All other soap operas pale in comparison to Days of Our Lives. There is simply no other soap out there with greater storylines, dialogue, characters, etc., and here are the reasons why.

First of all, those storylines (Sami/Austin/Carrie, Bo/Hope/Billie) that keep on going and going and going like a Kenneth Starr investigation. Only Days can carry out the same plot point, character actions, dialogue, etc. for years on end without adding ANY plot twists, character development, or original dialogue and still keep it fresh. Stefano's obsession with Marlena for the past seven years and his numerous attempts to kidnap her? Talk about exciting. Why be like General Hospital, where Tin Man returns from the dead one day with the intent to kill Sonny and tries to follow through on it before the week is even over, when you can be like Days and keep the exact same stuff going on for years on end by any means necessary (murder suddenly became legal in Salem to keep the Franco plot going and divorce suddenly became illegal in France to keep the Sami/Austin/Carrie plot going)? Why spend more money than is absolutely necessary? Other soaps have to pay writers to come up with ideas on a daily basis, and it doesn't come cheap. Days solved this problem by taking a single script, Xeroxing it a few dozen times, and calling it two month's worth. They should be applauded for this revolutionary cost effectiveness.

Such villains like Franco always keeps me on my toes. Being hired to break up two people who are happy together? Talk about riveting. Plus I always know where Franco is coming from because his character has not changed one bit since the first day he arrived in Salem. When characters are on the show as long as he has been and absolutely ZILCH is learned about the character, he tends to get REALLY STALE really soon. But not Franco. Franco is less than one-dimensional and that makes him a one of a kind. He even talks like he's reading from a cue card, which is indeed a fresh approach to performing that sets him apart from the few real actors on the show. Of course, he's been reading the exact same cue card for a couple years now, so he's had a lot of practice. Or how about Travis aka Trent? Stefano hired him to make sure Jack and Jennifer don't get back together (for Peter's sake), and he's doing that by living next door and doing absolutely nothing other than calling up Stefano on the cell phone and informing him of every time Jack comes goes to the bathroom. "We've got major problems, Stefano. Jack's turned on the television! I think it's ESPN! What should I do?" Talk about an ingenious plan.

You've also gotta love conflicting storylines. They just add so much complexity and intrigue to the lives of the people in Salem. Take John for example. The first reason given for Stefano brainwashing him was that John, during his cat burglar/private investigator days, double crossed him during a heist, and because Roman was somehow also working on that case, and Stefano turned John into Roman, then held Roman captive, for revenge on the both of them. Later on, we learn that John was brainwashed because he was Rachel's priest and Rachel told him all about what Stefano did to her family, and because Stefano was such the religious man that he was (and he sure acts like one too), he could not kill a priest so he brainwashed him instead, which does bring up an interesting question. Just when did Rachel go to John about her family? Is John 60 years old or did he become a priest at age 4? Or did she suppress all of her memories and they came back to her while John was a cat burglar/priest/private investigator/government operative? Why don't other soaps raise such questions? Even if they did, they'd answer them. But not Days, which again chooses to march to the beat of a different drummer. It should also be noted that John had plastic surgery to look the way he does now, but according to the storylines of today, his face was EXACTLY THE SAME before going under the knife. Never mind the fact that John Black was literally a name he chose off the wall when he first showed up in Salem as a man without a memory. Now it's the name he's always been post-Forrest Alemain and pre-Roman Brady. How about the fact that Stefano considers John is arch enemy yet will still help his adopted daughter Kristen to win John over? If this isn't character subtext, I don't know what is.

Also, when characters get recast, their histories tend to get erased and they are given a clean slate (Austin, Billie, Roman, Laura, Mike). This is what is called character complexity, when completely different sides to the character suddenly show up without warning or explanation, and the viewers are still puzzling over it months later. Just look at Jack. If the prosecutor REALLY wanted to put him away for life by criticizing his character, she would've brought up his under-the-table political career, his money scams, and Kayla's rape, but because this is a new actor, it's a different character too. Matthew Ashford left GH because he wanted to take his character in a different direction, but the writers wouldn't allow it because that would conflict with that character's past history. But Ashford wouldn't have that problem on Days. Make Jack an ex-lifeguard and professional rock climber instead of an ex-newspaper editor/owner and one-time aspiring politician? Been there. Remove Mike's backbone and self reliance and replace it with puppy dog eyes and subordination? Done that. Make Abe a member of a white supremacist group? Don't put it past the writers that they couldn't and wouldn't do something like that. Pretty soon we're going to find out that the REAL REASON Stefano hates John is because John killed Stefano's great grandfather at the O.K. Corral because John is really an Earp brother, and he looks really good for a man over a hundred years old, which plastic surgery would explain--if only that part about John's past hadn't been written out of the history book.

I just love how Days likes to recap the storylines EVERY SINGLE TIME the show comes back from commercial break with characters repeating the EXACT SAME DIALOGUE they've been saying for the past six months straight, along with flashbacks of the characters repeating everything they just said. This is very beneficial for the brand new viewers who tune into Days every 5 minutes it's on or those who have REALLY SHORT term memories (like the Salem residents who can't seem to recall Stefano dying and coming back a half dozen times). This is the reason why Days doesn't have both the "Previously on Days..." and "Next time on Days..." like GH, AMC, or OLTL does, because Days DOESN'T confuse or lose ANY of their viewers that way. What previously happened on Days and what will happen tomorrow is what the viewer will see TODAY. Progression tends to confuse some watchers, and giving the "Previously on Days" segment at the beginning of the show helps clue the viewer in on the exact dialogue and situations the show will be airing for the next few weeks. It's really no different than just turning the camera on the cue cards and filming that for an hour, but Days tries to take it to another level.

The "dialogue" is also second to none. Do you see characters on any other soap talking to a picture for thirty minutes? No. Or new characters who spend their entire first show talking to themselves? It's a trademark of Days and no other soap would dare touch that. Why bother with the craft of "acting" when you can just tell the viewer every single thing about every little detail on the show? Some people don't like subtlety, and Days understands that--nothing gets left to the imagination. Allowing the actor to convey thought and emotion by letting him/her use his/her acting range may throw some viewers for a loop, so the best possible solution is to point out the obvious so that no one will miss a thing. Other soaps require you to read between the lines, interpret dialogue and body language, take what clues are given and see if you can put it together yourself, etc.

Finally, the women of Days are extremely dedicated people and when they have their sights set on something nothing else matters. All they want is their men and NOTHING will get in their way, not their jobs and definitely not their families. This is the very kind of dedication people in this country today are lacking. They don't have the drive that Billie and Hope have toward Bo, that Marlena and Kristin have toward John, that Ali has toward Mike, that Sami and Carrie have toward Austin, etc. Even Laura is trying to force her son Mike down Carrie's throat, telling him it doesn't matter if Carrie loves Austin instead of him because he deserves to be happy with Carrie regardless of how SHE feels. What's there NOT TO LOVE about Days?