Days of Our Lives: December 2021 Discussion Thread

[carolineg]

I have never considered Kristen to be a straight villian.  She was driven to do the things she did out of insecurity, fear, doubts, etc.  Let's be real.  Kristen was a fairly clever psycho, but she wasn't wrong about John.  He REPEATEDLY told her he loved her and only her.  He willingly made a baby with her and proposed to her.  All the time he was lying to her and Marlena.  John's kind of the villian lol.

To this day (outside of JER being JER) I don't understand why John and Marlena couldn't just be honest with one another.  Blah, blah, blah the pain of the affair, the baby, each other's happiness.  Stop being lame.  Them being together, IMO, would have legitimized their affair and stopped a lot of their problems.   For storyline purposes it was great, but it really made 0 sense.  Marlena telling John the truth about Kristen from the beginning of the pregnancy was arguably less stressful than Kristen keeping secrets the entire pregnancy, but whatever.  I digress... Plus the woman had to live as a sex slave on an island for years.  

[KLN]

You said it all.

JER's take on religion and morality was distorted as hell. At the time in a more black and white world, at age 13, sure... I bought what it. Now? I appreciate his craftsmanship but the dude was tortured.

Edited April 3, 2023 by KLN

[Vee]

Ironically, the only place I think Stacy is actually that popular is a subset of Twitter. 

Again, talented actress, and I do think Kristen has always had layers. Just not the kind of layers to justify what the show has attempted to do with Kristen via poor writing, which is defang her and then reverse themselves with a 180, repeatedly. The show isn't capable of reinventing the wheel with Kristen. If they were I'd have been open to it, as I was with her when they originally did the time jump. But they couldn't pull it off and they haven't done it. Eileen can play layers too, the current show just isn't interested. They thought they could make a 'new' Kristen with a new actress, and instead failed to write it. Now IMO people are conflating their admiration for the actress trying to elevate the material with a legitimately good attempt at remaking the character. But DAYS hasn't delivered it.

This is something Ron has done with many villains at other shows, BTW; he falls in love with a character or actor and tries to slowly make them more palatable and rootable, usually by slanting or skewing the writing and cutting corners. In doing so he often turns initial audience favorites into overpropped messes. It happened at GH with Obrecht (among others, and some characters at OLTL as well), it happened with Gwen at DAYS and in a different way it's happened with Kristen who was an actual established character prior to him, which was a bridge too far for his usual schtick. And whenever it flops he goes back to the factory settings. Kristen is no different.

Edited January 1, 2022 by Vee

[KLN]

Those are valid points.

I like Stacy's Kristen but I respect anyone who feels differently.

Edited April 3, 2023 by KLN

[carolineg]

Not to go off on a tangent, but John/Marlena were probably the worst of all offenders in JER's cycle of love triangles.  Most everyone else knew where they stood so to speak (Sami, Vivian, Tony/Andre, Peter, Billie, etc).  John/Marlena (mostly John) repeatedly lied to one another and most everyone else especially Kristen.  I am not even a Kristen defender, but that would make anyone a little crazy.  

Kristen's batsh*t actions might be the most understandable.  Eileen will always be my Kristen and the best Kristen, but Stacy is talented.

The oddness of John/Marlena accepting a nicer, gentler Kristen was freaking bizarre.  Leave them out of it or play up the endless rivalry.  I agree you either make Kristen reformed and have SH play it or don't.  Going back and forth with different actresses, different motivations, different screen partners, etc is a disservice to both actresses.

Again, Kristen is a smart character, regardless of her flaws, but Ron makes her epically dumb.  Her plans consist of face masks and ridiculously bad choices.  Kristen in the 90's was nothing if not one step ahead and this Kristen is just not that bright.

[KLN]

I agree with a lot of this.

The mask stuff is a problem and I've voiced it. It's stupid. But the combustibility of this Kristen?

Yes please.

Edited April 3, 2023 by KLN

[te.]

Indeed. I don't mind Stacey and if they want to make her a long-term viable character on the canvas then I say why not since Eileen isn't interested in doing it full time. Hell, I thought making her and Lani friends was a good idea to ground her character a bit, unfortunately it seems like Ron can only switch between two extremes with Kristen and it's not working. I think he (and the show) needs to decide if they want her long-term in Salem and be able to mix it up with others, or just have pop-in visits that Sheila usually is on B&B. If it's the later, then they might as well give the part back to Eileen because I feel like she can do more subtext with the character because of her long history with the show.

[carolineg]

I totally get Marlena is very forgiving and I do think she tends to overcompensate when it comes to Brady whether the show explicitly says that or not.  The woman tried to redeem Stefano for a minute in the 90's, but Marlena's extreme paranoia/distrust over Kristen is what drove her and John apart in the first place in 2013.   Kristen asking Marlena to raise Rachel was one of the strangest things I have ever seen and it's Days so that says a lot.  That would never even happen.

Kristen just needs a clear trajectory.  If they are going to redeem her-do it.  She can still get in her own way ala Sami, but she can't kidnap people anymore.  If her and Brady are endgame make that happen I guess.  To me, being John/Marlena's foil was Kristen's main gig.  Either drop it or continue it.  Don't play both sides.  The weeping and sobbing Stacy does is not really Kristen.  Kristen is cool and calculated and smart.  A rightful Dimera heir (over those losers Jake and Chad).  Throw her into that world.   If Wayne was playing Roman I would agree to throw them together to give maximum annoyance to John/Marlena.  And we need one actress playing her and stick with it.   I would honestly completely drop Susan because I absolutely detest her, but she does have a purpose and good chemistry with DF as EJ.

Idk, lately I feel like there has been so much messiness with Kristen/Eileen/Stacy that the character needs a break for a minute.

[KLN]

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Edited April 3, 2023 by KLN

[titan1978]

The JER storytelling made more sense with John/Marlena when Wayne was there as Roman.  She wanted him back, even though she wanted John too.  There was enough history and the iconic nature of Marlena/Roman that them not being honest made some sense to me.  While I loved Kristen (even before she went to the Stefano side of things), she never seemed like a true threat to them.  So it got increasingly stupid to me that they didn’t just admit their feelings at that point with Roman gone.

I wish SH was playing someone other than Kristen.  Because Eileen is a very specific actress and the character is missing her IMO.  I like SH just fine, she will just never hit it out of the park for me.

BTW, I felt this way about Ashley too-  I grew to love Brenda as Ashley.  But when Eileen came back it was like oh yeah- this is Ashley.

Edited January 1, 2022 by titan1978

[janea4old]

In my opinion, Delia Reid Ryan Coleridge had a completely different vibe than Kristen.

She was always scheming to get whatever man she had set her sights on, and did some bad things that physically harmed people.  But she seemed more like a Sami Brady schemer (to a much much greater extreme!) who had gone off the rails and had no boundaries.

Just my perception.

[KLN]

I get it.

There's nostalgia with Eileen and I love her. Everybody knows. It just doesn't have the same pull with me anymore.

I love them both but Stacy fits today.

Edited April 3, 2023 by KLN

[titan1978]

It’s not just nostalgia for me.  I just think Eileen is a more specific performer.  I also haven’t watched much of the show in years.  I was never a person that worshipped JER’s DAYS either.  I wonder how I would feel if this was anyone but RC writing though.

Part of my issue is that I have rewatched the first couple of years of Reilly on DAYS recently, and it was easy to forget when he drive me away how good the earlier period on the show was.  It wasn’t full of all his tics that were nearly fully in place by the time of the Posessesion.  And you get to see the earlier version of Kristen and her slow slide.

[carolineg]

Agree about the John/Marlena stuff with Roman.  That made sense.  Even if Marlena wasn't truly clear on her feelings she had a desire to make it right and get her family back.  Once Roman left and the dust settled the only person who would have issues with Jarlena being together is Sami and she was mean to them regardless, so who cares?

I get the religion aspect, but literally John has impregnated all his women out of wedlock so again who cares?

The story definitely took a turn with the John/Kristen/Tony stuff, but I always thought Kristen was a vehicle for John to 'get over' Marlena.  There was a year or so we were supposed to take them as a serious love story, but with Roman gone and Marlena without any love interest at all did anyone believe it?  From Maison Blanche on John/Marlena would fall all over one another unapologetically and it was very hard to believe they were attracted to each other enough to have sex on a conference table and do that to Roman, but now were just BFF and co parents.  I am surprised Kristen took their ridiculousness as long as she did before turning evil.

[KLN]

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Edited April 3, 2023 by KLN