One Straw Too Many - The Second-to-Last Days Blog

I've never really had a plan when it comes to the blog.

Sometimes, it's a critique... other times, it's therapy. Occasionally I feel like I'm on a pedestal, and sometimes I feel like I'm in a ditch. Although it seems like the last few times I've made mention of Days of Our Lives in this blog, it's like a re-opened wound. There's a personal edge, a lack of objectivity, a razor-sharp slice through my creativity and integrity that almost always draws the equivalent of blood in my soul.

And frankly, I'm tired of it.

Last night, I took part in another round-table discussion with the guys over at Daytime Confidential about the firings of Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall. It just went up online (follow the above link), and you'll listen to it and hear the usual stuff - Jamey and Luke are excellent moderators, Mike was a welcome addition, Nelson is sarcastic and blunt... and I'm kinda sullen. I just don't have any rant left in me. I'm not calling for anybody's head on a platter, and I'm calling anybody any names. The whole scenario has a feeling of "Been there, done that" to the nth degree.

So this is my last Days blog. Well, almost my last Days blog. It just seems like an exercise in futility to question where the business acumen is, or common sense... the respect for your audience, and the artistic skill to inspire fans to return to their television sets in the afternoon. Other shows are trying things - and sure, they're failling a lot of the time, but occasionally they're succeeding. And at least they haven't given up. But Days - I just feel like it's existing from day to day with no real drive. And why bother analyzing it, or studying the situation, or questioning how to fix it? It's Soap-By-Numbers - a renewal fans received, but at what cost? (Talk to Guiding Light fans - they'll tell you)

One of two things will happen in eighteen months - a miracle will occur and the show will feel like home again for millions of fans, or it will shrivel up on the vine and disappear from our lives forever. Once that final decision is made, then I'll come back and revisit Days one last time - I'll look at everything that's transpired and give my thoughts on it.

But in the meantime, I'm tired of devoting this much energy, this much thought, this much typing, and this much caring into a show that's more concerned with hiding its desperation and masking its more-than-apparent behind-the-scenes politics by pretending it's just "business as usual". This isn't business as usual. This is scraping and clawing your way to an inevitable cancellation.

I wish nothing but the best for Days. I grew up on this show, I was thrilled and inspired by so many of its stories. But this is like that insane ex whose antics you get wrapped up in for too many years, and one day you just realize, "Enough. I have better things to do with my time." It should make you sad. But it doesn't. You just don't care anymore.

I look at Marlena Delacroix's latest OLTL blog and I am so moved by the passion she has for the abomination that was Todd and Marty's "love-making" on One Life to Live. In the midst of typing this about Days, I am so touched by the drive she has to right this wrong. There was a time not too long ago I had that same cry for change when it came to the residents of Salem. But they do not welcome it, nor do they agree with me, in terms of that change. They do not learn from their mistakes, nor do they learn from the mistakes of other shows that air around them.

I pray One Life to Live... and All My Children and General Hospital and As the World Turns and Guiding Light and Bold and the Beautiful and Young and the Restless, for that matter... all take a moment and realize that in their quest to lower costs and anticipate which action sequence will thrill their fans more or which shocking headline in the press will bring in more ratings, realize that as they build up new characters played by younger actors struggling to make it through an episode in this fast-paced machine... they're alienating the people who indirectly keep them employed.

I continue to root for the genre. I will go on to write much, both positive and negative, about what's transpiring out there. But Days - there's nothing more to say.

Drake and Dee - I wish you nothing but the best. And I hope to see you back on our screens soon. Days will continue on the path its on - it's time to focus on other shows that aren't repeating the mistakes of the past.

This twenty-five year viewer? He's just not that into you anymore...



(Special thanks to Daytime Royalty and Daytime Confidential for alerting me to this video clip!)