Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem

I've never seen Days of Our Lives but thought I'd check this one out because I like the silly guilty pleasures of soap operas.

I admire the writers for soaps. The fact they can keep the storylines going for ages when most issues can be resolved by asking the correct question 2 seconds later intrigues me. As someone who knows nothing about these characters going in, the writers have done a good job in bringing viewers up to speed in the character vignettes of the first episode.

My 7-star rating is for the acting being pretty bad; I expected a little better. This is a soap opera so if you don't have ability to get past watching a soap, you probably won't enjoy this.

If you're a soap opera fan this will be a silly pleasure to watch with your favorite snack and tune out of life for about 50 minutes.

The storyline of season 1 is fun and I'll keep watching it for the campy-ness, hoping the acting improves.

Drag queens & flaming! Leo is the funniest character on Days, though a bunch of others have better lines than they usually do. This show has been way more fun than real Days has been in a long time. No whining, a story line that's improbable but moves along fast, and maybe sex scenes that go on for a bit too long, but feature gay and straight. I'm sorry it's limited - I hate the thought of only having draggy Days to watch.

It started off slow for me....like watching grains of sand through an hourglass! John and his over-the-top dramatic grimaces were never a favorite of mine. So to have him open the show was a bit ho-hum, even if it did involve the great Maxwell Sheffield, I mean Charles Shaughnessy as Shane Donovan. And once you brought in the legendary Jackée Henry, The acid-tongued Leo Stark (Greg Rikaart) and my all-time personal favorite Leann Hunley, how could it not be a hoot?

No, this is not "The Crown" and I don't think that was it's purpose. It's a silly mystery with typical soap turns and false starts. But it brings back many Days alumni. Seeing Eileen Davidson back as Kristin DiMera brought a smile to my face. She IS Kristen. I enjoyed seeing Will and I was surprised that I actually preferred the new Sonny. Zack Tinker made the character more three dimensional. I thought the Will-Sonny chemistry was more believable. I also liked going back in time and seeing Carrie and Austin. (Why did they not get included in the beginning credits!??) Consider this a kind of reunion show and you'll enjoy it. The cheapo sets mixed are mixed with lots of stock glamor clips of the cities they are supposed to be in. The story line is cheesy and the "I gotcha scenes" are laughable. That's what makes soaps fun!

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. It's a fun, tight little action-adventure series developed exclusively for Peacock bringing together some old and new faces. Peacock may have a hit on their hands. Hopefully it gets future seasons.

This is everything I wanted it to be. I couldn't be happier watching this. Love seeing old favorite characters and actresses that use to play favorite characters. If you have been watching DOOL since you were a kid with your Nana like me, this is TV GOLD. 🙌🏼🙌🏼