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Y&R July 2023 Discussion Thread


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The show isn’t wonderful. Things don’t feel completely thought through, aside from the general sibling rivalries that have always existed on Y&R.

You can still feel the impact of budget cuts, but the spaciousness and vibrancy of the Athletic Club make Y&R feel less claustrophobic. It’s an actual place where people *would* hang out and take meetings, unlike the tiny hotel lobby of the Grand Phoenix.

The movement and sense of conflict have improved largely enough to make it more watchable. They remembered this is a soap! Scenes need to have friction, with two people wanting different things and trying to figure out ways of getting them, and couples need to have affairs. Audra has been a great addition as a sneaky snake who loves sex but still has her goals in mind.

Audra/Kyle still felt pretty unsexy to me, though, even though the show lavished them with lengthy scenes of them wrestling in bed. Not sure if the current intimacy-coordinator climate has changed how Y&R does these scenes or if it’s just poor direction, but the choreography felt super awkward, like they were posing instead of overcome with passion.

Michael Mealor is gorgeous but he can’t sell the sexuality, which is weird, as I thought he did an OK job when he started.

They’ve also slowed down the business merry-go-round and added some stakes. (Jack installing Diane at Jabot had at least been in the works for a while, and you can see where it’s leading, whereas JG’s previous attempts at playing out corporate subterfuge have been underwhelming, aside from Lily/Devon/Nate’s battles.) 

And at least Tucker and Diane have freshened up the tired Ashley/Jack rivalry (some of the recent scenes feel like nearly word-for-word retreads of scenes from Mal Young’s era, when Ashley faked blood tests to suggest Jack wasn’t really an Abbott.)

Tucker and Diane remain largely opaque characters who make Ashley and Jack seem like idiots, but TSJ and SW are charismatic enough for me to *somewhat* roll with it. I feel like JG is hedging with them, unsure if he’s going to allow Tucker or Diane to be real vipers in the grass. It makes them feel a bit underbaked as characters.

I laughed at Nate as an outright villain needling Nick for not being there when Sally’s baby died and letting Faith get kidnapped. They are letting him venture to dark places. I hope it’s worth it and they let him really wreck Newman. Nikki issuing him a warning felt like a similar scene she had with Drucilla over Nick back in the day.

Broken record but AH still isn’t doing it for me. When Victoria forced Nick to take a leave of absence and was volleying with Victor over Nate, I kept thinking of how HT would have played it. Sorry, but if she was credible, I wouldn’t be thinking of someone who hasn’t been in the role in LITERALLY 20 years. Of course, they’d likely be writing things differently if HT were in the role.

I’m getting a sense that they’re reverting back to Phyllis as a loudmouth, misunderstood heroine with Michael as her hype man and Christine as the great hand of injustice who just can’t get over her vendetta against the woman who tried to kill her. (Why can’t she just get over it, guys?)  That’s not something I’d want to watch.

It was refreshing to see her widely disliked for a change, and Stafford actually showed up to play for a while and not just vamp. But this show still sees her someone the audience should root for, like a more flamboyant, female Victor. Michael and Phyllis are not cute, and I need to see people other than Kyle reading her riot act.

The Jerry Douglas tribute was ok, but the recasts limited how much they could show. Some of Jerry’s best work was with Terry Lester and Brenda Epperson. Sick of Traci trying to unite her family. Give the woman something else to do.

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@YRfan23 I wasn’t entirely sure I hadn’t seen this before but once there was the scene of Dru proposing to Neil going to Crystal Lake, I remember us having a good laugh about that (Friday the 13th movies lol) when this was shared here several years ago. (Which Btw there is a real Crystal Lake that’s close to the real Genoa City Wi.)

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