I’ve now reached March 2001, with the Rick/Amber/Deacon triangle and Morgan holding Taylor & Steffy captive.
I still enjoy these storylines on this revisit, but I have to say I notice some severe writing problems, like how Carmen got killed off too soon despite having a lot of storyline potential, or the sheer lack of believability of how Morgan arranges Steffy’s fake death. I also dislike how the show has sidelined the Spectras, what with Macy having died and Adam/Kimberly/CJ having been written out. Looking at IMDB, Darlene Conley herself is absent for 6 weeks around this era; Does anyone know whether there were behind-the-scenes issues involved?
I thought 1999 (and some of late 1998) was a phenomenal year by Brad Bell’s standards, but parts of 2000—and what I’ve now revisited of 2001—have not held up quite as well as I hoped. They’re enjoyable nonsense on the level of 1996 and 1997, or perhaps a tiny bit better due to the ongoing Little Eric custody plotline and the freshness of Throoke. But 2000 nonetheless has some issues, such as the sudden exit of Adam, the way the storyline about Becky’s illness ends up being more about Amber than her, or the poorly defined motivations of Morgan when she initially comes on board.
Also, the recasting of Rick eviscerated the romance between him and Kimberly; I found myself getting very emotionally involved with their romance during late 1998 and 1999, how they can’t be together due to Rick having a child with Amber and all that, but Justin Torkildsen just didn’t have the same screen chemistry with Kimberly’s actress as Jacob Young did. The result is that their storyline kind of fizzled out after Rick left Amber to be with her. However, I do think Torkildsen is an overall successful recast in the sense of feeling like the same character as Young’s.
All that being said, the late months of 2000—with the CJ/Amber/Rick triangle, Deacon’s introduction, and Morgan attacking Clarke and getting her secrets revealed—was very strong. Ridge confessing to Taylor that he slept with Morgan was just as nail-biting as I remembered it being. Kimberly’s U-turn into a seductress competing with Brooke for Thorne was probably the weakest link in terms of writing, but on the flipside, very fun.
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Anooj ·
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