Y&R: Week of October 20th, 2008

[Cat]

Yeah, Victor issuing orders was good, and I admit I'm particularly curious as to what he's going to say to Heather ("Don't try to find me, Mish Shtevens. Yagotdat?"). However, I'm a little less enthralled by Nicholas and Fauxtoria wringing their hands. But that's just a personal preference.

[Sylph]

Cat, there is a question for you on your profile page.

[MarkH]

Ah, but the hand-wringing is just setting up future story, I think. I personally appreciated the mentions of Ryan and Cassie...scenes about character and history, not plot plot plot.

The cliffhanger works for me, because it is "ordinary". It highlights the compelling nature of an unanswered question, an anticipated encounter. It is not a cliffhanger for the ages...but is the kind of "what will happen in the very next minute?" thing that soaps used to do so well. It is this kind of "oh my goodness, what is he going to say next?" that keeps viewers tuning from day to day....at least I think so.

My new primetime addiction (love, love, love, love) is HBO's TrueBlood. They are doing a remarkable job of (somewhat grander) episode-ending cliffhangers. I wait anxiously each week (and refuse to read the books to spoil myself) to see what will happen next. I'm so happy that Y&R is finding ways of doing it that are natural and organic to the characters, rather than shock-and-awe.

So far, I see nothing concerning about the current EP/HW teams.

[Sylph]

I want shock-and-awe supersoap all the time!!! 

[Cat]

I hear GH are looking for viewers.

[Sylph]

No, not that!!!

I remember once upon a time there was a printed ad for Dior's lip gloss Plastic Shine or something like that. And it was purple in the photo; the model's lips looked so amazingly goregous, they're were... Amazingly fantastically gorgeous.

That's what a soap should be. I couldn't get my eyes off of that ad. But now I can't find it anywhere on the web!

[sheilaforever]

Confession time and it's s-h-o-c-k-i-n-g: As of recently Blandtoria isn't annoying me anymore. Either Heinle really had an epiphamy about acting (to seperate her more or less from BoreMeToTears Thad also helps...) or I'm just to pissed about Heather Tom on B&B and that Eden chick on Y&R exploring new limits of agitation with me.

The Chancellor/Abbott stuff (the many dimensions and it all feels so good old-school) is the things to watch. Chloe and Billy are great new characters/actors added to a bunch of already formidable performers like Jill, Kay, Jack and Daniel amongst others... Always love seeing ANYTHING involving this crowd right now.

[Cat]

Nor do I. FTR, I have defended MAB since the beginning, but so far Paul Rauch is the real (pleasant) surprise for me.

I think it is interesting that Y&R chose to do a cliffhanger on a Monday... A lot of its Monday episodes in recent months have been especially strong, stronger than on Fridays. Their ratings seem to peak on a Monday, too, and bottom out on a Friday (but that's a discussion for another thread).

I do enjoy a good cliffhanger, and yesterday's was proof that you don't need a sh!tload of CGI and guns blazing to produce one (although it does help at times -- I am glued to AMC right now). I have also noticed the return of the long pause + close-up of a character's face before the commercial break or cut to another scene. This helps to heighten anticipation sometimes.

I wouldn't mind seeing a cliffhanger for every Friday's (US) show, though. Y&R is going to have to start penning two major cliffhangers a week! Thursday and Friday for the US audience, Friday and Monday for the Canadians.

I don't watch TrueBlood, am I missing out? I used to watch Buffy back in the day.

[Rhiannon]

If Vail was better in the scenes where she goes toe to toe with the vets on Y&R then her being everyone's whipping girl wouldn't be as enjoyable as it is. I was loving Victor & Nikki whipping on her today, and didn't feel sorry for Heather at all; the most I've enjoyed Vail's portrayal is when she was at Jabot and most of the scenes with her and Doug Davidson.......

I'm in between on Eden sometimes liking her and sometimes I don't.........

This whole Jack/Adam thing has me intrigued but I'm still not pleased that they are having Jack frame Adam for all of it considering how he's treated Victor's other children, Daniel, and Noah as someone else mentioned.......

[baller]

Nope, IMO Holeen and a few others TOTALLY takes the cake on that one.

The Jack stuff was actually interesting, because like someone said, it totally does set him up for the downfall. I do kind of feel for Adam, as he continues to be the male whipping boy.

I thought the Eden scenes for the first time, the actress felt more at home or something. She was a bit more sure of everything, and the scenes were quieter and totally worked for me--like the Noah and Eden stuff, cute and fun.

So can't wait for more of Chloe/Billy/Cane!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The difference between Adam and Jack and Jack and Victor's other children and Noah is that Jack wasn't forced to be Adam's step-father and he's only known Adam for a few months. He obviously doesn't have the same bond and connection with him as he does with Victor's other children, so he really couldn't care less about him.

[rangethatrover]

LOVE LOVE LOVING the use of the classic Y&R scores!!!!!

I have not heard that excellent piece of music played during Katherine and Gloria's scene in YEARS.

Keep it up!!!

[JSROCKS]

Speaking of GloHo (the mis-understood), she and her spawn(Kevin) have reached a new low with this gas-lighting of Katherine scheme. While I don't want Glo to go to jail( that's to easy), I do want to see the both of themLOSE EVERYTHING ( money, wife, husband, etc). Hopefully "Smiling Jack" with Billy's help can make it happen.

BTW: What's up with the Kevin- Billy hate. If I remember correctly it should be Billy who dis-likes Kevin-- not the other way around.

Today's show on a whole was not to bad.

[BadZoe]

I'm a huge Buffy fan but have yet to warm to True Blood. Every episode has to have a soft core porn scene and so far only one or two of them has been necessary for the storyline, in my opinion. I'm curious to read the book after the end to see how it compares.

As for Y&R, today's USA was much better than Monday's. Could be that Billy was on and the storyline appeared to be moving along again, with Cruella taking full advantage of Katherine. I have yet to feel sorry for Victor and the Newman's in any of this. If only I could root for Heather, but both her and Adam are quite pathetic and whiny. Go Jack!!

[rangethatrover]

I could not agree more. And I am glad you noticed the classic Y&R scores! Fantastic. This Kay storyline truly feels like Bill Bell.