Techtite's TV Reviews!

"Nice actors and often- witty dialog cannot save Days from overwrought feminism, and a rather force-fed attempt to be 'hip.'"

---from the review

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Sidebar ::

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Female Chauvinism, or Male Feminism? Although I'm not about to inundate the actual review with this piece of minutiae, it does deserve mentioning in a "Sidebar" that all six "first season" episodes were written by one...man! So; what's up with all the feminist sexism? I guess this as good of a place as any to say that sexism knows no gender bounds. Just a small piece of trivia.

Don't. Shoot. The Messenger. Some people get so irked when this or that show isn't picked up, only to scrounge the internet for...anything, pertaining to their dying series. They then check out a Techtite review of the series, then --especially if the review is negative!--- they send me letters, flaming my "awful" reviews of their late, "great" shows.

So to these people, I devote the rest of this review's "sidebar," because I can see how someone can love this show. It has great writing (mostly), great acting (overall), and topical subjects (this is true). I'm not denying that at all.

However, ABC will hardly cancel this series because of one obscure review. They'll cancel it because the series got every lifeline, and it just didn't reel in an effective audience. Not only did ABC hype the premiere; they pre-empted one of their most watched shows in that first week, just to air the premiere twice. It's not like the fans of that series wouldn't have watched the premiere had they wanted to, nor would they have kept quiet had they liked the premiere, keeping the series afloat by word of mouth. So, again: don't shoot the messenger. If the series failed, it's not because of this one review; it's because the series failed to gather an effective audience. This review is one person's opinions as to why this was so. It's that simple.

The Days

A Review by Techtite

This series is a good case of what helps and hinders a new drama, all rolled into one. The Days has an attractive lead cast, decent writing, and enough tears to make soap fans not want to leave this "drama" for your mama. Yet in the end it makes one little mistake; a major snubbing of the male demographic, in very female chauvinistic ways.

The premiere's prologue begins the series nicely, introducing each member of the Days; a typical upper-middle-class suburban family. Mother Abby Day is an ex-homemaker who recently returned to her work as an advertising executive. Father Jack Day is in the sort of law firm that, as the series narrator puts it, slowly takes away your inner soul, piece by piece. Cooper Day, their "middle child," is narrator of the series because each episode is a part of the journal he's writing, that he hopes will make him rich someday (perhaps, we must presume, as a TV series: wink, wink!). Older sister Natalie Day is a high school soccer star with "Beckham's right leg." Finishing off the Days' quintet is young Nathan, a child "genius," recently sent to a private children's school.

Each episode is one 24-hour "day" in the life of the Days (hence the double-entendre title). In the premiere "day," Jack has a mid-life crisis meltdown and quits his lawyer job. Nathan has a young meltdown of his own and nearly passes out in school. Teenage Natalie and her mom have the identical yet still very polarized tensions of unexpected pregnancy. As for Cooper, he's sort of a writer, sort of a stoner, and sort of like "the boy casting agents hope will bring in the teen demographic as the writers come up with a decent back story for him."

Such is just a small dollop of the series' biggest flaw: reverse sexism. See; a show made for both men and women would have equal skills and flaws for all characters; CSI, Without a Trace, and yes, even Melrose Place. Yet every once in a while there's a show that tries so hard to not be "male" chauvinist that...well, just look at the previous paragraph. Every male character is either a slacker, or, if they happen to be successful, a "burnout." The women are heroic dynamos who would be the next sports sensation, or even the next corporate executive, if not for those gosh darn men who get them pregnant. Even the opening credits is edited to include a shot of Natalie smiling like the prom queen, while Cooper is one buck tooth away from a total "Duh" expression.

Such feminine sexism is a shame, because there's a lot to love about these Days. The dialog is smart and snappy, and the topics are either hot, or even when they're not...cute. I particularly liked the pilot episode story pertaining to Nathan, who as it turns out was having a panic episode in school for an additional reason; he was seated next to a girl he likes. When told by big brother Cooper that he should grasp the moment "Carpe Diem" style and just tell her how he feels, he hops on a bus with a small batch of flowers and does just that. That was cute.

Not all stories are as golden. The pilot episode alludes to Jack's best friend constantly urging him to join his smaller, more ethical law firm; why didn't he do that, instead of making a total embarrassment of himself at work, and quitting law entirely...? Am I to supposed to presume he quit his job with reckless abandon "because he's a guy and guys are that dumb"...? Such sexism is driven home when Jack finds out his wife is pregnant, goes running back to get his old job back, only to be told his job has already been filled --In mere hours! In one day!-- and get this: "She starts tomorrow." You'd think I emphasized "she" as an attempt at pointless dramatic fluff. Too bad this series beat me to it.

However, sexism alone does not destroy a series' appeal. That would be the work of totally haphazard script writing...no matter how smart and snappy the dialog often is. Guest characters are so poorly written they seem to have morals one minute, only to lose them the next, only to get them back again, whenever the scripts require it. Cooper's friend Zanni, for example, gets unexpectedly kissed by Cooper in episode 3, only to quickly kick him hard in the groin, insisting she's not that kind of girl. Yet a mere three episodes later she's ready to "do the deed" with Cooper, complete with a Catholic schoolgirl costume she just happened to have in her closet. How much of an about-face can one character have? It's implied that Zanni's parents are open to her experimenting with drugs. One might muse if those drugs include Prozac.

Sure, this implies that some of the women are as flawed as the men. Yet The Days always seems to bend over backwards to show us that even when the women are being jerks, they're quasi-heroines, while even when the men are princes...nope, they're pigs. Even the nicest of boys in Natalie's school turns out to be a Homer Simpson in disguise, to the point where Mr. Doofus actually yells at the top of his lungs to his dad at home, "Don't worry dad; she's already pregnant!" Compare this to how one female teammate of Natalie's is single-handedly responsible for raping Natalie of her reputation at school, squealing to the principal about her pregnancy, kicking her out of her prized position in the soccer team and even getting crowned the new team captain in Natalie's place...yet Natalie is still supposed to be wondering what happened to their friendship (!). Give me a break, will you girl?

I would be wrong if I said this series didn't have a glimmer of potential. On the most part, it's a well written, well acted show. Yet all the sexism plays out not unlike a candlelit restaurant with the chef audibly heard coughing on all the food. "Will I get sick, if I swallow any of this?" Similarly: would gag on my own sentence if I were to recommend watching such a femininely sexist drama? It isn't worth the risk.

                                                                    ---Techtite

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