Days of our Lives Demonstrates How You Introduce New Teens

We’d been waiting for Days of our Lives to expand their teen scene by aging a couple of the younger characters, and they finally chose to do so with Holly Jonas and Tate Black. And, even though we saw both born onscreen and have caught glimpses of them growing up over the years, they are still basically new characters, now played by Ashley Puzemis and Jamie Martin Mann, respectively. Viewers need help warming up to new faces. And DAYS introduced the future presumable couple, perfectly.

Days of our Lives: We Are Family

Our first glimpse of now-teenage Tate was with his parents, Brady (Eric Martsolf) and Theresa (Emily O’Brien). That was a good start. We then saw him with Grandma Marlena (Deidre Hall) and Grandpa John (Drake Hogestyn). In those scenes, Tate alternated between being cocky, being emo, and being annoyed. Sure, typical teen. But we’ve got those at home. We need a reason to watch him on television.

DAYS: See Me, Hear Me

Viewers got their first glimpse of what’s beneath the obnoxious exterior when Tate — rather accurately — accused Brady of only suddenly being interested in him because he’d lost custody of Rachel (Finley Rose Slater), the child Brady really loved. Brady denied, denied, denied. He might have even meant it. But we saw a glimmer of truth in Tate’s complaint. And it made us connect with him in a way we hadn’t earlier.

Blended Days of our Lives Family

Holly was also a bit of a mystery. Her crush on Johnny (Carson Boatman) seemed to come out of nowhere. Especially since, a year ago at Halloween, Holly was still playing dress up. And not the sexy kind. We had no reason to root for her, except that she was Nicole’s (Arianne Zucker) daughter.

Except, that is, until she came swooping down on Rachel, calling the little brat all the names fans wished we could have called her ever since she started pitting dad Brady against mom Kristen (Stacy Haiduk). Having Holly not treat Rachel like God’s gift to girlhood gave her a much-needed edge. And made us want to see what she’ll get up to next. Bravo, DAYS — this is how you introduce your SORAS-ed teens!

The best place for true soap fans to be is our Facebook groups. Have you joined? If you love soap spoilers, gossip, and fans as dedicated as yourself, check out Days of our Lives Fans, General Hospital Exclusive, The Young and the Restless Fans, and The Bold and the Beautiful Fans.