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

[Sylph]

And P. S. Monday's episode was written by Janice Ferri Esser? Need I say more?

[Toups]

I thought the script was fine. Did she get any of the history wrong (I wasn't watching back then)? I'm not surprised they gave her this episode since she's been with the show since the late 80's, so they should give her episodes with a lot of history in it.

[Cat]

By rights, Philip 3 and Cane should be a generation older than Nick and Victoria. Chance should be older than Adam.

The SORASing is nuts. But that's indicative of all soaps, not just Y&R. Hello, Days and EJ? Sami was in her early 20s and trying to pass off Austin's kid as her own when EJ was born.

Is she really so bad, though? The problems in Monday's episode stemmed mainly from the stilted directing, I thought.

The "logic" underpinning Philip's excuses I lay at MAB's door, not Ferri Esser's.

[Toups]

For some reason, Sylph has "personal issues" (or am I mistaken?) with JFE (that still makes me laugh).

Janice is the best with historical references and history nods. If you have a scene with lots of history just give it to Janice. Even if it's just a small scene like the Lauren/Traci scene months ago, where they talked about their history. She also writes the best Victor, Jack, Jill, Katherine dialogue.

I didn't see any problems with the script at all. I thought the dialogue was very good in the hospital with Nina/Jill/Katherine/Phillip. Tricia Cast should submit this episode for Supporting Actress.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Maybe it was part of the re-write, and I know that money is usually no object on soaps, but didn't Phillip have like no money by the time he died, even though he was a Chancellor? So, how was he able to afford another identity in another country, pay off that police officer, and pay off the doctors? He said the police officer and doctors needed help financially, BUT SO DID HE, regardless of Jill and Katherine's wealth.

Back to this old clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBbO39hHchk

At the time of his "death" Nina checked the books. He had $3,000 in savings and $2,000 in checking. She would have also known if he had recently taken any large amount of money out of either account at the time of his "death." Also, if he embezzled money out of Chancellor Industries, which was never mentioned, shouldn't they have known that too, if any embezzlement had happened around that time?

Nina, Katherine, and Jill all knew his financial situation at the time of his "death" yet they didn't question how he was able to finance such an elaborate scheme.

[Cat]

Maybe the much-ballyhooed "GayMafia" stepped in with donations?

I'm sensing this was an oversight by the writing team that almost rivals Victor's mega-strength sperm overcoming a couple of vasectomies.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

So many damn huge holes in this storyline. They really shouldn't have done this. They could have de-Chancellored Cane by not bringing Phillip III back from the dead and re-writing even more history. Damn, this sucks.

As he said, he was just a teen, I still can't see how a teen was able to pull this off and pull it off for a good two decades financially. This is pure nonsense.

[dragonflies]

Christel Khalil is just a bad actress *shudders*

[All My Shadows]

I love how they now have Katherine quoting Bible scriptures every two minutes. Guess that's supposed to drive home the fact that Phillip El Tres just couldn't bear

to the fam.

Thom Bierdz was long gone from Y&R by the time I started watching, but damn, has he always been this bad? It's not even over-the-top or anything, it's just boring and dull acting. His voice is aggravating as hell, and the condescending way Phillip talks to Nina annoys me. Daniel Goddard, on the other hand, is impressive today.

[brimike]

I'm glad they aired Tuesday's show today, so all the Thursday episodes didn't become Friday episodes for the next three months.

I loved the Nick/Phyllis/Michael/Heather scenes. I was glad they explained how it all works legally, but the first few scenes were a little circular. I think they explained what Munchausen's-by-Proxy Syndrome was about eight times in those first twenty minutes. But Stafford was great, and of course, that slap rocked on every level!

Bierdz seems to be a sensitive subject around here - I think he's fine until he has a line that has heavy subtext, and then he flies through it. Today's "You were a better son than I ever was" should have had a lot of emotional resonance and it just didn't. I did like Cane/Phillip's argument outside, and Katherine being stern with Cane was great. "You have a lot of nerve" "Yes, Ma'am" Good stuff.

Patty Jane and the Get Well card - so sick and twisted, and right up my alley.

Khalil isn't awful today. Goddard's working his ass off in these Lane scenes though. The Delia retcon is still the most headache-inducing part of all of this, but Goddard did his best to sell it, and I bought his emotion, hook, line and sinker - even if I still don't buy the logic.

I wish they had made more out of Phillip seeing his childhood home by himself for the first time. I know he was there on Friday, but seeing him walk through the house by himself today, I was hoping for some flashbacks or something. I was glad they acknowledged that Phillip didn't pull a Stefano Dimera and fake his whole death from crash-to-Sydney. That he actually did flatline, and that this opportunity fell into his lap, as opposed to him plotting the whole thing out. I loved the "it wasn't a question of going or not going. it was a question of going or dying" line. I actually felt some emotion from Bierdz in that moment, and it was long overdue.

Seriously - how can we get Tricia to stay? She was amazing in the scenes by the pool. What do we have to do - get a fund together to move her whole life and kids' school system to Los Angeles? I'll start taking up a collection now.

Katherine and Jill by themselves were wonderful. Jill's "How could I have been so wrong" broke my heart. Loved the two women coming together. After the last few days of awkward crowd-scenes, I was relieved to see so many smaller, more personal scenes today.

It was also great to see Nick and Phyllis scenes without the specter of Jack and Sharon looming over them. The Quad is mind-numbing these days, and it seems everything goes to hell when the four are playing together. So only seeing two of the four today was a nice change of pace, and was a nice reminder of JM and MS's chemistry without all that annoying bed-hopping.

LOVED Cane vs. Neil. I don't know if someone spoke to Goddard or not, but he could EASILY be playing this the same way he played Cane during the Delia story - smug, arrogant and self-righteous. But he's not - he's playing it as the broken-hearted outsider looking in, and it's really working for me.

I was a little confused about Patty's motivation in the last scene (the phone call to Phyllis). She seemed happy Nick and Phyllis were together, but wouldn't it work to her advantage to have Nick shun Phyllis and go to Sharon instead? That's the only way Jack would be free for the taking. I thought Nick and Phyllis reuniting was the last thing she'd want.

Katherine's inner turmoil in the final scene about whether or not to be happy or pissed about Phillip/Cane was palpable.

I've watched Bierdz's coming-out scene about three times now, but this was the first time I saw it in the context of the whole show, and it worked better for me here than it did watching the scene by itself online. The look on Nina's face - seriously, I'll move the whole school system AND her house to Los Angeles. I'm not joking.

All in all, a nice show. A lot quieter, a lot more personal, and much needed after the last few days, in my opinion. I didn't love it, but I liked it a lot.

Tomorrow's previews looked GREAT - Rafe's "How stupid do you think I am", Victor catching on more to Patty, AND Sharon wanting to help Phyllis? Looking forward to all of it.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Um, can Heather please have both Cane and Phillip III arrested for fraud and identity theft? She has a better chance of prosecuting that case than anything with this stupid agenda against the Newmans/Phyllis.

Again, are they totally overlooking the criminal aspect of what Phillip III/Cane did? If so, then it's really jarring to have Heather running around town trying to fight for justice and all that, and then have the criminal aspect of another storyline totally overlooked.

Thom Bierdz still sucks, he gives nothing to his scenes. He's a worse sleepwalker than Amelia Heinle. THANK GOD for Tricia Cast, or else this would be an even bigger fail of a storyline than it already is.

I enjoyed some of the scenes between Walton and Cooper in the hospital.

It was nice to see a glimpse of the real star of this show, you know, Kitty. Though seriously, I expect Patty Jane to be gone in less than a year. How can she ever get past these psychotic tendencies? It just doesn't look well for the character long term.

Sorry, NOT buying Goddard's heartbroken act. He looks like someone stole his cupcake at lunch.

This show overall is such a farce.

[Soapsuds]

And what is wrong with JFE?? I think this is the best writer Y&R has. I thought the writing for Monday's show was well written with a lot of history in it.

[brimike]

Sylph's always had issues with JFE.

[Soapsuds]

I missed the show. I guess it was on during TPIR hour. Thank goodness for SoapNet. I will have to catch it there.

[Scryber96]

Best part of the show: MJ getting out the fish toy to play with Kitty.

Worst part of the show: Holier than thou Neil ranting at Cane to keep away from Lily...when she's the one who slipped away from her father and let herself into Cane's house. Maybe Lily would grow up a little if everyone stopped treating her like a fragile little porcelain doll.