Y&R: Week of June 1, 2009

[Rhiannon]

Discuss Y&R and everything else that ends up being discussed in the weekly Y&R thread.....

[Antoyne]

So how many times will Nick go back and forth between Sharon and Phyliss this week? Can we please get an MJ siting. They had the Paul stuff randomly the other week which was awesome, and has now gone nowhere. Looking forward to more of Adam's antics..As someone else said, I wish he'd target his other siblings too. Put Victoria in another coma.

Will we see Nikki this week? Hoping for more Nina this week. Tricia Cast is such a natural. I only know her from youtube videos, but she's this total breath of fresh air on the show and feels like a necessary part of the cast.

All in all after last week I'm pretty pumped about this one.

Ps..Has anyone else noticed it looks like Jess has slimmed down a bit. I noticed it in those scenes at Phillip's grave. Good for her. I remember reading in her Nelson interview that she was trying..

[MTSRocks]

I hope Nikki is on this week. I'm missing her now. I love MJ, and I know she's on Tuesday's US show. I can't wait for the end of the week when the good things happen! I think after this week Nick/Phyllis are officially done. That's probably why they re-casted Summer, so they can get someone more animated and talkative for those scenes.

When are Nikki and Sharon going to share scenes again? Melody Thomas Scott and Sharon Case are such great screen partners.

[dm.]

Me too, she needs to get more airtime.

[MoTheGreat]

I want to see what so special about Nickolas.

[MarkH]

Absolutely. Nikki's absence through this whole quad story has really weakened it. For that matter, so has the absence of Victoria and Victor. They all used to discuss these relationship things ad nauseum. Failing to do so gives a sense that this is no longer a family.

Unending, unwinnable debate. Some love Joshua Morrow, others hate. I'd say, however, that outside of his Phyllis relationship, I don't have a lot of need for Nick at this point. I do like Joshua, but I'm so p!ssed at the character, I'd love him to go take a six week vacation.

[MTSRocks]

It would be funny to see Phyllis tell Summer that Sharon is the wicked witch, even though it should be the other way around.

Sharon = Nikki

Phyllis = Ashley

[cara mia]

One reason I lament the loss of CG/Cassie is because she brought out the best in Joshua Morrow. It might just be a case of his real-life fatherly feelings for her shining through. Whatever the reason, my favorite Nick is "daddy" Nick. JM playing the protective dad to Cassie while scaring away her suitors would have done wonders for his character. What I hate about the quad is that it makes Nick seem foolishly young and callow. Is he really supposed to be the child of Victor & Nikki? Incroyable!

I think JM is fantastic when he's in his range. We all watched American Idol. Danny Gokey has a pretty neat voice. But oh how painful was it when he tried to pull an Adam Lambert and screamed in Dream On? PAIN-FUL. Doesn't mean Danny Gokey can't sing, it just means he can't rock. Give him some Lionel Ritchie and he's perfectly fine. What the writers are doing to Joshua Morrow is the equivalent of trying to get him to pull of a rock scream. He just cannot do it. Bring Nick back to what he should be and stop writing him a stupider shallower male version of Brooke Logan.

[lmfan]

It looks like Michael and Lauren are not on again this week, but I wonder if we will see much of Michael and Lauren at all this summer? I know MAB has to fix the Winters, but while she is doing this maybe she can think of some way to use Michael and Lauren. I would like them to be more than mere props, but even being props is better than never seeing them. If MAB can figure out how to write Gloria, Jeffrey, Kevin and Jana into stories, why can't she do something with Michael and Lauren?

Phyllis' life is imploding and yet she doesn't turn to her best friends. Paul and Lauren are close so why not some scenes with him telling her he is enganged to Nikki and her reaction? Eden and Noah have sex and then disappear. I would think a 15 yr old having sex could lead to some realistic discussion of consequences of teenage sex. Fen has been in his bedroom since Christmas. Phick and Likey have often been paralleled so we could see a marriage imploding while another couple is dealing with issues together. Why not provide some light family interaction once or twice a week for Michael and Lauren if MAB has no story for them.

I don't watch B&B, but anyone think Michael and Lauren might be better off utilized on that show since MAB doesn't seem to want to write for them on Y&R?

[dm.]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they are going to be severely backburned. They also said that the Baldwin family might just be slowly fazed out.

They'll probably become like Vikki and J.T.

[lmfan]

Josh Morrow has always been limited. His best scenes were with the kids (Cassie and Noah). He has a rare scene where he can move the audience but they are few and far between. I think this is a job for him. He is a family man and comes to work, puts his time in and goes home to be with his family. He does not seem to work on his "craft" and so I have seen limited improvement of his acting. If the show if fine with that, great for JM, but I doubt JM will ever be fantastic because he is not motivated to be fantastic.

[lmfan]

They already are severely backburned. I don't get it since they have been a popular pairing, but this slow marginalizing of these characters is brutal if you are a fan. I hate to see any couple backburned but at least CLB and TEB have chemistry, talent, and have proven to be popular with fans over the years as individual characters and a couple. It seems that MAB likes to write for Kevin and Jana and she could have written out Gloria and Jeffrey when she was in jail and they divorced but MAB kept them around. I just wonder why she has chosen to faze out the Baldwins from this family if that proves to be the case.

I am sure if she writes off Michael, CLB will snapped up by another show quickly. I wonder though if they will just keep him around for court cases/family prop and since TEB is recurring just rarely use her, so they don't have to deal with any blacklash of firing them. So in effect Michael and Lauren will exist but not be an integral part of the show.

[dm.]

Michael never actually was a good frontburner character, he was best kept in the background and still managed to get enough appearances.

Gloria and Jeff can be written out at any moment because their storylines aren't anything special and they're just there for some reason unknown to us. Jana should also be written out... and then at the end we'd have Michael, Lauren and Kevin left. They could do some good storyline for Kevin with another woman; and have Michael and Lauren have marital problems. Anything to prevent Lauren from constantly propping this family.

And instead of them, they should expand on the Williams clan. They already have two members of the family; both could use better stories and a chance to prove themselves. If Mary Jane turns out to be Patty, that's another member. They could add Ricky in the mix as well.

[MarkH]

I agree with you. I also loathed Morrow pre-Cassie because where was the "Swiss educated" sophisticate? He drives a pickup...he's a regular dude. Not Victor's son. I agree with you (I think I wrote it upthread) that daddy-Nick began to earn my regard. I also agree that in his current indecisive d*ck-as-divining-rod stage, I want him off my screen.

If Cassie were on, it would be even worse. How could he be like this? Cassie would be judging him.

If I were Morrow, I'd sue for endangerment of employment. He has a lot of redeeming to do.

It is APPALLING how islanded everyone is now. I loved loved loved the "charades" days of LML. LOVED it. Natural, non-plot-advancing real moments. LOVED it. And I loved the Likey/Phick friendship more than ANYTHING. Why are the Newmans not involved in Nick's tale.

There is REAL damage going on to the "canvas-wide" interactions. I understand, pragmatically, why this is. It is a combination of the cost-saving shooting style (they shoot multiple episodes so that they only have to work 4 days/week...this means that they have to stay within defined character groups and sets over multiple episodes...which works against canvas integration) and keeping actors to their guarantees. Not using recurring players -- esp. expensive ones -- saves more money.

The B&B canvas can't take another soul but YES...Lauren fits there beautifully, and Gloria should be running Spectra-as-knockoff-house. There is no doubt in my mind. Sadly, on B&B, I see less of a role for Michael (but I could imagine on) and no role for Kevin.

Okay, because that is intolerable to me, I need you to try to remember WHERE you read that, dmarex. This INTOLERABLE to me.

We have no clue about JM's motivation. Most of this cast "puts in their time", and doesn't work on "craft"--including the huge players. Joshua is playing a Type B guy...fun...physical...in the moment...not a lot of deep thoughts...in effect himself.

Every soap needs a "dude" like that...a sexy himbo around whom the females dance. Most soaps have such a guy too. They can't all be cerebral like Michael. I love Michael...but Nicholas is a perfect counterpart. I wish they'd show Phyllis and Michael more...because then the audience would see that Phyllis gets her intellectual needs met by Michael (and sometimes Jack), but her physical needs met by Nick. Sadly...and this is the tragedy...no one meets her emotional needs. I wish they'd show more of her friendship with Lauren, in that regard.

They're doing it everywhere. Vail Bloom and Chris Engen had amazing chemistry. So they promptly destroyed that relationship.

And I won't even get into Phyllis and Nick, because I don't want to fight today.

[dm.]

I'm pretty sure it was Likey fans talking on about how they don't find anything for this couple in the spoilers, plus they added Bregman's comment that she hasn't been called to work in the last few months that much.

It's the same kind of stuff that happened months ago when Engen and Bloom started being fazed out... fan speculation.

I'm pretty sure we would have heard by now if they wanted to kick that family out.

Every storyline that Adam has been in since he returned has been a story that put him in a corner until one day he won't be there anymore.