1 hour ago, mango said:

Alex Donnelley and Susan Walters were the ideal versions of Diane. Maura West, as talented as she is, was miscast in that role. Perhaps they felt that's the only way that Nick would be hooking up with her? I hadn't heard that she was treated poorly. That's shameful.

 

It was cartoonish, for the lack of a better word, how Diane's murder was approached. Those flashbacks with the rock and swampy pond thing were cringe-worthy. And they were played over and over and over...

 

The more I think about it, the more I do want a brash Kyle back. Someone needs to show up, kick ass and take names in Genoa City.

Especially the men who aren't Jack or Victor. Billy, Nick, JT,  Scott, and (up until the convenient plot-driven now) Cane have all been these milquetoast "I need to FIND my purpose!" dudes. And Devon and Neil have had no impact on the canvas with their new venture, even though they are ostensibly movers and shakers. I don't want to sound all Hogan Sheffer here, but there needs to be some balance.

1 hour ago, Faulkner said:

Especially the men who aren't Jack or Victor. Billy, Nick, JT,  Scott, and (up until the convenient plot-driven now) Cane have all been these milquetoast "I need to FIND my purpose!" dudes. And Devon and Neil have had no impact on the canvas with their new venture, even though they are ostensibly movers and shakers. I don't want to sound all Hogan Sheffer here, but there needs to be some balance.

 

Certainly. Balance is good. With soaps, you can't make everyone happy, but at least with balance, there's hopefully something every viewer can enjoy or follow. Even if it's a B-type story.

 

One recent example I can think of is Sharon and her studies. Seeing her go back to school as an adult was endearing.

Maura West should've been cast as Grace or Tricia if anything. She still would've interacted with the Newmans and still be able to cause ruckus like they had Diane do. 

 

@Cat, I agree. Y&R has never been a super couple soap. Really, none of the CBS soaps were super couple driven, which made them standouts to the NBC and ABC soaps, which were. I do believe too that the partial downfall of ATWT and GL was the fact that they pandered to fans wanting specific characters together. As you pointed out, Y&R is suffering the same fate. 

 

Y&R was so much better when it was a character driven, psychological soap instead of the mess it is now. 

Y&R has/had supercouples but Y&R's supercouples are/were flexible in a way that Days/GH supercouples weren't.

3 hours ago, DeeeDee said:

Y&R has/had supercouples but Y&R's supercouples are/were flexible in a way that Days/GH supercouples weren't.

 

This. It was more realistic that way, I think. Sometimes two people who are great together do break up... and move on. Or don't (Tricia!! How I loved her obsessed, crazy ass). I liked that Bill Bell didn't always pander to ship-name fandoms but was more concerned with portraying life in GC rather than just fairytale romance. Don't get me wrong, I was a GH and Days viewer and loved them, but Y&R offered me different things. Bell was focused on changing dynamics of all kinds (not just romantic) and on telling a story that would change things on the canvas and move things forward. The stakes were higher in a way because we never knew exactly how it would pan out for some couples.

 

Bill Bell was the epitome of a writer who wrote what an audience needed, and not necessarily what they wanted at that given moment. He also enjoyed teasing out ambiguity in characters, so it wasn't like there were couples on the canvas that an overwhelming 90% of the audience actively rooted for.

Edited January 4, 20187 yr by Cat

On 1/3/2018 at 5:03 AM, Cat said:

 

I am one of the few that liked Maura West on Y&R, even though she was way too young for the role, and they treated her appallingly. The death was just so nasty and voyeuristic with Diane floating about in that pond in a mini-skirt and those beige platform heels, bordering on sex crime territory. And everybody on canvas was just treating it like "whatever" on-screen, glad the b*tch is gone. Even Jack breaking the news to Kyle about his mother was jarring and rushed.

 

Diane should never have been recast from Alex Donnelley imo, but they were desperate to make Diane younger for whatever reason, perhaps to appease PB's ego at the time? Just speculating.

 

P.S.: It drives me crazy with these spoilers that Y&R is now a soap that panders to couple fanbases. Not only does the show have the most boring couples in soapdom (Lane? Scabby? Chick? Villy? Philly? All these pairings are a snoozefest), but Y&R was never built to be about supercouples forever and ever the way GH and Days were. The show had romance, yes, but no pairing was 100% safe, and romance was but one thread of many exploring all kinds of different relationships -- and the strength was usually in familial relationships or work alliances. Y&R was never a romance show like that, and now it is bogged down with showing these boring pairings treading water through each standalone, non-soapy -cliffhanger episode.

 

Also liked MW as Diane. 

 

I remember when she and Victor got together. He gave her a necklace and placed it around her neck. His words and the staging made me cringe. It felt like he was collaring a dog/pet. *shudders*

 

Plus, the way he threw her out of a moving ambulance as if to say she deserved that abuse. Just so much terrible imagery with that character. 

 

It was clear that whoever was writing had such disdain for her. I later found out that she was forced on TPTB, who didn't want. It then made sense. 

Edited January 4, 20187 yr by ajsp35801

17 hours ago, ajsp35801 said:

 

Also liked MW as Diane. 

 

I remember when she and Victor got together. He gave her a necklace and placed it around her neck. His words and the staging made me cringe. It felt like he was collaring a dog/pet. *shudders*

 

Plus, the way he threw her out of a moving ambulance as if to say she deserved that abuse. Just so much terrible imagery with that character. 

 

It was clear that whoever was writing had such disdain for her. I later found out that she was forced on TPTB, who didn't want. It then made sense. 

That Victor throwing her out of the ambulance scene...woof.