Days Spoilers w/o March 20

At last we’re finally getting more involved with the BS2 follow up. It’s very weird having Ben back when the same actor portrays another character who isn’t even related to him. I guess it’s only fitting to have Ciara back for this storyline, but hopefully it’s only a handful of episodes.

I’m just so over the whole DiMera family running the company. Isn’t there anything else interesting that they can do with them? If not, move on to something else. Also, I’m at the point where I can’t even watch the scenes with Li. He’s just an awful character.

I guess the last few days are the first Peacock filmed episodes? Nice to see some new sets. But, the blue lighting still exists.

I haven’t noticed the muffled sounds but will pay attention to it now. As low budget as it’s become over the years, I still enjoy it for the most part. It’s just a little more bothersome to watch because I can’t watch it on my DVR and FF through certain scenes. But, I’m enjoying the returns and hope that the pacing of some storylines become faster. It’s actually nice to see things happen now other than them just talking about it.

On a different note, I was bummed to hear that Lindsey Godfrey is gone again and that Martha Madison and Nadia Bjorlin are most likely not taping anymore. Instead we’re stuck with Stacy Haiduk, and some of the other annoying characters.

The thing, they've always treated Dimera as a family company, but it's really not. If there's stock that can be owned or whatever, that would make it a publicly traded company. Member of the family may have a majority stake, owning most of the shares, and the board has to answer to shareholders to at least some degree, but it's not a private company.

I haven't watched in ages, but from what I glean from descriptions and previews, etc., the show has still never really managed to establish a character who's a legitimately solid business person who could take over the reigns after Stefano.
I mean, he was never really a businessman either, but he was the sort of character where it was believable he'd be a good, ruthless businessman; with a finger in every pie. It always made way more sense to me that Stefano had a very diverse business portfolio, spanning multiple industries and endeavors.
Same could be said for Victor too.

Kate always seemed a good fit in that setting, but other than the near death stuff, I don't know what they've been having her do now (is she back with Roman?)
Nicole seemed good in the executive setting too. In fact, she might be the last believable corporate executive that's still on the show. EJ's in that mix, but I'm mainly going off my recollects of James' performance, because I haven't see NuEJ. i've heard positive things since he's settled into the part, but I don't know how he fairs at the corporate stuff.
I never really bought Brady as being a good executive, or Philip. Chad's kind of borderline. Like, Billy Flynn can play the hell out of almost any role, but especially because the show doesn't want him to go dark, or at least not stay that way, at least when I was watching Chad being in the corporate world always seemed at odds with who they want the character to be. I could sooner believe Chad as a high school teacher.

But a fair share of the problems with any of this or the other character stuff brought up in this thread, can largely be traced back to so many of the characters being woefully under developed. Which is pretty much what you get when your defining characteristic is who you're currently dating.
And you know, thinking about it, I think a lot of this can be traced back to JER. Mind you, he's not the be all, end all reason for where the show is at with these characters, but if you think about it - a character like EJ got a lot of development before JER came onboard way back when. It wasn't a huge amount of time, but there was something. Then under JER he became a comic book villain and subsequent writers tried to even him out. 
But once JER was back on the show, characters like Shawn, Belle, Philip, Mimi, characters that were just starting to come into their own, came to a screeching halt in character development; and they never recovered. And new characters introduced after that rarely, if ever, received much in the way of fleshing out.  When Dena took over, if as I recall, she had worked extensively with James Reilly and she was seen as basically his heir apparent. After that, that just became the status quo. 

The rest of you would know better, but has any of the new characters introduced in the last 15 years received any serious or proper development? Chad's the only one I can think of; and even that may be more a credit to what Billy brings to the role.

Actually, I do find some of the more recent characters introduced on the show have potential. Truly, the best character they’ve added in recent months has been the character of Sloan Peterson. She’s a beautiful blonde girl but she can really act. Also, she’s a scheming attorney and reminds me a little of a younger Nicole. What’s so interesting about her is that they’re revealing her character a little at a time. It keeps you invested as to what she’s about and where she comes from.

Possibly some of the other younger actors have potential but really need better direction. Johnny DiMera could be a great character since his portrayer, Carson Boatman, has good acting skills. Same could be said about Chanel and Jada Hunter. But, the writing and direction of the characters are a problem.

Stephanie, Alex and Wendy are not interesting at all and Li is just awful.

I actually don’t want Sami back anymore. For me, they completely ruined her character with the Lucas debacle. What a slap in the face to Lumi fans. Since Alison Sweeney doesn’t want to do any commitments except a quick week or two at a time once or twice a year, we don’t need her back. I actually would rather see Belle more front and center and I wish that Carrie could return but since she’s living in the UK now, it won’t happen.