'The Young and the Restless' is on fire in every possible way

Well kids, it looks like the long months of boring storylines and suffering has finally come to an end. The past two months on The Young and the Restless have been absolutely flipping amazing. We can send out a big thank you to head writers Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante for this. Passanante's material began airing in late December, and if anyone has noticed, the show has gotten a whole lot soapier. Cars driving off cliffs. Hostage situations. Ghosts in fact being live lookalikes. It's all great stuff.

While several fans have decided to boycott the soap opera due to the firing of Michael Muhney, who portrayed Adam Newman, I still find the show to be going strong and if not stronger. I for one do not watch serials for specific actors. Yes, they obviously enhance the story's performance if they are an amazing actor, but I watch serials for the stories. The problems people face. It's life (albeit a dramatized version of life) and there's no stopping it sometimes. It may be longtime soap opera executive producer Jill Farren Phelps' signature story style to tell depressing stories, but sometimes we have to face that lives even on soaps can't be all hunky doory.

I'm going to admit I wasn't Adam Newman's biggest fan. He screwed with people's lives in cold blood long before he supposedly ran over Delia Abbott. Remember when he broke Patty Williams (Stacy Haiduk) out of that psychiatric hospital, convincing her he was the ghost of that Richard Hightower? Let's not get into how bad some of Maria Arena Bell's stories were, but there were numerous occasions where Adam displayed sociopathic tendencies. How about when he had evidence that would free Sharon (Sharon Case) from prison for killing his wife but decided to throw it into a river when he found out she slept with someone while away from Genoa City? Or the biggest crime of all; dressing up as the ghost of Sabrina Newman (Raya Meddine), causing Ashley (Eileen Davidson) to miscarry her child, blackmailing her OB/GYN to tell her she was still pregnant and then stealing Sharon's child to pass off as Ashley's. Yes, Michael Muhney is a great actor and I enjoyed watching him on Y&R. But I think it's time we all move on.

Anyhow, back to how amazing Y&R is right now. One of the best plots is the upcoming love quadrangle surrounding Victoria (Amelia Heinle), Billy (David Tom), Stitch (Sean Carrigan) and Kelly (Cynthia Watros). Stitch and Kelly have history the viewers aren't yet clear about. Billy slept with Kelly while grieving the loss of his daughter and Victoria just may be falling for Stitch. The actors all have great chemistry and it's been really fun to watch. Next is Colin Atkinson's (Tristan Rogers) sudden return, forcing Jill (Jess Walton) to remarry him and blackmails her by saying he has information about a music box the late Katherine (Jeanne Cooper) left her. Colin is a sneaky mobster who conspires to get what he wants and Jill is the take no prisoners type who will manage to get what Colin is hiding from her. Another interesting story is Chloe's (Elizabeth Hendrickson) unhealthy obsession with Chelsea's (Melissa Claire Egan) son Connor. Having also lost her daughter, Chloe began to fill the void with godson Connor and just this week kidnapped him, posed as Chelsea and flew with him to Paris. A lot of people are saying it's stupid, but I for one have never seen grief handled in a story like this, so I'm interested in seeing where this goes and if Chloe will finally accept to get the help she needs.

I'm very excited for what the writers have planned for the next few months. You can watch The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS.

All the Reasons Dylan McAvoy doesn't work on 'The Young and the Restless'

It's been a year since former General Hospital star Steve Burton joined The Young and the Restless as Dylan McAvoy, a war veteran and Avery Bailey Clark's (Jessica Collins) lover whom she presumed dead. The character has been subject to largely mixed reviews this past year. It's no secret that Burton and executive producer Jill Farren Phelps are close friends. Phelps, who was General Hospital's executive producer for eleven years, allegedly even offered him a job when she joined Y&R. Despite Burton and Phelps firmly denying rumors and speculation, it's pretty obvious that this is a forced character. Even the most uneducated person can suspect there is something weird about Dylan.

For starters, Dylan came to town as apart of Avery's past, who was in the process of being expanded into a leading character. As said in one of my previous editorials, Avery isn't leading lady material. So perhaps that's where Dylan's creative problems began. But then there were prospects of Dylan being paired with Sharon (Sharon Case), but that was shot to hell for him to be paired with (and then conned) by Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan). Before we knew it, Dylan was getting a lot of screen time and minimal character development. Then we all groaned when it was announced he was getting a best friend, Stitch (Sean Carrigan), who would later turn out to be a helluva lot more interesting than Dylan.

Chelsea's baby daddy lie went on for endless months, to the point of them getting married. Chelsea and Dylan's romance (dubbed "Chylan") received mostly negative reviews. When the entire ruse was finally over with, some of us were hopeful Dylan would get a genuinely good storyline. Right? Well,   wrong. Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) suddenly reveals she gave birth to a son years ago with a cult leader. Before we knew it, it was revealed Dylan is her long lost son. The storyline was horribly written and did NOT improve my opinion of Dylan. Now, Dylan, having reunited with Avery to form one of daytime's most boring couples, is facing his biological father, Ian Ward (Ray Wise). 

All this to say, Dylan does not work on The Young and the Restless. It is so terribly obvious onscreen that he is just on this show for Phelps. First endless boring months of a terrible story, and now he's tied to a longtime Genoa City pillar which means he ain't going anywhere. What's next? He's revealed he's the ruler of the world? I wish Burton would've just stayed at General Hospital. His character is much more popular over there. And as I've said, Burton must've been really fed up with the action scenes he was getting at GH to settle for endless boring crap on Y&R. At this point, the only story I would want for Dylan is to be paired with Sharon. It's that too much to ask, writers? Watch The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS.

Exclusive: David Tom makes his long awaited return to 'The Young and the Restless'

This week, an old fan fave made his long awaited return to The Young and the Restless. As announced in November, Billy Miller, who had portrayed Billy Abbott since 2008, left the role after contract negotiations broke down and he decided to walk in order to pursue other projects (while stating in an interview he would've stayed if negotiations hadn't reached a standstill). I admit I cringed at the thought of who executive producer Jill Farren Phelps would replace Miller with, as she has a noticeable habit of employing actors she's worked with in the past. However, news then broke that David Tom, who previously portrayed Billy and was the first actor to portray him as an adult, would be returning to the role. I thought it was an amazing decision and probably the best choice to replace Killer Miller.

After months of waiting, Tom made his onscreen return this week. Billy is currently injured and we haven't seen him really out and about yet, but it is already clear that he and Amelia Heinle, who portrays Billy's wife Victoria, already have chemistry. I was worried about that and hoped that if they didn't have chemistry, the writers would quickly pull the plug on "Villy". But I guess their chemistry was part of the reason Tom was rehired! At the same time, Kelly Andrews (Cynthia Watros) is still reeling from an affair she had with Billy, and Victoria is obviously being chemistry-tested with Ben "Stitch" Rayburn (Sean Carrigan). As much as I've always loved "Villy", I love Victoria and Stitch together (cleverly dubbed "Sticky") and maybe would want to see them as a couple. However, this does in no way mean I want Billy with Kelly, who is definitely harbouring some secret and is quite frankly very annoying and insecure. All this to say, Tom's portrayal is definitely amazing already and I'm excited for the future, despite some annoying fans on Twitter who keep whining about Miller leaving and are bashing Tom. Ah, newbie fans.

I hope head writers Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante have a helluva great storyline planned for Billy, as I'm sure David Tom will bring it just as well as Billy Miller. The writers are already adding in some crafty dialogue, for example on Thursday's episode when Jill (Jess Walton) was visiting Billy in the hospital and she said, "You're not my grown up Billy anymore. You're my young boy again." Oh writers, how you play with us. Catch The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS.