Y&R Opinion: Viewers Missing Passion & Action, Like Being Privy to Nate’s Investigation into Ashland’s Cancer Claims

Nobody moves around anymore or goes outside, not to mention we’re missing the good parts of the story.

Days of our Lives has their Horton Square, a couple of parks, and the DiMera garden where Salemites flock to. General Hospital has the pier, the cemetery, the bridge and their new summer set, in addition to other minor outside scenes.

Yet… the top-rated soap operas, Bold and the Beautiful and Young and the Restless, seem to have lost their outdoor sets and have their characters sitting down inside, talking. Nobody’s moving around, walking or even exercising anymore.

Some of the dialogue is filler — dialogue stagnation. The last time we saw a character outside was when Devon took Dominic for a walk through Chancellor Park. That was weeks ago. We miss that!

Lack of passionate discussions and everyone sounds reserved — even in anger

Viewers complain if the characters use one set for too long. They complain when business is done at Crimson Lights, Society or outside. I complain too, but rarely about this in specific.

I don’t mind the same sets being reused as long as it’s either attractive, a place where many characters can meet, or if it has history. My gripes often happen when the story isn’t keeping me invested. That’s been happening a lot.

We’re also barely seeing the players gesturing madly, or using their spatial awareness to interact with each other. There’s rarely yelling, and most of the characters’ voices are barely above a whisper.

This has nothing to do with the acting. It’s the directing. I’m not sure why it’s happening but I’d love to see a change. To bring that passion back.

nate warns ashland YR
CBS

Minx commented on this, “Maybe this is why Victor’s presence keeps verging on the drowsy whenever he doesn’t have the fortune of being given sarcastic lines or the opportunity to yell.” Let the man yell. Let him gesticulate. Wake the audience up.

“Lady,” a nickname I call my youthful mama, calls me at least once a month to ask, “Did you see Y&R today? Did I miss anything? I fell asleep again.”

It’s because there’s so little passion to keep her interested. She complains about repeat dialogue and filler, and that nobody’s fired up.  

A few days ago, we were chatting and she said, “Remember when we saw Cocoon? After they swam in the pool with the alien cocoons, they had all that vim and vigor? That’s what I want to see on Y&R.”

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Y&R Opinion: Viewers Missing Passion & Action, Like Being Privy to Nate’s Investigation


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Nate’s investigation into Ashland’s cancer claims missing half the story

While some storylines such as the surrogacy story are going on a year later, hitting offensive beat after offensive beat, the Ashland Locke story is now on fast forward. I can’t figure out the reason behind this.

A highlight of this week was Nate confronting Ashland for never having cancer or chemotherapy.

I didn’t know Nate had it in him, which made it a nice surprise. To me, it’d have played out better if they were standing and there was some shouting or hand gesticulation.

ashland ponders next move young and restless cbs soapsspoilers
CBS

Even better if it happened in the park because we’d be wondering if Nate was safe after the big confrontation and if anyone was listening in like oh, I don’t know. Billy?

Ashland fighting back with threats would be semi-exciting except he doesn’t frighten me much. This puffed-up character has never been a monster. He’s mostly a pussy cat. 

What we missed in this episode was Nate’s investigation. It was a crying shame that the investigation was conducted off screen when it was such an integral part of the storyline.

I can appreciate that the hospital set is massive and expensive to build and then tear down. I know how it works, but I think most would have been satisfied if they had used an office such as Adam’s, made a few changes to the decor and had him using it for his probe.

This is what viewers wanted to see: We want to see the beginning of the story where Nate learns Ashland faked having cancer.

We especially want to see the middle is where he’s crossing that ethical line as a doctor, searching through records, perusing x-ray images, all on the sly. Then it accumulates in to the big reveal to Ashland that he knows what the man did.

The music would have been set to create stress for the viewers so we’d hold our breath, out of concern that he’d get caught.

And then he would be caught, but of course it’d be by Elena or someone who didn’t notice a thing. Those red herrings are appealing to watch and what would have made the scene between Nate and Ashland that much more exciting.

nate fills elena in ashland YR
CBS