Devon and Tyra's Hot Plot Mess of a Romp, Plus How to Fix Y&R's "Black Storyline"
When I first read the spoilers that Devon (Bryton McClure) and Tyra (Eva Marcille)— whom he believed was his aunt up until just a few months ago— would be hooking up on The Young and the Restless, I decided to wait and see how the story/scenes would play out before making a judgement call. Sometimes the most taboo, illicit circumstances can lead to good, juicy drama on soaps. That wasn't the case with this ridiculous plot twist.
Devon and Tyra ripping each other's clothes off, before getting busy on the couch, was all shades of nasty, and just plain wrong on so many levels. For starters, Devon and Tyra's attraction came out of left field. Does Y&R's brass really believe the one, tired wet dream Devon had a few weeks back was enough to set up this hot plot mess? This isn't how you spin stories on a soap opera. You don't drop some dangling plot point and then pick it up weeks later, believing it was proper enough set up for an out-of-character twist.
Unless I am mistaken, we've never seen Devon so much as lose his virginity on this show. Now the character's first real love scene has McClure playing Billy Bob to Marcille's wannabe Halle Berry?
"I half expected her to start grunting I want you to make me feel good," Luke wrote to me in an email after watching the scene play out.
To make matters worse, there hasn't been a hint of romantic or erotic subtext played between these two characters, ever. Devon has been furious with Tyra ever since he learned the homewrecker wasn't his biological relation, however McClure hasn't been playing it as "I hate you because I want you." For weeks, any time Devon has been in Tyra's orbit, he has looked at her with revulsion, contempt and pity. Which brings me to what I felt for Marcille after seeing her woefull attempts to emote during the scenes.
I am sorry, but it's time to stop tip-toeing around the hair model in the room. Eva Marcille just plain cannot act and Paul Rauch and Maria Arena Bell know it. You put out a casting call for a "new Dru" and this is what you came up with? What exactly were the requirements for this "new Dru", that she be African-American, pretty and the star of a reality show? Marcille is as bad an actress as she is a breathtaking beauty—and she's quite beautiful.
I can name half a dozen strong, black and yes, beautiful actresses who could help fill the enormous void left by Victoria Rowell on Y&R. Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long, Robin Givens, Holly Robinson, Amelia Marshall, Renee Goldsberry all come to mind. No, they weren't top models, but they are actresses, and one would hope that still counts for something on a soap opera.
Even Tatyana Ali, whom Y&R has failed to utilize as Roxanne, could shine opposite fellow teen sitcom alum McClure if given half the chance and a decent storyline. Emmy-winners Kristoff St. John and McClure deserve better than to have to spend their sparse screen time trying to teach Marcille how to act. It's dragging down their performances and making fans apathetic about a family unit we once loved.
Here's a thought, put Ali on contract as Roxanne, recast Marcille with someone who can do more than furrow her eyebrows to denote feelings (Passions' Brook Kerr would do nicely), then pit Roxanne and Tyra against each other. It's not like we can take back yesterday's disgusting episode—unless Y&R borrows from Dallas and makes it all one big nightmare— so they should go balls to the wall with it!
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Comments
2 February 2009
3 hours 1 min
YES YES YES! Please tell me Jamey that these are stolen story breakdowns from Y&R and you are slyly passing them off here so that we don't lose all hope after burning our retinas with yesterday's episode!!!!
Your story projections here are AWESOME...
The part that involves Ashley would mean that the writers have found a way to make her sane again too, which I really want to see happen.
THANK YOU
19 November 2007
2 years 15 weeks
I'm at a loss. . . if Y&R even picked up an 1/8th of this suggested storyline, things for the Winters would be sooooo much better. Good job, Jamey.
28 April 2009
2 years 16 weeks
Totally agree Jamey. Great suggestions. Eva can not act. We've been saying it, but no one's listening! Devon has had little romantic scenes (if any) and he gets this? With his former aunt? Yuck. Although, seeing Devon try to explain this should be a hoot. He's always trying so hard to be good and unlike his mother. Now, that's another one "Y&R" could recast. Yolanda comes back to bond w/ her children and sets her sights on Neil again. Tyra gets wind of it and Yolanda gets rid of her! I don't care how. Accidental shooting and leave the body in Neil's apt. lol U got suspects in that house. Even bring back Karen for motive and means (she still wants Ana). Like U said Jamey, the writers need to pay some attention to this s/l. Work it! Not kill it! imo
11 April 2009
12 hours 48 min
Jamey,
Good suggestions. Does anyone from Y&R read Daytime Confidential? Unfortunately, I wonder if Y&R has the budget to add any more characters.
At the moment, the only soap to expend any serious effort into a decent complex storyline featuring African-Americans is "One Life to Live" (although GL has done a small but decent job with Remy and Christina). But those characters aren't in an exclusive "black storyline." The characters operate in an integrated town where they interact with all of the other characters through families, friends, and working relationships.
In contrast, Y&R's African-American characters are mainly ghettoized in their storylines (with the exception of Lily). I wonder if the writers at Y&R are just caught in a web of "but their black: how do I write for them"? Maybe part of the issue is describing things as a "black storyline" if it implies segregating the characters (as they are now) in the minds of the writers?
We've discussed the show's need for African-American and other writers of color. But even without such writers, intelligent and thoughtful white writers could create vital, three dimensional authentic characters of color if they tried. One of pop literature's most successful book series is the Alex Cross mysteries. Cross is an African-American Ph.d psychologist and FBI agent. His creator is white and has done a great job of developing the character.
Y&R seems to fail at creating such authenticity. I'd add that Rafe also suffers from poor character development. We know he's Latino. But is he Mexican, Colombian, Ecuadorian, or some other Latin ethnicity? He's a recurring character; so, maybe being two dimensional is okay?
P.S.
Why is the son of a wealthy CEO's home dingy? Have you looked at the walls of Devon's home? If Billy can move into Murphy's old trailer and have it revamped to a retro-styled bachelor pad, why couldn't Neil spring at least for a bucket of paint for his kid's home?
11 April 2009
12 hours 48 min
Renee Jones.
I miss evil Lexie. She was fun, dastardly, but sympathetic. Days certainly hasn't shown her much respect.
11 February 2008
3 weeks 3 days
Seriously...., I am going to drop "PC" by the wayside and ask WHO is Eva Pigford sleeping with? The woman cannot act her way out of a shopping bag and she's on contract, while the veterans are being pushed into pay cuts. It's obvious that they are desperately trying to find a place for her on the show since it appears that tptb realized the fans do not want her with Neil. I vote we drop kick Tyra entirelyy. Let her pick up little Sally sing a long form camp and keep it moving away from GC.
I would love to see Renee Goldberry come to GC as Valerie Montagne an executive newly relocated from Jabot's newly opened Paris office where she was sent to oversee the new Eupopean headquaters. I would like to see Jack and Neil parry over the new woman in town. It's time we had a strong woman on the show, and for her to be AA would be wonderful.
30 March 2009
14 hours 33 min
JAMEY thank you for addressing this. You saw several of us were commenting on this ridiculous plot point under another thread. I wish Nicki was still doing the daily recap because I am sure more have been waiting to chastise this disgusting storyline.
Gosh that mind of yours could do wonders for soap operas but I don't want you to EVER leave daytime confidential so I'm torn. If MAB and Co. are reading this please take note. Jamey put it greatly. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to fix the "black" storyline on Y&R. Please do it and quickly!!!
8 May 2008
1 week 3 days
This s/l is horrible and MAB and Co. needs to be fired. I sorry, but something happen midstream to have them come up with these terrible s/ls and plot driven mess on the show and fans are not happy with it. I don't trust Scheffer, Bell and Rauch to come up with a good s/l for the main characters, they certainly isn't going to come up with a decent s/l for the AA characters that doesn't involve a social issue of the week.
22 January 2008
12 min 28 sec
Simon Stuart, i do not believe Maria, or anyone should be fired because of a few bad storylines. I love OLTL, but they have turkeys from time to time to. Maria's overall comittment to the show in tellling stories for beloved vets alone makes her a keeper. I am just offering constructive criticism. I am not one for calling for writer's heads everytime I dislike a couple of stories.
15 October 2008
13 weeks 6 days
I don't think Eva is that bad, but I can't complain about the suggestions b/c somethng has to be done w/these storylines.
28 November 2008
8 weeks 4 days
This scene came right out of left field. They have absolutely NO chemistry .I just don't know what they were thinking & where it's going.
15 May 2008
11 hours 56 min
If Maria and co need to be fired for one storyline then hell, daytime will not have any writers.
17 November 2008
7 weeks 4 days
Eva Marcille should be brought up on charges for impersonating an actor. A fruit basket has more talent than that thing.
14 December 2008
7 weeks 5 days
The story didn't just come out of left field. It came out of a ball park in another city altogether. I'm with Jamey and Jillian that this disaster isn't a reason to start a lynch mob asking for the writing staff's heads, but it's definitely one of those failing grades on their "report card" that they need to get rid of pronto.
The funny thing is that I remember a time when Y&R was unique in that it didn't have to resort to the "black storyline" to make use of their African-American actors. While back in 1990-91, you had all these characters - Dru, Liv, Neil, Nathan, Mamie - interacting with each other, they also had ties to the rest of Genoa City and that was still true when they added Malcolm a few years later. Nathan worked for Paul. Mamie was like a member of the Abbott family. Liv established a friendship with sorority sister Ashley, who already was tied in through Mamie. Neil worked for Jabot and Malcolm took pix for Jabot and Newman. And these were things we saw regularly, as part of the story. But these days, it seems like without Lily's story and the occasional mention of Neil's work at Chancellor, everything in the orbit of the Winters family is in its own little circle, and that's sad. And now we have Devon and Tyra. That's going to change things? That's only going to make it worse.
Something's got to be done. If not something along the lines of what Jamey suggested, then find something else. But do something other than follow the path other soaps have already gone down (with little success) that will only make a bad problem worse.
27 November 2007
1 year 28 weeks
11 April 2009
12 hours 48 min
I still wish that when Karen saw Neil and Tyra kiss, instead of walking away, she said, "Bitch! What the hell do you think you're doing with my man?" Suddenly, in homage to the world's greatest cat fight of Jonelle Allen vs. Vivica A. Fox on Generations, two other women of color have a brawl over Kristof St. John's soap character.
Let's face facts: An open, brutal war between Karen and Tyra would have been HOT! Nia Peeples was awesome when she was finally given the chance to burn up the burners and be strong and powerful.
19 June 2009
3 days 16 hours
I love most of the storyline suggestions except for casting GL's Lawrence St. Victor as Nate. Please don't suggest getting rid of one bad actor (Eva Marcille) only to bring on another bad actor (St. Victor)!
And someone needs to just tell writers who think they can't write black storylines: Just write a good story! A story written for white characters is the same as a story for black characters. Black and white characters love, hate, work, relax, etc.
8 May 2008
1 week 3 days
Well, Hogan needs to go. I don't think that MAB is the problem, but Hogan with the plot driven mess Y&R has become. Get rid of Eva and bring on Amelia Marshell, or Renee Jones to play a ruthless business exec to take over Jabot or Newman and Neil falls for her. The black s/ls have been neglected and the core AA fans are not happy with the show.
30 March 2009
14 hours 33 min
Siomonstuart2003...how do you figure that this is just Hogan? I have never understood how some people try to place the blame on only one of the headwriters. I'm sorry Y&R has three co-headwriters. MAB, Hogan, and Scott Hamner are the headwriters for the show. I don't know how you all justify singleing out one member of the writing team. They are all responsible for it.
I agree with those above who have said that MAB and Co. shouldn't be dismissed for a couple of turkey storylines. Overrall Y&R isn't as bad as some would have you to believe. I have seen it MUCH WORSE...LML years for anyone who is curious.
4 May 2009
4 hours 37 min
I remember when LML was running this show and Devon had it hard up for his sister and now this.
It caught me off guard yesterday to say the least.
3 December 2008
4 weeks 4 days
Watching them together made me want to gouge my eyes out. Bad idea of a storyline. Very very bad.
11 April 2009
12 hours 48 min
To be fair, when Devon had a crush on Lily, they weren't really brother and sister. He was still a foster kid who was getting to know the Winters.
7 April 2009
1 year 48 weeks
Wait, *this* is allowed by CBS but Olivia and Natalia kissing *isn't*?
11 April 2009
12 hours 48 min
Shoot4theMoon,
On GL, Jonathan and Tammy were first cousins by blood and they got married. So, GL and CBS don't have problem with incest, real or faux.
5 February 2009
7 weeks 6 days
I was hollerin' like hell yesterday when Devon and Tyra started getting their grove on!!! Now I've been in the corner of Y&R's writers for awhile, but now they are starting to piss me off. Who wants to see incest? The scraps the AA characters are getting is annoying and unwarranted. Even LML allowed the Winters' family to shine on occasion. Paul Rauch needs to be offering Victoria Rowell the solar system to return to the show because she would be their saving grace. In fact, I've got a writer's breakdown of my own in how to bring Dru back in full force.
-Roxanne decides to get revenge on Devon and Tyra for their tryst, so she keeps everything she saw to her self
-Neil asks Tyra to accompany him to a Chancellor business function where he commits to a relationship with her
-Devon asks Roxanee to move in and she excitedly accepts; she plots to get pregnant
-Ana returns and accidents thwarts Roxanne's twisted plan to poison Tyra with cyanide
-Roxanne, suffering from a psychotic breakdown, cuts the breaks on Tyra's car
-When Devon takes off in the vehicle, Roxanne accompanys him and blurts out what she has done in a climatic scene ending in a car crash
-Neil ships Devon to recover at a Canadian hospital while Roxanne is carted off to an asylum where it is revealed that she is pregnant
-Tyra and Ana are ecstatic when Neil takes them on a trip to Paris; Neil proposes to Tyra
-Devon is visited by a veiled mysterious stranger who weeps over him
-Olivia hears a doctor in Genoa City comment on a patient he is performing extensive plastic surgery on and is asked to assist
-A Friday tag ends with Dr. Winters and her colleague learned that their patient is none other than Drucilla Winters in the form of Victoria Rowell
5 February 2009
7 weeks 6 days
I was hollerin' like hell yesterday when Devon and Tyra started getting their grove on!!! Now I've been in the corner of Y&R's writers for awhile, but now they are starting to piss me off. Who wants to see incest? The scraps the AA characters are getting is annoying and unwarranted. Even LML allowed the Winters' family to shine on occasion. Paul Rauch needs to be offering Victoria Rowell the solar system to return to the show because she would be their saving grace. In fact, I've got a writer's breakdown of my own in how to bring Dru back in full force.
-Roxanne decides to get revenge on Devon and Tyra for their tryst, so she keeps everything she saw to her self
-Neil asks Tyra to accompany him to a Chancellor business function where he commits to a relationship with her
-Devon asks Roxanee to move in and she excitedly accepts; she plots to get pregnant
-Ana returns and accidents thwarts Roxanne's twisted plan to poison Tyra with cyanide
-Roxanne, suffering from a psychotic breakdown, cuts the breaks on Tyra's car
-When Devon takes off in the vehicle, Roxanne accompanys him and blurts out what she has done in a climatic scene ending in a car crash
-Neil ships Devon to recover at a Canadian hospital while Roxanne is carted off to an asylum where it is revealed that she is pregnant
-Tyra and Ana are ecstatic when Neil takes them on a trip to Paris; Neil proposes to Tyra
-Devon is visited by a veiled mysterious stranger who weeps over him
-Olivia hears a doctor in Genoa City comment on a patient he is performing extensive plastic surgery on and is asked to assist
-A Friday tag ends with Dr. Winters and her colleague learned that their patient is none other than Drucilla Winters in the form of Victoria Rowell
5 February 2009
7 weeks 6 days
I was hollerin' like hell yesterday when Devon and Tyra started getting their grove on!!! Now I've been in the corner of Y&R's writers for awhile, but now they are starting to piss me off. Who wants to see incest? The scraps the AA characters are getting is annoying and unwarranted. Even LML allowed the Winters' family to shine on occasion. Paul Rauch needs to be offering Victoria Rowell the solar system to return to the show because she would be their saving grace. In fact, I've got a writer's breakdown of my own in how to bring Dru back in full force.
-Roxanne decides to get revenge on Devon and Tyra for their tryst, so she keeps everything she saw to her self
-Neil asks Tyra to accompany him to a Chancellor business function where he commits to a relationship with her
-Devon asks Roxanee to move in and she excitedly accepts; she plots to get pregnant
-Ana returns and accidents thwarts Roxanne's twisted plan to poison Tyra with cyanide
-Roxanne, suffering from a psychotic breakdown, cuts the breaks on Tyra's car
-When Devon takes off in the vehicle, Roxanne accompanys him and blurts out what she has done in a climatic scene ending in a car crash
-Neil ships Devon to recover at a Canadian hospital while Roxanne is carted off to an asylum where it is revealed that she is pregnant
-Tyra and Ana are ecstatic when Neil takes them on a trip to Paris; Neil proposes to Tyra
-Devon is visited by a veiled mysterious stranger who weeps over him
-Olivia hears a doctor in Genoa City comment on a patient he is performing extensive plastic surgery on and is asked to assist
-A Friday tag ends with Dr. Winters and her colleague learned that their patient is none other than Drucilla Winters in the form of Victoria Rowell
6 April 2008
2 years 19 weeks
Y&R has a penchant for marginalizing characters like Neil, Roxy, Olivia, Lauren, JT, Devon...while giving way too much airtime to characters/actors who can't deliver: Amber, Adam, Mac, Lily, Phillip, Tyra, Ash-toria: I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS!?!?!
The Devon/Tyra encounter started out awesome - give it to her Devon - (I came to regret those words), but their tryst skeeved me out!
What's with Neil dumping everything on Roxy to go take care of business??!?!? Seriously, the man couldn't spend 30 seconds to help the girl through the door...Neil is a gentleman; he would have never done that...THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR LAZY WRITING!!
5 August 2009
2 years 39 weeks
I am disgusted by this storyline. It is NASTY!!!!
19 June 2009
3 days 16 hours
josstheguy, CBS loves incest stories. Look at Bold & the Beautiful, incestuous relationships abound like tacky "designer" gowns.