Y&R: Week of February 16, 2009

[dm.]

Or Cordy.

[MarkH]

Absolutely. I was thinking the same today. This would be entertaining.

[TheRedWarrior]

But what exactly is there to root for Chloe? I mean she's been lying since day one. And it's not like she's lying for any good reason...at all. Yeah you can argue that she may get some sympathy because she's Esther's daughter and always felt neglected and had low self esteem but that only goes so far.

I just don't see why the audience in general would root for Chloe. I find her to be snarky and I like her moments of wittiness and brilliance at Restless Style but other than that I don't see anything to "root" for when it comes to her as a person. She can't even make up her mind what she wants. She was all obsessed with Cane a few months ago now she's stalking Billy.

That being said though I highly doubt the writers will kill her off. It's like someone mentioned earlier...they wouldn't go thru the trouble of having her be Esther's daughter (and by extension a part of a major core family) on the show only to kill her off in less than a year.

That name for the baby though is beautiful. And I so agree that they'll call her Delia down the road.

I wonder how long Y&R will stretch out Cane not knowing that Billy is the true father to Chloe's baby? Months? Or hopefully quicker?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't want to "root" for every character. In real life, there's people who do much worse things, but we generally accept it as the way society functions. I do see nuance in the Chole character, you might not, but I respect your view. Chole clearly has some abandonment issues that impacts the way she sees people and forges relationships with them. She's a highly dysfunctional, neurotic, and emotionally frustrated character. I like her that way personally. Not everyone has to be black or white.

Lily, on the other hand, I cannot "root" for, nor should I. All I see is a dumb bimbo who continually gets trapped in these dumb relationships/situations. She's such a whiner that I refuse to muster up any sympathy for her. I feel the same way about many people I know in real life too.

[Heyou]

I agree with every single word you just posted! I don't see them killing off Chloe either but TPTB tend not to acknowledge the ones that are actually talented and Liz is very talented.

I loved the scene where Katherine was reminding Clint what she did to him 20 years ago. Awesome!

[DaytimeFan]

Exactly.

Chloe is a gray character, she is flawed and she does awful things...you can also see that she has a lighter side and is human...to me, that's a helluva lot more interesting, thus something I could root for, than Saint Lily the Victim of Whine...I enjoy every bad thing that happens to Lily, in fact, I hope for more hell to reign down on her because she's just so sickeningly holier than thou and every so prissy.

I used to hate Olivia, but then she slept with Brad and she became instantly relate able and interesting to me!

What I've always appreciated from Y&R is the lack of 'heroine' characters (aside from Cricket and now Saint Lily the Victim of Whine)...everyone on Y&R is gray, they do shady things, try to be happy, fail/succeed and we get to watch what happens. It's character motivated drama, in order for it to be interesting the characters must have flaws.

[TheRedWarrior]

I'm not saying that I want everyone to be all sunshine and roses. I just think there are varying shades of gray and while Lily isn't perfect I think she's a lot more relateable and genuine than Chloe ever will be.

As for intelligence I don't think Lily is remotely stupid. She's been in love with different people who happen to have had their flaws.

I love soapy Y&R is feeling these days. It's like everything is natural once again. Flowing smoothly from one scene to the next as opposed to when it felt like it was going thru the motions without any thought or emotion at all.

Jill's scenes with Esther were perfect. Loved how she showed some true concern about Roger. Excellent how she caught them just as they were about to leave and stalled the wedding.

Paul and Nikki may not be the "end game" but I love them together and I'll enjoy them as much as long as I can! Same goes for Victor and Ashley!

[miajere]

Perhaps we disagree on "gray characters" but IMO Chloe is far from being gray. She's got charm, and she's got reasons and depth, but gray would imply she could be both right and wrong, and she is a selfish woman.

it's the Gloria complex, whereby someone with inherently bad intentions sweeps the audience off their feet and tptb make her out to be some victim. it paints too much of the "I'm the victim" s/l and forces protective audience members to take the battle off the court.

I think the issue with Lily is there is no depth. She dates Billy for the obvious reasons. She does the obvious things with no consideration or struggle with what's right. What would help Lily out? Perhaps if she really were dating Billy to get back at Cane. But sometimes an actress has to find motivations outside of what a director hands her, and I think that's why the actress who plays Chloe finds herself with such juicy material.

If the story is good, then end should never be cut and dry- 'Chloe gets her man, Lily is the savior of all.' The audience should always be questioning Chloe's motives and hoping Lily finds herself.

[y&r_fan]

I have come to like (not love, but like) Chloe recently, and EH is talented, but I don't see why some think she's god's gift to daytime. Maybe it's because she hasn't really had any heavy emotional material yet, unlike the other young actresses - Christel Khalil and Tammin Sursok have both had good material (ie. Lily losing her baby and Colleen reacting to Brad's death) and they're both great. All Chloe seems to do is make sarcastic remarks. I'll reserve judgement on EH's acting until she gets better writing.

On a slightly shallow note, I LOATHE Chloe's hair. She needs to grow it longer.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

No one talked in dept about her acting ability in this thread, the discussion was purely on Chole the character.

Khalil has had numerous storylines, Sursok hasn't had one major storyline, and reaction to her acting during Brad's death was mixed at best. Outside of the those two of three episodes, she hasn't carried a full storyline for anyone to informatively judge her acting talents on extremely dramatic subject matter yet.

Matter of opinion, of course.

Chole is a quirky character, I was never under the impression that she was supposed to be conventionally "normal" like many others. I'd like to think that we can all respect some diversity in terms of characterizations. Though it looks like Chole's dramatic storyline is coming up, and it seems like we'll be seeing a lot more of her than Colleen.

[DaytimeFan]

I think we do disagree about "gray characters" because I find Gloria (annoying as she may be) a gray character as well. To me, Gloria and Chloe can be gray characters because they've had bad sh*t happen to them previously, at the very least they believe they've been wronged. In saying that, they're able to see a different (albeit twisted) perspective on right and wrong. Gloria and Chloe, I'm convinced, see some good in their actions.

Keep in mind I say that as a confirmed hater of Gloria the Windbag Airhog...

Sigh...

[miajere]

Gray character- Amber...She struggles to be a good person and you really don't know what choice she's going to make. Sometimes it's the right one. Sometimes, she's just being herself and makes the wrong one.

Same goes for Daniel and Kevin. You get the sense they're struggling in their everyday lives to be better but their past just won't let them.

[DaytimeFan]

Fair enough, I just see the whole cast (aside from Saint Lily the Victim of Whine) as a group of gray characters.

[miajere]

I find it no different than what is Saint Cane. His coming into manhood is age appropriate for the actor but completely flat in this particular s/l, because he has to act stupid 24/7.

I just don't think the bulk of the issue here is Lily, as much as it's a problem with Lily, Cane, and Chloe. They all have managed to sell their story through no human qualities beyond being attractive, funny, cute, sexy....Not that I'm not enjoying the story....but there isn't a character in this story line I believe beyond finding highly attractive, being carried well through the dialogue, the actor's chemistry with one another, and their individual charisma as actors.

They story line is somewhat over the top with paternity issues, "one true love" quality, corporate takeovers, sibling rivalry, etc.... IMO, All actor makeups involved help bring the story to a believable "ah ha".

Billy is gray for me.

[DaytimeFan]

Even with an MD I can't decipher what any of that meant. In any case, we all have our views on the show and that's terrific.