A Very Special Episode

While watching Chloe the Fashionista make snide comments about Lily's weight, I kept having traumatic flashbacks to Blossom and their never-ending parade of issue story lines although, in fairness to Ms. Russo, not even her wardrobe was as hideous as Gloria's.

I just find this storyline to be silly, because, seriously, how much could Christel Khalil possibly weigh? I know that there's a difference between model skinny and real world skinny, and even model skinny and actress skinny, but I'm pretty sure that any way you cut it, this girl would not have these lines lobbed at her:

Lily: Am I gonna fit into any of these?

Chloe: Barely. I advise, uh, cutting back on snacking.

***

Chloe: Yeah, it's-- it's just--it's too tight. You drink a lot of water? You might feel a little bloated? Let's, uh, try wedging you into another one

I know they're going for "there's an UGLY side to a BEAUTIFUL business" and everything, and it's kind of like the running joke in The Devil Wears Prada about what a lard ass Anne Hathaway was, but it really seems to me like someone in the writer's room was like, "Remember when some bitchy sorority girls were taunting Colleen about her weight for two episodes? We wrote some really good bon mots for them. I wish we could use them...but how? Oh, I know! Lily's a model now, so we can just use them on her! It's perfect!"

So this is either going to lead (a)to a story where Lily has anorexia or bulimia for two weeks before being cured by Cane's love (b)to a story where Lily becomes addicted to diet pills for two weeks before being cured by Cane's love or (c)nowhere, because the Y&R writing staff's follow through is for shit.

I'm not saying that issue storylines can't be done well, because they can. Even eating disorder/body image storylines; Hannah's bulimia on Hollyoaks has been a wrenching story and Blair's eating disorder is handled really outstandingly on Gossip Girl. It's just that this show, and this storyline, is stupid. And it's making me sympathetic to Lily, which I always hate.

(And what the hell was with Lily declaring her love to Cane in the most bored tone of voice ever? You have a hot Aussie heir in front of you, woman! Put some emotion into it!)

However, it's really good to have Liz Hendrickson back on a soap! Remember the last time she was on AMC and it turned out that Maggie cheated on Bianca and Binks totally couldn't forgive her and yet had no problem forgiving Babe for stealing her child? And even though Maggie was all pretty and stuff, Bianca ignored her in favor of Zarf? All throughout that story, I kept saying "Liz deserves way better than this". And while this era of Y&R is, technically, way better than that mess, it's not like it's good or anything. But at least she had that commercial where she got to eat that delicious Special K with Chocolate cereal!

Comments

[Megan]

You are so on the money!

What the heck is wrong with this show?

The Cane and Lily romance could be really steamy, sexy and fun and now they're going to ruin it.

I've just about had it with this show. But then again, I always say that.

Megan

[Elizabeth Kerri Mahon]

Ah, Mallory, how I remember the glory days when Bill Bell was alive and we had the Tracy Abbot vs. Lauren Fenmore rivalry. Poor Tracy, overweight but with a beautiful voice and the dyed blonde nightmare who couldn't sing vying for Danny Romalotti. Why couldn't they have kept Adrienne Leon (who can sing) and had her struggle with the same issues that her mother went through as her good friend Lily goes on to modeling success and talks about her weight, and Colleen starts popping the diet pills to keep her hunky professor lover? (Again didn't Tracy do her professor back in the day?). The parallels are striking. And they could have kept Lauren's son Scott (with a better actor) and had him get involved with Colleen. That's making use of history.

[DarylE]

give her a cookie! quick.

[Carl]

Colleen/Adrian were never that interesting beyond the affair story (and AL often seemed to be very hazy and fatigued while playing the part). I'm not sure this diet story would be all that good with anyone.

"The Cane and Lily romance could be really steamy, sexy and fun and now they're going to ruin it."

Not unless they recast Lily, and stop telling us how hot she is.

I do respectfully disagree with the idea that the story makes no sense because Lily is already very thin. Many girls out there are thin and still told they are too fat. I think that's part of the point of the storyline, that these body issues are devastating for anyone. That's probably the only part of the story I like, because if Lily actually did have some extra weight, some yahoos out there would say, "Chloe's right!" Now they will just focus on how dangerous this weight obsession can be.

[Goddess]

Funny thing is they started this boring storyline with Colleen, then like so many other storylines, it was unceremoniously dropped. Here's hoping this one is, too. If Crystal turns sideways you can't even see her, making this storyline all the more ridiculous.