Y&R: November 2012 Discussion Thread

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Bill Miller only cares about drinking and smoking weed, at least that's how it feels every time he's in a scene.

[Antoyne]

So the Newman's tried to outsmart Jack and he in turn outsmarted them but that makes him the bad guy?

[chicklitsandfantasies]

Kyle needs to go.

[Antoyne]

I was so hoping douche bag Kyle was gone and recast :-/.

[Taiah]

Ugh, Kyle has the hots for Phyllis. Phyle is so close to foul. Perfect name.

[Chris B]

I've caught up and I still find this show to be terrible. It really does put me to sleep. Everybody seems to have their serious face on and it's all very humorless. There is absolutely no flow to the tone of the show. It's all very one note. I also hate the new way the Chancellor mansion is shot. It looks so much smaller and a lot cheaper. I wonder if they shrunk the set and thats why it's filmed from different angles.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

The Chancellor mansion only looked smaller when they were filming the Thanksgiving epi and everyone was around the fireplace.

[Chris B]

I also thought it looked smaller in the scenes with Nina and Kay on Monday.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

http://cbs.soapsindepth.com/2012/11/judith-liz-dick.html

[Cat]

OMG. This show is so DULL!

I know I need to give the regime more time to settle, but I was really hoping they would start fast out of the gate with at least one power-punch SL. Surely MAB's stuff has been wrapped up now? Or is about to be?

It really contrasts withe the Victor-Nikki episode from 2002 we saw last week. I watched it again, absolutely glued. Drawn to the acting (particularly from Eileen Davidson, Eric Braeden -- what a change for him! -- MTS, Heather Tom, Tonya etc), drawn to the stunning production as the camera swept over the fresh flower displays and food at the wedding feast, to the judicious use of background music, to Nictor having a truly romantic moment and to Ashley recording the message for baby Abby (ED's chemistry with that little baby was especially excellent). I am just... wow. I took all that for granted back then!

And that hottie Raul... are you telling me we let go of hot young things like David Whatshisname and Thad Luckinbill -- guys who could actually act -- for Kevin and his high-pitched whining?

Wonder if JG, JFP or Steve Kent at Sony watched this episode. Probably not. It's too bad because it might have inspired them to go that extra mile when it comes to Y&R's look and feel, as well as its storytelling. Jack Smith has been disparaged on these boards to a certain extent, but one thing that man could do was plot and balance different SLs at the same time. He knew these characters and what Y&R was about like the back of his hand. This was a November Sweeps episode in the true sense of the word.

[Toups]

MAB's stories have been wrapped up. These boring stories are all Griffith's. It really does feel like early 2008 when the show was so lifeless under Griffith 1.0.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It feels like the same f.ucking scenes keep happening over and over again with no direction. I am no longer watching consistently.

There is no coherent storyline on the show (some ideas were OK on paper, like Jack getting control of Newman, but have been completely botched in execution).

Y&R feels like a show that's put together by a bunch of random scenes related to a big idea, but there's no actual story being told, just an idea that's strung together by repetitious scenes that go nowhere.

[Cat]

Well put. It really contrasts with the 2002 episode last week -- or heck, any classic soap episode from "back in the day" -- when filler scenes had purpose, direction, something of interest. Exploring relationships between people who didn't always share scenes together, drawing out the chemistry between different actors. At Nictor's wedding, we had scenes between Olivia & Brad, Jack & Phyllis, Victoria & Sharon, all strictly B and C stories, but all their scenes were going somewhere.

Y&R this week has felt like an exercise in anti-chemistry. I feel like we are seeing a scene at Crimson Lights only because the set is up so everybody is there ordering skinny cinammon-pumpkin lattes. It's like those early web-soaps where the makers were so thrilled to actually have a camera up and running that they literally had no story to fill. They were just patting themselves on the back for having an actor film, like, outside. Here on Y&R, it's like "Avery's new apartment! Let's talk baking tips! Yay!"

[bluejeanbaby3]

To quote Sara Bibel: "Right now, on a day to day basis, I find the show dull. That’s a big improvement over offensively bad."

I agree!!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Maria's show was show-damaging and terribly boring all at once.

Griffith's show is just deathly boring, no real damage is being done to the characters (some is I suppose), because nothing is actually happening.

Both scenarios are equally dangerous. If they wanted the show to recover from Maria's incompetent tenure (and believe me, the damage her tenure inflicted will take a long time to recover from), this wasn't really the way to go about fixing it. Once you bore people, they won't come back and reinvest again.

Almost two months into Griffith's tenure, and nothing outside of his Avery propping has progressed.