Y&R: Week of April 06, 2009

[JackPeyton]

Well it can go one of four ways as far as i can tell...

1. The char remains the same as before. Lame, because... well its a lame char. lol.

2, The char does a complete 180. Lame, because you have to still keep her Mac. Otherwise why not bring a new char in? Ya know.

3. Find the balance between who mac was, who she has become, and use motives behind it to make her who shes going to be. Awesome.

4. Nothing works & they write her out.

I do think they can take the things she has seen and her long absence and make it work to re-tool the character, but again they have to keep some sort of something of whom mac is and has been. they cant over ride the past 100% - however, maybe they can. given everything she has seen, it would shake one to ones core and change them. so... idk. and now im just talking circles. lol.

I honestly see what you are saying tho, about the show. However it could go either way. I feel like we have been building on a lot of things for a long time now yet nothing seems to happen. Time to have start having stuff happen. and stick.

LOLZ. Well they wont get me with nods to history - really dont care. But i will say the show has been entertaining for the longest stretch of time to me in years and years and years. So i hope they keep it up. I just hope it doesnt become OLTL -- a show that was awful then turned great -- then turned awful, perhaps worse than before.

[Sylph]

Worrrd to everything you said. I agree completely.

[MarkH]

Pulling together a couple of threads:

1. I see no reason to believe "Saint Mac" will be our current incarnation. Said more concretely, everything points to Mac being a "do-gooder", and I think that will continue. That is part of the character continuity.

Let us also acknowledge that JT took Mac's virginity, so that is out of the way too. She is allowed to look lustfully at men if she wishes . (Although, I hope they actually still deal with her sexual hangups from that leering-pedophile stepfather and her trauma from thinking she was about to consummate her marriage to a "cousin").

Second, Mac has always been different from many other "saints" because she wore that mantle heavily. She has not, fundamentally, been happy. She has been guarded, defended, a little untrusting. Darfur should only ramp that up. Thus, I do not see a return to Kimsey's lovely, perky, sweet Mac (whom I enjoyed, but NOT as Mac). I think we're going to see a woman who has been through the wars, and who finds it hard to open up.

To that end, I strongly hope/believe that Mac will find her best kinship with Kevin, who is damaged like she is. I hope this drives both Jana and Amber crazy.

2. The construction of the story that I see is potentially intriguing, because I think it might go like this:

Chloe ---> Billy ----> Mac (with Sharon as pregnant [my guess] ex-f*ck-buddy)

Note that the direction is unidirectional...each person turning away from the one who loves them, but loving another. That's the kind of "agony/unrequited" thing that gives soaps all their romantic energy. Note, too, that it dead-ends with Mac. Which means, for me, I hope for a time she is written as a wall...not betraying her feelings...frustrating us all by being unable to "feel" again. That creates a major story drive to witness the 'thawing' of Mac.

Wouldn't it be beautiful if someone _does_ eventually help Mac thaw. And wouldn't it be wonderful if that were NOT Billy...but he had to stand and watch it happen?

My one deep prayer, howled to the heavens...LET IT NOT BE CANE!!!

[JackPeyton]

Oh, hello Kevin... Im just sayin...

lol.

[Cat]

I'll take door number 3, jp.

For the first time ever, I want Mac/Billy/Chloe to work. i want to feel the heat between Mac & Billy and I don't know why. They never interested me the first time around. I was too busy mesmerized by Tricia!

Yesterday's scenes between Miller and Ford were great because Mac seemed so haunted and Billy seemed so into her. Who doesn't want to see that kind of longing on a soap? But... honestly, I think a lot of this was down to BM. Just because CF is still very new.

Miller has been Y&R's MVP since he came on the show. Yesterday, he revealed a lot of Billy's layers -- the smoothie party boy with Chloe, living up every inch to the wealthy-heir stereotype. And then with Mac, he was at first hesitant, unsure, awkward. Like a little boy. Or like Mac! For the first time, I realized why Mac & Billy could work. Because all her defensive awkwardness -- that's him. That's Billy under the wannabe CEO exterior. And Miller's performance made me realize that. The man has wicked chemistry with everybody on the show. Kudos to him.

And while on paper, Chloe should be an awful villainess who uses her baby as a weapon to cling onto first Cane and then Billy -- in Liz Hendricksen's hands, she is multi-layered. Superficial, jaded yet hopeful, clearsighted yet in denial, hopelessly, hopelessly in love with her baby and with Billy -- and through all that surprisingly resilient and resourceful, which is a quality a lot of ladies are lacking on soaps at the moment.

Anyway. Just to say that despite the flaws, Y&R keeps me glued. How does it do that?

[Cat]

Oh, yes. And I think Kevin would certainly not pretend that Mac is some kind of saint (which Billy still does). Kevin doesn't want saints. He is drawn to the sinners (or ex-sinners -- Amber, Daniel, Adriane Leon's Colleen included). He needs them to reassure himself that he's not completely BSC.

Plus CF and GR -- aren't they friends of long-standing IRL?

[Ann_SS]

Great description of Chloe. She is the character who has captured me the most. EH makes Chloe interesting and there is vulnerability under her bitchiness. I don't want TPTB to sacrifice Chloe on Saint Mac's altar. Chloe should chart her own path in this story.

[Sylph]

'Cause you really don't have a choice.

[Cat]

No, I have a choice. I'm very picky about what I watch. I've done without any Daytime soaps before and can do it again. But I choose to watch Y&R. And I enjoy it without trying. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks and all that.

[Sylph]

I was actually thinking that of all the other soaps — this is the only one watchable in some way.

[Cat]

LOL, I lump Y&R with my viewing across the board. Because I rarely have time to watch in real time, I tape the 3 shows or so that I watch. Y&R and some Primetime ones. Damages, for example.

[JackPeyton]

Thats EXACTLY how i decide what soaps to watch. Right now only two are doing it - Days and Y&R.

[Cat]

I hear ya re: Days. That's how I felt a week or two back when Tony was blackmailing Nicole and Kate was stuck having to take economy on commercial flights! Just enjoying it for what it was.

[juniorz1]

Damn it, I'm still behind from my cruise (on Monday's ep right now) so I can't read my favorite SON thread.

[MarkH]

I choose, right now, to ignore B&B (except when DaytimeFan makes me watch). But I realize you mean it in a difference sense...

But truly, there IS a choice. Y&R makes me choose "yes" every single day. Indeed, I can say right now it is a more willing, conscious choice (as in "I can't wait to get home to SEE this sh*t") than it has been since I was a wee lad (well, in my twenties). SERIOUSLY.