A Critic’s Review Of The Young and the Restless: Soap Trope & Strange Bedfellows

When it comes to The Young and the Restless, every fan has their own opinion – and Soap Hub is no different. For five days, we sat and watched the good, the bad, and everything in between, and now we offer you a handy review, and a cheeky critique, of Y&R’s week that was.

The Young and the Restless: The Critic Offers HIS Take

Though an admitted carper where the character of Christine (Lauralee Bell) is concerned, there’s no denying that the artist formerly known as Cricket is quintessentially classic Y&R. The embodiment of much better days gone by.

And how glorious were those flashbacks? Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) and “The Bug” at loggerheads, the agony and the ecstasy that was Christine and Danny’s (Michael Damian) thwarted romance, Christine and Nina’s (Tricia Cast) abiding [and admittedly weird] friendship, and Christine and Paul’s (Doug Davidson) tragic love story.

If only the retrospective hadn’t come to the seeming conclusion that what a woman really needs to be fulfilled is a man and a baby and if she can’t have one, then she’d damn sure better have the other.

Further Y&R Musings

* If the point of having Nicholas (Joshua Morrow) and co. — Nicholas especially — act like petulant brats is to bolster Adam’s (Mark Grossman) appeal and rooting value, then mission accomplished.

* It’s a classic soap trope as old as the genre itself, but why oh why do characters still find it prudent to discuss indelicate topics like betraying one’s own family to the enemy in heavily trafficked areas? It would have served Kyle (Michael Mealor) and Audra (Zuleyka Silver) right had someone chanced upon them in Chancellor Park and become privy to their scheme.

* Someone might want to drop a note to the COOs of the world that their position is a token one, meaningless, and lacking in power.

* While it was nice to see Mariah and her portrayer Camryn Grimes back on screen, it would behoove Josh Griffith to actually invest in the character by having her front and center on a continuing basis in addition to her partner and tot.

It’s more than difficult for the audience to care about Aria’s plight when the vast majority of the storyline either plays out off-screen or is relayed via a few lines of dialogue.

* Why yes Ashley (Eileen Davidson), the question that Mamie (Veronica Redd) is asking herself is how she got involved with the likes of Tucker McCall (Trevor St. John) — especially when even a cursory internet search would have illustrated her strange bedfellows’ unsuitability.

And speaking of epic failures on Mamie’s part, what would prompt her to program Tucker’s full name into her contacts list? Couldn’t the plot have been further without such blatant idiocy?

All I can say is thank goodness for the magnetic performances being offered up by the likes of Davidson and St. John. They are what’s making this “Fall Of The House Of Abbott” tolerable.

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

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