in which she lives. It makes sense that her family wouldn't support her engaging in her vengeful schemes, considering her history. Sami is a shameful blight on her parents and family members, and they are in many ways embarrassed of her and what she has done. That will color their actions and how they treat her. That is also going to spill over into other aspects and inter-relationships in Salem, as well. This goes well beyond EJ, and goes back to the history that Sami has as an individual.

[Cheap21]

Good point. Its probably why she keeps going to and will go back to EJ. Ultimately, he is the only one in her life that will love and support her despite her flaws an imperfections whereas her family would rather not want to deal with her

[Ira]

Which is why I HATE the revision of Lucas. Lucas was that person for her too. He is the one person who schemed with Sami from the beginning and them falling in love was perfect. But his half-assed redemption has been as lame as Sami's under Hogan. He didn't even have his heart in it scheming with Kate against Rafe/Jordan when old school Lucas would've been a pro. This story would have been amazing even more so to me if Lucas had helped Kate and Sami do this and Sami/Lucas were back together and Kate, while in an alliance with Sami, hated it. The turning Lucas into a "good" character also made him dumb and less viable on canvas, particularly when he was just the sad sack that Chloe cheated on. Lucas before that re-write would've taken down Daniel and Chloe and probably helped his mom ruin Daniel's live, but objected when Chloe was in the crossfire.

There've also been a few other characters who support Sami unconditionally. Caroline. Bo, despite being the one who always railed against Sami, was the one who she always listened to (glad they mentioned that) because he understood her and she understood him. Bo had the perfect way of appealing to Sami acting morally while still showing he understood why she was doing what she did. It's also hard to see the Abby thing as a non-real friendship because how many things are forged in Salem over someone blatantly forcing someone to do something they don't want to do. That's how these damn townspeople operate.

[Skin]

I can't really talk about Lucas because when I started watching Days in 2003 his characterization had already changed but even from what I saw before Hogan started writing, even under JER Lucas never loved Sami for being who she was. Most of their problems came from the fact that she wouldn't change for him and that's why they constantly broke up and got back together. Because Sami's schemes were too much for him. The only men in Sami's lives who have truly understood Sami and wanted her for who she was even through the bad, evil, selfish and endless insecurities are EJ and Brandon. They're the ones who really got it. They are the only ones to really be there warts and all when Sami revealed who she truly was. The rest of her romantic suitors ran screaming into the night trying to get away from her. Lucas' love was always finite in that regard, once he found out Sami did something he didn't like it was basically a countdown from there to their break-up (like with all her other relationships). There was always something Sami did to cause Lucas to wash his hands of her, and during the later years it felt as if he was merely tolerating her rather then try to understand her (during the end of his last run, when Sami was falling for EJ and starting the Rafe/Sami/EJ triangle). Just like Austin and Rafe currently do -- he just has more losses in the romantic column then them because of the humiliating relationships he engaged with Nicole and Chloe during the end of his runs.

As to Bo -- Sami may respect him, the same way she respects Eric, but it's clear that reverence and respect only goes one way. Not that it's not warranted, but that's just the way it is.

[Nate4]

This show is boring.

[Khan]

You could almost hear MacDonald Carey yawn as he reads the opening.

[AlexElizabeth]

Like sands through the hourglass... so are the days of Daniel's life.

[AlexElizabeth]

Will finally has a new outfit on but is dressed like Mr. Rogers again.

EJ looks so good in just a regular t-shirt.

lol at Eve... "Who's the dude with the hair?" LOL at Rory liking her. He doesn't know who's hotter... Eve or Jennifer. Ohhh lord.