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A Critic’s Review Of Days of our Lives: A Retread And Outstanding Performances

The author’s opinions on DAYS are his and his alone. They’re suitably scathing, fairly humorous, and normally bang on target.

days of our lives critic's review for november 13 – november 17, 2023, three images, melinda, leo, nicole.Melinda Trask, Leo Stark, and Nicole Walker DiMera.
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When it comes to Days of our Lives, every fan has their own opinion – and Soap Hub is no different. For five days, 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 of our Lives week that was.

Days of our Lives: The Critic’s POV

Here’s hoping that the upcoming material penned by the interim writers boasts even a modicum of originality. Sloan (Jessica Serfaty) and Melinda’s (Tina Huang) stealing Nicole’s (Arianne Zucker) baby is but a retread of both the Grace/Sydney storyline and the “Nicole suffers a miscarriage but intends to pass off teenage Mia’s baby as her own” plot point, even down to the morally corrupt, cash obsessed University Hospital staffer.

The patently unappealing Chad (Billy Flynn)/Stephanie (Abigail Klein)/Everett (Blake Berris) triangle is a rehash of the equally galling Chad/Stephanie/Alex (Robert Scott Wilson) entanglement, but at least the scriptwriters have the decency to outright cop to those similarities.

And then there was Theresa (Emily O’Brien) smacking Konstantin (John Kapelos) in the head with a fire poker — inside the Kiriakis mansion, no less — as if she didn’t do the exact same thing (in the exact same place) to John Black (Drake Hogestyn) years earlier. You’d think we could have at least gotten a line from the vixen about “a startling sense of déjà vu.” Lord knows we fans are suffering from a serious case of it.

Further DAYS Musings

* Not that Holly (Ashley Puzemis) didn’t do the right thing by sharing Nicole’s last known location with Eric (Greg Vaughan), but why did she stop there? Wouldn’t that have been pertinent information to pass on to the authorities?

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* Oh, how I wish Theresa would have just called Konstantin’s bluff and let him put that call into Alex. How could the scheme queen not realize that her undoing would spell the end of Konstantin’s efforts to deceive Maggie (Suzanne Rogers) as well? The dumbing down of savvy characters just to progress story is a sure admittance of failure on the writers’ part. Speaking of….

* While I’ve frequently pleaded in this column for a greater emphasis to be placed on Tia Huang’s Melinda, I never wanted an increase in her screen time to coincide with a complete assassination of her throughline.

* Yes, yes, I realize it was a necessary contrivance to further the narrative, but it was nonetheless nonsensical that Dimitri (Peter Porte) carried Nicole’s baby throughout the hospital only to fail to hand it over to a nurse or doctor and instead transport it back out into the night and over to Sloan’s apartment. (For that matter, make it make sense that Maggie would stop to check on Konstantin rather than give chase to the person napping her grandbaby?) Also, how did Leo (Greg Rikaart) know Sloan’s home address? It’s not like business was ever conducted at her place.

And while I’m not keen on investing too much in Nicole and co.’s predicament, I’d be remiss if I did give praise to Zucker and Dan Feuerriegel and their outstanding performances. Also, who knew the comedy stylings of Porte and Rikkart were exactly what I needed in my life? More please!

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