edgeofnik

@Mona Kane Croft@Paul Raven My immediate guess as to Ian's motivation: Heather is Paul's daughter; Sharon is Mariah's mother. Plenty of history there to justify it in Ian's twisted head. I hope Mariah gets involved in this story. CG has been in the background for far too long. And, boy, these last few episodes continue the return of glamour and sophistication to Y&R. When you think about the 80s until the mid-aughts, Y&R was the gold standard. No show could even touch the production, sets, clothes, styling, etc. Even the slight lighting changes to Society actually make it look like a place where the elite would hang out.

The returns actually caught the attention of Deadline: ‘The Young And The Restless’ Surprises Viewers By Bringing Back Two Super Villains

I firmly believe Sharon is being drugged somehow. That would be far better than a *brain tumor* - it would absolutely make sense. Plus with all the new types of G. H. B. that are out there, it's both plausible and realistic. Though I will miss LA - the Sharon/Cameron scenes really are entertaining. And it would be better than Daisy being the killer. Daisy coming back into Daniel and Lucy's life would provide plenty of drama. Of course, Lucy has no idea about the circumstances of her conception. I wasn't really watching much at that time, but I had no idea that Billy + Victoria adopted Lucy at some point! There's a lot of story to mine and with MG at the center, you know it's going to watchable.

Monday US - featured Y&R's GOATs: Victor, Nikki, Nick, Sharon, Phyllis Jack, Ashley, Traci, Jill, Christine Some great visuals: Nikki piano, the ground shot of Lauren's legs, the long view of Christine/Daniel (camera between the other people eating), Jill/Victor scenes, Sharon climbing the stairs, etc. These are all noticeable improvements.

With AS returning - he's definitely missed - we find out that Donna's chess is really getting crowned by Justin. We then discover after Ridge dumped Brooke for Taylee, Brooke *followed her heart* back to Eric. Of course, Eric is the only man who could give her the things that matter: being the Forrester matriarch and control of his shares of FC. Only their wedding night, Eric has a heart attack that nearly kills him. Brooke seizes control of FC. Brooke become Chairperson and makes Rick, the *real* Forrester co-CEO with Steffy. Kicking out Steffy would drain us of all the drama! Plus, Brooke knows booting Steffy would go against Eric/Stephanie's wishes. Deep down, Eric/Stephanie's approval will always matter to Brooke. Steffy, in her desperate need for control, seduces Rick in the CEO office. Katie, still angry about something 'Logan-related' videos one Riffy session. Using a fake number, she texts it to Finn, who calls someone to meet him for drinks. The next morning, Finn wakes up in a hotel room, hears the shower running and says to himself in horror - I can't believe finally I slept with a Logan! The mystery, which will takes weeks to solve, is which one: Brooke, Donna, Katie, Bridget or Hope.

I didn't know it was a full episode about the Ranch. I was floored by the flashbacks - almost all were new to me. Great choices spanning all of MTS's hairstyles! Including the fighting scenes really was a great choice because they showed the intensity and complexity of the relationship. From the introduction of the Abbotts until about 15 years or so, Y&R always felt rich, glamorous and sophisticated. Watching Friday's episode brought that back for me. I never realized how much the absence of that set hurt the Newman family *home* scenes. Thank goodness the Abbott living room and the iconic front door weren't ever sacrificed!

Carter has spent *years(!)* working on this proposal, but never mentioned or even dropped a casual hint to his best buddy, Ridge. How many times have we seen Ridge/Carter hangout? Lunacy. Brad realized that July/August were the most interesting months in 2 years. It only took him 8 weeks to relaunch Luna, which is pretty impressive. These 2 weeks were pretty awful. Taylee's dialog was so off-character - no way would she be so cold hearted and narrow-minded. - she would've encouraged Steffy to step back and look at the implausibility that the *fall* was premeditated. And making Finn 100% himbo agreeing with Steffy on every point is offensive and uninteresting. The best soap relationships have conflicts where the couples work to stay together, etc. I'll give it one more week before I ditch it again.

MS being more restrained made those scenes so much better. And, man, SC is so good. Sure the story could be better. But I'll take this over wasting SC on pouring coffee and listening to people whine during the past few years has been a tremendous waste. The GCAC and the funeral scenes were a big improvement production-wise. Seeing all those extras at the GCAC was a nice touch.

LSV is the Alpha man B&B has desperately needed since $B was emasculated during the past 5 years. He's also a better scene partner for AN - there's a different vibe that's refreshing. I do hope they make the split stick. As so many of us have observed, B&B really needs a competing fashion house to FC. It's been way to claustrophobic with all the conflicts coming within - basically being reduced to Forrester/Marone v Logan. I just find it rich that neither Steffy nor Ridge are Forresters. These are the same people who try to de-legitimize Rick, who really should've been brought back to fight for his birthright.

That 13,000 episode promo truly captures the glamour and opulence that used to be a hallmark of Y&R. Everyone was dressed perfectly. And, gosh, if JW didn't look fantastic! I will credit Y&R for keeping vets like JW, ED and BM around in some capacity. Thrilled to see more of the Newman Ranch. It's about time. Just like I never get sick of seeing the Abbott living room, that iconic set should've never been retired. There's only one shock that would matter for Devon/Abby's wedding: it'd involve an Emmy winner returning, which I know everyone would love to see.

You know MG is an awesome actor when he can make the Tessa scenes enjoyable. Not on my Bingo card for 2024! Messa needs to end or, at least, be treated like all other couples - with breakups, cheating, make-up, etc. That's the true sign of equality. Whatever so-called vocal fanbase demanding they stay together needs to be treated like every other fanbase. SC must be so happy she's got a really emotionally complex storyline instead of pouring coffee. EB has been bringing it. It's been a long time since he's been this locked in. Any chance Damien is gay and secretly married to P.3? I'm trying to figure out how a new male character older than Nate fits into the show. Maybe Damien is the doctor who's been treating Hillary and Dru in secret!!

The past couple of weeks have been all about suspending belief: 1. Carter pushing to save HFTF after wanting to axe it a few weeks ago 2. Ridge/Eric absolutely against expansion, but, Ridge undermines Steffy and hires The Vine. 3. Dr. Doolittle randomly leaves Steffy's iPad in the design office instead of Steffy's office. 4. Taylor being included in Executive meetings and having zero tolerance for Hope. Hello, writers, Taylor may have been uptight, but she never viewed people as one-dimensional 5. Brooke a tad judgmental about office romances - then walks into a room with Eric/Ridge. 6. The Halloween episode. Yikes. And why isn't Sheila manipulating Hope/Finn? That's totally in Sheila's wheelhouse. I kinda wish they'd have Brooke/Sheila as allies. Is what Sheila did to Brooke any different than Taylor shooting Bill in the back?

Awesome news! Further proof that streaming is a viable platform for soaps.

CBS/PG far exceeded my expectations in terms of casting! It shows an incredible and serious commitment to BTG. You would've thought this was a prime-time drama. I'm absolutely thrilled for MJV, the soap genre and for Black creators and actors. Can't wait to watch!

@Gray Bunny@Taoboi We got the first signs of it Tuesday/Wednesday. All of sudden Carter is pushing for the 'House of Forrester' with rapid expansion? And, when Steffy balks, he rants to Hope about Steffy letting her personal feelings get in the way of progress. Please that's the FC way. As if Stephanie, Eric, Ridge, Rick and Brooke never used FC as their personal playground - either for revenge or favoritism. lol I loved seeing LSV show that much emotion and anger, but he was looking and sounding a bit unhinged. But it's still better than Carter being treated like an intern. On a positive note: Using actual history to explain why Ivy would be the logical person to revive the jewelry line. I totally forgot she trained under Quinn. Oh, and, AB looks great. I always thought AB could've been cast as Steffy's long-lost sister.

Line of the year: Brooke: “For your information, I’ve had a broken heart many, many times and nobody ever called it a syndrome!” If HT had been playing Taylor, you know the response would've been: 'Definitely not a syndrome, Brooke. It's called sex addiction!'

Thursday/Friday reaffirmed that Carter is in a position of power. Hope has professed her gratitude to Carter multiple times and it's borderline creepy. Steffy and Brooke both noted that he went out of his way to advocate for HFTF. At least, my proposed twist above would make this interesting. When Hope sleeps with Liam for old times sake, will Carter continuing being the Beta? Wouldn't it be great if LSV got the chance to show Carter's bad side after Myron, Quinn, Katie, etc. It's time he finally turned into an Alpha.

@Maxim Yeah, the Taylor/Ridge/Brooke triangle has played out. However, with RB as Taylee, I'm hopeful that Brad will reunite Taylor/Ridge permanently. Contrast TK's Taylee scenes with Brooke's and it's obvious. Time for a Brooke scandal (Liam) and then $B *rescues* her. The show is really weak right now - all the Liam/Hope scenes are cringe. I feel bad for SC because he can't be enjoying this. Hope/Carter feels like it was a last minute idea inserted into the show. Seriously, after working with Hope for almost a decade, now he notices her?

So instead of Eric playing 'pickleball' with Donna while married to Quinn ... Donna is playing 'chess' with Justin! One can only hope.

You deleted the 'in Eric's hotel room.' In 2017, Steffy shot an unarmed Sheila in Eric's hotel room. Eric was living there when he was separated from Quinn. Sheila was there to help him as 'friend'. Steffy came to the hotel with Stephanie's gun. When Sheila reached into her purse to pull out a razor, Steffy shot her. Eric urged Sheila not to press charges against Steffy. It's shocking this never came up during the horrible choice to have Sheila shoot Steffy/Finn.

This is positive news. Glad he's coming back in any capacity.

The Carter - Hope relationship is completely inappropriate. Carter is in a position of power as COO, Hope is not. Carter is in a position to make decisions that can impact Hope's line. They just demonstrated that with Carter reworking the figures - coincidentally now that Carter is interested in Hope, they're *now* favorable.

@ranger1rg Yeah, I fact checked the article that made the 35 claim. It's shaky. I'd bet it was in the upper 40s. In January Deadline published the following: 'The GH average viewer age is up 4 percent from 65.6 to 68.1; Y&R is up 1 percent from 69.6* to 68.7 , and B&B is up 2 percent from 68.2 to 69.4.' Y&R's base number is off. The original article has not been updated. Regardless, they were far higher than I imagined. OC, if you included streaming viewers like me ... it'd drop a bit. Bottom line: is that it does impact what stories the shows can tell.

@ranger1rg Yeah, the average viewer age of the 3 current soaps is close to 70yo. Soaps lost the younger demographic two decades ago. In early 2000s it was 35! It's a different form of SORAS! Maybe a BTG will bring in some new (younger) viewers, but it's doubtful.

@Taoboi I'm floored at how much better AH looks in a *real* video than on Y&R. Not just her looks, but her smile and body movements. Sometimes they've bound Victoria so tightly that it does AH a disservice. With Sharon talking about Cassie death still guiding her actions, it'd be a nice off-shoot to have Mariah start pushing back. Mariah has been so Cassified, it's ridiculous. There's no way Mariah wouldn't be resentful about the dominant mindspace that Cassie has in Sharon's mind. Shoot I resent it when Sharon is whining about Cassie while her miracle Mariah is standing right there. CG can do so much more but she's been trapped in this *unbreakable* marriage. Guess what gay people cheat. If we're talking real equality, give gay couples the exact same relationship challenges. Maybe someday.But, for now, let Mariah go off on her family!