Y&R: Episode Discussion for the week of August 10

[Rhiannon]

Mr. Kitty is and will always be love.....

[DRW50]

Yes. Would Y&R be around today if the Brooks and the Fosters had been replaced by Amber, or Billy, or Kevin? I doubt it.

Of the younger group one of the better executed characters at the moment is Lily. I'm not sure what that says.

[JimTolkien]

And this is exactly what I am talking about!!! Y&R has always been noted for its strong characters/actors that have so much onscreen presence and charisma...I mean to this day, I get such pleasure seeing KC on my screen..I have never FF'd her ever. Because when she is in a scene you just have to watch. I get no such pleasure from any of the younger actors. And this is what I want to see them from them and the writers are throwing tons of s/ls at them and they have done absolutely nothing to spice up or propell the show forward in a positive way. Instead all we get is a wary network who is hedging their bets to see if the newer generation can be 1/4 as good as our vets. And no, they don't have time to get this right!!

[lmfan]

Plus, it is not like the Brooks and Fosters were all replaced by 20 somethings. Eric Braedan was in his 40s and Jeanne Copper was in her 50s. We had a range of actors from their 20s to their 40s, and they weren't all thrown at the audience in less than a year and made the stars of the show.

There seems to be a mandate to stuff as many young characters as they can into story and to move the plot driven stories as fast as they can. Ok, so why would they want to turn Y&R into an ABC type soap using a strategy that has failed miserably.

I am not saying all the young cast are poor actors. Some are good, but even the good ones are not as good as some of the proven vets who are being purposelly ignored. They need balance. It makes me sick to see Hogan Scheffer write Kevin and his gang yet more story when they don't even try to use Michael and Lauren. Philip and Nina get more story and airtime than Michael and Lauren. Why? What is so repulsive about Christian Le Blanc and Tracey Bregman that these hacks can't even use them for filler anymore? I can tell you the actors have no idea because the writers don't tell them why suddenly they have become persona non grata.

And no doubt, when they do get story they will get the JT and Victoria treatment and will have three or four episodes of marital discord before they are cheating or ready to break up.

As someone stated above, Y&R is starting to feel like an anti-soap.

[DeeeDee]

Kay is still the best.

Maria & Smith are about equal.

LML is still the worst.

[cara mia]

This is a huge problem for the show. The younger cast is unremarkable to the point of being less interesting than a stuffed cat. They lack sexiness (Devon), talent (Tyra), likability (Kevin, Heather) and so on. Cane is too old to be considered younger so I'll ignore him. Right now the only younger characters that work in any capacity are Billy, Chloe and Lily, though the writing is doing them no favors.

Well, I want to see Adam written out at this point. This writing with this recast is just a terrible combination. It is devastating to the show though that Adam has been so ruined. Eric Braeden is not going to act forever. For the integrity of the show, TPTB should have been laying the groundwork for the next Victor, not some lousy cartoon psycho.

The two great longstanding Y&R storylines are Jill vs. Kay and Jack vs. Victor. TPTB should be setting up the next generation of these struggles. If Nina were staying, Jill vs. Nina would be out-freaking-standing. If TC won't stay though, who is going to the next great lady to mix things up with Jill once Kay passes? Mac? Not with this actress. Chloe? Maybe but stop writing her like a freaking nitwit. And you have to keep her married to Billy and making him miserable in order to set up a good Jill/Chloe feud. EH does have the chops though to be a younger version of Jill. I would almost be willing to push for an Esther is Kay's longlost daughter story if it meant that Chloe was set-up as Kay's heir and the next great rival for Jill.

As for Jack vs. Victor 2.0, TPTB has that with Billy and CE's Adam. It practically wrote itself! And yet, I don't think they ever shared a scene in all this time. Billy hits on everyone. How did he not make a play for Heather in all this time? Ah, the stupidity.

As for Lily and why I think she's so vital. She is Dru's daughter. Outside of Nikki, I believe Dru was the most popular Y&R female. Moreover, Dru was very important to Bill Bell. I didn't mention the Winters in my main family list because I think that for many viewers, the Winters aren't a central family if Dru isn't there. Some people blame CK for Lily's lack of oomph and inability to be Dru 2.0 I am willing to give CK the benefit of the doubt and I believe that with different writing, she could grow into a more divaish and powerful Lily. She's no Victoria Rowell, but someone need to carry the torch lit by Dru.

LMFAN, I know you love Lauren & Michael and they have their place on the show but I am sorry, they are not the icons of the show and their "adopted" family of Scoobs are not who MAB should be focusing on. If she wanted to honor Bill Bell's legacy, she would focus on the children that BILL BELL created!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Maybe Billy and Ashley will start banging each other next week, since they're not really blood related and Billy screws everything he sees. I wouldn't put it passed these hacks.

They'll claim they're following the popular cougar trend!

[DeeeDee]

The writing is the problem.

Y&R should be multigenerational with the focus being on the younger characters but everything is SO plot dependent.

Good characters are hated & evil characters constantly have their irredeemable actions justified.

Plus every character has to be reduced to a idiot to serve the plot or a third of a horrible love triangle.

[cara mia]

Billy should be banging Ashley & Abby! Neither are his blood relations and it's just fantastic when when a guy does the mom-daughter combo!

Gina isn't Daniel's blood aunt either. He's crazy about her special sauce. Ah, romance.

Nick isn't Ghost Cassie's blood father. Maybe he can off to Paris next sweeps to be with her. You know, romantically! Squeee!

[DeeeDee]

The younger cast isn't the problem.

The majority of them are decent actors but the writing has given them NOTHING to work with.

Instead of writing characters TPTB are writing plot points for entitled fanbases to fight over.

[DeeeDee]

Jack was HORRIBLE.

Everything wrong with Y&R began with him.

[DeeeDee]

And there's the problem.

Graziadei & Rikaart have had CONSTANT frontburner story for YEARS.

Their characters are also ALWAYS justified by the fans AND the writing but Devon & McClure in spite of being on Y&R JUST AS long as they have & being JUST AS talented as they are not so much.

[DeeeDee]

TPTB will NEVER recast Lily.

Unfortunately.

[MoTheGreat]

CK is the problem. She's too bland, boring, uninteresting as Dru & Malcolm daughter or even Olivia niece. No matter what the writers have given her. She never pulls through. It seem the wind get knock out of her. The writing isn't good for anybody but some how people like EH, MST, & the guy that plays Paul can make something happen with the writing. Just like they want us to believe Lily is too inexperience & CK is too inexperience to make nothing into something.

[Faulkner]

Exactly. Focusing on those two stories in particular, they both had their logical failings, but from a dramatic standpoint, they should have written themselves. But the problems both stories had were compounded by the fact that they were so ANTICLIMACTIC. For Phillip, the writers totally f**ked with a huge moment in the show's history, and if you're gonna do that, you had better give us proportionate drama. They failed. Big time. There was so much to milk from Phillip's return. The reveal really should have been the biggest moment of Jess Walton's career. Emmy No. 3 in the bag. So why was the woman who should have been the center of the story treated as a glorified extra? I was LIVID that Jill's reaction wasn't played. It displayed a fundamental lack of understanding of the show on the writers' part, and it was the last straw for me as a viewer after nearly 20 years. It's been a tough addiction to kick, to be sure.