Have Brooke and Taylor Switched Personalities? Plus, the Squandering of Sheila and Doubting Thomas

Ranting for the week of September 5-9!

Is bad soap opera better than no soap opera at all?

 

People have asked me why I watch B&B when I am usually not happy with most of what I see on-screen these days. The answer is simple: I love soap operas and even bad soap opera is better than no soap opera at all.

 

But my patience with this show’s writing is wearing thin.

 

You know that I’m routinely frustrated with Bold and Beautiful because they have the two basic ingredients for making great soap opera – a cast fortified with daytime legends and show history that could generate new stories for eons.

 

Instead, resources are being wasted on whitewashing abuse, a villain in a dime store rubber mask and romantic intrigue among grandparents who’ve been wife-swapping since Ronald Reagan was president.

 

Very little of these stories are working for me. How about you?

 

A heaux is a heaux is a heaux

 

Some fans think Brooke is trash for not respecting relationships, but Taylor is a queen for going after a married man. I don’t get this “two wrongs make it right” reasoning.

 

Maybe the mental and moral gymnastics of advanced stanning are too much for my little brain to comprehend.

 

To me, a heaux is a heaux is a heaux, no matter the situation, motivation or provocation. “She did it first!” is an infantile excuse that doesn’t suit the over-50 crowd.

Taylor should do her job, not Brooke’s job

 

Taylor Hayes should be the moral compass of B&B, leading issue-based stories through her psychiatric work that resonate with fans and elevate both this show and the soap opera genre.

 

A mental health professional shouldn’t be gaslighting her rival and eye-screwing someone else’s husband during family dinners. That’s Brooke Logan’s job!

Make story fit the characters, not the other way around

 

I can’t figure out what the point is of Brooke being re-written as a maternal goddess with Taylor being the sly “other woman” intent on snatching Brooke’s husband.

 

Changing character personality to suit a story is nothing new for Taylor. Plot and shock always come first on B&B, even when it trashes a character and/or ignores history in the process.

 

But it’s going to take more than a Freaky Friday personality switcheroo to make this well-worn triangle viable again. Is this story working for you?

Sheila Carter, psychotic peeper granny with a mask fetish

 

Speaking of stealing story ideas, who decided to rip off a plot device that all three other soaps have used and abused in the last ten years?

 

So far, the Sheila in a Sheila mask story strains both plausibility and how brainless characters can be written in service to a plot that was best left on another show.

 

For one, “Lina” looks like Sheila done up for a Real Housewives audition. No one recognizing that Lina is Sheila with a Kardashian makeover is ridiculous.

The second problem is motivation. Does Sheila have a plan or is she just winging it from day to day? I don’t think that the writers have decided yet.

 

Sheila successfully escaped prison, cut off a toe, faked her own death and somehow has a boatload of cash. Awesome!

 

Then Sheila decided to come back to Los Angeles, seduce the guy she’s rejected for months and live in his squalid apartment. Huh?

 

It sounds even worse when I write it out. It doesn’t make any sense or make me want to keep watching.

Let Sheila be Sheila!

 

A younger, more deadly Sheila would have walked into Steffy’s house, popped Li, knocked out Finn and taken baby Hayes if that’s what she wanted. Done and done!

 

Now Sheila’s just a psychotic peeper granny with a rubber mask fetish.

 

The once dynamic and lethal Sheila is being reduced to basic soap opera cRaZy, meaning that she will probably have no clear motivation except to turn the plot in the direction the writers want.

 

This story is more comical than scary. It makes me embarrassed to be a Bold and Beautiful fan.

 

Thomas is Hope-less and should stay that way

 

After last week’s shock revelation that Thomas still wants Hope, the cringe continued this week with a curiously edited flashback of Thomas kissing Hope.

 

The scene was cut to give the impression that it had been a romantic moment when we know the kiss wasn’t mutual and originally ended with Hope looking confused and slightly nauseous. 

Why the subterfuge? Are the writers trying to gaslight us into thinking that Thomas has always been a dreamy anti-hero?

 

Is Hope being sacrificed on the altar of Thomas’s easy redemption? Are we supposed to believe that Hope might have romantic feelings for the man who kept her daughter from her?

 

I’m not sure where this story is going but it’s doing a great job of uniting fans in one shared opinion – most don’t want Thomas and Hope back together.

What should happen next?

 

If Thomas is going to be scrubbed up to be a viable romantic lead, he should be paired with a woman who wasn’t around to see any of the horrors he unleashed in the past.

 

This is the only way I can think of to believably move Thomas out of the creep zone without making B&B look foolish or insensitive to fans.

 

Quote of the week!

 

Brooke: “This Forrester versus Logan stuff is exhausting!”

AMEN to that!

What do you think? Will the real Brooke rise from the ashes? Will Thomas and Hope get romantic? Do you find Sheila’s mask convincing?

Leave a comment and feel free to read more of my opinions on B&B on SoapsSpoilers, which includes some fun alternative storytelling ideas!