Y&R: Episode discussion, week of January 11, 2010

[JimTolkien]

I just wanted to say what an absolutely wonderful post this is and echoes exactly how I felt MAB destroyed this story. It's also one of the reasons why soap operas are a big joke to the masses. I will say that I do like the fact that she was doing this for TB because I liked him and his portrayal of Phillip in the past. And even though she completely destroyed and made a mockery of Phillips's return, if it wasn't for the perfection of Bill Bell's writing for the day Phillip died and JW's acting and everyone else for that matter during that time, that MAB's sorry writing for P3 return is what I am just going to call an "ABERRATION" and one I care not to think or remembered even happened LOL!!

[DRW50]

I don't even know how much of the return was about doing something to help Thom Bierdz. I think they just wanted to "fix" the Cane story, and that was about it. They didn't seem to care a bit about Phillip himself. Instead Bierdz got all the blame for what he had little to do with, while far worse actors continue to stink up the show in major stories.

[JimTolkien]

I think it was a bit of both which just makes me HATE Cane even more LOL!! Screwing over this one legacy character for Cane!! But I can't criticize Cane because ever since they paired him with Lily, I haven't watched any of his scenes or Lily for that matter but when I read about him..UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

[Khan]

She said so herself @ the Emmys: high definition is a bitch!

[BadZoe]

Exactly, there are so many horrible actors who are allowed to continue on this show and are even given front burner storylines. I think Maria wants to think of herself as supporting diversity but she has made a mockery of minority characters at every step. The Phillip storyline was a set up to fail right from the word go and yet they ran with it anyways. I would have preferred more ghostly visits like we get from John and Cassie than to overturn 20 years of history to toss a bit of cash a friends way.

[DRW50]

They even manage to turn ghostly visits into something unpleasant -- Billy shouting at the "old man" he'd apparently never met; Cassie returning to justify the Shick adultery and miracle child, which Sharon then promptly forgets about as soon as she thinks the baby has died.

Phillip visiting as a ghost might have had more resonance, although that would have probably ended up as something like Phillip visiting Jill to tell her she's an awful mother to poor Billy.

You're right, I think MAB actually believes she's supporting diversity. And she sets expectations so low that she ends up getting some praise for this. Look, Rafe returns after months away so he can be smirked at by Billy and whine about Adam. Wow, he mentioned Estella, they didn't actually forget her entirely.

I think all MAB really cared about was "fixing" what she saw as LML's mistakes and getting the hero's welcome for "saving" Y&R and having Bill Bell smile down on her, according to the press. Once she did that, the last being the Cane story, she seemed to lose interest. The show being so hollowed out apparently is not a big deal, and I don't put that on network interference, I think most of what we are seeing is their ideas. I actually wonder if we would be getting something even worse if not for Sony or the network.