I've been a huge fan of the "Young & the Restless" since my late mother-in-law had introduced me to the show back in the 1970's. The show sure helped us bond :)
The show now has a story line dealing with a mother who has Alzehimer's and the family trying to get on the same page regarding the parent's care. Then they find out an old friend of their mother's is her Power of Attorney and he's removing her from the family.
cbs.com/shows/the_young_and_the_restless/news/1008035/the-young-and-the-restless-teams-up-with-the-alzheimer-s-association/
And take this series' chosen line! - what are the odds? If they wanted to set up a right buggers' muddle of a situation for the kids to squabble over until somebody loses an eye but then everybody learns something, they could just have gone for the likeliest scenario of all - that mother hasn't got a POA in place. But oooooohhhh no. There's got to be a sinister control freak in the picture or there might not be enough drama to stop us getting bored. HA!!! They want drama, they should spend five minutes on AC.
To be fair, The Archers (which you won't have heard of, and be grateful) did do a fair job of Jack Woolley developing dementia and his elderly wife Peggy struggling and then failing to cope, until they slapped him in the old folks' home where he was happy with just a bird table and a nice Polish girl to keep him company while Peggy met up with her old flame and went off to Canada to meet his family, or something (though she came home again, they both realised it wouldn't work and she couldn't abandon Jack, not to worry).
But The Archers was set up just after WW2 to educate the hopeless British public about where their food came from through "an everyday tale of country folk"; and to say that it is issue-led is a bit like saying that Fo - I'm self-censoring right there. It is quite issue-led, let's leave it at that.
If you're thinking of looking The Archers up, don't. It's like smoking - you'll be sorry you started.
Do you remember Dick Barton Special Agent and Mrs Dale's Diary. I was glued to the radio for those.
The first ward I was assigned to was a teenage boys ward. We had a male charge nurse which was in the days male nurses were as rare as hens teeth and he would secret himself in his office at 6.45 every evening.
I think that the way they are portraying dementia on Call The Midwife is not very good. They have a senior Sister (nun) who is so cognitively declined that she disappears one day, looking for her old homeplace and narrowly escapes death. She is obviously progressed in her dementia and known to all, but, they still allow her to run errands alone and to go out alone at night! They treat her character as quaint and inspiring, and not like a medical condition. I find it frustrating.
Meanwhile Nolotando, Jennifer's half-South African granddaughter, is teaming up with Freddy Pargeter, whose dad fell from the roof of Lower Loxley in the infamous New Year disaster five or six years ago -
Aaaarrrgggghhhh - !
Call the Midwife, though I have to confess to groaning and switching channel whenever it comes on, doesn't as far as I know even pretend to any sort of authenticity.
Alan Bennett, who wrote 'The Lady in the Van' and 'The History Boys' among many others (I think he might have done 'The Madness of King George'?) also wrote very truthfully about his mother's death from Alzheimer's. But that is a hard read, even when you have some experience to go on, and you can see why no one is going to call it entertainment.
I stopped watching the Y&R during the past couple of years, but now back and as usual, back 3 years some of the characters had children in day care or grade school, and now the children are young adults. Still trying to figure out what grown child belongs to whom :))
For those who use to watch Y&R, the mother with Alzheimer's is Jack, Ashley & Tracy's mother. The mother thinks Jack is her husband John, and she doesn't recognize her two daughters. Mom had fired her caregivers and insist she can live on her own.