Y&R: Episode Discussion for the week December 28

[Y&RWorldTurner]

He'll have to fight off Christian LeBlanc.

[MoTheGreat]

Maybe we can get JT & Mac now

[MoTheGreat]

I still believe they writers want us to forget who raise Billy. That's why Billy is always mad at Jill. Because Jillt sent him away to boarding school.

[BadZoe]

Victor sent his kids to boarding school at impressionable ages, yet they don't hate him. Instead they worship the ground he walks on. When they never did before.

[DRW50]

Jill left Billy to be raised by a very bitter family of chipmunks. He has always held it against her. And he knows his way around a walnut.

[DeeeDee]

:lol: :lol:

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Apparently, Tom Casiello been pimping how great January and February are going to be on his Twitter. But then again, he's been pimping how great things would be on this show since the Summer on his Twitter, and I've yet to see the "good" he's talking about. He's also apparently been saying how much fun he has writing his episodes, and I've found his episodes on Y&R tremendously underwhelming, flat, and so uncharacteristic for the show. He must REALLY want to keep his job...

I guess it's more than Maria that believes there's very little wrong with this asinine show, but then again, Maria and her henchmen are getting paid to pimp this crap, no matter how awful it is.

With the horrendous pacing, horrendous plotting, botched executions, and poor character development on Y&R, I want to know why this writing team thinks everything is going oh so well that whatever "good" they see outweighs the "bad." I don't see how any soap can be overall good with these basic soap traits that Y&R has been botching left and right with this writing team.

[Chris B]

Yeah I have a hard time believing anything satisfying will happen the next two months. Maybe they're just talking about Victor's return? It's just been so deadly dull recently. I guess Sheila should be arriving by then as well so maybe that's what he's talking about. Whatever the case I don't expect much. These people don't seem to realize just how bad the show is. We're all just bitter and we'll never be happy. All that jazz. I'm glad British soaps don't believe that. Seeing how creatively dead shows have been revitalized over there is fascinating. People seem to really love and care about soaps over there.

[Leia]

I am not feeling Malcolm Winslow.

[DeeeDee]

+1.

[MarkH]

Well, I watched the 12/31 episode...twice now.

The first time through, I was mostly disappointed. I approached the episode thinking it would be another serious attempt at exploring the Christmas Carol/Wonderful Life theme. I was reasonably satisfied with Leblanc's episode, so I was expecting more of the same.

Clearly neither Billy Miller nor Billy Abbott are the same. I wasn't expecting the frequent descent into humor, John's harsher tone. I also didn't like the very lame final message: "Change". duh. How? Details? Advice?

I watched a second time (mostly to show someone), and I had a bit more appreciation/observation:

- for those who complain about Rauch's bright lights, NOW you got to see what a brightly lit Rauch soap would really look like

- kudos to the hair/makeup people for having a sense of humor about an aged Jill--that blonde wig and red dress

- no question that Billy Miller can bring the funny, and I loved some of his clowing (the scream at the RS window..his "Am I High?" question)

- for this shallow hipster version of Billy, Amanda Beall was the perfect scribe for this episode.

- I was surprised that Billy motioned that Kevin might be gay. Since there is NO BASIS in story for that...I'm a bit surprised that Rikaart allowed that through. But why did Billy refer to him as the "photographer"? Daniel is the photog. Where was Jana in this Mac-Kevin fantasy?

- loved the clever cover art for the various Restless Style versions. I loved that Billy was holding his TGVN cover in one of them

- the Delia-marries part was extra lame because neither Chance nor Chloe looked remotely old enough

- loved how Miller tried to make his fellow actors laugh/break character. I noticed this especially with his mugging with Rikaart at RS, and SCREAMING into Jill/Kay's ears at Crimson Lights

- As some of you would would say...the "Cane propping" continued.

- Why were most of Lily's children white? Did she adopt them? Why did she adopt white children? So confusing...

In both viewings, the most deeply satisfying part for me was the Victoria-rescues-Billy scene. Two lost souls... I'm really feeling this budding romance, and will love TGVN and JT's reaction to that.

The episode also seemed to suggest (it seemed to me) that Mac and Kevin were a next-step (and she seemed awfully in sync with Cane during the opening scenes)...but I really want them to try a JT-Mac pairing.

I do wonder if we are supposed to assume that Jana --really LML's only residual now on the show -- is not long for the world. The "seed" of that 1% brain tumor and those unresolved headaches remains. It would also make sense if SHE were the intended recipient of the recent Ouija board "death" message.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The biggest thing, as I said before, is how everyone ignores Billy's past problems with alcohol, never brings up how he once swore off the stuff and his near death experience, and they all act as if Billy being a drunk is just "Billy being Billy." It's a total rewrite and lack of respect for the history and the past of this character. Though, with this writing team and their awful agendas, it does not surprise me. Billy's past with alcohol should always be brought up, but now, it's not even acknowledged - and everyone that was around then to witness it, is on the show right now.

This was a fantasy episode, so I expected a weird look. However, it doesn't negate that Y&R is a still a horribly over-lit Rauch soap in the day to day episodes. The lighting on Y&R really took a turn for the worse by mid 2009.

This is why David Shaughnessy should be re-hired as the show's technical EP, at least the show would start looking nice again, even under budget constraints.

Not to mention, Katherine was still alive. How old was she supposed to be in this? 115?

Yuck, I do not need to see another mismatched pairing on this show, or another pairing where the age and generation difference gap is big. I see no chemistry there, and I don't need to see Billy and Victoria engaged after a 2 week courtship, like every other "romance" on this crappy show.

The Victoria character is so ruined and such an afterthought. How shameful, as I said before, Bill Bell would be so APPALLED.

It would be so awful if this happens...

Can't people just leave town on Y&R anymore?

[DRW50]

How is Victoria a "lost soul"? If she isn't happy with with a gorgeous, generally supportive husband, and a child, she's going to be found with a ticcy twerp who treats women like garbage and neglects his daughter? And don't we have enough women on this show who are put into relationships only so we can see the men grunt and bump chests? How can she "rescue" Billy when no woman on this show is allowed to do anything but be put under a man's thumb?

Heinle and Miller have so little chemistry with most of their love interests, I wouldn't mind seeing them lumped together, but then that would probably mean JT would go, or be destroyed to prop Billy.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I guess Victoria is a lost soul because she hasn't had any personality or purpose on this show since Heather Tom left. Looking back, Heather made the right move, I don't think she would like what Victoria's become, though, part of that was trying to write to Amelia's abilities, and it still hasn't worked.

They would probably turn JT into a child molester and have Billy "rescue" Reed as JT is about to molest him, and Billy ends up being the "hero" Victoria falls for.

I don't put anything past this perverse and plot driven writing team.

[DRW50]

I guess I can see them trying to sell Victoria that way. They tried that with Deacon - poor Victoria is so stifled and lost and needs a real man - and it fell flat. Given how poorly written and not all that well acted Billy/Victoria scenes have been, I'm not sure if this will be any different. Besides, I thought "Chilly" was the show's big hyped stupercouple.