Y&R: Former OLTL actor joins the show

[Darn]

Leave him alone! Let that man try to wring something interesting out of the dry ass material Y&R gives their entire cast.

[Vee]

I watched him chuckle his way through a ton of rape stories on OLTL. My patience is limited.

[Joseph]

Eileen Looking Good is her permanent state of neing lol, The woman is 63 and looks better than so many of us mere under 30 mortals 

[lucaslesann23]

 

Is that why his Tucker seems to have random outbursts? One minute he's all calm the next he's slamming his fist on tables and looking all mad.

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Edited December 1, 2022 by Dylan

[Vee]

Yes, he does that. Sometimes it works for the characters, sometimes it's random but it suited his often-psychotic character on OLTL. But my problem is more when he is just literally sending up all his scenes and mocking them. An issue that plagued both Todds at different times.

[DRW50]

TSJ is starting to resemble Josh Taylor. I hope he won't ruin his face the way Taylor did. 

[Forever8]

Yes 

And vice versa you can tell when he's not into the story because he starts looking bored in scenes too. 

Edited December 1, 2022 by Forever8

[Antoyne]

I love TSJ but this truly cracked me up

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.  I often felt like I was on an island of one for him enjoying him in the OLTL years.

Honestly I don’t think he’s aged that much.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Antoyne

[Vee]

I think he's talented. My feelings about him are complex. I think he did great work on OLTL, on and off right to the end. I also think he did supremely shítty work, same timespan. Part of the reason they had to do Two Todds is because TSJ simply did not give a fùck and would play against anything earnest at times, even when they tried to pull him back from the voids the writers often fully drove the character into on their own. (He generally did not fail to deliver on heartfelt material under Michael Malone who introduced him, though that may have been because it was so early.) And TSJ would love to provoke the audience even IRL - if he threw out some lines like he used to at fan events (joking 'I love rape') today, forget it.

But I will never forget the scenes he had with Susan Haskell in 2010/2011? where Victor/Todd shows up at Marty's office demanding their children stop dating, and when she tries to call the cops Victor starts screaming at her, hurls the phone and is completely out of his mind. This is a man who had raped Marty ('again') a little over a year or so before and he was now preventing her from leaving the room, preventing her from calling anyone, and launching into a self-pitying, narcissistic tirade littered with threats against her if she doesn't leave town. This culminates, after he finally leaves, in Marty being pushed down the stairs and miscarrying her baby. Victor is the prime suspect, but of course, according to the show, poor misunderstood Victor didn't do it. The show still wanted to present Victor/Todd II as a good guy deep down, and that is not what was on display in those scenes in the office. It was frightening and good work by TSJ onscreen, but it was completely irredeemable. That's largely on the writers, not him; so much of what became of the Todds is on the writing. The thing is Trevor didn't care, and any time they belatedly (and poorly) tried to insert more dimension or pathos to try to clean things up he would fluff it off and smirk through it. Later, Roger Howarth came back prepared to perform again but Trevor was still smirking and blowing off a lot of crucial scenes in the Two Todds saga up til his last days. You came away with the impression Victor was a narcissistic sociopath. (And I don't think he was deep down, because as it happens we don't know the real Victor who could be a fascinating character.) Was the sociopath mold true to life for a character with a criminal profile like Todd Manning, probably - but it was not what the show had, in its better years, worked to build.

I thought Trevor did a solid job in his brief turn on OLTL 2.0 and I thought he always had scorching chemistry with Florencia. I thought the Victor Jr. character could go many interesting and dangerous places. But that was ten years ago, and you can't do a show with rapist twin leads today. In a hypothetical world where OLTL still existed, Victor and Todd should both largely be relegated to the past or to very controlled appearances.

Anyway, this is a lot of pretentious bloviating just to say yes, I think Trevor can do great work. I think he also is often on his own trip - good and bad - unless the writing brings him around. Y&R is no different. But at least he'll liven that show up.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Vee

[Antoyne]

Thank you so much for such a well written and thought out explanation on your feelings about TSJ.

[Vee]

It's also worth noting that TSJ got his role on OLTL by first auditioning for the Kevin Buchanan recast in '03. Except in his audition he (again) raged out, throwing papers, etc. around in Kevin's office or whatever. It was totally not Kevin, but the show saw his volatility and saved him for the Todd recast. It was a wise move, and some of his ugliest scenes on the show, like the ones I mentioned above, are his best. Whereas I hated his Death Row sobfest in which Todd/Victor was canonized instead. But I will never forget "Todd's" unmasking himself for Blair around Christmas that first year after she (having secretly learned "Walker" is "Todd") torments him for weeks and emasculates him, where he goes from mewling and pitying himself and whining like a child to snarling and almost striking her - he was an insect. TSJ had no ego about it and no illusions as to his character, and could play both good and truly foul. That's what made him fascinating when he cared.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Vee

[lucaslesann23]

Just gonna leave this here from the CDN.

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