Y&R - Victoria Rowell FTW!

Hmmm...

Wow. Wower.

I have just one thing to say, Victoria Rowell is the smartest woman in the whole goddamn world.

That was a lie, I never have only one thing to say. So yesterday we found out that Victoria Rowell, Drucilla of The Young and the Restless asked to be released from her contract. Now the show that has been disappointing me left and right will be without my ladylove. My lovely lady. To be honest I haven't watched a full episode of Y&R in almost a month, I'd be lying if I said I missed it. There is not one story that interests me, not one, I find them all middle of the road and barely mediocre. If anything would have gotten me to return or take a peek at it, it's the character. That's where the deep loyalty of soap fans comes from, an attachment to the characters. Yes, the plots are all well and good but anyone can dream up a good, attention-grabbing plot but if there's no relationship between the viewer and character then a good plot will only get you so far.

Y&R, in my belief, has the strongest base of multi-layered characters on daytime, most of them with a rich history and well-defined relationships, desires and familial connections. Not to sound too cutesy or full of myself but it truly is a rich tapestry. I'm finding the core of these characters, the very thing inside them that defines who they are slowly slipping away in an effort to push forward the next step in the plot. When viewers ask themselves "Why is Drucilla acting like a fool?", "Why is Jack being attacked left and right?", "Why is this new person taking up all this airtime?", you have to question how your changes are effecting your fan base. I was under the mistaken impression that Y&R knew this, in an era where other soaps had little issue with firing long time actors and adding new character after new character Y&R stuck to its guns and continued to write for the people we already had a connection to and wanted to see. And the show stayed on top because of that.

Now those same characters are lucky if they're supporting characters in others stories and onscreen 2 days a week. It's not that new characters aren't welcome, they are, soaps need new blood to survive, telling the same stories with the same characters without any twist to them also leads to viewer erosion, however integration of these new character is essential. Without firmly establishing who they are and what they're about we begin to wonder "Why should I care? I don't even know this person.". And not only that, they must also have scenes with veteran characters. They cannot have scenes with other new characters, it causes an imbalance, suddenly two people you don't know are discussing things you don't care about.

And...and ya know what? I'm sick of saying this shit, years and years and years of complaining have gotten us exactly where? Vets fired, ratings down, constant changes behind the scenes and now proclamations from network presidents that the genre is dead. And they, ABC, NBC, CBS, have done NOTHING to turn the tide. They've done everything in their power to drive us away and when we say something about it they lie or don't give a fuck. Why should I care anymore? All I care about is the actors, the characters and the history of the show. The trivial things.

So back to Victoria Rowell, I'm torn. When I first read the news I was shocked and pissed but not five minutes later I found it pretty funny. I just laughed. That's all I can do at this point, after the firings of Julia Barr (not fired but she may as well have been), Stuart Damon and Cady McClain I could only laugh for Vicky because she chose to leave. She's on the ball and knows what's going down, Dru's acting all erratic, Neil isn't being written for, they fired the young woman who fit the Winters family so perfect, and Victoria, after a year of spectacular performances didn't get a pre-nomination. That's how I choose to view it anyway.

As for what's going on with the show right now, as far as I can tell Amber, Korbel and Colleen are on every day. Collectively they have just over a year on this show. Yeah, so there's that.