Y&R April 2021 Discussion Thread

[kalbir]

Trying to figure out the Spectra relationships here. B&B's OG Sally has a sister Shirley. Sally 2 is Shirley's granddaughter. So Shirley's child(ren) are first cousin(s) to Macy and CJ.

[FrenchBug82]

Yes. And Sally has a sister named Coco (urgh @ that name).

But I don't recall anything being said about her parents. So much so that when it struck me that Sarah B. would make a good mother pick for her I looked up to check if I hadn't memory-holed a "killed in a car accident" reference or something

[Paul Raven]

Seeing Tricia and Eileen pop in makes me feel for Doug Davidson. I know the situations are different, as Nina and Ashley are attached to a front burner story, but Paul could have been involved in the Rey poisoning debacle.

 

[lucaslesann23]

We got a high school set.

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[Paul Raven]

Well, better than nothing.

They desperately need more sets. Seeing Society and the Grizzly Pumpkin day after day is too much.

I guess COVID is a part of the problem but the budget must have been severely slashed.

 

Moses is cute but I hate the hair...

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Paul Raven

[slick jones]

I  know DD can be a pill on Twitter...But how do you blame him?

 

He was in a position where he carried the show for years and likely got offers from other shows to leave and join their casts.  He was loyal, stayed the course.  He watched peripheral co-stars like Laura Bryan Birn and Carolyn Conwell get dropped with no exits.  He kept working while his co-star Lauralee Bell chose to go recurring.  His character's daughter had three incarnations, but none stuck around. They made Ricky a deranged serial killer.  They gave him a third child in Dullan, then dropped his connection with Sharon (through Dullan) and closed him off from stories.  With Rey as town cop, they don't use him at all.

 

Bitter, I would be.    Y&R shat all over him.  They could have easily given him a romance with Ashley or Traci, or simply let Lauren back into his orbit.  Both he and Kristoff were both treated like red-headed step-children before Kristoff passed.  40 years of loyalty deserves at least a few scenes a month.  Davidson was counting on continued employment and got screwed.  They could easily have recast Heather and included him in her story.

 

Here's a thought....  instead of force feeding Chelsea down our throats, they could have written him a story.

[Forever8]

All I know about Sally Jr. Parents were that they were Carnies who abandoned their kids. And somehow I can see Sarah Buxton playing a carnie with a scheming side. 

I do agree he has a right to his feelings but he has gone overboard with things. I'm sure a lot of the Black and POC colleagues would've loved to receive at least half of his screen time over the 40 years he was on the show. 

 

I remember last year wanting him in a few scenes with Nate. Since he and his father Nathan were once good friends and fellow PI's. He could've talked to him when he was dealing with Elena/Devon/Amanda. And how Nathan himself found himself being unfaithful to Olivia since Paul was one of the first ones to find out. But now I'm like I don't think he'll be back unless he wants to come back or LLB comes back for more than a week. 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Forever8

[Meredith]

I hate Phyllis so much.  I can't believe that despicable character is still on Y&R.  She ruins this show.  She's a clinically diagnosed psychopath who broke up several marriages and tried to kill 2 people.  That's a lot worse than anything Sally ever did.  

[FrenchBug82]

Sure. But like with Victoria Rowell who also had legitimate grievances and made very fair and very good point, there is a balance to be found between being bitter and exposing what you think is unfair on one hand and being professional and biting your tongue. It is human to lean onto the former but you have to know the consequences and how you are coming off after a while, even when the starting point for your anger is perfectly valid.
And once the bridge is burned, it is b.u.r.n.e.d.
To mention a recent infamous case, don't you think Gina Tonognoni was extremely angry at the way they did her? Do you think she said anything but bitter things about the way she was fired to her friends and family? And yet you had nothing but smiles and graciousness from her in public. Because one has to pick one's fights and she knows her bread is buttered in the soap world.

 

Yes. The hypocrisy here is a bit much. I mean, that Phyllis is a hypocrite, fine. But that Jack would act so high and mighty with Sally when he dated Phyllis more than once knowing exactly who she was at least the last few times? I wish they had Sally know enough to put them in their place.
But that Phyllis is written to be infuriating is part of the character's DNA so her choice to be such an hypocrite does not strike me as a writers' mistake. That's actually pretty in-character. But it is irritating and I could do without it.

[David_Vickers]

Phyllis hasn't been like that in years.  She does NOT ruin the show. The clinically diagnosed psychopath is Adam Newman.  Phyllis was a bitch, and can still be at times.   Currently Sally is worse than Phyllis IMHO. 

  AGREE wholeheartedly about Doug Davidson.  BUT on Chelsea, slightly disagree, the character being force fed to us is ADAM!  Plus this stupid storyline of Sharon having feelings for Adam and vice versa is beyond ridiculous,  when during the Justin Hartley years, Adam and Sharon barely had scenes together etc.  Y&R is in desperate need of new writers, the Abby baby mess (with NO Chance, who should've been re-cast immediately not sent offscreeen for who knows how long),  the Victoria being a bitch and wanting Billy again, and the Adam Sharon mess, are all proof of this, as well as the not using Paul, not doing much with Michael, Kevin, Traci and the missing Fen, Noah, etc. 

 

[Faulkner]

This show has no idea what to do with Nikki. She’s barely even used.

[Soapsuds]

Without Victor.. Nikki is nothing. She should've been offed years ago. Victor marries Ashley and there is war between Ashley and HT Victoria.

[Faulkner]

I like MTS and Nikki quite a lot, and I think she still has value, but I fear they’ll find her expendable. None of the soaps really have any use for the “grande dame” role. (I guess Julie on DAYS comes closest, but not quite.)

 

Nikki’s actually the Newman I like the most.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Faulkner

[FrenchBug82]

We have to accept that Nikki's days of having a lot of hot stories are over. But I think she does fit the place of a grand dame pretty well and while it may not be active in SL, it means she will stick around.
With JC gone and EB 80yo, I think she is safe.

 

Well a lot of your points are debatable but that's subjective and that's fine.

But I don't understand the "They are shoving Adam down our throat" argument though. I don't like the Shadam story either and as you said, it doesn't make sense based on what happened during the JH years but I don't feel the *character* is being *forced down our throats*.
He is an established character and he has story. Like him or not, root against him or not, fine. That's fair game but that's not what "forced down our throats" mean for a character at all.

It is not even a case of the show telling us to "like him, like him, like him" because they are unnecessarily writing him to be really cold to Chelsea: if they wanted us to sympathize with him, that's not the way they'd go.
I don't buy what they are selling on Shadam at all (and I was a huge fan during the MM years) and there is plenty of room to dislike Adam himself. But "being written for" is different from "being shoved down our throats".

As for Sally, she has literally done nothing since she arrived. Now, as someone who likes her, I find that too bad but "Sally is worse than Phyllis" is one special kind of character fandom. You like Phyllis: good, enjoy her! You wanna dislike Sally because Phyllis dislikes Sally? Fine, that's great! But let's not be delusional about what is or is not happening on the show.
Phyllis tried to commit murder at least twice (running Cricket/Paul over and the Sasha fire). She doesn't behave like this anymore but there are very few, if any, "worse" people in terms of track record on the show right now.

[DramatistDreamer]

On an impulse, I decided to check out a livestream of the last 25 minutes of today's episode and it looks like somebody is trying to give Victoria a backbone where Victor is concerned. It's been over 15 years since the character showed any spine with her father. I haven't been watching, so I don't know whether there have been improvement in how Victoria is characterized as a businesswoman.

 

Yes, there is a high school set, so there's that but who is writing this awful, dated dialogue for these teens?!  Maybe consult with someone who knows something about how teenagers and young people talk. Also, the actor who plays Moses looked so adorable in his headshot, why is he being styled with zero swag?? Didn't he used to live in NYC with his Mom Sophia (by the way, has Sophia been seen with her teen son in GC yet)? No young man, let alone young Black man who grew up in NYC is going to go around being styled that dumpy way. Also, does no one in production know how to style curly hair?? Just a mess!

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Is Stafford still resistant to being paired PB? Looking at them both today and I no longer see that much of an age difference between them. I'm not sure why she would object now when Jack now looks less than five years older than Phyllis at this point. That's not meant to be a slight against either, btw.

 

Maybe because I have been watching so many classic episodes, this Y&R feels very unsatisfying, like there's nothing to dig into. It barely held my interest for 20 minutes. Maybe it's more interesting with Hilary's kinfolk (*shrugs*).