Today Soap Opera Network posted shocking Days of Our Lives news, the headwriting team has been swapped. Marlene McPherson and Darrell Ray Thomas Jr. (otherwise known as MarDar) are out and Chris Whitesell and Gary Tomlin are back in the driver's seat.
I'm not sure what I think about this switch back, and considering how far Days of Our Lives tapes their episodes it will take months to see a change on screen. We're in April, and they've already taped May and June. Sometime in late July or August, the new direction will appear unless they do some pickups, which cost money.
The big question is what does this mean for all the plots that are ongoing. Will they be scaled back or dropped? What does it mean for casting? Will all the actors and characters that were brought back disappear? In the months that MarDar were writing, Carrie, Austin, Jennifer, Jack, John, Marlena and Lucas all returned to Salem. Will new characters Madison and Ian leave town as quickly as they came? Will some characters that have been put in the background like Maggie start having story again? Since the reboot dispatched of characters quickly, will Tomlin and Whitsell work just as fast?
For me the biggest issue with Marlene and Darrell was the lack of subtext. Some stories were told slowly, others way too quickly. When a story is told slowly there needs to be subtext to enrich interest. With that missing, the scenes feel repetitive. If a story is very short term, once the arc ends the subtext should remain, so it doesn't feel like it was a blip on the radar.
Hopefully in the next few weeks, we will find out where we stand. Hopefully we will know if anyone on screen is going away again or if they are going to maintain the status quo for the time being. As always Days is good at getting notice for their regime changes, but whatever happens viewers will either have to adapt to change or stop watching.
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