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I have watched the show since the late 1960’s and I cannot remember every single plot here, but there were many such as the Salem Strangler and when Marlena was locked away in the asylum thanks to her twin Samantha, that seemed to drag on for months.
I think today the difference is we have the Internet and spoilers and now we can see what is happening down the road. The fact we know the plot will not be cleared up as fast as we would like it is part of our repugnance at these storylines. But having such spoilers and the Internet takes away the element of shock and surprise. Imagine how we would have reacted had some realized that Marlena was not really killed by the Salem Strangler, instead it was Samantha.
I know this Rafe storyline is not very popular but then again neither was dragging out Marlena in the asylum or finding many of Salem’s serial killers. If all plot lines were resolved in a couple of weeks, it would tax the writers even more to come up with dozens more storylines, but these plots have to be played out according to soap rules and as we all know soap time seems different from real time.
I think this is what keeps us watching even though it frustrates us, the snail-like plots but the writers know that hate them or not, we still come back like bees to honey to watch how the plot lines unfold and then are resolved. Which is what has kept the show going for these forty five years.
16 week or less season, so I can see where it is difficult for the writers to write SL’s for a show that is continuous and somewhat cohesive – I’ve sat through a lot of stinkers in just 20 years so I can see what you are saying, having watched as long as you have. I think, as you mentioned about the internet/spoilers, that we are an entire different audience now-a-days as we are an instant gratification society. All I can say for the sloooooooooooooow moving SL’s is thank goodness for FF’ding and DVRs!!!
I’ve also watched since the 60’s and yes, some of those storylines dragged on but they weren’t front and center and in our faces every day. A lot of the time we were as in the dark as the characters and it played out with us. It’s not the internet and spoilers that tell us this it’s the writers. We see the act played out and and then have to sit through months and months of rehashes and flashbacks.
The longest storyline I can remember was Laura and Bill’s affair and Mike’s paternity. Only a couple of people in Salem knew the truth and it was a secret for years but it wasn’t the main storyline. It was background and surfaced years later when the truth came out. They could have done that with Sydney and it would have been great. Let EJ and Nicole raise her with Doc Baker, Brady and Nicole being the only ones who knew that Nicole miscarried. Don’t dwell on it day after day with the truth threatening to come out and knowing it will. Mention it and let it go. That would have been a great story but they had to ruin it by dragging it ino the Sydnapping and then the revenge.
episodes of Days have aired since it came on TV. That’s an awful lot of writing and imagination in use. I understand that there will be plots and storylines I don’t like. I also understand some will be dragged out ad nauseum. But I guess I’m the glass-half-full kind of person and I’m willing to accept that there’s bad with the good and will stand by my show through what I like and what I don’t. But, please, don’t take away my ability to gripe and complain about what I don’t! :o)
(where a lot of stars got their start like Alec Baldwin and Kathleen Turner) and talk about dragging stories. These people would sit on their office desks and chat endlessly!
I always thought it would be a good SL to have Sami raise Grace and Nicole raise Sydney for 5-10 years. When the truth finally came out, the story would bewho is your child— the child you gave birth to or the childyou raise.It would have made a dramatic story.
with Gabby. The show did a story on "who was her real child?" Gave Gabby a breakdown and all. And it’s happened in the news too – what a conundrum for your scenario to play out JustWondering – although baby Grace’s story was moving and a tear jerker. I think your SL would have been much more interesting for Sami and Nicole, even if it didn’t carry out quite ten years…as the show tends to age children so fast. At five years old, that would have been great as Johnny and Ally are four now (based on last BD’s).
And what-What-WHAT was the point of Johnny loosing his eye? I’m still wondering about that one…other than what they did with R2 and Johnny on Friday’s show…
I really don’t know if that was necessary. they could have just did the scare without losing his eye.
they have something planned in the future that will do with his eye. BTW, you don’t get an artificial eye in just one trip to the hospital.
some truth to the fact that the internet makes it harder when you see a storyline that you do not like is continuing for an extended period. However I think most can be wrapped up in 3-4 months. Not 6 months plus. I mean the flashbacks alone are exhausting. For instance with EJ and Taylor’s scarf scene. Total nonsense and not that great of a scene and yet how many time were we forced to watch this? I wish Days could poach a writer from Y&R.
love to become paid writers for t.v., seems soaps would be a good start to get the creative juices flowing…just wish that DOOL would take some in as interns and get rid of some of the veteran writers who are stale as 6 day old bread!
about there being better writers out there. I’m sure that anybody that’s hired does a great job in the beginning because they have fresh ideas and lots of plots and storylines in mind. But, keep in mind that soaps have been around for a long, long, time. Even before TV they were a very popular genre on the radio. That uses up just about every situation you can possibly think of. (I challenge anyone to come up with some kind of story/plot that’s never been done before.)
So, you hire some fresh new writers and they have to write for an hour, five days a week, 52 weeks a year. (That’s 260 primetime programs, year after year after year!) They’ve soon exhausted all their material and now have to wrack their brains for somethings that hasn’t been done before, or hasn’t been done on another soap, or hasn’t been dragged on for months and months. I don’t know, maybe I’m just more tolerant that the rest of you (not something I’ve ever been accused of*), but I believe that everybody is doing the best they can and anybody new they might hire would soon be in the same position. I’m sure that if Corday thought he could hire any better writers than he has now, don’t you think he’d do it?
Sorry for the rant but sometimes I think we’re just a little too hard on people who are doing a very difficult and obviously thankless job.
* I have a plaque in my office that says: "Lord grant me patience, and I want it right now!"
“dragging” out plots, but the plots themselves get tedious too quickly. Rafe2 was interesting for a few episodes but it has gotten same ol’, and now with the less than scintillating Dario in the mix I’m anxious to either see some entertaining stuff or close it out.
Also the pace of today’s culture with everything “instant” has contributed to our limited attention span. What was tolerated 15/20 years ago – like the storylines of the past mentioned above – just doesn’t seem to cut it today.
But above all, character/relationship development is sadly lacking. I am far more interested in Kate/Stef and Mags/Vic than the other musical couples.scenarios to write about. My little caveat would be that they would put a few more variations on these same themes and not have them go on so long.
I also agree except I don’t care if you repeat certain themes in soaps such as how we handle relationships with our families and with the opposite sex, love and death and mysteries and pretty much anything that is dramatic and interesting. I think all of that can be done over and over interestingly while we watch how different characters handle it. I am just tired of having constant triangles/quadrangles and stupid mind erasing Sci Fi BS shoved down my throat at least once or twice a year. It’s unnecessary and boring.
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