Young and the Restless’ Michael Baldwin Flashbacks Tell A Sad Story

This week, The Young and the Restless celebrated all things Michael Baldwin and Christian Le Blanc, marking the actor and character’s 30 years on the soap. For the anniversary, the episode consisted of several flashbacks featuring Michael, and they tell a sad story indeed.

Young and the Restless: What’s Lacking

When Michael told Lauren Fenmore Baldwin (Tracey Bregman) that he’d won yet another off-screen trial, we couldn’t help but feel frustrated. We barely even got to see any of Michael’s trial with Amanda Sinclair (Mishael Morgan). Hearing about something else that didn’t really happen seemed empty, especially for a celebratory episode.

Throughout the show, flashbacks of Michael during his three-decade run on The Young and the Restless played, and they were far more interesting and dramatic than anything happening on the soap these days. It’s hard to believe that those in charge of the show put together this episode without realizing this glaring fact.

Michael Baldwin Needs More Airtime

Another thing we realized watching the complicated history of Michael in Genoa City is that The Young and the Restless needs to put this character in a front-burner storyline. Lately, he’s rarely onscreen. However, Le Blanc is superb at his job, and he’s a credit to the show. In fact, the Fisher-Baldwin family is a credit to the soap. With all these complex characters, we simply cannot believe that Y&R isn’t taking full advantage of all the soapy drama they could stir up.

Overall, we think more storylines with Michael would make the soap opera more interesting. We hope that we’ll see more of him now that he’s not spending all his time trying cases off-screen.

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.