Sheila’s back… with a sorta new look.
Last week on The Bold and the Beautiful, Steffy stopped the Tridge wedding of doom, Brooke and Taylor had a surprising confrontation and Ridge apologized to Brooke – who gave him a long overdue piece of her mind. My column was about B&B’s manufactured drama, the twist of the year and Brooke’s empowerment.
DRAMA!
This week, after Ridge and Taylor left town off-screen, Sheila took center stage again, revealing her new and improved trophy wife disguise, while Finn and Steffy came to the speedy conclusion that Sheila was very much alive.
Dr. Finn gets smart
Has Finn been reading my tweets while he’s been in storage?
You know I’ve complained a few times that it was beyond time for Finn and Steffy, arguably the most popular romantic duo on B&B, to have their own story.
Well, that story is finally happening, but it’s off to a rocky start. I’ll give it a chance, assuming it lasts another week.
Finn and Steffy are on the case!
In yet another rewrite of very recent history, Finn surprised Steffy by telling her that he’s never bought the official police story that Sheila was gobbled up by a bear, leaving only a strangely long toe as evidence.
Steffy responded that she also thought the story was all bullpucky perpetrated by incompetent law enforcement, which should go down well with audience members who work in crime prevention.
In fact, thanks to a subservient detective who will accommodate any demand of the Forresters, Finn now has said remarkably well-preserved toe under a microscope right now!
Gee willikers! Convenient and gross!
Now please, for the love of Susan Flannery, can this be the last week see of Sheila’s dismembered digit?
It’s happening too fast
Finn figured out in less than an episode that Sheila’s tell-tale toe wasn’t chomped off as much as hacked off. No build-up, no hints.
This story just fell out of the sky, as they do on B&B.
Finn and Steffy putting the pieces together and deciding that Sheila might be alive could have been at least a month of solid storytelling for the duo that strengthens them beyond sex scenes and cheese and crackers parties at Fort Forrester.
Instead, Fred and Daphne… erm… Finn and Steffy have almost got the truth about Sheila figured out faster than it took Steffy to park the car and walk to his office.
Going from “something doesn’t feel right” to Finn declaring “Sheila is alive” in one scene was just lazy plotting and probably poor production planning behind the scenes.
Soap viewers are a savvy audience
Villains coming back from the dead on soaps was cliché before we even heard of Nurse Sheila Carter.
Most fans can see a surprise return coming as soon as the body is declared dead because we’ve seen it happen so many times. Baddies like Sheila are too good to leave on ice for long.
So I still don’t get what the need was for Sheila to be revealed as alive so soon after faking her death, only to have her spend weeks doing nothing.
It all feels like the writers kept Sheila idling for months only to rush to get this story done and over with in as little time as possible.
Credit where credit is due
I have to admit, the blonde wig on Sheila’s weird Mrs. Green Goblin disguise works – she’ll blend in with all the trophy wives who lunch at Il Giardino and make awkward drunken passes at Deacon.
So bravo for the improvement, but it’s still not good enough. Sheila’s new look is definitely not ready for its close-up.
Either do it right or ditch it. The fans deserve to see your best work.
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B&B opinion: Manufactured drama
Sheila & Steffy meet in the ladies’ room
The day after Finn decided his mother must be alive, he and Steffy inexplicably (they did give an explanation, but it was dumb) decided to dine at the restaurant they nearly died at.
Conveniently, Sheila was already there for a quick bathroom break before hitting the road for parts unknown.
Wouldn’t you know it, Steffy, one of the people on the entire planet who Sheila does not want to run into, is standing right outside the door.
Shock just for the heck of it
Sure enough, Sheila walked straight into Steffy and got splashed with iced tea! Womp womp!
Instead of running before clumsy Steffy got a look at her face, Sheila just stood there in her open-toe shoes waiting to be clocked by her daughter-in-law.
Luckily, Steffy can count to nine!
It was a great shock moment, but everything about this story has been rushed and therefore lacks the dramatic heft that a longer build-up of action would have brought.
Carter and Katie are still all wrong
How exactly do you transform a plot device into a viable romantic leading man?
It’s the plight of a character like Carter, who functions mainly as a sounding board for other characters and is now suddenly getting his own story.
Soap fans know that a good romance takes time, with engaging dialogue that reveals dimensions of the characters we may not have known.
Above all, a good love match needs obstacles to overcome and special moments to secure their bond. Throw in some hot sex scenes and you may get the audience interested.
We haven’t even had a shirtless-Carter-moaning-Katie-camera-pans-to-fireplace scene yet, so I don’t really care what happens yet.
It’s way too early in their pairing to have a feeling about Carter and Katie at all, yet it feels like we may not be far from a marriage proposal.
Bill is a character without a reason
Bill Spencer says he doesn’t have anywhere else to be besides the Il Giardino bar in broad daylight.
Excuse me, what?
Bill hanging out at a Rodeo Drive wealthy second wives’ bar is pathetic, and not in a sexy, brooding and dramatic way.
The Bill we thought we knew should be jetting across the globe just for lunch and drowning his sorrows in the finest liquor and the hottest women.
Shows us, don’t just tell us what Bill’s problem is.
Instead, we get this sword necklace nonsense again.
The completely over-the-top dialogue this week was telling us Bill is struggling with feelings that are at once too unimportant to put into words the audience will understand, but also so important that Bill is wearing that tacky sword necklace again.
Give me a break!
The sword necklace, which will probably get more air time than the character who created it, is just a prop, a handy way for the writers not to pen compelling dialogue to explain why Bill is in a surly mood.
Careful of Bill’s tender sense of pride!
Poor Katie is not, but very much is, still rejecting that clueless buffoon Bill. Who is this guy?!
You see, women aren’t allowed to do reject a man on B&B, so they use coded language so as not to upset the delicate ego of the man they no longer wish to be around.
Katie telling Bill that she hasn’t written him off when it seems to be exactly what she has done is the sort of thing a woman who is afraid would say, not a woman in love.
Have you noticed how much emotional abuse there is in just about every romantic relationship with the over-40 set on B&B?
Emotional abuse is not romantic
Bill telling Katie that he’s in a dark place and that unless she takes him back, bad things are going to happen, is a classic emotional abuse move.
In this scenario, Bill has taken himself hostage and is threatening his own well-being to get Katie to come back to him.
Thankfully, she’s still saying no, even when he does that weird growl.
What’s romantic or sexy about any of this?
Quote of the week!
Katie: “Do you think there’s a man in Los Angeles who doesn’t want Brooke?”
Tell it, little sister!
What do you think?
Will Steffy and Finn catch Sheila by the end of next week?
Will Carter and Katie take their clothes off at the same time?
Will Bill find a new lunch spot?
Leave a comment and feel free to read more of my opinions on B&B on SoapsSpoilers, which includes some fun alternative storytelling ideas!
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