Days of Our Lives: December 2021 Discussion Thread

[Vee]

Looking back on Passions, the bible on paper actually had a lot of forward-thinking ideas - several key minority families and one that was mixed (Lopez-Fitzgerald), differing class strata (including the Bennetts simply being middle class, something that does not happen today). It was the execution which was, for me, unwatchable from Day 1. And I hung in for awhile!

[Khan]

That's what I've heard (and long suspected).  He was gay, but because of his religious convictions, he never could fully express his sexuality in healthy ways.

I get it, because I'm the same way.  I'm torn all the time between being gay and being a Christian, even though I know that Christ is likely to forgive me (as if I needed to be forgiven for what God made me!) and to understand that "love is love."  But I also like to think I see women as something more complex than either madonnas or whores, and that people don't automatically go to Hell for cheating.

[Vee]

I also don't think you'd be caught dead putting stories like "the He/She" onscreen.

[Khan]

Whereas I threw in the old towel by, oh, episode two, I think.

Huh?  Was that addressed to me, or to someone else?

Edited January 2, 2022 by Khan

[Vee]

It was, yes. Whatever your personal struggles, I don't think you'd ever countenance putting out the kind of hateful bigotry drag disguised as camp Reilly regularly was producing by the end of PSSNS. It was him vomiting his demons onscreen in the darkest ways to me.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Vee

[carolineg]

I also thinking building a show around such an unlikeable heroine like Theresa didn't help, but I know others loved her.  I really only watched maybe a month of Passions so I am not the best judge.

[Khan]

Well, we can speculate about JER's inner demons, but unless and until we get the definitive account, either from him or from someone who knew him intimately, that's all it is: speculation.

[Vee]

Oh, I detested her. But I liked Lindsay, always.

[te.]

I think the fact that there's a subsection of Passions' Wikipedia titled "Sexual violence" says it all.

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Edited January 2, 2022 by te.

[Vee]

That was how I felt. As a slasher movie buff I was pretty into the story as a simple concept, and it was to Reilly's credit that he could still get major eyes on the show and buzz for it. But the actual storyline (except for the ominous, doom-laden lead-ups to 'murders' like Jack, Abe, Roman, etc.) was amateurishly executed on virtually every level. The dialogue and plotting was kids TV-caliber, and it was clear he took a perverse glee in what he was doing to really beloved characters. The thing with Maggie being bludgeoned to death on livestream or whatever, while ahead of its time, was horribly done and so crass.

There were ways to do that kind of storyline - even a fakeout, like it all turned out to be - in a classy but also shocking and creepy way. As equal parts a soap and horror movie fan, it deeply disappointed me how it turned out. And it was obvious it would be Marlena, because Reilly was always obsessed with Marlena. And no matter what anyone says I absolutely believe he would simply have blamed the Devil or something again in the original plans, and expecting the audience to go with that with all those people dead would have been unconscionable and despicable. I loved Frances Reid blowing the whistle on him and Corday and calling it a rewrite because the story tanked.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Vee

[carolineg]

Lindsay is great and I wish she would take over Sam again on GH, but Theresa wasn't even rootable.  Why would we be on her side to break up a couple?  Because she thinks that's her destiny?  I do remember liking Sheridan and Luis, but who knew I would dislike GG so much on Days?

[Vee]

I thought she was psychotic, and I really liked Liza Huber as Gwen.

[carolineg]

Yeah, it was almost like you if you built a show around Sami and her Austin delusions and called it destiny instead of stalking.

I 100% thought the SSK story was going to end with Marlena possessed again.  And I know it was awful and it killed off vets, but have any of those characters that were offed done anything of use since then?   Except maybe Jack, the show could have done without most of them.  I know there is a strong nostalgia feel for most of them and it's unpopular to say but, I mean, we could have avoided Daniel completely if Maggie stayed dead.

[Vee]

I don't agree, I think it was a mistake to kill virtually all of them. DAYS' poor use of many of those excellent actors is on DAYS. Maggie especially had a second life with Victor, no matter how tired folks got of that in the last decade.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Vee

[te.]

I don't really think the "Melaswen" storyline and undoing all the deaths was really worth it in the long run to be honest, but I guess once you kill off the matriarch by choking on a donut, you have no choice (though I'm 100% sure that episode was re-written to feature Alice dying). But I think in general that soaps shouldn't undo deaths unless there was a real opening to it in the way they "died" - to bring it back to current DAYS, I don't think it'd be worth undoing Laura's death as much as I wish Ron didn't kill her off.