Y&R: Potpourri Thread

[cara mia]

DG has been of the few saving graces on this show these past few months. I don't like the way Cane was introduced and I don't like the rollout of the P3 story, but DG has been working his tail off to make it work. Tricia Cast and Daniel Goddard have done 90% of the work between them. I don't mind Cane being a Chancellor because the family needs more members anyway. I just wish it took Jill a longer while to forgive him.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think the Chancellor family has enough members with both Phillip III and Phillip IV back in town.

Cane is no one and Jill forgiving him this soon just seems so unrealistic and just dumb.

Not to mention, Cane is pushing 40, it looks absurd taking him into the fold because all he wants is a stable family at this point in his life. I really find it hard to beleive he's trying to recreate some absent childhood at this point in his life. He needs professional help, fast!

[jadia]

I don't know why its so shocking that she keeps Cane in her will. Cane has been more of a son to her the last couple of years then any other. Yes she's pissed off at him but I thought that was very touching. And shows that love isnt always about blood but about feelings. Sorry if Jill cant turn off her feelings like a faucet, imposter or not. Cane lied about a lot of things but his love for the Chancellors was not one of them and Jill is realizing that.

Word if all of this was about Cane, we wouldn't have gotten that delia retcon which to this day, I find just utter unbelievable and just doesnt jive no matter how you spin it. Not to mention even before that, the character was thrown under the bus when he tried to take Delia away from Billy and Chloe. Cane was bashed from here to there. Im sorry but I find it hard to believe that Cane is MAB's darling. They wanted him to not be a Chancellor and they got it, be careful what you wish for because the writing has been shoddy at best. DG is thriving despite it and also because folks like me aint buying whatever MAB is selling. I find it ironic that many folks who loved Cane are now thinking they brought Philip back for THIS and not the other way around.

If it was so, they would have left him a Chancellor and not made him into a con. The fact is to write Cane as some villian simply will not fly, like him or not. The writing does not point to that, he fell for this family despite himself. Mab own writing months ago thru the delia sl solidified that Cane was Jill's. But after she came up with Phillip coming back from the dead sl she went back and rewrote her own story. Which turn him into some lying misogynist, who just went thru the pain of losing everything because he could. Yeah right, even the con story I could buy but not the delia retcon. It was a double whammy for the character.

No, I almost want to say its poetic justice because there was another way of making Cane not to be a chancellor then this. Its incredible that MAB would bring TB back, make Cane a lying con and its to his benefit, how again? And its quite clear that they value Billy Miller more. His airtime and MAB gushing over him can attest to that. To say they see DG as some saviour is frankly quite laughable and I happen to be a fan.

Fact is this storyline could have been written better. The WRITERS are to blame.

Cane didn't have to be a lying con and if so the delia retcon was a joke

Phillip didn't have to be a remorseless jackass

TB could have been a better actor

Mab could have spend more then five mins on this story

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yes, they could have undid Cane as a Chancellor without this crappy storyline we're getting now, but they didn't. It's really shameful that they'd take a more damaging path with this retcon than doing it in a less than damaging way. They didn't have to resurrect Phillip III to undo Cane as a Chancellor. I think they only did this for shock value and to create some buzz by making Phillip III gay and brining back an openly gay actor. I really beleive they were trying to score points with the gay community, and it looks like that backfired on their faces.

Undoing Cane as a Chancellor without resurrecting Phillip III would have also saved us from watching TB "act."

I still don't understand the point of writing Cane as the remorseful one and showing his humanity in this storyline, while contrasting that with Phillip III being a total ass and smug bastard. From that writing point of view, they're trying to make Cane look like the better guy when compared with the guy they rewrote tons of history to bring back.

ETA: Cane as an impostor made total sense, especially with how he acted when he first came to town and that dropped phone call from the disastrous Lynn Marie Latham era, which MAB obviously used to her advantage later on.

[Sylph]

Oh, shut up! When did you become so nice? This is what we were hoping for, Alvin!

Anyway... Mark... And brimike... First, let's scratch the self-fulfilling prophecy that soaps will die. They will, but let's disregard that for a moment. Do you believe that when you see something is wrong with the show, you should start firing at it right away and not wait gazillion years to say something? I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you both were very aware of the problems many of us here are blabbering about for what seems like ages, but for some peculiar reason you've both decided to condone it, rationalise it, tolerate it... Hoping, perhaps, that this is just a temporary drop in quality and that Maria, the goddess of historigasms, will, there is no doubt about it, write the fabulous soap everyone has been waiting for. This is even weirder knowing that Mark agrees that if you watch cr*p, you make it last longer, almost approve of it.

Because two months more of tolerating Maria & Co. mean not two months more of crap, but perhaps 8 months worth of sh!t. You know that things aren't linear in the world of soaps. So perhaps if these drums had more support two months ago, and I know this might seem juvenile, just perhaps something might have happened by now. Instead drum-beaters were depicted as mentally challenged crazy people who were probably blind too not realizing the greatness of Maria's vision.

I am asking genuinely. Should one start complaining right away?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Oh yeah!

You tell 'em, Sylphy dear!

[Sylph]

Y&RWorldTurner is love.

[sheilaforever]

I have to agree with that.

The story so far has been extremely rushed and half-baked. They are re-writing an iconic story (Phillip III death) 20 years later and totally skip the important beats. If the writers thought it was too soon to completely focus again on Jeanne and Jess they should delayed it but this is a story that would have deserved spotlight. I can really buy the idea behind and find it a great concept but so far the only saving grace has been Tricia Cast.

The writing and pacing has been atrocious and there is no other way as to call P III's resurection stunt value.

3 bombshells have been dropped on JIll & Kay: presumed dead son alive, fraud-son exposed, presumed dead son gay and yet - or probably because of it - it leaves me back very much emotionally untouched as a viewer except for feeling extremely pissed of. Maria Arena Bell had a talk with her brother in law about how to "engage" an audience, it seems...

Different topic: Say what want about the Suds Report but Braco's latest words on Amelia Heinle were 100 % spot-on. Girl has been as atrocious as the writing for the Phillip-story in Vickie's gossipy talk with Nikki about gay Adam. Hands on the worst actress on Y&R these days...

[MoTheGreat]

I like Cane but don't want to see this plot point cancer storyline. Where he reconnected with Lily. Lily is going to make me hate him again.

I still believe they should have undone Katherine & Jill being mother & daughter after they found out Cane was a fraud. This whole reunion with Billy & Mac doesn't make sense knowing Mac cared for another. I don't care how they try to sweep it under the rug. Mac did move on.

[rhythmchyc]

Oooh... I have an idea for a future s/l.

What if Lily, Colleen, and Victoria all get doppelgangers!!

I know, it sounds crazy. But hear me out, it gets better. Trust me.

So, the doppelgangers come into Genoa City all at the same time, and, unbeknown to everyone in Genoa City, they look nothing like their current counterparts! In fact, they could be near replicas of the former actresses: Sherwood, Leon, and Tom. It'd be like a variation on the Clark Kent/Superman effect; the audience will know the truth, thinking the people of Genoa City are crazy.

Of course, it's right up MAB and 'em's alley. The Kay/Marge doppelganger story is what made Y&R great last year!! More versions of it means a ratings spike again!!

Just so this won't seem too much out of tptb's alley, I'll negotiate with the pacing. The end justifies the means in this case. CK, TS, and AH run into their doppelgangers a week after this s/l begins.

I know, I know, it's a far-fetched plan. But it'll all make sense in the end, I promise!

Jana's in cohoots with the doppelgangers (after what Victoria did to Sabrina, Jana's secretly hated this whole time) and sets up the meeting at Crimson Lights at closing. They're stunned (all with the same facial expression, of course... well, Heinle only mildly so).

The doppelgangers slap them on the top of their heads with the final edition of Restless Style: a cover story about a history of identity theft crooks in the Genoa City- Marge and Sheila among the ones featured.

CK, TS, and AH lie unconscious on the ground near the bar. The camera pans to the back room where Kevin, Gloria, Jeffrey, P3, and Cane are bound and gagged screaming for help (Gloria with a muzzle). Then, we see a wide shot of a dozen leaky gasoline cans strewn about the tables.

The doppelgangers leave with Jana, who strikes a match. She drops it to the floor and shuts the door behind her...

[MarkH]

I agree fully with this. And I'm much enjoying the chastened, muted, authentic Cane we're seeing now. I realize he needs to support Lily (and indeed this cancer thing will build some depth for the relationship), but if he could stay around and have an age-appropriate romance.. I'm not actually caring about age, but maturity. But I'm warming to Cane-Lily now if they have a bonafide challenge to meet together.

I agree.

I agree. I think they did this because they felt they needed to resolve that "Langley call" from the LML era. But honestly, your summary above is excellent.

My own tendency, in soaps and in life, is to give a long leash...to let things unfold...to move slowly while giving things a chance to play out. I wrote about this before as "passenger mentality", but maybe a better way to characterize it is as "non-interference doctrine" or "presumption of good work".

Moreover, for me the gauge of a soap is always whether it makes me FEEL things. That is the only barometer for me. I was enjoying Y&R very much for a very long time...but at some point I stopped feeling...no matter how ramped up things got.

My favorite moment of the last 12 months was Lauren apologizing to Traci. That, and maybe Nina saying "He's no Phillip". Not just those moments, but the honoring of decades of story to get to those moments that they implied.

My least favorite moments were things like mopping up a fetus, kissing a little girl (and then showing no remorse regarding her brain damage), or the emotionally dead P3 homecoming.

Note that all those things that HAPPPENED without causing me to FEEL anything were all in the last few weeks. As this has continued and grown, I become worried. Not dissatisfied and not drum beating. Just worried. Because I have no sense of power to affect the outcome here, I'm fairly passive in how I respond to it. I think that's how most soap fans are. We might come to places like this to discuss, but we have no illusion of power.

Lauren...I miss her a lot. I was glad she got mentioned on B&B this week. I'm hopeful Brad is preparing a place for her, because it SUCKS how she is used (or not used) on Y&R these days.

I agree about the writing of the P3 story. For me, that story has really been the bump in the road.

I'm worried, though, about Heinle. As I linked (in the Colleen thread in Spoiler) yesterday, JT-Colleen moments were among my favorite. I also liked JT-Mac (esp. first incarnation). Thus, if we lose Heinle, I want to keep Luckinbill and bring him front-and-center again.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

They're never going to explore Cane outside of Lily, and since Cane no longer has any real ties to anyone else, they can easily write him off in order to "pare down" the cast. I personally wouldn't mind it, Cane hasn't added anything substantial to the canvas, but neither has Phillip III with his "return."

Or maybe Cane and Lily can have their Sunset Ending as they reunite and leave town together. Isn't Christel's contract up soon? Maybe she wants to leave to pursue other things, she's still young.

[YRBB]

By "write him off" surely you mean killing him off via totally random occurrence, having his death 'drive story' for two weeks, after which Lily will be in love again and become a lesbian. How very B&B of them!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Well, not like Cane is a core character or anything.

No more deaths, have him leave town with his child bride...

But I'm convinced the only way this writing regime writes a character off is by killing them, regardless if they're core characters or not.

[jadia]

You wont get any disagreements from me on that score because ita with you as well. I really believed that they would show atwt and others how its done. But it looks like oltl of all soaps is going to do that. ITA with others that introducing Rafe right now will not work imo. Yeah you have the folks who will like it regardless because its a gay couple and its still so rare on soaps. Then you have the folks who will hate it regardless because its a gay story. Then there are many others like me who welcomed this and was so looking forward to it but Phillip is not a root for character! The last thing I want to see is him in a story with Rafe who darn near looks younger then his own child! The child who he didnt even bat an eyelash or even ask about when he came back from the dead. How is anyone supposed to find a romance between those two to be rootworthy? Rafe is barely developed as it is, I like him but if he left tomorrow how many would care? Right now the deck is stacked against these two, Rafe is too good for him. I'll take someone new for Rafe or gasp, a somewhat redeemed Adam. Right now I have no interest in Rafe and Phillip and dont know if I ever will.