Unpopular Young & Restless Opinions — Plus, Is Daniel Sticking Around and What the Heck’s Going On With Adam?!?

Credit: Getty Images, Howard Wise/JPI

Young & Restless has been so much better in its 50th amazing year, but the writing continues to bump up against the same issues it’s suffered from in the recent past, and those choices lead to lots of opinions. I share mine and a couple of others’ below.

Skip the Details

The endless scenes of Chelsea with her therapist at the facility and settling into her apartment, from which Tessa and Mariah were moved at the speed of light sight unseen, were — in a word — boring. This is November Sweeps!

Chelsea being shown her new apartment is so riveting. Just stellar story. #YR

— Roslyn 🦃🌰🍁 (@calirozzy) November 16, 2022

Regardless of the sensitive nature of the character’s particular struggle, it’s entirely unnecessary to delve so deeply into every mundane detail of her recovery. Soap fans aren’t tuning in to see that — it’s called “fast-forward material”. This regime doesn’t seem to get that as it’s been a recurring problem. The scenes between Chelsea, Adam, and Connor were well-written, beautifully acted, and very touching — solid family drama — but again, a lot of airtime. The story itself is not without issue and has inspired some debate:

Chelsea should not be this depressed over REY ROSALES. They weren’t married. They didn’t have an affair. They were not lifelong friends. This should have been Sharon’s story if this all stems from Rey. #yr

— Rachel (@nerd_raelin) November 4, 2022

A counterpoint to that opinion:

Sharon wasn’t in a place to come apart over Rey’s death. Nor would it have been especially believable given the vibe of that marriage. Chelsea *was* in such a place, and was subtly, steadily led to today’s episode month after month. #YR

— Justin Michael 💉💉🚀🚀 (@justymike529) November 1, 2022

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

It’s questionable to me as a viewer that Sharon, aside from putting her therapist’s hat on, would go to these lengths for Chelsea given their history. Even if you only consider that Chelsea tried to kill Rey and that he was out driving the night he died because of her, realistically, there would be some walls up there. They might have had Chelsea go “soap crazy” (true to character) and have played on that to give us some drama between them instead. Ah well, perhaps they’re positioning Chelsea at Crimson Lights so she can repeatedly start bumping into Chance, which brings us to another possibly unpopular opinion…

What Just Happened?

Abby and Chance’s entire cheating/marriage-ending scenario came out of the blue and moved way too fast. I’d have believed that Chance had “seen it coming” if they had played sexual tension between Devon and Abby at any time in the weeks/months leading up to this. It wasn’t a thing. That said, I had no problem with them going there. It was a shock in the best possible way when Devon and Abby didn’t stop at a kiss. It was even better when Amanda and Chance walked in on them. This is the big soapy drama we have been crying out for! But the quickie split of Chance and Abby reeks of a plot-driven agenda. They could have at least let Chance feel totally blindsided, punch Devon, be a mess, and be furious with Abby, etc. It felt very cut and run.

In related commentary, I loved the Abby/Ashley scenes on Friday. Ashley’s “Oh, damn” face was priceless when she realized Abby had slept with Devon. Hehe, whoops.

More: Exclusive! What’s next for Abby and Devon

All Bark, No Bite

I was glad to see Adam snarking at Sally and Nick the other day but it got me to wondering why he hasn’t done more than that — to either of them. If you’ll recall, when Sharon rejected Adam in the past he destroyed a flash drive that would have exonerated her in a murder. This is a guy who lashes out in extreme ways when he’s hurt, and you’ve got the woman he loves and his half-brother (with all of that baggage) parading around town together in his face. I get that this version of Adam has been reformed to an extent, but come on. His go-to would not to be to propose to Sally in a public place and risk being further humiliated in front of Nick. Yes, he once popped the question to Sharon in a similar way — and the romantic in me loves it — but if we’re talking true to type, Adam should have moved on to revenge after Sally rejected him on the rooftop and kept hanging out with Nick. It’s one thing to dial the character down a bit, it’s quite another to take away his bite altogether.

Applause, Applause

Daniel returns this week and the preview hints at them throwing him immediately into a triangle with Lily/Billy, which comes as no surprise. That means he’s sticking around, which is fantastic. It will be interesting to see how they’ll address the issue of his daughter Lucy. Boarding school? I’d love to see them bring her in as a teen at some point and give us a younger generation again. Phyllis dealing with a teen granddaughter who’s a young version of herself would be a hoot.

Hitting the Fan

The Diane stuff is heating up what with sides being taken and it’s made it much more engaging. It’s been a bit of a long haul to get here. What got me this week, was how Ashley and Jack have ended up on opposite sides — which plays right into Tucker’s plan — and he barely lifted a finger. I fully expect the crap to hit the fan spectacularly once Jeremy Stark shows up. Despite his threat, Tucker won’t even have to bring the guy to town himself, it’s practically a given that Phyllis, Nikki and Ashley will invite that trouble right to the front door. They’ll be thinking that his presence will send Diane packing and that will be that… but if he’s looking for a way to take revenge on her for putting him behind bars (and you know he will be — foreshadowing), then it will undoubtedly backfire in a horrible way. Diane won’t be the only one to get hurt… and the alliance will get the blame for everything that goes down, maybe even from themselves.

More: How the ‘I Hate Diane Club’s’ plot could go horribly wrong

Daytime lost a beloved star this past week. See the lovely tributes to Days of Our Lives’ John Aniston in the gallery below.