YRBB

EPISODE 4: CLOSE CALL

Following the advice Ted Melcher gave her last week, Paige wonders (to poor, captive Carlos) whether she can trust Greg, and decides to milk him for all he’s worth: Abby's old office, a company car, a computer, $120,000 a year salary. Greg, of course, gives in, and wants to celebrate with champagne, but Paige keeps things strictly professional. The interplay between those two is very interesting and their chemistry white hot. You can see why the show is placing so much on their shoulders.

The developments at Sumner Group are very painful to our lovable duo of idiot, Mort and Bob, who make their first appearance of the season as they theorize Paige is still around because she’s doing Greg sexual favors. Mort, with his characteristic humility, figures he’s good-looking enough to stand out in the competition for Abby's old office. His reaction to finding out Paige has it is priceless.

Meanwhile, from eons ago, the show addresses the theft of Michael's software by Johnny Rourke (I actually kind of miss Johnny). Greg pays Michael $100,000 to end the matter, then offers him a job at Sumner. Amusingly, this sends Mack and Karen through the roof. Both parties attempt to psychologically manipulate each other but it doesn’t work, and Karen ends up screaming at Michael in a way that makes Head Screamer Mack very proud. It’s pretty funny.

Harold tries to stay patient as Olivia bitches to him about the brand of soda he bought. If you switch over, you see, they’ll save 31 dollars a year! I’m surprised Harold hasn’t pulled some of his mafia enforcer moves on Olivia yet.

Karen finally confronts Paula about her feelings for Mack. "You’re my friend!" Paula whines and somehow gains the moral ground.

Frank helps Gary search for Sally's Friend all through L.A. At one point, Gary knocks on the right apartment but Chester, being a dog that’s useless, doesn’t actually bark when Gary rings the bell, so Gary moves on.

It feels good to have so much focus on Gary and Val again. It just feels right. Danny drives Amanda to work with no apparent concern whether Val is actually there (he misses her car altogether). Val, of course, spots him, and a little too naively believes his explanation that he was there for her. The twins tell Gary that Danny is yucky, and my God, are they right or what? There is a subtle change to Danny now. We see moments of his true self shining out; he looks positively psychotic in some of the shots. Val resents Gary's interference (possibly because he says Danny is yucky) and reveals to Danny that Gary is the twins’ father. Then, the show goes on coincidence overload: Not only does Frank sing, but he is performing at the same place, same night as Amanda, who also happens to sing, who happens to be there with Danny, who Gary happens to see, while Amanda happens to have her dog with her, so Gary will accidentally hear her refer to him as Chester, so then he can find out the truth. Phew. I’m exhausted.

Winner of the episode: Michael, who now has $100,000 and a nice job, without a degree, and for managing to win against Greg.

Loser of the episode: Chester. What kind of dog doesn’t bark when the bell rings?

On 10/7/2017 at 1:10 AM, DRW50 said:

I won't give anything away but I grew to really love Linda as time passed. Whether you'll feel the same way I don't know - I'll just say that the current story she's in is not her best. 

On 10/7/2017 at 2:23 AM, slick jones said:

 

She ends up being one of the most interesting characters.  She was certainly never dull...

Good to hear! If she'll be sticking around, I hope they write her better soon.

16 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

I don't get why they just didn't do a Dynasty the Next Generation kind of thing

You don't?

DYNASTY's PR, including Esther Shapiro's never-ending BS machine (her mouth), was so, so, SO very good. You see some of the print ads or something like this and think -- my God, this is going to be amazing. And then you tune in and it's 95% crapola. 

2 minutes ago, Khan said:

I'll say this much and then move on: if there are any right-wingers out there who are, at the moment, expressing outrage, disdain and especially moral superiority over this turn of events, then would you please have not just a seat, but the whole damn sofa?  Because, to be perfect and frank, you forfeited your right to say boo about Harvey Weinstein or any of his ilk in the film industry the moment you heard about and/or saw the evidence that cast you-know-who as a p***y-grabbing sexual predator and then said, "Nah, I'd still like him to be my president."

WIN.

33 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

In addition to discussions happening in the Status Updates section, there's already another Topic Thread that was started in the Movies and Music Section.

This, in addition to your other post, has me convinced people don't even check first before starting a thread.

Wow. As if he isn't already disgusting enough, that "please don't fire me" letter he sent made him even MORE pathetic.

19 minutes ago, SoapDope said:

 

It's a ripoff product from Coca Cola that's similar to Dr. Pepper. Some restaurants and drink fountains carry it instead of Dr. Pepper. That cartoon American Dad has and obsession with it. He and his wife went on a factory tour in one episode. The guy tells them they are closing it down and they freak out and set out to save it. 

You mean to tell me it still exists?!

I'll have to keep an eye out for it, although I don't like Dr. Pepper.

He looks good.

"Mr. Pibb"??

"It goes down good"??

Well, I;m curious. Wish I could try it!

2 hours ago, KMan101 said:

I'm a sucker for episode counts @YRBB ! Are you still doing the flashbacks for Y&R with the monthly counts?

Good to hear. I'll have something for THE DOCTORS soon. And, yes I am, November 1998 is coming up as soon as I finish December's. 

18 hours ago, ~bl~ said:

258 episodes equals no time off at all, maybe 2 days the entire year though what do they mean by specials. The US soaps don't even air that many episodes a year. I actually welcomed the break, the four weeks was a bit excessive, but I liked having a week or two without the show. (I actually like scheduled breaks if they are a few days.)

6 hours ago, Adamski said:

I think it may be a shock to the system for the cast and the production team to lose their long end-of-year break, and it could make the show feel less special to viewers if it's on week in, week out.

Exactly. It's not really the amount of episodes, it's that the creative team & production will now no longer have a break to rest/recharge/plan ahead, unless they rush production, which can come with its own set of issues.

It shouldn't be the end of the world & I see it as a positive thing, overall. I hope it's not the straw that breaks the camel's back or anything! lol

On 6/30/2017 at 11:06 PM, hsfolk said:

People freaking out at Matt Wilson (Aaron)

 

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-freaks-straight-actor-says-gay-character-acts-straight-acts-normal-20170630

What a stupid statement: He equated being 'normal' with NOT being effeminate or so-called flamboyant.  In other words, acting 'straight.' I think he was trying to say something like, just because you're gay, doesn't mean there's a specific way you should act (i.e. "effeminate") or something like that and he's right that TV almost exclusively features gay men who are, in some way or another, less masculine.

But the answer is NOT to create gay characters that ONLY 'act straight'. Yes, have a variety. Yes, do cast a gay man as a gay man. Yes, cast disabled people to play a disabled person's role. Yes, cast transgender actors to play transgender roles. What's so difficult to understand? It doesn't have to be ALWAYS but still...

What white, straight, good-looking male Wilson is saying here is that, by presenting all gay characters as straight, homophobia will be eradicated. Differences will be eradicated. How?

That being said, I do think he didn't mean it in a bad way.

20 minutes ago, Edward Skylover said:

It is excellent news. That 1 month break over Christmas and New Year has always been annoying.

Oh, boy. I'm not sure that's a good thing. I hope they used that break to plan things out/prepare. If there's no breaks in production, are we about to witness problems in quality? Hmmmm.

Oh, I'd be very surprised if Hayes isn't at least nominated for an Emmy for this episode.

They did well with this one. I have hope.

36 minutes ago, slick jones said:

Yeah, @YRBB  Linda leaves her stink on more than one character in the cul-de-sac.

Ugh. No no no no no. Really bad news! *screams*

36 minutes ago, slick jones said:

Yeah, @YRBB  Linda leaves her stink on more than one character in the cul-de-sac.  (I heard that from Felix who heard from Brad, who watched it with Lucas---off screen where they belong, apparently)

LMAO!

That was a really fun second episode. Glad to see them focusing on the realities of dating for those two older gay males & using that to create funny situations. The guest as Will's date was great. I agree, Karen and Grace in the shower was OK. It was mostly fun watching them do all that underwater stuff, but I figured out the entire plot really quickly, including Karen's safeword. The end with a wet Grace walking in was hilarious.

KMan, I thought the exact same thing about the hallway! Really fabulous. And, of course, I think the apartment is probably my favorite apartment set ever, especially that TV watching corner and that amazing balcony. 

I couldn't get Borderline out of my head after watching the episode

2 hours ago, Khan said:

Oh, yeah, lol!

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!

"Early on"? You mean to tell me she sticks around?

EPISODE 3: PRINCE CHARMING

Really fun episode. The day of the MacKenzie barbecue arrives and, with it, the reveal that Mack and Paula spent the night in the same hotel room. Lee gets to do some good, subtle work here, as she hides how angry she is that this detail was kept from her, and later suspects that something did happen between her husband and their friend. She’s particularly good in the kitchen scene where she tells Mack she wants "the truth, no jokes." Although Mack admits he’s attracted to Paula, Karen is a glass half-full kind of gal, and focuses on the positive stuff: He didn’t bonk her. How understanding!

Meanwhile, Eric's back, and dressing like a grandfather. Seriously, Greg comes off more youthful. It’s nice to see Eric again but unfortunately, he comes chained to that thing he calls a wife. Cue endless moaning about the fact that others eat meat and how tough life is for her. I did find her more tolerable than their last visit, especially when it became clear that she and Eric had something to tell Karen and Mack… I somehow hoped she’s dying or they’re divorcing and wanted to tell them together… Horror! She’ll be moving in with the MacKenzies for months, while poor Eric is sent abroad. NOOOOO.

After taking the first two episodes of the season off, Harold and Olivia are back (and so is sweet Michael). Olivia is enforcing a strict budget, and it all descends into chaos when she discovers Harold bought the expensive kind of ice cream. They are quickly embroiled in one of those petty arguments couples get into until they find apologize to each other and go watch a movie. Carafotes is really good here.

There are a couple of excellent scenes dealing with Nagata, Hawkins, and Ted. In the first one, Greg goes to his office (after asking Paige to come back to work for him) and finds a very much alive Ted sitting on his couch. Ted blackmails Greg in exchange for the pictures Paige has. By the time Greg goes to Paige, it’s too late: She’s already turned the pictures in. The police decide they don’t have much to go on, and drop the case, and Greg somehow agrees to just send Ted to Japan. Wow, I thought Ted would end up dead by the end of this. Both scenes are filmed wonderfully—at night, with lots of shadows, blacked out surroundings and focus only on the actors, that sort of thing. Paige and Ted run into each other by the elevator and ride down together. Slapping ensues – Paige slaps Ted, and Ted slaps Paige. Paige's face is priceless. Ted leaves Paige with some parting advice: To take advantage of the fact that Greg is in love with her. I don’t know if this is Ted's final appearance, but I’m going to miss him. What a fascinating character he ended up being, and what shocking turn of events.

Danny's not having a good week: First Val turns down his proposal(s), then Bobby and Betsy begin to throw some major shade at him. Danny avoids talking to the twins’ kindergarten teacher, Amanda. Uh oh. While Gary continues his frantic search for Sally's friend, Val continues to turn down Danny's proposals. Danny is all sweet and understanding about it, and then visits his girlfriend, Amanda. That bastard! Lemme guess? Amanda must also be Sally's friend! A mess!

Winner of the episode: Harold, and that fabulous six-pack of his that will not be affected by extravagantly expensive ice cream!

9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

future Y&R superstar Steve Burton

I can't!

And what is this Psychic Friends Network craziness??!!

Thanks for all the clips, Carl. It kills me when they spell it "Sammy Joe."

I don't believe anyone said you did!

Yeah, I thought it made sense, and was funny. It was just a start. I doubt they'll do this non-stop for every episode.

It was fantastic. My God, like not a day has gone by in terms of their chemistry, timing, and performances. And it was very funny. I enjoyed every single last dig at Trump, and it was hilarious how they did away with the finale and explained what everyone's been up to. 

I fully expect another round of Emmys for the cast. That would be awesome.