B&B: Week of December 8, 2008

[Toups]

Me too. It's such a bad song.

That's what you get when things are rushed and all the beats aren't played.

I really hated Stephanie today - thinking that Rick would kill Phoebe! Come on.

[MarkH]

I have now read TWO positive, nay GLOWING reviews of this story. I am confused. I find nothing redeemable in it.

Review 1

Review 2 (look at Point #5)

[BadZoe]

I love all the Dead in the Ditch comments. Taylor is finally getting her punishment for leaving Darla laying Dead in the Ditch.

[MarkH]

Okay, I'm watching the Thursday show, and thank heavens we're seeing some improvements.

Flannery is FIERCE. Totally convincing. It is completely plausible, between these women, that she would get under Brooke's skin.

Lang comes into her own defending Rick against Stephanie. These two actresses, toe to toe, can sell anything.

Tylo and Moss had a wordless scene, and that did them credit. It was quiet, touching music, and wordless scene that felt very much (to me) like Tylo was playing her past...including making an impromptu cross out of twigs.

Later, Tylo brought on some of her loud hysterics. But there was another true moment when that nameless dayplayer called the house and asked for Phoebe. Tylo went quiet, and dead behind the eyes.

I have seen other negative comments, but I think the most consistently authentic performance in all of this has been Kyle Lowder. He is filled with self-loathing and genuine shame. I see it, and I believe it. He is not loud or showy...

[bandbfan]

WHY are they treating the crash site like a crime scene? Stupid. The LAPD has more important things to do. And nobody notices the claw marks on Rick's face, lol.

Woooo go Flannery. Lol. Stephanie, though, is way too dramatic. And indirectly blaiming Brooke for Phoebe's death?

[Cashton]

This story begins and end with Taylor. Tylo does not have the ability to or the emotional depth to do this story justice. She may have the experience (she's had many tragedies that are heartbreaking) but she can't connect to her emotions when she's acting.

And MarkH - I think we finally disagree on something - I think Lowder, while somewhat fun to watch, can't really handle this hefty material. Imagine if the guy who played Billy on Y&R had to do these scenes! He'd be incredible!

I'm mildly interested in seeing the frist scenes with Rick and Taylor - not because i think they'll be good scenes, but because I'm curious to see how Taylor will react to him. I think Taylor is actually culpable in this whole thing because I don't think Phoebe would be dead had Taylor and Rick not gotten together after he dated her daughter, and Taylor only got together with Rick to tick off Brooke.

Thank God for Susan Flannery. May she never leave this show. Ever. It's amazing that probably 40% of the show each year deals with a Brooke/Stephanie confrontation yet i can still eat it up like a juicy NY strip steak. Her anger is deep and cuts to the bone. However, it is hard to find the logic in blaming Rick for this accident but logic has never been a reason to watch B&B.

As for the talk that Tylo's scenes were cut, i think thet were. When I remember the episode where evry1 learned about the crash, there were many superfluous scenes. The editing was way off and cut in a way that seemed to extend those scenes longer. My guess is that they had to cut the Taylor reaction scenes out cause Tylo's performance was so bad. Tylo will spin it that she was too emotional to do the scenes, but I doubt it. She's never shied away from using her tragedies for publicity (sorry, but it's true). And Bell will play along. It'll be interesting to see how the media reacts to this poorly executed story and still be sensitive to Tylo's personal life.

If I were Brad Bell, I'd really take a long hard look at my show. The best thing about bell is that when a story is lame he cuts it or changes it quickly. But the flip-side is that it makes for poor plotting. Evr1 keeps mentioning the "beats" of the story. Imagine if this story were in the works for several months and the build-up was there, if character's motives were clear, if people's actions leading up to this were alligned to lead up to this big moment. Then you get Y&R Sudden Impact, which they're still getting story from. Which is good story-telling. This whole 'Phoebe dies' seems concoted at the last minute to make everyone forget that god-awful Katie/Nick/Bridget s/l.

Frankly, i'm shocked. B&B always ebbs and flows but they've ALWAYS delivered on their big-event s/l's and rebounded. This story had all the makings of good soap, but they totally fumbled the whole thing. i'm seriously worried if B&B still has that incredible "bounce" ability it always had. I don't watch ATWT or GL anymore and i'm ok with it, I'd really hate to quit B&B.

[BadZoe]

Cashton, Taylor won't get a mention of any blame in this storyline. They will twist it around and find some way to blame Brooke.

[P.J.]

Yep...Brooke is completely right. Steph doesn't want "the truth"---she wants someone to punish. And that someone is Rick, and by extension, Brooke.

I can't wait to see how Taylor spits and sputters about how f*cked up Rick is, thanks to Brooke, and ignores the affect her little f*ckfest with Rick had in this tragedy.

[DeeeDee]

And punishing Brooke is Stephanie's favorite past time. lol

[KristinG79]

That's not true at all. It was all Bell's idea. In fact, she didn't know anything about the storyline until she got the scripts. This comes from Hunter Tylo herself. (It was a letter posted at her website.)

[kentville]

"This story begins and end with Taylor. Tylo does not have the ability to or the emotional depth to do this story justice. She may have the experience (she's had many tragedies that are heartbreaking) but she can't connect to her emotions when she's acting."

I totally agree, that's one of the reasons I dislike Taylor. I never feel anything when watching Tylo act. JMHO.

[bandbfan]

I don't know if I believe that he wouldn't consult with her at all beforehand with her personal story not being that long ago. What if she hadn't liked the story? And there's obviously a good reason for that. That implies they got past all the writers/consultants and got all the way to the actual lines before she knew. Don't know if that makes sense. But I don't really want to think that the negative rumors about her were true either.

About today, do people really have those kind of chairs that Taylor has? It's like marble, with a cushion thrown in. How is that comfortable at all?

What does Stephanie think they're going to charge Rick with? Phoebe wasn't wearing a seatbelt, which was her fault. And what, he tried to kill her with a wreck but not himself? I mean, maybe you could imply that if he crashed her side of the car into something, but if it went completely off of the road, it doesn't mean he was trying to kill her.

[ian]

I thought HT was great for those first few seconds before she opened her mouth. The look on her face when Rick came in was great, then her platypus face - started running and it was lost.

[BadZoe]

Hunter might not find out about story lines until she gets the lines, due to her notorious big mouth when it comes to spilling spoilers for story lines she either hates or really likes. Things changed with her last return from the dead, she no longer appears to have any say in the show.

Don't you know, Rick went to fly off the road and unbuckled Phoebe and shoved her out of the windshield.

[boldfan01]

I don't recall anything that specifically named Hunter, but the reports seemed to point to her. It started when The Suds Report at TV Guide CA said that setside sources at B&B claimed that 1) a death was coming on the show and 2) that an actor/actress wanted a real-life tragedy to be written into the show during the one-year anniversary of the event that changed his or her life forever, and that the co-stars in the cast were concerned because said actor/actress wanted to win an Emmy from his/her real-life inspired tragedy. That description alone seemed to hint at Hunter, who lost her son late last year. Then shortly after, Michael Logan's reveal in the US TV Guide print edition that Phoebe was the victim added fuel to the fire. As far as I can remember, any other reports pointed back to that original TV Guide CA column.

As the show got closer, various message boards, including B&B's own, had reports that refuted the Emmy claim and stated that Brad Bell had consulted with Hunter about the story because he had concerns that it would hit too close to home, and he agreed to make Hunter as comfortable as possible with how the scripts played out.

As with any reports from "inside sources," we'll never know how much of the original TV Guide CA column was accurate. What appeared on screen, however, seems to support the later version, since the show has been very select with scenes by Hunter, allowing Ronn Moss and Jackie MacInness Wood to shoulder most of the burden. Wood told Soap Opera Weekly that she did a lot of research into how twins handle situation like this and tried to bring that to the story, including the scenes where Steffy all of a sudden couldn't breathe at the same moment Phoebe died.