In A Fog

I’m apologizing in advance

While I’m writing this week’s column, I’m suffering from a nasty upper-respiratory infection (not that there’s such a thing as a good infection of any kind)…and I’m generally miserable. I’m taking the preemptive strike of blaming the likely disjointed, unfocused result on the many prescription and over-the-counter medications currently coursing through my veins. Please excuse any slightly incoherent exclamations or inappropriate digressions, as well as sentence fragments or misspelled and/or errant words. Now…on with the commentary and observations…

It strikes me as odd that Sharon so desperately wants to live with her latest husband in her old lover’s house. She has money from her multiple divorces (from rich men,) and Adam is well-employed. They need to pick out a house of their own.  Odd, though, that after a major fire, none of the furniture or decor in the Carlton House has changed. It’s almost impressive that the contractors managed to duplicate the 15 year-old couch and exactly match the burned draperies.                              

Why, too, would Sharon suggest she and Adam go to, of all places, PARIS? I suspect it may be the only place she can find on a map…but it would likely cause her to fantasize about Nick and their kiss, so it seems a poor, or at least inconsiderate, choice.

I’ve been wondering why no one in Genoa City owns their own furniture. When my husband and I moved from St. Louis to just South of Boston, it took days to pack, and a 22 foot trailer to transport our belongings. Yet the characters on Y&R pick up and move in a single suitcase…even the multi-billionaires. And they use whatever furniture has been left behind by the previous occupants of wherever they’re moving to. Given what has happened on some of those couches…eeewwwww.

Dr. Taylor’s personal papers. His practice and his office at the college were in Massachusetts, yet his papers had all been stored in Genoa City. And there is no logical explanation why Dr. Taylor would have possession of Skye’s diary, or why he would have kept an incriminating document in his possession that talks about him having molested his patients. Then there’s the absolute absurdity of Phyllis calling someone, faking an accent, and obtaining unlimited and unsupervised access to the private papers of a physician…even papers which deal with his patients. The stupidity on this show continues to plummet to ever-greater depths.                                                       

Rumors are flying that Michael Muhney (and subsequently Adam) are out. This comes as no surprise for several reasons. First, he has been tweeting about auditioning for several pilots. Second, there’s this from my 5-25-09 column:

Meanwhile, the show has hastily recast the part of Adam with Michael Muhney, an actor from Chicago with a solid resume including a stint on Veronica Mars and appearances on a list of shows including JAG, Boomtown, Without A Trace, Numb3rs, and ER. His history of steady employment would indicate a worthy level of talent…but I don’t remember the last time an emergency recast lasted more than a year. And given how the character is being written, I don’t believe the intention was to keep Adam in Genoa City for more than another few months. 

He made it more than “a few months,” but as I predicted, will be out before his first year is up. And I will now take another moment to lament the horrible handling of this character who was sabotaged and destroyed for no reason. In fact, they are STILL rewriting his history. Did you catch Skye’s supposed diary entry? "I told Adam about Taylor, and typical Adam…he wants to blackmail the guy." That description bears no resemblance to the upstanding young man to whom we were originally introduced, and doesn’t sound like the type of person Hope would have raised. Nor is it in keeping with how Skye related to him. I doubt she would have considered him to be such a close friend if his idea of helping her through being violated was to threaten to blackmail the perpetrator, then taking her out to get drunk and “forget about it.” I suspect the diary is either forged and planted, or written by a not-so-dead Skye…because we never saw her body, nor was her “death” ever given any real resolution. 

Adam should have been developed as a permanent core (heritage/legacy) character…a foil for Nick and Victoria…a proper romantic lead. Instead he was turned into just another in a long parade of psychopaths who have populated this show for the last 18 months.                   

I’ve seen message boards where people have debated why the INS would come after Cane, and posters point out that he’s married to an American…like somehow that would give him a free pass on the fraud he committed to enter the country. But let me give you a little insight into the INS…they make bizarre decisions. I have some friends who married around ten years ago after having dated for five years. She’s from Denmark and had been working for a Danish company (in the U.S.) when they met. Eight months after their wedding, she went back to Denmark to visit her family…and then found she couldn’t return to the states because the INS misfiled some of her paperwork.  She had submitted it, had copies of it, and none of it mattered because the INS claimed they had never received it. So for more than six months she was in Denmark while her husband was still in the states…and it took multiple lawyers, a congressman, and a senator to get her back in the country (not to mention the financial costs.) Among other things, they had to “prove” it was a legitimate marriage. To that end, people like me who had known them for years had to write letters on their behalf giving details of their relationship and romance. What’s my point? That just because he’s married to Lily doesn’t mean a thing.  My friends weren’t criminals and THEY had issues getting permission for her to stay in the U.S.  I can’t imagine the INS is going to be too amenable to letting a con-man just go about his business regardless of his marital status. On the other hand, Katherine Chancellor is ostensibly a well-know and respected billionaire who recently managed to get Kevin and Amber pardoned for bank robbery and other crimes.  Certainly a well-placed phone call (and contribution to someone’s campaign fund) would go a long way to resolving this (very contrived) issue.   

What’s most frustrating for me is Cane and Lily now have FOUR stories going, while other characters have none. Lily has cancer…they have babies gestating in Mac…Cane has been picked up by the government…and the Cattle Mafia is looming somewhere on the sidelines. How ‘bout if we FINISH one of these story arcs BEFORE we start another one. And spread the wealth around by giving people like Devon (played by the woefully ignored Bryton James) something…ANYTHING…to do.

I still can’t understand most of what NuMalcolm says…but the good news is, it’s given rise to a new game which you, too, can play at home. Make up your own lines and substitute them for his mumblings…it makes his scenes much more enjoyable.  By the way, if Malcolm has moved to GC and taken a job, where is his fiancée?  Even is she doesn’t relocate immediately, one would think she would have visited by now, given that Malcolm’s family has been in crisis with Lily’s illness.

Victor’s apology at “Patty’s” bedside left me cold. Not only is he still not sincerely accepting his guilt for what happened to Summer and Colleen (as evidenced by his tepid statement “MAYBE Phyllis is right”…also the fact that he is still going after Jack, and that he hasn’t experienced any consequences for his actions,) there still has been NO explanation as to what he expected to accomplish by unleashing a crazed Patty on Jack. Unless he was hoping she would try to kill Jack again. But that would mean that he KNEW Patty was dangerous, and he would be legally accountable for ALL of the crimes she committed. (It’s called accessory, conspiracy, and collusion.)

Patty is a violent patient who did harm to herself and to others. Why is no one watching (what they think is) her? And Dr. Peterson should ask for a DNA test to prove who she is…although we all know how easy it is to tamper with those results (imagine me sarcastically rolling my eyes at this point.)                                       

“The ravings of a complete lunatic” should have been a tip-off to Paul that “Emily” isn’t Emily, as no real psychiatrist would use that phrase, especially in front of the patient. Although why Paul called “Emily” – the one person he knows agitates his sister most – is a mystery. Regardless, RealEmily should be able to say SOMETHING that would convince Paul of who she is…a fact or recounting of an incident that only Emily would know.

Kyle and Diane were only at the Abbott home for a few hours.  I don’t know anyone who would fly somewhere for a visit and not even stay over one night. The scene with Kyle and Jack out in the snow was supposed to be a touching bonding moment, but I was distracted by the worst fake snowman I’ve seen in quite some time.

We’re supposed to believe Murphy chose to attend a “lodge meeting” over Delia’s birthday party. That didn’t come close to sounding like a reasonable explanation for his absence.

I’m still not feeling a lot of sympathy for Katherine over losing her company. She is a billionaire, and she’s still making money from Chancellor Industries. Plus it’s her own fault for giving up control…and apparently her advisors’ fault for not adding up the amount of stock that was released from her control, either by being made public or being used in a trade. 

The writers have already removed Tucker’s teeth. In two weeks flat he went from a ruthless, brilliant business man to someone who was sloppy in his (possibly illegal) previous dealings. Suddenly everyone is able to figure out his secret and use it against him. The questionable deal, however, took place in the 80s…meaning the statute of limitations has run out. I also don’t understand how someone who at that time was supposed to be “up and coming” managed to have possession and ownership of a multi-million dollar painting to use for the sketchy payola transaction. If he had the painting, why didn’t he just sell it and invest the money in the company. And why do so many of the ill-thought out plot devices on this show involve paintings or other art works or relics?

They’ve also made Tucker appear to have very poor judgment (and I’m not just referring to his questionable taste in eyewear.) He has surrounded himself with people whose loyalties lie elsewhere. Adam is in league with Satan…um…I mean…Victor. No savvy corporate shark would so easily fall victim to the Newmans’ little scam. Cane’s allegiance is quite obviously with Katherine. Only JT is truly trustworthy, but he has almost no experience in the business world. He ran security for Newman Enterprises, and before that he was partners with Paul at the P.I. firm.  How then is he qualified to be an advisor to Tucker? It ranks right up there with Cane’s meteoric rise from bartender to CEO.

The men are all in sweaters, turtlenecks, and jackets…and the women are all half-naked. There must be a mad slasher who got to Phyllis’s wardrobe. None of her shirts or blouses have shoulders these days. Get a grip costumers. And stop dressing Sharon in As The World Turns leftovers. Here’s Molly (Lesli Kay) from the early part of the week…wearing the dress Sharon was clothed in during the latter part of the week.  It’s an unfortunate wardrobe choice for both (beautiful) women.                   

If the intent is for Daisy, Ryder, and Sheila to get rid of Jana, why bother keeping her in a cage and risking her escape. One would think by now Sheila should have learned to kill whomever she’s kidnapped. Jana claims she has “complete faith” in the Genoa City police department…which makes me think she must have had a lobotomy at some point, since the GCPD has NEVER solved a case or arrested an actual guilty party in any criminal case. As for Kevin, why would he ever believe Jana would leave him? There is no reason for it…and he knows she was investigating Daisy and Ryder. (May I say again how awful the actress is who plays Daisy?) Wouldn’t it be refreshing if, just once, no one fell for a ridiculous scheme or lousy disguise? To not in any way be fooled by a ludicrous impression or a fake accent? Heck, Jana didn’t even question the note that Kevin…her husband whose handwriting she would surely know…didn’t write. Where did her brain go?

Michael has only been on the periphery of his sister-in-law’s disappearance, but I would think his first stop for help would be Victor Newman. Victor owes Michael a few favors and supposedly has inexhaustible access to investigators and other resources. Of course, Michael could always hire Phyllis instead since she’s turned out to be quite the intrepid detective herself. Not that it will matter, since every villain on this show (and there are so many of the same kind right now) always gets away with their deceptions.

Also, I believe Michael wouldn’t take on any additional cases while he’s helping search for Jana…but the scribes have him bailing on his brother to run and help Cane out of a mess that Cane created. This would be a great time for Michael to hire Rafe on as an associate.

Emmy Pre Nominations                        

The award pre-noms have been released, and I agree with most of the choices:

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series

JEANNE COOPER, as Katherine Chancellor

MICHELLE STAFFORD, as Phyllis Newman

SHARON CASE, as Sharon Newman

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series

PETER BERGMAN, as Jack Abbott

DOUG DAVIDSON, as Paul Williams

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

STACY HAIDUK, as Patty Williams & Dr. Emily Peterson

ELIZABETH HENDRICKSON, as Chloe Mitchell

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series

BILLY MILLER, as Billy Abbott

GREG RIKAART, as Kevin Fisher

Outstanding Younger Actress In A Drama Series

CHRISTEL KHALIL, as Lily Winters

EMILY O’BRIEN, as Jana Fisher

Outstanding Younger Actor In A Drama Series

BRYTON JAMES, as Devon Hamilton

KEVIN SCHMIDT, as Noah Newman

I’m confused about the “younger actor/actress” thing. Most of the nominees for this category are well into their 20s. In every other part of society, that’s considered an adult…and in the majority of cases, these actors are handling the same kind of dramatic material as their older counterparts, so why are they separated? Are they held to a lesser standard? In my opinion, the age cut-off for “younger” should be 18…maybe 20, if you want to push it. But having 25 and 26 year-old actors (some of whom have played their roles for the better part of a decade) competing against others who are children with only a few years experience seems unfair. Maybe “younger” should apply to how long they’ve been acting…five years or under for experience would land an actor in the “younger” category.

That said, I will point out that of the thirteen Y&R pre-nominees, I have consistently and loudly praised eleven of them. I am also completely stunned that Beth Maitland (Tracy Abbott) was overlooked. She should have been SOMEWHERE on the list…and shame on those who chose to pass her over. I’m gratified that Doug Davidson made the initial cut for lead…and I’ll be among the many enthusiastically cheering him on for the win.