Days: August 2018 Discussion Thread

[RavenWhitney]

Friday's wedding scenes were so awful.  The actors did their best but this was Ron at his campiest worst.  On the other hand, Carolyn Culliton's Thursday and Friday dialog was superb (except she couldn't save the third grade Friday wedding scenes). Chandler and Freddie did their best work on both episodes.  

[KMan101]

 

Why are you expecting Masterpiece Theater? Seriously. It was so much fun. Stupid, but fun. This is me being honest, maybe DAYS isn't for you.

 

I thought Freddie was awful on Friday (the first half, the latter half he was better - some of it was the writing and some of it was how he played it). He was much better on Thursday. I really liked his scenes with fauxRo. Chandler did well overall, I felt his confusion. I wasn't that invested in Will getting his memories back though overall, the buildup was shitty. It actually felt anti-climatic towards the end. I smiled and thought some of it was nice but IDK. It felt meh to me.

 

I also thought Friday was too choppy. Who's in charge of the structure of an episode? Friday was a hot mess in a lot of ways but the material was fairly good.

 

Ron's camp is what many fans of DAYS, myself included, want. I know it isn't for everyone. I want the camp and the trash at this point. We aren't getting the writing from the 70s, 80s or 90s back. We have to let go and accept soaps for what they are now.

 

He can't win though. When it's boring it's bad. When things happen, it's bad. THINGS ARE HAPPENING. And next week looks good too.

 

When I get annoyed at the show, I take a break

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 I'm still broken up with Y&R, B&B and GH  

I've got a lot more episode thoughts. I'll be back to post them.

 

I like Stacy Haiduk more as Susan than Kristen, like I suspected I would. Not that she was bad. She just isn't Kristen yet to me. I know Kristen is unhinged at this point but it didn't work for me (again, not Haiduk's fault, she did well, I just can't NOT picture Eileen playing Kristen; I was much more OK with Haiduk as Susan because she was more in costume). I did like Brady's dialogue towards her. A lot of truth in there. I wish Kristen had laid more truth at Brady's pathetic doorstep. I mean, what # love of life is he on now? LOL

 

But she had some good moments that made me forget about Eileen. I need to be made to care about her and be invested in her for this recast to work. Susan, I'm here for Haiduk as her all day.

 

Sami is such an exhausting and dominant character. I'm meh to her return. I miss when I loved to hate this bitch in the 90s and 00s. I cringe seeing her now. But Ron at least writes her in character, IMO. It just becomes all about her, which is classic Sami, but it's also exhausting to watch. I'm also sick of hearing about EJ being the love of her life. Please make it stop. PLEASE? Maybe if they weren't so toxic ...

 

The real problem the show has is budget and production values. They have neither 

 

And the momentum gets lost. It's nice to see momentum carry on to next week, but there's still a long way to go to improve it.

 

But this is the Ron show I expected. Finally. Some of Ron's worst traits are actually his best on DAYS. I know, that's bizarre but it's true.

[RavenWhitney]

I've watched almost every Days episode since Ron took over in July 2017 and have enjoyed most of it. But the camp is not entertaining unless it's used to maximum advantage. Kristin was an important character who impacted so many lives and drove so much story. To build up the wedding and have it devolve into that hot mess with Sami and Kristen. I felt bad for Ali Sweeney.  This isn't how you bring back the former star who carried the show for years.  I wouldn't have green lighted bringing Kristin back from the dead anyway given how much retconning and stupidity is going on with Will coming back and Ben being released.  But with both of those scenarios at least they are milking it to greater effect.  Kristin attempting revenge at the wedding was not campy or creative. Just dumb/weak.  It has nothing to do with budget etc.  It's a creative failure. But I support the show and will continue to watch.  

[KMan101]

 

It wasn't a failure. It just would have worked better with Eileen playing Kristen. That's why you aren't invested in it, IMHO. And I don't blame you. I get it.

 

I thought it was kind of lazy but considering the last few months have been awful, I'll take all of this anyday all day.

 

A problem Ron does have is the buildup. Things just ... start.

 

What more camp do you want? You seem to want camp to be milked, but then seem to not want camp at all because it was "Ron's campiness at it worst". I mean, to each their own of course but what do you want?

 

Sweeney loves Ron's material. I'm not saying some of it wasn't stupid.

[Soaplovers]

The problem with Ron is that the show is all camp with nothing much to balance it out.  I was watching episodes of Days in the 80s and there was a good balance of comedic camp (calliope and Eugene) with down to earth relatable drama (kim/shane/eve).  

 

I dont aee why it is unreasonable to want something deeper than pure camp all the time?

 

With that said, I liked stacy better as Kristen..she didnt go as over the top as eileen would have.  If Eileen was playing those scenes, she would have been more emotional with a mischevious smirk on her face.  With Stacy, kristen was more controlled and cunning..and her delivery of her lines to Sami and Jennifer were well done.  Besides, with only 4 soaps on the air..it was kind of selfish of Eileen to have 2 roles at the same time when you had a capable actress open to playing Ashley again on young and the restless.  With that said, stacy can be susan and come on more often.

[Toups]

I think Stacy's been doing a pretty good job as Susan and Kristen.  I'm willing to give her a chance since she's a pretty good actress.  I actually don't mind Ron's camp/humour.  I wish there were more of it.   "Susan's" teeth flying was a nice call back to the 1997 wedding.  Friday's episode was one of the more interesting episodes in a while. 

[dragonflies]

I'm actually hooked again on the show and yeah SH is doing a great job IMO. Better than I thought she would

[KMan101]

 

I want deep stuff too. Ron just isn't a "deep" writer. Sad but true. But I get plenty of deep stuff on the show still, IMHO. Lots of great scenes, moments ... it really isn't all camp all the time. What's happened this week does NOT happen every day. I actually wish it did because it'd at least be exciting. I've been so bored.

 

I was catching up on June and was so unhappy to see Abby come back and thrown immediately into being knocked up.

 

Many weeks and days are slow, boring and feature the wrong people.

 

But we all have our likes and dislikes. No 'wrong or right'.

 

Ciara and Ben have been the shocking highlight of June. I was all in even if I still have some issues with the redeeming a serial killer thing. Kristian Alfonso actually acted for the first time in a long time.

 

 

Ron needs to keep this momentum though.

 

Every week should honestly be building towards something. It doesn't need to be as over the top as this every week but there need to be stakes again. Energy. It's getting there. I want to keep it going.

 

I'm definitely hooked again. Thank you Ron, Sheri and Ryan!

[dragonflies]

I thought Friday was the best episode of the show I've seen in a long while. The wedding scenes were played to perfection. I swear SH as Susan, at first I thought it was Eileen lol

[KMan101]

 

I loved Friday. It was so fun. Valerie and Marlena had amazing reactions to "Susan's" teeth flying out. I loved all the nods.

 

I loved the juxtaposition of Will remembering his life. It felt right even if I didn't really feel very emotionally invested like I would have wanted to be.

 

Next week looks kick-ass too. Slaps, drama, action ... MORE OF THIS PLEASE!

 

It finally feels like Ron is writing this show the way he wants.

[Faulkner]

I wonder if they are blowing their budget on this, and in a few weeks, we’ll be back to endless boring little scenes in the Kiriakis mansion or some character’s dank, claustrophobic apartment. Ron has had peaks like this before during his tenure. Within a couple weeks, we just fall back to the mundane and wonder what happened.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Did I miss the scenes where Marlena and Maggie ended their friendship because they haven’t shared since like 2012. 

[Soaplovers]

 

The problem with modern day soap opera writers is that they don't know how to pace their plots.  Back in the day, multiple plots were written and were paced at different speeds.  So if story A is climaxing, story B is building, and story C is starting... than while story A is playing out the fall out, story B is climaxing, and story C is building.. while other plots are starting and/or there are filler scenes.  

 

Friday's episode only focused on the wedding.. but there is no other plots ready to take over once this wedding story has completed the climax.  Pacing is key and what is missing from soaps nowadays... that is why there is two weeks of excitement and six weeks of boredom (not exactly that amount of time, but you get the picture).

[jam6242]

Deidre's fans claim that she and Suzanne had a falling out in real life and that's the reason they are rarely in the same scenes, or interact if they are.

[DRW50]

 

That's a shame.

 

Sony sets and their drama...