A Critic’s Review of Young and the Restless: Content And Continuity

When it comes to 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: A Critic’s Week In Review

The more I watch The Young and the Restless, the more convinced I am that Josh Griffith has no earthly idea how to plan a long-term storyline. Whatever works on any given day is what the episode writer goes with, and whether that links up to scripts that will be written weeks or months later isn’t at all important to anyone.

Last year, Ashland Locke (Robert Newman) was a dying man who loved his son and loved Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle)…he was also played by Richard Burgi but that’s neither here nor there. Now, Ashland has been unmasked for the duplicitous villain he’s apparently always been. Does it track? Not at all. Does anyone at The Young and the Restless care? Nope.

Tessa Porter (Cait Fairbanks) and Mariah Copeland (Camryn Grimes) have been planning their wedding for what seems like ages now, and the best they can come up with is, “at sometime in the near future, there will be an update concerning our wedding which will take place sometime in the near future.” WHAT?!

In the time it’s taken these two to propose to one another and begin to contemplate the big day, some other couples have been married, broken apart, slept with other people, and found their way back to one another.

You know what, now that I’ve thought about it, I have to take back what I said previously. Josh Griffith does have a long-term plan where The Young and the Restless is concerned…and that is drain the show of any and all dramatic possibility…and to make me hate Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson).

Seriously, Mariah finds out that Abby Carlton Newman Abbott Chancellor (Melissa Ordway) and co. kept Dominic’s illness from her until after he’d had a bone marrow transplant, and she merely shrugs her shoulders and goes back to wondering whether or not Dollywood hosts weddings. And honestly, has there ever, in the history of soapdom, been a more pathetic, more self-loathing character than Billy?

Further Y&R Musings

* Dear Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford), an unlocked door is not an invitation for you to just walk on in.

* Here’s hoping we see more scenes of Chance Chancellor (Conner Floyd) in counsel with his new therapist.

* Nicholas Newman (Joshua Morrow) really needs to look up the definition of insanity in the dictionary. I pretty sure his picture is next to the word, and the example given is his constant return to the Newman family fold only to find himself used, abused, and betrayed.

* Would Neil Winters (played by the late, great Kristoff St. John) really want to see the company he helped found absorbed by Chancellor Enterprises? I think not Lily (Christel Khalil)! Also, I’d really appreciate it if The Young and the Restless would stop invoking Neil’s name and memory in reference to all these asinine plot points. He deserves much, MUCH better.

The Young and the Restless (YR) airs weekdays on CBS. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Genoa City, check out all the latest that’s been posted on Y&R spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.