A Rose for Steven

Live shot of me watching Thursday’s show:

I have to admit that sometimes when Steve and Kayla are onscreen, I’m so alert and on edge that it sometimes interferes with my ability to just watch and connect with what’s happening. That didn’t happen on Thursday. I totally got swept up in Steve’s grief and I loved every minute of it.

There was some great dialogue in these scenes. (In contrast, I winced and winced again at Roman’s scenes with Kate’s urn, until I just had to laugh. I don’t care about Kate or Roman, but wow. That was bad.)

The reference to Kayla’s “eye bobs” was a nice wink to the fans who know how much Mary Beth loves them. I also loved Steve looking over all of the family mementos and telling Jada why Kayla kept them there — in order to remind herself that her patients had families too. That felt very real, and true to Kayla as a character.

Jada was a perfect confidant, reminding me powerfully of how Marcus used to be there for Steve no matter what. It would have been even better if his relationship with her had been highlighted before now — like, ever — but I still appreciated that they featured the relationship, and actually mentioned Marcus.

I want more Stephanie/Steve scenes where they mourn together, but in a way, they might have each felt freer to break down without the other to “be strong” for. I loved Chad being there for Stephanie, and how the show is using this story to create a natural, understandable disruption for her and Alex. (I actually thought Alex would cover up his secret for longer! The fact that he admitted it was nice for sowing a seed of a future redemption. I’m guessing this might lead to a backslide for awhile, but we’ll see what happens.)

Loved Abe’s visit too. I loved the line they gave him where he said that the people who loved Kayla would do what would make her happy, and right now that meant looking after Steve. James Reynolds has always had a gift for bringing depth and gravity to a simple, heartfelt line, and this was lovely.

Then, this is when I really started bawling:

Loved seeing a yellow rose, of course, but mostly I loved how it immediately brought up a scenario of Steve surprising Kayla with flowers at work, and Kayla taking one of them and pressing it in the pages of her medical reference book. It highlights their connection from both sides. So much done with a simple prop. Excellent.

screenshots @stevekaylagroup

Deathbeds

I thought this week was, overall, really solid soap.

Naturally, I’m going to start with Friday’s hospital scenes.

It was so nice to see the whole Johnson family together. I have grown to really like Stephanie and Tripp, and it was nice that I knew this version of Joey from Beyond Salem. They all had a really nice family chemistry, and I liked how there was a little bit of light conflict about the fact that Tripp and Joey didn’t know how serious Kayla’s illness was.

The three kids all did well, but Lucas Adams especially got me when his voice broke on his line about how much he regretted his initial anger at her. And of course, Stephen and Mary Beth were great. I Ioved the nonverbal moments, the looks and touches that showed them comforting each other, Steve touching her face, Kayla’s eyes going right to him when he walked in the room, the way he kissed her forehead when he left.

Screencap @stevekaylagroup on Twitter

The scenes with Steve and John were wonderful, too. I get a kick out of how John calls Steve “partner,” and how tactile they both are with each other. I love how they can give John a line about “how many times we’ve saved each other” (about Kayla and Marlena) and it evokes so much history, just with a single line. And I loved Steve’s intensity when he talked about all the years he missed with Kayla, and how he didn’t know if he could survive without her.

If that was the best of what soaps can be, the stuff with Kristen and Brady and the orchid is the worst. You don’t introduce and resolve things like Kristen’s insane proposal, and Brady’s immediate capitulation, in a single episode.

I even enjoyed the silly Dimera Enterprises shenanigans, which I haven’t been able to get into so far. The new EJ is more like old school Victor than he is like his father (a good thing in my book), calm and smooth with an underlying ruthlessness. He and Stefan made me laugh when they walked out the door together after their talk with Johnny, and EJ had the throwaway line, “I’m glad you came back from the dead.” “Yeah, me too.” Only in Salem!

I like Abigail Klein a lot, and what she brings to Stephanie. She has a light touch that I really enjoy, and she’s capable of bringing layers to her scenes; for example, not overplaying her anger at Steve when she first arrived, or when she snapped on John today and then blamed herself.

I’m still trying to decide if I like Alex or not. I like Robert Scott Wilson and I think he’s bringing a great mischievous energy to Alex, but the writing hasn’t been great. But, he and Abigail have been negotiating the heavyhanded dialogue pretty well, so she can stand her ground about sexual harassment but also seem like she doesn’t take him very seriously.

And finally, I really, really liked Stephanie’s scenes with Chad this week.

When Chad offered to help her with her work and then they drank too much champagne, she and Billy Flynn brought a nice playfulness to their tipsy attraction. At first I was disappointed they kissed so quickly (I always love a slow burn), but I liked how the aftermath played out. When they decided not to hook up, Abigail and Billy both did a nice job showing their mixed feelings about the whole thing. I liked how she quickly reassured Chad and pointed out all the reasons hooking up right then was a bad idea, but then showed a touch of disappointment after he left.

In the scene with Alex the next day, the dialogue made me wince a few times, but I liked how Chad stood up for Stephanie. Billy and Abigail again played off of each other very nicely as Chad and Stephanie took turns taking Alex to task.

If they keep this up, I might start shipping them. God help me.

Tears

Well, I have to give Ron credit. He took a shit story, and with a lot of help from Mary Beth and Stephen, managed to spin a little bit of gold from it.

There’s still a lot of problems with the story, mostly centered around Tripp’s problematic characterization, but let’s start with the awesome Mary Beth Evans. No one cries like she can!

It’s a testament to both the writing and Mary Beth that during Wednesday’s scenes I was passionately rooting for Joey to change his mind and stay, because in general, this is the opposite of what I want. I think James Lastovic started out promising (and his blue eyes are a perfect mirror of Mary Beth’s), but he has sadly sunk in further and further as an actor during his time on the show. Also … I know it’s shallow, but I seriously cannot get over his hair. He looks like a member of Ratt.

More importantly, the character was severely damaged when Dena turned him into a killer. I genuinely think the only way to salvage the character is to send him off to prison, and bring him back in a year with a recast and a reboot, hopefully with some interesting layers.

It was so gratifying to hear Kayla’s point of view articulated at last. I was impressed with how Ron artfully reinvented Kayla’s previous cheerful welcoming of Tripp, by having her say “How could I say no? You put me in an impossible situation.” I also loved when she pointed out that Steve has a history of making unilateral decisions.

The dialogue in the Joey/Kayla scene was also excellent. When Kayla attributed his desire to turn himself in to a desire to earn Steve’s respect, I loved how he said it was not because of Steve, but because of HER and the values she raised him with. It was a perfect way to reconcile her (and the viewers) to his decision, because it paid tribute the one constant relationship in his life which has been too often overlooked.

I cannot say often enough how refreshing it is to see Kayla be able to be angry and to blame Steve, even to the point of being unfair. I was seeing some arguing on Twitter this week about who’s right, who’s wrong, and “team Kayla” and “team Steve.” I don’t care about that. Drama, the best drama, is when you can see both sides, sympathize with both of their pain. Layers, what are they?

The weak link in all of this is still Tripp. I hope Ron can save him because I know he’s still on the show, but at the moment I can’t stand the character. It think it might have been a mistake to go for the big dramatic showdown with the scalpel — I suspect that Ron wanted to give Tripp something in the ballpark of Joey’s bad acts, in order to put him on roughly equal footing with Joey. That solves some issues — it gave Tripp a reason to tell Joey not to confess, it gives Kayla a solid reason to say “If our son is going to prison, your son should too!” — but it creates new ones. I’m not going to forget the image of Tripp holding a knife to Kayla’s throat anytime soon, and I think Steve seems a little too willing to let bygones be bygones.

(Look at the framing of this shot — Steve watching Kayla and Joey leave, with Tripp lurking in the background. Perfect.)

But, these past two weeks have been damn good soap, so let us hope for better things. I’d like to see Steve think he can move past it and be there for his son “because that’s what parents do,” but with Joey gone and Kayla traumatized and angry, he’ll find it more difficult than he imagines. Stephen could really sell that kind of angst.

Screencaps Joanie (except the Ratt one 🙂 )

Bad Tripp

Mixed bag this week.

I thought the hospital scenes with Abby were well done. Missy Reeves was particularly good, and I teared up when she mentioned holding Abby’s fingers as a baby. I appreciated how we saw most characters in town being told the news of the accident and expressing their concern — think about how Dena handled Kayla’s brain surgery as a sad contrast.

I am still a little fuzzy on Chad’s reaction and what it means for the Chabby/Chabi relationships.

He is clearly overcome with grief and guilt for Abby, and feels keenly that the last words he said to her where “stay dead” (Billy Flynn is hitting all the beats there), but I’m not getting (yet) a sense of “It’s really you I’ve loved all along” — the dialogue feels a little more ambiguous. Even when he said tearfully to Abby “I love you,” it still didn’t come across as an epiphany, at least to me, and the camera went to Gabi’s reaction. I really don’t want to see more of him being torn between the two women — it is damaging the character. However, I might be reading this all wrong. I’m content to watch for now and see how it goes.

I am very curious what they are planning with Eric, Nicole, and Brady. They’ve cleared turned a page here and I’m waiting to see how it all shakes out.

I’ve seen some complaints that Nicole keeping her forgiveness of Eric a secret doesn’t make sense, but that doesn’t bother me. People often put off uncomfortable conversations, and that’s the kind of secret I think this is — though taken to an extreme. Also, her instinct to keep this a secret could be telling, that she knows deep down that her forgiveness of Eric means other walls are coming down between them too. All I know is that the scene of them together in Eric’s room was played by both Greg and Ari with a lot of sexual tension, and the moment when she said, “Of course there is nothing between us,” as she turned away, was Soap Denial 101.

From a character (not just shipper) perspective, it was a lovely scene. We saw how much it meant to Eric that she had forgiven him, when he was worried that she had changed her mind. That gave him a reason to go along with her wishes, even though he knows it’s not a good idea. I loved that he tried to talk her out of keeping this a secret by quoting scripture, and the touch of sarcasm with “And you think this is a good idea?” was perfect.

Why is Brady suddenly gripped with irrational jealousy regarding Nicole? Who knows? They could give us any number of reasons that connected with his history with women, but they haven’t. Brady as a character has suffered from bad, or nonexistent, characterization, but he has certainly jumped from woman to woman, convinced each time that this is True Love. This could be explored, or even acknowledged, by the show, but instead the show presents each relationship with a straight face — including his current one. It would be fascinating for Brady to realize that he and Nicole have a similar history of jumping from relationship to relationship, which could give him a reason to doubt what they have now … especially in contrast to Eric’s steady constancy.

Speaking of whom, they need to do more with the fact that this is Brady’s brother he’s jealous of, who he has always been close to, and who has recently been to hell and back…. and who he was recently urging Nicole to forgive.

That brings me to Steve and Kayla. I talked last time about how this story didn’t have to be so crummy, but the fact is that it was, and Ron didn’t really do anything to fix it before heading to this big showdown. I have no sense of Tripp as a person; his characterization is so paper-thin, his reasons for blaming Kayla so laughable, that it sucked a lot of the drama out of the scenes on Friday. I know the Dena portion of the story cannot be unwritten, but how hard would it be to have Tripp overhear Kayla saying to Steve, “I just hope Tripp never finds out the truth about how his mother died” or something else to send him over the edge right now?

Kayla was written well during the scenes themselves — I liked how, after her initial shock, she went to compassion first, and then (finally!) anger when the extent of Tripp’s hatred and delusion became clear. (I’m assuming Ron knows that Steve didn’t actually “leave” Kayla for Ava.) And Steve and Joey talking about Tripp at the same time and putting the pieces together was reasonably well put together.

But, I have to admit the whole thing depressed me, and it’s going to take some pretty damn amazing writing for me to accept Tripp as a viable character after this. Also (and it really pains me to say this), but I feel a little bit like that with Joey as well. Having Joey kill Ava was a major, major mistake, and no matter how many times Steve tries to say it was “sort of” self-defense, that’s not what happened. I don’t know how Joey is exiting the canvas, but I hope it’s something that redeems him a little and gives the character some strength and independence (but doesn’t kill him off). Then, down the road, maybe we can get a recast and a fresh start for him.

In the meantime, give us a Stephanie.

Screencaps Joanie

Forgiveness

Ron’s second week was solid soap. I appreciate how each episode zips along — there is momentum, and energy, and suspense. I appreciate good plotting, and the suspense surrounding Dario’s arrest and attempt at blackmail, plus the multiple-character maneuvering over Theo’s laptop, was particularly well constructed. I am liking Marci Miller and Chabby 3.0 more and more. Friday’s cliffhangers — three of them! — were all terrific and have me looking forward to next week.

But, I need to talk about Tuesday’s Ericole scenes. First, can we take a moment to appreciate Greg Vaughan as one of the best male criers in the business:

I loved that Eric was touchy and angry when Nicole first found the letters, and snapped at her for snooping in his desk. For all that I love Eric’s tortured, against-all-reason love for Nicole, that doesn’t mean I want to see him being a spineless noodle — in fact, the pride and anger makes the suppressed longing all the more appealing.

That’s why I can’t get enthusiastic about Jeneric, even though I get why people would, for the character Eric’s sake — hey, we even saw him smile again on Monday! But Greg Vaughan plays intense, bottled-up emotion so well, and I can’t see a Jeneric relationship being anything but cute. As I said last week about Chad, one of my favorite things about soaps is the intense, tortured loyal man in love. And what could be more tortured than being intensely in love with a woman whose fiancé you killed?

Of course, Days has failed immensely in the characterization of Nicole this past year. She is not naturally a suffering heroine type. Even though Arianne Zucker can do suffering and angst, it is best when it is layered with some zip and some spunk and some snark. Tuesday went a little ways toward repairing the damage done — at least, it fixed the hypocrisy of her withholding forgiveness from Eric when she has been forgiven of at least equal crimes. In fact, I would say the dialogue would have been better if it had emphasized that aspect, rather than how Saint Daniel would want her to forgive.

In the end, perhaps the crucial question is not whether Nicole can forgive Eric but whether the viewers can forgive Nicole. I really have no idea if Ron will go for it with Ericole or how he would even approach it, given that Ari is leaving … but, for me anyway, the heart wants what the heart wants, lol.

Turning to Steve and Kayla — I have mixed feelings. It was a fantastic coincidence that Steve and Kayla’s yacht wedding anniversary happened to fall in Ron’s first full week, and kudos to him and his team for taking advantage of it. Seeing Steve give Kayla a yellow rose, sign “Happy Anniversary, Sweetness,” give her a bracelet with an anchor charm, and then swoop her into a slow dance … well, my Stayla shipper cup runneth over. All this shows a lovely the attention to history (the sign language particularly made me swoon) and besides, it fits with the character of Steve — he was always given to outsized romantic gestures.

I could be churlish and point out that these little details cost a writer nothing and are no substitute for a actual frontburner story, but I won’t do that. Instead I’ll give Ron (or Sheri) full credit for this … and still go on to complain about the Tripp story.

Looking back on it, it is truly pitiful how badly it has been executed. I would just like to point out that even though I would have always been against the idea of ANOTHER Ava-themed story, this one could have been actually good. Imagine if Tripp had come to town as a street kid with a rough, hardscrabble past. He knows Ava is his mother, but he doesn’t know who his father is.

He has some early, negative interaction with Steve — maybe he is caught stealing and Steve catches him. He is arrested and gets community service — he doesn’t know Steve actually helped him by talking down the charges and getting him out of jail time.

Tripp tracks down Angelo, who takes him in and gives him a home (first one he’s had that’s not foster care). Angelo feeds him a lot of lies about how the newspaper stories about his mother are wrong; she was demonized to justify her killer: Steve.

Tripp could also interact with the teens in various ways; for our purposes, he gets to know Joey. Say Tripp truly is bright and has a lot of potential, and he expresses so much interest in medicine that Joey introduces him to Kayla.

In the meantime Steve has caught wind of possible child with Ava, and he is chasing around trying to find him. Kayla goes with him on some of these adventures. She has mixed feelings (which are shown to the audience and respected by Steve) about a child with Ava, but her mentoring of the street kid Tripp helps her reconcile herself to the idea a bit.

Tripp is shown growing close to Kayla, but he keeps his distance from Steve and acts weird when he is mentioned. Kayla and Joey attribute this to Steve catching him stealing. He discreetly quizzes Joey and Kayla about Steve and (in his mind, not openly) makes the most of Steve’s past mistakes to justify thinking Steve is really a bad guy. As time goes on, Tripp is torn between his revenge — that Angelo is egging him on about, and he feels a certain loyalty to him — and his genuine growing interest in being a doctor and his friendship with Joey and Kayla.

It all ends with Tripp kidnapping Steve with the intention of killing him, but he dithers. While Steve is missing, a lead comes through on the investigation that shows Kayla the truth: Tripp is Steve’s son. She runs to Angelo, figures out where Tripp is holding Steve, runs in just as Tripp is about to shoot Steve, shouting “Don’t kill him! He’s your father!”

Okay, I got a bit carried away there. The point is that this story did not have to be inherently bad, and so far Ron doesn’t seem to be fixing it. We don’t even know whether Kayla believes she is being framed or if she really made those mistakes. Tripp’s motivation for targeting Kayla is as weak as before, and he remains unsympathetic because of it. I’m delighted to see Steve finally suspicious of Tripp in Friday’s cliffhanger, but I’m worried about the story just being quickly wrapped up rather than fixed.

Screencaps Joanie