Sunday, January 25, 2009

DAYS' Marlena and John Say Goodbye: Reaction

Here are the last scenes for Marlena and John on DAYS OF OUR LIVES from Friday's episode.


I was glad to see Stefano at the hospital, but I could have lived without Chris Kositchek Roman at the ceremony. I know I'm stuck in the early 1980s but I would have rather seen Marlena go out with Wayne Northrup's Roman. I know, I know, get over it but even after all these years, I can't see her in scenes with Josh Taylor without thinking about Chris. I liked Marlena with Drake's Roman, but once Northrup came back the first time, that was over for me.

Regardless of how I felt about them as a couple, for fans of John and Marlena, I thought it was a weak, rushed send-off, even though they got a happy ending and left together. As a 30 year fan of Deidre Hall, she deserved much better. I have never been the biggest Hogestyn fan but after 22+ years of service to the show, he also deserved more. In fact, an entire episode dedicated to the two actors would have been more appropriate.

Here's what some of the other pundits had to say (more to be added soon):
Nelson Branco: "Did you catch DAYS' lame ass and extremely sloppy send-off for inarguably its biggest super-couple ever this past Friday? If you didn’t, you were lucky. For those of us who did, Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn’s 20-minute send-off was simply sickening to watch. Let’s review: our hero John Black regained his memory but was castrated in every sense of the word due to his paralysis from the neck down. The definitive super-couple wed in the cheapest, most unimaginative and agenda-pushing wedding in the history of daytime. Just thinking of this shameful 'story' makes me want to throw up."

Sara A. Bibel: "I’m not sure who was most insulted — Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn or the DAYS OF OUR LIVES audience. After decades of supercoupledom, John and Marlena were sent out of town as if they were newbies at the end of their first thirteen week cycle who weren’t connecting with the audience. Their final episode, which aired last Friday, was cheap in every sense of the word."

Michael Fairman: "So, that was it? That was the final scenes and last episode of Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn on yesterday’s episode of DAYS? That was John and Marlena’s 'riding off into the sunset' moment? Long-time fans of John and Marlena, many of whom I have met over the years with my connection with the show, were handed (what the producers must think was an appropriate send-off!) a neat, tidy, wrapped up story with probably less than 20 minutes of airtime, stuck in between the shows main story 'A' of Nicole/Sami/EJ, and the 'B' story of Daniel/Chloe/Kate/Lucas."

Entertainment Weekly's Nicholas Fonseca: "Saying goodbye to characters who have been a part of your day-to-day life for more than 20 years is, yeah, like saying goodbye to friends. The fact that this happened to two of DAYS' most pivotal, beloved characters and actors makes it feel even worse—in essence, longtime fans like me are being robbed of a dynamic coupling that’s a huge part of what has made DAYS endure for so long."

Christine Fix: "The show has been rushing at warp speed to end the John and Marlena storyline in order to retire these characters. It went too fast for me. I think the characters and the fans deserved a little more. I feel cheated by how fast the story went and thought that there could have been so much more story to tell."

Becca Thomas: "Good lord, no wonder this genre is dying, if the people in charge of DAYS are among its caretakers."

1 comment:

  1. Rushed and disappointing. They should have at least been the sole storyline playing that day! Not the way you treat the star couple of the show. Or the loyal fans.

    And they wonder why the ratings are down and the fans are angry!

    But at least they got a send-off. I'm reminded that when they wrote Doug and Julie out in 1984, the pair didn't even get a farewll scene. The way we found out there were gone was that Alice mentioned they were on a cruise.

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