Restless Rant
Week of June 24 – 28:

A “Y&R” viewer I know personally, who has watched since the show began and who rarely missed an episode, told me this week that he had stopped watching. This felt important enough to mention here. Among the reasons given were the botched paternity storyline (“the last straw”) and the abundance of recasts and newbies. Soaps.com has also seen an increase in the number of emails from readers who basically aren’t enjoying the show anymore. Many core characters have become unrecognizable in a quest to further plots, and the show is often boring. The show is full of fantastic actors and so the show is always watchable thanks to them, however, “Y&R” has not been what it should be, which is fabulous. Thoughts on the week:

Phyllis’ surprise party.
Instead of the high drama of Nick and Phyllis telling Summer the truth about her paternity that we were expecting, we instead got Phyllis running around like the village idiot trying to keep Summer and Kyle apart. It’s not that the comedic aspect wasn’t appreciated; it’s just that who could believe Phyllis would handle it this way – especially after working so hard to get back on track with Summer after the Ronan thing? Not to mention that it was inconceivable that they would wait to tell Summer and allow her to continue crushing and kissing on her half-brother. Incidentally, the Phyllis and Kyle hook-up would have been far more entertaining with the former Kyle. Still can’t see the reason for the recast… On a positive note, Abby walking into the Abbott living room and getting an eyeful of Phyllis and Kyle kissing was definitely a ‘moment’.

Dear Abby.
Abby’s really working the nerves lately…she’s kind of unappealing. While she may have had to tell Victoria that Alex isn’t ‘the one’, viewers already knew.

This is happiness.
In the make-it-stop category we have Chelsea with her tears and gushing over her fairytale romance with Dylan, who seems to do nothing but give humble, heartfelt speeches these days. One tries to get into the romance of it, but it’s just too contrived to muster up any genuine emotion about them (unless you count pity and perhaps a little indignant anger on clueless Dylan’s behalf). Worse, viewers have had to sit through scenes of this poor schmuck wondering if what he’s offering is ‘good enough’. Considering where Chelsea came from, functional living in Dylan’s loft is a big step up, and considering what she’s doing, it’s way too good for her.

Hello dollies.
It was hard to believe that Chloe thought Kevin taking a shift in a soup kitchen was going to make everything better, but thankfully he didn’t bother anyway. We’re also thankful that Delia and her dollies didn’t get to Chloe enough to stop her from uttering the other ‘d’ word we’ve been waiting to hear – divorce. Chloe and Billy’s interaction has been a breath of fresh air despite the depressing issues surrounding them.

It’s over.
While the inclination is to be angry with Victoria for giving Billy the boot, after all, Jill, Chloe, and Jack are being supportive; she makes a good point when it comes to him putting her and the kids at risk. Notably, there are weird parallels to her dealings with Daddy Dearest, who has also endangered her loved ones, but still manages to get her to forgive him every time. In fact, she may find Victor has had a hand in Billy’s troubles yet again. The theory floating about that Carmine is on Victor’s payroll is a dandy. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what she’ll do if she’s preggers. Also on the subject of Victoria, what the heck was up with all that talk about Reed coming to stay and something being wrong with JT? It was so out-of-the-blue and then was just dropped!