Alan’s Soap Box: The State of Young & the Restless

As The Young and the Restless celebrates 50 years, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the state of the show. What’s working? What is an abysmal failure? What is missing from the canvas?
The Middle-Aged and the Elderly

The last time Y&R was meaningfully invested in young characters was the Glo By Jabot era in the early 2000’s. It has been downhill since then. Tessa and Mariah adopted a baby, but it all happened off screen. We didn’t even see the birth mother! Noah and Allie haven’t been seen in months. Moses and Faith just talked about life goals and ate butterscotch pudding until they were shipped off to college. Kyle and Summer just exist to react to the drama of their parents. Y&R mostly uses characters under 40 to support the vets.

This is just sad for a show that has young literally in the title. It is also indefensible from a practical standpoint. If almost all of your leads are one fall in the shower away from not being on this mortal coil anymore, you have a problem. You need to have fans invested in the younger generation so when the older actors sadly pass away, they’ll keep watching. That’s why it is important that they drive story and aren’t just used as props in old people drama. I’m not saying that characters over 40 shouldn’t have a leading story, but there should be times when they take the backseat and support the younger characters in their story. The balance is way off.

The imbalance between young and old does lead to older characters having stories that should be played by characters that don’t have gray pubic hairs. The prime example right now is Nick. He’s almost 50 and has three grown children and the show put him in another Who’s The Daddy story with his brother Adam. He’s too fucking old for that. His son Noah should be the one having paternity drama, but the show is pretending like Nick is still 30 years old. It is pathetic.

This isn’t a new problem. The show pretended like Jack was still in his 40’s for 20 years. They played him like he was a forty-something with Nick, Phyllis and Sharon. They had him bedding a 29 year old Dominique and dating early 30’s Sally. It isn’t until recently that they accepted reality and played Jack like the 70 year old patriarch he is. Now he’s in an age appropriate relationship with Diane and it is great. Let’s get to that point with Nick and other characters.

Did Someone At Sony Have To Sell A Kidney?

I love that the Genoa City Athletic Club is back. We haven’t seen that set in years. They replaced it with that Wayfair looking Grand Phoenix set that just isn’t the same. No one wanted to watch people having a business meeting in the lobby of the Grand Phoenix. Y&R is the soap that is supposed to be about rich people. It was painful for the show to be visibly poverty stricken. Days has more set variety and that show has to fire 5 people regularly for budget reasons.

I hope the GCAC set is here to stay. If another set has to go for space reasons, so be it. I’d be fine with the Grand Phoenix and Society sets being demolished for a set that actually looks lavish. I don’t expect Y&R to look like they have 1992 money. I just want it to look like they have as much money as the other shows. If you are going to boast about being the number one show, the other shows should not look easily better than your show. I know this show spends money on clothes since they have Sharon pouring coffee in Versace, but it would be better spent on sets.

Victoria Wants To Merge With Nate

One of the things that Josh Griffith is getting right is the writing for Victoria. She wants what she wants and she’ll try to get it. Whether it is a company she wants to gobble up into Newman Enterprises or a dick she wants to gobble up. Victoria not caring about whether a man is already in a relationship goes back to the 90’s. This is the most fun I’ve had watching Victoria in years.

The question I have is this: What happens when Victoria gets Nate? Because she will get him. Will Elena turn into a woman scorned or will she just meekly accept that Victoria planted her flag in Nate? This show has a tendency to choose the boring option, but I hope they have Elena out for blood. She chose to stay with Nate after he committed insider trading and almost fucked over his family. She doesn’t need to lock Victoria in a cage. I’d settle for her talking to gossip monger Leanna Love about Victoria’s inappropriate conduct with an employee. Have Victoria fight for her good name as the public views her as the boss that pinches your ass. I think you have to go there if you are telling a story about a boss trying to fuck her employee.

I Will Always Hate You

It is nice to have Mamie back for the 50th anniversary. It is even better that she still has a seething hatred for Jill. Soaps seem to have this instinct to make old rivals into friends or at least friendly. GH recently had Carly and Elizabeth being friendly. I think that’s boring. Some characters should just hate each other forever. I don’t watch soaps to see people who should despise each other play pattycake. I want conflict.

Mamie always had Jill’s number. She knew Jill was a gold digger and was using the love of her life John. It was delightful to watch her reject Jill’s olive branch.I had been missing that kind of shade on Y&R. I wouldn’t mind if they had Mamie visit more often if Veronica Redd was up for it. Mamie raised Jack, Traci and Ashley like they were her own kids and she has family in town with Lily, Nate and Devon. It would be natural for her to show up more often.

She Drove Herself Crazy

We’ve had a year of Phyllis driving herself nuts with Diane’s return and now we are finally getting somewhere with it. She’s faking her own murder and framing Diane for it. I am happy we are getting an actual story. I was tired of Phyllis just antagonizing Diane for a year and bitching about her to the decreasing displeasure of friends and family. It was satisfying to watch Diane slap and strangle Phyllis after she had goaded her. Diane had taken unrelenting abuse from her so it was a long time coming.

I just want to know what is the endgame? Is Phyllis going to show up after Diane is in prison? Phyllis isn’t going to spend the rest of her life away from her kids. Will she claim that Diane held her captive? Faking her own death puts her on Diane’s level and I’m sure Summer and Daniel won’t be shy about pointing that out when they learn the truth.

This is the type of writing a character gets when they are leaving. I wouldn’t mind if this resulted in Phyllis being committed or going to prison. Or they could go for the full measure and actually kill Phyllis. I’m just tired of her screeching and need a break.

She Raped Him

I like that Billy is rejoining Jabot, but I can’t abide him in scenes with Chelsea. She raped him and that’s how Johnny exists. The show pussyfooted around this last year by having Billy be like “Oh, I was a mess so no biggie that you drugged me and raped me. Bygones!” If they want to do this problematic pairing, the conflict should be Johnny finding out how he was conceived. Bringing that up would make Chelsea look bad and we can’t have that. They are pretending like Chelsea is a plucky heroine who is building herself back up when that is not her character.

The World’s Best Dressed Talk To

I already wrote a column about how Y&R treats Sharon so I don’t want to beat a dead horse and then shoot it into the sun. I will note nothing has changed. She’s still propping up other people’s stories. Though it was nice to see her attend the gala with Adam even if we know they aren’t going to bang. Sharon’s talk to status would be less painful if her children were frontburner, but Noah is MIA, Mariah is changing off screen diapers and Faith is in college until they decide they want to use her again. Sharon is being treated like she’s a 70 year old recurring vet.

Beauty and the Miscreant

I am surprisingly enjoying Ashley and Tucker together. Trevor St. John had a propensity to phone it in on One Life to Live, so I wasn’t enthused by him joining as Tucker last year. He is putting in effort in scenes and he has chemistry with Eileen Davidson. I like the dynamic between Ashley and Tucker. She has him by the balls by owning all of his debt and he kind of enjoys being dominated. It is a pairing that works.

We Need A Gold Digger

One of the problems with Y&R is that almost everyone is rich so you don’t really have that grasping character who wants to be like them. Audra is thirsty and shit stirring, but I don’t consider her a gold digger. I want a character who just wants to marry rich and not have a job. Her ambition in life is being like Nikki used to be before they decided she needed a job. A lady who lunches who goes to galas and doesn’t read spreadsheets. It would be great if Reed could return to town with a 25 year old wannabe influencer who has wrapped around her finger. It would drive Victoria up the wall and it would be classic Y&R. The show has a long history of mothers hating the women their sons love.

Dispatches From Soap Land

*GH needs to learn that even if you have Laura and Cameron being nice to Esme, the audience isn’t going to forget that Esme drugged and framed Trina and committed a sex crime against Josslyn and Cameron by filming them having sex. Amnesia and a hug from kind characters doesn’t fix that. Other soaps have tried redemption arcs like this and they flopped for a reason.

*In the unlikely event of Bill and Ridge on B&B working together to takedown Sheila isn’t a hasty rewrite, it is still stupid. They had Sheila dead to rights for escaping prison and three counts of attempted murder. They didn’t need to have Bill fuck Sheila to get her to go to prison. And what did Ridge do at FBI headquarters for months? Tell agents what color tie would compliment their skin tone? Sew a boatneck dress for an agent? Make sure the break room was stocked with Pringles?

*Days just had Stefan being brainwashed into not loving Gabi anymore and they did it again with Bo. I understand using that as a conflict, but it is so repetitive. Try to come up with a different story for a character returning from the dead.