Days of Our Lives Week in Review

So, my life has definitely been crazy the last few months, but I can't say that is the reason I haven't been doing Days posts.  The real reason is that nothing has really moved me to blog about the boring goings-on in Salem.  Until now.  What was my motivation?  Hint: It involves hot men and limited clothing!

So the Week in Review returns, along with my struggle to find enough things on this show that are even close to interesting enough to include in a post. 

Sami and Rafe continue to be far more charming and appealing than the writing gives them any right to be.  I honestly perplexed by liking them.  But I so do!

There is, however, a significant problem brewing.  This relationship is having a very unfortunate effect on Sami's hair. 

Allison Sweeney's gorgeous mane deserves better.  There is also the small matter of Rafe likely being some kind of fiance-murdering psycho, but that's relatively easy to bounce back from.  Stringy hair can take ages to get past.

This was from a few weeks ago, but I didn't have a chance to comment then, so:  Behold, I have found Braden Walkes from GH's life partner.

Lil' baby bitchface is just the best thing evah.

Let's count the clichés in last week's Horton Cabin Fake Cleaning Blind Date Ending In Strip Poker extravaganza, shall we?

1. Two very attractive yet weirdly uninterested in dating each other people are setup by a wacky third party to arrive at same place at same time.
2. It turns out that the attractive twosome and their meddling third wheel are stuck in the location they were tricked into arriving at based on a strange set of circumstances that is almost certainly not actually true (ferries not running, for no reason).
3. Reaching for something high, the attractive woman stumbles and falls into the attractive guy’s arms.
4. Angered over something minor, one of the attractive people throws water on one of the other attractive people, necessitating some amount of undressing.
5. The attractive couple realize, while spending forced time together, they they are indeed anxious to get it on.
6. In the midst of the shenanigans, a separate attractive guy accidentally sees his attractive roommate of the opposite sex naked in the shower.

However, I will give them a pass on the stockpile of clichés, because the poker game did up being relatively fun to watch, and, well...

Yep, all is forgiven.

Eric Martsolf is gorgeous and I like his performance as Brady (I was not a Kyle Lowder fan), but it's becoming increasingly obvious that he may give Maurice Benard a run for the money in the Duh Face of the Year competition.  (Which is held in the minds and emails of me and Mallory each December.)

Nadia Bjorlin is very pretty and can wear seventy pounds of makeup and fake hair like nobody's business but I'm sorry, she can't even play unconscious convincingly.

Why is her head upright?

Kate's plot to kill Chloe is ludicrous but has at least cut down on the number of walks down memory lane to the Chloe/Daniel sexcapades.  There are war veterans who've had fewer flashbacks.

By the way, is it just me or does the character of Daniel serve no purpose now?  A year ago I found him annoying, but he was at least doing things (including Chelsea after her grandmother, EW).  Now he just mopes around town and creepily sneaks up on Chloe.  Also,

really?  Okay.

(BTW, is that a bit of Duh Face I see in the background?  I think it is!)

Max and his 29 pieces of poseur jewelry left town.

 

Yeah.  So that happened.

Pretty Stephanie and pretty Phillip broke up.

I liked them together well enough, but honestly, I don't really care that they split.  They had no build up, were together for like a month, and didn't seem to have much of a bond.  This made me laugh out loud:

Phillip:  We’ll go see your family.  Yeah, how about that?  We’ll fly there, and help them out with what they’re doing.

Yeah, we'll go to...that place.  You know, where your parents are doing that thing that they're doing or whatever.  What were their names again, Pete and Rayla?  (For real, do you think the writers just forgot in what asinine way they'd written out Steve and Kayla and didn't even bother to Google it?  It kind of felt that way.)

I also think it's important, as I do for all this show's couples, to consider the follicular discrepancies underlying the relationship at issue.  Stephanie's hair has been near-perfect lately, while Phillip

 

appears to be growing out Janine Turner's early-Northern Exposure cut.

Stephanie is moving on to Nathan, who I actually like so far, even if he is an obvious Max replacement.

He is bound to sleep with fewer of his nieces, so he's already got that going for him.

Mia and her teen drama reduces me to internet speak.

 

DO NOT WANT. [angry emoticon and/or gif of angry person]

The title of one of last week's episodes on my Tivo was “Chad tells Will that he’s Mia’s boyfriend.”  It took everything in me not to immediately delete it without watching.

Hey, remember when Nicole was fun? 

The baby playing Sydney is the latest in a long line of cute soap infants.  Here I think she looks like she's rapping.

Yo yo daddy, what up with all the rage?

Rapping Sydney is spot on.  The Endless Rage-Filled Days of EJ's Life became tiresome eons ago.  I'm at the point where I'm so disillusioned that I couldn't even properly celebrate James Scott's haircut. 

EJ:  You know, contrary to what most people think, I don’t like to be this angry.

You are really, really good at something you don't like.

I am determined, though, to remember the days of sexgodliness, so I have located the only screencap in existence of EJ smiling in the last three months (at least).  Behold:

Won't you come back, layered EJ?  We miss you.

So, to sum up, sort of...

Sometimes I’m just really, really glad Passions got canceled, you know?

Screencaps courtesy of Sheryl's Days of Our Lives Screen Caps.

Comments

[esp13]

Glad to see you back, Becca. The shirtlessness was a welcome sight, I agree.

I also share your boredom with rage-a-holic EJ. I'm so tired of his only reaction to anything being turning into Shouty McYellerson.

Other than that, I find Days to be pretty much okay. Not great but not awful (well, except for the stupid Kate/Lucas/Daniel/Chloe storyline). Which given the depths this show had fallen at times is not a bad thing.

And with regards to Stephanie's parents (whatever their names were) the problem the show has is that they didn't write them out, they left them in town until that became problematic. Then they were "out of town" and then "gone" and then, finally, "in Africa." Because we all know that parents decide to leave town whenever their oldest child is in a huge crisis.

[Beth R.]

As a former Passions fan...I now can say....see why I watched? It sure as heck wasn't for the stellar writing. Many a bad day senior year in college was made better by some shirtless Luis action...or sweaty Luis...or Luis randomly holding heavy objects and causing biceps to flex....

Where was I again?

[Beth R.]

Oh meant to add...Eric Marstoff did play Ethan for six years on Passions...and Ethan was KING of the Passions Duh Face Mountain. Which is quite a feat as you can imagine. Just look at the classic The Soup clip of Not Gay Chad.....quality duh face off.

[becky jean]

I choose to believe that Sami's hair issues are the result of the death of the child she believes to have been hers. I will not blame Rafe for this in any way!! This is the first time in a decade that I have liked Sami. Hell, it is the first time in a decade that I have watched her.

I missed the Brady, Nathan? (who the heck is Nathan? I fast forward through all things Melanie related) shirtlessness. So many shows do shirtlessness so well. Days, OLTL - thank you for understanding one of the reasons I watch soaps. GH sucks in this regard, which is why it is last on the view list. Jeez, if a fan requests shirtlessness over there, some idiot thinks having Sonny shirtless is a good idea. IT IS NOT. Sorry, off on a tangent there.

I admit that I miss Max. Even if he only seemed to date his nieces.

[Tripp]

I have to disagree to the part Nathan is a Max replacement. I think he's more like Nick, except he's got a body so hence he's hot while Nick never was (whatever). I was so ready for Max to leave I was afraid one of his jewelry chains would get stuck, keeping him for another Salem month of goodbyes.

At this point I'm really ready for Melanie to go, which ruined the poker strip game for me. I still don't know why we are to buy Brady AND Philip would hang around with a teenager with a weird face.

And the other day they showed JS smiling in person while reminiscing about EJ's mother. I almost didn't recognize him. When he was setting out to be the ultra villain under Hogan, he didn't frown this much.

[Gene]

EJ and Melanie hook up?

EJanie>>>

[Dana]

Would someone please tell me the ssignificance of all the sahdes of purple alomost everyone is wearing? Is it concerning a certain cause? Everyone looks great but I am baffled!

[erica]

Lucas with Sami is Shouty McYellerson
EJ with Nicole is Shouty McYellerson.
Interesting...maybe the writers have finally an idea behind their ....head ?! Who knows..

I am ok for the Sami/Rafe love fest but still not too long : it is already boring but cute but if it stays too long it will be just boring..
And the sami brady has to take care of her children and to find a job !!

[bovada poker]

Thanks for posting this.

[catherine ms christian]

ethan
mail like you so much
family my life happy and to