A Critic’s Review Of Days of our Lives: Murder Suspects, Shocking Exits

When it comes to Days of our Lives, every fan has their own opinion – and Soap Hub is no different. For a week we sat and watched the good, the bad, and everything in between, and now we offer you a handy review, and a cheeky critique, of the DAYS week that was.

Days of our Lives: A Critic’s Week In Review

We need to talk about Theo (Cameron Johnson) and Ciara (Victoria Konefal) and the shows decision to have them merrily exit the canvas together. It’s wrong. It’s all kinds of wrong.

It’s wrong for the simple fact that Theo, formerly one of the soaps most virtuous characters – and that’s saying something – is fully aware of the fact that Ciara is not in full control of her faculties and that she’d never abandon Ben (Robert Scott Wilson) otherwise. And lord forbid he actually attempts to take the kiss that he shared with her any further.

DAYS has always had a murky reputation where the concept of consent is concerned. Many of their most popular couplings were born out of storylines featuring sex under duress or via coercion – Bill Horton and Laura Spencer, Susan Martin and Eric Peters, and Sami (Alison Sweeney) and E.J. immediately spring to mind.

One would think that a soap featuring so many female characters who have been raped or sexually assaulted – Marlena (Deidre Hall), Kayla (Mary Beth Evans), Sami, Nicole (Arianne Zucker), Allie (Lindsay Arnold), Jan (Heather Lindell), Jennifer (Cady McClain), Julie (Susan Seaforth Hayes), and Abigail (Marci Miller) – would tread far more lightly.

Further DAYS Musings

* Here’s an idea. Shouldn’t the lab technicians examine Belle’s (Martha Madison) coat and determine whether or not the all-important button came from it BEFORE she’s arrested and charged with murder?

And speaking of the “Sorry Charlie” murder…are we really expected to suspend our disbelief to the point that we’d buy Jan as his killer?

It was, what, two weeks ago that Belle received a summons to the hospital because all signs indicated Jan might regain consciousness? So, did those same signs just not manifest themselves the first time she woke up? Was the security so lax that a patient could just sneak out and back in at will?

Jan being the shooter is an absolute cop out – and something we feared would be the case right from the very beginning. But at least Charlie’s executioner didn’t turn out to be a never before seen character.

* While everyone else is probably pondering how Kristen (Stacy Haiduk) will extract herself from her latest pickle, we are not. No, we know that she’s going to resort to the tried and true…and yes, that does mean she’s about to conjure up a Kate (Lauren Koslow) mask.

What we want to be explained, is what exactly was up with the scrunchie adorning Kristen’s Susan wig. In her scene with Brady (Eric Martsolf), it’s atop her head – slightly skewed to the right. In her scenes opposite Vivian (Linda Dano), it was on the opposite side much lower down. And then, when she entered the DiMera mansion it was back to its original place. Weird.

* Anyone else a little ticked off that Abby seems determined to blame Gwen (Emily O’Brien) for absolutely everything and, at the same time, absolve Chad (Billy Flynn) of any wrongdoing? Gwen didn’t force him to sleep with her. He chose to believe the worst of his wife and cheat on her. In our book, that’s far more unforgivable a sin than what Gwen did – her little poisoning act notwithstanding.

* Xander (Paul Telfer) and Chanel’s (Precious Way) foiled plot to bilk Paulina (Jackée Harry) was short, sweet, and to the point. It didn’t drag, and it was humorous. More like this please. Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.