A Critic’s Review Of DAYS: A Roundup of the Best and Worst of 2023

We here at Soap Hub are never shy when it comes to giving Days of our Lives its lumps when it proves grating or downright frustrating, nor are we backward at coming forward with praise when it’s due – moi especially.

Days of Our Lives — Best and Worst of 2023

In that vein, below you’ll find a roundup of the staff’s Best and Worst of DAYS followed by my ever cheeky, always heartfelt contribution — which may include endorsements and/or rebuttals to my colleagues’ picks…how surprised you must be to hear that we don’t always see eye-to-eye.

Best Hoofing: Dick Van Dyke (Tim Robicheaux) and Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie Williams) cut a rug while Bill Hayes (Doug Williams) supplies the tune. — Diane Brounstein, Editor-in-Chief

Best Romance: Leo (Greg Rikaart) and Dimitri (Peter Porte). It started off badly, it’s ending badly, but it’s so much fun to watch. — Amber Sinclair, Editor

Best Storyline(s): Sloan (Jessica Serfaty) winds up with Nicole’s (Arianne Zucker) baby and Victor’s passing. — Rachel Dillin, Managing Editor

Worst Death: Victor…why leave it open-ended? He should have died in Maggie’s arms. — Amber Sinclair, Editor

Best Back from the Dead: Some feel DAYS does the Lazarus bit with its characters too often but Salem wouldn’t be the same without the delightful Susan Banks (Stacy Haiduk) whom we were happy to see pop up alive. She humanizes EJ (Dan Feuerriegel) and keeps everyone entertained. — Michael Maloney, Sr. West Coast Editor

The Critic Muses Over DAYS In 2023

And The Point Was?: Why tease a reunion between premiere supercouple Bo (Peter Reckell) and Hope (Kristian Alfonso) when said reunion will consist of the two reuniting for the briefest of seconds?

Best At Gratuitous Shirtlessness: Xander Cook (Paul Telfer). Need a picture hung? What about a dart board? Breakfast cooked, laundry folded, or any other household chore? Xander’s your man. And he’s not going to bother with one of those pesky, constricting tops. Win/win.

Best Coupling While It Lasted: Xander and Chloe (Nadia Bjorlin).

Best Mini-me: Holly Jonas (Ashley Puzemis) is most certainly her mother’s daughter.

Best Story Swerve: Xander is Victor’s secret son, not Alex (Robert Scott Wilson).

Best Use of Flashbacks: Whenever a point needs illustrating, you can count on DAYS to deliver in spades.

Best Villain: Megan DiMera (Miranda Wilson). Say what you will about this camp-tastic catalyst, but at least she is a DiMera relation and was given more to do than huff and puff and blow their top about shares in the family company or who’d sit in the CEO’s chair.

Episode I Didn’t Know That I Needed: Don’t tempt with the premise of Marlena (Deidre Hall), Kate (Lauren Koslow), and Kayla (Mary Beth Evans) heading down to the local tattoo shop to get matching tats if you don’t intend to follow through!

Most Needlessly Stretched Out Case Of Amnesia: Abe Carver (James Reyolds). This could also be filed under Most Needlessly Stretched Out Storyline. Despite Abe being the one suffering from memory loss, I’ve been guilty of forgetting that this plot, which has been percolating on the back burner for months on end, is still playing out.

Most Personal Growth: Alex Kiriakis (Robert Scott Wilson). He’s ditched the pretentious non-prescription glasses and stuck to his therapeutic sessions with Dr. Evans, and he even seems to be adhering to the descriptor “one-woman man.” My, how things have changed…for the better.

Least Affecting Breakup: Chad and Stephanie’s (Abigail Klein) parting of the ways less, “Oh what a shame,” and more, “What the Hell took so long?”

Worst Parent: Tie between Chad and Nicole (Arianne Zucker). On the one hand, I can understand the latter needing to “get away from it all” in the wake of “losing” her baby and narrowly avoiding a kidnapping charge, but couldn’t she have waited a day and spent her daughter’s birthday with her?

As for the former, I’m not even convinced that he knows his own children’s names, let alone exactly how they’re feeling in the wake of losing not only their mother but mother figure, Stephanie. And what parent so divorces themselves from parental duty that they leave their kid’s school and dietary concerns to their new partner?

Days of our Lives 2022 Report Card: B- To echo my sentiment from last year’s roundup (which you can review here), when Days of our Lives gets it wrong, they get it very wrong, but when they get it right, it’s some of the best soap opera on offer.

This is the show where every tried-and-true trope is on offer, where generational storytelling thrives, and where eye-roll and guffaw-inducing hijinks stand comfortably alongside heart-wrenching drama. There’s a little something for everybody.

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