‘Young and the Restless’ Spoilers: Mal Young Recycling Storylines From Old UK Soaps
Young and the Restless spoilers show Mal Young recycles the same storylines from previous shows he has worked on. In a lecture he gave at Glasgow Caledonian University more than 10 years ago, he outlined several recent storylines Y&R fans know well. They included domestic violence, burying a body under a patio, and a lesbian kiss. Don’t those all sound familiar from recent Young and the Restless plots? Hmm…
Young and the Restless Spoilers – Mal Young Uses Same Stories Over and Over
Mal Young lectured the students (ironically) about the importance of fresh ideas and scripts. However, it seems he doesn’t take his own advice. Young and the Restless viewers complain that Mal Young ignores the show’s rich history to play out his tired ideas. While he was an executive at BBC, over 14 years ago, he used plots on UK soaps and shows identical to ones he’s using now on Y&R.
Always strong and confident Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle) became a different person during her rekindled romance with JT Hellstrom (Thad Luckinbill). Mal Young destroyed the JT character in order to recycle a spousal abuse plot he’d used before. By the end of it, Victoria was unrecognizable. She has yet to recover the spark she once had and fans lost JT, a formerly well-liked character.
Further Storyline Similarities on Y&R
Young and the Restless spoilers note that Mal Young didn’t stop with a repeat of an abusive husband/boyfriend scenario. He also had the killer crew bury JT’s body under a statue in the park. He disposed of a body by burying it under a patio on a UK show. That’s a lot like the JT crew scheme. The four women involved in the JT murder share a complicated and, at times, ugly past.
It is unlikely this group would join forces. Sharon Newman (Sharon Case) just found out days ago that Phyllis Abbott (Gina Tognoni) slept with her fiancée. The wedding is called off because of this betrayal yet Sharon and Phyllis are hanging out together plotting their next move. Mal Young once again chose to commit to a narrative that disregarded the show’s character history.
Next week on Y&R:
Victoria, after receiving a letter that says, “I know what you did and I’m going to make you pay,” says: “This has got to be about JT.”
The other three ladies receive the same letter.
Nikki says: “Someone is on to us!”#YR #YoungandtheRestless pic.twitter.com/qql6sZVj7d
— Kim Huck (@acejordan23) October 5, 2018
Y&R – Mariah and Tessa Relationship
Mal Young went on to comment about the groundbreaking scenes he created of two women kissing on a British show. He is quite proud of this move. It hadn’t happened on the BBC before. One can argue the pairing of Mariah Copeland (Camryn Grimes) and Tessa Porter (Cait Fairbanks) came out of left field. Was it an attempt to recreate Mal’s previous writing?
Neither woman had ever dated a woman before. Both were involved with men when they met. It can be said this is another example of Mal Young pushing characters in a direction that doesn’t match their history. This love match divided fans deeply. But no matter whether you ship them or not as a couple, it’s another plot he’s written before and recycled over at Y&R.
Looking at an older CBS Watch magazine from a few months ago and they have a great focus article on Y&R. There’s s pic of #Teriah kissing and Billy is underneath their pic and he looks as happy as the #Teriah fans are when we see them kiss! Ha ha! #YR #YoungandtheRestless pic.twitter.com/6Wxgy7PRMV
— Kim Huck (@acejordan23) October 14, 2018
Let’s also not forget that Mal Young lifted, almost word for word, a plot from the movie Cruel Intentions. The bet scenes between Summer Newman (Hunter King) and Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor) were almost identical as were the terms of their bet and British sports car versus sex prizes. It seems like Mal Young struggles to create anything original for the CBS soap…
All this copycatting doesn’t bode well for fans of the Young and the Restless. It begs the question of whether he’s wrecking the soap by reusing plots he’s written in the past. Y&R ratings are a problem and have been sliding for a while. Maybe some new ideas could save the soap.
Stay tuned to Y&R weekdays. Check back with Soap Dirt for all the new Young and the Restless spoilers and news.