Days of Our Lives Week in Review

This week was a bit mixed for me.  I like most of what's going on (though not enough to break out the Awesomeness Rating Scale), but the Touch the Sky Airlines stories and basically everything involving the younger characters are tempting my TiVo's fast-forward button, which hasn't seen action during Days in months.  But enough with an introduction, because I need to talk about how fabulous Anna is.

Anna is one of the best returning characters in recent years, and Leann Hunley is thoroughly entertaining, but like Promising Ingénue I must question what the hair stylists were going for here:

It's like the wig Stockard Channing wears during the Sandra Dee number in Grease.  But Tamaranna is still awesome, which was amplified by the flashback reminder of how longstanding Leann Hunley's fabulousness is:

This, and she got paid to make out with Josh Jackson, people.  Life is so unfair.  (By the way, did she intentionally perfectly duplicate that scene?  The eyebrow cocking is even identical!)

She had one of my favorite lines of the week, upon arriving on the almost-deserted tropical island:

Anna:  This damn heat.  What I wouldn't give for a mai-tai and a cabana boy.

You are a woman after my own heart, Tamaranna DiMera.

So anyway, this whole island storyline.  I thought it was fun, certainly much preferable to several of the other things that got so much airtime this week, like the idiotic Touch the Sky Airlines stuff. Plus I like the vets showing everyone how it's done . . . three episodes on Tony's island was more entertaining than the 17 or so weeks that Shawn and Belle spent on their non-deserted island after they threw Claire off that cruise ship. 

I wasn't watching Days yet when Tony and Anna were on, so I don't have nostalgic feelings for that couple like I do for others who have returned (or never left), but Anna is so awesome that she's become one of my favorites over just a few weeks.  Her crashing John and Marlena's hump-fest on the private jet was hilarious.

John going all feminine with the "how do I look?" routine was lame, but it brought this screencap into my life, which I will love forever:

Fabulous!  I loved how Marlena was all judgmental of Anna being dressed inappropriately for a deserted island.  Because clearly a denim pantsuit from the Chico's spring 1993 line, with white Keds, is the correct attire for such events.

Go on, adventure girl!

I am so screwed if I ever have an ex-husband, who's been impersonated by his identical cousin, trapped on a deserted tropical island and I have to go see him in order to kiss him to provide the only truly reliable form of positive identification because DNA in my town is less reliable than an early-90s Hyundai.  My closet is sadly lacking in both pink satin cocktail dresses and Chico's denim.

I also loved this:

Marlena: Nobody looks the way they did 20 years ago.  Nobody, Anna.€ 

Well, you do, actually.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Once on the island, John provided one of the week's stranger physical reactions, when he shook Tony's hand.  I can't capture it here, but his hand literally took like ten seconds to grasp Tony's.  It was so bizarre.  And then it looked painful.

It's like the director's note was "because of their shared mother that Tony doesn't yet know about, this introduction is going to be really difficult for John," and Drake Hogestyn interpreted that to mean physically.  Cannot close fingers . . . Ow, too firm . . .

(Momentary diversion:  I was only watching intermittently back then, but didn't they confirm John's eleventeenth version of his parentage by doing a DNA test with Tony, who it now turns out is Andre?  So is John really Andre's brother, or are we to assume that Stefano messed with the DNA results?  And if so, why on earth would Stefano want John to be Daphne's son?  Wait, why am I thinking about this?)

But the bizarre handshake wasn't the weirdest or most entertaining reaction of the week, because Thaao Penghlis was in rare form as Andre and Tony.  As an aside, I am totally okay with this re-write of history that Andre somehow survived drowning in quicksand and Tony's been sexin' it up with island girls for the last couple of decades.  Anytime the new writers want to erase some of the bullshit nonsense that Reilly's team did in the late 90s up until last year (Tony is now a psychopath, and devoted to Stefano...?) is fine with me. Especially if I get to see soapy acting like this:

This last one is my favorite.  Kevin from Home Alone has finally been rescued off the island where his stupid family forgot him a couple dozen years ago!

I actually thought Thaao did a good job of distinguishing between the two characters.  The second he came onscreen as the real Tony, everything about him was different (er, except that he's the same guy, but you know what I mean).  His body language, demeanor, the whole thing.  And am I crazy, or is Tony -- who has been on an island in the middle of the tropics without SPF for 20 years -- actually less tan than Andre?

On to something that doesn't entertain me AT ALL.  Someone please, I beg of you, stop John and Marlena from having any more make-out scenes.

I've reached the point where I could not be more disturbed by their kissing if they were in full S&M gear.

And while we're on the subject of stuff about John and Marlena that annoys me . . . Marlena's moaning.  I think Deidre Hall is just messing with us at this point, because this week Marlena started "talking" entirely in moans.  John was like hey, we're going to a tropical island to rescue Tony, who as it turns out has been a prisoner there for a couple of decades.  And Marlena -- in a way that I cannot possibly capture the ridiculousness of in print, without audio accompaniment -- moans: "Oooh?  [pause] Ooooooh."  And then they cut to commercial.  I swear to god, she said no words.  Just moaning!  For once I found it hilarious instead of disturbing. 

I sort of love how versatile she finds the faux-orgasm sounds.  Shocked?  Dismayed?  Turned on?  Happy?  Sad? Worried?  The moan has all your bases covered!  It's like "aloha," only porn-y.

So, Stephanie may be completely fucked up, in a borderline-abusive relationship, completely lacking any of her parents' good qualities, and a regular abuser of the word "papa," but she is adorable and has this cute dress:

...so she's got that going for her, which is nice.  However, her bag is hideous:

That much gold vinyl in one place should be illegal.  In fact, I might need to be persuaded that there is ever an acceptable use for gold vinyl.

It was good that Steph bounced back with a cute dress, since just a few hours before her boyfriend went pseudo-homicidal on her.  After the whole near-drowning-via-dunking incident, Jeremy was all zen:

Zen, or practicing for when someone finally takes him out.  You know, I think he'd even die smarmily.  The actor is doing a good job of playing Jeremy as a flat-out villain, I just don't know why that's the direction they're going in with this character, or if they're ever going to fill in the blanks about why he became the way he is.

Since she is unfortunately entangled in this Touch the Sky crap, I guess this is a good place to ask:  Are they just SORASing without recasting now?  Chelsea is 21?  Even though she just graduated from high school a couple of months ago and was a minor during her "trial" last year?  Didn't they do this with Belle a few years back?  So we were supposed to believe Kirsten Storms, who looked 15, was a senior in college, or something?  It's so confusing.  Won't anyone please think of how easily I get confused before they do things like this?  Anyway, whatever age she is, I just hope Chelsea has access to intravenous antibiotics, because that Vegas hot tub must be one big petri dish by now.

Speaking of Chelsea, who has probably turned 35 in the time it took me to write this, apparently since she and Nick were together for a whole two weeks the writers have to break them up and put Chelsea with Jett.  Snore.  Those scenes are not holding my attention at all, except for the fact that suddenly Blake Berris has gotten super hot.  He's always been cute, but he's really graduated to hotness recently.  When did that happen, and what can we do to make sure it continues?

There is one thing I find somewhat interesting about Jett.  This week for the first time I noticed that the actor who plays him appears to have an English accent.  Could this be a plot twist?  Jett is really British and is in the ISA?  And he's undercover?  And one of his colleagues is Andrew Donovan, who followed in his dad's footsteps but will join Jett in Salem and bring his reformed-hooker sister Eve back with him? 

Yeah, probably not.

One of the things I love about Days these days is that because there are so many actors who have been on the show forever or who have recently come back, that they can do flashbacks to the show's heyday.  Like this week's with Anna and Tony, and Bo and Hope.

I am loving Bo and Hope lately.  First of all, I'm shallow, and Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell are looking gorgeous.  We talk about her around here quite a bit, but I feel the need to give him credit too.  He seems to be getting better with age, and I don't even mean that in the fake way almost everyone else does when they say it.  He really does look hot!  Getting rid of the mullet of course helped tremendously, but he's also in great shape and has an ease about him that's fun to watch.  But it's also that the characters are well-written (most of the time) and their dialogue seems natural.  It helps that they stopped writing Bo as a doofus (that's all Roman's gig now), and that they're past the incredibly depressing and unnecessary Chelsea-kills-Zach story. Anyway, never let it be said that I never say something nice around here.   It's rare, but it happens.

You know, I take it all back.  Shawn and Belle are totally hot for each other.  They're a couple for the ages.  They're not mind-numbingly boring at all.  Why, just look at this body language:

L-O-V-E.

I am not one to make fun of someone's height; I am a mere 5'3" myself.  And this is not really about Bryan Datillo being short (I don't think he is) as much as it is about James Scott being kind of ridiculously tall (IMDB says he's 6'8"!), but . . . is it wrong if I giggle when Lucas gets all macho and threatens to kill EJ (which is, you know, daily)? 

Because 1) EJ's a DiMera, they can't be killed, and 2) he's like a foot and half taller than you, dude -- unless you sneak up on him in his sleep, I think he can take you.

Oh, this reminds me!  James Scott is ridiculously good looking:

He even almost managed to make eating an artichoke seem sexy this week.  Artichokes are one of my top five favorite foods, but let's face it, scraping junk off the bottom of a leaf is not hot.

I said he almost managed it.  That 'stache kills the hotness.

I am enjoying the Colleen and Santo scenes much more than I thought I would, and probably much more than I should.  The actors just have such great chemistry, which they can't really play on as Sami and EJ anymore, and the story is really sweet (when you set aside the upcoming brutal murder, I mean).  Ali Sweeney must really like playing Colleen, too, because at the very least it means she gets to wear the habit:

So the hair people can't do stuff like this to her:

First the Whitesnake video 'do, now this?  How in the name of Paul Mitchell do you screw up hair as amazing as Ali Sweeney's?  It's criminal.

I know I've said this before, but the Sami and Lucas make-out sessions and sex talk are going to be the end of me.  I like both the actors and I'm fine with the characters being together, but . . . First, I must repeat my request that the sound team TURN DOWN THE MICS.  Or maybe the actors can alter their screen-kissing technique.  Because my god, has there ever been louder kissing on television?  And second, the sex references are getting ridiculous:

Lucas: The same way I make love to you 24-7, I can eat 24-7.

STOP IT!  Stopitstopitstopit.   Why can't these two just be hot for each other, instead of constantly telling us how hot they are for each other?  It's like a John and Marlena prequel. 

They need to tone down the sex talk A LOT and just work on demonstrating natural affection for each other.  Like Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell do.  Or, you know, like this:

Most screencaps courtesy of Days of Our Lives 2.

Comments

[Tripp]

Yea I have no idea what was up with Sami's hair.

J&M's treatment of Anna on the plane was so weird. I realize that Anna does great with comedy and she is supposed to be a superficial character, but J&M's astonishment that the woman would dare insist to travel along with them to meet up with her LOST HUSBAND really was almost cruel. WTH?

I would trade a dozen Jett's for one Nick! Seriously, Blake is really hot!

[holo37]

I swear I'll comment as soon as I stop laughing my ass off! You guys rock!

[Michaela]

That screen cap of Drake what's-his-name eating Dierdre Hall's face off is the stuff of nightmares. Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew ew EWW! (tm Joey Tribbiani) How is that supposed to be sexy? He looks like some sort of sci fi creature sucking out a person's soul. Just looking at that picture may have sucked out mine...

[Ellie]

I'm surprised you didn't like John's "insecurity about his outfit" on the plane. I actually thought those scenes were the most (intentionally) funny scenes on Days for a looooong time. The whole thing was so tongue-in-cheek - J&M weren't being 'mean' to Anna. It was written as a comedy. J&M wanted to have some moments together and Anna shows up with her heels, designer luggage and eveningwear to join them on their island excursion. I thought the three of them were excellent together. And regarding the J&M kissing - I thought there was 'something for everyone'. For those of us who like the J&M scenes (and yes, there are many of us!), we got some nice moments. And for those of you who don't like them, you got to enjoy their constantly being interrupted. Fun for the whole family. :)

[Isabella]

Great review!! I was laughing out loud as I read it! I agree with pretty much everything you said too except the part about Lucas and Sami being together - IMO, the reason their scenes seem so forced and the slurping is so off-putting is because the actors lack the chemistry needed to pull off a Bo and Hope type connection. If it was Bo and Hope, we might not even notice the slurping. They need to stop trying to convince the audience that Lucas and Sami have what it takes and just accept the fact that they don't. They've never had it IMO and it is time for the show to move on. James and Ali have that kind of chemistry as you rightly point out so hopefully, EJ's redemption will be sincere enough for the viewing audience that no one will object when EJ and Sami finally do get together. :)

[JunkfoodGenius]

You know, I remember in 2002(?) when Thaao (or TP as I call him) came back, I read an interview where he said that he was purposefully acting a little off to pose the question "Is this Tony? Or is it Andre?" There were little clues, but never, ever did I consider the tan! I've heard of hair actors (those brave few who can act with any hair piece and make it work), but TP has to be the first case of brilliant skin acting. Even as Andre, his skin is waxy, the eyebrows are askew and everything is just wrong looking. And yet...Tony looks human. Bravo, TP.

[Terrible Towel]

I don't know if Drake is kissing Deidra or if he's practicing mouth to mouth with a ResusiAnnie doll.

[He is the]

EJ and Sami have more Romantic Chemistry between them in one glance than Lucas and Sami had in 15 years of an on again off again relationship.

[SocRMum]

Okay...I think I'm recovered enough from LMAO to post a few thoughts...

Um, yeah...the body language between Shelle. Too funny! And so true. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but just like I see the Sami/EJ thing being a billion times hotter than Lucas/Sami I see a better pairing with the actors playing Belle and Phillip. Maybe Shelle worked for Kristen Storms and Jason Cook but not so much with Martha and Brandon. Time to move on with that one.

And back to EJ/Sami or Santo/Colleen. I don't care how or why - just please keep putting these two on the screen. James Scott is ridiculously hot - and it doesn't seem to matter is he's too good to be true EJ, deceptive EJ, downright sociopathic EJ or on the road to angsty redemption EJ - he rocks. Ali Sweeney has always been a favorite and it's so nice to see her paired with someone who matches her at every level.

And finally - using the last screen cap of Jarlena to demonstrate natural affection...PRICELESS! Thanks for always making me chortle!

[Robyn]

Thank God James Scott has made me forget I ever watched him on AMC. He's made of snuggly deliciousness.

You may not have watched back this far, but Sami and Lucas remind me of Pete and Melissa sucking on each other in the fishing shack. Dude, it sounded like the little creature bursting out of John Hurt's chest in Alien.

I am so loving Anna and Tony. It's like Days, after so many years, is my show again. Now if GH could only learn...

[FatedLove]

Good review. I was LMAO on the Jarlena comments. But I have to give John some credit there on the plane. I thought his imitation was pretty funny. I'm also loving Anna and Tony/Anna reunion rocked.

That Shelle cap was pretty funny. I just don't see them having any chem or attraction to each other. Belle seems more interested and lively when with Philip.

Sami and Lucas were pretty hot this week and I hope it continues. And while I agree that they're pretty loud in their kissing, I think it's more of the sound effects and the sound team should def do something about that. Other than that, I think they're great and cute.

[KS]

Bryan Dattilo is pretty short. I think he's the smallest of the Days men.

[Well Hello.]

Ok. The John/Marlena/Anna scenes were by far the best part of the show. Finally something funny to laugh about. I wasn't laughing at how bad the writing/show was.

Kristian and Peter are boring, by the way.

[some content removed by blog administrator]

[Stephanie]

Am I the only one that wondered what happened to the two girls on the island w/ Tony? It was a desserted island and they didn't appear to be on the plane? Did they just leave them there?

[Joanna]

Love this blog! Leann Hunley looks so gorgeous in that flashback scene. I mean, wow!

[snarkaddict]

I agree with most of this review and I'm happy to find this site to get my snark on. Thanks for the laughs!

The only thing I found funny about the scenes with J&M and Anna on the plane was Anna. She's a hoot and she steals every scene she's in. J&M, especially Marlena, just came off as condescending and holier-than-thou to me. And their kissing is the grossest thing out there on daytime. Can they please dial down the soul-sucking? They're like something out of the X-files! As Chandler Bing would say, John, could your mouth BE any wider?

The Lumi slurping doesn't bother me, but hey, blame the audio people. No one complained about it during 2003-2005. EJ wasn't on the scene then.
Hmmmmmm . . .

Lumi is still hot as hell! Too bad all this WTD stuff and flashes of Pod Sami with "EJ deserves another chance" is stinking up their storyline.

[jase]

See now I officially cannot use the screencap of Captain Nazi tonguing his lips after nearly drowning his idiot girlfriend, because you know everyone with a soap blog has used that one, it's so fucking hilarious. That shit killed me. KILLED. ME.

All I get when I watch Santo is Super Mario. They're fine actors, it's good stuff. But the authentic accent is funny to me.

I notice Andre has a huge gut while thus far, Real!Tony's seems somewhat masked. AN OBVIOUS FAKE GUT!

[jase]

See now I officially cannot use the screencap of Captain Nazi tonguing his lips after nearly drowning his idiot girlfriend, because you know everyone with a soap blog has used that one, it's so fucking hilarious. That shit killed me. KILLED. ME.

All I get when I watch Santo is Super Mario. They're fine actors, it's good stuff. But the authentic accent is funny to me.

I notice Andre has a huge gut while thus far, Real!Tony's seems somewhat masked. AN OBVIOUS FAKE GUT!

Leann Hunley is probably intentionally duplicating old Anna's style, as apparently she watched youtube clips to refamiliarise herself with the role.

[Here I am]

ICAM with this week in review.

J&M must be stopped. I mean really. Do they really think they are sexy?

Bravo for Thaao for pulling off acting like the real Tony 22 years later. The difference between Tony and Andre is like night and day. Tony definitely has more "sizzle in his steak" than Andre.

Leann is just the bomb. She better get a contract soon.

I'm hoping "Touch the Sky" crash lands soon. Why the Hell are they onscreen 24/7? The promos are all for the DiMera/Brady feud, but the Vegas twits get more airtime. The Feud gets excellent press reviews, the twits get thumbs down in the press, but the twits get more airtime. Oh please God make it stop!

Love the screencaps! Keep 'em coming.

[sami]

OH yeah ej and btw he is 6 four not 6 fot 8and lucas they say is 5 foot 7 witch i dont belive but ejami all the way mal=rlana and john is gross kissing eachother but u dont have to worry about that anymore because they will be off the show for good in like a week sorta san=d to see john get off but not marleana sorry to say well good luck to both od=f them at least it is not james scott or alison sweeney leavin write ?

[larisalove leann]

yo queria decir que leann hunley es especial por como hace las cosas...es la mas bonita nel dawson's creek..es el mas bonito que io he visto....