Given the cringey circumstances of Noah’s return, Young & Restless has laid the groundwork for a whole new generation of Abbotts and

Newmans to feud, but they haven’t even started carping at one another and fans are already giving the thumbs down. Can the story be salvaged?

 

 

How have they set the scene for a new battle? Well, as SOAPS reader, Karpk, pointed out of Noah, “He’s stringing Allie along so I don’t think any of the Abbotts will take too kindly that Noah has cheated on her and not broken up with her yet.”Indeed, Noah has been all the

 

way to death’s door, revealed an affair, landed in yet another life-threatening situation, and is now making his way back from Los Angeles to Genoa City seemingly without even having a conversation with Allie. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how her family would have every right to be pissed off with Noah… and as we know all too well, if you take exception to one Newman, they circle the wagons.

 

 

Everything is in place for an explosive new war that finally involves the next generation, and yet fans are unimpressed. Why? For one thing, writers aren’t working the Allie angle.

 

 

 

SOAPS reader, Pauls, noted, “I haven’t seen anything mentioned much regarding Allie. Seriously, wouldn’t she have gotten on a plane at this point and showed up? I mean, have Sharon and Nick continued to put her off from coming by saying…what? Noah is fine but you can’t talk with him??? It’s just weird.” Co-sign! Stories have to make some sort of sense to engage the audience.Also problematic is NuNoah, who isn’t exactly taking the Young & Restless audience by storm. Although it was promised that the core character would return with an “edge” this time around, so far, it’s not evident. In a thread entitled, Wimpy Noah, SOAPS poster, Acadia_ca, declared, “It seems his edge is an affair with an woman old enough to be his mother. That’s not an edge. He’s still boring as all heck.”Indeed, Noah remains a bit of a straight arrow, despite the affair, which makes things awkward. Why? Given his nature and the fact that he’s been cheated on (Tessa with Mariah), this whole premise feels like a stretch.

But there is drama to be had between the Abbotts and Newmans over Noah’s treatment of Allie, and it’s right there for the taking if the writers follow through. Claire and Kyle could certainly be pulled in should he take issue with her cousin. But for this story to work (or any story involving Noah), he’s going to need to develop that edge we were promised. Period.