The Young and the Restless: Five themes we're tired of seeing (and 5 we'd like to see more of)

The Young and the Restless has tackled a variety of themes over the past five decades, such as baby switches, who's-the-daddy stories, in-laws at odds with each other, and many more. Here are five themes that we've had enough of, followed by five themes we would like to see more of:

Five themes we're tired of seeing on The Young and the Restless:

1) Kidnappings

Let's be perfectly honest. This is one of the themes that bothers us the most. Let's do a rundown of all the kidnappings we've witnessed in the past two years alone:

Jordan (Colleen Zenk) kidnapped Claire (Hayley Erin), as well as Harrison (Redding Munsell). In a separate incident, she kidnapped Sharon (Sharon Case). Martin Laurent (Christopher Cousins) later kidnapped Sharon, along with Phyllis (Michelle Stafford). Matt Clark (Roger Howarth) kidnapped Sienna (Tamara Braun) twice -- once by herself and another time with Noah (Lucas Adams). Then, Mariah (Camryn Grimes) kidnapped Dominic (Ethan Ray Clark). Victor (Eric Braeden) has been holding Lily (Christel Khalil), Mattie (Lexie Stevenson), and Charlie (Noah Alexander Gerry) -- with Lily's approval, apparently. And according to last Friday's sneak peek of this week's episodes of The Young and the Restless, Victor is going to kidnap Jack (Peter Bergman)!

The Y&R writers have been slaphappy with the kidnapping stories, and we need them to please give it a rest. There are far too many real-life kidnappings in the world. We don't need to see so many in our soaps.

2) Back-from-the-dead villains

We love Roger Howarth's portrayal of Nick and Sharon's longtime enemy, Matt Clark. He is absolutely killing it. But what more can Matt possibly do to Nick and Sharon at this point? He tried to kill their son, Noah. He kidnapped him and Sienna. He almost got Nick killed in their car ride when Nick was bringing Matt to God knows where. Because of Nick's injuries, he looks like he's becoming addicted to painkillers -- and possibly fentanyl as well?

Unless Matt is planning to fly to Milan and terrorize Summer (Allison Lanier) -- which would be a heck of a dramatic way to bring her back to the Y&R canvas -- then we're stumped. Why is he returning? Unless the Y&R writers plan to do a Franco-style storyline (the character Howarth played on General Hospital, who was a serial killer redeemed by being diagnosed with a brain tumor), then we give up. What is Matt plotting to do to the Newmans this time?

3) Mental illness storylines

There have been so many hard-hitting Y&R storylines over the past few years involving characters who have suffered nervous breakdowns. Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) was on the verge of committing suicide. Ashley (Eileen Davidson) was plagued with dissociative identity disorder. Connor (Judah Mackey) has struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder. Sharon was haunted by hallucinations of Cameron (Linden Ashby).

And lastly, Mariah had hallucinations of Ian Ward (Ray Wise), along with all of the other things that contributed to her mental breakdown (for example, her interaction with the man in the hotel). Then there's Phyllis and the post-traumatic stress disorder that she has struggled with ever since Martin kidnapped her and Sharon.

Y&R fans feel weighed down by all the depressing storylines. We realize that soaps need to address mental health issues, but sometimes we feel like we're drowning in all the doom and gloom. We want our favorite characters to experience some moments of joy in between all the sorrow.

4) Corporate theft

Ever since Cane (Billy Flynn) created the AI program on The Young and the Restless, companies have been getting stolen and/or destroyed willy-nilly. First, Victor used it to destroy Arabesque. Then, he used it to destroy Matt's online finances. Cane used it to steal Newman Enterprises. Then, Phyllis chloroformed him and took NE for herself.

We know the Y&R writers are taking advantage of the fact that AI is high-tech and cutting edge, but enough is enough. Either someone needs to destroy this darn thing, or maybe someone could use it for good instead of evil. We know nice things like that don't always happen in soaps, but it sure would be a refreshing change from the usual corporate backstabbing.

5) Everyone kissing Victor's ring

"Kissing Victor's ring" is a phrase that some Y&R fans use to refer to the fact that Victor is regarded as the godfather/mob boss of Genoa City. Characters like Adam (Mark Grossman) and Michael (Christian LeBlanc) bow down to him and worship at the feet of The Great Victor Newman, and fans are sick of it. Even Claire, who hasn't even known him very long as her grandfather, adores him and seems to take his word for just about everything.

Some fans would love to see at least one Newman rebel against Victor and his ruthless tactics. Other fans would love to see his whole family walk out on him and leave him alone at the ranch to suffer the consequences of the horrible things he does to people.

Five themes we would like to see more of on The Young and the Restless:

1) Women supporting each other

There don't seem to be many strong female friendships on The Young and the Restless. The one we see the most of is Sally's (Courtney Hope) friendship with Audra (Zuleyka Silver). There are a few other female friendships that we don't see as often, like Traci (Beth Maitland) and Amy's (Valarie Pettiford) friendship and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and Lauren's (Tracey Bregman) friendship.

We need more scenes of women supporting each other and being true friends. So many of the women on Y&R can't stand each other. Most of the women hate Phyllis and Audra. We need more storylines that show us the GC women caring about each other and helping each other to weather the difficult times in their lives.

We did get a few scenes last year of Traci and Phyllis helping each other to cope with the trauma and heartache that Martin Laurent inflicted on them, and those were wonderful scenes to watch. The two women shared a great vibe as they encouraged each other to live their best life. They were not going to let Martin destroy their spirit. We need to see more scenes like those -- scenes of positivity where our GC ladies bring out the best in each other and lift each other up instead of dragging each other down.

2) Enemies to friends

The Young and the Restless writers performed what seemed like a miracle last year when Sharon and Phyllis finally ended their decades-long feud and took baby steps toward developing a friendship. The Martin Laurent kidnapping bonded them in a way that neither of them will ever forget. Even though they aren't exactly best friends, like Sally and Audra are, it's refreshing to see that they are no longer sniping at each other over Nick (Joshua Morrow) and they've been looking out for each other's best interests.

Phyllis reached out to Sharon with supportive phone calls and messages when Sharon and Nick were in L.A., at Noah's bedside when he was in a coma. Currently, Sharon is trying to encourage Phyllis to turn away from her dark impulses, hoping she will do the right thing and return Newman Enterprises to Victor. Sharon wants better for Phyllis. She reminded her that they are friends now, and she believes that Phyllis is a good person deep down.

Phyllis and Sharon's friendship feels more authentic than Brooke's (Katherine Kelly Lang) short-lived friendship with Taylor (played by Krista Allen at the time) on The Bold and the Beautiful. They are also rivals who attempted to be friends, but Phyllis and Sharon's slow-build friendship feels much more believable. We need more enemies-to-friends storylines like this one on Y&R.

How about Traci and Lauren next? After all the horrible times that Lauren bullied Traci, it would do our hearts good to see her reach out to Traci now and become her friend. Even though Lauren apologized to her years ago, it would be wonderful if the Y&R writers took it a step further and developed a real friendship between the ladies.

3) Characters expressing their creativity

Since most of The Young and the Restless characters are business people, all we ever really hear about are company thefts, takeovers, mergers, and who's the CEO or COO of which company. All of the business talk gets a little dry and stale after a while. We need to see some diversity in the characters' careers.

We have a few musicians: Danny (Michael Damian), Tessa (Cait Fairbanks), and Daniel (Michael Graziadei), now that Tessa taught him to play the guitar. We also have two artists on Y&R -- Audra and Daniel (Michael Graziadei). Maybe we could see more storylines of Tessa and Daniel collaborating musically. Maybe we could see them in concert together at Chancellor Park, especially now that we're approaching spring and the weather is getting warmer. Perhaps Daniel could somehow incorporate his artwork into that event?

And perhaps Audra could do some paintings and drawings to decorate the walls of Spectra-Charles Media, her new company with Sally? It would be a refreshing change of pace to see these characters explore their creative sides and find ways to get their art out there, so everyone else in GC can appreciate their talent.

4) More long-lasting relationships and marriages

We realize that in the soap world, long-lasting marriages and relationships are considered boring. But it would feel inspiring if we could see more soap couples stick it out together when the going gets tough.

One of the longest lasting marriages on The Young and the Restless is Michael and Lauren's. They celebrated their twentieth anniversary in December 2025. Michael and Lauren were on the verge of divorce at one point, but they hung in there and realized that their marriage was worth saving.

Let's see more Y&R couples band together to overcome obstacles and hardships. Staying together doesn't have to be viewed as boring, not when both parties involved have a "you and me against the world" mentality and are committed to fighting for their life together. Just look at everything Michael and Lauren have endured over the past twenty years.

5) Victor and Jack should go back to being frenemies

We've had enough of Victor foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog just because Jack was the person who saved Nikki's life, not him. Can these two longtime rivals please go back to being the frenemies they were several years ago? It was a relief to see them behave in a civil manner toward each other back then. All their sniping and Victor's constant assaults against Jabot and Jack have become ridiculous at this point. Let's see them co-exist as frenemies, for the sake of all their loved ones.

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Goodness, if Sharon and Phyllis could bury the hatchett, then the Mustache can stop griping about that night in the GCAC hotel room, when Jack saved Nikki's life. Besides, Victor has other challenges to face right now. Phyllis stole his company. And Matt Clark is out there somewhere, plotting revenge against the Newmans. Who knows where he is? He could strike at any moment. Watch out, Victor!

Catch all-new episodes of The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS and Paramount Plus.

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