Days: December 2019 Discussion Thread 🎄

[vetsoapfan]

 

The show is just so painfully STOOPID. There's no real heart, no recognizable human emotion or realistic behavior on screen anymore.

 

If this is the best DAYS can give us, put a fork in it and turn out the lights.

[Wendy]

 

I could have written this entire post. It's too bad Saturday morning cartoons are basically no more. Because Ron Carlivati should be writing those, not daytime dramas - and turning them into cartoons to fill the void. And you're right: Compare some of the truly classic clips on the DOOL app next to this schitt. The difference is night and day. Now, there is no sense of family, emotional weight, or heart. While I am glad the show was not cancelled, if this is the best it can do, maybe it should have been, especially if ol' Kenny is too lazy or cheap to try to make some real changes. His parents are probably doing somersaults in their graves. Sorry, Betty and Ted. Your son did not inherit your talents.

[vetsoapfan]

 

While I personally dislike low-brow camp, I know there is a market for it. I have no problem if a series is designed from the get-go to satisfy the camp-loving market. I just feel that inflicting all this sci-fi/fantasy garbage onto soaps is counter-productive, short-sighted and ultimately destructive to the genre. Camp does not work on daytime drama in the long-term. Soaps were meant to be about characters, relationships, families, and recognizable human emotions with which we could identify. Outlandish plots may temporarily get kids to tune in and oooh and ahhh. The stupidity being presented on screen may get the mainstream media to mention the soaps (usually in an ignorant and derisive manner).  But all the nonsense we see nowadays is turning off the veteran, staunch viewers who had kept the soaps popular for DECADES.

 

Who is the intended audience for DAYS now?

 

I feel that RC is writing for slack-jawed, gum-chewing, 12-year-old drop-outs who move their lips when they read, and still can't decipher two-syllable words; who think Beavis & Butthead is the epitome of high art. It's painful. If DAYS is not long for this world, and the ratings are clearly in the toilet, why not let the old gal go out in style, and return the show to the literate, adult, sophisticated gem it was in its golden era?

[AbcNbc247]

It seems like they're stuck between the 12-17 and 18-49 demographics, and production doesn't know which way to take it.

[beebs]

...and EJ before that.

...and Tony/Andre/whoever before that.

...and hell, Lawrence before that. Different family, but he was definitely created with the knowledge that the old villains wouldn't be around forever and they were planning ahead.

considering I'm getting more depth and character complexity out of She-ra, maybe they want to adjust their expectations of the 12-17 audience a touch. 

[Soapsuds]

Chandler Massey today....

 

 

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[AlexElizabeth]

How many damn phone calls does Ben get every day? He has more of a social life in prison than I have in real life. Ridiculous.

[Soapsuds]

Yup....and him not able to take his dad out was dumb. Ben is like 20 something and his dad 90 something. ..

[Khan]

 

Hey, lay off James Read! 

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[ReddFoxx]

IMO, Ben and Will are going to end up doing something and Clyde is going to go nuts even more nuts at Will for making his boy "swing that way".

[Soapsuds]

I doubt it with Ciara visiting him and calling him every 5 seconds. She probably tucks him into bed before visitiation is over with. 

 

 

 

[victoria foxton]

This poor man's version of Oz is awful. The only good thing is looking at Chandler's beautiful body. Evan's all over Sonny 

[titan1978]

What tptb forget is that during Reilly’s first stint, all the outlandish stuff was rooted in romance, which had been the foundation of this show since the 1980’s.  Every crazy story was written around a love triangle or quad, or a family dynamic gone wrong (Vivian/Carly, Sami/Carrie).  And he paced everything almost like a Bell soap, certainly like a more traditional soap.

 

Marlena possessed was ultimately about Stefano’s obsession with her, her family issues, and her love of John.  All very relatable soap stories.

 

Even Kate/Victor/Vivian was a triangle of sorts. Carly buried alive was about Vivian hating her due to her family.

 

I am not saying I loved all his work.  But since his first stint, the outlandish has little to no foundation except crazy.  And Ron without limits is just a cartoon.

[Dion]

 

Yes, I've often thought the same of Reilly's original tenure.

 

Further to this, it also helped that the show's canvas was relatively tight, that the triangles/quads were mostly stable (though of course there were a few changes here and there) and the slow pacing meant there wasn't an excessive amount of flip-flopping back and forth (once someone changed partners they would usually commit to that person for a lengthy amount of time, even if still pining for someone else). This drove stories for several years -  though Reilly was always a little too fond of fake-outs and flashbacks, meaning that the pacing wasn't quite as natural as it was on the Bell soaps.

 

While the characters themselves were a bit dumbed-down and only had simple motivations (John loves Marlena but also wants to be loyal to Kristen, Jack wants Jennifer back, Lexi wants to find her real parents etc etc), the show's narrative remained quite coherent. Even the more absurd plot twists felt like natural progressions in the story.

 

 

[te.]

 +1 on this.

 

I started watching during the Carly buried alive story and it was all very easy to jump in and follow. While I realise that Reilly's style wasn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea and as an adult I can just say "Holy Repressed Catholic Issues" it didn't feel convoluted like these, er, Days despite over the top stories. It was actually quite linear and easy to follow.

 

This is also why I think the time jump should've served as a reboot of the show of sorts rather than just trying to continue the current stories. It does my head in trying to figure this show out. So is Steve really Stefano or is he just brainwashed into thinking he is?