Talking Keemo, Too Much Corporation Talk, and Singing Kumbaya
This article covers the episodes through Friday, February 25th, which may have been pre-empted in your area.
Missing conflict
Not a great week in Genoa City for lovers of classic soap opera. All the drama is happening off-screen, from Dominic’s bone marrow transplant to Michael discovering that Ashland’s cancer is a major fake out. Why can’t we see those big moments happen? Where’s the conflict and THE DRAMA?
Sorry, but if you don’t have two characters on the canvas who want to literally murder each other, are you even doing soap opera? Besties heaping praise on each other’s moral standing and group hugging is not storytelling. So much sitting, so much coffee, so little action.
Character growth
A more mellow Jack and Victor putting aside their differences and having a realistic chat about mistakes and regrets was easily the highlight of the week… Phyllis turned down Summer’s job offer in Milan because she’s realized Genoa City is home. Character growth!
Victoria knows that Adam is at her company to make trouble. She doesn’t have any evidence but she correctly has her naughty brother pegged… Nikki thinks the whole Ashland story is far-fetched and hard to believe. So do we, Nicole. So do we… JILL! JILL! JILL is in the house! It was just a video chat but we’ll take what we can get.
Now call your son Billy and pull his head out of his backside… Neil Winters may have left this mortal coil, but his presence is still felt. Love seeing his photo in both Lily’s and Devon’s homes.
Jack’s Mystery Texts
Jack’s text message mystery is already full of holes. Legendary buttinsky Phyllis barely knew about Luan? Tracy didn’t know that Jack hasn’t spoken to Keemo in years? No one in the Abbott family has seen or heard from John Abbott’s eldest grandchild and never asked Jack about it?
Phyllis has done a little digging to figure out who has been sending Jack those strange text messages. She’s found the IP address and it’s a house owned by someone with the same name as Jack’s dead wife Luan’s long-dead father.
Could it be Keemo, Jack’s rarely mentioned first son and heir to all that is Abbott? Phyllis helps Jack do a Google and he’s crushed to find that Keemo has recently died. Bummer. Phyllis convinces Jack to hop a plane to Los Angeles find out what the heck is going on.
Best lines:
“Jack Abbott is buying Victor Newman a drink. Will miracles never cease?”
Mariah saying that “you only get married once” in a room that included the much-married Sharon.
Billy: “So from now on I’ll just pretend that you don’t exist.”
Ashland: “I can hardly wait.”
A few highlights of Young and the Restless that amused, intrigued or annoyed…
Nate tells Lily that he’s considering a job offer from Newman Locke and Lily counters with another job offer. What job? Oh, who knows. One can barely keep track of these ever-changing company names. This dialogue is dry as a bone. Business stories require a deft writing hand and right now, this is all people sitting at home, drinking coffee and talking about things we don’t see.
The less said about the “what’s left of the mind of Billy Abbott” man pain podcast, the better. Protect your own mental health and use the fast forward button.
Seriously, why is Billy tipping his hand like this? Amateur move, but unsurprising. Later, Ashland springs on Victoria that he wants a new job title to reflect his role in the new company. Hopefully she’s going to recognize this as the red flag we all see!
Do you think Adam has told Sally about his friend Rafe? With Sally’s encouragement, Adam marches into daddy’s office to tell Victor that he won’t spy on Ashland and Sally faces off with Stone Cold Victoria over, you guessed it, coffee.
Still not sure how Sally went from fashion designer to media company COO, but let’s go with it for now. Victoria makes no attempt to hide her disdain for Sally, but Sally impressively holds her own. Meanwhile, Adam is firm in his stance to not do daddy’s bidding, but he’s way off on his assessment of Ashland. Which is odd seeing as how they’re kind of birds of a feather.
But Adam ultimately gives in to daddy’s demands that he do as he’s told and get the goods on Ashland. Is Victor’s “only you can save the family” pitch to Adam really just so he has someone to blame in case it all goes wrong? That tricky geezer loves pitting his kids against each other.
Off-screen, Dominic gets the fastest and easiest bone marrow transplant in history, followed by the Abby/Chance/Devon/Amanda boresome foursome complimenting each other like a bizarre group therapy session. This would work if hidden romantic feelings were involved.
Abby and Devon turning to each other for support because their partners haven’t connected with the baby would make this an actual story. Kumbaya and ordering take-out isn’t compelling story. It’s only February, but this may be the worst soap story of the year.
Chance is still lying to Abby about his mental health and she knows something is up. Don’t know how, because Chance only ever has the one blank look on his face.
This chemistry-free pairing and this recast are not working. Kudos for doing a mental health story but it’s all public service announcement dialogue and community theater quality acting (no offense to amateur dramatics).
Where’s the messy humanity? Where is Chance and Abby’s passion for each other? It’s all just empty stares and hugging.
Finally, Chance calls Sharon for a referral for a counselor, which annoys me all over again that Mrs. Newman Newman Abbott McAvoy Coleman Rosales (do I have that right?) is slinging java in cocktail dresses when she could be helping people...in cocktail dresses.
Don’t waste screen time with plot points that are never going to go anywhere! Unless one of these kids is going to leave town, this is all filler.
