I’ve complained quite a bit about The Bold and the Beautiful over the years. There’s a reason why it is the soap opera that gets the least amount of columns devoted to it by me. I get exhausted because they’ve had the same man in charge since 1993, so it feels pointless to complain. Yet this year, something changed. B&B isn’t an embarrassment to the genre. It is actually watchable!
What Changed?
There are a few factors in the shift on the show. One of them being that Casey Kaspryzk ascended to the position of executive producer. Brad Bell and Michael Minnis are still head writers, but Casey ascending to executive producer does give him more authority than he previously had, and I assume Brad must respect his opinions.
The second factor is they moved studios. They are now at Sunset Las Palmas Studios. This change is evident on screen. You can see they’ve upgraded sets like at Forrester Creations. Over the years, they’ve shrunk sets like Brooke’s mansion, but now they have the room that, if they wanted to put it back to the original dimensions, they could.
The third factor is that B&B has been shut out of the Outstanding Drama Series category for the second year in a row at the Daytime Emmys. That has to be embarrassing. Days of Our Lives managed to get nominated both times, and they are on a food stamp budget with writing that wasn’t much better than the writing on B&B. To get the show back on track, they needed drama and they needed to get a heavy hitter off the bench.
Heavy Hitter
If you are a frequent reader of this column, you might remember the times I’ve suggested that they kill off Katie. If the show wasn’t going to use Katie, it made sense to me that she would just die. Heather Tom is too talented to be a bench warmer. Now I’m glad that Katie didn’t have much to do for a few years and that her head didn’t just fall off her body. That allowed her returning to a leading character this year to have a bigger impact.
Bill giving Katie her own fashion house was the shot in the arm the show needed. Rival fashion houses have never really been taken seriously on B&B. The stories usually involve them stealing designs from Forrester Creations. Katie has taken a different approach. She poaches employees from Forrester Creations. She’s like Frank Valentini circa 2012/2013! To be fair, Eric offered his services and that started her insatiable hunger to get those employees.
This has led to Brooke and Katie being back at each other’s throats. It never made sense to me that Katie forgave Brooke for the times her sister cheated with Bill. The time that Brooke and Bill had a secret kissing room at his office was worse than the previous affair because that’s just fucking weird. Brooke being a bitch about Katie starting her own company just reopened old wounds and fueled Katie’s employee poaching. It has been great drama and given Heather Tom a strong chance of winning another Daytime Emmy. I do worry that has gotten repetitive and could lead to a scene like this:
Brooke: “Katie, could you steal our janitor? Earl is essential to the future of Forrester Creations. Our floors aren’t going to be as clean, and you know that Ridge only trusts Earl to clean his bathroom. A clean toilet is essential to his design process. How could you do this to us?!”
Katie: “It is just business, Brooke. Ridge is the one that promoted some guy that washes Electra’s car to Head Janitor to appease R.J. Earl is going to get the respect he deserves here”
Brooke: “You just want revenge because you’re my dumpy sister who has lived in my shadow. Katie, I’m sorry that I’m so beautiful and successful and irresistible to men. I’m sorry that you had to lose your virginity to my sloppy seconds at 30 years old. But you have to stop this. Can’t we just have peace? Can’t we be sisters again and you go back to kissing my ass?”
Katie: “You and Donna kicked me out of the family so I’m going to pass. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to visit the ladies room. Our toilets are immaculate!”
Toxic Work Environment
Delon de Metz has come a long way as an actor since he joined B&B in 2020. The scenes where Zende stood up for himself and quit Forrester Creations were fantastic. While Zende is likely going to regret working at Logan soon enough, he was right to recognize that only Ridge and his children matter at that company. The show wasn’t brave enough to directly bring up the race issue, but there was subtext when Zende pushed back on Ridge telling him to be grateful by bringing up Kristen adopting him from Africa as a child.
This would be great if this led to Zende being a more prominent character. I know Delon is like Chad Duell in that he doesn’t have chemistry with women, but they could fix that by pairing Zende with Deke. I know an interracial gay pairing might be too progressive for this show, but since it took them almost 40 years to have a white gay character on contract, I think they should just go for it. The drama could be Remy scheming to break them up. Or maybe the drama could be Zende struggling to accept being bisexual.
Miss Dylan, If You’re Nasty
Sydney Bullock was a great find. She can act, she’s gorgeous, and she has great chemistry with Crew Morrow. And Dylan started as just an art teacher for Hayes, so I don’t think the show intended for her to become a prominent character. I actually love it when a character that was meant to be a bit part becomes a bigger character because the show sees something in them. It happened with Kathy Brier as Marcie on One Life to Live or Trent Dawson as Coleman on As the World Turns.
It has been a bit jarring to have Katie acting like Stephanie Forrester to Dylan in regards to her relationship with Will. She’s never been the mother that has a weird relationship with her son. Playing it like Katie is projecting her issues with Brooke onto Dylan has helped it a bit. It also helps that Dylan isn’t being totally spineless while treating Katie with more respect than she deserves. If they want to take this all the way, Will has to get Dylan pregnant. It binds Dylan to the canvas, and Katie will hate it.
Soap Twitter Is Pissed
The “surrogacy” story is very divisive. I’m of two minds on it. Would it be out of character for Steffy to hand over her own baby to Carter and Daphne? Yes. Steffy loves her kids. She wouldn’t be able to do it. It would be like asking her to cut off her own arm. Is the story soapy? Yes. It gives Lawrence Saint-Victor something to play that isn’t misfiling paperwork or high-key racist. It also leads the way for a Steffy and Finn breakup that they are overdue for.
I was surprised that Finn was allowed to stand up to Steffy on the “surrogacy.” Most of their relationship has been her running the relationship. If he doesn’t toe the line with her, she takes the kids to Europe. Finn being allowed to have a backbone for a little while showed one of Tanner’s strengths as an actor, which is that he’s good at being bitchy. Scenes where he’s supposed to be emotional can be dicey acting wise, but if you hand Tanner a romantic scene or one where he’s allowed to be bitchy, he can deliver.
The Same Scenes Every Year
I have accepted that Brad Bell thinks Sheila Carter is now a Hallmark heroine. I’m tired of complaining about that. He wins. I can’t accept having the same scenes every year, which pretty much go like this:
Sheila: “Can I see Hayes? The last time I shot someone, Biden was president. Pretty please? I’m harmless! I didn’t boil your mother alive when she fucked my husband.”
Steffy: “No! You’re a psycho, and I have the scars to prove it! Go bother one of your 500 other kids! Shit, you have a granddaughter in Genoa City! Go see her.”
Finn: “Gee, maybe she has changed, Steffy.”
Steffy: “I’m taking the kids to Europe! And no BJ’s for six months! Sex will only be you going down on me while I read poems about how much you love me. And it had better rhyme! I am not into free verse bullshit.”
Finn: “That’s fair.”
If they want to keep Kimberlin Brown, she needs something to do that isn’t just Sheila begging to see her grandson year after year. It is tedious. Do something else.
Dispatches From Soap Land
*I am glad that The Young and the Restless won’t just be Dan O’Connor and Jamey Giddens cleaning up Josh Griffith’s mess in November. Recasting Roxanne is a big sign that at least one new story is starting in November. If Roxanne is returning to town with a secret child she had with Devon, hopefully that means the end of Devon’s marriage with Abby.
*Can General Hospital just send Willow to Ferncliff already? The sooner she goes, the sooner they can find a middle ground for the character and the apology tour can begin. Though I’m prepared for another year of Michael finger-wagging and being like, “You can’t see the kids! I’m punishing you! Muahaha!” Because that is considered high drama on this show.
*Hayley on Beyond The Gates is a rare case of a gold digger on a soap opera who wasn’t happy to be pregnant.
*Thank God that Days of Our Lives has Paul Telfer and Linsey Godfrey. They are the reason to watch lately.
