Y&R Episodes Discussion, Week of October 12, 2009

[MarkH]

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Maria and her uncreative team will be smiling at that banner, Mark, you know when they come trolling for ideas (the absurd ones) in this weekly thread...

[MarkH]

LOL. I was merely trying to pick up themes of the week! Dead babies, hearts in hand, art stolen from Pittsburgh museums....

[DeeeDee]

And chipmunks.

You can forget the chipmunks.

[Paul Raven]

Really,Amber,Daniel.Kevin and Jana(plus Deacon and Ryder)are dragging the show down at this point.

Firstly,there stories are not soapy-they are plot driven events that use the flimsiest of characterisation to play out.

It's all based around them operating outside the law for their own selfish purposes.

Apart from Daniel,the rest have dubious pasts and most probably should be in jail.

None of them are really tied to the rest of the cast or the history of the show.Daniel has little to do with Phyllis and is too busy to care about his little sister's illness or his mother's stresses.

Kevin's ties to Michael and Gloria are based around trust issues or scheming with them or behind their backs.

Compare this to Sharon and Nick's stories in the 90's,Traci/Danny/Lauren,Cricket/Nina etc These stories of twentysomethings were about romantic yearnings,insecurities,dreams,mistakes and misfortunes.

Does anyone care for one minute about Amber's threatened marriage to Deacon?It doesn't make a lick of sense,for a start.

I think the PTB think that it's contemporary,fast paced storytelling but they are WRONG!!

[DRW50]

I think this is all very easy, cheap material, and that's why the show does it. Although I can't really say the other main stories impress me any more. Chloe/Mac/Billy/Chance and Sharon/Phyllis/Nick and Adam and the baby switch are also hollow, plot-driven, pointless. Of all of them I think the Chloe quad makes me the most annoyed because they have routinely built up stories for her and then thrown them out a few months later to start all over again. Billy has been empty for most of his return but Chloe, if they had ever made a sustained effort, could have been more. And Mac, it's just a shame how superfluous they have made her.

[Juliajms]

I'd sure like to forget the chipmunk.

[MarkH]

For me, the Chipmunk was the line of demarcation. That it went on as long as it did (I'm not sure it's over yet) suggested that the pulse of the audience had been lost.

It is clear that someone decided that the idea of "confronting your demons" (which is a very interesting and potent story) could be made edgy or funny with this Chipmunk thing. You can hear the chortling in the writer's room. "And then he battles his inner chipmunk!" They were, at this point, writing almost to mock. That line of demarcation brought us Patty and psycho-Adam to the front burner, and the beginnings of the baby switch.

Now, in September, we have surely come to the end of this 26 week story cycle. It shouldn't be this obvious, but it is.

I'm hoping they let someone else on their team propose the next 26 week long-story. I wish that were (at this point) Jack Smith or Kay Alden. Just sketch out the 6 month thrust, and then go away. I believe the rest of the team is skilled and capable of executing the vision.

[Cat]

Not just the chipmunk. Did anybody else think that Colleen's hospital visit/death/funeral went on for WAY too long?

OK, just me then. That saccharine memorial service on Friday gave me toothache. Oy! Colleen! What an angel! She'd give her last dime and the clothes off her back to the homeless! She taught the Abbotts how to love! Uh, really? Tammin Sursok just was not established in the role for me to glean any of these remarkably qualities from the SLs she was given. Addrianne Leon was too vengeful and angry. Come to think about it, Lynsey Fonseca's Colleen was an angry, rebellious pot-head for a whole... it was only with JT that she became sweet as pie. I get that Traci would be devastated that her beloved daughter has gone to heaven, etc., but the only bit that seemed real to me was Jack's Zumba comment.

[MarkH]

Yes, it was long, but here is why I'm okay with it.

AT LEAST THEY PLAYED ALL THE BEATS!! It stood in counterpoint to so many stories these days where that is not the case.

Given my druthers...a rushed P3 reveal or a slow lingering farewell to a "legacy" character, I'll take the latter.

[dm.]

That's original. Not.

[Juliajms]

I think that I could have just rolled my eyes at the chipmunk and moved on if it had been the only problem. But then Maria and Company would not let the damn thing die. They had to keep bring it up with a bunch of female teenage groupies. Just what Kevin needed! Add to that Ashley losing her baby and that is where the show lost me. Zapatoe's death was just the cherry on top that made it really easy for me to take a couple months off. Traci brought me back, but things just need to get better. I actually believe that can happen. The next couple of months will tell if we are going to move on to better things or stay stuck in this dark depressing phase.

WHAT!!!!!? NO FREAKING WAY! I had no idea. Scratch my comments about this show possibly getting better.

[dm.]

[alphanguy74]

LOVING Eileen today! Her speech to Victor was calm, from the heart, and I hope cut him to the quick.

[DRW50]

I didn't mind the memorial, there were some nice moments, especially from those like Beth Maitland who bothered to invest in the material. I just thought it was all surface, very hollow, because they didn't bother to invest in her while she was alive, they just had this after she was gone and then they could act like this was some commitment to her. Add in that I felt like Billy and Ashley were special guest stars (the only time Ashley seemed to go beyond her usual comatose reaction was when she and Jack badmouthed Dina), and I had to just focus on a few people like Traci.

I also thought the idea of what they did with Lily was OK, but the execution wasn't, and I thought it got too much airtime. It became more about her big effort to attend and how noble she was.

As Mark said last week, Kevin's lines were also jarring, and not necessary.