The Bold & The Beautiful Soaps Opinion May 30 – June 3
Humiliated women, old man fantasies and a lack of queer characters is not what viewers tell us they want to see. It’s been another slow week with very little story progress on B&B. Steffy left for her grieving girls’ getaway (as weird as it sounds), Donna asked Eric to leave his wife and the rest was mostly recap, recap, recap.
Note to the producers: characters sitting and talking about past drama is not compelling or worth watching.
Brooke begs, Taylor gaslights and Ridge smirks
As I said last week, I don’t ship characters. I only ship good story. In today’s Bold and Beautiful, couples have to break up and makeup, or they don’t get any story. Dumb, but I don’t make the rules.
Even so, it seems like Brooke is getting a raw deal. Ridge walked out on her for the who-can-remember-how-many-times because she unintentionally drank champagne and kissed Deacon.
Brooke begged for Ridge’s forgiveness, but his hurt feelings were more important than Brooke’s sobriety.
Ridge has had the gall to lay out his demands for Brooke’s behavior, which she willingly accepted and has tried to adhere to. Brooke and Deacon can’t be seen together because Ridge (who’s already canoodling his other sometime wife) would be very upset.
Not easy when Deacon is always showing at unannounced at Brooke’s place. You’d think that Deacon literally saving Steffy’s life might have mellowed Ridge, but no.
His masculinity is so fragile, he insists Brooke cut Hope’s father out of the family.
Let’s get real. Ridge moved out so Brooke and Taylor can bare their claws and prove which of them is more worthy of the well-worn playboy. Pick me! Pick me!
Who in the writers’ room thinks treating your wife like this is the mark of a romantic hero?
@BandB_CBS #BoldandBeautiful the spoilers about Ridges ban of Deacon (from Brooke’s life) as condition for him to return to her, is exactly the reason I dislike this character or bridge or the term “destiny”. This is far from this and this relationship has never been epic.
— DayDreamer🖖 (@thestargaze) June 3, 2022
Cat fights, loose morals and gaslighting
The actors have great chemistry but I still can’t get past the fact that Ridge is still married to Brooke and hasn’t made any move to end it while he gets cozy with Taylor.
We saw Taylor dangling that freeway Chinese food in front of Ridge and being all flirty. We saw them get cuddly and very close to kissing.
Then Brooke shows up and Taylor gets all indignant and says that the whole meet-up was about Steffy. I wish I could say this was out of character for the good doctor, but it’s happened so many times now that it’s just who she is—a fool for love.
Having a woman who is a mental health professional lie to and gaslight her romantic rival is a terrible message to viewers.
No worries because Brooke knows when a woman is encroaching on her territory. Game recognize game.
Just look at Ridge whenever the women spar over him. He smirks and puts this new cat fight into his spank bank. He just loves seeing two women fight over his raggedy ass. Me no likey.
Ridge is getting his ego stroked, standing there smirking in silence & loving the attention of Taylor and Brooke bickering over him. Ridge needs time to process/sort out things. There’s no element of surprise b/c Ridge will run straight back to his Logan. #boldandbeautiful pic.twitter.com/PlCyaFuIji
— rick_rico (@rickistheone) June 3, 2022
They’ve been on and off more times than a light switch, but Brooke is still Ridge’s wife. If that’s not enough reason for him to prioritize Brooke, it should give both of these women pause.
If a man tells you he needs time to decide between you and someone else, make the choice for him and walk away!
Wondering why Ridge is always bouncing between Brooke and Taylor? Maybe it’s so he doesn’t have to make alimony payments. It’s just cheaper to keep going back and forth with them.
What should happen next? Brooke and Ridge reunite—for now. Taylor realizes she’s been a fool. We learn that Taylor was dating someone when she was away.
He’s a successful trial lawyer and shows up in Los Angeles wanting to re-connect. Turns out that he’s actually there to defend Sheila, which would put Taylor at odds with her entire family. DRAMA!
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If we’re supposed to hate Eric, it’s working
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Eric and Donna the only characters on all of B&B actually having hot sex right now. That’s pitiful.
Donna, who inexplicably is thrilled to be Eric’s early bird special, deserves more than just this tragic side piece story. The reveal of their affair was a great shock, but the story is strictly #oldmanfantasy one dimensional.
I don’t see how Donna can be happy with pickleball games for very long. But women humiliating themselves for a man is totally B&B’s jam, so we’re probably going to see Donna in her underwear being sexy but crying but happy but fine with whatever crumb she gets for a while longer.
Every female romantic character on the show will eventually find herself begging a man to pick her over another woman who wants the same.
These women will demean and debase themselves and often do terrible, out of characters things to swing the vote.
Here’s the thing. If Eric really wanted to be with Donna, he could’ve been with her when Brooke and Katie were delivering her on a silver platter AFTER Quinn signed the divorce papers. #DrinksTheDayAfter #BoldandBeautiful
— STWBubbles (@BubblesStw) June 3, 2022
Stop the hand wringing and get to the passion
Quinn and Carter have been saying the same things for weeks and nothing is happening. Let’s move this story along.
There should be scenes where Quinn and Carter are about to give in to their passion but then that dud Paris shows up. She’s obviously suspicious, so Carter tells Paris he wants to get back together. She’s thrilled but mama Grace has fire in her eyes.
The close call convinces Quinn to stay away from Carter but he’s all she can think of while she’s all alone in that big house. If your husband can’t give you what you need and won’t let you get it elsewhere, does he love you or is he just controlling you?
When the truth about Donna and the Honey Geezer comes out, I hope Quinn burns the Forrester mansion to the ground. She’s forsaken Carter and remained faithful in a sexless marriage while her husband plays her for a fool.
If Eric’s will actually has a fidelity clause, Quinn could make her philandering husband really suffer in a deliciously soapy way. Take him to the cleaners—and take over the company!
What should happen next? Picture it—Quinn gets it all, calls Carter to the CEO’s office and they get down to business right on Eric’s desk. Livestream it on the Forrester Creations social media accounts for all the world to see! Eric and Donna struggle to be happy on a reduced budget.
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Steffy, Finn and Sheila: An Alternate Story
Pardon me while I go on a fan fiction spiral on how this whole Sheila shooting Steffy and Finn story could have been more dramatic and made more sense.
If Li had immediately gut-instinct knew it was Sheila and accused her at the hospital, not only would it have been dramatic, I would better understand why Li thinks Finn’s recovery had to be a secret from his own wife.
Li’s accusation would have compelled Sheila to use the evidence she collected to frame Deacon and then get out of town. Everyone ends up thinking Deacon is the culprit and accepts Sheila’s grieving mother act.
Meanwhile, Steffy is struggling with life in general because she still can’t remember what happened, she’s got survivor’s guilt and doesn’t feel in her heart that Finn is gone.
Steffy becomes concerned about her mom-in-law and shows up at Li’s place unannounced. Steffy is THISCLOSE to seeing Finn, who hears his wife’s voice as coma patients often can. We see from Finn’s point of view disjointed flashbacks of his life with Steffy.
Li gets tough and cruelly tells Steffy to move on with her life and accept that Finn is gone. She basically pushes Steffy out the door.
Steffy leaves the house at the same time that Finn starts to move his fingers. Steffy decides to take Li’s advice and get out of town, tragically unaware how close she was.
Steffy says her goodbyes to her family and gets into a hired car. The driver looks at her from the rear view mirror and it’s Sheila! She smirks and takes off with an unsuspecting Steffy.
The Forresters get regular text messages from Steffy and think all is well but it’s Sheila sending the messages.
When Finn eventually re-awakens, Li tells him that Steffy is dead and Sheila shot them. He can’t leave or communicate with anyone because only mama can help him. Finn eventually learns the truth, regains his strength and escapes from the guest room. At the same time, we can see that Steffy is being held captive somewhere without her kids.
Finn eventually figures out the truth, escapes and rescues Steffy and Kelly — but where’s Hayes? Sheila’s refusing to talk but we see that she’s got an accomplice who has Hayes. But who is it? Find out in November sweeps!
We watch this show but we don’t get represented
One last thing. It’s Pride Month and that’s a good time to remember that B&B is the only American soap that has no current LGBTQ+ characters. It’s just plain wrong.
The show takes place in Los Angeles and is focused on the fashion industry—but not a single queer character in their mix today.
It’s insulting to the queer fans who are dedicated to the show and hinders modern, compelling storytelling. Whether you are queer identified soap fan or an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, you know that representation matters.
The Bold and the Beautiful needs to do better.
What do you think? Who will Ridge pick this time? Are Eric and Donna for real? Will Quinn and Carter give in to passion? Do you find it as inexcusable as SoapsSpoilers does that B&B has no LGBTQ+ representation? Like and comment below, then follow me on Twitter @mattFarris.