Days: October 2015 Discussion thread

[Ira]

Eric was off canvas for 12 years before he came back. I think viewers would be fine if he died.

[Vee]

It's not that their only motive to kill Will was "too much of the gays," because it wasn't. It was a lot of things. The issue is that it's a part of a larger fundamental problem. DAYS and Corday always go from one big craze to the next and they keep blowing everything up behind them, only this time it's a core legacy child who turned out gay, which is still a huge deal for soaps. It's one thing for them to waste a bunch of good new ideas as Ken Corday returns from the golf course and demands a scorched earth yet again, that's typical behavior for him. But Will is a bridge too far.

 

Will had a lifetime of rich story ahead of him given his history and development. it was squandered here because the show was bitter about Massey, because the recast failed, and because Corday and DAYS had made the dual calculations that 1. they needed a big death and 2. the gay stories were failures/"inappropriate". At least two of these four motives are deeply wrongheaded, and none of them add up to a decent rationale to kill off Sami Brady's gay son, who's been on the show since birth and can go anywhere. All they had to do was write Will out.

 

They'll regret this just like they regretted the horrible Salem Stalker and the many turns at the wheel for Dena Higley and Gary Tomlin and a million other things. It's studied, chronic incompetence mixed with just enough of a dollop of casual homophobia - the kind where otherwise liberal and absentee rich people look up from their smartphones and say, 'well, the numbers are down and I want to keep this thing going, so I guess the housewives don't like the gay guys. Let's, uh, kill Will." This isn't like where they hired Hogan Sheffer or built Horton Square or killed half the veterans. This is a bigger commitment to the future, and it's one they made with a core character. And next year Ken will be begging everyone's forgiveness again.

[Jennerz]

I don't think they killed off Will because he was gay.  I think they killed him off because they needed to get rid of Guy Wilson and they were doing a serial killer storyline and he was a big name to kill off.  That said, I think it was a mistake to kill Will.  With Freddie leaving they should have let them leave together to appease their fans and have Will come back later with a better recast.  But I don't think they killed him off because he's gay.  In fact, I'm guessing at some point Sonny will come back (recast) and connect with Paul or they will have another gay player on canvas for Paul, so I don't think they are getting rid of the gays altogether. 

[Sindacco]

Except that's not what he said.

 

This is from Guy Wilson's inverview last week

He wasn't given a reason why he was being written out. He talked about the show getting a facelift and that the people who were being killed by the Necktie Killer, was all about business. There were no issues with any of them. Guy says, "It was all purely business, and it was all in an effort to revitalize the show and create story space to bring back some iconic characters like Bo and Patch." He was happy to know that he did nothing wrong.

 

It feels like you are blaming Corday, Sony and NBC for what has happened on other soaps and networks.

[DRW50]

I'm going on what was said in the spoiler thread. If it's wrong, my apologies. 

 

And no, I'm not blaming DAYS for anyone else's decisions. What confuses me is that people seem adamant to believe absolute none of this can be about fear or reluctance to have any major gay characters or stories involving gay characters. And when people not only say this isn't the case, but act like it's weird or shocking to even speculate that this was down to cleaning out gay characters, then I'm going to bring up past incidents to remind that it's not uncommon. That doesn't have to mean it is the case here, or that it will always be the case. In six months or a year, it may not be the case at all. They may have more material for gay characters beyond being a rarely seen supporting character or being strangled to death onscreen. As of right now, they don't, and I can only speculate on what is known right now.

 

Do I blame Ken Corday or anyone at DAYS for the callous treatment at gay characters in primetime or movies, or on ATWT or Y&R or OLTL or AMC? No. I don't even blame them for their own past poor treatment of these issues with the whole Sally Stark thing, as I know that was nearly 40 years ago.

 

Do I think you have to be homophobic or have an "agenda" to phase out gay characters or kill off gay characters knowing it will get more attention? Not necessarily, no. 

 

Do I think Dena Higley has a history of anti-gay stories? Yes. 

 

Do I think this firing and the way that they are treating gay characters is at least partly down to not seeing gay characters as anything but a burden or a passing fad? Yes. 

 

If people don't feel that way, it's fine. But it's not exactly outrageous or out of the realm of possibility to speculate or assume that is part of their motive, and yet it's called unreasonable and reaching and in some cases treated as unspeakable, as if Vee and me and whoever else are calling for boycotts and picketing the studio.

[Sindacco]

I think Vee had some good points. Basically, Ken Corday likes to play with new toys when he's tired of the old ones. And he loves to make himself the hero whenever he fires a writer or producer.

[allmc2008]

Do you want me to buy this for you for Christmas?  I will!

http://www.amazon.com/Positive-Thinking-Reverend-Norman-Vincent/dp/8087888235

[Vee]

Shut up.

[Juliajms]

Carl-I don't think it's outrageous to believe getting rid of the gay characters is part of the motivation for killing Will. Whatever the motivation, the results are the same. I feel like the soap industry is really good at alienating their biggest fans. Any other industry would try to market to gay men, many of whom seem to have a deep love of the genre. Not this self destructive mess of an industry. Same with AA and Latina woman. They throw these groups a bone now and then, but rarely enough to really make them feel a part of the show. I truly believe these shows are dying years before their time because they just won't adapt.

[DaytimeFan]

I loved the Marlena and Rafe scenes - I even liked the score!

 

The fight scene between Ben and Chad was refreshingly brutal. Way to go, boys! That kind of action has been lacking on daytime for years. A good old fashioned fight.

 

Bryan Dattilo has given the performance of his career, he's captured the essence of Lucas and shown the inside of the character, all his hurt and disappointment and sadness - and losing Will just summed up his life: he's always lost what he loved. The scene with Sami in the morgue where they discussed how Will succeeded, despite them, was incredibly sad and then when he asked what he could do for Sami, that was also incredibly sad - he's desperate to make things better. Dattilo has gone somewhere to make these scenes happen for himself. 

 

It was terrible error to have Kate find out about Will's death offscreen. Koslow would have swung and knocked that moment out of the ballpark. But the first scene with Lucas was very good, Lucas needs Kate and he gets his shoutiest and messiest when he's with his "mom" - Lucas is the ultimate mamma's boy in daytime and Dattilo shines when he works with Koslow. The park scenes were beautiful, lots of Kate and Lucas history, all the right beats about Lucas being an adult, acknowledging the distance between them, how they're all they've got, acknowledging that Kate was Will's support in coming out and their feeling of loss that Will doesn't get to reunite with Sonny. LK's delivery of "This is not the day." was perfect. 

 

I really liked the scenes with Marlena, Eric and Brady - a family scene!

 

And the scene with Sami finally letting go at the crime scene - she went for it. And she did very well. Ready, aim, smother!

[DRW50]

Vee's much better at saying this stuff than I ever could be.

 

I meant to say that I wasn't speaking of everyone. Just one or two people really. I think you have been more than fair in disagreeing. 

 

And I do hope that it all works out right. I had no strong investment in WIll and I can see the possibilities of the story, if it's handled right and if they have a more diverse canvas. Hopefully that will happen.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

How is Dena anti-gay if she created Sonny?!

[Khan]

As I've said before, I was down for anything that resulted in Guy Wilson exiting the show.  Recast, kill off, entry into the Soap Character Relocation Program -- whatever it took.  (Because, my God, it's DAYS, and who says a character who dies on DAYS must STAY dead?)

 

But as clueless as I think Ken Corday is when it comes to DAYS, I also think even he (and whoever else was involved in this decision) was aware of what kind of statement Will's murder would make in terms of whether DAYS, in fact, has an "anti-gay agenda."  It's just that the motivation behind this decision isn't as blatant as was Brian Frons' and Frank Valentini's motivation to phase out Kyle and Fish and everything connected to them on OLTL.  I mean, the reason is there, but in this case, it's not the only "good" reason.

[NothinButAttitude]

Dena didn't create Sonny. She just chose to make him gay or so she claims. For all we know, it could've been Whitesell or Corday's doing. And I don't think anyone has accused her of being anti-gay. I think people are pissed b/c gay characters were used stunts and now that Corday wants to clean house, they are the ones to go. I can think of about tons of people that should've been killed before Will and still made the same impact on the canvas. *coughs* Jennifer *coughs*

[DRW50]

 

I said I felt she wrote an anti-gay story at OLTL. I didn't mean that I felt she was anti-gay in her own life, if that's how it comes across. I have no idea about any of these people, unless they go pimp out Chick Fil A on their Twitter. Maybe she won't have the same material on DAYS she did on OLTL. It's just hard for me to give the benefit of the doubt after that Coulson story on OLTL.