So now we have Jeremy and Jett to add to the college storyline, along with the “new” Stephanie. These two fellas are nice to look at, but I find myself fast forwarding through their scenes. Trevor Donavan’s Jeremy looks like an Eric Brady duplicate and honestly hasn’t made a big impression yet. For one thing, Jeremy and Stephanie are playing tonsil hockey on his first air day without giving viewers any rooting value for this young couple. Jett seems like a nice guy, but boring, sorry to say. Why do the writers insist on bringing these three young newbies onscreen instead of trying to lure back old favorites like Wally Kurth, Billy Warlock, or Patsy Pease? Judi Evans has proven how talented and versatile she is as an actress, so why has her character Adrienne hardly had any on-screen time as of lately? Besides, she looks better than ever as a redhead!
Instead of these new characters, I’d rather see Jeremy’s dad Mike Horton and Jett’s Uncle Abe. Maybe if these characters had more scenes with their onscreen relatives, I'd care more. Mike Horton is the most recasted character in the history of Days, but Michael T. Weiss was the only Mike in my book since he was both gorgeous and goofy as Mike. Where is the humor these days anyway? As for Abe, James Reynolds will be out for a few weeks due to his recent open heart surgery so he will obviously be off-screen for a while. Ever since Renee Jones got fired back in January, though, I was highly disappointed to see Abe getting less air time. I was hoping that the story between Abe and Celeste would be played out more, that these two characters would grow closer over the disappearance of Lexie. What a cliffhanger it would’ve been if Lexie would have come home in time to catch her husband and her mother in bed together! How the tables would’ve been turned indeed!
The new Stephanie, Shelley Hennig, just isn’t working for me. I’m having a hard time digesting her as Stephanie for many reasons. She is obviously a beautiful young woman and a good actress, but I just don’t think she fits the part of Steve and Kayla’s daughter. I can see the writers wanting to take a character in a different direction, but at least have the recast exhibit some similarities as the previous actress, whether it’s physical or character traits. This new Stephanie obviously looks nothing like her predecessor, Shayna Rose, but acts absolutely nothing like the “old” Stephanie. Are we supposed to just forget that the old Stephanie never existed? Like many others, I thought that Shayna Rose did a fabulous job playing the part. She was headstrong and stubborn like her on-screen mother Kayla, and was a daredevil like her father. Plus, she had a highly essential element that is so critical in daytime TV: chemistry. This new Stephanie has no chemistry with Mary Beth Evans or especially Stephen Nichols. We have to remember that this is the same Stephanie who grew up for sixteen years listening to romantically heroic stories by her mother, painting Steve as a true hero who would fight for the people he loved most dearly. The old Stephanie dreamed of meeting him one day, even though he was presumed dead. She accepted him and loved him even though he had no initial memory of his past. I know that Steve has done some awful things lately thanks to EJ, but this new Stephanie acts as though she could care less about him, even telling Chelsea that he was never a knight in shining armor. As Chelsea pointed out, “He’s still your dad.” Now that Chelsea has finally grown up and shown some maturity, it’s as though the “old” Chelsea is acting more like the “new” Stephanie, and the “new” Chelsea is acting more like the “old” Stephanie. When Shayna Rose as Stephanie said good-bye to her father at the Salem Inn on her last day, many viewers shed tears as Steve let his little girl go. That’s because they shared chemistry, it was as if Steven Nichols was bidding farewell to his real daughter. Are we just supposed to believe that in the two months that Stephanie has been away, she has gone from a caring, considerate, headstrong young woman to a careless, inconsiderate, trampy young vixen?
In the meantime, Nick and Chelsea can stick around for as long as possible. These two are absolutely adorable together! Nick made a big impression from his first day when he met Chelsea at Dune and defended her to the bartender, even though she initially treated him like dirt. Nevertheless, he eventually won over Chelsea despite his not so little mistakes, like pretending to be Shane Patton and sleeping with Billie. Nick is an example of a character who was brought in with rooting value.
Maybe these new characters will eventually grow on me, but so far I don’t see the point, especially when there are other Days characters on the canvas we would rather see more of. However, six months down the road I could change my mind and want to see more of these three newbies. Let’s hope they can show us a good story and prove they’re worthy of watching!
