Y&R: February 2024 Discussion Thread

[Taoboi]

Dare I say it...February Sweeps...or Sleeps?

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

Discuss!!!

[Beachstorm]

This Daniel/Heather/Lucy family is just too much. Glad to think Lily will get to distance herself from them (whenever she returns). They sure spent/wasted a lot of time on these three today.

This Heather bugs the crap outta me. I liked that other Heather better, the one with the red hair that was around when Ricky died. Were they half-siblings? Anyway, I'm not familiar with this Heather. Between her baby voice and Daniel's gruff one, they are impossible to listen to. She really needs to have that cold sore removed. Sorry if that is harsh.

And please, stop this Ashley/Paris crap. WTH? Is ED leaving again, or is she already gone? Why bring her down and make her so weak? Geez.

[kalbir]

Knowing Josh Griffith, it will be February sleeps.

[1974mdp]

I do hate what they seem to be doing with Ashley, and I'm not sure what the point of it is. The real shame IMO is that I thought ED and TSJ had real chemistry and seemed to enjoy working together. But, this story destroyed that potential, and it's made Tucker's character downright unforgivable.

[Faulkner]

Not sure why he likes to destroy the only couples who have genuine chemistry (Adam/Sally being the other notable example).

Maybe he just sucks.

[DramatistDreamer]

Josh Griffith is infantilizing Ashley (as well as seemingly writing the beginnings of some sort of psychosis or mental breakdown, seemingly in a (failed) attempt to revisit and exploit Ashley’s history of mental health instability (as if someone of Ashley Abbott’s means didn’t have access to a good psychiatrist and effective therapy). Josh is infantilizing Ashley, the way he used to infantilize Sharon, the way he is also infantilizing Heather.
In Val’s defense, she has had much better writing and an actual career that we saw her working on in her previous stints, so she wouldn’t have had time to handwring over Daniel’s indecisiveness. Also, that’s not a cold sore on Val’s lip, she’s had it for years and it’s the same type of mark that Eileen Davidson once had for decades until she either had it smoothed down or makeup artists started covering.

I have contended for years that most of Y&R’s writers over the last 15 years haven’t a clue as to how to write women with any sort of nuance-it’s down to the most flattened stereotypes: fragile basket case, harpy-shrew, overly ambitious seductress/promiscuous, doormat or practically asexual presence/nonenity. JG is no different.
He is simultaneously giving us lush/needy Nikki who Victor calls “baby” every five seconds while he reminds her to sit down(why not just buy her a fainting couch?), Angsty Ashley, who has taken to shouting at waiters in Parisian alleyways. Hapless Heather, who is practically using all her intellectual powers (instead of as the strong-willed, occasionally cunning and ruthless, brilliant lawyer that she was once written to be) to get Daniel to canoodle with her in public (and the stupidity of that hamfisted contrived scene if Lucy giggling behind the door, left ajar was the stuff of constant eye-rolling). They have Phyllis even acting like a collegiate with half the emotional intelligence, in a quest to do what? Mess with Christine (seemingly the only female character operating with operating with any autonomy-maybe LLB put her foot down or inspires some regard as a Bell?, as much as I like ZS, what I like about Audra has everything to do with Silver and nothing to do with how she’s written), mess with Danny, operating out of sheer boredom? Phyllis has never looked more brainless than she does now (one thing Phyllis never used to lack was savvy).

For this reason, I only ever sporadically watch this show for the past 15 years.

 

I haven’t touched upon Sally whose actress seems to have been given Sharon’s cast off storyline of bouncing between two brothers (feeling like a fool?).

[Liberty City]

Semi-me. When Mal Young left I tuned out, and only tuned in upon the announcement of celebrations / returns, etc. and the allure just... fades.

[detroitpiston]

Same tho I left with Mishael Morgan’s Hillary. I have never been able to stomach a full JG showrunning stint. Pick the show up for a few weeks and lose interest fast because the writing never goes anywhere interesting.

 

Was he the one who started Adam gaslighting Ashley or was that Hogan? Ashley losing her head is an interesting idea same with Nicki falling off the wagon but you can’t trust JG with good execution.

[Liberty City]

The head writing team was Maria Arena, Hogan Sheffer & Scott Hamner.

[soapfan770]

This idiotic story about Tucker gaslighting Ashley about the fight at the cafe is still going on?

WTH was that crappy generic bluegrass pop song that played during Tucker/Audra sex scenes? Those lyrics were embarrassing to listen to. A throwback to the JFP era?

Why is Chelsea still on the show?

Definitely looking and feeling like  February sleeps.

[ranger1rg]

This is a perfect description of what Josh Griffith has done to the females on Y&R. You have nailed what he's done -- and done horribly wrong -- with every character.

It's the same formula for all of them:   I love_____________, but I hate the writing for ______________.

I love Ashley, but I hate the writing for Ashley.

I love Audra, but I hate the writing for Audra.

I love Sharon, but I hate hte writing for Sharon.

I love Nikki, but I hate the writing for Nikki.

I love Phyllis, but I hate the writing for Phyllis.

I love Heather, but I hate the writing for Heather.

You get the point. Josh Griffith is a TERRIBLE head writer.

 

 

[soapfan770]

Please register in order to view this content

 

Y&R is past due for a major shakeup at the top but I fear it’s never going to happen. 

[1974mdp]

Me, too!

And, if the genre has any chance of surviving, they need new fresh blood and not the same writers recycling the same stories. There have to be some "young-ish" new writers out there who could breathe new life into these shows while still maintaining the parts the old school fans love. I think of what David Kreizman did for GL or Hogan Sheffer for ATWT and Ron Carlivati's OLTL back in the 2000s. Not perfect tenures, but they brought a new, exciting perspective. Where the rest of television, primetime and streaming, is always looking for new writers with new stories, daytime seems obsessed with not evolving.

[janea4old]

Same!

[BetterForgotten]

At this point, I’ve long accepted that Bill Bell’s Y&R is dead. However, Y&R’s biggest problem is that they cannot tell an actual damn story from start to finish well, and whatever they’re telling isn’t very interesting to begin with. Griffith’s writing is allergic to drama. The fact that Griffith has now had several failed tenures at this show and they keep bringing him back is absurd. 

Bell’s Y&R is long gone, but if they had better creative talent, they maybe could at least tell a coherent story every once in a while that moves some of these characters forward. Y&R still has the ability to be so much better than it currently is, but no one seems to even care anymore.

On the current staff, there are some folks who’ve paid their dues in various positions in daytime for decades at this point that are untested for top roles. If Sony/CBS refuse to bring new people in - why not promote and give Jeff Beldner a chance to HW, and give the EP responsibilities to Vivian Gundaker? They really have nothing to lose or gain at this point.