Young & Restless Delivers a Knock-Out Punch… to Sense
Young & Restless Delivers a Knock-Out Punch… to Sense
Credit: Aaron Montgomery/JPI (2), Sean Smith/JPI (2), Brian Lowe/JPI, Howard Wise/JPI
I know the drill. On The Young and the Restless, Victor must always win, just like on General Hospital, Sonny and/or Jason must always save the day. I accept it. Sometimes grudgingly, but I do. We all do. But here’s the thing: As enviably fit as Eric Braeden remains — and I only wish my folks would follow his lead and get some damn exercise — it’s simply not plausible for the show to keep setting up the octogenarian’s on-screen counterpart to physically brawl with much younger enemies like Matt Clark (as it did in Tuesday’s episode).
Could Victor punch out my lights? For sure — and without breaking a sweat. But I’m a couch potato who can’t even fight the urge to have that third glass of wine. Matt, on the other hand, is a former jock who looks to be as in-shape as he was when he was BMOC at Genoa City High. There’s no world in which he doesn’t bob and weave faster than The Mustache can swing his right hook.
Victor-as-Rocky isn’t just a stretch of the imagination, either, it’s an unnecessary contrivance. The character is at his scariest when he’s being still, neither raising his fist nor his voice but issuing threats with the chilling confidence of someone who knows that he can and will make good on them. He’s smart — certainly smart enough not to risk injury by going toe-to-toe with a madman on whom he has a few decades.
What do you think? Should Victor accept that now and forever he is hands down the GOAT and let Nick and Adam start getting their knuckles bruised more often? Or are you inspired by the thought that a buff 84-year-old boxer can still be the toughest guy in the room? On your way to the comments, review Victor’s life and loves in the below photo gallery.
