Y&R Episodes Discussion, Week of October 5, 2009

[alphanguy74]

I think the character is one that has walls up. That's what I get, especially from the way he acts around his father. But we'll see. The Chance/Chloe thing is one thing that IS being paced slowly, you cna't have slow reveal and know everyhting about a character right off the bat as well. Today was cute, I LOVED the Chance/Chloe stuff, it's so nice to FINALLY see some lighthearted romance, this show desperately needs more of it. Hendrickson with that cheese hat on was a hoot. She just lights up the screen, and needs to be kept around for a LONG time. OF course, the scooby stuff sucked.... but we can HOPE that it ends soon. The scene with Fen/Michael/Lauren/Summer/Nick scene was sweet, and once again, something this show really NEEDS.

[DeeeDee]

Lauren is alive!

[Juliajms]

Thank God! I've really missed her. I wish they would bring Scott back to town and do something with him.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't even think that storyline is about him as much as it's about Chloe trying to make Billy jealous, those two are the center of this. But anyway, it has little to do with Chance. Chloe and Chance also have a best friend/shopping buddy vibe, I can't buy them as a romantic entity. He's too safe for someone as dysfunctional as her. Though Billy treats her like crap and part of her seems to like it, so I guess that's her personality.

But he is a core character that's tied to many different characters on the show, and still, many of those relationships have either been neglected, and we still haven't an inkling as to what his purpose on this show is at the moment. Right now, I still say the character should have stayed in Iraq, since he's been pretty directionless since he's been back. Chloe could have used any random stranger in an attempt to make Billy feel jealous and it would have the same effect.

We know nothing about who Chance is and why he's on this show at the moment. He's been pretty direction-less as a character for 4 months. I not talking about his dynamic with Chloe, but as a character and a core character at that, he is very poorly developed.

I'm also starting to agree with others that Driscoll looks too old for this role, and we already know Muhney is too old for Adam.

They would have to care about Lauren and care about the idea of rotating frontburner characters first. Which doesn't give me much hope with this writing regime.

[alphanguy74]

Driscoll is 28. Hopefully, as his hair grows out, it will make him look younger. VERY short hair always makes men look older. Muhney is 34, and I have to say it, he looks FORTY. I just wish Engen wouldn't have been a homophobic puss. But I was GLAD to see some character development and family time today.

[MarkH]

What you write about Chance, I was thinking the other night about Mac. I have no clue what motivates her, or what she wants out of life. I don't understand why she wanted that dive bar. I don't understand why she is with Billy, except out of old habits. Many of these characters have become ciphers to me...partly because they're seldom seen, partly because they're often back burner, and partly because we don't get much insight into inner lives anymore. I sure do miss the old-fashioned voiceover...

As a detective (why can't I get past that silly career choice for a brand new veteran?) I doubt we'll ever see his hair longer than it is now.

Shouldn't Chance be going to college?

[lmfan]

I thought the scenes with Chloe and Chance were hokey, but I have to admit that EH made me smile as she purposelly dunked her head in the water while bobbing for nothing over and over again. She does provide needed energy in her scenes. Not getting much from Driscoll though yet.

I must say as a Likey fan I just loved that after not having Fen on screen for over 10 months all these writers could come up with was to show him with his parents for all of 20 seconds as they all watch Nick and his brain damaged daughter Summer have a moment. I did think the moment was sweet, but come on give Michael and Lauren something to do beside lecture Kevin and the gang and prop Phick and now Summer every couple months.

We need some nice family scenes. Well how about showing a couple of those scenes with the only functional family in town. I must say though that I liked Lauren's sarcasm with Kevin at the coffeehouse. CLB and TEB must be bored out of their minds playing the same scenes and always having to stand in the background while the focus is on the writer's favorites. But seriously they need to get Michael and Lauren away from these idiots and interacting with some grown ups.

[classicmoment]

Not really I don't see the issue with having a 21 year old virgin male whether or not he looks more mature. I don't find JD to be bad casting even pn the physical aspect of it, MM is something that stands out in a strinkingly negative way to me not JD. will buy that he is a mature looking 21 year old which is not a bad thing and that have nothing to do with the character's sexuality/virginity IMO

[MarkH]

For me, it is not even his looks.

Do you buy that a 21-year old (even if he is an "ex-MP") is FULL DETECTIVE IN THE GCPD?????

Full, plainclothes DETECTIVE??? Really?

It is his job that further disconnects.

And, if he is 21, why is he in the 30-something-year old circles of Billy, Mac, Chloe, etc??

Chance is 30, no matter what the writers try to tell us.

[classicmoment]

Honestly the detective aspect of it I am not sold on, I think it is ridiculous. Hanging with 30 somethings? (I thought in this fiction town the group of Billy, Mac, Chloe was mid to late 20s). I can suspend disbelief in these areas of looks for these characters because the casting isn't that bad (maybe Mac CF stands out the most in appearance). I don't NEED y&r to hire an actual 21 year old for me to put that in my list of objection I think I'm fairly reasonable in that aspect (my list is long enough as it is). However they totally went over the top with the character by making him, as you put it, a" plain clothes detective". If it wasn't for that I'd be cool with the other aspects as a starting point for the character; at least if I didn't already know they were gonna totally mishandle it. I can buy chance as a seemingly disciplined, mature ,introverted 21 year old, with alot of baggage if not for the whole detective bid. I'm sure that is what someone is trying to sell but they already are overdoing it

[Y&RWorldTurner]

FOUR next generations/legacy/core characters have been either damaged or written without a direction or motivation under this writing regime so far. I do have problems with most of the character writing and day to day writing on Y&R, which I find horrendous, but this botching of next generation characters needs to stop.

Colleen = Killed off and lacked a personality and direction for like two years leading up to her death.

Mac = Has lacked an identity outside of Billy since she came back. Her motivations are weird and many of the stuff like sleeping with Billy when she knows he's still married seem very out of character.

Chance/Phillip IV (I can't stress how much I HATE the CHANCE name) = Also directionless, with very little purpose on this show as currently written, and is totally personality-less.

Adam = Made into an irredeemable psycho with no motivations that's gone too far and many fans will never be able to look past the huge crimes he's committed. Talk about a botched character. It's is not believable that this is the son that Hope raised. Even if he longed for Victor's attention, gaslighting Victor's wife and then burning her unborn fetus is a little too much, among other things like this stupid and inane baby switch. This is what they do to a core character and the son of arguably the show's most popular character?

I don't think I need to get into the mess Lily and Abby are, and the horrible use of Noah.

Again, the character writing on this show is very problematic, and the fact the the writing for next generation characters, who are all mostly frontburner or used substantially is so bad is very troubling. This writing regime has shown that they cannot properly develop characters, namely core characters, and they cannot properly create new characters - which is supposed to be one of the backbones of a soap.

[soapydoc]

Phyllis needs a foe. An enemy. Someone to go up against.

Sharon. Is. Not. Cutting. It.

Gah.I need to see Michelle driving story or with a strong screen partner soon or I am going to scream. Please,for the love of God, give her something to do besides hold Nick's hand and apologize to Sharon while they are grieving.

[classicmoment]

Phyllis shoul have BEEN taken out of this stupid triangle tooooooooooo loooooong ago, but I do think her character serves best most time as supporting not that I don't think MS got what it takes (she's awesome imo) I just don't think the character is much of a heroine, but more of an anti-heroine jmo. But yes there are opportunities to have her drive better story but these writers don't seem to be upto the task, also because these writers are making plot the reason for these character's drives they have no real motives so from that writing standpoint it is only Phyllis vs Sharon if the plot calls for it. I surely enjoyed the Phyllis vs Sharon via Sharon's breakdown in the middle of the tacky house with Phyllis with Phyllis throwing the insults and so and so forth but their dynamic is not being played for any other purpose than to continue this stupid plot. Their dynamic is now pointless and beyond foolish

[DRW50]

Regarding how old Chance looks versus how old he's supposed to be, I don't notice because aside from Chloe, I think ALL the characters in that story look much older than their age. Mac sometimes looks over 40. I think Billy looks 35-40. The show just has a way of making people look rough, or they looked like that before they were cast.

I still don't know what the point of Raul's return was. That story must have been originally planned for much longer and was then for some reason stepped on.

[MarkH]

So, I'll start with the positive.

Maybe it was contrived, but I was so happy the episode ending scene was Summer saying "I love you Daddy". It was exactly what it was meant to be...a little inspirational, a little hopeful. The rest of the episode I was just thinking "I don't want to see a brain damaged child. Why did they damage this child's brain? This is too much!". So that ending was nice.

Yesterday, I wished for some "Fisher-Baldwin leavening". Today...well...we got it. But I am disappointed by what we got. Because I haven't really thought this crew double-crossed each other. But now we had Gloria trying to actively scam her son(s), and vice versa, and Daniel and Amber working against Kevin. All this untrustworthiness was a kind of sudden surprise. Also, when Deacon touched Amber, she didn't flinch. I guess that means she didn't interpret his actions as rape, eh? And...any character growth we saw in Amber is apparently suddenly lost. She is suddenly broke, suddenly motivated by money, and suddenly seduced by diamonds. That's okay, I guess...except it seems to work all of the "with-Kay" growth. I'm confused. And when Daniel threatened Amber with a breakup, I immediatley though "either this is a con they're running together, or these two are as bad as B&B's Brooke and Ridge".

I appreciated the attempt to add sentiment with Phyllis and Sharon, but all I could think of was "Why is Phyllis intruding at this moment?" Maybe...just maybe...Phyl was well intentioned...but to me it just seemed clumsy and insensitive.

It was nice to see Lauren...but I would have cheered if (when Michael and Nick were talking about Newman Enterprises) if Lauren had said, "Oh, I know that company well! I deal with them all the time. Do you want me to help with them?" A brief return to corporate Lauren....

Oh well, at least we got a nice little break from the hospital. I continue to have issues with Chance. I like the actor, and I like his chemistry with EH. I'm just having real problems with many aspects of the construct of this character that don't ring true for me. I can't recall ever having such a problem with how a character has been put together before.

Oh yeah...when Alvin was listing his litany of ruined legacy characters....he forgot Patty .