Y&R: July Spoilers

[Faulkner]

I don’t know if it was @KMan101 who made the comment, but the simultaneous stories of Hilary and her baby dying on Y&R and Eli/Lani’s baby dying on DAYS do feel meaningful to me. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see, but these tragic stories don’t seem like huge jumping-off points for long term stories, as they often are for white/non-black characters. (Look at Gabi’s inability to have more children as fuel for a frontburner revenge plot on DAYS.) It just feels like more black erasure.

[GMac]

 

It sure does

 

[dio]

 

i actually don't think Lani's baby is dead, and it might be a part of that dumb "dead but not, lol" backburner story that's supposed to be going on...? 

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 we'll see, tho. 

 

ido personally feel like they shouldn't have killed off Hillary's baby. Devon as a single father might have been and interesting SL... but, it does feel like they want to "erase" Hillary completely from the canvas. smh

[ajsp35801]

 

What choice did the show have? Hilary was only 2 months pregnant real time. Even in a soap world, that does not a baby make. Plus, I dont even think the the baby was meant to survive anyway. 

 

The real issue is that the show waited 5 FULL YEARS to give Hilary a child. Like her white counterparts, she should have gotten an anchor baby in her first 2 years. Then we wouldn't be having this discussion. The show purposefully put the character in this position. Considering the  child was unnecessarily lab made, the paternity was always going to be in question. It just feels to me like the show had no intention of Hilary ever being tied to core family/canvas in any meaningful way. Despite all her  airtime, they were biding time until they could be rid of her. 

[Antoyne]

It really is a shame Hillary will be completely forgotten within six months. I won’t be watching so I guess no harm no foul. But 5 years as a lead and go out like this with no chance of a return. Cruel.

[ajsp35801]

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it's payback by Sony. But more than likely, the show just wants a clean break and clean slate for Winters family, creatively speaking. Plus, it's a major death so possibly an increase in ratings as well. 

[Faulkner]

The show spent like a year dilly-dallying and tarrying over Hilary and her desire to have a child. It just felt like such a waste of story. Just give her a baby, and it would have been even more emotional to have Devon left to raise a child alone in this event. I’m typically against young and vivacious characters being tied down with a baby, but I suppose we should have all gotten used to that by now as a soap trope.

[Khan]

At the very least, they could have had Hillary performing one last act of vengeance against Lily before dying; something that could have reverberated through Lily's life, and the lives of the rest of the Winters family, for years to come.  But, no, let's just hurry up and get this colored b***h off the show entirely before her Congolene gel begins to stink up the joint too bad.

[Faulkner]

Just a random thought: has Jesse Hubbard (AMC) been the only black character in soap history whose death/departure has been allowed to matter and reverberate through a show’s history? Only due to his friendship with Tad (flashbacks, dream sequences) and Angie’s return on Loving and The City with the Jesse doppelgänger? I really can’t think of another. Of course, he came back alive, which is notable in its own way.

[ajsp35801]

 

I can almost hear the sigh of relief over being rid of the character in the writing. 

[GMac]

 

David Grant and Kat Speakes (GL- Monti Sharp/Nia Long) were featured heavily in the early 90s and were very popular but to your point, the characters did not have a lasting impact on the show.  They didn't even bring them back for the finale.

 

 

It makes no sense.  There's no other character on the show now that will be able to fill her absence.  

 

[Faulkner]

I know they brought back David as Russell Curry and Terrell Tilford (daytime’s go-to black actors alongside Randy Brooks), but once he was gone, it was like he never existed. 

 

We get a Dru mention every blue moon, but she seemed to fall off that cliff and out of Y&R history. I’m sure some of that is animosity towards VR.

[ajsp35801]

 

The writing may not mention her, but the  existence of her family means we fans can't forget her. 

[Faulkner]

That’s true. She at least leaves a legacy.

[Khan]

 

Pretty much -- and that's due, I think, to where AMC stood in terms of ratings and critical/viewer opinion.

 

On the one hand, it's easy to marginalize a couple like, say, GL's David/Kat, when GL itself is in the middle of the pack, neither the most-watched soap, nor the least.  (Yes, GL's ratings did rise for awhile under JFP's watch, but as we all know in retrospect, a series of bad decisions guaranteed that the upward trend would not become permanent.)  All you have to do is look at the ratings charts and then scapegoat them: "We're getting beat by GH, because no one cares about all these Black folks on the front-burner!"

 

But, when you're one-half of a front-burner Black couple that's receiving a sizable share of attention from both the press and the viewers, and you're also an integral, supporting player in another front-burner couple's story (in this case, Greg and Jenny's) that's about as huge as your own story, if not bigger; AND it's all happening on a show that, for much of an entire decade, is second only to the juggernaut that was GH in popularity, particularly among college students and viewers 18-34 females with disposable incomes...well, it becomes a bit harder to play the old "If he's Black, hold him back!" game.  In the end, viewers just loved Jesse, and Jesse and Angie, too much to let his death not mean anything on the show.

 

I'm sure y'all will disagree with me here, but I sincerely believe the marginalization of Y&R's AA cast would not be an issue today, if TPTB had figured out some way to keep Shemar Moore from ever leaving.  Next to Bill Bell, he -- or, more precisely, his popularity -- was the only thing keeping the Barber/Winters clan from where they are now, which is nowhere, or somewhere awfully close to it.

 

Sadly, that might be the only reason why it's good that Lily remains on the show, even if it means being stuck forever with that stuck-up rich girl who portrays her.

 

(Oh, and not sure what this has to do with anything, but...I'm not sure, but I think I went to school with her ex-husband.  If they are indeed the same guy, then I must ask: dude, WTF were you THINKING??)