September 2, 2011
Just when I thought the Y&R had run out of ideas and was banking on a lame, lame, totally lame story line involving a rivalry between Jill and Genevieve at Jabot (Show of hands: how many of you care? I didn’t think so.), they come up with a master stroke of a plot twist: Devon is Tucker’s son and KATHERINE’S grandson. Sheer genius!
There’s only one problem: such an issue was made, when Yolanda’s and Ana’s characters were introduced, of Yolanda having given up her youth to be a mother to Ana. So…exactly when was she supposed to be out groupie-ing with Tucker and his bands? On a show that seems to bank so much on long-time viewers remembering ALL the history of these characters that have been on forever, aren’t they asking a bit much here for us to FORGET Yolanda’s back story? Perhaps that’s one of those little details—like who was buried in Victor’s stables—that they’re hoping you won’t remember or won’t ask questions about.
There is also the added twist (if they remember) that Neil had sex with Yolanda…who had sex with Tucker. Neil had sex with Ashley…who is married to Tucker. Neil had sex with Sofia (and possibly impregnated her)…who is Tucker’s right-hand-man AND his brother’s wife. Word of warning, ladies: when Neil has sex, bad things happen. Better run the other way, Leslie!
But of course, they did take a very good idea (improbable as it is that Katherine’s grandson should have been living in the same city all these years—a plot twist straight out of Jane Eyre) and render it somewhat ridiculous, even by soap opera standards, by having Katherine hire him for a job for which he has virtually no qualifications and no experience in. Why have her make such a grandiose gesture? Where does that lead? Tucker sabotaging his own son’s business? More than likely. But still ridiculous.
No smooth transition here, but if you can indulge me once more on the hair thing (anything that distracts me from the story is annoying, and bad hair is distracting…so this may turn out to be an ongoing rant for me), can they not do something about Chloe’s and Heather’s hair? When Chloe first came on the show, she had that cute little short ’do. Now it’s long and shapeless and gangly-looking. Elizabeth Hendrickson is so pretty. The short hair seemed to match the feistiness of her character. Her current style does NOTHING for her. Real shame.
I almost don’t care about Heather’s hair, because I think Eden Riegel so inferior to the actress she replaced (Vail Bloom) for the part. But it, too, is straggly and shapeless. Are the Y&R hairdressers on strike?
Not likely. Mrs. Chancellor, Nina, Phyllis—all are perfectly coiffed, as usual. Abby always looks fabulous (her main job, I guess), and the new Eden is a real looker. So, Chloe and Heather need to get with the glam program.
Getting back to the Genevieve/Jill feud: it was much more realistic (and interesting) when they were fighting over Colin. I mean, what a triangle: Genevieve hates him, but is driven mad at the thought of him being with Jill; he is desperate to reunite with Jill but can’t stay out of Genevieve’s bed; Jill knows she should kick him where it hurts, but can’t stay out of HIS bed. They could go with that one for a while, even as they keep that soap opera over-the-top plotting, and, if they’re really serious about this Jack thing with Genevieve (puh-lease!), keep Jack unlucky in love.
But to pit these two women against each other, having them competing for a job neither of them is qualified for nor actually wanted in the first place, and having Jack, of all things, TALK DOWN to them as if they were misbehaving children (which, actually, they are) is really a stretch. And, as I said before, really not interesting. I mean, who cares who does Jabot’s marketing? And more to the point, perhaps, why would a guy so intent on the success of his father’s company, put two rank amateurs in charge of marketing? None of it is believable, none of it is interesting. Why do we have to endure this story line?
Story lines I want to see more of:
- · Kevin’s new dating life. Just once, I’d like to see singles from Genoa City date like the rest of the world: meet random strangers in bars, have awkward first dates, find out that the new love interest is either a) on a break from someone she’s still in love with, b) a dweeb with ten cats, or c) actually married. Why do characters always have to date people we already know?
- · Now that Chloe and Ronan have hooked up again, I want to Chance to show up and throw a wrench in things. But I have a sick feeling that Ronan is going to be torn between Chloe and Heather and—gag—how could he? Heather is such a mincing little prig! (Now, if it were Vail Bloom, that would be a different story.)
- · What happened to the Diane murder investigation?? Story juggling is one thing, but hey! It’s been a week!
- · When Billy Miller gets back from vacation, I want to see him and Victoria try to work things out. It should take them a while, and maybe Victoria has to do her rescuing thing again with him, but really, why should Lauren and Michael be the only happy couple on the show? And don’t you like to see Victor grind his teeth at the thought of Vicki being married to an Abbott?
- · Phyllis being threatened with losing Lucy. I mean, what happened to THAT story?? Daisy is still languishing in jail without a trial—haven’t seen HER in an eon—and Phyllis was supposed to be her ace in the hole. Daniel was supposed to be constantly pained by Lucy’s being with Phyllis. Nick was supposed to hate Phyllis for taking away his sister’s child, but they’ve been getting it on pretty regularly. That whole story line seems to have been dropped! Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.
- · Who will be Eden’s new love interest? Please tell me she will have a new love interest! Noah is not exactly Mr. Excitement. She’s a barista in a coffee bar; surely she must meet a lot of hunky yuppie types that she could be attracted to but still have an ethical aversion to. But GC doesn’t seem to have too many singles we don’t already know (see Kevin, above).
- · Are they ever going to do anything with Hunter’s character? She seems kind of mousy; I’d just as soon she went back to New York.
I do believe, though, that we are about to embark on a story line in which we get to see little Delia become truly ill. Perhaps it’s really tough for a soap to do a story line like that—for a lot reasons. Perhaps in escapist television, viewers don’t want to see children suffer, even if it’s only make-believe.
I, for one, would really welcome that kind of story. Soaps tend to pride themselves on dealing with “real life” issues like AIDS (although no one ever gets herpes!), homosexuality, cancer, drunk driving, etc.—anything they can make a Public Service announcement about and look CONCERNED.
But if you think about all the children who are born prematurely and in such unsanitary conditions on the show (Summer in an elevator? Reed being delivered a couple of months prematurely?)—and none of them ever suffers any permanent brain damage or learning disabilities, none of the things that almost always come with such births.
So why not have a parent suffer the anguish of losing a child, as so many unfortunate parents do (not like Billy and Victoria, who bought a baby on the black market): childhood leukemia or meningitis. Whether they ultimately allow Delia to recover, I can’t speculate on at this point. The previews today showed Chloe railing at Billy for abandoning Delia, so perhaps that will be the way they bring him back to GC, to be with his ailing daughter. Perhaps Delia will recover when Billy returns. That’s the kind of corny outcome Y&R usually produces. (I’m not talking like much of a fan, now, am I? I truly am; I’m just venting a bit.) But, just once, I’d like to see them get real about something.
Of course, Ronan wouldn’t find a grieving mother very sexy, so…never mind, I guess.
As always, I’d love to hear what YOU’D like to talk about. Drop me a line, Genoa City Fans! Write me at lisalea10@yahoo.com
Texas Missy, the 35-Year Fan