Essentially, this is... a recap of recaps

[cleolinda]

Today's The Month What My Journal Was Born In flashback: I learned my recappin' in a hard school, y'all. For about three months, I wrote daily Days of Our Lives recaps. And then, between my class schedule changing and the show being on every weekday, I burnt out. BUT THE LESSONS I LEARNED STAYED WITH ME FOREVER. And as soon as I figure out what those lessons were, I'll let you know.

So what I ended up doing this morning was going back and tagging those entries so that you can get them all together (start at the bottom here and move up). Quick excerpts, if you'd like to see what my recapping style was like four years ago:

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/64769.html
OH MY GOD MARLENA ACTUALLY FELL 500 STORIES BOUNCED OFF A CANOPY AND LANDED ON HER OWN DAUGHTER THIS IS THE MOST AWESOME SHOW IN THE HISTORY OF EVER.

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/101234.html
Chez Crazy. Shawn [who is chained up in the Love Cage] snips at Crazy Jan to stop it and get off him. He insists that Belle is the only woman he has ever loved and that she did not "brainwash" him. This is not good. Crazy Jan bitches at some kewpie voodoo doll that the doll promised her it would go better than this. Kewpie Voodoo Doll advises her to be patient. I am so not making this up, I can't even tell you. Crazy Jan tells Shawn that she's gonna have to break out the tough love. Shawn's all like, whatever. She returns to the Kewpie Voodoo Doll ("You can do it, Jan!"). She jumps on Shawn again and promises that she has big surprises for him.

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/102106.html
Chez Crazy. Shawn: "I AM BEING HELD AGAINST MY WILL! PLEASE SEND THE COPS!" Nicole [on phone with Crazy Jan]: "Girl, I gotta hand it to you. You are nuttier than a fruitcake, but you get the job done." Shawn, in the background: "SHE IS HOLDING ME CAPTIVE! PLEASE CALL THE SALEM POLICE DEPARTMENT!" Really, we're on a totally different scene now and I'm still capping this one because I'm crying [with laughter] so hard.

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/105362.html
John asks Mr. Mephistopheles if it's at all possible that Marlena is alive. Lexie points out that she declared Marlena dead; Marlena was shot through the heart; John held her as she died; and Mr. Mephistopheles adds that HE EMBALMED HER, THANK YOU, CAN WE BURY HER NOW? Marlena: *gasp sigh flop.* Marlena, she not ded yet. Still. Commercials.

Chez Crazy. Jan comes out in a spifforama new outfit for the bank. Nicole: "You realize that if you marry Shawn, you'll be... Jan Brady. Which somehow... would be... so fitting." Jan: "Who's Jan Brady?" Nicole: "Never mind." I may or may not be able to recap the rest of this scene, as now I ded from laughter.

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/107292.html
House of Bitch. Sami doesn't want to go out to dinner, has right to grieve, leave her alone, etc. Lucas: WOMAN, JUST GO TO THE OLIVE GARDEN WITH ME. Lucas threatens to call his mom and hang out with her instead. Ew, Lucas. Don't blackmail women into going out with you by using your mom, dude.

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/108369.html
Bizarro Alice's House. Abe worries that Lexie will find someone else and move on--particularly since he told her to. If I get married, and something happens to my husband, I will never be able to see other men because I will always be worried that he's trapped in a tropical Bizarro Birmingham somewhere. Woe.

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/110084.html
Love Cage. Crazy Jan crazies. My mother, wisely: "See, he needs to fake like he loves her." Me: "Mom... he's been doing that for, like, two weeks now." Shawn: "I want to hold you in my arms. I want to give you the love you deserve." Me: "I told you." Crazy Jan: "...This is an act, ISN'T IT?" Mom: "Two weeks, huh?" Commercials.


I never did find out how the Bizarro Salem or the Love Cage storylines ended up, by the way.

Comments

[greedyskunk.livejournal.com]

Whoa, and this was four years ago? I used to watch DOOL in the mid-90's, but stopped right around when Marlena became possessed by Satan and was torching Christmas tree lots. I really think I stopped just when the show was getting good. Nice to know that the Crazy Train kept chugging away.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was recapping during the ballyhooed Salem Stalker/Bizarro Salem storyline. Sadly, I think Crazy Jan was my favorite part.

[pescivendolo.livejournal.com]

Salem Stalker really was a high point in Days history. It was brilliant. I think it ended piss-poorly, but eh, what did we expect?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

How did it end, anyway? (You can give me the super-short version, I won't make you tell me what happened with every single character.)

[pescivendolo.livejournal.com]

Um. Tony DiMera was actually the one that "killed" everyone, but made suggestive suggestions to Marlena's brain that she did it. He'd gone crazy and spent a lot of time talking to his daddy's dead, decomposing body, which was propped up in a chair. Eventually people started to figure it out and flew to the island. There was an earthquake I think. Rocks fall, everyone gets rescued.

[noteasilywon.livejournal.com]

Although it turns out Tony wasn't actually Tony- he was really Tony's cousin Andre. The real Tony had been chillin' on some tropical island for the past twenty years. And Andre died somehow and the gang went and retrieved the real Tony.

Anyway, if you, Cleo, or anybody out there wants to learn a bit more about Days' recent exploits (dating back to summer 2006), Serial Drama is a fabulous and hilarious resource.
http://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/days_of_our_lives/index.html

Although the awesome level of the show has decreased nowadays, the crazy reached some more epic levels there for a while. Examples:

http://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/2007/06/i_was_going_to_.html#more (Tony rides a horse into the Dimera mansion. Yes, a horse.)

http://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/2007/06/fair_warning.html (BEST. WTF FACES. EVER)

http://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/2007/06/days_week_in_re.html#more ("Take, for example, the age-old story of a doctor/human-and-feral-cat-hybrid trapped for months in a tunnel beneath an abandoned 1980s nightclub, who hisses, howls, and grunts her way to discovery by some of the town's upstanding citizens, necessitating cartwheeling through a hole in some drywall and instigating a karate fight with two senior citizens that is averted only by the realization that the woman she has just tried to strangle is someone she knows and who suddenly refers to her as her best friend.")

Apologies for the spammage- I just thought I should spread the love.

Also, hi, Cleo! I've been reading and loving your blog for some time now. For one thing, you're hilarious, and for another, we're very similar in a lot of ways, both superficial (fandoms!) and not-so-superficial (last semester I had my own huge depression-related flameout at college and had to withdraw and come home, and I'm still dealing with that- and I'd just like to say I really appreciate your being so open about your own experiences with depression and anxiety and deadlines and such, because it's nice to know there's someone else out there like me.)

Aaanyway, in conclusion, you are awesome. I will shut up now.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hi hi!

(Okay, the WTF faces are the best thing ever.)