Matthew Atkinson (Austin) Signs Contract at Y&R

[John]

http://cbs.soapsindepth.com/2014/09/exclusive-yr-signs-atkinson-to-contract.html

[ajsp35801]

He is on contract to be the object that Sharon and Phyllis' daughter will fight over. He could be a sweater.

[BetterForgotten]

Quite a while? Or until Pratt kills him off?

[NothinButAttitude]

Congrats to him. I don't care for him but I don't hate him. He would've had real potential had he been part of Ian's cult & fell in love with Summer that way.

[Soapsuds]

He is cute but his storyline stinks.....he should have been some other character on the show...

[dm.]

Good for him, I suppose? *unsure*

[NothinButAttitude]

So agree. But as I said time and time again, that cult story would've been a great way to introduce Austin and the story practically wrote itself. All they had to do was have:

Fen and Summer join the cult

Summer to fall for Austin

Fen to be jealous and suspect Austin of being disingenuous

Austin to be using Summer to get to Avery [as a favor for Ian]

Austin to fall for Summer

Fen to find out the truth and blow the whistle on Austin

Summer to break things off with Austin

Ian to prey on a now vulnerable Summer

Ian to wound up dead while trying to rape a hysterical OR drugged Summer

Fen, Austin, and numerous other GC citizens to be the murder suspect

Had the writers done this, I would've had some feeling for Austin. I would've either loved to hate him or just plain loved him. Right now, I don't give a damn about him. He could've still targeted Avery but with a different reasoning than what was given. Now its going to take double the time for me to grow an ounce of feeling for him and I don't see it happening.

[titan1978]

The other thing today's soaps miss? The scenario you created is at least one year of good story, maybe even two if you have a trial, the wrong person goes to jail (Summer for most impact), has to be proven innocent, falls deeper in love. 2 years of build build build. Instead of manufacturing a climax or a stunt, if you build a great story, with legs, and know when to end a certain portion of it, the audience shows up. You have to see something like this cult storyline and take it to the max. Otherwise, what's the point?

[NothinButAttitude]

Exactly. This cult story could've even been better to had used the entire canvas.

Sharon should've been tossed into the cult story as well via Mariah. Ian should've preyed on her as well [around the time Victor was gaslighting her], and Sharon should've seen Ian as her confidant. She could've divulged to him that she pushed Sharon down the stairs and potentially switched the DNA results. Ian [upon time he's to be killed] could've turned on Sharon and threatened to expose her. That would've made her a perfect suspect for murder. Or Mariah could've found out at the same time too that Sharon, who she's grown close with, is her birth mother. Knowing that Ian is going to expose Sharon, she could've killed him to silence him. Chloe was on the show when Ian first appeared. He should've preyed on her too after she lost Delia. Billy too.

Ian should've been a brought on as a 'life coach' and been used to reach out to many of the cast members [as they were all lost souls at the time] and later became their worst enemy. This could've been the perfect umbrella story that affected the entire canvas have we had capable writers. This story would've put Y&R back on the map, but instead, the show is still in a slump and a flop.

[cassadine1991]

If there were different writers at the helm around that time

[John]

Matthew Atkinson should have been cast as Scotty Grainger who then falls for Summer much to the chagrin of half brother Fen

[YRfan23]

That would have been good, but I personally think that Austin could either have been the son of Sasha, and wanting revenge against Phyllis but going after Avery until Phyllis comes home, or even better to be the long lost son of Cassandra Rawlins she had with Adrian Hunter....(played by mark Derwin) who is there to team up with his father to get revenge against Paul and Victor...

[DeeeDee]

Y&R puts him on contract but can't hire competent actresses to play Lily or Victoria?

[Paul Raven]

How come posters can come up with better stories than highly paid 'professionals'?

Looking back at the original cult story,it would have been viable had Paul discovered Dylan was his son via his one off with cult member Rebecca as this was seen onscreen and not a retconn like Nikki's pregnancy.

And Rebecca was played by Doug's real life wife Cyndy so they could have carpooled into work to follow through on the story.

[NothinButAttitude]

Because we actually respect the canon and unlike them, we don't mind asking around and researching for the answer.

And I didn't know that Paul slept with one the cult members. Why didn't they just do that?

Nikki does not need anymore children and she still could've been affected by the presence of Dylan seeing as he was a constant reminder of a dark period of her past--being in the cult. It would've been more interesting to see her protest Paul getting close to his son [as a friend], and playing the role that Christine is currently occupying. Nikki trying to get rid of Dylan at all costs but failing time and time again would've been good. It also would've provided a good reason for her to drink and THEN Ian should've been brought back once Nikki started drinking. He could've tortured her, thus further driving her to the bottle.

And Austin being Sasha's son would've been a good choice too. At least fans would've known who Sasha was and understood Austin's motive. Tying him into Avery, a character that the mass majority of the audience still don't care about, was stupid.