Phyllis Comes Through!

Well, the big Friday finale came and went with Phyllis Newman not torching the damning letter that has sealed the deal on Adam's skullduggery once and for all. Sadly, with the baby switch now out in the open for everyone save Ashley, who's in complete denial that her Faith is actually Sharon and Nick's baby, Phyllis went back home to her little girl, unsure of what will happen to her marraige. Nick returned shortly after, and Friday's climax left them pondering what would be next.

Quite frankly, after the many ringers that Sharon had put me through, I would take that luscious redhead in my arms, tell her how much her amazing sacrifice meant to me, then carry her straight upstairs and stay there for a week.

Okay, I wouldn't carry her. The woman stands at least a head taller than me on her bare feet. My back would snap like a twig, not to mention the obligatory hernia.

Will she or won't she...?

As I predicted, the entire Adam debacle on Young and the Restless was skipped over Wednesday to get everybody revved up for what proved to be a big nailbiter for both Thursday and Friday. Every one who ever got crapped on by Adam (which would be half the friggin' cast) showed up at the cabin to interrogate Adam about what he has really been up to all this time.

I personally was hoping that this would all take place back at the Newman ranch and that Victor would knock down a few brickwalls to reveal that torture chamber he kept in the basement waaaaaayyy back in the 1970's. But I would think that having Heather and Rafe there, being officers of the court, for the proceedings would have complicated things if Victor felt inclined to putting Adam in it. "Uh, Victor, why do you have a torture chamber in your basement?"

What we didn't see coming (and what seems to me to be a last ditch effort to wring the last little drop of suspense from this whole deal) is that Phyllis, Nick's wife who has had her own little history with honesty, has headed off a lawyer in possession of a last minute confessional from the evil Dr. Taylor to Ashley he dictated before he died that confirmed the whole baby switch that Adam is responsible for.

Phyllis, as cool as she has been of recent, is trapped in a rock in a hard place... doing the right thing and bringing this letter to everyone's attention and risking that Nick and Sharon may get back together, or remain silent and hope that the baby switch never comes to light. We were left with Phyllis preparing to torch the letter outside the cabin.

For what it's worth, I think Phyllis is going to step up to the plate and reveal that letter. Her character has come such a long way from her villainous origins, especially concerning her working with her son to save Amber last year. She has used her dirty tricks on the side of the angels in the past couple of years, and fans have firmly stood behind her when it's come to dealing with the whole Nick/Sharon mess.

And yeah, it's probably going to wreck her marraige to Nick. I say dump the guy and hook back up with Jack when the whole deal with Emily/Patty falls apart.

But that's a mess for another day...

Y & R Fans... Take a Break Today

Okay, Young and the Restless fans.... yesterday, the suspense built to an almost unbearable level, as nearly everyone to whom Adam Newman had done dirty put aside their own animosities toward one another to bring the little buggerer to heel, ending with Adam being lured out to the Abbott cabin by Sharon and quickly getting slugged into unconsciousness (presumably by his own father, Victor). It's obviously all leading up to daytime TV's biggest intervention....

And I can tell you you'll see none of it today. So if you have anything to do between 12:30 PM and 1:30 PM, that will be a great time to do it. Because as sure as James Cameron knows where the blue food is, you will see absolutely none of that storyline today. The focus will be entirely on all the other storylines not tied to the Abbotts and the Newmans; Jena's capture and Lauren's torture at the hands of Daisy and Ryder, Caine's fate at his immigration hearing, the ongoing thaw between Tucker and Katherine, Lily's lab results, and Chance's continuing investigation into his frame-up.

So if you don't like those storylines, and/or you don't want to feel cheated out of what promises to be one of the highlights in the history of Y & R, don't even bother to tune in today. Cancel it out on your DVR, or take it off your VCR's programming schedule. I'm just trying to head off the crashing disappointment I know everyone out there's going to feel if you're expecting the Adam Intervention and it's nowhere to be found...

But, by diddily dern, I'd run over my own mother to see what's going to happen Thursday.

Yeah, We Watch Y & R!

There's been some nasty rumors flying about that I watch daytime soap operas. Well, I'm here to stop those rumors once and for all...

Yes, I'm a fan of "The Young and the Restless". My wife and my mom got me hooked onto this slop back when I had just graduated high school, and before I got my first regular job, Mom insisted that I keep her updated on all her soaps on CBS. While Dee still had another year before she graduated, she asked me to keep her updated on "Young and the Restless". And I've watched all of these off and on for over 35 years.

As most of you know, the daytime soap is a dying artform. The internet, DVRs, shifting viewing habits, and downright pitiful ratings compared to even just seven years ago have drawn closing curtains on "The Guiding Light" and soon "As the World Turns" two of TV's longest running shows. "Y&R" and its sequel series "The Bold and the Beautiful", are still hanging in there, but mostly because the former is still a big money-maker for CBS daytime and the latter has a gigantic international following that keeps the half-hour serial in the black for the network.

Even my personal preferences for daytime have now been whittled down to only "Y&R". Now that I'm no longer working nights, Dee and I spend all our evenings together. The battle for the big screen TV is as bold and bloody as anything seen on Battlestar Galactica, but one thing we can agree on is to sit and watch "Y&R" after we get home and join in together as we MST3K every episode, as each one has some outrageous plot hole you could steer Gallifrey through or scripting that tips off that one set of writers has not been paying attention to what the other set has been writing.


One character, though, has us absolutely caught up in his evil, psychotic ways, and that is Adam Wilson, the sociopathic son of Y&R's complex hero/villain Victor Newman, who has tried to drive his father's ex-wife Ashley crazy, is directly responsible for the loss of her baby and blackmailing a molesting OBGYN into convincing Ashley that her baby was still alive, switching the dead baby with a live one that just so happens to belong to his brother's ex-wife whom he is now married to (!!!), and committing acts of industrial espionage that could land him, his father, and his brother in the county clink. And that's just the stuff he's done recently.

This guy is quickly approaching levels of soap opera evil that haven't been seen since Dr. John Dixon made life miserable for nearly everyone in As the World Turns' hometown of Oakdale. He hasn't quite reached that level just yet, mainly because Adam is mentally and physically ill, and therefore isn't entirely responsible for his own actions. John Dixon was a (OOLALA!!) who knew what he was doing every step of the way. But it is Adam's terrible flaws (and the great acting by actor Michael Muhney, whom I predict is heading for great things after he's done on daytime) and his ability to charm anyone that give him an unsettlingly human face and keeps us coming back for more.

But I do have a feeling his current situation is about to hit the fan. Almost everyone connected to him suspects that he's far more dangerous than even they realized, and his only support, wife Sharon, who's stood by him despite overwhelming circumstantial evidence, is finally questioning what she got into by marrying him. I can't wait until tomorrow...

Oh, my God. Did this crap really come out of my head?