Y&R: Episodes discussion, week of September 21

[Stevie]

ROFLMAO

Actually it wasn't a flashback the mail came and Adam had it and kept it hidden and he could see her name and just held onto it if he read the letter, that they did not show, but he did hide it.

Adam could read Nicki's name they showed if blurry, but they made it seem to me as if they wanted viewers to know that through his eyes he could see Nicki's name.

[Paul Raven]

Yes,it was from a health spa in Colorado(?)The weird thing was the return address was printed with her name and the address of the spa-like you check in and they present you with a custom printing for envelopes.

[Toups]

I thought Thursday's episode was fantastic - this should've been Wednesday's episode instead of the filler that we saw. Today we got a lot of good scenes. Kudos to Beth Maitland and Eileen Davidson who gave amazing performances. Loved the scene where Ashley goes off on Victor (though she should've chosen a better time LOL) and tells/asks him who else needs to get hurt - I hope she means it. Another good scene was JT's "Goodbye, sweetheart," to Colleen. I also liked the Nikki/Paul scenes: ".....she's my sister." "And Victor's my....." And lastly, the Katherine/Jill scene where Katherine grabs Jill's hand and tells her she misses her. The background music was really good too. Great job by Tom Casiello, Eric Freiwald and Linda Schreiber on today's episode.

[MarkH]

I am with Toups. I really liked a lot of what we saw Thursday (and I didn't mind the Wednesday filler either). Things I enjoyed:

- Obviously Ashley. Was it Thursday's show where Ashley said "How can he do such horrible things to me and my family, and then hold me in his arms at night and comfort me?" As she is in Adam's arms. I loved Muhney's wince. There is a conscience in there...from before he "sold his soul".

- Personally, I must confess, I always thought Victor's power was greater than it should be. Thus, I love that he has now joined the same reckless ranks as Gloria, and Phyllis, and Sharon etc...not anticipating the negative consequences of his actions. I do think there is an opportunity to rebuild the character a little...with the symbolism of "having Colleen's heart"...and I enjoy seeing that.

- The Jill/Kay C-story (or was it D-story) could have been a throwaway, but these two actresses sold it. I loved how Kay acknowledged all the things that they had been--and could be--for one another: rival, friend, mother. I also loved that from one commercial to the next, Jill went from softened heart right back to defended. She will continue to be a hard nut to crack. I wish she could find a true love--a genuine love--one that she could trust--that could help move her forward.

- I loved that as soon as there was a sound of distress with Victor, Nikki was INSTANTLY packing her bags. "Oh Victor...please let there be time!" Paul/Doug's eye roll was PATENTED and PERFECT. If ever an actor had rediscovered his mojo, it was Davidson. He's THERE and perfectly modulated in all of his scenes. He got that "over the top" out of his system, and now he's back in form. I hope his story lasts after all this.

- I enjoy the bullfights between Nick and Adam, and I felt yesterday that we were going to see the war of equals. It seems clear to me that Victor will be incapacitated for some time, and Victoria will likely be too distraught and too pregnant to hold down the fort. Thus, Adam will defend Victor's interests . I am going to love that.

And bravo to Schreiber/Freiwald or Casiello for throwing in a TRUE "Bell-ism". The ranch was 'godforsaken'! LOL Classic piece of dialogue!

(Now, if we can just get Nikki to say "With ever fiber of my being...", my soul can rest).

- I, a Fishwin lover, could have done without the hijinks...but the writers were right to bring the preceding day's cliffhanger on that score to a conclusion. And it remained fun for me. And the writers handed us a beautiful gift. This was the first time I noticed the Terroni/Zamboni was stolen from the SHEFFER museum! SHEFFER??? Did they tell us that before?? If not, I think Casiello/Freiwald/Schreiber gave us a beautiful little clue about who is responsible for this "gem" of a storyline

[Paul Raven]

I was quite impressed by the bank set.I tried to pinpoint if it was a previous set redressed,but if it was,i couldn't spot it.

However,the nail salon set looks like something from a 60's soap.

How long do we have to wait for a new regular set?

Characters keep moving into someone else's home.

I wonder if some characters will now move into Brad's house,or will it be put back into mothballs?

Where will Sharon live after she leaves the 'facility'-back to GCAC?

I despise Amber and her ridiculous hijinks.

The show needs to do a major housecleaning.There are two many characters and story threads.While the horrible art story continues,there are other stories just waiting to be explored.

Gloria/Jeffrey/Amber/Eden/Jt/Victoria/Abby/Deacon could all be written off and there would still be plenty of characters and stories.Plus it would leave room for some new characters and returns

How about

Nate

Scott

Diane/Kyle

Keemo

Dina

Matt Miller

Mac's mom

chloe's dad etc

All of these characters would tie into existing characters and open up new stories and possibilities.

[DRW50]

I think they've spent too much time showing Adam as a monster for them to ever be equals. Last year they went out of their way to show us how inferior Adam was to Nick, and while Adam is more self-confident now that he's become the king of the sociopaths, I think Nick is still supposed to be the real hero.

[DRW50]

I forgot to say how much I enjoy the posts from you and Toups and others that talk about the better parts of the show. It makes me take a second look at scenes.

[MarkH]

I very much hope we see it again. My sense of "divine right" will only be restored when Paul gets that house. Cassandra meant for him to have it. It is not Brad's house. It is "Rawlings mansion", you got that?

I continue to agree that the show is overstuffed. I'd rather see Chancellors (or Abbotts or Newmans or Winters or Fishers...I'm neutral) 4 days a week...at a slower pace...and then discard other wings of the show. I keep saying that I think the pared-down focus of Days and GH is actually a good thing. The most efficient way to do this is just to DROP a few families. That would be painful for some...but it needs to happen.

But then we have your list of Gloria...Deacon. The problem with that list is that it could lead to 8 more deaths on this show (since that seems to be how they get rid of characters now). I really am so tired of death. Like many of you, I'm not even feeling what I should be for Colleen (regardless of actress...I like her family, and I liked that girl in the Fonseca days). That's not a good thing.

But, of course, for many of us (now that Nick is an insufferable "frickin' yo-yo"), many of us would be happy to see a non-sociopathic Adam best him. I'd love see a gleeful Adam bring him down in the boardroom!

I like the rejuvenated rivalry with Adam-Nick. It will add more self-righteous fuel to Adam when he steals Nick's baby.

LOL. It works the other way too. In other words, the critique of others (positive or negative) helps focus in on things you might have missed on your own. But I find I have been sure to watch the show without consulting SON first...because it tends to color my perspective more dour

[aMLCproduction]

Mark I admire you being so positive.

[MarkH]

It is not jingoistic. Like, yesterday, for the first time in ages, I watched the show twice. Once late when I got home, and then again in the morning when I wanted to show my co-residents the "good" scenes. Thursday was (for me) a bona fide good episode.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't watch for good scenes when the overall storylines are so problematic and useless.

Needless to say, outside of Beth Maitland, this whole Colleen storyline is leaving me cold. I don't feel any sort of emotional impact from it. Maybe it's because these same writers ignored the character for months leading up to her death, so whatever attachment I had to her before (regardless of who was in the role) was dead. but perhaps that was their intention - to beat the character down so bad that people would look past their stupid decision.

And of course, compared to way I felt when Cassie died, this is absolute [!@#$%^&*]. And I KNOW Colleen's death won't have the same longterm impact that Cassie's had. Just another decision from these writers we'll be asking ourselves "what was the use?" soon.

[DRW50]

Mark, I was looking forward to a real rivalry between Nick and Adam when CE was in the role (I gave up on that after the forged diary story, when the propping was so obvious as to who our hero was supposed to be, but I was hoping that might change eventually), but MM just seems so disconnected from everyone.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Michael Muhney is horrible, and way too over the top.

I'm over the Adam character and newer spoilers don't give me any hope for any "redemption arc."

[Greg's GL]

I'm still wondering why or how TPTB made these story choices concerning Patty and Adam.

Adam should be living with (or married to) Heather right now (CE's version) and fighting with Nick and Victoria at Newman and wrestling with this feelings of abandonment with Victor.

Mary Jane's identity should still be a secret from everyone in GC. She should be working at Jabot, carrying on a torrid affair with Jack (him falling in love with her) and planning her revenge (non-life threatening) against him.

Why make them both nutso-freako-unhinged crazy people? Now that I know more of Sheffer's approach to writing and his need to maker sure his male characters have "balls", I can only assume that's why they didn't make Mary Jane a stronger, saner woman. If she were allowed to get her revenge on Jack, Sheffer would probably consider the character neutered or some crap.

These characters had much promise to be the next generation villans, and they've ruined them.

[DRW50]

I don't think it's about Jack not being neutered. Jack's already neutered. He loves a woman who has no use for him. He's regularly castigated by his family as being a bad person. He was raped by Mary Jane and this was treated as no big deal.

I think MJ is this way because they need her to drive plot. The "good" characters can just react. It's the same with Adam. He has to drive the plot. This is also done to remind us that Nick is the hero, to make sure Victor isn't the big heavy ,and also to make sure that this potential legacy character can never be any type of threat to Nick or Victor.