EJAMI vs. BRICOLE: A Tale of Two Couples

Tell me Bricole versus Ejami wouldn’t be awesome.  Actually, don’t bother.  I won’t be able to hear you because the sheer volume of amazing storyline potential is blowing my mind.

Why is Days wasting all the chemistry here?  I’m not just talking about sacrificing EJ’s chemistry with Sami for the tepid, coma-inducing Sami/Rafe pairing, or wasting Nicole’s chemistry with Brady on EJ and Nicole’s third spin on the not-so-merry-go-round.  I’m talking about Sami and Nicole, and Brady and EJ. 

Have I mentioned before that I love what Eric Martsolf has done with Brady?  If I haven’t, here it is: Eric Martsolf has made Brady for me.  The character, in a clumsier actor's hands, could have really gone to pot over the past year.  What kept him compelling is the same thing that keeps characters like EJ and Nicole compelling – the actor brings another dimension to what would otherwise be a one-dimensional, run-of-the-mill villain.  He makes the grey.  There’s been many a time I’ve wanted to turn on Brady because he’s done something stupid, or he’s crossed the line into Black Brady, but then Eric turns it on, and you can see the pain and anger in his eyes, and all is well with the world again.  Well…it isn’t, but Brady isn’t on your shit list anymore.

Eric Martsolf and Arianne Zucker killing it.

One thing we know about soap couples is that very rarely one actor can be exchanged for another and still keep the romantic potential alive.  Kyle Lowder was amazing paired with both Arianne Zucker and Nadia Bjorlin.  Eric seamlessly took over and still maintained the same level of chemistry between both actresses – not an easy thing to do, especially when one of those women is married to the guy whose shoes he’s been hired to fill.

While it’s now a mystery for the ages why Eric’s Brady was never slung into a love triangle with Chloe and Nicole when Dena was so crazy about the shape, it’s now an even bigger mystery why Nicole and Brady have never really been given a fighting chance to be together.  Nicole has married EJ twice now.  Neither time has it worked out.  Neither time was Nicole EJ’s first choice.  Meanwhile, Brady and Nicole were barely together for four months before they were ripped apart again by bad writing.  With EJ and Sami, it took even less time to break them up, and it made even less sense given how the story had been written up until that point in time.  Having Nicole marry EJ a second time, and having Brady let her marry him a second time, makes idiots out of the three of them. 

Of course there’s no bigger idiot these days than Sami.  She’s lost somewhere up Rafe’s ass right now.  I’m hoping the new writers have given him an enema of some sort to dislodge Sami’s head.  But that’s a whole other entry and still remains to be seen.

Anyways, here’s the thing – Nicole, Brady, EJ and Sami are too damn old for all this triangle nonsense.  By the time most soap characters have hit their thirties, they start settling down a bit.  They start having direction and knowing what they want.  I’m not saying they sit out on their porches whittling while their wives do some needlepoint and gossip about the neighbours.  I’m talking about jobs, motivations, goals.  Strides taken towards acquiring those things, at the very least.  Sami and Nicole are too old to be beating each other over the head with stuffed animals.  Some personal growth would be nice.  Sami’s been given the husband and the kids, but there hasn’t been any personal growth.  The kids remain in third place behind her relationship with Rafe and her thirst for the blood of anyone who threatens that relationship. 

But again – that’s a whole other entry. 

Let’s talk about the ultimate pairing.  Ejami and Bricole.

Does anyone else find it ridiculous that the current threat of a Kiriakis/DiMera feud sounds about as compelling as a bake-off?  Let's face it - I love Stefano and Victor, but two angry, elderly men and a street fight do not an intriguing story of warring crime families make. 

But two strong, scheming women working alongside their power-hungry husbands to bring down the other’s empire, while the men also struggle with the emotional turmoil that comes from wanting to be their own men and not just their respective mentors’ pawns?  That’s good soap.  Throw in Nicole’s resentment of Sami over her inability to have children, or the fact that she’s married to and deeply in love with a man who has stated more than once that he has no interest in raising a family, and Sami’s continued loathing of Nicole being Nicole, and you’ve got the next generation of the Kiriakis/DiMera feud right there.  You’ve also got the seedlings of a great future storyline for their children, should you choose to do some SORASing.  Other stuff that can be explored:  Nicole’s volatile relationship with Victor, Sami’s relationship with John now that she’s being pitted against his son, Uncle Bo and Papa Roman being torn between doing their job and keeping Sami out of trouble, Sami fighting with Kate to be Queen DiMera. Nicole being a reporter (have I mentioned that I want Nicole to work with Jack and Jenn at the Salem Spectator?  No?  I’ll mention it now) and using it to her advantage to dig up dirt on the DiMeras (she’s going to do it anyways – she might as well be getting paid to do it).  Bricole vs. Ejami has enough storyline potential to take us into the next decade. 

Sami missed her calling as a "True DiMera".
Why? Only Cordiglay knows.

Why are the powers that be insisting on keeping these two powerhouse couples apart?  The only reason I can come up with is that they’re dead-set on making this Sami/Rafe thing work, for whatever reason.  It hasn’t, it doesn’t, and it won’t.  Trying to make the pairing work has resulted in a sloppy shirt effect.  The first button is in the wrong hole, so all the subsequent buttons aren’t where they’re supposed to be either, and the result is one sloppy-looking guest.

Brady and Nicole, and EJ and Sami are electric together, and their characters would lend themselves beautifully to a tale of two crime families that could inspire countless future storylines.  Where’s the harm in giving these two couples a fighting chance (and a chance to fight)?