She's baaaack! (Soaps.com)

These are the “DAYS” of my week from March 8-12:

The Sydnapping’s over. I’m popping the cork on this bottle of champers. Join me in a drink to celebrate. The writer’s favour writing about kidnapping, killing off babies, and they love to spin a couple’s triangle story. It gets old fast and the character development somehow gets back-burnered during it all. If I have to sit through one more baby storyline I think I’ll scream.

How about those recycled love triangles? Once upon a time, Shawn, Belle and Philip were in a love triangle storyline. There was a lot of history between these three, so by the time the triangle story was written we cared about them and about the story. We saw Belle being torn between loving them both, similar to the way we see the writers of today writing Melanie being torn between Philip and Nathan. The problem is, that Nathan’s too new for anyone to care about, and Melanie and Nathan weren’t in love before she hooked up with Philly, so why the triangle? Though Stephanie deliberately kept Melanie’s letter from Nathan, this hasn’t turned her into a bad girl for me. She’s basically a good girl whose insecurities about where Nathan’s heart lies made her keep the letter. She felt guilty about it all and was spot on when she told Melanie to remember she’s Mrs. Kiriakis now and should let Nathan go. Doesn’t Philip deserve a wife who adores only him?

The main attraction of this week is Nicole’s return, and what a return. She’s no longer mooning over EJ. She found her backbone again and beat down her cell mate, Tiffany, in a show of dominance. I could barely move to recap each moment as it happened, so riveted to the action I was. More on Nicole further on.

First I need to blow off some steam. If you’re going to fill Alice Horton’s shoes with Maggie, she’s going to have to have a lot more wisdom than the stinky advice she gave Daniel. From my recap: “Maggie reminds him Melanie already liked and respected him. Things have simply changed. Daniel finds this a wealth of wisdom …” He. Found. This. A. Wealth. Of. Wisdom. Oy.

Stake:

They’re perfect for one another. Stefano had no qualms about asking Kate straight out why she hasn’t attempted to murder her newest daughter-in-law. Kate’s trying to put the rather unpleasantness of her attempting to murder Chloe behind her, she told him, sulking. Poor psycho Kate. The truth is, she hasn’t found out about Melanie’s feelings for Nathan – yet. I don’t look forward to Kate discovering this or that Mia’s playing Will. Who is going to help her get the leuko systine this time?

As I pointed out in my last column, the dynamics have been changing between Melanie/Philly/Nathan and we can see the chemistry has slipped, between Melanie and Philip in a big way. In the beginning, they were fresh – like any new couple – and exciting. Stephanie and Philly were even like that for five minutes, and now that Mel and Philly have married, the chemistry seems to have disappeared. Of course, that could change if the writing does. Maybe it’s just a result of Melanie being in the hospital. Since she has been there, she’s been a tortured soul and with this, has reverted to a childlike resemblance of the old Melanie.

Carly babble:

In the forums, many are asking why people dislike Carly so. While we love Crystal Chappell, not everyone’s hot for Carly. Those of her who watched her some 16 years back find her loveable but I find her quite the opposite. I’m not even sure she likes herself. First of all, she is being written as the town pariah in her return, no matter what she was in the past. She now has another past during her 16 year absence from the show. She was a victim of a cruel abusive husband and kept her secret in order to protect both Daniel and Melanie. She’s honorable and caring. The fact that she is with Bo doesn’t irk me because I liked Bope. It irks me because their relationship is comatose inducing. Bo without Hope is a shadow of a man. He’s not likeable on his own. He’s not a good cop, he’s not a smart character, there’s nothing that interests me about him unless he’s with Hope and his children.

Matt (Purvis, of Matty’s DOOL Musings) coined the name Zombie Carly for good reason. I felt for her when she burst out into tears in front of Dr. Dan last week, for about two minutes but other than that, I find her to be in a perpetual zombie-like state as I have with Chloe and Stephanie. You recognize the blank stares, lack of reaction, dragging their left leg behind them when they walk, the ghoulish-grey skin… I’m depending on the writers to come up with a way to make me like these characters, and no, that doesn’t mean I need to see them have crying jags like Sami.