Y&R: Week of May 12, 2008

[YRBB]

Discuss (boring) life in Genoa City!

A.

[Cat]

^ You mean you weren't turned on by Sabrina's acceptance of Veektorr's ring? "The way you make me feel when you touch me" --pant, pant-- "I get goosebumps."

[DeeeDee]

Victoria, Nick & Victor Jr. = HILARIOUS.

[YRBB]

LOL, Cat!

It happened last week, but why the hell was that woman used as a servant, instead of Miguel? Miguel is one of those characters like Lynne, Esther and Marissa, who were there for years and brought something very nice to Y&R.... Why wasn't he used? Y&R never used to pull this kind of crap.

[DaytimeFan]

ACK! I cannot believe that they appear to have ditched Miguel in place of some EXTRA! Miguel's white coated manservant was a Y&R staple. What the hell is happening to this show?! Where is the attention to detail?

[dm.]

Nia Peeples is now a recurring character only (as per the end credits). She was suppose to leave the show on May 13, but some sources indicate that she might stay until September.

[rhythmchyc]

I wish Maria could turn this show around as quickly as Ron has at OLTL. If it's the accompanying writers, she needs to put her foot down immediately. This show is crawling at a snail's pace with nothing for the audience to look forward to and no real conflict with the characters.

A good writer would've had Victoria stay at Newman and duke it out with Adam as long as possible (a la Dru and Phyllis a few years back.) Why the heck is Victoria backing down to this squirt?

And I felt sorry for Adrian's situation but Colleen all teary-eyed does not make good TV. She should've been much more aggressive before leaving. That would've have been much more interesting to watch. But what does that mean for Eyal? Is he off the show?

[MarkH]

Well, the Carlivati turnaround is affecting my opinion. Of course, the question will be staying power, burnout...but there is no question today's OLTL is terrific. Not just the flashy scenes, but also the quiet moments, like Bo taking a drunken Rex home and showing--though Rex doesn't realize it--that really DOES have a loving dad, if not biologically.

The Y&R turnaround was INSTANT on 12/26/07. But then...it has just kind of hung there. Really awful stories were dropped, the characters started acting like themselves...but now we seem saddled with a lot of "baggage" that is preventing the show from reinventing itself.

For the first time, I'm worried. Not just because of the ratings (but I am starting to fear people are just getting tired of a show in transition), but because I'm not seeing momentum. Worst of all, I'm not seeing energy, humor, heart. On a Usenet group I frequent, the Victor-Nikki foolishness is being taken as a prime example of the problem: These two midlife-and-older characters are not learning, and are acting like they did 20 years ago. I like the consistency of character...but I acknowledge that the whole story just doesn't feel right. I absolutely don't believe the Melody-Vincent chemistry, and I'm starting to distrust the Eric Braeden's chemistry with his new costar. He can only say "You make me so happy" so many times....

I'm worried. REALLY worried. What is going to turn this show around? There seem to be too many remnants of the LML era left, and we're not seeing a passionate reinvention.

Ironically, the snail's pace seems to be a response to our collective requests to slow things down and to play the emotional beats better. This happened better before the WGA writers returned, though. There is this odd cluster-storyline thing (where they only play a small number of stories every day, and leave all the others backburnered...MOST of their expensive cast), and that didn't happen in any previous era that I can think of.

Genoa City has been a second "home" to me since 1973....I'm worried.

[rhythmchyc]

ITA with everything.

And like I said in the OLTL thread, the Rex-Bo scenes were my favorite, too, because it showed how Ron can do set-up while still be entertaining.

Y&R seems to be setting up without being entertaining at all. The writers also seem to be slowing down the pace AND the #@(#$&% drama!!! It's a soap opera for God's sakes! If they're going to backburn other characters (YAY!! No Gloria yesterday! sigh), then build the drama with what we see.

Now, Adam's controversial with everyone. But because he's still so new, when he nicked Sabrina with those cutting remarks, I felt like someone was missing. I don't think it's that Raya's a bad actress. I think, instead, that the writers have been lazy with her. So no matter how annoying he was, their confrontation wasn't as potent as it could've been because they've created such a dull character. They haven't even bothered with her history, which is such a contrast to Adam's richer history. I cannot help but feel that they've done this on purpose because she will set Victor up for a fall. Unfortunately, if she does betray Victor, the set-up was done so sloppily, it would be predictable, just about the worst thing a soap opera could be.

[MTSRocks]

I like Adam/Sabrina! I hope they go somewhere with these two.

Nikki looked great today, and I love seeing the Jabot set more these days.

Jamie Whitfield is a great addition to the show IMO. I love her!

[DeeeDee]

LMAO@"ethnic stereotype"

...Riiiiiiight.

[dm.]

Nia Peeples is officially off the show. Poor Karen. She wasn't even near as interesting as Dru, but I'm sad she's gone. The breakup scenes were great.

[JackPeyton]

^is she gone gone or just out of town?

[dm.]

According to her forum, Nia was suppose to stay at least until September, but she was let go because the crew no longer wanted her. As far as she knows, she's gone from the show. I wonder why the crew didn't even care to inform us that they're letting her go.

These were her farewell scenes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q3pxdaR570

[MTSRocks]

^^^So stupid to get rid of Nia Peebles.

I watched today, not so bad. I really do like the karma of Gloria Fisher ending up with nothing. And I have to say that Ted Shackleford has been a great addition to the show, especially as Jeffrey.