MonkeyTrouble

I did a spit-take when someone in the newsroom said about Altamont something along the lines of: "It's as if the sweetness and innocence of the hippie movement just died." Some of this dialogue seems to have been written by a high school intern using Wikipedia as a source.

Finally catching up with this show on Netflix! Glad (if not surprised) to see that I'm not alone in finding the Special Snowflake Max Braverman School of Coddling and Enablement storyline ridiculous. Apart from a couple brief forays into the world of political management, and a few mentions of her cah-ray-zee college days, we have seen NO evidence up to now that Kristina had any interest or experience with child education. Suddenly she's in charge of a large school for teenagers with emotional/psychological disabilities? Wouldn't the head of such a school need to have some kind of advanced degree in . . . . something child-psychology or education related? Not just a new-found attitude of "I just want all kehds to feel welcome and special"? Quite apart from the fact that Max was clearly unhealthily obsessed with Dylan to begin with, there's the fact that Kristina *assigned* the two of them to work together "so that Max could learn to be just friends" with her. WTF?!? So, not only did the great Headmistress not protect Dylan by freeing her from having to deal with her stalker, she actually forced her to work with him one-on-one? And then Dylan cried and begged her parents to let her stay at this special, special school? Insane. Speaking of school, I don't think the writers of this show ever went to college. If they did, they must have shacked up with their parents rather than living in a dorm. Outside friends and family members regularly just popping into dorms would just not happen in any legit college. Finally, I have been wondering for the last several seasons -- why on earth isn't Amber in college, anyway? In the early season(s), when she was still in high school, she was revealed to be this super-gifted person even though she had no self-confidence, discipline, etc. She then applied to one college -- Berkeley, the premiere UC institution, extremely hard to get into -- and did not get in. Big deal, lots of smart students don't get into Berkeley the first time they apply. I used to teach there, and many of the best students I worked with had started college in one of the hundreds of community colleges in California, worked hard and got great grades, and then transferred to Berkeley in their sophomore or junior years. Also, there are numerous other UC campuses beyond Berkeley that she could have applied to successfully, if not in her senior year than in the year after. Yet neither she nor her ambitious, also-a-secret-literary-genius mother, nor any of her college-educated, professional aunts or uncles, or her doting grandparents ever said, "Okay, so you didn't get into Berkeley this year; get a decent job for a year, get some advice, and re-apply to a wider range of schools next year so that you don't wind up marginally employed (and only by family members), totally uneducated, partnerless and pregnant when you are in your early 20s"?!? Oh well, at least the Bravermans live in a version of the Bay Area where a retired couple can "downsize" from a comfortable home in Berkeley to a gigantic palace in downtown San Francisco, where unskilled temp jobs in an office pay $30/hour, where a massive recording studio can also function by recording just a couple ads here and there, where the co-owner of said studio can spend half his day supervising troubled teenagers in a school kitchen where they are allowed to cook all the meals from scratch, where a random person can get a hair's breadth away from landing in the mayor's office in a super-politically-engaged city, and where the same random, otherwise unemployed person can decide to buy a giant building in SF, refurbish it completely, and start a popular special ed school for her son to learn some important lessons about girls.

To my mind the crowning moment of this storyline would be Nicole (after weeks of fanfare/buildup of course) dropping the Big News on Rick, and Rick being all "Well DUH. Why do you think I love her?" Then we could learn that all those pink and purple shirts that Rick has been wearing over the past few years have been his tentative experiments with exploring his gender ambivalence, and that Maya has inspired him to go all the way. We could follow him as he transitioned into a fabulous transgender woman (Rochelle!) and she and Maya would be the second cutest lesbian couple on the show. Now that Hope is gone, Rochelle could even be the model for Stephanie's glamorous old jewelry! She could get revenge on Caroline by seducing her mom! This story's got legs, I tell you.

Kelly Kruger (aka Eva, aka Mac2, aka Mrs. ChickenHead) may be annoying, but it was so funny to see her onscreen yesterday with the "models" Hope and Ivy, because she actually looks like a model -- super super skinny, delicate but striking features, reasonably graceful comportment. The other actresses/characters on this show (Hope, Ivy, Maya) are moderately to very pretty, but they do NOT look like models, at least not the kind who would be the faces of a high-end fashion house. MAYBE a Sears catalog. And they all look to be a reasonably healthy weight.

This show is hilarious soap perfection right now. (And the commentary it's inspiring here is equally fab.) I wish the Y&R writers would take note! Laughing so hard at the comments on SK's shirtless scene. I still have a soft spot for him, even if he's become something of a soft spot himself. Will NOT miss the actress who plays Hope. I want to complain about how one-note she is, but the writers seem to have given her the same script every day for the past several years. No wonder she sounds tired all the time, gives her lines weird inflections, etc. How many ways can you recite the same thing over and over? Love TK, but I do miss that Ronnnn Mosssss. That picture makes me miss him all the more. What a nut. I always felt like he and everyone else must have burst out laughing at the end of every single scene he was in.

TK is only 48? He looks older. I think the actor is very appealing, but, as others have said, he'd be better as a new character. Ronnnnnn Mossssss was iconic as Ridge, and just should not have been replaced (especially by someone who is a completely different physical, facial, and vocal type). Ronnnn already looked as if he had been created by a plastic surgeon to fit the mold of the Handsome Hollywood Guy; surely there must be other men out there with similarly cartoonish features who could have slid into the role more convincingly? Is there a Ronnnn Mosssss impersonators club? Plus, the breathy/growly voice and perpetually clenched teeth were so classic. I miss Ronnnn. Are half of the writers on vacation? I feel deja vu every time Quinn is on the screen lately. She has exactly the same dialogue in every scene, no matter who else she's talking to. The only slight variation came when she offered to spank Deacon (whose little growl was priceless). In any case, Hope seems to be about, what a month along in RL time? (That would be like two days in B&B time.) Why is Quinn so obsessed about getting her hands on the baby NOW? Dude, just chill out for a few months, let Hope simmer down, and then play all nicey-nice when it's closer to the actual due date. Why has no one of the legions of people she's been complaining to offered this useful advice?

It would be so nice to have Raul back! I miss the larger Winters clan too. Dru (dead) and Olivia, Nathan (dead) and Malcolm (disappeared) and little Nate, and of course Aunt Mamie (also dead?). Poor Neil went from having such a large group of family and peers and now interacts only with his adult children and whatever chick he is boning. I also miss the days of black characters having interesting problems and things to do. Remember Amy and Jazz? And the other guy who was an undercover cop and had to go around in whiteface? The tribulations of Neil "Hey we're dating, now let's get married" and Lily "OMG I hate my dad's girlfriend" and Devon "Ouch I dropped a barbell on my toe because I was trying to lift weights in super fast motion" are so blah in comparison. We also need the return of Keemo. The whole love story of Jack and Yuan was really great -- PB really made you believe that she was the love of his life -- and it's ridiculous that it is never ever ever evoked. I wish so much, too, that some of the Fosters and Brooks would come back. I miss Leslie the concert pianist. And wasn't Laurie a psychiatrist? Isn't it strange to think that back in ye olden days female characters actually had real talents, jobs, and special skills that they worked at and thought were important? Now the female characters get or yearn to be a) models, b) fashion designers, 3) jewelry designers, 4) party planners, 5) boutique owners, 6) internet cooking show hostesses, 7) personal assistants to male execs. Whoop-dee-friggin-doo. Except for poor sad-sack childless Christine, Boobsie the non-Neil-marrying defense lawyer, and Barbie the Stripper Cop.

Hi everyone! Like marshmallow, I am a lifetime Y&R viewer. The show began when my mom was pregnant with my younger brother, so I have been hearing "Nadia's Theme" since I was three. The old-time characters (Nikki, Paul, Victor from that days of Julia and the dungeon, Jill, Mrs. Chancellor) have been in my life longer than anyone else besides my parents! Crazy. There was one time -- I think it may have been when Lauren was buried alive -- when my mom actually kept me home from school so we could watch together. My grandma and aunts watched too. In any case, I have been reading and laughing at the comments at TWOP for a long time, and am so glad to see you all here! I look forward to many many more years of snark.