Y&R: October 2017 Discussion Thread

[ranger1rg]

 

I just don’t think this will work. I agree that the proper beats can’t be played when every episode is a new day.

 

So Mal doesn’t like 3-day parties? I do, when they’re done right. A lot can happen, different characters can be woven in and out, and wardrobe can go all out to dress a good many cast members. Does this mean no more cliffhangers?

 

Sounds like now we’ll be lucky we ever GET a big party or celebration. Why go all out with a great set and great wardrobe/hair for one day? 

 

If Young said he’d do this some or even most of the time, I wouldn’t be so bothered by it, but his plan sounds FORCED, and I just can’t see the upside. It’s change for change’s sake. It sounds  desperate. It sounds like once again we’re getting a guy in charge who doesn’t give a sh*t about what Y&R has been and is.

[Aback]

To me the concept of 'one day one episode' goes against the very essence of soap operas. The medium needs to be reinvented but stretching out a day over a few episodes has never ever been an issue...

[YRBB]

 

ANOTHER WORLD did this for (at least) the early 80s and I always felt it didn't work all that well and was an awkward way to format things. For one, there were almost no cliffhangers picked up on the next day ever. It also doesn't help pace. They now have to drag things out or use filler, otherwise stories would move too fast based on the timeline.

[Khan]

Something tells me his "one day per episode" idea won't last.

[Soapsuds]

Here you go @KMan101....just a little snippet....

http://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/exclusive-yr-will-change/

[RavenWhitney]

Oh dear. If Mal thinks he's modernizing the show by doing self contained episodes, he's very misguided.  The "length" of each day is irrelevant.  You tell a story and hit all the creative beats.  Ron just did this with the Days Chabby wedding episodes.  The night before, and day of, wedding episodes stretched over nearly three weeks.  Lots of dramatic stuff happened and they played many of the important story/character points.  It increased the dramatic effect.  I hope his comment has been misconstrued.  Or this show is in very bad trouble.  

[Fevuh]

I was reading through some of the posts RE: MY's idea of making each show 1 day - the other thing I thought of and I don't know if it's been mentioned and I missed it....the other thing you can't do when you do 1 day = 1 episode, is repeat just the very ending of the day before.  Shows have done this for years...where they pick up from the previous day by showing just the very end of the day before and pick up. 

 

I tuned in for the 2nd day in a row - and I noticed it looks like they're already doing it.  Yesterday's show ended with Jack, Ashley, and Tracy watching Graham wheel Dina onto a plane on the tarmac.  Today, instead of them showing that little bit, they're on a new day - and it started with Jack and Michael arguing over whether there was anything/legal they could do about Graham.  And Jack just mentioned that Graham had whisked Dina off. 

[Soapsuds]

Today's show.....YAWN!!!   Boring!!

[Aback]

Sometimes these shows are handed to people who hold some poorly hidden contempt for the genre. In this case, it is apparent MY is not fond of US soap operas. 

[Soapsuds]

Why in the hell would Jill put Cane in charge of Chancellor Industries?  Ridiculous!

 

No fast paced/one day episode is going to solve the horrible writing.

[Cat]

I don't understand why this is a 'thing.' Why are soaprunners lying in bed at night worrying about cramming everything into one episode because the episode must = one soap day? Why not let the pace of some of these stories play out um organically? Sure, if you want to tie up this boring as f*ck human-trafficking SL in 37 minutes, be my guest! But other times, you can afford to play out all the beats of a really good story over a couple of episodes. It also allows for great cliffhangers where the next episode picks up directly where the previous ep left off. Case in point: Ashley's paternity reveal from Friday to Monday of this week.

 

Sigh. Mal's priorities regarding Y&R are all wrong if this is what he is stressing about first and foremost. (If anything, he should be stressing firstly about the lack of talent, charisma and motivation in Y&R's lead actress *cough AH*. Then pairing Nick and Lily together. And so on).

[KMan101]

 

Thanks

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off to read it ...

 

+1

[MichaelGL]

The directing of this week's episodes seem different; it's much more tighter and there are alot more qualities that remind me of pre-Latham/MAB. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Somerset did this too, during the legendary Roy Winsor's reign as headwriter in the 1970s. Each 30-minute episode represented one complete day in the lives of the town's residents. The show was written very well, and moved at breakneck speed, but a lot was lost as well. Cliffhangers disappeared, because the show could not pick up the story where it had left off the day before. That day was history, so we had to jump immediately into the next day. One final scene on a Friday featured a murder at a carnival. We saw an external shot of a Ferris wheel and heard a blood-curdling scream before the scene faded to black. I thought, "Surely they are going to make an exception to their new, one-episode-equals-one-day-in-Somerset rule. The next episode MUST pick up where the action had left off on Friday." But it didn't. We only heard characters discuss what had already happened during the weekend. That is NOT how soaps should work. We want to SEE, not just hear a quick recap about, important events.

 

Character delineation and playing all the beats of a story lose out when speed, not quality, is the criterion.

 

 

[Khan]

 

 

Forget about ignoring the tenets of good soap opera.  People like Mal Young seem intent on ignoring the tenets of good drama, period.