Y&R March 2021 Discussion Thread

[ranger1rg]

Only on soap boards will you find multiple comments that an actor like Mark Grossman isn’t good looking or well built. Unbelievable.

 

 

I like Traci, too, and Beth Maitland is always good.

 

However.

 

Listening to Traci dispense relationship advice makes me roll my eyes. She’s hardly the one with all this experience in personal relationships and staying in love. Yeah, I know, she understands people. It’s still an eye roller.

[Paul Raven]

Well I don't find Grossman particularly attractive. It's a matter of personal taste.

 

As for Traci giving advice, I think it's a conceit that you have to go along with as a soap viewer. There is not one character who is in a position to give out advice.

 

It was like Alice Horton doling out wisdom, when her children were adulterers, rapists, mentally unstable etc.

[Fevuh]

Me either.  And he ate the show and why I stopped watching (along with nothing really happening) but his face was everywhere for a year or more.  It's no wonder they started calling the show on these boards "The Adam and the Rest of Them".  Thank God The Real is on at the same time.  

 

[Ponds]

Me three....I liked him at first, but he isn't the least bit attractive to me after that.

[Faulkner]

I think he’s attractive but there’s something a bit exhausted-looking about him now. Like he’s sorta over what he’s been asked to play, and he’s physically tired. Yesterday, it looked like his eyes were half-closed. I can’t say that I blame him, if that’s the case.

 

I guess they just chem-tested Jack and Tara? 

This show is such bullish!t. I watch it almost as an exercise in what *not* to do in storytelling.

 

Not quite connecting with the Tara actress so far, but reserving my judgment.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Faulkner

[ranger1rg]

Yeah, you tell us about twice a week that you stopped watching the show long ago. Thank U, Next.

 

 

I don’t expect everyone to find Grossman attractive or particularly attractive. I just question the need to post that he’s NOT on message boards. 

 

I understand soap conceits. If Traci doled out her homespun wisdom to Abby, or to brother Jack and sister Ashley, I wouldn’t have commented. That’s a la Alice Horton giving her kids some wisdom.

 

But relationship advice to Lilly? Just because Lilly dates Billy? It just seemed off to me, and forced. Yeah, I get it. Lilly has no one else to talk to. Oh, wait — doesn’t she have a brother she could share relationship troubles with?

I’m not connecting with her either. In no way does she read as someone Ashland Locke would marry. It’s almost like I’m watching a battered wife who’s always looking over her shoulder to see if her husband is coming after her.

[Fevuh]

Yeah and you've made it clear at least once a week that you're the Grand Poobah Hoo Ha of the message board.  Thank You, Next.  

[BoldRestless]

Traci lost her daughter (who was Lily's best friend) and Lily lost her mom. I haven't seen the scenes yet but Traci giving Lily advice always made sense to me. As far as Traci's history, it's one of the cleanest of any soap character, she's only been married a couple of times and hasn't done anything too crazy (and hasn't had any storyline in like 20 years so plenty of time for reflection).

[FrenchBug82]

Thank you. That was my point.
There are performers I would, there are plenty I wouldn't. But it is crazy to describe anybody on that show as unattractive.
It sets a very unhealthy standard for real life and the rest of us on one hand and it is amazingly unkind to AG who is a real person with feelings.

You wanna celebrate Rey's physique? Great. Be my guest! No need to belittle AG or anyone else in the process. 

Only times actor's appeareance can be criticized IMHO is when it is for things they have control over: hair/makeup/clothes or plastic surgery. Otherwise it is just... uncool and unnecessary.

[Faulkner]

Richard Burgi looks so much better without that foppish turtleneck.

[Faulkner]

I’m gonna need Lily to pop Victoria. I hate that it’s over that loser Billy, though.

 

AH and CK have good adversarial chemistry. Glad that they’re finally leveraging that. Long overdue for them to trade barbs.
 

Still they could have taken it further IMO. I don’t know why they want to be so “restrained” in terms of conflict.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Faulkner

[FrenchBug82]

Anyone remembering Victoria's many arguments with Nina over Ryan knows Victoria is not above real conflict.
I am fine however with this aspect of this storyline and Lily/Billy are fine.
I just don't care about what Billy has become and there is nothing for me to root for in any of his pairings. It happens that the rewrites coincided with the recast but just like for Victoria, I don't blame the actors. But the writing choices have sucked the fun or originality out of those characters.

At the risk of being controversial, I wish the racial aspect was part of the subtext here. It is GREAT that Y&R is putting interracial romances together and that it works and that they are sticking them out. But it is silly for the characters never to mention it.
Has anyone ever remarked on Lily's tendency to date white men? I don't care as a viewer and I wouldn't care if she were a real person but it seems to me there would be a very interesting subtext to play with a good writer.
This is where I feel VR's point about the importance of having writers of color rings particularly true. In the right hands, there could be such a rich interesting vein to mine for character layers here, especially for a character like Lily who doesn't have many. Not as a main plot but as a subtle unspoken subplot. What does this say about Lily? Does it say anything? Does it matter if it says something? Such wealth of difficult but interesting things for writers to write in between the lines.
Probably too hot to touch but I keep thinking how we could not picture Sherwood's Lily dating Billy and there is a real cultural and social subtext to touch on.

 

[Faulkner]

That would be amazing, but they would never go there. A show like This Is Us is far more daring about addressing racial issues like that. I actually think a lot of primetime series would tackle that nowadays, with the racial reckoning going on. Even The Good Doctor had a black doctor who had to wrestle with her own internalized racial bias against black patients.

[Ponds]

AH plays a much better bitch than she does a love interest!

[FrenchBug82]

It is weird that, once she was recast, the writers decided to mostly reduce Victoria to whiny love interest because that's 1) not what Victoria was initially when played by Heather Tom 2) Amelia Heinle has played somewhat bitchy characters before and can do it very well.

 

 

No they wouldn't. But that's why soaps are dying. This isn't Kansas 1950 anymore, writers. There is a huge audience waiting for stories that tackle the real world. More than the audience of disgruntled bigots who would tune out.
 

Edited March 17, 2021 by FrenchBug82