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Days of Our Lives had an okay week, a step up from the last few weeks of blah and eh but not by much. It’s been really hard to write about the show in the last few weeks. Though I’ll love DAYS forever, it has yet to excite or interest me like it once did. Once again, the 50 year old show is riddled with non-stories that seem to either be on the verge of fizzling out with the new creative turnover or set to go on for too long.
While I don’t agree that DAYS is too dark, I do agree that it could use a little balance from the light side. Where’d all the lighthearted, silly scenes all go? Or families enjoying the night in and relaying their days? There just needs to be a little something more, anything to fill in the gaps that stories like Summer’s existence and whatever Belle and Phillip have going on leave behind. There’s just too much dryness in Salem at the moment. May Sweeps is rapidly approaching so these stories have got to change. My only hope is that the new, exciting storylines have a good enough lead in time to make viewers want to invest in them. DAYS has a severe problem with rushing things and it’s really not helping anyone.
But back to this last week, it was surprising that the teen set carried the whole week and did it well too! There’s something about that little squad of delinquents that’s just so endearing, I’m really glad they got the focus this week or else we would have had to deal with more blah and eh all week again. Now onto a few highlights from Salem, USA this last week!
Week in Review for Days of Our Lives episodes airing April 25h – 29th, 2016.
We Are Young
There are a lot of important beats not being played between the countless family members currently on canvas, but the teen scene has been a squad since day one. This last week, the close group of friends, cousins, nieces and aunts stuck together through the ups and downs of prom season and it was actually pretty entertaining.
© JPI Studios
Innocently, was how Salem’s teens’ week began with the final preparations for prom kicking off. Salem High decided to hold prom in a nightclub which had to be bad juju, because before all of the streamers were even hung, there were two men brawling. Ciara Brady just can’t seem to catch a break after losing her step-father, father, being sexually assaulted by her step-brother all in a row – yet another creep decided to forcibly come onto her, even though she tried to reject him. Theo Carver came to her aid and let loose what looked like a lot of pent up frustration, pummeling the slimy rich boy until his knuckles bled. I loved that these scenes aired concurrently with Abe Carver venting to his daughter Lani Price about Theo’s relationship with Ciara. Ciara might be the most one note “bad girl” I’ve ever seen but Abe thinks she’s bad news for his autistic son. With Ciara, trouble seems to find her more than she seeks it out – which can be pretty dangerous as well. I can understand why Abe is overprotective, Theo was all he had for years since losing Lexie Carver so he wants to protect his son at all costs; Lani’s also right though, because who would have thought Theo would have come this far developmentally?
Both Carver men just want to protect those they love, but it’s definitely worrisome how intense Theo’s desire to protect Ciara is. Later in the week, Mark the bully rigs the slideshow at the prom to show hateful images of Theo and Ciara which has the majority of the teen scene retaliating by spray painting his dad’s car. Like a squad, Joey Johnson and his macabre girlfriend Jade, Claire Brady and her boy that’s a friend Henry and Ciara are all taken into custody for the night to which Theo protests. Mark’s dad is a (I’m guessing dirty) judge and wants to hear nothing bad of his son, so Theo’s pleas fall on deaf ears. Though I wonder why Mark didn’t pinpoint Theo as his attacker then and there, especially since they had the knuckle and mouth scars that matched. That only makes me think that Theo is going to make a drastic move to reveal Mark as the bullying molester he is which I doubt will end well for both boys.
Another stand out was Claire in general. Olivia Rose Keegan and Claire have become one, she seems so much more natural than she did at the start of her run. I wonder if it’s because she’s the youngest out of all the teen actors on the show, but Claire feels like the most authentic teen in the whole bunch. She’s going through a lot of family issues which has her on edge, but she also seems to be downright headstrong and sure of herself; in my opinion, it’s really fitting that she’s Marlena Evans’ granddaughter in my opinion (and I guess Hope Brady’s too but not current Hope, not that they ever interact as family anyway) because of that attitude. Now that the writers feel the need to make Ciara not just a heroine but also a perfect heroine, I hope that Claire’s rumored “rebellious” side comes out more. I almost laughed when Belle Black tried to warn Shawn D. Brady about their daughter’s wild behavior, as if she was selling kids on the black market like her aunt used to do. The worst thing Claire’s done as of yet was give Belle the reading of her life, other than that she’s just been opinionated which is not a bad thing. But let’s bring out that wild side, now that Ciara’s no longer pulling schemes and stunts like back in elementary school there’s a void to be filled.
And finally, how adorable was the promo photo montage? It’s been so long since viewers could really smile with DAYS and the fan reactions to these scenes were pretty positive across the board. DAYS’ writers, let’s balance out some of this murder with laughter and family hugs, please!
My Big Fat Greek Tragedy
As If this storyline wasn’t silly enough, Nicole Walker is going undercover as Disney’s Esmerelda to go after Deimos Kiriakis. And no, Deimos is not a child – who would be the only person to be fooled by a scheme like this – but a grown man who just swindled his tycoon brother, Victor Kiriakis out of millions of dollars. Who let this happen? I’m really starting to think someone has it out for our Nicole.
© JPI Studios
We’ve talked about DAYS repeating the Sami and Colleen Brady storyline with Nicole and Helena, Deimos and Victor’s old love but now it seems they’re set out to recreate another classic Sami story. And yet another goofy and not so well received storyline at that. In order to finally end Deimos’ reign of terror once for all, Victor and Nicole hatch nonsensical plan that a grown man in the right state of mind would never fall for. In a watered down Stan the Man plot, Nicole and Victor lay a plan for Nicole to go undercover as Helena. So Nicole puts on a dark wig and an outfit reminiscent of the female lead in Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. I don’t get it, I don’t get it at all!
The main positive point of this storyline is that it seems to be bringing together characters that should always be in each other’s orbits. Victor and Nicole make a dastardly duo, they need to scheme together more often and Justin Kiriakis’ dark side is always entertaining, as well as Brady Black’s. I just hope they have more up their sleeves than to make Deimos think Helena is still hanging around him. Unless Nicole will be playing the part of a ghost haunting Deimos, breaking his mind down bit by bit then I don’t understand the point of going this route. She could have just seduced him as Nicole! She’s really good at that!
I just hope to every god out there that Nicole rediscovers her love for scheming for her own good and that all of this isn’t based in her newfound love for all things Maggie Kiriakis, mother of the holy Daniel Jonas. #LETSMAKENICOLESELFISHAGAIN should be the next hashtag DAYS fans spam the official Twitter with because a scheming Nicole, is the best Nicole.
As usual, if I missed something you really wanted to talk about or something you felt was important, let’s start a discussion. Comment below, tweet me and let’s chat.
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