Credit: Howard Wise/JPI (3); CBS Screenshot
I know that sometimes, after reading my weekly take on all things Bold & Beautiful related, you might think, “Wait, does he even like this show?” That’s probably because I adore it so much that I want it to be the best it can possibly be, so I dish out a lot of tough love. I’m happy to report that this week, there was quite a bit I actually liked! Sure, I still want to throttle Ridge, and Taylor’s absence annoys the crap outta me. But overall, it was a pretty strong week… and here’s why I think that.
Sex Sells
I feel as if this Thomas/Hope storyline has allowed her portrayer, Annika Noelle, to show us so many shades that we never really saw before. When Hope strolled across the design studio while slowly undressing? Yeah, that was hot as… um… what she and Thomas were about to do.
This whole story still makes no sense, and might just as well be subtitled “The Sexual Awakening Of Miss Hope Logan.” But it’s working on multiple levels, including the one on which Thomas is being written as something other than a shady dude.
I know, I know, there are major problems where Thomas’ past actions are concerned. God knows I’ve written/complained about them often. Those haven’t gone away and are, in fact, still present. Unlike on General Hospital, where everyone walks around praising Sonny as a “good” mobster, there are people on the Bold & Beautiful canvas who — like many viewers — have not forgotten Thomas’ past actions and bring them up routinely.
The Taylor Problem
This week’s most intriguing development actually happened off camera. Fans of Taylor (and her portrayer Krista Allen) grew increasingly vocal with their concerns about the fate of both women. In response, the show tried to assuage those fears by revealing that Taylor would return at the end of September.
More: Here’s exactly when Taylor will return
Credit: CBS screenshot
Given how notoriously tight-lipped Bold & Beautiful is when it comes to future spoilers, this was an unusual move on the show’s part. But the real proof will be in the pudding: Will Taylor return for an actual story, or simply to continue her stint as an exposition-spouting glorified extra? And will the handful of episodes cited be the first of many… or simply a way to placate Taylor fans? Only time will tell…
Ridge Is Gonna Ridge
At this point, it’s hard to remember a time when Ridge wasn’t a complete and total jerk. But I’m sure said time exists… right? I mean, he couldn’t always have been the hard-headed, egomaniacal jerk who so routinely makes me wanna, as my former office wife used to say on a regular basis, “punch him in the throat.” (Miss you daily, Colleen!)
Ridge is seemingly being purposefully obtuse where his dad is concerned. How many times does he have to be told Eric isn’t ready to retire? The complete lack of respect being shown to the man who founded Forrester Creations is stunning… or would be coming from anyone other than Ridge. For him? Totally in character.
But if that dress Hope was trying on for Thomas is one of the creations Ridge and his eldest son plan on sending down the runway, I predict they’re gonna get their asses handed to them by Eric and his grandson.
If this was Project Runway, Nina Garcia’s critique would have been brutal and included the word “matronly.”
Hello, Luna!
I’m baffled as to how the writers got Luna’s introduction so incredibly right when they completely botched the re-introduction of R.J., an actual legacy character. While he came on with no purpose other than to push his parents together and prop up the Thomas/Hope/Liam story, Luna walked in the room and within a single episode had a love interest and a secret.
Ages ago, Danny Horn — author of the incredible Dark Shadows Every Day blog — summed up the key to introducing a new character beautifully. He wrote: “There are three steps to making the audience love a new character: Make a friend, make a joke and make a plot point happen. The joke means that the character is appealing, the plot point means that she’s making the effort to be narratively useful, and the friend gives the character worth and value. If she has a friend, then she’s not showing up to the party alone. Somebody likes her, which means it’s safe for the audience to at least give her a chance.”
Luna essentially followed that pattern. The joke was her entering basically hidden beneath a pile of supplies. The friend was Donna, who’d already told us how awesome the new intern was. And the plot point came when Luna got that mysterious phone call, warning her (far too late) to stay away from the Forrester family. By the end of her first episode, I wanted to know more. And isn’t that what good soap opera is all about? Creating within us the desire to tune in tomorrow to see what happens next?
More: Who called to warn Luna about the Forreters?
Random Thoughts
• While I loved Luna, the story of her hiring was both ridiculous and, in a certain way, totally believable. On the one hand… seriously? Donna looked into her eyes, knew she could be trusted and said, “Let’s hire her!” I’m willing to bet we’ll hear that tale over and over, as is this show’s way, in order to set up the betrayal Donna will feel when Luna’s secret is revealed. On the other hand, the live-in-love of a rich man insisting someone be hired, experience be damned? Totally believable.
• I’m just gonna go ahead and say that scripts over the past few weeks have been at least a little bit less repetitive. There have actually been scenes which — gasp — sounded like real human beings having real conversations.
• Thomas has labored at Forrester Creations for years, and yet R.J. does a few sketches and is declared by Eric to be “the anointed one.” Damn, that’s cold… and further proof that when it comes to Taylor’s side of the family, they just can’t have nice things… even when they’ve earned it!
• Someone should teach Brooke the art of conversational editing. She easily could have delivered Eric’s declaration of war to Ridge without revealing that R.J. was helping his grandpa. Yet she later claimed that would have been impossible.
• Heather Tom and Lawrence Saint-Victor deserve better than to have Katie and Carter rolled out in order to regurgitate dialogue explaining to viewers what is happening in the scenes that we just cut away from.
Get ready, because we’re giving Bold & Beautiful‘s Wyatt not only a story, but a show of his own. And he’s not the only one. Check them out in the gallery below.
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