By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman
The Young and the Restless may be the best soap when it comes to dragging out its storylines. Because this week, it was more than worth than nine month wait when it was explosively revealed to Dylan MacAvoy that Chelsea’s newborn baby Connor isn’t really his, but the child of Chelsea’s ex-husband Adam Newman. As you know, baby Connor is experiencing signs of retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease Adam himself inherited from his blind mother.
Steve Burton’s Dylan: The baby he loves so much isn’t really his
In addition to the suspense, what made the storyline high point worth waiting for was the performances. As Chelsea the lifelong con woman, Melissa Claire Egan always sustains a nice element of hysteria, and that worked well in the revelation scenes. But it was Steve Burton as Dylan who stole the show with Dylan’s tearful and very sensitive reaction to the news, as his character loves what he believed to be his baby very much. Dylan had even married Chelsea and made a whole new life with her believing he had fathered Connor. He even bought Genoa City’s coffee house Crimson Lights to support the family.
As evidenced here, Burton has improved greatly as an actor since the days when he played Jason Quartermaine Morgan on General Hospital. As Dylan, he has found layers in his character, who has always been a guy almost too good to be true since his introduction last year. Now Burton has many opportunities to add more shades of gray to Dylan, a hero in the war in Afghanistan. This will be challenging if the spoilers are correct – they say he’ll go against character type by kidnapping baby Connor from his mother.
Of course, Michael Muhney who plays Adam was great as always in the scenes in which Adam found out that baby Connor is his son. Now in what will become a continuing storyline situation, he has threatened to take Connor away from the baby’s mother. Muhney is so terrific at being mean, this is a storyline worth looking forward to.
And what do you think of the spoilers/rumors that Dylan is really the long lost son Nikki gave birth to as a teen and gave away? The ages here don’t really match up — Steven Burton is too old to be Melody Thomas Scott’s son. But as Dylan has no relatives as is in Genoa City, this would tie him into the main Newman family, making him Nick and Victoria’s brother and Victor’s stepson.
What didn’t work for me was having Avery, Dylan’s ex, be late to her own cancelled wedding to Nick so she could listen to Dylan’s anguish at finding out the baby isn’t his. What real life bride would be late to her own wedding? As we’ve said in the past, Avery is also too good to be true, and this time she was tripped up by her own good nature. Will Avery and Dylan wind up getting back together? Will Avery ever marry Nick? The baby reveal certainly has launched many good future storylines for Y&R.
Seemingly overnight, Y&R got a shot of adrenaline and became highly energetic, watchable and enjoyable. That damn thing was a snoozefest for weeks. And now stuff is happening. The characters are confronting each other and Victor, Adam and Jack are sparring like the foes that they are.
I too wonder if Dylan is Nikki’s long lost son. Will Victor embrace Dylan and for spite, side with Chelsea in her battle with Adam? Maybe there will be a custody hearing and Victor will see to it that Adam loses. How will Adam feel watching his father side with Dylan, saying Dylan is like another son to him and he thinks little Connor will be better off being raised by a man like Dylan McAvoy. “He’s a decent man and he has integrity. Connor will benefit greatly from that,” Victor said. “The boy does not need to be influenced by you.”
“What the hell do you know about decency and integrity?” Adam snapped. “You don’t give a damn about Dylan. You want to stick it to me and you’re using Dylan to accomplish that.”
It’s gonna get good.
Bite your tongue!!! PLEASE don’t let Dullan be Nikki’s son! He is already shoved down our throats six days of the week. And his acting hasn’t improved one bit since following his mama Jill Farren Phelps from Port Charles to Genoa City: he has no charisma, is lifeless and a sure bet to be phoning it in day in and day out.
It’s because of Steve Burton and his overexposure on this show that I have given up watching after being a fan for 32 years. A mixture of him and egomaniacal Jesus complex Michael Muhney and you don’t get good TV but nausea instead.
Mama, I have to agree with everything you said…except what you said about MM/Adam. (I happen to love him and that character 🙂
Steve/Dullan, on the other hand, are just as awful to me as Steve/Jason was on GH. I am so sick of Dullan and I’m not looking forward to the upcoming S/L with him AT ALL! If he ends up as Nikki’s son, I just may have to join you in the Former Viewer column.
Dearest Marlena;
You are spot on with your write up this week. I also agree with the above poster, Tess. Y&R seems to have suddenly come alive. I admittedly have not been a fan of the current regime and find most of what have put out there to be forced or boring or both. Suddenly over the last two weeks I’m enjoying the show again.
I particularly want to focus on the character of Dylan. My complaint all along is that he is too one note. NO one is that nice. Too good to be true is an understatement where this character was concerned. What these scenes did more than anything was get me to care and be interested in Dylan for the first time since he came on board. Layers make interesting characters. If they are one way all the time they aren’t are viable long term. Life if complex and so should be our soap characters. But its not just Dylan who benefits from last weeks incredible reveal, suddenly we have a story really worth rooting for :cue the music and praise the soap Gods: . The performances were all amazing. Melissa Egan managed to make Chelsea sympathetic in an otherwise unsympathetic situation for her character. I hope she has the good sense to see Chloe for who she is and tell her to take a hike. Its probably one of the worst examples of female friendship I’ve seen on soaps as Chloe is an opportunist herself who dispenses HORRIBLE advice. The third part to this equation is Adam. Michael Muhney was amazing during those scenes and finally played Adam with those dynamic layers he’d lost for awhile. Welcome back Adam! Adam is a character who should never be too copacetic. It makes for boring TV and it’s not who Adam is. I hope they continue forth writing this story smart and layered. With the writing changes (and questionable talent of the replacements) we will just have to wait and see. As for Dylan kidnapping the young Conner I think it could be really good. It’s already established Dylan has PTSD so if done correctly and sensitively this twist could provide for some spellbinding soap opera. It also draws in Jack and Victor. A rivalry that needed re-working after Maria Bells horrific time at the show. Sadly, with the arrival of JFP/JG the characters wallowed in storyline boredom most of this year. Its high time the show got them back in each others orbit again. This storyline, in conjunction with Adam and Jacks new found friendship certainly provides great opportunities in the next Jack/Victor chapter.
Last week also showcased the very entertaining reading of Katherine’s will. There are three main developments I absolutely loved out of that situation. First and foremost I hope TPTB see the gold they have with Jill and Esther in ANY scenes together. Those two have every reason to be annoyed with one another. With Katherine gone, Esther can play a good foe to Jill because she’s seen and heard EVERYTHING! But it’s Jess Walton who finally shined as Jill in a way she hasn’t for a long time. I love that Mrs. C has seemingly all but dismissed Jill in her will. It is the perfect catalyst to put Jill back in that bitchy self destructing place that this character was known for. I REALLY hope it causes friction in her relationship with Cane. I loathe that Katherine and Jill were dumbed down by the last regime and not only accepted, but loved a man who conned them on several occasions. True Jill and Katherine wouldn’t piss on a character like Cane if he were on fire. Jill would have treated him like she used to treat Drucilla (gum under her shoe) and Katherine would have dismissed him at every opportunity while waving those finger nails and yelling at Esther to bring her more tea. The groundwork is set to rectify those wrongs should the writers see the obvious potential in that. I would love to see a story that examines why Jill would ever care for a con like that more than her own children. The last piece that got me excited was how the will affected Devon’s life. Wow, I did not see that coming AND boy was it good. Who know bland Devon would suddenly become injected with a shot of B-12 and :gulp: become interesting? Another soap critic said she hopes Devon goes through a Gatsby type era with his new found fortune. That could be a lot of fun to watch. Devon has always been a bit of an ass and money can certainly pull out that trait more. In any event some solid groundwork has been laid and I’m curious to see where it leads.
Of course with the writing change in full effect at Y&R will the new writers be able to sustain the good groundwork that has been laid or will they ditch all of it to tell their own stories? Marlena, how do you think the writing change at Y&R will affect what they have built? Do you think Phelps and Sony were smart to pick Passanante and Altman as replacements? Discuss! Please.
Best,
Chris
Hi Chris. I just wanted to comment on the Jill and Cane situation. Back when we all thought that Jill and Katherine were mother and daughter, and then that Katherine had switched babies and Cane was the real heir, the show had storyline gold. Everyone was interconnected and it was awesome. Then, just to justify anutterly pointless gay storyline that went NOWHERE…..they rewrote all of that. All of that wonderful set up was destroyed and wasted to justify the short term return of Thom Bierdz, who is obviously a very troubled man, a terrible actor, and almost all but completely forgotten after 20 years. That story made Philip look like the most selfish, narcissistic, nonchalant jerk who EVER lived. “Oh woe is me…I’m uncomfortable around girls so I’m going to leave my wife and young child and mother and family. I’m going to make them think I died on a horrific drunk driving accident and take off for Australia so I can be free and gay and stuff.”. That was one of the most poorly executed, worst plot twists arguably in soap history. Never mind that it screwed with ages of the cast (Cain would have to be in his mid to late 40’s to have pulled off his scam…and he’s with lily who is in her 20’s), insult our intelligence (how did Philip in Australia know that Katherine had suddenly recalled switching babies? Whoops…she never really did! And all the blood and dna…) and made no sense whatsoever, but now it is rarely mentioned. That is for the best. The fact that Jill embraced Cain is completely logical….look what her own son Philip did to her for 20 years. He shows about as much remorse for what he did as if he had swiped a piece of bacon off her plate when her head was turned. Jill had found a pseudo family and she loved it and embraced it. Cain acts like more of a son than philip ever did. Ya back inthe day when Jill was a bitch on wheels she may have tossed Cane to the curb…but Jill has grown up a lot.i love the mother son dynamic btween Jill and Cane. It should have NEVER been rewritten to bring back Philip. But it was so now we deal. Katherine was all about welcoming questionable characters into her heart and her family (Nikki, Rex, Kevin, Murphy, Chloe etc) so that she loved and accepted Cane was in character too.
ITA agree, tess. Suddenly Y&R is moving at a brisk pace, and every scene is loaded with emotion and significance. And yes, Marlena, the performances, always good on Y&R, have kicked up a notch (I am a fan of neither Burton nor Muhney but enjoyed both of them this week.) Not sure what has changed to make the show better (more control by JFP?), but its slow recovery from the hideous MAB years is now in high gear, it appears. Let’s hope the new writing regime keeps the focus on family and relationships (with a little less corporate intrigue, please) and gets Y&R back in tip-top shape.
Hi Marlena. I just want to comment on something you said. You said that Steve Burton is too old to play Melody Thomas Scot’s son. Melody is 14 years older than Steve…so hat makes it biologically possible, first of all. Next…any talk of age on Young and the Restless should be banned…as it was so royally screwed up under the Maria Bell reign. It is so bad, in fact, that itakes it hard for me to emotionally invest in current story. I specifically talk of Nick. We all know that Nick would have been about 15 or 16 when Cassie was born. We know that Cassie was 15 when she died. that would have made Nick 30 or 31. It is a MAJOR plot point that Summer was born AFTER Cassie’s death…that was the whole reason for Nick’s actions. Now summer is 18 so that makes Nick at LEAST 48 years old. We all know that Victoria is several years older so that puts her squarely in her 50’s. And if Dylan (or whoever Nikki’s son is) was born before even victoria, that would put him at about 55 years old, which would push Nikki to at least 70. Damn…these people look good for heir ages! SORAS works when it is still viable and believable that the ages of the parents and children can still be possible. This show just went too far here. I still watch, because I know its only a show and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, lol, but it does detract and distract. My point is that ANY mention of anyone being too young or too old on this show has to be moot now. I think anything that ties Dylan to the canvas because otherwise there is just no point to or for the character. JFP does this often….brings on her faves in ill defined or I’ll equipped roles
Thank you Jovin! The age thing on Y&R…and ALL soaps…drives me crazy too, when you really start thinking about it 🙂
Sorry….my phone cut me off. As I was saying…Dylan being Nikki’s son is the only logical next step for his character. Suddenly there are stories and possibilities, whereas up until now the character has been a complete wash out. Ages aside…this will bring drama to the whole family, which is a good thing. Steve Burton is a good actor when given good material. Unfortunately on GH he was saddled with playing a brain damaged murdering thug for 16 years. Y and R kind of overcompensated by making Dylan too nice and too perfect. They also screwed up by making Avery his only connection. She herself is still a new and illdefined character. This will be a good move for the show.
Here I have to disagree with you. Why is this the only logical next step? To me, the logical next step is for Dullan to pick up his tools and get outta Dodge!
I apologize for spelling and grammar errors…my phone has an auto correct and a mind of its own. Also…I DO know that Nick was not Cassie’s biological father…but Nick and Sharon have always been the same age. So he would have been the same age as Sharon when Cassie was born. Just wanted to clarify.
If Dylan turns out to be Nikki’s son, I’m tuning this show out for good. I’m sick to death of these long-lost children stories, especially on Y&R.
I LOVE the idea of Dylan being Nikki’s son. He’s a great asset to the show. And… I hope Dylan and Avery get back together.
On The Bold and The Beautiful Jackie (Leslie Ann Down) played Nick Marone’s (Jack Wagner) mother. In real life Leslie is only 5 years older than Jack so it’s possible that Dylan is Nikki’s son. At least in real life there ia a 14 year age difference between S. Burton and Melody.
I hope Dillan will be Nikki’s son.I am a little actually a lot tired of Sharon.They really need to let her rest for a while.
I have asked, several times, who that beautiful baby belongs to in real life. I’m talking about that baby Adam held a couple of times, when the baby smiled at him and also cooed. It was such a beautiful touching scene. Please someone, let me know who this baby belongs to.
Thank you.
Liz
I want to know the same thing! I searched this hoping to find the real identity of the baby. I believe it is Adam’s biological baby. They have the same nose AND the baby seems to have more time on the air than most on TV.