Salem gone to the dogs

ShaSha

ShaSha

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How else can I say it, but Camelot had the Dark Ages and now Salem has The Darkness of Hell.:( Seems all is lost in Salem without any signs of the darkness lifting anytime soon.

Morbid and dank. From hit men to murderers raised in Salem, kidnappers, etc., etc. We can just go on and on. When are we going to have some relief? :cry:

Funerals are multiplying and corpses are rising. This could be a prelude to a big zombie classic in Salem.
I am so done. What are your feeling about all this? I believe it is time for all of us to vent and get some therapy along the way. :beat: ShaSha
 
Well I had some high hopes with the new writing regime. I thought the bicentennial celebration was a flop/failure in so many ways. There were months of hype and building of expectations. Instead the focus was on Hope's wedding and the return of Bo.

I enjoyed the final scenes between Bo and Hope, and with Bo and Kayla and Bo and Steve. They were well written and acted. But other than those few scenes, there has been nothing else that is holding my interest right now. I like the new sets and I like the increase in air time of the veterans. I'm just waiting for a good story somewhere. I am willing to give the new writers more time. They may get better with time.
 
A lot of pluses and minuses for me. The show is definitely way too dark. Will didn't need to die nor did Bo in my opinion. Paige could have gone to Stanford.

My biggest issue is with the pacing and plot holes. We get a lot of great buildup to stories, then a so-so reveal and no payoff whatsoever. Instead they just move right on to the next story. We should have seen family members of Ben's victims reacting and going after him. We should have seen Hope and Chase learning the truth about Aiden. We should have seen Eric's reaction to Serena's death. Don't have a cliffhanger and then not show us the resolution. These things should be tv production 101.

The editing is abominable. Belle and Shawn's scenes never should have been cut. Now we don't know Shawn's side of the story. A slap in the face to fans who followed this rootable couple for years. Furthermore, they should have been kept them together as either a solid married couple or a married couple with problems. That age range has enough single characters. This whole divorce thing is ridiculous and repetitive and I'm not interested.

Where are the happily married couples on the show aside from Maggie and Victor and Julie and Doug? Where are the happy weddings? Baptisms? Showers? Etc.

While the writing is better, I'm still not convinced they are listening to fan feedback. Otherwise, Eric and Nicole would be a frontburner story leading to a reconciliation, Sami's ridiculous return storyline never would have happened, and Carrie and Austin would have returned as well.
 
I understand Days felt the need to bring drama with the 50th but it's a little too dreary. I'm into all the crazy plots, murder, brainwashing etc when appropriate but come on! The Christmas episode was even gloomy. I agree about the lack of on screen reactions from huge storyline revelations being unacceptable. Is no one going to talk about Ben murdering half the town or why Aiden wanted to kill Hope? How do we care about Belle/Claire or Lani when their stories were so poorly founded and explored? I thought maybe we'd have to wait a bit after the anniversary to see these kinds of developments but now I just don't see it happening and it's a shame. Too many episodes feel lazy and rushed.
 
I have to agree with what many are saying here. I had high hopes for the new writers but feel somewhat let down. First, I'll say the things that I DO like, to keep on a positive note. I'm SO glad we're spared the crap of the old writers, and I think part of the reason the show isn't living unto expectations is that these new writers had a LOT to fix/work with as they came in, and are doing the best that they can (or, the best they THINK they can).

So I often make excuses for them because the show was in the crapper before they came in and they had a huge mess to clean up. I like that we're seeing more characters at work, less of some of the characters (Daniel) that dominated the soap before, more vets and less newbies/younger people, newer sets (and the return or some older ones), and some really interesting storylines. I think in the long run, the soap will be very interesting.

What I DON'T like is that, as a poster has mentioned a few times on the site before, there's not enough airtime for some of the newbies and young people, and overload on some of the vets (Hope, a bit of Steve and Kayla, but I can excuse that because they were absent for so long and their storyline is nice).

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having more of the vets, but how can we be invested in a newbie like Lani if she has very little airtime or background? And why can't there be more of a balance between people like Gabi and Paul and other characters? Furthermore, the Caroline storyline feels like Passions: supernatural. To me, that doesn't belong on a soap. And I don't like Victor always being around her and neglecting Maggie.

I don't like that Stefano is basically a non-entity and Andre, in my opinion, should never returned, as he has made the show too drab and dark. I don't like Theresa & Brady together, how Philip is acting, Hope's storyline and getting too much airtime, Will dying (or Bo, for that matter), how the Aiden storyline was handled, or how long it took (and is taking, since the Necktie Killer truth was never fully revealed to Hope or Chase) for the Ben story to wrap up.

I think Paige didn't have to die, but could've gone to Stanford, and think that Daniel should be on-screen more and doing his job. I also think Nicole and Daniel should've broken up and she could've been with Eric. And why hasn't Marlena been counseling all these people who have lost loved ones? Why did Sami have to come back and have an awful storyline? Why is Lucas still with Adrienne?

The writers have fixed a lot, but there's still a LONG way to go, and some of the mess was unnecessarily created by them.
 
And such a diverse number of opinions points out how we all view the show, and our favorites. You cannot bring back favorites without getting rid of a few characters. The show only has room/time for x amount of characters. The new writers inherited a serial killer story. And that kind of story doesn't play well with strangers as the victims. By that, I mean background ones........i.e. bartender at TBD, nurse at hospital, babysitter for kids...........

I think, with the young people, the show is doing a good job of letting us get to know them all gradually. Joey & Ciara have gotten the most airtime so far, but we would all be complaining if half the show was Salem High School antics/conversations.

I am definitely in the camp that thinks the Aiden story has been poorly handled. Yes, Rafe mentioned how Aiden was beneficiary to Hope's ins. policy, but nothing said about him doing it, or why. She already had given him $100,000, with no one knowing. And now, she took even more out of her trust fund to pay off Malcolm, but someone else has the money. She won't give info to the police, she is entirely too wrapped up in this revenge thing about Bo, which leaves her children very vulnerable and ...lost.

We have had a lot of flashbacks, some romance (instead of the usual slam, bang, thank you ma'am, porn sex we had been having) and except for Brady/Theresa, it has been really nice. We had nasty via Andre', Kate, serial killer mystery, including danger with some fantastic acting by those involved, adventure. And mostly, nothing is dragged out for 6 mos or more.

Actually, it is nice to see Caroline more than once a month, same goes for Roman, even though he really has no story. But she does. However, as noted, the new writers really had tons of bad stuff to fix, and I like the faster pace. But that doesn't mean we have to ignore explanations. With the holidays coming right after the anniversary, again, it has been difficult to really move on, but am sure that into January, we will be really getting into whatever the new head writing team has in mind for Salem.
 
I know some of you are going to hate me for this, but I would really love to see Jennifer and Roman come together as a couple.

I agree with a lot of you on the gloomy dark stuff. I have been crying for over a month now and as I can see my tears will continue.
 
At this point Tami, I could go for that too. Both characters have been single way too long. Why not have an older man/younger woman couple for a change instead of the opposite like we have been seeing repeatedly.
 
TamiBelle, my grandma and I for a few weeks have been talking about how lovely that would be! Roman has been single for years, Jennifer has nobody to be with, and JJ is entering the force. They haven't dated each others' family members/friends and are around the same age. I think it would be a great pairing.
 
It would definitely be a May/December thing, and makes me feel a little ill!

I should think one major villain would suffice. Andre is too dark, Kate makes me want to slap her silly. Victor could tame his mouth a little when speaking ill of a woman. Ava, Philip, a new Kiriakis and how many more trouble makers. Teens yelling at their parents. I may take up cartoons on PBS.
 
I know it never would have happened and probably never will happen but what they should have done when the previous writing regime was fired and the new one was hired was take a hiatus. I know due to their "money-saving" schedule and union/contract issues with the crew they are unable to do that. But re: the 50th anniversary they should have really taken their time in putting story together for that. There were a lot of miscues there (combining the gala and wedding, lack of flashbacks, no surprise guest returns, pacing, editing, etc.). I wish they would give everyone a month off and then go to taping one episode a day but also keep their current dark week schedule. I'm sorry, but if the other soaps can have anywhere from 4-8 week lead times then so can Days. At this point I would be ok with 3 months instead of the 5-6 we are at now. It's so far beyond ridiculous that the only other adjective I can come up with is absurd.
 
I agree. How is it that Ben managed to murder so many people in Salem and nobody has mentioned it since?

The Philip character seems much older that he should be. Maybe it's just the actor looks a lot older than I remember Philip to be. I don't know.

This Hope murder storyline is by far the worst.
 
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