The teens

julia_princess

julia_princess

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The storylines for the teens right now is soooo boring. It's like the only teenagers left are JJ, Paige and a few of their friends. The only storyline there is that JJ is running after Paige who is upset all the time, or Paige who comes uninvited in his bed.

I miss the old teen storylines With Belle, Philip, Chloe, Shawn etc.; they were fun storylines, and I liked, for example, that Chloe was this opera singer who was bullied and then got together With Philip (of course, today they have made Chloe needy and desperate) and Shawn and Belle had a budding romance. It was so good compared to what is today. I don't believe they can blame it all on budget, it's bad writing in my opinion!!

edited to write out text-speak....JS
 
Guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder because I was bored to tears with teenage Belle, Shawn and Philip back in the day. I was mildly interested in Chloe's transformation from ghoul girl to bombshell, but that's about it.

I always wanted to smack Belle into oblivion, especially when she whined incessantly about wanting Shawn to be "her first", while also whining about how her mommy and daddy couldn't break up (during the Salem Stalker storyline).
 
Teens are always better received and have better story when they are intermingled with older adults. When the writers isolate the teens, having them only interacting with other, it just does not work well, even among the teen/young 20 something viewers. During those Belle/Shawn/Mimi/Philip/Chloe/Brady/Rex/Cassie days, the only good thing ever were the duets or individual songs that were sung by Brady (Kyle Lowder) and Chloe (Nadia Bjorlin). You can watch them on you tube and see what I mean.

And yes, back in that time, there were tons of complaints about the "teen" stories. That summer island story was one horrible one. Mimi living on the streets, homeless was another, although the idea the kids all pitched in to build a Habitat for Humanity house was a great message.

What is upsetting most of all about current story is that Eve, who has gone out of her way to frame JJ, discredit him completely, did not just make him leave immediately when she was able to get up. She has flirted or been turned on by him before, and right now, this "Mrs Robinson" routine is disgusting to the nth degree.
 
Back when Shawn and Belle were panting over each other and trying to "do the deed", I had written this, after being totally annoyed by Belle and her obsession with "her first time" and John and Marlena's marital problems (this was back in 2004 during the Salem Stalker storyline):

Shawn: Oh Belle [pant, pant], I love you so much. [kiss-kiss]

Belle: Shawn, I love you so much, too! What happens if Celeste's prediction comes true???!

Shawn: [kiss-kiss-nuzzle-nuzzle] Belle, let's just think about us and how beautiful this first time is going to be. You're so pretty and I love you so much. [pant-pant-kiss-nuzzle]

Belle: Oh Shawn, I love you, too. Make love to me so I can forget that Celeste said that my dad is going to kill my mother.

Shawn: [kiss-caress-nuzzle] Belle, please don't talk about that tonight. I love you and this is so special [kiss-kiss]

Belle: OK Shawn, you're right, this IS the most beautiful expression of your love. I love you, too. But what happens if my dad kills my mom? I won't be able to go on with my life.

Shawn: [kiss] Belle, are you going to keep talking about your parents as we're making love for the first time? I can't wait any longer. I'm so hot for you, I need you now!

Belle: Oh Shawn, I'm sorry, you're right. I'm hot for you, too. I need you, too. [kiss] But I need my mom and dad to stay married and have the perfect marriage and the perfect life with buttercups and daisies and moonbeams and rainbows and unicorns!

Shawn: Uh, Belle, you're kind of killing the moment for me. Either you're in or you're out. Are we going to do this or not?

Belle: Of course I'm in. All I want is for you to make love to me...............to make me forget that my mom has made my dad move out of the penthouse.

Shawn: [on cell phone] Hey Rex, wanna go down to the gym and shoot some hoops? No, too busy doing it with Meems? OK, never mind. I'll just go and work out alone then. Bye.

Belle: SHAWN! WHAT ABOUT ME?? THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OUR SPECIAL NIGHT AND YOU JUST RUINED IT!!! I HATE YOU!! [SLAM of the door]
 
I'm sure it's not true for everyone but I've found that the older I get the less I care about the teen scene. The "Last Blast" (Shawn/Belle et. al.) era was probably the last one that I really liked. But of course they were only like 4-5 years younger than me. I think part of the reason it worked pretty well though is that most of the characters were from core families. Right now there's JJ, a Horton, and then Paige, who has some ties but was all made up by the current writing regime. Everyone else is background. I think that's what made the "Last Blast" crew work so well. Shawn, Belle, Philip were from core families. Chloe and Mimi had their parents onscreen. Jan and that other kid were just extras but you need some outsiders to round out the crew. So even if the story lines weren't the greatest they worked better in my opinion because they (for the most part) were interwoven with the adults also. Admittedly, I missed most of that storyline where the crew went searching for that diamond or whatever and Nicole's dad raped Jan but for the most part I liked this set of teens.
 
Just Samantha said:
Belle: Oh Shawn, I love you, too. Make love to me so I can forget that Celeste said that my dad is going to kill my mother.

Shawn: [kiss-caress-nuzzle] Belle, please don't talk about that tonight. I love you and this is so special [kiss-kiss]

Belle: OK Shawn, you're right, this IS the most beautiful expression of your love. I love you, too. But what happens if my dad kills my mom? I won't be able to go on with my life.

Shawn: [kiss] Belle, are you going to keep talking about your parents as we're making love for the first time? I can't wait any longer. I'm so hot for you, I need you now!

Belle: Oh Shawn, I'm sorry, you're right. I'm hot for you, too. I need you, too. [kiss] But I need my mom and dad to stay married and have the perfect marriage and the perfect life with buttercups and daisies and moonbeams and rainbows and unicorns!
Click to expand...

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I am laughing so hard. Honestly it's not far off at all.
 
For me, the teen scene peaked with Lucas/Sami/Carrie/Austin/Jamie. (OK technically Carrie & Austin were older but they were 19-22 soap-age-ish). I hated Belle & Shawn & Philip as teens because those were the first characters aged whom I'd seen born on-screen, and it made me tune out for a while. (It also bothered me that they went from being totally different ages to the same age...UGH.)

I did catch a bit of Chloe/Philip during the Coronation storyline and started liking them as a couple. But I tuned out quickly after Marlena slapped the wheelchair-bound (and ultra-bratty) Brady. I found the teens during the Stalker storyline to be less horrible, mainly because they were mingled with the adults and involved in trying to find the killer. (Although since this was before DVR, or YouTube, I only caught about 40 minutes of show per week, plus Friday episodes, and have no recollection of the Shawn/Belle stuff...I'm so sorry JS, it seems like it was painful!!)

I thought the teen scene with Chad/Will/Gabi/T/Kinsey was showing promise. (Oh and Abby and Melanie were illogically mingled therein as well.) THEN we had the horror of the sports website storyline. :eek:

To the core point however, the problem isn't the teens, it the writing in general. Consider our teen set.
JJ - Core family member, came in as a troubled teen mourning his dad, did drugs, had trouble at school, reformed and is working to better himself;
Paige - loose (almost implausible) ties to Salem, was a one-note "good girl" character who suddenly decided she needed to bed JJ;
MaryBeth - one-note character who hates JJ;
Rory - one-note character who thinks Paige is a snob;
Bev - one-note character who lusts for JJ when the script demands it.

And then there's... ... ... and ... er, um. Nobody else.

So we really have no teen set. And the teens we do have, aside from JJ, are so ill-defined that we can't even care about them, no matter how we try. The show just doesn't care about developing characters at all. (Back in the day, we knew a heck of a lot more about Sami's friend Jamie in three weeks than we know about Rory after 15 months.) The show only cares about plot points - and only those that involve blackmail, sex, and blackmailing into/over sex. :sick:
 
(Although since this was before DVR, or YouTube, I only caught about 40 minutes of show per week, plus Friday episodes, and have no recollection of the Shawn/Belle stuff...I'm so sorry JS, it seems like it was painful!!)
Click to expand...
Painful doesn't even begin to describe it! I'd gladly watch Jen and Daniel break up for the 4,263rd time over watching Belle and Shawn trying to have sex for the first time.
 
Jason, you forgot that kid Cole in the current teen set, that one note character who went to jail for awhile, who likes Bev and hates JJ :), but he's no different than the rest of them.

I think they would have been more successful this teen group had they brought some more teens from familiar families. I always thought they could have brought JT back to live with Hope and be about JJ's age. He could have been the good kid while JJ was going through his rebellious stage. For a girl, they could have brought Joy Wesley on. She had ties in Salem as Parker's aunt, with sister Chloe coming in and out of town. She would have had as many ties to the canvas as Paige does, and with a mother like Nancy and a sister like Chloe, she could have been an interesting character.

I was not watching full time during the last blast teen era, but I agree when I did watch it that I found them to be terribly annoying, especially Belle and Shawn.

My favorite teen set will always be Hope and Melissa. When I first started watching Days, they were the teens that I watched. One reason I enjoyed their stories so much was because they interacted much more with the adults and did not have so many "kid" stories.
 
I don't think the issue is with them being young; the issue, just like with other stories, is with the horrible writing. JJ & Paige are turning into Daniel & Jennifer 2.0--boring, lacking in chemistry, and with Paige claiming she loves and knows and trusts JJ but never acting that way (just as Jennifer has done to Daniel).

To make it worse, add in a meddling 50 year-old parent of one of these teens (who'd be more interesting in another storyline with grown people here age and paired up with Daniel or Clyde) flirting with her daughter's boyfriend that she supposedly detests, and then a whole bunch of one-note characters.

Since the writers only focused on the golden (EJ & Sami) and silver (Daniel & Jennifer) couples so much, they had no time to properly write this storyline (or any other ones on the soap, for that matter) OR develop the other characters involved, like Mary Beth, Cole, or Bev.
 
Sparkster has a good point though. The reason Belle, Shawn, Philip, Chloe and Brady worked so well was because they were from core families. Well, Belle, Shawn and Philip were and then they built Chloe's family onscreen. Same with Mimi. So we saw the teens in isolated stories as well as in stories with their parents, siblings, etc. Over time we saw Shawn involved with Zack and JT and Belle involved with Sami, Eric and Brady. My favorite part of this teen set was hands down Chloe and Brady falling in love--I loved everything about it including the singing. I always think of them when I hear the song Destiny which was their theme. Such a shame they were destroyed offscreen.

JJ and the current set don't work because JJ is the only one who is from a core family. Paige would be more believable if she were interacting with Shane, Kim, Caroline, etc. Instead she is treated like an outsider as per Eve's conversation with Kayla last week. The other issue is the recast Eve. I think this would be a little more believable if Charlotte Ross were playing Eve. Instead, Eve and Paige just come off as 2 new characters instead of 2 characters who should be heavily connected to the Bradys. Bev and Rory also really don't do much aside from cause occasional angst.
 
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