B&B & Y&R: Likes & Yikes 2015

For "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "The Young & the Restless" I decided to combine my yearly highlights.

Both shows had interesting years that were uneven. B&B was really strong until Aly was killed, and Y&R hired Charles Pratt changed the style of its writing.

B&B -

Likes: Maya's story, while Maya is not the first transgender character in daytime she is the most significant as the character remained important even after the reveal. Maya and Rick's relationship became stronger with the reveal.

Yikes: Why did they have to kill Aly? I'm going to whine about this for a good long time. Her death was meaningless and she was an interesting part of the clan. Not everyone in the family is stable, and watching her battle her demons was fun.

Yikes: Nicole becoming Maya's surrogate even though she's still a teenager. If Nicole had just donated her eggs to Maya and Rick, I would have been fine with it.

Likes: That Brooke and Eric remain best friends.

Yikes: Thomas's behavior and the whole, sleeping with Caroline while she's drugged/drunk and he didn't realize it. Stories like that used to be okay, but have become more and more problematic. My interest in Caroline and Ridge as a couple also was damaged severely by this material.

Yikes: Ivy wants Liam, then she's with Wyatt because he is the only option open to her. Then she makes out with her cousin Thomas (yes they aren't blood related, but still.) Then she is nearly accidentally killed twice by Steffy. Has Ivy become the Australian version of Wile E. Coyote?

Likes/Yikes: I was glad when the news came out that Jacqueline MacInnes Wood would be returning to B&B as Steffy, but in bad news I don't like any of her story. Please fix this character.

Yikes: Having such a small cast and two pregnancies at the same time. Since I doubt we'll be seeing a baby switch and the kids aren't biologically related, so other health issues couldn't be fixed, I don't get why they are both Nicole and Caroline pregnant.

Y&R -

Likes/Yikes: While Pratt's Y&R is controversial at least it isn't as boring as it can be. That said at first it felt like the bizarro soap with all those natural disasters happening at once.

Yikes: Yes Neil, Hilary and Devon have a story, but it is truly awful. The consent issues are insane, and that is not the only story of its kind on canvas.

Yikes: Jack isn't Jack, but Marco was his identical replacement Victor found in prison. On top of everything else, Marco raped Phyllis. This was disgusting and distasteful. To escape Jack also killed people. Victor went from the anti-hero you love to hate, to vile and evil with this material.

Likes: Chelsea found out everything Adam did as Gabe and still loved him. Considering Chelsea's past, I appreciated that she accepted what he did. (Of course, there still in the consent issue as she thought she was having sex with Gabe and not her thought to be dead husband.)

Likes: That Mariah and Kevin had sex, it wasn't good so they decided to stay friends and not be together romantically. Not every pairing between two people needs to be about burning up the sheets.

Yikes: The hit-and-run phenomenon. Too many people in Genoa City were run over by cars in 2015. Once sure, but three times in a year, seriously.

Likes/Yikes: The use of Chancellor Park and the remembrance of Katherine. While I like that Kay is not forgotten, I wonder how much she'd enjoy seeing mayhem in the park named after her. That said, how nearly every event takes place there, is a bit excessive.

Likes: The new characters of Luca and Marisa are interesting and I hope they stay that way. At first I was skeptical, but the actors are better than their stories.

So that's my final daytime year in review for 2015.