Thursday, February 24, 2011

Correction: Whose mind is the scene of the crime?



Since the leaked footage of Sami shooting EJ hit the internet like a shit storm, people have been speculating that anything and everything that’s happened since that fateful night in the no-security home of the DiMeras is just someone’s nightmare (I mean someone aside from just myself and about ninety-nine percent of Days’ viewers).  Now that the show has finally hit infinitely ridiculous proportions not seen since the Salem Stalker fiasco with this whole Rafe/Efar disaster, the saccharine suppository Ken Corday decided to administer in the form of the EJ/Taylor love story, and Chloe’s leap off the pier (possibly in an attempt to escape the show), the speculation that this could all be a dream is our dream.




Remember how you felt when you discovered “Rosebud” was a sled?  Or that Malcolm Crowe was a ghost?  Remember gasping when that Raquel Welch poster was torn away to reveal the tunnel Andy Dufresne had spent almost twenty years digging with nothing more than a small rock hammer?

Pretty damn awestruck, huh?  Heartstrings suitably tugged at, right?



I’ve always loved a good surprise ending.  And I’ve never been one to not enjoy the surprise more than once.  It’s why I’ve watched Mildred Pierce more than a dozen times.  It’s why I can recite every line from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.

I’m not usually into the whole “…and then he woke up” thing.  I hated when Roseanne used a similar gimmick to explain away all the shark-jumping it had done in its last couple of seasons in an attempt to save a little face.  I thought it was an absolute travesty when six seasons of St. Elsewhere were revealed to be the imagined goings-on in an autistic boy’s snowglobe.  I laughed my ass off when the U.S. adaptation of Life on Mars ended with the main character actually being an astronaut having a dream while on his way  to – yep – Mars (incidentally, the finale of the original UK version is heralded as being one of the best endings of all time).

Would it bother me if the past six months turned out to be a dream?  Yes and no.

It wouldn’t bother me if the dream gimmick was used merely as a means to an end.  Characters have been destroyed.  Storylines make no sense.  Reveals have flopped.  Let’s make like none of this ever happened.  It was all a dream.  What happens on Melaswen stays on Melaswen.

It would bother me if “…and it was all just a dream” was TPTB’s plan all along.  I watched a kid losing his eye over Christmas.  I watched Jennifer get filleted.  I watched Taylor trying to lift off by huffing the cologne from EJ’s cashmere scarf.  I watched Brady physically throw Nicole out of his house.  I watched EJ’s body convulsing and bleeding over, and over, and over again.  If the writers are patting themselves on the back for all this, I’m ready to take some eyes out myself – something I promised I’d give up for Lent.




I grew up watching Mystery and Jeremy Brett’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on PBS.  I loved movies like Bunny Lake is Missing and Chase a Crooked Shadow.  I loved looking for clues.  I always wanted to be the first person in the room to crack the case.  When EJ’s shooting first happened I was looking for clues, hints, symbols - anything that would make sense out of what I’d just seen.  I compiled a list, kept track of any lines of dialogue that seemed wonky, props that seemed out of place, made note of any strange camera angles and close-ups.


So what happened?  Well, days turned into weeks and then months.  I just stopped caring about whether or not there was a twist on the horizon.  My patience has been whittled down to a splinter.  If the shooting was revealed to be just a dream after a couple of weeks I’d maybe have given some props to the writers.  But the show shouldn’t be a test of wills.  The very nature of the twist is that you don’t see it coming.  The story is going in one direction and just as your mind starts to go into autopilot things veer off-road, sending your head into a tailspin.  Right now Days is going in so many different directions you’d need a twist stapled to your forehead to recognize it as such.  Let’s also keep in mind that right now on Days a twist is Caroline being the one behind the paternity test switch, Stefano being the head of the organ snatching operation, and Efar.  A twist, in retrospect, needs to make sense.  A twist has you gasping "How did I not see that?", not "Jesus Christ, what the fuck just happened?"

I like a surprise ending only if a good time was had getting there.  Thus far, the past six months have not been a fun ride.  The past couple of weeks alone have been downright unbearable.  If I were to find out that this was all the result of the powers that be making a group effort out of trying to channel Carl Jung, I’d be mad as hell.  However, if the writers admitted to their mistakes, giving me the opportunity to forgive them, I’d be more inclined to overlook their inadequacies.  Alright, maybe not.  But at the very least it would make me feel a little better, and isn’t that what I deserve right now?  I’ve been putting up with so much crap for so long at the hands of these writers. I think I’m entitled to having my ass kissed a few dozen times by the powers that be.

So let’s say the past few months have been just a dream.  How would you feel about that?  Whose dream would you prefer it belong to?  Which characters/storylines would you want to be involved?  What would you want the dream to erase and what would you want to keep?  Which one of the powers that be do you think is behind the madness?  Will things change now that Chris Whitesell is out?

Speculate.  Rant.  Go for it.


19 comments:

  1. Amen my Twin! I would much rather find out that they made a mistake rather than this pile of feces known as Rafe/Rafe2 and Taylor fiasco was their plan. The past few months has been like watching the plot of a porno without the pay off of watching people do it. It's not a dream it's a fucking nightmare.

    The whole EJ and Taylor thing was so bad. I know Taylor never saw a photo of EJ before, which is iffy as she was staying with Lexie. But did she not mention to one person that the once in a lifetime love at first sight encounter with a man was with a gigantically tall Englishman? Last time I checked, their haven't been many of those walking around in Salem. His description alone should have been a red flag! Writer's, do better.

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  2. Days stinks right now. Wish they would get their act together and write a consistent story. If this is just a 'dream', then they have dragged it out way too long. Almost to the point of who cares anymore. Nobody will remember all the twists and turns that got us to the end. The whole point of it will be lost.

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  3. For me the show is just not showing me why any of these characters are doing any of these things. There is no MO. Why did Sami shoot Ej in cold blood while he was dead drunk. They can say all along that it was because she was afraid he would hurt her or the kids, but they never show you why. It's like you have to take everything at face value but there is no proof to back it up. Again why is Taylor so in love with a man that she had a 30 second meeting with twice. Because we tell you so, but nevermind what you really saw, it's what we tell you you're suppose to believe. Again no MO or feelings are actually shown on screen we are just suppose to believe everything the writers tell us. And then there is the big one for me...Ej falling out of love with the woman(Sami) who he has loved for 5 years, thru thick and thin, so he could fall in love with the woman(Nicole) who tried to destroy his life not once but twice. That to me makes the most unbelieveable plot point writing of all and the least sense. They aren't showing any of the motivations of why he would suddenly pull a 180. They just are writing it so it must be true! DOOL used to have heart. It used to make sense, but not no more. It's all, this is now that was then. Just like Cordey said it would be when he hired the passions crew to ruin the show. If this is and that is a BIG if someones dream I'm hoping it's Nicole's because she seems to be the only one getting anything out of this crazy dream. She gets Ej, Ej and Sami away from each other, and to top it off Sami's kids as her own. I know one thing, this is definitely my worst nightmare!!! Thanks for letting me rant!

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  4. Dream scenario only if EJ wakes up before the wedding and confesses to Sami about the Sydnapping so Ralf can't spoil the wedding.

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  5. You are a clever, clever girl my darling. Why can't this blog be liquified and injected directly into the throbbing veins of the DOOL writers. I believe you speak for the vast majority of Days GA and TIIC JUST DON"T GET IT.
    I agree with Julie 100% if this is a dream scenario, it needs to end before the wedding and certainly well before the shooting. This is not EJ's nightmare it's Sami's! EJ does not need to come to any realisation, Sami does. I heart you Lamotri Jane.

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  6. I don't care if it's a dream if it'll erase the nightmare from the last six months.

    If it is the writers need to let us know now.

    Instead of coming across as totally incompetent.

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  7. This show is a real bore right now, almost all the character's behaviour don't make a freaking sense even for Dool's type of writing..it is sad..

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  8. I wouldn't have a problem with a dream scenario hell I prefer it at least the show would actually make sense. As at this point the characters are unrecognizable, the writing for women is offensive and patronizing to the viewer.

    There are so many problems with the show where not one female character is likeable. For example Sami Brady the female lead has no moral compass she shoots an unarmed and passed out man her ex and father of her two children is irrefutably one of the most callous scenes I've ever seen. Not to mention she is self-righteous as she is the one that began this lie and then proceeds to conceal their daughter, Grace, and when she dies she only tells her ex, EJ after the tragic event and we as a viewer are expected to root for her. This Sami Brady I knew and loved had a conscience, this present character does not interest and frankly if she was to leave tomorrow and her dullard husband who is equally unrootable as he was prepared to sell out his sister for Sami and he is an FBI agent I wouldn't miss them if they left.

    EJ DiMera is the best character on the show without doubt a multi-dimensional character and we are expected to buy that he would play second fiddle to that dullard husband of Sami's and EJ would be interested in that sickly sweet character Taylor. Not to mention the contrived scenes they have been written for.

    Good God I hope it is someone's nightmare aside from it being this viewer's. If they could kill so many characters and then place them on an island without the viewer knowing, then lets's hope the twist is a dream. The average viewer would watch it if it gave them what they wanted after all it is a soap.

    The person I blame for making this once loved show into the travesty and laughing stock it has become is Ken Corday after all his title is Executive Producer. The show is the worst I've ever seen some of the worst pairings, stories not being resolved, the dialogue lacks punch, the pacing of the show is atrocious-it had better be a nightmare this may be the only way to repair the damage.

    If they can pull of Inception and ppl watched it then they can pull this off too. The viewer is so desperate to be entertained once more that yes they would buy the dream. Anything to fix the show.

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  9. It won't piss me off. Just erase the entire suckfest right back to mid August and make a do-over.

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  10. Ah yes, the leaked episodes. WTF was that all about? I can't believe those scenes were random. The camera people put a great deal of thought into the positioning of the mirrors to create a reverse image. Then there's the editing of Sami and Rafe sexing it up while EJ lay bleeding. I will never believe that those scenes didn't have a purpose. While I understand that red herring is always the fish of the day at Days, those scenes weren't the same as throw away plot points - Nicole getting her hand on all of Dr. Baker's letters anyone, but I digress. Thos scenes were shot and edited with a purpose in mind. There had to have been a decision to change the direction of that storyline. Was it KC? Maybe, but he can't accomplish anything by himself. He needs help. Was it CW that had a new vision that everyone signed on to? TPTB threw an awful lot of well-acted, intense material in the garbage in favor of pursuing the "moving" wedding in the woods. Since the two Rafes and the Taylor recast seem to be sudden changes, it would appear that TPTB have figured out they have a shit sandwich and are trying to make it better by adding mustard and pickles. CW got the axe so they know the condiments aren't doing the trick. I think all the work that was put into the wedding/Sami-shoots-EJ storyline can easily be resurrected. Due to the intensity of those scenes, TPTB won't even have to rely on flashbacks to jog the viewers' memories. Should they pull a reversal? Unless egos continue to get in the way, a do over would be advised. Whose dream? I'll go with Sami dreaming she shot EJ. What happens when she comes out of her fog? She returns to the mansion to finally clear the air between the two of them. She could even save EJ from trying to commit suicide. Let's face it. Right now Sami's living a nightmare with two Rafes. Since the shooting, Sami has gone through an unexplained personality change. EJ has also been acting out of character but he's been reacting to Sami. Basically, Sami has been calling all the shots in her relationship or nonrelationship with EJ. To me it makes sense that her brain as taken about six months off.

    Unless he was just a scapegoat, I see things changing now that CW is gone. Will they be for the better? That remains to be seen.

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  11. Great article. I don't think the DOOL writers have what it takes to pull off a dream that would last this long but this show is so messed up at least a dream would help make sense of it all. If it is a dream I would want it to be EJ's dream that he has after Hope knocked him out and has been in a coma dreaming what would happen if he didn't confess about the Sydnapping. He can wake up, tell Sami the truth, she has the strength of Ghandi to forgive him and we go from there. I hated seeing Hope try to burn Bo alive and the writers could somehow tie that in to part of the dream so that it never happened along with the shooting, the suicides, Jen's heart, Johnny's eye and double Rafe's. Whether planned or done to write themselves out of the mess they're in I lack faith in their ability to pull it off in a way that would be believable.

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  12. You have basically summed up how I feel about this dream theory. If it was their plan all along... then they need to be fired for putting us through all of this mess for nothing. If it wasn't (and I think that is very likely because these writers have proven they are incompetent) then they still need to be fired because they actually thought this mess was a good idea and need to pull like this to get themselves out. But if this is a nightmare (original intention or not) it should be Sami's because most of this is framed around her. She tried to murder EJ, she married Rafe, she lost her kids and got them back because of Johnny's eye and all that and now Nicole is all up in her children's life while EJ is being Stefano Jr. all over again. It seems like Sami's nightmare and it will have to get worse (God help us all) for her to wake up. It's like her brain is trying to play out what would happen if she left EJ and chose Rafe. Would she really be happy and get everything she wanted? Or would she never be free of the cycle of the Dimeras? What would make this even less of a cop-out if they delved into why she never fully chose EJ at the end of it all, you know? The secret is revealed, EJ and Sami come head to head and it all comes out. At the end of the day EJ represents a part of her she is ashamed of and wants to run from it so she becomes this vanilla step-ford wife. But she can't run from it because that is the source of her sass, spunk and fire and as long as EJ is around she is always reminded of it. She needs to embrace it and just be herself.

    And then she wakes up, with EJ by her side at the hospital and they deal with the sydnapping the right way.

    At least that is what I would do if I was writing the show. kinda.

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  13. Even though "Days" has been a nightmare lately, I'd feel pretty ripped off if someone's been dreaming for the past several months. Yeah, they've made a mess; they've had characters doing things that make us scratch our heads and wonder if the body snatchers have come to Salem, but . . . I'd rather see them write themselves out of this hole without using the dream exit strategy. Also, I can actually see some serious potential in a story born of the shooting, so I don't really want someone to have dreamed that. When it comes to Sami and EJ (call me a sicko), her shooting him was almost like foreplay. But seriously. It fits with their whole Heathcliff/Cathy dynamic. I can believe that Sami shooting EJ is, in their twisted and beautiful love story, evidence of how much she loves him because he is the man who brings that kind of crazy passion out of her. Maybe my thinking on this is further evidence that I should be on a couch somewhere talking about my mother, but anyway, my problem comes with the fact that the shooting was thrown in and not milked for the intense story between Sami and EJ that I wanted to come of it. My disappointment came when Sami failed to show any remorse and turned into the Queen of Smug and begin to look to the King of Smug for his approval with the fake "I love you's" flying back and forth all the time to make sure we know it, but I still want to see that story. I still want to see Sami realize how she feels about EJ and to have to face what she did to him. I don't want Sami to wake up, EJ to still be there waiting to marry her, and everything hunky dory. I want to see the story of pain and redemption that should have come after the shooting play, and though this idiotic Rafenstein story has eclipsed it (and we've had to suffer through watching a delicate flower swooning as though she's lost the love of her life after two chance encounters with him), I'm still hoping for that story.

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  14. The person I want gone from the show is KC he is the one to blame for these ridiculous stories palying out on screen he is the reason why we don't have EJami.

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  15. I would absolutely love this idea, but I'll believe it when I see it. The truth is Ejamis are not the only fan base. If it were all a dream that would royally piss off the Bopes, Safes, Mates, and many others I'm sure. Still, seeing the Inception top in your commentary made me realize that both Days and Passions have always ripped off current pop-culture phenomenon. When they got the idea for this story arc Inception was really big and everyone was talking about dreams and trying to figure out what it all could mean. But I'm with you Diggy, if this is the route they are going they could sure have done it better and made it more interesting.

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  16. If this is their idea of Inception goes Days, then it's a major fail because of the length of time involved. Hell, the Mid-East has imploded and we're on the precipice since this crapfest rolled out! Even Inception gave us a payoff within three hours! Right now, I'll forgive their transgressions if this has been the plan all along and just chalk it up to the fact that they are writers for daytime, not the big screen. If May comes and goes and no movement in this direction, I will have been punked for the last time.

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  17. "Days" needs THIS man!!!!!! =) ♥♥♥♥♥♥ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc7Z4J9kOdI !!!!!! =) ♥♥♥♥♥♥

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  18. insightful as always the people that read diggy's blog. AND DIGGY you are a Goddess.

    I would love it to be a dream, but then I would expect Nathan, Philip and gah, even Stephanie to still be around. By the time the writers come up with the idea of someone waking up from this crapfest the actors will have exited the building.

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  19. Love your blog!!!

    Chris Whitesell being fired will have no effect whatsoever. He's a scapegoat, just as Ed Scott was, not the problem.

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