Recently in Soap Opera Thoughts Category
Although people have been complaining about the writing of The Young and The Restless for years, within the past few months, there has been a reactionary uproar in online communities about the state of the televised program. I have tried to focus on the positive aspects since there are good parts to balance the bad parts. As rightfully maligned as Ashley's hysterical pregnancy has been, the Mary Jane saga has been written well, aligning enemies, showcasing the power of family loyalty, and including tragedy and showcasing permanent consequences of manipulation.
Still, I am inclined to join the chorus of criticism, about the ill-defined art thief/art forgery story, which has just concluded. This particular plot was lackluster when it first began and has simply continued spiraled in quality ever since. At first, it seemed to be a vehicle to push Jana and Daniel closer out of necessity, with an intent to pair Kevin and Amber as well. Fortunately, my initial feelings about the romantic direction of this story proved to be wrong, but that did not mean the story improved. Instead, it seemed to languish into a mediocre tale that seemed to follow the pattern of so many plots involving these parties (someone gets into trouble with the law, a related party behaves ridiculously and illegally in an attempt to prove the wronged person's innocence, and at last everyone is ends up hostage to another manipulator). However, this story took a turn for the worse with the introduction on the very character who was supposed to revitalize it -- Deacon Sharpe.
In my opinion, this is a result of trying to reap the benefits of a character's established history while having him serve the purpose of driving the plot. When done well, this brings the best of both worlds, lifting a tale to a quality beyond that of either of the basic sources; when done poorly, it results in both the alteration character and the diminishing quality of the plot. In this case, it has been the latter, as the character of Deacon Sharpe has not kept true to his roots. As a longtime fan of The Bold and the Beautiful, I am not only aware of Deacon's past, but I have watched it play out year by year. It is surprising how poorly the transition of this definitive character was handled, especially in comparison with that of Amber, another transplanted character from The Bold and the Beautiful.
Amber, at least, has been written consistently while on The Young and the Restless, if not always well. In fact, much of the animosity she generates in both other characters and fans are from character traits which have either been established with the character from the beginning or have evolved over time. Even in this tale of art thieves and stolen paintings, her actions line up with her history more than they did at the last year of her stay on The Bold and the Beautiful, and she has integrated well with the residents of Genoa City.
So far, I do not believe the same has been done for Deacon. To be fair, Deacon has always been manipulative and selfish man without refinement in judgment or tact. However, underneath his amoral actions lies the heart of an antihero. Deacon was dismissed as an outsider of the fashion industry, but he was very quick to point out the hypocrisy of the Forresters. Ironically, despite all of the lies the character told, Deacon was fundamentally direct about his intentions, afraid of what no one thought of him. When he wanted Amber, he made no secret of wanting her. Admittedly, he has been more open about his desires and his behavior than when he first appeared on The Young and the Restless, but it continues to feel as though Deacon is playing a cat-and-mouse game when in previous years, he cut to the chase.
In fact, the introduction of Deacon to The Young and the Restless is highly uncharacteristic. For Deacon to even pose as an art collector would have required an extensive, calculated, process that would require levels of foresight the character has not displayed in the past. Deacon was a wily opportunist who at times found himself in situations he could exploit for his benefit, but he was not a chessmaster or a strategist. Even though recent dialog clarifies that Deacon is working for another party, for him to even execute the complicated plan would require a degree of premeditation from him unseen on the Bold and the Beautiful.
Furthermore, Deacon had evolved past the base creature that is on The Young and the Restless. He was still despicable scum, of course, as he gleefully tortured a paralyzed Massimo Marone, who sat helpless to watch as Deacon drugged and carried on an affair with Mrs. Marone. Yet, he had grown to develop moral lines (albeit weak), in part through fatherhood, and in part through love. For example, despite him offering up his parental rights for sale, he never sold them; not only did he give up the money, but he also willingly released Amber from her agreement to live with him in exchange for his right to visit his son.
Deacon -- at least the Bold and the Beautiful, incarnation -- would never frame someone else for murder, even for the benefit of his son. He would instead figure out a way out of the desperate situation and turn the tables on the person blackmailing him.
Another problem with the presentation of Deacon is his "love" for Amber. The driving force of this story is that Deacon is still obsessed with Amber. However, Deacon moved on from Amber several years prior to his exit; in fact when Amber and Deacon were on opposite sides of a custody battle with Little Eric, there was not even a hint of attraction between the two. This makes his chase of Amber unbelievable several years later, when the paths of their lives diverged radically. Both Amber and Deacon, at the ends of their respective runs on The Bold and the Beautiful, were different people than they were when their characters first aired. For him to cling to her, even as the closest living blood relative to his son, rings false given their history.
These problems could be overlooked, though, if the story itself were compelling. Instead, this plot varied from serious to humorous, never having a consistent tone. This entire storyline has been a rehash of prior plots and contrivances with no redeeming effects. If those in charge of driving the story would have skipped this preamble, I may have been more forgiving of the incompatibility between Deacon's past and his current actions. However, the Deacon Sharpe on the Young and the Restless is just like the Terroni painting he eventually obtained -- a forgery.
Long before the announced cancellation of Guiding Light, it had been commonplace in entertainment media to declare the death of televised daytime serial drama series, more simply known as soap operas. Ratings for the televised programs have been on a steady decline for years, and the budgets have tightened in tandem. With the impending last airdate of Guiding Light nearing with every broadcast, it is easy for those who have long criticized the genre of soap operas to rejoice, and for the remaining fans of these programs to stop watching.
Despite this, I will watch the soaps.
My soap opera viewing started when I was so young, I cannot remember young I was when I began to watch them, so it seems as if soap operas were always a part of my existence. When I was a little girl, I used to watch The Young and the Restless (henceforth abbreviated Y&R), although I don't think I quite understood what was going on on the television until the later part of the 1980s. I watched them because my grandmother watched them, although my grandfather watched what both he and my grandmother called the "stories" as well. Repetition led to affinity and soon I grew interested in the never-ending tales of the residents of Genoa City, although I pondered the lack of wisdom displayed by those characters. I never figured out why Ashley would keep sniffing the (unknown to her) poisoned flowers if she kept feeling sick after smelling them.
One of the many aspects of Y&R that did keep me interested in the program was the emergence of African-American characters that stabilized into a core unit. The characters of Mamie Johnson, Nathan Hastings, Olivia Barber, her sister Drucilla, then Neil Winters and his brother Malcolm were involved in memorable plots. Yet I was equally entranced by villains like David Kimble and Sheila Carter, as I eagerly waited for the comeuppance. Unlike the cartoons and films I watched, the bad guys weren't defeated at the end of the episode or movie, but continued to be evil and scheme to the point, where as a viewer, I rooted for them at times. It was the crossing over of Sheila Carter from Y&R to The Bold and the Beautiful (also known as B&B) that prompted me to begin watching that program.
Toward the end of the 1990s, I began to watch snippets of the show that aired after B&B, even though I didn't understand the reasoning behind a woman's rush to give birth to a baby before the new year. I slowly became addicted to that program, As the World Turns. I later added Passions at the end of 2000 to my daily platter, and from there Days of Our Lives. Although I have since stopped watching the latter three on a regular basis (although in the case of Passions, this was due to it being cancelled), with each soap opera I watched, I grew to appreciate the genre and the actors more rather than less. Despite the fact that soap operas do have staple plots, each show has a distinct flavor beyond the cast, the direction, the sets, and the wardrobe. There is an intangible consistency that becomes each program's fingerprint, which is often missing from primetime television shows today.
Soap operas have a history that is beyond their airdates. They are a link to times both past and present, and I can attest from personal experience that my soap opera viewing never existed in a vacuum. As I was a child when I began to watch the soap operas, I could only watch Y&R and B&B during summer vacation or when I did not have to go to school. As a result, soap operas represented leisure to me, and occupied a special place in my heart next to Saturday morning cartoons. They also proved to be a vital link of the daily conversations between me and my family, as part of the our daily conversations I would ask my mother and grandmother what happened on the soap operas. They marked the periods of my life, childhood, adolescence, to college, graduation and beyond. They provide the sole icebreaker topic of conversation in which I can participate. Soap operas, are a part of me.
Thus, if soap operas are truly on their last legs, then for me, there is no better time to watch them than the present. After all, one of the criticisms of the format is that no resolution can ever be brought to any plot. If all good things must come to an end, I am sure that the end that comes has to be at least as good as what came before it. In the case that my expectations are misplaced, at least I can criticize out of love rather than out of gleeful malice.
