A Critic’s Review of Young and the Restless: More Fizzle Than Sizzle

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

Does anyone else remember when February was month chockablock with engaging, exciting storylines? It’s clear that the writers of The Young and the Restless don’t. This is a soap that’s all about tease and the setup. When it comes to follow through, stories that should sizzle tend to fizzle.

The health crisis being suffered by Dominic of the Many Names should be a canvas-encompassing storyline. Instead, Abby Carlton Newman Abbott Chancellor (Melissa Ordway) and co. have decided to keep schtum about the babe’s yet-to-be quantified blood disorder.

Keemo Volien (Phillip Moon) should have roared back into town, with a family in tow, ready to make life a misery for Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and his kin, but instead, the character has been unceremoniously dispatched off-screen.

Now, what could have been an exciting battle for control of Jabot or Keemo demanding a cut of the Abbott fortune is merely an excuse for Jack to wallow in self-pity and manpain. Been there, done that, currently watching it play out via Billy Abbott’s (Jason Thompson) career as a podcaster with all the answers to life’s ails.

And please, please don’t get me started on Ashland Locke (Robert Newman). When this character and his plight were first introduced, there were three possible outcomes: he would succumb to his terminal cancer, he would be miraculously cured, or it would be revealed that he was faking his condition.

I’ve written at length as to why the latter option would make the least sense and be the path of least resistance, so I won’t go into that now. What I will say is that it doesn’t surprise me in the least that this is the route that The Young and the Restless has taken. It irks, but it doesn’t surprise.

Further Y&R Musings

* Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t paperwork and bureaucracy part and parcel in the corporate world? Would Nate Hastings (Sean Dominic) not just be leaving one unfulfilling job for another?

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.