The Writer’s Strike Best Thing For Days Of Our Lives
The writers strike could be the best thing that happened to the daytime serial, Days of Our Lives. Their hack writers have taken an award winning show from first place to nearly dead last. Their story ideas are worn out, they are degrading to women and they lack the suspense and freshness that the soap was based on for decades.
Anybody remember Another World. When the network was trying to cancel it, they had the writers kill off Carl and dreadful stories with characters going against their history and the morals. Any of this sounding familiar? From Sami "loving her rapist" to the murder of John, the writers have been chipping away at the foundation of the show so the network can substitute a cheaper talk show. I've been watching since Doug and Julie were the super couple. Back when Alice Horton broke Roman out of jail, the storylines enhanced the characters, now the writers are breaking down decades of traditions. If they had any creativity at all, they could have easily found a storyline for John and Marlena other than them necking in public. They keep focusing on the younger characters, ignoring the fact that most younger people follow the parents' soap viewing traditions. The more you ignore the characters we grew up with, the more annoyed the fans will be come and the faster the ratings will drop.
Drake Hogestyn as John has been a favorite character from the beginning. He was always a knight in shining armor and a true hero. Deidre Hall as Marlena Evans has been his equal. Together they have shared love and faced the devil. In life and death, they have been an exciting and romantic couple. Killing the character off was just simply stupid and has left a void in the show. Just like the killing of Carl in Another World, the lost of the character has left a void in the show that will not easily be filled. But there is a way to fix it. The last few weeks could have simply been one of Celeste's visions. The vision ends and Celeste arrives in time to save John. It is not as bad as the way Dallas brought Bobby back, but it would work within the show.
I love Allison is a fabulous actress; she does marvelous work making Sami grow and develop. But the whole idea of Sami marrying her rapist is a sexist, male driven view of the world. When women are raped, they don't fall in love with the men who have violated them. Some claim that it wasn't rape. Let see, she could either sleep with EJ or let Lucas die? She didn't have a choice. By definition, rape is a being forced to have sex. He didn't use a weapon, but he still raped her all the same. The whole storyline is absurd. It is a throw back to stupid romance novels where the woman is forcibly carried off and held hostage only to fall in love with the capture. Women are not prizes or possessions. There is nothing romantic about being raped. Sami doesn't forgive easily--true. EJ raped her. Shot John. Blackmailed her. The list goes on. The fact that she didn't drop the match and finish it all only shows how she has grown as a character. If she went back to being the old Sami, she would seek to revenge on the person who caused her pain, which would be EJ. She would make his life a living hell. If the writers actually knew any history of the show, there is a big old lie that would break Sami and Lucus up if it came out. If EJ used it, he would actually have a chance. But then again the writer would actually have to do...research and work
It is the whole cast that make the show work. Killing John was simply stupid. Not using Marlena is even worse. Patch and Kayla, Bo and Hope, the list under valued talent goes on. There is so many more interesting story ideas available--if they had writers who had even one creative bone in their collective body, the show would be first. They have the creative talent, they have the history, they have the best tech people--and the absolute worse writers. Rumor has it that they have enough scripts until February. It the producers had any brains or the will to keep the show on the air, they would seek alternative writers who had the creativity to undue the damage that has already been done.
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