Y&R: December 2023 Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

They could have just put Nikki on a chaise lounge up against a wall to suggest she was in part of  a grander room. Again just some imagination and ingenuity needed.

[Beachstorm]

I know this sounds petty, but can they please give the Daniel character a new hairstyle? He is a very successful video game designer, but his hair makes him look like he's still 14 years old.

[Contessa Donatella]

His hair & facial hair make him look like a young gargoyle. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Others may disagree but personally, I am fine with tptb leaving Olivia off the canvas. I just don’t trust JG’s pen.  Despite his non-story for Nina and almost nonexistent story for Jill, what makes it tolerable is actually getting to see Jess Walton and Tricia Cast make appearances. With a different actress in the role, it would give even more license for JG’s most errant characterization impulses. The result would like be an unrecognizable character, an Olivia that is pretty much an Olivia in name only. So nah, I’m good.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, as a newbie I gotta tell you that 3-4 days of this warlike combination of business talk & family talk is wearing very thin. Tucker McColl seems like someone who is not worth all this trouble. And everyone seems to be talking in code. At least when Cole & Victoria visited Claire (who may be their thought dead baby) everyone's words made sense. Also Victor & Nikki were comprehensible. I'm looking forward to the DNA results. And, frankly, to more time with Jordan (who maybe could be Eve). 

[Joseph]

I Agree, even if when Nate and Victoria's Affair came out i was rooting for Olivia To Come to town and rip into Nate, telling him she raised him better than that and Mentioning how his father's own affair destroyed their family!

Finally yesterday we had a Decent Jill Scene, the Scheming with The Abbotts and Her Reminding Billy she calls him out because she loves him was great! Jess must've been happy to finally have something good to act on!

[DramatistDreamer]

This morning, over a late breakfast I watched Friday’s episode and you know what? I was reasonably entertained. Watching Jess Walton interact with Jason Thompson, Peter Bergman and Susan Walters was a large part of it.

Maybe because I no longer have any high expectations for this show but I decided to take the episode for what it was: veteran performers who have experience in scene work, so they can fill in the deficiencies that exist in the script to generate more interest without being handheld through the process. Ashley opening up her compact and touching up her makeup, trying to play things cool with Tucker, is one example as I doubt that maneuver was in the actual script. The interactions between characters on this episode were entertaining enough, that it obscured the fact that actual story is paper-thin for this show. Maybe because I have watched this show very inconsistently in the past few years but I even enjoyed the scenes between Cricket and Phyllis and absent were the ticks that Stafford had become infamous for relying on over the years. And I enjoyed the scenes between Danny and Daniel and Danny and Christine and Michael and Phyllis, and Phyllis being self-pitying was true to form, while Michael’s advice to Phyllis to stop comparing her journey to others reminds me of things I have said to various friends who spend too much time on Facebook and complain about their lives in comparison with others, so…relatable. 
It looks like Monday will feature the Newmans again, so who knows whether the feeling of being entertained by the relatable and realistic will last, it will likely be a return to the bizarro.
 

Y&R over the recent years had often made questionable choices on lighting, makeup and wardrobe but on Friday’s episode, the lighting looked good and I could find no fault with wardrobe or makeup. Jess Walton looked great, I think. Her ensemble had a more tailored, better fit than that brown outfit that they had her in the previous episode that I had watched. Hopefully at the least, tptb can maintain a good level in terms of technical production aspects. 

I have decided not to put too much emphasis on the sets in this episode, fortunately, the characters interacting with each other entertained me enough that I didn’t have to focus on sets.

It looked like in this episode we did get a break from watching characters try to stir their coffee at Crimson Lights though.

Edited December 9, 2023 by DramatistDreamer

[Joseph]

Well that's pure Classic Eileen! Her "superpower" has always been to brighten the simplest scene, making some rather unimportant or Random scenes memorable 

[DramatistDreamer]

I feel as if the most experienced performers know how to do subtext in various ways, Eileen with her frosty mechanisms, Victoria Rowell with her ad libs, Tricia with her expressive eyes, Jess Walton modulating the tone of her voice, depending on who she’s talking to. They do it because they know the scene needs something extra to add subtext. And know, when filming and production is even more rushed and soap actors don’t really get the time to experiment and try out things with different takes, an actor has to be confident to put a device out there with virtual no rehearsal, it’s almost as daring as live theatre.

I wish more of the younger cast would do theatre, it might sharpen their skills,

[ranger1rg]

It's wearing thin because it doesn't make any sense. I can't figure out -- and no one has explained it to me -- how and why Tucker can impact these companies in ANY way. Jabot and C/W have teams of high-powered lawyers working for them, yet Tucker walking around the GCAC is enough to steal companies? Huh?

Why would Jabot and C/W have to work together to fight this guy? It makes no sense.

 

Re: your long post about Friday's episode, I agree with so much of it about why the actors made it work -- even though the story itself is so flawed.

Here, though, you mention Tricia Cast and her expressive eyes, and I'm out on that one. I've enjoyed Cast in the past, but her recent stints on the show are lacking for me. I don't see any real connection between her and Chance, and while it'd be easy to blame Conner Floyd (Chance) for that, I blame Tricia Cast. Nothing about her performance seems warm or motherly.

 

[Paul Raven]

On a scene by scene basis, there are often well written,acted and directed moments.

The overall problem is the bigger picture. The long term stories-everyone hates the business shenanigans, takeovers and job switches,all of which don't seem to have any tangible effect. 

The lack of sets, extras -no offices or support staff to give these corporations some semblance of reality. People living in the same hotel room and visiting the same eateries,sometimes twice or more on the same soap day.

Costuming is pretty poor-women's clothes look generic and men's seems non existent. All the men get around in dark colored cheap looking clothing.

I could go on. This is the #1 daytime show and looking at the numbers ,outdraws a lot of primetime stuff. 

They need to get rid of Josh, hire a new EP/headwriter and find some extra $$ for production. Wishful thinking...

And just to show that everybody has their own reality-this comment from another board

LOVE this actress. And based on the passionate viewer reactions her character regularly generates, she CLEARLY is effortlessly effective in selling ‘Entitled Ice Princess/Daddy’s Girl/Meanie to Adam/Business Sucess but Relationship Loser,’ and blah-dee-blah… I think Amelia H. is sooooo talented – and an integral part of the whole YnR cast. She keeps Victoria Newman ALWAYS a great, soapy draw for me.

[Contessa Donatella]

Newbie wrapping up the week, I liked Friday much better. Ashley, Jill & Diane were all good.

I first saw Trevor St. John as the oldest son in this great movie, “Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story”. Now here I am just very underwhelmed. It's like in my mind he's gone from being a good actor to this wanker.

I have promised other Y&R fans that I will keep an open mind. Can't decide something based on one week. But I am glad I'm not alone in seeing this business threat as very lame. 

[DramatistDreamer]

In terms of Cast and her expressive face, I was definitely referencing her time when she was a series regular with actual story, not so much these days. It’s nice to see her interact with LLB but I don’t have much to go on with her and Floyd. Perhaps there is hope for their onscreen chemistry in the future, but it would entail more screen time for both. Years ago, when I watched Jess Walton and Jason Thompson, I got nothing from them (of course, in those days the show had Jill spending far more time with Cane than her own son) but for the first time, while watching Friday’s episode, I saw onscreen chemistry between the two. 

[Lye-C]

It hurts me to see Eileen on this show. She is so much better on Days as Susan and Kristen. I hope she can do both in 2024.

 

I’m here for the Danny and Cricket reunion. They are my favorite Y&R couple of all time. I’ve been waiting nearly 30 years for this!

With Cole back, hopefully we’ll be seeing more of Nina. I’ve always loved how she stole not one but two of Vicki’s husbands!

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[Lye-C]

With baby Eve turning out to be alive, you just know Sabrina and Victor’s dead baby is going to show up one day.