I think they'll now backfill and deepen the critical relationships.

LOL! Keep waiting for that. Nothing suggests this to me.

I remember how great it was when Sharon was reunited with her first daughter -- thought lost to her for all time. And I remember how Nick and Sharon celebrated after realizing that Noah was NOT dead as a newborn (remember, they thought he died, and ran away to grieve together?). Those were amazing moments. I like that Nick and Sharon will...hopefully six years from now...get another amazing moment.

Yeah, and we had Alden and Smith back then, and we don't now.

Nothing this writing regime has done has been on par with those moments. Not to mention, the execution and overall pacing with this current writing regime is hilariously flawed.

Also, there's rampant speculation that

Sharon will be reunited with Faith during Christmas, which will be her Christmas miracle.

So this story might not even drag out as long as we think it will.

Do Nick and Sharon deserve an "amazing moment"? They are both incredibly stupid, self-absorbed people. They have done bad damage to Noah, who now is so sick of them that he doesn't even visit his dying grandfather in the hospital or visit his mother as she is in a mental institution. And Morrow is going to tank the story anyway, unless he drastically improves over the next few months.

I just don't care about seeing bad parents get reunited with a baby who was conceived out of lies and cheap adultery in the first place.

Do Nick and Sharon deserve an "amazing moment"? They are both incredibly stupid, self-absorbed people. They have done bad damage to Noah, who now is so sick of them that he doesn't even visit his dying grandfather in the hospital or visit his mother as she is in a mental institution. And Morrow is going to tank the story anyway, unless he drastically improves over the next few months.

I just don't care about seeing bad parents get reunited with a baby who was conceived out of lies and cheap adultery in the first place.

I bookmarked your post....just because...................we shall revisit when the time is right!

Edited October 3, 200916 yr by JimTolkien

I'm tired of the Nick/Sharon/Phyllis merry-go-round.

At this point, Nick needs to be alone, and Phyllis and Sharon need to get some self-respect and stop trying to blame each other for why they've gone crazy over some idiot that only thinks with his dick and treats them both like crap. The sad thing is, these characters never get any kind of substantial break from the frontburner, they're always on, and this storyline has been going on for like almost 5 years on the front-burner in some form.

I want Sharon to get a new love interest, and I want her to ignore Nick. I want to see Nick suffer with Sharon's commitment to someone else and I want it to drive him insane that Sharon loves someone else. At this time, Phyllis will be fed up being the only one trying to keep her marriage together, and she and Nick will grow even more apart. During this time, Phyllis grows closer to someone (a new character probably) who becomes her confidant and best friend, and realizes that she's not in love with Nick anymore, she was just in love with the idea of having a stable/perfect family and realizes that Nick can never fully give her what she wants, though a part of her will always feel connected to him, they just don't work anymore.

Nick will be left alone, and at this point, something major will happen at Newman Enterprises, and Nick will be responsible for the Newman's losing control of their own company. Victor and Victoria will be pissed and disown him. Nick feeling alone and ashamed will take to the bottle. Nikki will play a big part in his battle against alcoholism, since she's been though it herself, and Nick's struggle to overcome this illness with slowly bring together the Newman family. We'll see years of Nick struggling, with no stable relationship, and down the line, years from now, he can eventually reunite with Sharon.

God, I shutter to think that Maria Arena Bell, Hogan Sheffer, Scott Hamner, and some of their staff writers are reading this and will steal it and execute and pace it horribly. Only do this when good storytellers are in charge of the show, not the horrible writers we have now.

Edited October 3, 200916 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

I'm tired of the Nick/Sharon/Phyllis merry-go-round.

At this point, Nick needs to be alone, and Phyllis and Sharon need to get some self-respect and stop trying to blame each other for why they've gone crazy over some idiot that only thinks with his dick and treats them both like crap. The sad thing is, these characters never get any kind of substantial break from the frontburner, they're always on, and this storyline has been going on for like almost 5 years on the front-burner in some form.

I want Sharon to get a new love interest, and I want her to ignore Nick. I want to see Nick suffer with Sharon's commitment to someone else and I want it to drive him insane that Sharon loves someone else. At this time, Phyllis will be fed up being the only one trying to keep her marriage together, and she and Nick will grow even more apart. During this time, Phyllis grows closer to someone (a new character probably) who becomes her confidant and best friend, and realizes that she's not in love with Nick anymore, she was just in love with the idea of having a stable/perfect family and realizes that Nick can never fully give her what she wants, though a part of her will always feel connected to him, they just don't work anymore.

Nick will be left alone, and at this point, something major will happen at Newman Enterprises, and Nick will be responsible for the Newman's losing control of their own company. Victor and Victoria will be pissed and disown him. Nick feeling alone and ashamed will take to the bottle. Nikki will play a big part in his battle against alcoholism, since she's been though it herself, and Nick's struggle to overcome this illness with slowly bring together the Newman family. We'll see years of Nick struggling, with no stable relationship, and down the line, years from now, he can eventually reunite with Sharon.

God, I shutter to think that Maria Arena Bell, Hogan Sheffer, Scott Hamner, and some of their staff writers are reading this and will steal it and execute and pace it horribly. Only do this when good storytellers are in charge of the show, not the horrible writers we have now.

Bloody tired of the merry-go-round as well...I think this is exactly where the show took a nosedive when MAB came in and having the Quad in the RS storyline. She severely underestimated something. After that it was all downhill from there (with just sporadic bursts of some good points in the show). With any luck (not holding my breath here )we can get off the ride for a bit. I get the sense the writers have used "plot to get to point" albeit done shoddily. But I am willing to see what pans out in the next few months.

MAB may be doing all she can to keep CBS at bay with her s/ls but unless Sony/Bell decides to create their own network or go shopping for another one, the show is on a what I would like to call a performance-based contract so she'd better stop the buggering around with these s/ls and get moving.

I bookmarked your post....just because...................we shall revisit when the time is right!

I know that by the time this story is over I may have a warmer opinion of them, I'm just sick of them for now and have been for some time now. They have both regressed horribly as characters -- Sharon seems to get dumber and more pathetic each year. Nick is just a void, propped endlessly by the writing.

I am also not that fond of what has become of Phyllis but since she's not front and center lately I don't care as much. I do think they may take a hammer to her with this upcoming story, but it seems like they were originally planning to have her become the big villain against Shick (dressing up as the maid, getting Sharon arrested) but then abruptly Mary Jane took over. So apparently someone at the show may be looking out for her character.

I just wish Nick could go away for about 6 months or a year, and possibly be recast. Sharon can go on the backburner.

Let me guess...Sharon also becomes a psycho nanny, planting evidence that makes Ashley think the black dayplayer maintenance guy is a panty stealing freak, Sharon rigs a greenhouse to shatter on someone who comes close to discovering the truth, etc...

I don't think this would work but then again they do have Abby who would becomes friends with the guy. But it got to be like 60 years old for this to work. If they get a young guy we don't want the viewers to think that they trying to have two inter racial dating on the soap.

Matter of fact maybe this is a storyline for Devon. We already know he's incest freak. Maybe now they can attach him to liking young girls. Even though it's not true. Easy way to get rid of the character & the actor.

Meanwhile, Adam is bedding Ashley and working feverishly to keep the baby with her. Nick will sneak into the asylum to visit Sharon, and pork her.

Both Newman boys sexing the insane.

I'm not against the baby switch story in principal. For example the Star/Jessica switch on OLTL was pretty good, imo. My objection is the timing and the poorly written set up. It was all too outlandish for me. I also doubt these writers have the guts to let this switch last more than 6 months. If this kind of story happens on Y&R the switch should last 2 or 3 years minimum.

A post from General Mobspital...u might remember him as a poster here. He has some thoughts about Y&R this week and overall view.

BETH MAITLAND. She rocked the [!@#$%^&*] out of Y&R this week.

Fantastic, and probably a nice way for me to end my current run of watching this shitfest the show has quickly become.

Beth Maitland. How ironic a woman who acts once in a while can show up and give Emmy worthy performances, making sickening material (pointless killing of Colleen) that we knew was coming so completely believable with some possible hope that was quickly shattered. I Love this woman.

After Maitland, I want to single out MTS for being handed that material - sheer gall as you put it - and doing such a great job. I was all SHE IS NOT gonna ask for Colleen's heart and she done did! She made it through that dialogue like a pro. I love Billy as being the only person with sense insisting her heart not go to Victor. Maitland was so outstanding, not often an actress moves me so much.

Judith Chapman's Gloria has gotten such crap - and as money hungry as she is - was kinda disappointed in her faux caring about Colleen's comatose/death then blowing it off to call Deacon about that stupid painting.

This show has gotten SO bad.

The Ash/Sharon baby switch would have been great on Passions. It was contrived crap on Y&R.

This baby switch could have been so much better done if the audience didn't know that Ashley miscarried.

There is so much Billy hatred around here (Hi, CarlD2 )...and it doesn't connect with my basic enjoyment of this character. Thus, it was manna from heaven when I saw this exchange over at Usenet between two regulars, Diva and Shirl. I thought I'd post them here, to see if truly nobody here feels this way. Shirl is VERY down on the show...and has been since LML joined...but she still has found a place in her heart for Billy.

Diva says

For some reason the one who cheers me up the most is Billy Abbott. I cannot explain why. Maybe because he is so immature but at the same time likable and tries everyone's patience.

Shirl says

I think it's because he's the one person who isn't afraid to "tell it like it is", even to the big bad VICTOR NEWMAN. Re Ashley, he's the ONLY one who saw the situation and applied good, old-fashioned common sense. She "sees" dead people and all kinds of crazy stuff happens to her AT THE RANCH, so -- get her away from the ranch! And his reaction to hearing that the possibility of donating Colleen's heart TO VICTOR is, IMO, the way most people would react, given the histories not only between the two families but also the more recent events Colleen went through because of Victor.

I wouldn't say he "cheers me up", but it *is* refreshing to see/hear a character reacting the way WE would, and saying a lot of what we say. There haven't been many people who don't cow-tow to Victor...it's hard NOT to cheer for such a character.

If only he would apply some of that no-nonsense common sense to his own personal life.

Edited October 4, 200916 yr by MarkH

The reason that Billy's "tell it like it is" approach doesn't impress me is that he was not "telling it like it is" until after Victor screwed him over. Billy had ZERO problem with Victor hurting anyone in the Abbott family when he thought Victor was on his side. He even went to Victor for advice and support. Then suddenly, when he learned the truth about Victor using and discarding him, what do we get? Gnashing and huffing and puffing which doesn't do Colleen a bit of good, and didn't do Ashley a bit of good. The damage was already done. Even Billy Miller himself said he didn't think Billy cared about Ashley, that he was motivated only by Victor screwing him over. Then he went off to obsess over his feelings for his harem yet again, and did nothing while Colleen's life was falling apart and she was left brain dead. Nor has he been there for Ashley while she was at the end of her "pregnancy" or giving birth with only Adam there at her side.

Billy's "tell it like it is" approach makes HIM feel good, but does it ever help anyone in his family? Billy berating nurses didn't make Colleen wake up. Billy whining to Traci about things Traci already knew did nothing to help Traci, or to make anyone's pain any better.

It's very cheap writing. They spent most of the year with Billy ignoring his family, or treating them like dirt. We were invited to think he was perfectly fine to hurt Jack, because Jack's a loser anyway. We were supposed to be happy for him as he had no other purpose in life other than his penis and his Mac obsession.

Then, when they suddenly need to generate sympathy for him, he barges in and spouts some "no sh!t Sherlock" moments that do absolutely NO good whatsoever?

Billy is like one of those distant relatives who spends years and years away from the family, and then return when the patriarch or matriarch is very old and let's say, hacking up tar or a full blown alcoholic. And then this relative says, "He's addicted! This is awful! Who did this? Why why why? We need to do something!"

It's very selfish, pointless involvement, and it bothers me that the show wants us to be so impressed by his memememeing and not focus as much on the others in the family. It's all just much belated, desperate propping for their horrible writing for the character and his poorly defined, forced relationships with most characters on the show. It's the new version of having Billy remind us of mean, mean Jill, the worst mother ever, to try to generate symapthy for him.

And having him plan Colleen's funeral as Traci is pushed even further to the background just makes me resent him even more.

The bottom line for me is I feel absolutely zero connection between Billy and any of his family, or most of the characters on the show. For all the endless "new Jack Abbott" hype, Jack always had much stronger connections to everyone around him, and both Lester and Bergman have/had more of a rapport with other actors. I haven't seen that with Miller. I always see him acting, and ticing the day away. Along with the writing, it's tanked a number of relationships that were supposed to be important and often takes me out of his scenes.

Edited October 4, 200916 yr by CarlD2

In all that earlier today, I forgot to say that I DO see why people would like Billy, and if I ever cause ANYONE here to hesitate in talking about loving Billy or talking about his stories, then I 100% apologize.

In all that earlier today, I forgot to say that I DO see why people would like Billy, and if I ever cause ANYONE here to hesitate in talking about loving Billy or talking about his stories, then I 100% apologize.

Billy irritates me to no end. It is all about Billy's pain and Billy's feelings and Billy's anger. Well, Billy boy wants to jump in and tell the family what to do when he just showed up and started acting like family a month or so ago. And while he may have a point about Victor, he is an inconsiderate jerk to pressure Tracy into doing what he wants. Unlike Jack who simply stated what he feels and then stated he will support Tracy in any decision she makes, Billy berates Tracy. Even Ashley seems to get why this is not an easy decision.

As for Billy Miller he is ok, but he isn't as great as some of these critics make him out to be. He does not make this show. He really has to work on his emotional scenes. When he is supposed to be feeling deep sadness and grief, I just see an actor trying to show those emotions. I rarely feel what he is feeling. He has his tics, but most of the actors have tics, but this is soap. He needs to learn how to make the audience feel his pain.

By the way, I did not like this Colleen story and the baby switch is atrocious and contrived storytelling at its worst, but Beth Maitland and Sharon Case got to me on Friday's show. It was the first time I felt any emotion for any character in a long time.