Haven't I seen you before?

Roxanne
Haven
Haven't I seen you before?

As summer trudges on, the flashbacks, repeated dialogue, and recycled storylines are getting tiresome.

As I said in mid June, the summer in Canada is too short to waste on staying inside. I'm a travelling fool lately, visiting my daughters as one celebrated her wedding, and the other her graduation from the University of Toronto. I sure wish my kids would quit having birthdays - they make me feel old! Still to come are trips to Montreal to see relatives, and hopefully another jaunt out west to Calgary to stay with friends.

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I'm telling you this right up front because if you think I'm bad with answering emails other times, I'm pitifully bad at even reading emails in the summer! Either I'm not home, or I'm outside gardening, swimming, or just plain enjoying a day in the sun with my dogs. So don't feel slighted if I don't reply to your request for info - I may not have seen it, or I may not have the answer at this time.

Sari's got some things going on again as well, so she'll be popping in as she can. Bear with us, we need breaks too!

I did see a couple of emails this morning when I finally logged in after 10 days away. Thanks to those of you who take the time to ask questions, or just to say hi. I do appreciate knowing someone is reading my critiques.

This week, whenever I remembered to poke my head in the door for the day's DAYS, I had the sinking suspicion that the writers at DOOL are feeling pretty much the same as I. Can you believe the flashbacks, repeated dialogue, and recycled storylines? If I didn't know that most of the writers have been around for years, I'd swear they were thinking they were doing original storylines. But no - they know darn well that they're recycling. Like Jennifer hanging off a cliff, just like she hung off a car going off a cliff a few years back, and just like she was rescued from the bottom of a cliff many years ago. Same situation, same actress, same rescuer (Jack) each time - someone's in a rut! (literally) I'm really glad to see Jack and Jen reunited, as they really are a good couple with great dialogue. I'm just asking for a little creativity in Perils of Pauline Land! We've got the big drama of Jennifer giving birth, while Jack flounders around, coming up. I'm sort of looking forward to the birth although - why yes, we've done that before too!

Or the entire Shawn being held hostage by Jan melodrama. We had Marlena in a cage a few years back, now it's Shawn. Jan was nutso the last time we saw her, and she still is, although she's upped the wattage of her insanity. Same old, same old. Belle's frantic for Shawn, but she'd be frantic if he went to the washroom while they were out having a milkshake, so I can't get too upset for her. And she's finally twigged that Philip has the hots for her - took long enough! I do wonder about Shawn's parents being otherwise occupied, and I do wonder where Shawn's little brother is, and if he's been stuck in the attic with all the other children of Salem who've vanished when they are inconvenient, but there really isn't any tension in Shawn's situation overall.

One thing that was definitely new and NOT IMPROVED was John's manhandling of Crystal. I fail to see any circumstances under which it's okay to knock a woman out. He's bigger, he's stronger, and has the advantage of police training. If he couldn't restrain her without hitting her, then there's something very wrong. That's my position and I'm sticking to it.

On the plus side, all this recycling of storylines and plots helps to keep summer-casual viewers from getting too far off the story. But for those die hard fans who are still trying to unravel the secrets of Pseudo Salem Island, it must be terribly frustrating to watch the show spinning it's wheels.

Me, I'm off to the beach for a run with the dogs. Then out for an anniversary dinner with my husband. I really do love summer!

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