10 hours ago, DynamiteKiddo said:

Susan SHOULD be freaking over being in the same room as the Necktie Killer . . . it being played for laughs doesn't help Ben, but like others have guessed, maybe Ron is just trolling now.

Ron's definitely trolling us. He knows the hero worship of Ben is ridiculous, so he just keeps doubling down on it.

Edited February 5, 20214 yr by AbcNbc247

12 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I do have to admit though, out of the 5 writers that you mentioned, I think that Ron is the best. I know that's not saying much lol but I think he does know how to tell a story. The problem is a lot of stuff gets too silly and too clownish under Ron's pen. I like humor on soaps, but not that campy kind that he can't get enough of.  I prefer that kind of snarky, sarcastic, deadpan humor that you get from John Aniston's Victor. He still makes me laugh sometimes.

Usually soap headwriters get worse and worse over the years, because they use up their few good ideas in their first headwriting stint, and then it's just diminishing returns. But I think Ron is the rare soap-hopper who's actually gotten better with each jump. I didn't care for his OLTL very much, because a lot of the camp seemed crass. But I thought he rejuvenated GH, although he still had some bad writing tics--for instance, all the time he spent on introducing new "pet" characters like Sabrina. Now that he's working with producers who will rein in his worst impulses, as well as an excellent team of veteran writers like the Cullitons and David Kreizman, he's putting out much better work on DAYS. It's not to everyone's taste, but it's about as good as a limited-budget 21st century daytime soap is going to get.

 

That said, the Ben/Ciara stuff really sucks (and the addition of nu-Claire makes it suck even more). I think the writers themselves know it sucks, and they're not shy about broadcasting their contempt for Cin fandom--hence, the material on Friday's show that had Susan, the stereotypical "dumb housewife" viewer, "watching" the Ciara scenes on her mental television and reporting them to Ben like she's doing a soap recap. But that doesn't make the storyline suck any less. 

8 hours ago, prefab1 said:

Usually soap headwriters get worse and worse over the years, because they use up their few good ideas in their first headwriting stint, and then it's just diminishing returns. But I think Ron is the rare soap-hopper who's actually gotten better with each jump. I didn't care for his OLTL very much, because a lot of the camp seemed crass. But I thought he rejuvenated GH, although he still had some bad writing tics--for instance, all the time he spent on introducing new "pet" characters like Sabrina. Now that he's working with producers who will rein in his worst impulses, as well as an excellent team of veteran writers like the Cullitons and David Kreizman, he's putting out much better work on DAYS. It's not to everyone's taste, but it's about as good as a limited-budget 21st century daytime soap is going to get.

 

That said, the Ben/Ciara stuff really sucks (and the addition of nu-Claire makes it suck even more). I think the writers themselves know it sucks, and they're not shy about broadcasting their contempt for Cin fandom--hence, the material on Friday's show that had Susan, the stereotypical "dumb housewife" viewer, "watching" the Ciara scenes on her mental television and reporting them to Ben like she's doing a soap recap. But that doesn't make the storyline suck any less. 

I haven't written Ron off yet either, and I did enjoy a lot of his work on OLTL, GH and DAYS too. But it sort of the same thing with the current GH writers: sometimes they just make a stupid decision that messes up a good story. Susan was not needed this week, and I actually would have liked Ben and Ciara's story had so many characters not been sacrificed for Ben. Instead of outside conflict keeping them apart, the internal conflict (Should I get involved with a serial killer? I'm a serial killer, I'm not worthy of love) would have more than perfect to keep them apart. 

 

This guy turned Eve into a Trump girl in order to get fans to hate her, the grieving mother, and support Ben, the killer. Didn't work for me though lol I was Team Eve the whole time.

 

And having Ben be all judgmental of Charlie really pisses me off too lol

Edited February 6, 20214 yr by AbcNbc247

Wow... how awful were those Susan/Ben scenes? Ben bullying her into having premonitions about Ciara. Are they serious with this? And nuClaire just standing in the background being useless. Horrible. The whole "psychic connection" with Ben and Ciara and the Romeo & Juliet comparisons are just gag worthy.

 

I'm also over the kidnapping story with the twins.

On 2/5/2021 at 1:32 AM, DynamiteKiddo said:

Linda Dano seemed very unsure, which is unlike her.  It felt like she was imitating Louise, and she was doing a fine job . . . but LS's deadpan Vivian is equally funny, aloof, and crazy.  LD's portrayal just felt confused, sedated, and too elegant.  But hopefully she'll find her footing.  And anything is better than whatever Robin Strasser (who I love!) thought she was doing.  Like others have said, LS brings something so unique to the role to the point that no recast stands a fighting chance.

 

On 2/5/2021 at 11:28 AM, AbcNbc247 said:

I don't think Linda Dano is doing a bad job as Vivian, the biggest problem is that she comes off as too nice. She plays the subtlety of Vivian really well, but the villainous side of Vivian is lacking, which is surprising because when Felicia first debuted on AW, she was a bit of a bitch and Linda played that really well. (Then again, that was almost 40 years ago) With any luck, that'll change next week when she finds out about Jake and Kate.

 

I think you've both described Linda Dano's portrayal of Vivian very well. She is doing a fine job navigating a character that's very strongly associated with her originating portrayer. Louise Sorel has coloured Vivian with so many shades that any recast is going to be challenged. LD is opting to underplay her scenes as Vivian - she is playing the nice side of Vivian...the side that is kind to John (remember when she'd call him Forrest?). What she isn't playing, at least so far, is the darker side of Vivian. We'll see if that changes.

 

What I appreciate is that, as a short term recast, LD is filling the role like Gisele Mackenzie or Michael Learned did for Jeanne Cooper on Y&R.

 

It is a very different portrayal as compared to Robin Strasser who appeared to be trying to usurp or outshine Louise Sorel by playing the biggest parts of Vivian, with none of the subtlety. As a result, she was ghastly and very awkward. 

1 hour ago, DaytimeFan said:

It is a very different portrayal as compared to Robin Strasser who appeared to be trying to usurp or outshine Louise Sorel by playing the biggest parts of Vivian, with none of the subtlety. As a result, she was ghastly and very awkward. 

 

Robin S. is a great actress but she is not great at comedy. She may have gotten confused that she could do it well because her OLTL banter with Tuc Watkins' David was brilliant and funny but the writing and TW were carrying her and balancing her out.

She clearly mistook Vivian to be a camp villain, almost "comic relief" (maybe due to the image DOOL has among the other soaps and her own Passions stint), so she did Hecuba again and Lord Knows she was dreadful as Hecuba.

Edited February 7, 20214 yr by FrenchBug82

This guy cracks me up 😂😂

 

 

Yeah, Monday's episode wasn't the most exciting, but I was delighted by Kate's schadenfreude at learning what a big mess Laura had made. I wasn't even watching back in the 1990s, but I still appreciate that the show takes the time to mine that character history. 

12 hours ago, prefab1 said:

Yeah, Monday's episode wasn't the most exciting, but I was delighted by Kate's schadenfreude at learning what a big mess Laura had made. I wasn't even watching back in the 1990s, but I still appreciate that the show takes the time to mine that character history. 

Omg Kate was DELIGHTED that Laura screwed up. I also wasn't watching in the 90's but know all the history and I loved the Kate/Laura scenes later on in the episode.

Did this dumb ass actually kill off Laura?

 

I was able to see most of the episode today, but they interrupted when there was LITERALLY 3 MINUTES LEFT and I couldn't see the ending!!!

 

Why do current soap writers continuously make these stupid mistakes? They have to know how stupid these choices are.

Edited February 9, 20214 yr by AbcNbc247

Thank goodness it was pre empted here due to the impeachment. I wonder who actually saw it?

For anyone who actually wants to watch it

 

 

22 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

For anyone who actually wants to watch it

 

 

Just terrible. Glad it was preempted. No one needs to say that garbage.

Wow...I didn't see that ending coming! Although, I doubt that Laura is actually dead, but this certainly complicates Gwen becoming "part of the family."

TPTB just killing off Hortons one by one.. sad. 

 

I really don't think DOOL will survive onscreen for too long..