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Reviewing the Barnes period, the strongest story was always the Carpenters and Nancy. Nancy dragging Miriam further and further down the path of her drug addiction was compelling and not something I think we would have seen on network at the time. Nowadays, Nancy doing this to Miriam would probably be followed up by Nancy's sins quickly being forgotten. The climax of the story has Miriam at Kingsley General detoxing while Nancy decides to bring Miriam some more barbituates in the hospital while goading Miriam into taking them by revealing that Charles wants nothing to do with her. Nancy is such a vile creature, but Nancy Mulvey keeps her compelling playing moments of pain to remind us that Nancy's upbringing deeply shaped the person she is today. Miriam's resulting overdose leads to some investigation and things seem to be closing in on Nancy as Miriam remembers the truth and Charles decides to dump Nancy having learned that Nancy has been manipulating him in regards to Miriam. Charles ejects Nancy from his home, but during the exit, Nancy takes a nasty fall down the stairs and ends up in the hospital. The story has now broken into two pieces: (a) Nancy's paralysis and (b) Miriam's new life as a Christian. Miriam's story is compelling. She has embraced friendship from the Davidsons who have supported her during her addiction crisis even while Nancy was trying to convince Charles to lock her away. There are some very nice scenes with Miriam and Lori Martin, who Miriam previously had accused of sleeping with Miriam's then husband, Paul. The Miriam-Lori friendship reminds me of Lori-Becky after the accident when everything came to light. I find Jeanette Larson very compelling as Lori. Terry's concern for Miriam helps cement her for me as one of the show's leading matriarchs. Though, the show's real matriarch seems to be emerging at this point. Through her friendship with the Davidson clan, Miriam has become associated with Ione Redlon, Gene's mother, who has recently purchased a home back in the Chesterfield neighborhood after leaving years ago. Ione's son Gene has reunited with his wife, Carla, so Gene, Carla, and their son Jimmy are moving into Nora Lindsay's house to start another life together. With so many empty rooms, Ione has offered room and board to Miriam. Miriam affectionately refers to Ione as Mama, at Ione's insistence, and Ione cares for Miriam with tough love. For Miriam, who's own mother Helen is still living in parts unknown, this relationship helps to ground her and bring her back down to reality. Miriam is now taken a position in the planning and development office and seems to have her own life starting. Nancy's paralysis may be not as serious as Nancy claims because the doctors seem to be unable to detect the major problem. Charles has taken Nancy back to his home and promises to marry her while hiring male nurse, Tab Baron, to help her recuperate. If I was paying attention close enough, Tab is the last new character introduced by the Barnes, but there seems to be some set up in these last weeks that makes me wonder if the origins weren't part of Jason Vining's first set of long story. Tab has a shady past having been accused of blackmailing female patients at one of his previous hospitals, where he worked with Terry. Terry tries to warn Nancy, but she won't listen. Terry and Nancy reconcile after the accident and its suggested that Nancy has turned over a new leaf, but it would make sense that this was a scam. In one of the last twists of fate that the Barnes loved, the house that was the centerpiece of the legal battle for several months does in fact belong, in part to Nancy, willed to her by her late father. And another round of fighting is set to begin. The end of Becky and Russ wasn't my favorite story mostly because once the story shifted to New York it lost a lot of steam. Carrie Weaver was such a nasty piece of work that I miss her meddling and did appreciate she was the one to deliver a classic Barnes deus ex machina revealing that the justice of the peace who married Becky and Russ wasn't licensed so they weren't legally married. Followed by another low level barely touched on revelation, Becky's New York manager who had been wining and dining her for months acting like a big shot was in fact just fronting and that Becky is his first and only success. There was something lost by removing Becky from the canvas even if Marianne fills a good number of the missing pieces well. I think Becky was such a richly complicated young woman in late 1981 that it is a mixed bag having her achieve success in New York by June, 1982. While I am mostly happy for her, I am not sure her sacrifices were worth it. It was really a missed opportunity not to connect any of Becky's story to Carla's. Russ and Sheila never really worked for me, but I was happy they finally revealed that Sheila was well aware that Russ was married, or "married?" I guess. Sheila seems to be a casualty of the transition into Vining's work and I am not upset at all. I know Vining commented that the Barnes' had too many minor characters so he cut back on them. I think this is why Beth Slaymaker and Jill Hanson are out with the Cummings having already announced their intended departure with Jeff taking courses to be a counselor. I think the Cavalares father-daughter duo are also out. I wouldn't be surprised if we never see Gary Taylor (Peter's buddy from the construction site) or Sharon Landers (Jason's attorney side chick) ever again. Another pleasant surprise has been Babs Farley, who was always cited as a bright spot. Others weren't wrong. Julie Jenney is great at cracking jokes as she is at engaging in dramatic moments. Babs' decision to leave behind her past as a prostitute and start over is a nice side story. Babs' recounting to Harold Webster running into an old high school classmate was a heart breaking moment. Babs has landed herself in the hospital after (offscreen) telling her pimp Ronnie she is leaving the life. Babs and Harold are like more well developed Brooke Bellamy and Sgt. Brubaker. Ione has agreed to takeit Babs which should lead to some good day to day material for Miriam, Babs and Ione. One things that bothered me a bit during the Barnes' period was the treatment of Chesterfield, the side of town that is associated with the African American community. All the coding is so negative. Lori was upset that Ben was setting up a clinic there and then Ben was upset that Lori was working there. The references to Miriam livng with Ione in Chesterfield are definitely discriminatory. I do appreciate that Lori's stalker story (which is nicely being shaped) seems to be subverting the tropes by allowing people to think its Lori's students behind it when it will turn out to be someone else. -
By MissPhoenixGirl92 · Posted
The only example that I can think of is that doctor he ran out of town for allowing his mom to die from surgery complications. And I think he also chased that other guy out of town that had an affair with his now ex-wife. Other than that, I agree. They really need to start making him a lot more menacing and threatening. BTG should be taking a page or two from Law & Order: Organized Crime, (but of course it doesn't really need to be nearly as violent or gruesome as that show) -
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[Swooon (with three letter o in the name) is a sister site to tvinsider. Swooon does articles about fictional romances and real-life romances.] May 16, 2025: Stephanie Sloane interviews Tracey Bregman and Christian LeBlanc regarding the Lauren/Michael romance. https://www.swooon.com/1192754/young-and-the-restless-michael-lauren-romance-christian-j-leblanc-tracey-bregman/ There is a video interview of 32:50 length, embedded within the article -- but it's hard to see unless you disable adblockers. Here's an archive copy of the same Swooon video without ads, but it's very slow-loading. The archive copy works fine once completely loaded. https://archive.org/details/6ri-7d-54w -
By Contessa Donatella · Posted
Good! It's done at your request. -
By Vanguardian53 · Posted
For the Duprees to be the core family, other non-Dupree characters have brought something more to the table than they have. The two daughters are both victims at this point. Vernon hasn't done a whole lot besides coddle Martin. And I'm not too sure about Anita's singing past being all that interesting either. -
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