B&B Opinion: Having Sheila Just Blurt Out Her Guilt Was Lazy & Brooke’s Self Centered to a Fault

Loving and loathing one of our soaps.

A funny thing happened on my journey to being a contributor at SoapsSpoilers—I became a fan of The Bold and the Beautiful. Don’t ask me how, don’t ask me why. It just happened.

Maybe it’s because B&B has everything that’s good about soaps—iconic characters, fabulous sets and a juicy history. Escapist fun at its best.

But the show also regularly features everything that’s bad about the genre—disappearing characters, dropped plot points and forgotten details.

So why am I still enjoying this show so much? 

LOVE IT! Shorter Can Be Better

For me, B&B’s half hour format is a good thing. It’s short enough that I can easily find time in my busy work day to watch it without episodes piling up.

The tight focus on one or two stories is unique on the soap landscape. It isn’t for everyone, especially if your faves disappear for a while, but the shorter format is a great way to go in deep on a single story without it dragging.

HATE IT! Pacing Is Everything

To say that B&B’s pacing is inconsistent is an understatement. While some stories, like Brooke’s drunken New Year’s Eve, play out the same beat ad nauseum, other plots get rushed and stripped of detail.

When Finn and Steffy were shot, I was hoping that this was an umbrella story that would play out for months. Instead, Steffy had fully recovered in a matter of a few days and is now a grieving widow with a fully regained memory.

Where are all the soapy beats we want to see?

The plot should have played out for a while, with twists and turns and Deacon getting framed for the crime before Steffy awoke from a long coma and revealed that Sheila was the shooter.

Having Sheila just blurt out her guilt was lazy writing.

LOVE IT! Gorgeous and Talented Cast

The cast of B&B is an embarrassment of riches. Not just a good-looking bunch of people–they’re actually good at what they do!

Most of the cast of B&B is more than capable of handling the nuance of good soap opera. So why not throw something new at them?

If soaps are to survive, they need to get back to telling modern and relatable stories with real consequences for characters. What better place than Los Angeles?

HATE IT! Lack of Diversity

I was born and raised in southern California. It’s a cornucopia of people and ideas from around the world, so how does a show about the fashion industry have no LGBTQ+, Asian or Latino characters on the regular?

There have been some notable exceptions like the groundbreaking Maya Avant story, but that eventually petered out with an unsatisfying off-screen divorce.

Now we’ve got the chemistry-free pairing of Carter and Paris, who have nothing in common except her sister– and their concern about how their personal lives could affect anyone named Forrester.

Black characters talking about how they always have to be loyal to their boss who “treats you like family” is kinda icky, and I’m being generous.

LOVE IT! History Lessons

B&B is chock-a-block with years of complicated history and tangled relationships to inspire story.

The lead characters now are virtually the same (with a few face changes) as they were DECADES ago. A lapsed viewer could easily jump back into the show.

The gripes, the conflicts and the skullduggery from the first episode can still be found today, sometimes passed on to the next generation. Brooke and Taylor’s rivalry is mirrored in Steffy and Hope’s animosity, which will no doubt continue with Kelly and Beth.

HATE IT! Plot Holes

The plotlines on B&B often have holes you could drive a car through. Sheila’s accidental murder of her son is no different.

How did no one know that Steffy and Finn got to the restaurant in separate cars? Have the police talked to people at the restaurant who would have seen her there or reviewed security footage?

Why haven’t the stolen phone signals been located or phone data been reviewed?

Why did Sheila, who has a rap sheet of shooting members of the Forrester clan, only get a cursory interview in the hospital waiting room?

LOVE IT! Fabulously Flawed Folks

Of course Brooke is hovering around and stirring the pot. That’s who Brooke is—self centered to a fault. She keeps making mistakes and never learns a thing. It works… for one character.

Sheila NEVER does what’s sensible or good for her. Her plots seldom go to plan and she’s left scrambling to get out of trouble. She could have left town right after the shooting, but here she is just waiting around hoping to be loved.

Ridge bosses everyone around because he’s a rich white man who can get away with it. Taylor wants to believe in the best in people because she’s a “world-renowned psychiatrist.”

Liam will wax poetic for hours about why he can’t choose. Steffy is a warrior princess or whatever. I understand who these people are and that makes me care about their stories.

HATE IT! Mansplaining and Misogyny

I loathe the way men are written on Bold and Beautiful. Always as though they are smarter and need to explain things to the emotionally fragile and confused women. It’s misogynistic.

Liam, who seems to be the true center of Steffy’s story, always has more lines than whoever he’s talking about. If Liam is mansplaining the current situation, it’s a day ending in Y.

Won’t go down the rabbit hole of doing a word count, but seems like Liam gets about 25% of the lines in any episode he’s in.

Every male B&B character without exception will tell a woman what she should do with her life, be it romantic or professional. The men talk, the women react. Over and over again.

The show needs more female writers because it often feels like an old man’s fantasy about what women are like. Every show needs those 18-49 female viewers, so stop insulting them.

What do you think? Are you loving or loathing B&B? Do you wish fictional L.A. was more like real L.A.? Will Liam ever shut up? Like and comment below, then follow me on Twitter @mattFarris.