DAYS: Jack Spoiler

[SteveFrame]

Frankie and Jennifer are not a new couple created by JER. Those two have a clear past and were very popular with fans at the time. It was Jennifer's first love and it was such an innocent first love storyline. It was great and many people loved that.

Personally I hated when all the vets were being killed by the stalker, but the story generated buzz that the show needed and it was must see viewing. I never wrote the show about wanting my vets back, and did get angry about some of them, and secretly I prayed for them to come back to the show. I think if he had killed a few vets and left them dead fans would have learned to accept, I would have. I mean it is a fact of life that bad things happen to all people in life.

But the whole story was negated with the Captive Island story. The concept was a good one but it was poorly executed. The tension that it was creating in the show with all the couples beging torn apart was good, but the explanation of how all the things happened was too farfetched. Then before he could establish the new "contention" relationships the people were moved - some back home to Salem, some to the castle, etc. That is when the story really lost any ground it might have had. I don't know what the reasoning was - if it was disgruntled fan bases or what.

John's drug storyline was really bad. I really liked the quadrangle it set up with Roman, John, Kate, and Marlena, but even it was abandoned too quickly for the Alex North story. If they wanted to bring Wayne back, why not go ahead and make him Roman. I love Josh Taylor but he is not Roman. Viewers know these characters, and that the quadrangle would have been better if it had further been explored esp. with Wayne as Roman. The Alex North character has no history with fans at all, and even though they have created a history with Marlena it is still not as familiar to fans as the Roman and Marlena history. The flashbacks would have worked much better with them as Roman & Marlena.

I personally think JER has set up some good stories right now. I think some of the biggest weaknesses of the show is the day to day writing of JER's stories. He has reinvented the Bo/Hope/Billie story with the addition of Chelsea as the "bitch" in the story and showing Billie as the loving mother trying to protect her daughter. It gives Billie a better reason for going after Bo. There is some room for improvement, but there is on every show.

I like Frankie and Jennifer alot. I think the biggest problem with it as well as the Austin/Carrie/Lucas/Sammi is that they are too much of Island stories - off to themselves and away from all the other goings on in town. The writers need to get some overlapping characters from other stories involved, and let the stories blend more.

I like Matthew Ashford and don't get me wrong he is one of my faves but personally I hope he stays dead this time. I wished that had even been JER's mindset in it. I would have liked to seen it played out to full affect. Jack has died now 3 times and another resurrection is just too many for me. I think it would have been great to have let Jack gone on and even played up more that Jack wanted Jenn to move on. I love the way he moved the romance along and gave them permission. It was very touching and knowing that they have Jack's permission is great. Then once Frankie and Jennifer are together and then some friction can be created for them, but having Jack return I just don't think is going to be the best idea this time.

But overall I think JER has set things up pretty well right now, and I am enjoying it.

[px780]

See, but they don't have to say it. Like Jane1978 said, majorly paraphrasing, if they'd just write interesting alternatives they could generate new fans to offset the irritated old ones. But they don't. And to be honest, I think they get off on irritating fanbases as much as they try to cater to them. There really is no cause to kill Jack a third time, y'know?

And you mention mixing up couples, but I don't see them doing that. From my perspective it's just delaying the inevitable. They're trying to give each fanbase their own little piece of the show to enjoy, sadly isolating characters from one another. They kill any potential alternative as it's forming (by, say, having dead Zack talk to Shawn and Belle, lest we get scared and think that Mimi could have an outside shot). And their movements into these hypothetically mixed-up couples are very extreme, weird, and, in a couple cases, imho, just not very good (amesia? corporate takeover?!). For the most part they've avoided the kind of permanent relationship-ending arguments that might give fans of certain couples closure, or at least a reason to believe the show's not simply screwing with them for sport. I mean, why not show people actually fall out of love instead of always having circumstances split them up?

That said, part of the show is very good. I think the Belle/Mimi/Shawn stuff is awesome, because all three are flawed and, for the most part, making their own decisions. Jen and Frankie bore the hell out of me, but it's not necessarily bad. Hope/Bo/Billie could be much worse.

Bottom line, I could totally get into some new couplings, and if they were actually trying to do that then I'd be more "shut up fanbases, you aren't true fans" about it (maybe minus the true fans part, 'cause that's a whole 'nother issue). Until they go that route, though, I'm more apt to blast the show.

[Drew]

LOL. Well its true. If you're watching the show for a specific actor, you're not a fan. You're a stalker.

[px780]

At this point a viewer's a viewer, yo.

[David_Vickers]

Jack is a bastard and he's goone too far this time. If Jennfier were to take him back, then she would be an utter idiot and I'd have to fastforward all of their scenes.

[Jane1978]

Happy fastforwarding!