So Good and No Good

I've been wondering why, if certain storylines on Days of Our Lives can be so stellar, the entire show as a whole is not excellent. Don't get me wrong, the majority of the show is great, but the parts that are bad are really, really bad.

I've come up with some theories

(a) Hogan Sheffer knows that loyal Days watchers are used to years of the show being totally dreadful. If he were to make the entire show excellent, it would be too much for us to bear and we could possibly get whiplash or motion sickness

(b) Since it's summer and the soaps are under the assumption that they need to feature the younger characters in order to make kids who are home for the summer watch. Since the DOOL younger characters suck, their storylines are going to suck

(c) Someone, somewhere, believes that the antics of Jett, Jeremy and Stephanie, and the implosion of Nick and Chelsea's relationship is quality entertainment

I am leaning towards one of the first two, because the last option is too depressing to even consider!

SO GOOD

Okay, I am re-tooling the Bo and John spinoff I am planning on pitching to NBC, because it is imperative that Steve be a part of it.

Steve: Just hold it, man. I think there's some bad mungambo going down here.

John: Hey, you're scaring me. You're starting to sound like Celeste.

Steve: I'm serious, man. I'm feeling it. Now, Tony was here, right? He was probably furious when he found out that E.J. Warned Sami.

John: Yeah, we figure.

Steve: So what does he do, go home and play Parcheesi with the old man?

I am also convinced that he called John "my pawnie". My closed captioning claims that it was "buddy", but pawnie is so, so much better. And my closed captioning often claim that @ is actually the letter A, so it is completely conceivable that it is wrong in this case as well.

NO GOOD

So, I pretty much hate Abby.

What's that, you ask? But Abby isn't even on the show right now!

Precisely. I am pretty sure that Abby was supposed to be playing a part of the "Touch The Sky" storyline. I mean, when was Chelsea ever as goody two shoes as she was in the early scenes with Jett and Jeremy? She was thisclose to busting out a "golly gee"! That's not our Chelsea!

But since Abby isn't around, we're stuck with Chelsea being awkwardly shoehorned into this story, even though she and Nick had a perfectly compelling romance going on that was more than enough story for both of them. I'd say it was one of the best romances the show's had in a few years and I totally understand the need for them to have a conflict, but why couldn't it be an organic conflict? They briefly touched upon the issues Chelsea has with Nick and Billie's night of ewness, so why can't they expand on it? Why did it have to be "Cute! Squee! Jett! Bad Sex! Anger!"?

I mean, it would be one thing if anybody cared about Jett, but I don't think that even the writers do. It's beyond laughable to have Chelsea continue to refer to him as her close friend, because, um, what? She's known him for like ten minutes.

SO GOOD

Okay, so it was nice for someone to call Max out on the family loving:

Max: Well, Stephanie's my niece.

Jeremy: From what I hear, you did a lot more than play uncle.

Max: We're not of blood relation, Jeremy.

Jeremy: So that makes it okay for you to do your sister's kid.

But why couldn't it have been, I don't know, Kayla? I don't like having Jeremy be the voice of reason, especially since...

NO GOOD

He's a completely disgusting creep.

Honestly:

So do I. The first time I saw her coming off the racetrack, helmet off, hair flying in the wind, I knew I had to have a piece of that.

The girl is prime, but sometimes I itch to get a little more down and dirty. You know how it works. You were on the racing circuit. All those drag-strip honeys waiting to shift you into gear. Don't tell me you never tapped in to that action. Oh, yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You made the laps -- too many to count.

Wow.

You know how afterschool specials cram in as much "hip" teen slang as possible, so that the show seems cool, rather than unfathomably lame? Yeah...that. I'm pretty sure that these lines were lifted directly from an afterschool special about date rape.

SO GOOD

I am continuing to enjoy the Santo/Colleen story. I know that it's incredibly cheesy but, hey, I'm pretty much a dork, so it figures that I'd like it.

I especially liked the glimpse of Lil' Stefano!

What an adorable future psychopath! If he is currently evil, I have no desire to see it. I think I've mentioned before that I don't like movies or TV shows where children are evil and/or murderous. I find them completely terrifying, and they make me wary of children I see out and about. After I saw The Omen, I was afraid of my own brother.

NO GOOD

Why is Colleen older than her father?!

What, there were no older actors suitable for the role in all of Los Angeles? Even Santo is like, "This is a feat of modern science! The daughter is years older than the father! Stefano, come look at this walking genetic experiment!"

SO GOOD

I adored the scene between Kayla and Lucas when they discussed her rape and how she was able to forgive Jack. It was a nice nod to history, and both actors played it perfectly.

NO GOOD

Except not when Kayla's talking about having a baby. Please, don't let this storyline go anywhere! I can totally understand why she wants to have a baby, what with Steve being dead (except not) during Stephanie's childhood, but no. Just...no. I think I am over baby storylines at this point and I don't want to get annoyed during Steve and Kayla's screentime, but if it's about a baby, I'm pretty sure I will. Can't we watch them deal with being back together after all this time? I'd be fine with that.

SO GOOD

Anna continues to rule. I like how she's the first person in all of Salem to suggest that something's off with Tony/"Tony" (something besides his skin tone, I mean), even though she's only been back in town for a few days.

I really don't like the sudden vendetta the hair and wardrobe departments have against her, but she's hilarious enough to make me get over it.

NO GOOD

Holy crap, you guys, Tony/"Tony" is going to haunt my dreams.

I don't know what the most unsettling thing about him is: the unhinged stare that's always in his eyes? The crazy eyebrows? The orange, leathery skin? All I know is that I won't be sleeping tonight, knowing that a vampire is out there looking to suck my blood in between appointments at Mystic Tan.

Comments

[Tripp]

Thank you so much for mentioning the sloppiness of putting Chelsea into this Touch the Skylines story! It's hard enough dealing with BAD SEX with a couple I have been rooting for but then to have Chelsea be batting her eyes at Jett is even worse as well as the deballification of Nick (but that's a whole another story!)

Anyway, I am loving Days right now, especially the return of Kayla so we may finally get some S/K moments we haven't really had in a while (and I agree, no baby please!) It's just Chelsea/Nick story was on the of the better romances for the younger generation I have seen in awhile but now it's just going to hell in a handbasket!

[Paula]

I weep daily at the thought of what they've done to Chelsea and Nick. Okay, not really, but if I were the type to weep daily, I would.

Steve continues to be awesome. Now if only he got to be awesome in scenes with Kayla that lasted more than a couple of minutes and included various states of undress.

And EJ is limber. Very limber.

[L2_S&K]

Eh...not really into the Colleen/Santo aspect of the Dimera-Brady feud s/l. I would rather know how/why John Black became a pawn and who took (and why) Steve was missing all those years. The whole "reason for the feud" thing is just going to end up being a trivia question down the road.

Other than that, Friday was a rather solid ep.

Keep up the good work, y'all!

[lascuba]

You guys are right, as usual. It's so obvious that they made Chelsea take over Abby's role, and it's ruining the character. They had so much potential with Nick and Chelsea...what happened?

And if Hogan goes with a baby story for Steve and Kayla then I'm done with the couple until that baby gets sent to the Brady attic. There's no way a baby story can be any good.

[BrandName]

Aww! I love Young Stefano. He's only been on last week and I already like him 1000% better than anyone involved with Touch the Skies Airlines.

[Ellie]

PLEASE, no baby story for S&K. How old is Kayla supposed to be, anyway?? Is this reverse SORASing in action? The kids age rapidly but the parents simultaneously get younger. (Yes, I fully acknowledge that my favorite character was pregnant in 2005, but I thought that was ridiculous as well).

LOL, totally agree on Tony "Tony" Tony. The man is creepy. I don't know why I didn't mind him as much the last time around. Maybe it's like you wrote, he's just made one too many trips to Tans R Us.

Keep up the good work guys!

[Terrible Towel]

I wouldn't mind if S&K choose to adopt an older kid later down the road. Or not. I think many women think about having another baby as their time clock is getting close to stopping.

I never thought of it, but I think you're right. Chelsea is currently channeling Abby. Abby and Jett? Nah, Abby and Phil.

I love Colleen and Santo's. Too bad we already know it's going to have a tragic ending.

I've been calling Tony is Andre' since before that awful Marlena's killed off half of Salem, but the writers were just kidding.