Here is our final Best and Worst for 2018. And you already know we saved the best for last.
Lazareth come forth! Listen. Days of our Lives was Dead. Dead. Dead. An “A” story was diamonds hidden in elephant statues. Days was as they say “dead as a doorknob.” But alas, Lazareth came forth and love, romance, action, drama, camp, suspense and good ole fashioned soapy goodness is alive and well in Salem, USA. Thank you soap jesus. He’s still on the soap throne performing soap miracles. Days did so much right in 2018 it was darn near impossible to pick the best so we settled on picking the best of the best.
Days is the master of rotating daytime fan favorites in and out. How we wished we could have someone like Alison Sweeney full time. But we will take whatever we are fortunate enough to get. These “guest star” appearances are golden.
Days also provided some of the best scene arcs this past year. Our standouts were; A) Kate, Vivian and Marlena stuck in the DiMera tunnels. B) Ciara, Claire, and Tripp discussing and voting if Ben could move into the loft while Ben munched on cereal. C) Abby (MM version) and Ben in those chilling black and white DID induce scenes with Ben taunting Abby about her condition. D) Kate and Vivian face off which culminated in Kate “killing” Vivian in cold blood. E) Sami/Brady/Eric in their scenes before and after the purgatory lab blew up. F) Abby (MM and KM’s version) vs Gabi, every last one of them. H) Abby (MM’s version) when Charlotte was ripped from her arms and she was being sent to the asylum. I) The resurgence of the classic soap vixen of Gabi talking to herself about her devious plans looking like 10,000,000 bucks while sipping on a drink.
Days had the best of everything. Best new couple/Resurgence of the super couple #Cin. Cin really is everything. Ciara and Ben’s cabin scenes set Social Media ablaze and it has yet to recover. Best New Improved Character, Claire Brady. Best Permanent Return, Ben Weston/Jack Deveraux. Best Temporary Return Kristen DiMera. Best Soap Concept. We just kind of made that one up because we had to give a shot out to what tripped us out the most in all of soaps last year. We did an article on it, The Resurrected Days of our Lives. Ron, Sheri and Quan wrote their own purgatory lab and Salem has its own Resurrection Serum. We loved it! Best Comical Male Character Leo Stark. Best Comical Female Character Shelia Watkins.
As we all know nobody/very very very few can do an umbrella story like Mr. Cartlavati. OMG Days did ’em in spades in 2018. The layered umbrella stories that unfolded into more umbrella stories left us with soapgasms. We might have missed a few layers in our favorite umbrella stories below (because Ron and ’em had many) but hey we tried lol.
Sexual Harassment-Vivian/Leo<Kate/Leo<Kate/Ted<Stefan found out about Kate’s involvement and blackmailed Kate to get info on Titan<Wilson “killed” Leo<Leo wasn’t really dead and blackmailed Sonny and living high off the lamb as Mr. Kiriakus. Two other stories interwoven in the sexual harassment storyline was Stefan found out about Kate’s involvement. Kayla got a picture of Kate/Ted for Stefan because in exchange she wanted the information on Steve’s bionic eye from Stefan. Steve’s blindness stemmed from the storyline earlier in the year when John was poisoning Steve but not really poisoning him for the ISA. And another stem from the sexual harassment storyline was that Ted’s involvement has now put him in Rope’s and Ben’s orbit. So many layers.
Theresa’s Return-We got a tease of another round of JJ and Theresa<Xander’s return<Tate’s Custody Case<Eve was in cahoots with Victor and had someone plant drugs in JJ’s apartment<Eve/Brady break-up<Brady/Kristen slept together<Eve/Brady break-up for good (Kassie off set)<Eve returned with Jack<added another layer to Eve and Jennifer’s long standing feud.
Ron and ’em even reached back to Deimos’ murder and combined it with Theresa’s return and spun a lil umbrella from that. Xander brought Theresa home<Xander found Nicole’s murder confession tape<Xander used it to blackmail Nicole into marrying him<Xander hooked up with Kristen and became a main player in the Purgatory Lab which looped him into Eve’s orbit via Jack Deveraux.
The best week in soaps in 2018 was Jarlena’s Wedding featuring the return of Kristen -GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT SOAP. Everything, the production, the dialogue, the acting, the aftermath, perfection, an exceptional week of TV. It spun so many entertaining storylines; Sami’s return, Xander’s return was also intertwined there, Marlena shot, Marlena’s advanced directive, Will got his memories back, Kristen and Paul fell out of a window/Paul paralyzed and EJ alive.
We didn’t tap into everything. We couldn’t. There was so much. Suffice it to say it was a year of genius must-see TV. Nothing is perfect. And Days was no exception although as far as the writing team there was no “worst” really. We will call them “hiccups”. For us, the biggest was the DID storyline. It ate up too much airtime and it wasn’t the best way to introduce Tyler Christopher to the canvas (he was too isolated). But when you think of all the great subplots and performances that came from it, i.e. Marci Miller playing the heck out of all her alters and Camilla becoming the soapy vixen extraordinaire…. you really can’t call it the “worst” can you? Hiccups. But it did take up too much airtime and storylines like Steve going blind and Elani’s pregnancy didn’t get the airtime it deserved.
But all in all; the writing team gave us nothing significant to gripe about in 2018 although we are soap fans so we will find something lol. Seriously though a big round of applause, a big thank you and several standing ovations to Ron Cartlavati, Sheri Anderson, Ryan Quan, the entire Days Writing Team and the wonderful cast and crew for making this the best year of soaps in a while. We can’t say enough about Days in 2018. I’ve been saying it and I’m gonna keep saying it; if you call yourself a soap fan and you ain’t watching Days; you ain’t no soap fan.
Ron, Sheri, Ryan, cast and crew you are dismissed. Great Job! Now Sony, NBC and Ken Corday please come to the front of the class.
Question. Please raise your hand if you know the answer. Where does Marlena/John, Hope/Rafe, Kayla, Chloe, Abe live? Where???
Listen. A lot of soapdom is 99%, not the 1% so we all overstand budgets. We understand all of these characters can’t have a house. But you want us to believe none of them can? Rope’s entire relationship this year with all its problems played out primarily at the police station. The Police Station. Um, no. Kate and Eve are rich. Yet they live in a one-room hotel at the Salem Inn? Um, no. Eli, JJ, Sal, Gabi need real places to live if it’s not already “in the can.”
Now we will say thank you to the writers. We have noticed in the last month or so more scenes are happening in people’s homes or hotel rooms versus having life and death/life changing conversations in the park or the square. (That was a big pet peeve of mine.) But more characters vets and younger ones need homes. We need new sets i.e. at least one more restaurant, a nightspot where the younger set can hang out. You have the most beautiful women in outfits not becoming of their beauty. Please get these gorgeous ladies better wardrobes.
Again, we understand budgets but we know Days can do better. We know they can. So do better. Expand Salem’s territory. Give Days a facelift. Invest in the show. Put your money where your mouth is. Loosen those purse strings. Open that checkbook. The writers could do so much more with just some more. Sony, NBC and Mr. Corday the writers and the actors have more than done their part to restore Days. The fans are engaged and watching. It’s your turn. Do The Right Thing.
Days’ writing team and actors get an A+ as their final grade in 2018. And we crown them the best soap of 2018. B-R-A-V-O!!
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