In the soap opera world, Agnes Nixon — who never wrote for Days of our Lives — is credited with the command to “make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.” The quote actually predates her by about a century, attributed to both Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. Collins and Dickens may have written serials, but soaps are what really demonstrated how that maxim works.
Days of our Lives: It’s About Drama
For instance, on DAYS, Michael Horton’s paternity literally stretched out for over a decade. We’re still in the middle of trying to figure out who John Black (Drake Hogestyn) really is. And Megan’s (Miranda Wilson) plot to have Bo (Peter Reckell) to herself went on for years. On the other hand, two recent stories, which should have lasted for weeks, if not months, were spoiled in 24 hours – by the show itself!
DOOL: Pick Your Poison
We were truly curious about who spiked the biscuits at Sweet Bits, making everyone want to have sex with the person who happened to be standing in front of them. We were on the edge of our seats, waiting to find out. And then we found out. Right in the next episode. Talia Hunter (Aketra Sevellian)…it was Talia. Why did she…oh, Colin (Jasper Newman). She did it for Colin. Well, that was…anticlimactic. Where was the guessing? Where was the wondering? Where was the waiting?
Days of our Lives: Spit It Out
We suspected Sloan had something up her sleeve when she offered to help Nicole (Arianne Zucker) figure out if Eric (Greg Vaughan) or EJ (Dan Feuerriegel) was her baby’s father. We even wondered whether Nicole was as naive as all that to believe her — or whether she was playing Sloan.
When the paternity test ruled out Eric, we settled down to wonder if the baby would even come to term, how it would affect Nicole and EJ’s relationship…and whether Eric might turn out to be the tot’s father after all. But then, in the same episode where Eric, once again, put his dream of fatherhood on hold, Sloan flashed back to how she used her own saliva in the paternity test. So…um…yeah, we still don’t know who the real father is. But we already know that Sloan isn’t playing fair.
Alfred Hitchcock said that surprise is when people are playing poker, and a bomb suddenly goes off underneath the table. Suspense is when people are playing poker, and we see that there’s a bomb under the table, but they don’t. We are guessing DAYS is going for suspense. But you need to give that time. DAYS seems to have decided against that.
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