Y&R Discussion: Week of 11/30

[lmfan]

I am disgusted by the Sharon and Adam story and it is an absolute joke how they went from mere acquaintances to instant friends and now sex buddies in about a month. Jack was right, Sharon did not like nor trust Adam, but now since they had Adam steal her baby, the writers think it is just so clever to have Adam and Sharon hit the sack. Adam still looks and acts like a sociopath. He is bringing her flowers and pushing way too fast, and because she wants to slow down he is looking desperate and dangerous. How anyone can stomach this pairing is beyond me. Plus, his tunnel blindness is a joke. The plot says Adam must see that e-mail and send it to Nick so they can create this great soapy cliffhanger, but no way would he be able to read her email. It is so very plot driven.

I want the Daniel story wrapped up, but I must say this is the first time MAB seems to have given CLB anything meaty to play and even Vail Bloom has stepped up. The acting was good by many of the players this week in the Daniel grand jury story. I can't stand Heather, except when she is with Paul or being sarcastic with Adam, but she has stepped up in these court scenes. I also hate that they are making her seem apologetic to Adam. Someone needs to remind Hogan that Adam screwed Heather over, not the other way around. Adam acting hurt and attacking Heather by saying that Heather should have been understanding about his affair with Rafe is a joke. He had Heather to turn to at that time, so his claims that he turned to Rafe because of deseration rings so hollow. I hate the direction that Heather should feel sad seeing the flowers. Adam has now created this great romance in his head with his victim when in realty they are nothing but sex buddies.

Going back to Michael, CLB was very good this week and I wonder if these threats to Heather will come back to haunt him. I found it interesting that Lauren was not in any of these scenes aside from the Thansgiving scene on Monday. She is the one who won't let Michael go too far over the edge and would be reminding him to play it smart. Phyllis and her constant pleading for him to do something and save Daniel or she will do something drastic has pushed Michael to make some risky moves to save Daniel. Michael said and is acting like his own son was on trial, but he still doesn't seem to get that he needs to protect his own son first and that means not taking these kinds of risks for friends like Daniel and Phyllis or even his own mother and brother. Michael is too loyal to them which in the end can cost him the family he truly should be that loyal too and put the career he loves at risk.

I liked the Kay and Jack scenes but with Jack you never know when he is being sincere with his John memories and when he is just being manipulative. Probably is a bit of both.

[BadZoe]

I felt cheated out of the grand jury testimony, it's like the writers were either too lazy to write the scenes or had so little confidence in the actors to pen it.

[lmfan]

Well there really wasn't much to see as we learn that Deacon and Ryder pleaded the fifth. Daniel is the only one who broke.

Plus the plot point is to have Daniel the one on trial. They conveniently are letting Ryder and Deacon off the hook so they don't want us to see Heather asking them any tough questions. It is pretty obvious Ryder and Deacon are up to their eyeballs in this mess, but the over zealous Heather has an easier case with Daniel who stupidly touched the gun after it was used so she won't bother to investigate Ryder and Deacon.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It's such a crapppy storyline with such stupid characters at the forefront that it's hard to invest in. I don't know why they think Deacon or Ryder for that matter have much of a purpose on this show.

And is anyone interested in Daniel's stupidity and troubles? It's like the same story over and over again for him.

[lovely_m]

With this storyline Maria combined two of LML's passions art and the Scoobies/Fisher-Baldwins.

No. All this story has done is make me hate Micheal.

[lmfan]

Why do you hate Michael? Because he blackmailed Heather? Yes, we are seeing the darker side of Michael, but it is because an innocent man is being railroaded and he is getting desperate to save him. Plus, Heather is such a moron that she is using the Grand Jury as a way to make her case against Daniel instead of using it to forther investigate what happened and find the truth. When Michael over heard that phone call he realized that Heather was already planning on charging and arresting Daniel and had no desire to investigate Ryder and Deacon's part in it even though it is clear they are up to their eyeballs in this mess. Michael is reacting to Heather once again being an overzealous investigator.

LML loved Gloria not the Baldwin-Fishers. Kevin had some story but never dominated and Michael and Lauren were still props under LML. Lauren and Michael just got more airtime and a story once in awhile under LML while MAB has all but ignored them for the past year. It may be a lousy story, but it is about damn time one of the Baldwins actually got some screentime this year. I am frankly sick of seeing five days every week of the Billy, Adam and Shick/Phick chronicles. I enjoyed the acting this week of all involved in the Daniel story even if I want it wrapped up and it is better that watching the torture of the Lily/Cane/Mac surrogate mess. I prefer watching good actors act a poorly written story than watching poor actors act a lousy story.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Once again, Michael is twisting and spitting on the same law he swore to uphold as a lawyer to get his stupid friends and family off the hook. It's lame, overdone, and is repeatedly used on this show. No one ever learns their lessons, and Michael ends up doing something of the same kind again. Where does it lead him or those he protects in the end? Nowhere.

[lmfan]

Yeah he is playing dirty because Heather is playing dirty. Plus I imagine MAB couldn't figure out how else to leak the fact that Ryder and Deacon pled the fifth so that Kevin can find out and start having doubts about Ryder. I think they are trying to have Ryder now feel some loyalty to Kevin and not just some soldier for whoever his "Mother is.

They could also use this to come back and bite Michael in some way. He is stupidly putting his friends in front of his own career and family. That is where Michael's loyalty can hurt him. If this comes back on Michael, he could potentially lose his career and risk his life with Lauren and his son. I can see that causing conflict as just with Gloria and Kevin, Michael risks not being there for his son. When Michael told Phyllis he would handle this case as if it was his son, that is where Michael is making a huge mistake. He needs to protect his own son and by taking these risks he is risking his own son being without his father to protect a friend. I think it would be interesting if MAB followed up on it because as you said if she doesn't it is the same old, same old for Michael. And you are right that gets him nowhere.

But again, I was not crazy about the story, but did like the acting quite a bit. I admit I have been starved for some meaty scenes for both Michael and Lauren so at least I had part of that this week. I guess I am trying to enjoy what I can because god knows what MAB has planned for my favorites down the road. Probably something terrible.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It seems like the horrible writing team on this show take the easy and cheap way out every chance they get. I mean, it is so hard to craft a trial and have INTELLIGENT arguments from both sides being presented in court? Michael doesn't always have to resort to some cheap tactic to get his family and friends off the hook.

It's terribly lazy writing on an already horrendous story. This Terroni mess was a flop since day one, I don't understand why they insist on prolonging it when stuff that had potential was given 5 minutes to.

Michael is the only lawyer on this show, and this is how they always have to present him?

We haven't had decent courtroom scenes or courtroom drama on this show since the Jack Smith era. This writing team and LML before them treats criminal cases like a damn hearing.

[lmfan]

I think they may be pulling the Daniel story up to the forefont again even though it was a huge fail to get Phyllis back into his story. For the past year, Phyllis was all about being a doormat to Nick and focusing only on her Miracle Child and Daniel was an after thought. Daniel was off interacting with the rest of the Scoobies and Michael and Lauren on occassion. I don't mind Phyllis getting out of the Phick/Shick orbit, but I do wonder why she is now having all these scenes with Michael with these Lauren rumors flying.

Who knows what MAB is doing, but this whole week seemed to be about getting Phyllis involved in this story, and getting Michael more involved in laywer mode of course. It could be CLB is way under his contract appearances and so they are using him more. The same thing happened with CLB last December. I don't think this Daniel/Terrony case will go on much longer and then they will be back to the Ryder/Daisy story but will now have Phyllis involved along with the Scoobies and Michael and Lauren.

So I agree with everything you are saying, but I think MAB has other reasons to manipulate the story this way, and I don't think it is about Daniel and this case. I doubt we will even see Daniel on trial.

[lovely_m]

Even if Daniel was guilty Micheal would act the same way. Maybe I missed it, but what do they have on Deacon? Ryder has an alibi. Daniel's fingerprints are the only ones on the gun and there is no evidence of a third person. Most of the evidence leads to Daniel and sometimes that's all DAs need to prosecute. Saying Heather is only doing this because of the Newmans is just eye rolling.

Heather and Micheal are both props to this storyline.

Even if the rest of the family were props to Gloria people get sick and tired of seeing them defend Gloria. It wouldn't suprise me if they got more airtime than people who had their own stories.

That's part of it.

[classicmoment]

Truthfully if Michael did the opposite he'd be acting out of character. The character was never really a favorite of mine but anything intriguing about him is the reminder that he has these villanous & scheming tendancies, it is much more effective when he's more of a loner. I don't really see what's wrong about the way Michael is written in the blackmailing of Heather it's very much something Michael is prone to do, @ least it spares me of more Michael Gloria crapfest. I appreciate CLB much much much more when he's not in scenes or stories with or concerning JChapman and I hate to sound like a broken record saying that. He tends to over do it mostly with Chapman. I make no mistakes about it, regardless of how worthless and wrong Heather is as a prosecutor what Michael is doing to her is no better he's wrong, but it's very much Michael.

[Juliajms]

I'm watching the soapnet marathon right now. I'm in a situation where I can't FF or mute because my cable tv and remote have both gone to hell. I cannot even describe the pain of having to watch completely live (although GH will be worse I'm sure). When did commercials get so annoying? Maybe they always were, but it seems worse to me now.Maybe the quality of advertisers have gone down with the ratings.

Glo is such a Ma Barker. I don't hate the character, but the way she just will not let her children have a break is starting to drive me nuts. Neither of them ever had a chance of growing up to be normal.

Lily and Cane continue to make me ill, although at least Lily acknowledges that she may die, between her smiles and giggles. No worries though because then her new bff will just step in to play mommy. *RME*

I would love to see Victoria come to Chancellor. That could cause lots of future conflict and should happen. I'm confused about why Thad and Amelia aren't on baby leave right now though. I hope all is well with her.

I'm glad Heather is still on, but I wish they would let her have a brain.

At first I didn't understand why Sharon was upset about the plaque for Faith. She and Nick are apart and he has the right to grieve the way he wants to, but then I tried to put myself in her place and I could see why it stung her. At the same time it shows that she still hasn't let go of Nick and she really needs to.

[classicmoment]

Word to everything, and I literally grimaced when I read that you "can't ff or mute" I'll stick to my theory Sharon's an extension of Nick as long as the character is on she'll never be allowed to let him go

[Y&RWorldTurner]

There's been plenty of times on the show where Michael didn't have to blackmail or cover up some crime to get people off the hook. The thing is, we never see it anymore.

Remember when when he badgered Phyllis on the witness-stand which caused Jack to lose custody of Kyle to Diane? He wasn't doing any blackmailing or covering up of crimes there, but he did his job and did it effectively. He also did that to his "best friend" - something we're led to believe he'd never do now because he's so loyal to Phyllis and his criminal family, even though these people constantly use their stupidity to get into the same situations over and over again.

At least there used to be Pristine Christine to balance the lawyer aspect of the show with. All we have to portray the legal system on this show is a moron like Heather and someone that always tampers with evidence and blackmails to get his clients off the hook like Michael.

Look at OLTL, they have two extremes in this aspect with Tea and Nora. They're both intelligent attorneys with very different styles, but they balance each other out in the courtroom.

All Michael is on this show and all he's been for the past few years is the attorney that will break the law to get his clients off the hook every chance he gets. It's lame and too overdone. And he's the only real "attorney" on this show.