Pans of the Week

The Lexicon of Love

Relationships on soap operas can make for extremely complicated affairs. Whether it is step-mother and daughter sharing the same birth mother or simply a tangled web of romantic connections, soap operas never make it easy to just catch up with the story. My next little gripe is just that – a little gripe. Ron Carlivati taking over the show meant he had to ingest a lot of material from DAYS’ more than half a century’s worth of history. It’s inevitable that some of those tidbits were either missed or incorrectly told during the rundown process. That’s why I don’t think the writers can take full blame for this miss, especially since most of them either weren’t with the show or weren’t with the show in the same capacity as they are now.

Paul’s wedding vows were well written and even more so, well-spoken. Christopher Sean has certainly grown as an actor along with the character and I found myself hanging onto his every word, even as a non-fan of the Paul and Sonny Kiriakis pairing. The words were beautiful but they also felt a bit – revisionist? Will was the one who befriended Paul, eased him gently out of the closet and conducted his groundbreaking interview about it all. But if you listened to Paul’s vows, it sounded like it was Sonny there guiding him along the whole time. Maybe he came out for Sonny, to confess his love to Sonny but everything was staged to seem like Sonny was the one responsible for Paul being true to himself. I guess it’d be all sorts of uncouth to thank your future husband’s ex-husband that you hooked up with for changing your life but it is the truth!

I think within that that gripe is inherently what I do not like about the pairing of PaulSon – they have no concrete history. Much of their love story happened off screen and anything that did happen on screen wasn’t much to root for, in my opinion. Their most romantic moment together was when Sonny fought his friends to keep from killing a Jungle Madness infected Paul? That’s really all I can think of. And again, it’s not the current writers’ fault for this but I just can’t help but think that these two shouldn’t be getting married. Even disregarding Will’s return from the dead.

Until these characters have a true love story backing them, then I can’t really buy into their romance. I mean, Paul wasn’t ready for the wedding until the last minute and Sonny basically told Paul if Will was still alive then they wouldn’t be together. All of that doesn’t really make for the sweetest of romances. With all that said, when Will returns, I think I’d rather see him paired up with Paul. Guy Wilson’s Will had great chemistry with the former baseball pro, more than he did with Sonny. There’s no telling how Chandler Massey and Christopher Sean will fit together, but I think their story could potentially be more entertaining and more viable to root for.

Above all of that, this really makes me miss Derrick who was unapologetically promiscuous and had fun with it. Salem is the only place on earth where young, hot, gay men rush to the altar instead of playing the field. Can’t the gays on these shows have a little bit of fun too? You don’t always have to marry your first boyfriend.

Tell It To My Heart

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that my Pans section of the review has shrunken. Each week, I find it hard to pick out points I didn’t like and instead of scraping the bottom of the barrel just to complain, I keep it simple! By no means is DAYS the perfect soap opera but for me, it’s all around enjoyable and I’m loving not having to pan my favorite show.

With that said, one thing that did rub me the wrong way was Marlena Evans giving her sagely advice to Eric Brady. Her son is prone to sulking and running away, as a psychiatrist she knows that this behavior is usually in response to a problem he’d rather not solve. When she approached her son at his new home outside of Salem, it was already with the knowledge of why he’d left while thinking of ways to hopefully bring him back. Unfortunately, her advice was to basically confess his love to Nicole Walker – who is currently shacking up with her step-son, Brady Black.

We all know Marlena has often played favorites with Carrie Reed over Sami Brady (she had reasons!), but this felt like a step too far? I don’t know if Marlena believed that she was being impartial to both of her sons tangled up in this issue but it did not come off that way. It felt even odder when Marlena took to Brady’s shoulder to cry about wanting Eric back in town right after doling out this potentially home-wrecking advice. Let it be known, a misogynistic emotional abuser like Brady does not deserve Nicole but Eric shouldn’t need a push from his mama to show her true love. It’s got to come from inside of him!

Now Marlena is not an inherently sneaky or conniving character, she’s always doing her best to spread virtue and honesty but I do think this was a misguided step for her. Maybe it wasn’t a move that was out of character but it just didn’t seem fully thought out. She probably went back home to the townhouse after that, cursing herself for probably not being very helpful at all. But then again, no matter what decision is made, she’ll still have at least one son in pain anyway…

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!