Days' baby switch storyline should have ended weeks ago, but since it was discovered that Sydney was indeed Sami's child there have been countless contrived efforts to keep the suspense going, beginning with Nicole kidnapping Sydney. However, I think the show has gone a little too far with E.J.'s sinister plot to make Sami believe that her baby is dead. There are far too many real life cases involving the discovery of a missing child's bloody clothes for the show to use that scenario in a twisted storyline such as this. This is particularly unsettling considering that at some point they will undoubtedly try to redeem E.J. again in an attempt to reunite him with Sami. It is as if Days has forgotten that many, if not most of their viewers are women, many of whom likely have children.
As I have said in previous posts there are right ways and wrong ways of involving and depicting children in these types of storylines. Soaps can be shocking and sensitive to their viewers at the same time. It is a fine line, but it is not invisible. Last year Y&R crossed that line when Adam convinced Ashley that she had not miscarried, eventually making her believe that she had given birth. This storyline essentially made a mockery out of miscarriages and showed an overall lack of respect for female viewers. And I fear that Days is on the verge of crossing this same sort of line with the way that E.J. is attempting to fake Sydney's death. Faking her death was disturbing enough, but using bloody clothes as evidence of that death was beyond inappropriate.
As I have said in previous posts there are right ways and wrong ways of involving and depicting children in these types of storylines. Soaps can be shocking and sensitive to their viewers at the same time. It is a fine line, but it is not invisible. Last year Y&R crossed that line when Adam convinced Ashley that she had not miscarried, eventually making her believe that she had given birth. This storyline essentially made a mockery out of miscarriages and showed an overall lack of respect for female viewers. And I fear that Days is on the verge of crossing this same sort of line with the way that E.J. is attempting to fake Sydney's death. Faking her death was disturbing enough, but using bloody clothes as evidence of that death was beyond inappropriate.
Hi, Paula!
ReplyDeleteBased upon your always excellent commentary, I decided this is a great place to post the comment that I am really getting tired of the soap right now.
They're indeed pushing the limit and it's not pretty.
GH is way too focused on Sonny (that was OK when there were other characters with good storylines, as well) and the Liz/Nicholas/Lucky story dragged out way too long. Hopefully Helena will add some spark and get the focus off the "mob." I'm not feeling a need to tune into GH on Soapnet if I missed it during the day.
DOOL. When will the baby switch story end? Baby supposedly dies, baby found, baby taken again, then baby dies, then wait ... baby is really alive! Not making fun, but this story has worn way thin. No wonder Alison Sweeney was on Law and Order (or whatever it was last night). I AM liking the Carly/Melanie/Daniel storyline, however, so that's keeping me comong back. Louise Sorel is quite a character.
Y&R. This is another baby switch story that has to end soon, too. But the "dream sequence" they did yesterday featuring Ashley, Sharon and Adam was awesome. I didn't see the start of it so it's one I'll have to watch the rerun this weekend on SoapNet. The episode was very well done.
OLTL. This show also is unraveling. As I've said before the Mitch character is way too dark, and who needs another Jessica alter? Now she is stuck in her teens. She needed to be happy with Brody for awhile and then take on another personality. I'm also not liking the Langston cheating on Marco storyline. They added stability to the show.
So this is my take on the soaps today. I feel like I'm outgrowing them, which is unfortunate, but because I really like soaps as an entertainment genre.
Paula Q