DaysTalk

Even Stefano isn’t as bad as he used to be lol.

Very good write up Gertrude.

Yeah whatever happened to ruthless Nicole, sadistic Sami, heartless Kate, the hateful Victor and malicious Stefano? These characters in the past did not have a redeeming bone in their bodies and now, they have all softened up way too much!

I miss seeing more of Stefano and Kate. I think they make a great couple and I hope they are shown more often pulling their old tricks again and trying to control their pathetic childrens’ lives. hahaha

They don’t have any truly BAD characters anymore. Even Vivian is backing away from her original plan. Totally see where you are coming from. I would like Sami to be somewhere in the middle. I would always root for her to find some kind of happiness, then she would get in her own way.
Right now is the time for Stefano to fill that void!!

Good job Gertrude! I personally LOVE new Sami —I liked Old Sami too but with 4 children, I really don’t want to see her constantly schemeing. She and Rafe will become the new Bo and Hope type couple and that is perfectly OK with me!
Ej, to me is worse than Stefano is so I think they have filled the evil void in Salem with him. He will be the evil one till someone kills him or he moves away.

Good job Gertrude, but I agree with Haley.

I loved naughty Sami as much as the next, but now that she’s a mother it’s nice to see that she grew up. Even becoming a mother didn’t make her grow up right away, but now that she has four kids, it’s time for Sami to grow up a little.
Now if they would give her a job where maybe she could do some minor scheming at work…that might be alright!

I think I miss more of the hero’s. Bo, Hope, Roman (John), Kayla and Steve all in Stockholm, now that was good.

Agree for the most part….but let’s just see how Sammy changes when she finds out the truth about the kidnapping. Could turn her back into the firecracker she used to be.
Either way, her role and her acting I think will always keep her front and center, and not boring.
As much as I liked Chelsea, it’s tough to use her as a comparison to Ali Sweeney.

I agrree that Sami has become boring. But I don’t agree that she is the new Martlena. Marlena was a much stronger person. Sami is just acting helpless.

For once i agree with you Gertrude and it’s a first believe me !
Sami is not Sami anymore, she can be spunky, a schemer with 4 kids (hey Blair on OLTL does it), she can be more mature but always with a edge. And Rafe is definitly not a guy who could handle her. Ej, evil or not can understand and handle every sides of Sami because he is the same kind so yes they will fight, they will seek revenge and they will make up and they will love each other and they will fight again but they will always be interesting !!
And please don’t compare Rafe with Bo : GG is not and will never be in the same league as PR (you can be handsome but when you doesn’t have charisma and presence you just doesn’t have charisma and presence, it can’t be learned you have or you have not !) and for Bo and Hope when they are happy they are put on the back-burner or one is kidnapped or dead for a while so they are apart ! It the only way the writers make storylines interesting for them and i don’t want that for Sami.

Haley if you think Ej is worse than Stefano clearly you don’t know Days oh…NOT AT ALL !!! lol

I agree, to a certain extent. Sami, the way I see it, could have matured, and that is good, but I do miss the spunk and the fight she used to have. I don’t want to see her being the lying, conniving person she once was, she is a Mother now and should be an example for her kids, but I do agree she would be fighting mad at Nicole, and when she finds out what EJ has been up to, I hope the old Sami comes out in force! As for EJ, there is no way, in my estimation, that he could ever be redeemed. To me, he seems worse than Stefano, and that is pretty bad. I also hope to see some claws come out from Melanie over Stephanie, she should really let her have it!

I don’t want to call her the “new” Sami, because Sami will always be Sami. I like the fact that she is nice to characters (like Nicole) which we expect her to only butt heads with. I enjoy watching surpirses like that, it makes the characters more than just one dimensional. For example when the villiness Vivian had a change of heart about smuthering Melanie with a pillow… it lets the viewer relate to her character on a different level- as evil as she is, she still has a heart and is struggling internally with her desciion to harm Melanie.

I have grown up watching Sami through the bulimia, scheming, kidnapping, more scheming and lying, falling in love, having kids, loving, etc. I enjoy seeing this journey of her character grow and change with her experiences. If Sami was an evil schemer for the last how ever many years she has been on the show than no character would interact with her, they’d all know she was fooling them. If you don’t have her be “good” sometimes, I don’t think as a viewer you could really appreciate her when she is a bad ass… and something tells me she will be one soon when she finds out the truth about where Sydney has been..

I love that they have made sami more mature… She was far too predictable before… She was always scheming and always getting away with all sorts of ridiculous behavior. I agree that she needed more dementions as a character. And I think that after she finds out about what EJ did that fiery sami will be right back but now it won’t be in such a immature way as before… And that will make the stories with her even better! I
think the writers know what they are doing!

But for me she is not more mature right now. She is dependent, needy, she is passive. We don’t see her caring about her children, ok she speaks about them but we don’t see her spending time with them on-screen and to understand the character it is very important to show the viewers this.
In 2007-2008 she was fickle with her behaviour about Lucas and Ej but she still schemed and for good reasons this time, she manipulated Ej but he deserved it (he did the same), she took actions, she was proactive. At this time she was more mature than now. We saw her more with her children and just before the witness protection phase she looked for a job (even Ej helped her for her work resume/curriculum vitae) and she showed again maturity when Rafe was went away (kidnapped by Meredith) : we saw her interact with more people (Brady, Roman, Maggie, Philip even Kate and Nicole) and looking for a job and caring about her children..go figure..
A single Sami would show a mature Sami or a guy who doesn’t have a hero complex would show a mature Sami. With her actual relationship she is not mature, more goody yes but not more mature quite the contrary actually.

I agree that sami has been pretty needy with rafe. And I have always wondered why the writers constantly have her in a relationship. Her going back and forth withn rafe is pretty silly… LOL in that sense she is immature. It would be nice to see her more independent for a while.

Gertrude,

I really enjoyed your post. Excellent thoughts and writing.

I agree with much of what you are saying. Sami has become a damsel in distress that even Marlena would not recognize. IMO, She needs to find a middle ground between all-out schedming and coniviving and docile doormat. It was rediculous to see her apologize to Nicole for anything! She needs to be confident enough to make her own decisions and make mistakes like only she can.

I do think we have quite a few grey or evil characters on the canvas. I love Louise Sorel as Vivien. I am not giving up on Viv — she will to continue to plot against Carly and work to win Victor, regardless of what comments may have been made last week. I personally see Carly as a grey character. She certainly is not a goody – goody heroine by any stretch. And so goes Stefano, Victor, Philip and Kate.

It is hard for me to root for any character that is 100% evil without end. Stefano is the closest. Yet, I look forward to seeing his next moves and have for 20 years!

As you know, I hope or a little redemption for EJ or at least a reason to explain some of his dastardly deeds. I guess time will tell what the writers and producers will do. I have to say – that I have more confidence in them to do it than I have in the last 20 years.

I think it is interesting that folks are looking for a Marlena replacement. I think there will not be another Marlena. There cannot be. And at this point, I think it is ok. Maggie, Hope ( sans Carly ), and Jennifer ( praying she comes back to recurring ) will all represent parts of a good, strong and virtuous women. We definitely do not need Sami to try and assume that role. It would never be convincing – just as it is unconvincing today. Alison Sweeney has had some anguishing and dramatic scenes this year and I hope that sge will be rewarded with at least an emmy nomination. But she should also be rewarded with writing that is truer to her character and more interesting sls.

I agree that sami has been pretty needy with rafe. And I have always wondered why the writers constantly have her in a relationship. Her going back and forth withn rafe is pretty silly… LOL in that sense she is immature. It would be nice to see her more independent for a while and caring for her kids.

ITA! I don’t want Sami this weak and whiney….they didn’t so much redeem her as, like you said, turn her into the new Marlena.
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I don’t mind Sami playing nice with others on occasion, but they don’t need to make her helpless and they better not make her forgive EJ for the sydnapping. The real Sami would make his life miserable.

Yes Sami would make his life miserable but after they would make up Katie ! And i am looking forward to see that, i want her to bring down Ej not Rafe or others Nicole ect… !!

I dont want Sami to be too nice, but I dont want her as evil as she was either. Id like maybe a lil more spice, but no going back to crazy Sami that never wins in the end. There is only so many times a person can loose cuz of being evil, ya know. However, this kidnapping…. BRING IT ON SAMI!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree! I wish the writers would bring back the Melanie that knew exactly who she wanted (Philip) and went after him without looking back.

Although I was/ am a Sami fan (Sami before EJ/ Rafe), I liked the episode here shown… Always thought Carrie was a bore, here she wasn’t

Yes, Sami lost her brain and thinking abilities… A lot of what Sami was, went lost with Lucas…

Nicole & EJ could have been younger versions of Stefano and his current wife, but no, Nicole became a female desperado… She never was like that…

That’s character assassination

It’s not because someone matures, they lose their personality

Jas with Ej Sami yes has changed a bit but he was not the reason for that; she wanted to change because of Will (and Lucas who always berated her, badgered her,pressed on her to change) but she was still a schemer but this time for good reasons. She manipulated him, hey at first she was the one who set him up when her family suspected him to be a Dimera, she seduced him to allow Kate to escape from his apartment, she faked paternity tests to make him believe he was not the father,she let him believe she will go with him,she tried to burn him alive, she seduced him again whereas she lived and was still in a relationship with Lucas (she lived with the two guys more or less, she was flirty with the two guys in the same time whereas she was married to Ej). So she was again a schemer but the dear Ej was also a schemer so the dynamic was pretty interesting. Right now since the come back from the witness protection she has definitly changed and in her relationship with Rafe, she is totally passive, she is needy, weak. We can say she has lost her spunk now but with Ej she had still her brain and thinking abilities : when he manipulated her she manipulated him also or rejected him, when he threathened her she threatened him even more, it was tit for tat, they were made of the same clothes.
Nicole since the start of her relationship with Ej was insecure, needy, groveling it was..dreadful..yes she was a schemer but behind his back and he was totally clueless, the dynamic was awful. It was not the charming, snarky schemer he was with Sami it was just a sad, controlling, dumb-downed Ej. Horrible and i say that as a fan of his character.
So Sami was the spunky schemer with Lucas for a while since he became always judgmental and controlling, she was a spunky schemer with Ej but more with a moral compass and finally she became an helpless damsell in distress with Rafe and his hero complex !! I miss the evil schemer like i miss a more gentle schemer for the Sami character. Right now this version is just not her !

Yep another example of a lead female character who is a bitch but mature and has 4 kids (even 5 with Jack lol) : Brooke Logan on The Bold and the Beautiful so it is totally possible for Sami Brady (ok minus the whore side of Brooke, i don’t Sami to screw son, brother and father from the same family like you know Brooke did with Ridge, Thorn, Nick and Eric, at least she didn’t sleep with Stefano euh i mean Massimo you know the great Joseph Mascolo lololol)
So if Brooke can do it Sami can too !!!