Auntie Ri Ri Hits a Wall: Storyline Malfunction on Y&R
It's the hardest thing I ever had to do... It happens to the best of relationships. After a period of sheer, unadulterated, orgasmic bliss you come home to find your significant other has left their soiled clothing in a pile on the bathroom floor, or they've eaten up the last of the double stuffed Oreos without replacing them, and you sigh to yourself with the realization that the honeymoon just might be coming to an end. That's how I felt at the end of Friday's episode of The Young and the Restless.
For months now my fellow DC'ers and I have been raving about the stellar work Y&R co-executive producer Maria Arena "Auntie Ri Ri" Bell and her "Dream Team" of Paul Rauch, Hogan Sheffer and Scott Hamner have been accomplishing at Y&R. In a fairly short amount of time Bell and her boys managed to refocus this soap on its core characters, spinning fascinating, history-rich, character-driven tales for beloved, veteran characters like Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper), Victor and Nikki Newman (Eric Braeden and Melody Thomas Scott), Jack, Jill and Ashley Abbott (Peter Bergman, Jess Walton and Eileen Davidson), all the while building on one of the most impressive next generations daytime has seen in years, anchored by legacy characters like Billy Abbott (Billy Miller), Kate Valentine/Chloe Mitchell (Elizabeth Hendrickson) and Daniel Romalotti (Michael Graziadei). Have there been some missteps along the way? Of course. The Silver Chipmunk Saga will go down in the soap history books as one of the lamest storylines ever, and the fact that the Winters family—who were once just as popular with Y&R's audience as the Abbotts, Newmans, and Fisher-Baldwins—were only given storyline scraps revolving around a lackluster battle for Neil (Kristoff St. John) and/or Ana fought by Tyra (the woefully inadequate Eva Marcille) and Karen (Nia Peeples)—made it hard to give Auntie Ri Ri and Co. an A on their report card. But let's face it, with at least five out of the eight soaps on the air sucking donkey dong most days, a solid B was something to stand up and cheer about, so we did, and loudly. Until this past week.
When we first heard about the return of Phillip Chancellors III (Thom Bierdz) and IV (John Driscoll), the DC crew was beside ourselves with excitement. I can't tell you how many giddy Skype chats Jillian, Mel, Mike and I had attempting to explain to our fearless, yet-history challenged leader Luke the complicated back story of the Chancellor men and their women, once the spoilers began making their way online.
On paper it sounded like a brilliant idea. Phillip— the golden boy heir who first his mother Jill and stepmother Kay, then bad girl Nina (Tricia Cast) and virginal, teen model Cricket (Lauralee Bell), fought over— would return home— having faked his death because he couldn't deal with disappointing his family because of one major, shocking secret, he was gay. It made perfect sense. The drinking. The lack of interest in sex with Nina.
"This will be the storyline of the year!" we predicted.
"I bet this will take Y&R over the 4.0!" we gushed.
So what if it required a belief-suspending return from the dead storyline? Y&R had barely used that soap stereotype, so we were ready to give them a pass. All My Children received the most buzz and critical acclaim it has seen in a decade for doing a similar story that reunited Jesse and Angie (Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan) last year. Who cared if we saw Phillip III die before our eyes? This story would be so powerful, so timely, so riveting, we would gladly give Y&R free reign to take us on this particular ride. Too bad the story ran out of gas before it hit the Wisconsin stateline.
The buildup to the reveal of Phillip III being alive and Cane (Daniel Goddard) being an imposter was nothing short of soap operatic brilliance. Thanks to the dangling plot thread left by Lynn Marie Latham, viewers knew Cane had a sketchy connection to an "Uncle Langley" back in Oz. The cryptic phone call Cane made to Langley years ago made us believe he was conning the Chancellors, and although LML decided to drop that beat in the story once Goddard proved to be a popular addition to the canvas, fans never forgot about that phone call. Enter our heroine Maria Arena Bell.
Auntie Ri Ri came in and began systematically fixing every fit of executive indecision LML made during her tenure at Y&R. Before we knew it fireplaces were back, water bottles were being swigged and most imperatively, the fabulous women of Genoa City were draped in diamonds and furs as God and the late Bill Bell intended. Then Bell hired Sheffer and got to work fixing storyline stink bombs from past regimes. Relying on the historic kidnapping of Kay by Clint and Marge, Auntie Ri Ri and Co. spun a fabulous yarn for Cooper, ultimately undoing Kay Alden's absurdly-conceived prior plot making Kay and Jill mother and daughter. The Dream Team also reignited one of daytime's best triangles Ashley/Victor/Nikki and infused it's heir apparent storyline featuring Victor's son Nick (Joshua Morrow) and the two women in his life, Sharon (Sharon Case) and Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) with new blood.
On the heels of these successful moves, Bell embarked on her most ambitious fete yet. She would now attempt to undo a mistake her legendary father-in-law admitted he wished he had never made. She would resurrect the Chancellor scion from the dead. As much as it pains me to say this, Auntie Ri Ri should have quit while she was ahead.
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Comments
2 January 2008
17 weeks 6 days
Thank god im not the only one who feels this way i think on some level the storylines our similar to passions.I know soap writers get burnt out with the amount of work is on there shoulders.But y/r is getting to be very campy as of late.
9 June 2009
14 weeks 6 days
Thanks for that great blog. I feel much the same way. Y&R is becoming more and more problematic and this PC3 story is not working.
20 November 2007
18 hours 33 min
I am lost for word!
Calling out Y&R team about the ONLY storyline that is watchable on Y&R! I agree about Thom, but the rest is sterling!
Glossing over the disaster that is Nick, this character is completely destroyed, going from one women to the other in a matter of day! This storyline is NOT about love, it is about stupidity.
Not talking about how the character are twisted to fit the plots, character I barely recognize:
Sharon lying about Jack being a father, seriously!
Phyllis begging repeatedly Nick to come back to her, seriously!
Victor being con by Adam of all people, seriously!
Jack a shadow of himself, bedding one woman after another.
Summer I barely saw 3 times is now allergic to peanut and I should care because...?
I can go on for each character! I don’t give a fig about who end up with whom, but what matter is how we get there, and nowadays with Y&R I don’t like the ride because I don’t recognize the people I usually travel with!
10 July 2008
1 year 32 weeks
I am glad P3 is back, but he is become more of a ass hole every day...
5 July 2008
1 hour 40 min
I dont think we have seen Chance's true feelings on this subject yet. I bet is coming!!!
30 April 2009
2 years 37 weeks
I completely agree on Tom B...he is just not doing it for me...can we say phoning it in.
I am a Cane fan and have to say - he has done his best work with this story line...he better be staying around.
6 January 2008
3 years 10 weeks
Sadly, I have to agree. I think Bierdz has gotten better since his painful to watch return, but I think what is really hurting him is the way he is written. If the show wrote him sympathetic and even the least bit sorry for what he did or showing a smidgen of remorse, it would work wonders for the character, even if the acting wasn't the best. And like you said, Jamey, Bierdz was never a strong actor and the women around have always done the heavy lifting. But, much more than him, I really think it's the writing that is the real problem here. The show simply isn't using the return of P3 for the life-changing moment that it is. It fails time and again to write the scenes and moments with impact. I think if the writing were better, the problems with the acting wouldn't be so noticeable.
22 December 2008
7 weeks 6 days
While I agree with most of your points, I think it's a little too soon to criticize Chance's reaction. I like to think that reaction was intentional... a way for Chance to be cold, but still respectful and in control of his emotions. I mean, he's just come back from war, maybe Chance has suffered emotional trauma that has led him to detach from his emotions? I'm willing to consider that there's a reasonable explanation for the reaction we saw.
Of course, I did hold onto hope that CF's emotionless portrayal of Mac was intentional, and it was the character holding back her emotions, not the actress! Haven't been vindicated on this front yet... so who knows...
20 July 2009
1 day 18 hours
I also thought that scene was lackluster, in view of the fact that this young man Chance thought his father was dead all of his life. It was definitely anti-climatic and left me feeling, what the heck? Everything else on the show is so exaggerated, especially when it comes to Victor and Jack, and this scene was a big yawn. I also feel that Philip III desparately needs acting lession ASAP. Both of them so far are too low key - when you compare them to the fire crackers known as Cane and Billy! Philip looks as if he is sleepy all the time and just says his lines with little emotion. I guess we are all so used to the veterans being so overly dramatic all the time, when we see in control characters we do not know how to deal with them. Very well written analysis by the way.
23 July 2008
14 weeks 1 day
I totally agree, especially, with your point about him just coming back from war.
22 January 2008
34 min 21 sec
My parents are career military. Both have been to the Middle East several times, if my Grandmother walked in the living room and announced she faked her death five years ago, my mother would go bat shit crazy. They are gonna have to do better than this.
23 November 2008
13 weeks 2 days
Well I'm glad you are recognizing some of the problems with Y&R. MAB is no better than LML with all the plot driven stories. The disasters (Chipmunks, the art caper, Adam/Ashley/Victor, etc) are bona fide disasters and the so-called good moves have been underwhelming in my book. What good has come from the Jill/Kay undo? Phick and Shack are nothing more than a merry go round. The bread and butter of Y&R: business orientied stories, have been MIA. And what soap hack plans a summer of doom and gloom?
The laundry list is long but the writing from top to bottom has been extremely problematic. Bad ideas, dialogue that is laughable, and breakdowns that are all about plot points and rarely about the character.
I'm enjoying the irony that the restoration of the real Chancellor heirs is falling flat and that Cane is the most intriguing aspect. As for Lane well they've always been the only reason I tune in to Y&R so I'm glad you can finally see the appeal. The cancer SL is totally unnecessary however CK and DG will rock. I'll save the repercussions of that SL for another day.
Thanks to MAB and co the show is a mess and viewers are left to watch for the sake of their favorite characters, assuming they still care about them. One can only hope that someone at Y&R will remember that it's about the characters not the plots.
11 April 2009
21 hours 5 min
Jamey,
Looks like you read my comments in the First Impressions of John Driscoll post.
I don't blame Bierdz or Driscoll for what has obviously gone askew here. It's the fault of the writers and producers.
Y&R has terrabytes from which to have pulled clips of Nina and Phillip with their baby or Nina, Phillip, Jill, and Katherine showing their battles or love. But Y&R's producers have failed to have done that. Why? Instead of just talking about the past, why not SHOW it!
As for Chance and Phillip, blase and apathetic are the two best words to use for the reunion of father and son. Ridiculous. Where is the rage, sorrow, guilt, angst, love, and remorse?
People talk smack about Guiding Light but the reaction of James Spaulding to the return of his father Phillip was more honest. The Spaulding father and son demonstrated their emotions. We knew the guilt Phillip felt. We saw James' mixed emotions.
Philip and Chance? Talk about an emotionally fallow ground. What grows there? Far less that we would see in the Mojave desert. There's life in the desert. Phillip and Chance? Um, did these two come right off the soundstage of George Romero's Soap Opera of the Living Dead? Zombies! Poor Katherine, Nina and Jill could run quickly, leaving her to be the human feast for these two zombies!
Again, I don't blame the actors. The writers have written ludicrous dialogue. The director has failed to direct. The producers have failed to orchestrate. All of those wonderful scenes that are available on YouTube that show the battle of wills have been ignored.
Why?
For audience members who don't remember Thom Bierdz's Phillip, what impression is Phillip making? He's a selfish jerk. How incredibly simple would it be to use some old clips to show the love that existed between Phillip and the 3 Mrs. Chancellors? What about a scene with Phillip holding his infant son?
I joked about Driscoll and Bierdz leaden acting but they are actors following the scripts and direction of their showrunners. Bell & Co. are failing.
11 April 2009
21 hours 5 min
Christel Khalil is doing a great job today. Finally, her Lily told Neil to shut up and let Olivia speak!
22 January 2008
34 min 21 sec
Looks like you read my comments in the First Impressions of John Driscoll post.
***
LOL No, Josstheguy I didn't read your comments. On the rare ocassion I have been known to be able to formulate a thought or three on my little old own.
22 January 2008
34 min 21 sec
As for Lane well they've always been the only reason I tune in to Y&R so I'm glad you can finally see the appeal.
***
I didn't say I finally saw the appeal, I said they finally became appealing for me. Big difference. It isn't that Cane and Lily were some great, authentic supercouple I refused to acknowledge. I didn't care for their forced, rebound romance. Now, seeing the look in Cane's eyes as he had to tell her the truth, and the pain she exemplified at being duped by yet another man, made me start to root for them.
3 March 2009
21 weeks 6 days
Firstly, I would like to commend the author of this article. The paragraph about Thom Bierdz "non-acting" skills is so TRUE that even my grandmother was talking about it. My grandmother said "when he is suppose talk, there is a pause which is so present that Y&R had become unbearable to watch". The dialogue flowed so well when Tricia Cast, Jeanne Cooper, Jess Walton and Daniel Goddard were talking, but every time Thom Bierdz was to say he look completely lost as if he is not aware that it his turn to recite his lines.
MAB, has done some awful things, but Thom Bierdz has had to be the worst - I mean the WORST - MAB has done so far. Geez, I would rather watch that awful chipmunk storyline again, than watch Thom Bierdz on my screen.
24 January 2008
29 weeks 4 days
i'm not a long time viewer and missed all the original phillip drama, but what really bothered me was his line to nina that she would drive chance away like she'd driven him away. if i missed something, ok, but torturing your family, sending a fake, then showing up out of the blue seems to be a choice you made. there is such a thing as divorce if you were afraid to come out of the closet. i felt like he just put this whole thing on nina. kind of a copout.
i also loved nina constantly touching chance to make sure he was there. i like that tricia cast!
so, still not a lily fan, but was happy for the cane/amber scene. i like her with daniel, but i would never mind revisiting cane and amber.
11 April 2009
21 hours 5 min
Jamey wrote,
"LOL No, Josstheguy I didn't read your comments. On the rare ocassion I have been known to be able to formulate a thought or three on my little old own."
Ugh... I was suggesting that we were in agreement, that's all.
17 July 2009
9 hours 9 min
I loved Nina's speech about raising P4/Chance without a father. She really let Philip have it. But now she's acting like Phillip's cheerleader. "Don't worry, he'll come around." Are you kidding me? How about, "If you ever tell me how to handle MY son again I'll slap the taste out of your mouth"? I can understand Jill playing down her anger because she wants her son back. But what does Nina gain by befriending Phillip and acting as if he did something noble? He's never coming back to her, but she's sucking up to him anyway.
15 May 2008
1 hour 22 min
Reading this, I knew I didn't have to write a damn thing! *LOL* Oy Angie Lucy don't get mes started on Nina.... I don't care how understand she's being, she should bust Phillip's ass! This is just all shades of wrong especially since MAB and co have established Phillip's the "love" of Nina's life.
22 January 2008
34 min 21 sec
Jamey wrote,
"LOL No, Josstheguy I didn't read your comments. On the rare ocassion I have been known to be able to formulate a thought or three on my little old own."
Ugh... I was suggesting that we were in agreement, that's all.
***
Oh, okay, well then I beg your pardon. i didn't see the episode until the weekend, so I purposefully didn't read Luke's First Impressions post.
11 December 2008
11 weeks 3 days
Huh? Wha? Jamey wrote a blog that I agreed with? Rooting for Cane? Wait. Is this Candid Camera? Did hell freeze over last night? Lemme go check, I'll brb.
Now about Thom Bierdz: He never could act. This is true. But it wasn't THAT bad 20 years ago since many of his scenes were opposite Lauralee Bell (who sucked majorly in the 80s and 90s) and Brenda Dickson (who was campy to me). He could kinda blend. Plus, he always did sound like he had rocks in his mouth, but he was a drunk so it fit. But now, TB is out of his league surrounded by Tricia Cast AND Daniel Goddard AND Jess Walton. And now there will be John Driscoll who, by all accounts, is a real actor too. They're all mopping the floor with him and it's embarrassing. I was all set to hate Cane. On paper (or rather... online spoilers), he was an ass. But the way Daniel Goddard is playing this is tugging my heartstrings. I end each of his epis wanting to hold out my arms to Cane and say: "You effed up, Boo, but come here and lay your head on my bosoms."
One of the biggest issues with the writing of the story is that we're supposed to forget: 1) that Amber is the one who connected all of the dots between Cane and the Chancellors and she is the one who really brought him to the family, 2) that we're supposed to forget what we just watched during Delia's paternity, Chloe's pregnancy and Cane's arrival in town just two years ago and 3) Phillip went from being a sympathetic character to a character that I hate. (Not love-to-hate... just hate as in cringe-when-he-shows-up-onscreen.)
But all would be forgiven if only Nina would whup Phillip's ass like Della Reese did to Eddie Murphy in that back alley on "Harlem Nights."
15 May 2008
1 hour 22 min
Pure_Diva on rare occasions, DC has *GASP* criticize a soap even if we do like it and also give props to a coupling that some fans like *LOL.* Thom's making me root for Cane who conned my girls Kay and Jill and now its becoming a romance with Cane and Lily. Seeing the promo, I have to admit it made me get a bit sad....
11 April 2009
21 hours 5 min
Pure_Diva,
Ditto!
8 May 2008
7 weeks 22 hours
Hey, everyone, David and I said that the show has been getting bit plot driven and everyone was like, No way, I love Y&R, LOL. Just playing, but I guess since most of the soaps is so bad, that we look at Y&R like Masterpiece Theater and didn't have a problem with it. But now they are big problems with the show. The quad the hell is ruined and I don't want to see them for the last four months, the Adam gaslighting Ashley and everyone around him are so stupid that it isn't making any sense. The lack of s/l for the Winters, bad actors Eva, Eden, Amelia that is not working. Deacon coming back blackmailing Amber so he can sleep with her. That came out of nowhere. And the P3 reveal that has fallen flat and I don't know how to save that s/l. I feel that Hogan is not working for Y&R and they need to get someone that can get back to character driven s/ls that is Y&R.
22 January 2008
34 min 21 sec
Simonstuart, David has been going into every thread he could find—even ones that had absolutely nothing to do with Y&R— for well over a month, screaming about how awful Y&R was, saying it was ripping off Passions and that Maria should be fired. Hogan destroys soaps and the Paul is racist. I don't agree with any of that. I believe the Phillip return has been a complete and utter bust and that going so quickly into a new plot with Lily is a bad move. so I said so. I am still enjoying the gaslighting, I love Nick and Phyllis' triangle, although making the baby brain damaged was a bit much, I am also loving Mary Jane and her Kitty and the addition of Deacon Sharpe. Just because I am critical of Phillip's return does not mean I think Y&R is some awful, Passions-esque soap opera.
4 May 2008
1 year 41 weeks
Thom Bierdz is perfectly fine in the role. It's Chance I have a problem with. A little too stoic.
And yes, where are the damn flashbacks? This is so ridic! Stories like these are why flashbacks were invented!!!
Y&R has become somewhat Passions-esque which is probably why I love it (I began watching Y&R full time when Passions ended). But Y&R has always been campy. ALWAYS. Particularly during the Bill Bell 90s.
11 December 2008
11 weeks 3 days
Mary Jane and Stuffy are the reasons I get up at the crack o' lunch. I think Mary Jane is the best villain since... Sheila.
30 March 2009
17 hours 53 min
Oh gosh Jamey...This story went from being a close second on my current favorite storylines on Y&R to dead last. Thom Bierdz is dreadful!!! I love everyone else's acting within the story except for his. It's killing it for me. I don't remember him from his first stint on Y&R but he's got to go and quickly!!! I guess the writing has something to do with it as well but it's up to the actor to sell a story and I'm sorry I just can't buy it. Everything with the story has been great until Philip III came to GC and interrupted the BBQ at the Chancellor Estate.
Auntie Ri Ri is still on my good side though. I Y&R is still more enjoyable than it was under LML. (That's just my opinion.)