Y&R: Episodes discussion., Week of July 6

[brimike]

Lots of good and bad in today's episode.

LOVED Murphy. Every single scene. I know he doesn't drive story, but I could watch that man in every episode. Loved seeing him get tough today - it was a different side of him, and was very honest and very real.

LOVED Jeannie Cooper.

LOVED the Billy/Cane punch. It looked real, and from a viewer's standpoint, it felt DAMN good.

LOVED Jess Walton and Tricia Cast. Nina going off on Phillip over their son was AWESOME. The "You're so full of crap" moment gave me chills and I loved it.

On to Mr. Bierdz, the subject of everyone's posts over the weekend (a weekend I highly enjoyed without all the sturm und drang of SON)...

He was never Michael Zaslow, and God knows the script did him no favors today. Way too much exposition. I actually thought he did fine until he got to the "suicide" reveal. He needed to show some emotion there. Revealing he intentionally tried to kill himself SHOULD have driven me to tears. Sadly, it didn't. At all.

Khalil wasn't as awful as I thought she was going to be - but she's still the weak link in all of this. At least we got some real tears out of her.

The Delia reveal is a huge hole, and makes no sense. Obviously, Phillip/Cane was not the plan a year ago when they told the Delia story, and this was a hastily thrown together retcon. That part of it was a disaster. But Billy vs. Cane pulled me out of my head-scratching logic place. Love Miller vs. Goddard and I'm glad this blew their relationship up again. They need to be bitter rivals.

I thought Kristoff did a great job stepping into the "Daddy" role. Sure, Neil isn't perfect either, but he certainly didn't do anything THIS terrible.

I was thrilled Katherine went off on Phillip, and I'm glad nobody's letting him off the hook for abandoning his kid. I don't think Phillip is even thinking about his son as a real person yet. He's just this thing out there somewhere. Coming face to face with him, hopefully, will kick into his thick skull what he's done.

I'm ready for the emotional journey of this story, because the logistical exposition part of the story makes my head want to explode. I definitely had flickers of the same frustrations other fans have had during the Phillip scenes, but this is just the beginning. I want to see where we are a month from now. If the emotion of the story can overpower the plot holes, then I can look past the retcons. But if the emotion falls flat, it really will have been a big waste.

Again, Y&R is not doing these crowd scenes well. Which is weird, considering the Billy/Chloe wedding rehearsal dinner, and that "fun" chaos. The Chancellor house should have been intense insanity. Instead, again, it was all "You say your line and then I say my line and then you say this line". People should have been overlapping their dialogue, much more frantic.

I can't believe how sympathetic I am to Goddard/Cane at this point. When the hell did THAT happen?!

I'm hopeful, though. Good way to kick off the week. Not great, nowhere near perfect. But a lot of stuff floating around out there, and I hope the rest of the week builds on all of it.

[Soapsuds]

I loved the show. TC and JW were great today!! KSJ was great as Big Papa Bear...LOL. I love when he gets that way. I lobster loved the Billy and Cane scenes. Bierdz was ok in his scenes. His acting has always been like that even when he first appeared.

Too bad tomorrow's show is pre-empted.

[alphanguy74]

Well... I just finished watching today's eppy, and it was RIVETING. Even Kahlil was OK... not fabulous, but OK. First of all, Billy Miller did simmering rage very well today, and DAMN he looks good half nekkid. Goddard was great again, he's such a good lookin guy.... it's such a shame he's got no ass. Clementine Ford is FINALLY really gelling in her role, I like her now. Now, on to Bierdz... he was FINE!!!! People who think he's awful are either blind, don't know the character, or my BIGGEST suspicion... is that the subtelty of Bierdz' performances are lost when you watch this show on a computer monitor. When you watch him, you need to see it on a NICE, BIG, TELEVISION SET. And you need to FOCUS and pay attention, especially to his eyes. He fell right back into the mannerisms of the character, the attitude of the hands, how he averts his eyes and looks down at the floor alot, THAT IS PHILLIP. It's also a huge drawback of playing a character who is deeply intorverted and non-confrontational... people either think he's a bad actor, or the character is boring, because he's not this big drama queen throwing out all these histrionics like Cast/Walton/Cooper. It's fits their characters to be over the top dramatic divas, but Phillip was NEVER LIKE THAT, Bill Bell did not INTEND HIM TO BE. The whole point of making Phillip like that was to keep some mystery, keep the audience wondering what he's all about. His voice is just like it always was.. that's how he talks. Ironically, he's the only cast member to ever appear on this show who has a wisocnsin accent. I WILL SAY, that I found his final scene of the day a bit awkward, I think it waa a combination of the body movements, and the blocking, ... but nothing of any real consequence. I also agree with Brimike that he needed a little more emotion in the suicide reveal, but he was NOT terrible by ANY stretch of the imagination.The look in his eyes when Nina confronted him about his son was great, you could see GUILT, and of course, he looked down right after like Phillip does. Cast was phenomenal again, When she hit him on the chest, it was incredible, that scene NEEDED her to get physical like that. Cooper was much better today than yesterday (I love Jeanne, but I felt the line she delivered yesterday when she asked Cane "how he could do that to those who loved and trusted him" fell flat as a pancake.) It looked like she was berating Esther for yellow waxy buildup....And it took some of the steam out of the reveal.

[MarkH]

Okay, I'm looking forward to watching with BIG eyes!

[Juliajms]

Yes, MTS gave Michael Logan an interview. Sounds like the scene was not reshot. It was just done ambiguously from the beginning.

[brimike]

No reshoot. It's playing as it was written.

And MTS isn't the death Schmit was talking about.

[Cat]

After reading all the "Bierdz iz crap" posts, I was expecting some shite acting -- but it looked and felt like Philip, like Alphaguy said. For me, Christel Khalil was the weak link. She did show some emotion (anger? A tantrum?) but girl still couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. Plus her haircut makes her look all kinds of Hot Tranny Mess.

KSJ did all the heavy-lifting in those scenes and Daniel Goddard finally came into his own! About time.

Strangely, it was Nina who came across as a big ole bully on Friday (less so today). I love her and have been loving Tricia Cast's return to the show. Tricia has down great but NINA, it seemed to me, was just this shrew and bully who essentially cornered Philip into pulling this ridiculous bait-and-switch in the first place.

The whole show (and Friday's too) was weird. Weirdly blocked and very stilted. At the end of Friday's show, I thought "[!@#$%^&*]. MAB just blew her wad because this whole thing is a mess." Like Jill and Nina just standing there going "duh" when Philip disappeared. WTF?

[sheilaforever]

LMAO - Amen to that.

[Leia]

Bierdz is acting exactly the way that I remember from before.

[DRW50]

That sentence is not used very often.

I hope they aren't trying to make Nina look like she drove Phillip to fake his death. No matter how she reacts, I still think he was a selfish coward to abandon his son.

Those poor people at the homeless shelter who are never getting their buns.

[Soapsuds]

Yup, I agree.

[Sylph]

Bierz is crap. Muhney is crap. Muhney is faux-Adam. There.

[Toups]

A reminder: I'm bouncing all posts with spoiler tags to the Potpourri thread. The only exception is if you're talking about the next-day episode (which you have to mention). Thanks.

[alphanguy74]

I agree. I can't even put my finger on it, but the blocking Today and Friday was odd. I'm not sure WHAT theyr'e doing differently... it's bizarre. I tell you what, a big reveal is no time to experiment. The acting was stellar for the most part, and the show kept me glued to the screen... but for some reason, the last couple weeks, wev'e been having these episodes with this strange blocking... and it's always in large groups scenes. I'm going to re-watch and see if I can pin down what I think the issue is.

[sheilaforever]

The jury is still out in this court: somehow I don't buy him as Adam and yet I do in some context.

It's probably because Muhney isn't bad, but Engen made himself Adam. But this is probably sth. more suitable to discuss in the potpouri-thread.

As for the show (which must go on): do Lily & Cane make such a great couple because they both sport awful hairdos?