Viewing Single Post From: Strange Days Vol. 3: My Say in Salem

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Viewing Single Post From: Strange Days Vol. 3: My Say in Salem
IMissAremid	Sep 30 2007, 12:23 AM
After all... tomorrow is another day! Posts: 10,728 Group: Veteran Member #20 Joined: June 13, 2007 Favorite Current Daytime Soap Opera Days of our Lives Favorite Soap Opera of All Time 1. DAYS 2. Y&R 3. PASSIONS 4. AW 5. OLTL 6. GH 7. AMC 8. B&B Favorite Current Primetime Soap Opera Big Brother Favorite Primetime Soap Opera of All Time Dynasty - Beverly Hills, 90210 - Soap	px780 Sep 29 2007, 11:21 PM Excellent post, yo! And I love the word "sextortion" so much that I half-wish I could use it in my daily life. I kind of disagree with your assessment, though, because I think the blame for the decline is clearly Sami/EJ (or Sweeney/Scott). You rightly point out sextortion (brilliant!) as a turning point for the show. I think it was their misguided attempt to turn Sami into an insta-heroine so she could assume the central position. They had the right idea- moving Sami forward in a different way- but they did it in a stupid way. I don't think sextortion destroyed EJ, because I think he was meant to be a hardcore-yet-charming villain. I think what destroyed him was when they softened it because they felt Sami needed to be the center of a triangle. And then they created an entire storyline, tying in the past and promising long-term viewers that their favorites would be seen once more, to pimp Sami & EJ as a couple. And then they had the actors play dual roles. None of it worked, imho, and I think it turned off a lot of viewers because there really has been no escape. What's my alternative story to watch? All I seem to get is Indestructible Andre, and all he does is put the characters in dangerous situation so I can see more Sami/EJ pimping. You can't transform a fabulous bitch into a sympathetic heroine through sextortion/rape dealt with primarily in, like, one episode and expect viewers to rally behind that. Especially with a character like Sami, since some viewers were already tired of her due to her whining about John for a solid decade. So I agree that there is an overall lack of creative vision, but viewers stuck with it through a lot of crap. It seems to be this particular crap pushing people over the edge, and as it's very Sami-centric, I blame her. I loved her before, too, so it's hard to say that. (Also, I'm not a Lumi fan, either, so, y'know, I don't blame Sami/EJ out of loyalty to them- I'm one who want all three to take Colleen's act as an example) I also think the show deserves to be right where it is, ratings-wise. They've truly earned their last place finish, and if they think that making it more aesthetically appealing and improving acting is sufficient...they should share those drugs, y'know? I can't even imagine what they could do to regain my trust as a viewer, and that's a bad place to be. Thank you for your response on this. I actually agree with most of what you said even though I have loved having James Scott and Ali Sweeney frontburner as much as they have been and I have been able to tolerate the EJami pimping that was Santeen (since I saw this only as leveling the playing field after the rape/sextortion... glad you like that word, heh... happened as a way for Hogan to cement his pimping of Lumi and try to make viewers forget how ridiculously and shamelessly and haphazardly he had so quickly shoved them back together in the previous fall since they easily could have made EJ that bad guy and still the hardcore-but-charming villain by just having him seduce Sami to sleep with him without her knowing he was a DiMera and up to no good with nefarious deeds against her family, but then run back to Lucas in horror when she learned the truth of EJ's family yet while still keeping her sleeping with EJ a secret from Lucas, and it would have given us basically this same exact triangle without the issue of rape/sextortion making it all so icky and Sami's actions seem so illogical for a rape/sextortion victim). But that doesn't mean I like that this EJami pimping has been at the expense of other storylines and as I said in last week's column I am disappointed "this Brady-DiMera feud storyline in the end is being revealed now when all is said and done as nothing more than an extremely unsatisfying attempt at multi-generational EJami fan fiction masquerading as an all-encompassing umbrella story using 25 years of “Days” history as window-dressing to quickly pave the way for an E.J. and Sami pairing rather than actually address the mistakes the show has made in the couple’s story of the past year and fix them." So I get what you are saying about EJ and Sami killing the show for you, but I think the show would be so much different and that they wouldn't have created the Santeen storyline in the first place and been so wishywashy with EJ's character had they not made such a huge mistake with the rape/sextortion in the first place, so I still think the root cause of today's show's woes go back to that week and mistakes of TPTB rather than these characters or so much what is playing out now in the fallout of that last week in December. And I am totally with you on hating the direction Hogan has taken Sami because his way of "redeeming" the bad girl apparently entails doing nothing to address Sami's underlying self-esteem issues that were the root of all her past mistakes as she came up with all those crazy schemes to try to make people love her, but simply making her decide that groveling for forgiveness and being some weepy, martyr heroine for Lucas and her family as penance for her past actions against them is the way toward redemption. It's insulting and annoying to see a ruthless, badass bitch like Sami reduced to this.


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