omg wtf i watched five episodes in one night

Last night I took a break from writing my novel to catch up on what was happening in Genoa City.

Let me first say that watching five episodes back to back is something I hope to never do again.  Oh.  My.  Damn.  I was only really able to because it is too damn hot in Washington, DC to do anything else right now.  When I say hot, I am talking about Kunte Kinte on the Middle Passage hot.

So where do I begin?

Let’s start with the Foster Family.    I was not watching the show back when these people were on, so I didn’t connect with them like I think other people might have.  Plus, David Hasselhoff looked….strange.  Jill was especially vulnerable and whiny, but that’s a good thing.  She’s a great actress.  The most valuable player, however, was Katherine Chancellor.  I got so many texts last week telling me that she had acted her ass off and when I finally saw it, I agreed.

Liz Foster dying was sad.  Very sad.  If I had known they were killing off Liz Foster the same week as Alice Horton, I could have prepared better.  lol.  However, I find it HIGHLY implausible that Liz Foster wouldn’t have wanted a funeral, or that Snapper and the other one (I don’t know his name) would just leave the next morning.

Jill being a Fenmore.  Well, my circle of friends believe that it’s a stupid move by the writers.  Because Lauren is the only Fenmore I know, I can’t say that I care much one way or the other.  I didn’t like her reaction.  But that’s because I have literally been in the same situation — I have a half-family that largely doesn’t acknowledge me because they don’t believe that my father would have had a kid he didn’t take care of.

From the Fenmores to the Baldwins.  OMG WTF JANA!!!!!  You emotionless whore!  But how ’bout that punch Kevin gave Ryder?  YESSSS.  I was standing up hollering behind that one.

Let me talk about that scoundrel of a district attorney Pomerantz — is it really obvious that he is behind whatever this bullshit drama is with Riggs, Chance, Heather, and the inmate?  Dumbest story ever.

Okay, major stories:

I know some of y’all hate Big Red, but she is my bottom bitch.   She is so ride-or-die it ain’t even funny!  I am at the point where I do believe she needs to let Nick go because he can’t decide what he wants.  Speaking of Nick….. why couldn’t anybody but him have been framed for murder.  He’s really uninteresting.

Nikki had a great scene with Abby this week.  I want to see more of these and ultimately Abby turning to Nikki more as a mom, causing drama with Ashley.    BTW, Abby and Daniel?  Gross.  But LOVED Big Red roughing him up.

I will leave the Transnational Storylines for my frat brother to discuss.  Overall, I am liking them.

And Lily Winters?  Let the bitch die.

 

WORST recasts in Y & R History

Welcome to the “Chris and Rashid post stuff on the internet so we don’t have to text all day even though no one’s reading anyway” blog! 

Last week, Er, a few weeks ago, I did a look at some of the best recasts in Y & R History.  This week, let’s explore some of the worst.  I know some will disagree with me and that I’ll forget some worthy candidates…let me hear it!

in no particular order….

Ryan Brown as Billy Abbott-Yeah, this is the second teen/adult Billy Abbott.  After David Tom left (fun creepy fact…if the original Billy Abbott and the original Victoria Newman were still playing their respective roles, the actors portraying them would have been brother and sister!), Ryan Brown jumped in and actually married Mac, who he thought was his cousin immediately after the wedding.  Ryan Brown wasn’t bad, but he just didn’t have the same edge that David Tom had.  In his defense, he didn’t have much to work with…he was only on for a couple of months and at that point the Billy character wasn’t as dynamic as he was under David Tom, who had a bit of a transformation from brat (under the influence of the then-evil frat boy JT Hellstrom) to good guy due to his romance with Mac.  His chemistry with everyone was slightly off and while the recast wasn’t horrible, it was put to a merciful death by sending Billy off to find himself after finding out the love of his life was his cousin

Scott Seymour as Billy Abbott-Maybe one of the worst recasts in history, Scott Seymour’s Billy Abbott came back to Genoa City for his father’s funeral in 2006.    What happened next was a slightly creepy non-Abbott looking character who had none of the swag of David Tom, and none of the redeeming qualities of Ryan Brown.  Perhaps most damning was that there was virtually no mention of Mac or Billy’s past, which was more the fault of the writers than the actor, but hey.  He didn’t seem like someone who had been gone for 3 years after finding out that the love of his life was his cousin and then globe-trotted as a do-gooder with said cousin’s father.  He didn’t seem like someone who just lost his father.  He was just…there.  Billy Miller’s portrayal of Billy Abbott has been buoyed by better writing (making Billy turn into a man-whore after the traumatic end of his first love was completetly plausible), but there’s also Miller’s plain old charisma.  Scott Seymour didn’t have that and lasted about 3 months in the role before being ushered to Hong Kong with a gambling problem and before being essentially ret-conned.

Christel Khalil as Lily Winters:  This is an EXTREME rarity…usually, when the original actress returns to a role, it’s celebrated.  But when Christel Khalil left Y & R in 2005 and was replaced by Davetta Sherwood, one of the best recasts in Y & R history, (click here) it was like a breath of fresh air.  I won’t reiterate the reasons why Davetta Sherwood rocked (aside from finally providing some eyecandy for a Black man!), but when she was let go after 7 months and Khalil returned, it was like the wind was sucked out of my sails.  Khalil just doesn’t do it for me…she doesn’t come off as sympathetic, she comes off as whiny…she doesn’t come off as assertive, she comes off as bratty.  And they freaking brought her back….

Sandra Nelson as Phyllis Romalotti-What happens when you take one of the more popular actresses on the show and replace her…an inevitable backlash.  Sandra Nelson’s turn as Phyllis wasn’t so much bad as it was simply not as good as Michelle Stafford’s campy, sassy, evil portrayal.  She’s one of those recasts that may have been fine if you didn’t have something to compare it to, but replacing Michelle Stafford just wasn’t what was hot in the streets.

This is a minor one because the jury’s still out, but…

Darius McCrary as Malcolm Winters-I just want to know why Eddie Winslow portrays Malcolm Winters as talking like a runaway slave who attended the Ving Rhames school of diction.  Aside from that, I just have a hard time thinking that this version of Malcolm could have pulled Drucilla Winters and fathered Lily.  On top of that, I’m not buying him as Neil’s brother…even with them beefing, there’s not a believable emotion/tension between them.  That said, the last episode that prominantly featured the Winters clan was EXCELLENT and even McCrary’s performance was exceptional.  My hope is that they accelerate this storyline with Malcolm’s secret reason for coming back and that McCrary makes the role his own.

Not that I watch that kind of thing….

 

Help! I’m in Y&R Withdrawal!

I haven’t watched my stories all week!

I am working hard on my third novel AND working with a developer to get the new version of my website launched.  (On a regular basis, I will link to this blog from my site so I can send some people over here to support.)

I love Y&R, but I’ve got to focus on my own “stories” as I complete my novel….

But it’s fun and funny how nearly a lifetime of watching soap operas has influenced and can influence one’s writing.

My strength as a writer is conveying emotion through dialogue and subtle body language between characters.  How else could I have developed that so well if not for watching Patch and Kayla on Days or even Devon’s longing for Lily a few years ago on Y&R?  (Have I said lately how much I appreciate Bryton’s growth as an actor?)

I wouldn’t say I am “weak” in any area as an author, but I acknowledge I am not a literary muckety-muck like Toni Morrison or Edward P. Jones.  My novels will not get a Pulitzer Prize any more than Days or Our Lives will somehow win a Emmy.

Oops, sorry Ken Corday.

But, like soap operas, I aim to please my core audience by simply telling stories of families.   In my books, the families may not all be related by blood, but they are familial by choice.

And one more random note — I have determined that everyone is rich in soap operas because 1) Being poor is boring, and 2) When your characters are wealthy, they can do what they want and you don’t have to write about them working in an office eight hours a day.

If you’re like me, you don’t work eight hours and then run off to Jamaica to get married, lose custody of your child, have horrible articles written about you, kill your son, kill your wife, run your daughter off the road….etc….

Anyway, just some early morning ramblings as I cope with a self-imposed Genoa City exile for the remainder of the week.  I’ll catch up with you after a marathon on Saturday.

Not that I watch that kind of thing…

 

Gloria Bardwell an’nem

So, I really like Gloria.  A lot.

I’ve mentioned before that I am not a true life-long Y&R fan and only began watching in earnest around 2003 or so, when Days of Our Lives started getting crazy and Y&R was getting really exceptional.

Gloria is a con artist with a heart of gold silver lead?  Okay, so maybe she’s just a grifter and nobody else sees her redeeming qualities except for me.  I love how she is protective of her children, even when she’s trying to manipulate them.  And of late, she’s made a wonderful babysitter.

I don’t like when people trample on her.  Phyllis (whom I generally love) was a totally itch to Gloria this week.  All Gloria wants is to be treated like everyone else.

Of course, if she started acting like “regular people” then she’d be fine.  In her mind, “regular people” are all rich and glamorous.

Anyway, I hope to see more of her in the near future, and this time I want to see her WIN!

 

For Heaven’s Sake

Am I really expected to believe that Victor Newman would survive parachuting out of an airplane and a bar fight?  And why is Sean Young playing the barmaid?  That’s a waste of money.

So ridiculous I can’t even write anymore….

Not that I watch that kind of thing….

 

Memo to Y & R: STOP BEING CHEAP!

It’s apparently a tradition in Genoa City to be cheap.  The first incident of cheapness I recall was when Phyllis rented her penthouse to Daniel and Amber, which makes sense as her son.  But then, we had Brad’s house turn into Colleen’s house (which made sense) into Adam and Sharon’s house (WTH?) into Ashley’s house.  Then you have the most egregious one of all, Billy moving into Murphy’s trailer.  Now why do I call this being cheap?  The real reason they have all this recycling going on is because the powers that be at Y & R would prefer to use the sets they have than make new ones, which is why Jimmy’s Bar is used so frequently rather than the much nicer Indigo. 

Another way Y & R is cheap is far more egregious to me….the use of the evil twin/surgically altered villain.  There is an incredibly skilled South American doctor who is running around making EXACT copies of people, dopplegangers that are so perfect that their husbands cannot tell the difference.  The plastic surgery angle worked fine when it was Matt Clark, as they were unable to get Eddie Cibrian back and the surgery fit into the plan.  It was even fine when they did it for Sheila Carter to look like Phyllis Newman.  But when we had Dr. Peterson looking like Patty Williams, and then Sara Smythe looking like Lauren, it became obvious to be that they just wanted to avoid paying 2 different actresses and were overusing the plot device.  CHEAP!

I understand Soaps in general are in dangerous fiscal territory, and truth be told, I’d rather have Melody Thomas-Scott and Eric Braeden on the show than have more varied sets and different actors playing different roles.  However, don’t use it to be lazy…make it more seamless and believable as a plot device.

Not that I watch that kind of thing….

 

“What were you thinking? Marrying this idiot?” (6/1/10)

So Victor, who we’ve established has lost his swag, storms into Billy’s trailer to demand an explanation for his grown ass daughter marrying Billy Abbott…the hilarious thing about the whole scene was Billy plucking with Victor…I thought Victor would have another seizure when Billy said he loved her.  Victor used to be cool and calculating, but now they portray him as the overbearing hot head and it’s not cool.  The old Victor would never have let Adam get the drop on him like that.   But I digress….  I love the interplay between Billy and Victoria.  Keep them together! 

In other parts of Genoa City, Emily is released from jail on bail.  Paul, in one of his brighter moments, asks the million dollar question…did you tell them you were locked up when the prescriptions were written?  The response?  The DEA is strict on these things….WTH?  There’s no chance in hell of a reasonable judge/jury finding her guilty.  So Emily’s going to stay in the poolhouse, huh?  She needs to stop breaking Jack’s balls over this, but then again, she has a point.  Plastic surgery can only do so much, and I’m pretty sure I’d recognize my wife’s, uh….netherregions.

At the loonybin, Nick, for some inexplicable reason, is allowed to talk to Patty.  If you want to talk about a Doctor who needs his license taken away, it’s Patty’s Psychiatrist.  Anyway, her saying there were two Adams is money.  At least Nick was smart enough to realize what she was saying, unlike dense Paul at the end when she said “brother.”

Ashley, who is so much better as the sober voice of reason than the lunatic victim she was last summer, says the most sensible things to Paris Hilton stupid Abby, the real idiot of the show.  The courtroom  was pure foolishness, and thankfully the judge had the good sense to deny Abby the money.  On a sidenote, it would have created an interesting dynamic to have Abby not involved with divulging the wedding and having Victoria, she of Playboy herself, bond with her sister over her actions and kind of guide her along.

Last but not least, the wedding is ruled illegal because Jamaican law states that marriages must take place before 8pm.  As an honorary Jamaican (through my wife), I had to look this up to see if it was true.  Astonishingly enough, it’s not only true, but Y & R didn’t go far enough, as the actual law says you can’t get married after 6pm….AND the marriage license has to be obtained 24 hours before a wedding can take place.  Now I know time is a fluid concept in Genoa City, but that would be a stretch even for them.  Not that I watch that kind of thing…

 

Victor Newman is a jackass and I don’t like him anymore.

Victor Newman needs an intervention.  Like seriously, his life is out of control.  Give Abby her damn money to piss away if she wants.  Let Victoria be married to Billy.  Mind your own damn business you meddling old man.  UGH.

That’s it.

#TEAMBILLY