Y&R May Discussion Thread

[Khan]

Peter Bergman is just too asexual and anti-romantic as Jack.  Any sexual relationship including him is bound to carry an "ick factor."

[Juliajms]

I don't agree. She's never referred to him as a surrogate father the way Nick used to, before the cheating with Phyllis. I'm pretty sure they writers have tried to keep the door open for a Victoria/Jack affair because the difference between the way Nick and Victoria spoke about Jack has always been glaring to me. I remember discussing it 10 years ago when AM started and Victoria seemed to be flirting with Jack.  I'd be absolutely disgusted if they went there, but I don't put anything past these this show.

[edgeofnik]

I know, right? That's why I'm all for Jillary because we KNOW why Hilary would bed Jack! And absolutely NO to Vack. I would wish that even on AH. It is interesting how different the Jack - Nick & Adam bond is from Jack - Victoria. Gosh I wonder why? 😈

[Cat]

 

Interesting that many of the successful recasts (or so-called successful recasts) of beloved characters on Y&R have gone from actors who were crackling with incredible sexual energy and/or were forces of nature (Terry Lester, Brenda Dickson, Heather Tom)... to actors who are strong in their craft but completely lack that feline sexiness (Peter Bergman, Jess Walton) or intense emotion (Amelia Heinle, the wettest actress on the show -- and that's saying something rn).

 

Don't come at me, Jess Walton fans, I love her to bits, ever since her Kelly Harper days, but in recent decades, Jill has been hardened and de-sexed and JW played her as such.

 

I do think the actress who plays Hillary has some of that badly-needed sexy energy but honestly it will be wasted on Aunt Jack. I'd be curious to see what it would be like with Nick though.

[DRW50]

I don't really disagree, but I thought she did alright in the affair with Jed. It's tough to say with Jill because even though Brenda was a sexy lady and she had intense chemistry with Terry Lester in the brief clips I've seen of their encounter, the clips of her last few years as Jill seem more like Mae West in Sextette, posing and posturing, rather than a genuinely erotic female force.

[Cat]

I know that what I have said is sacrilegious, and when Jess Walton  first replaced BD I was thrilled that such a strong performer was coming in to replace an increasingly erratic one. IA that BD got very "Alexis Colby preserved in aspic" the last year or two of the show, and JW restored a lot of the flesh-and-blood characterization to the part of Jill. She was also a sexy, powerful figure and I love that I grew up with female characters like that on my soaps! However, as the writers turned her away from Jabot and returned to the Jill vs Katherine rivalry -- and ofc I love that rivalry as much as the rest of us -- Jill came across as increasingly hard, shrewish, an 'old lady' in need of a good man as she battled to run the Chancellor mansion... I kind of fell out of love with that Jill and the way she was being played. JMPO. It coincided with the sanctification of Katherine, too, but really it was the "Katherine is your mother yes/no/maybe" mess where I yearned for the 'old Jill' again.

 

It is not a critique of JW's acting, which has always been excellent. Just that Jill got very brittle and bitter and while obviously lots of characters do get bitter over time, Jill lost that optimism that things would get better, that she would CLAW her way to better circumstances, that she would regain control and once again be a force to be reckoned with...

 

I'm not sure I am explaining myself very well, lol. Sometimes it is hard to explain a feeling.

[rlj]

AH's Vicky & Jack smooched when she returned to GC and he was trying to woo her to Jabot or some business dealings!

[titan1978]

I can't help but agree.  When I was a kid, the show had restarted the Kay/Jill feud after a few years of ignoring it.  It was fun to see Kay and BD's Jill always at each other's throats.  But Brenda was over the top trying to be Dynasty's Alexis, except somehow less subtle.

I only saw the last couple of years of BD in the role.  My Jill is JW, and the Jill and Katherine Bill Bell wrote are very different than the ones after him, including Alden's. Katherine was often just as nasty as Jill, if not more so at times.  

[Khan]

Making Kay and Jill mother and daughter has to be one of the most bone-headed decisions in the history of soaps.  It reduced one of this genre's greatest rivalries to nothing -- and frankly, undoing it did nothing to change that.

[Cat]

I never understood the point either. Initially it was a plot point to tear asunder 'star-crossed lovers' Mac and Billy who, with recast actors, just did not have the same chemistry and following anymore. So it was really about paving a fast exit for these two characters at the time.

 

I was also saddened that the SL reduced Liz Foster to a lying footnote. Liz Foster represented integrity itself in the the first decade or so of Y&R's existence. She triumphed over adversity, was a kind and loving woman and mother who worked hard and had enormous empathy for her drunken employer, Katherine. She was a touchstone in Jill's life, reminding her of her blue collar roots but never in an "omg I'm so ashamed to even be related to a poor mother!" way. There was no need to unify Katherine and Jill as mother and daughter for their own sake. None. It would have been more moving if, in later years, these two became close and looked out for each other DESPITE having had this horrendous rivalry and no blood ties (a little bit like what happened on B&B between Brooke and Stephanie when Stephanie was dying). 

[rlj]

LMAO @ the Cray Kidnapper trying to grab the journal out of Nicks hands, too funny

[cassadine1991]

You need to be more specific 

[Juliajms]

I find it sad that they have taken Sharon in this direction. There is no excuse for keeping Nick from a child she thinks is his. Every time they show Nick devastated and Sharon refusing to tell the truth the more heartless she seems. I don't get the point. Is there really any emotional mileage to get from seeing the Newman's berating Sharon yet again? Same goes from Phyllis cheating on Jack with someone he's close to.  It's been done, don't need to see it again.

[GMac]

 

I was just fixin to ask if the writers have even tried to justify why Sharon is keeping this secret?  It makes absolutely no sense.  She's not "off her meds".  She wasn't involved in the baby switch plot and was just as much a victim as anyone else.  

 

Then again, they never really justified why Neil would have kidnapped Hilary and held her in that boat house for months.  Or why Hilary was an "in love" wet noodle with Neil afterwards.  

 

Tell me again how wonderful Pratt's Y&R is???

 

 

[Juliajms]

^ Because she thinks Dylan can't deal with losing another child. The set up an execution of this story are completely silly.