B&B: Week of April 20, 2009

[MarkH]

I really thought she had potential. But if you actually watched Thursday's show -- objectively -- I can't defend her for another moment. It is NOT what was written. Watch her face, body language, tone of voice.

From an OBJECTIVE perspective, ask yourself if you see any real emotions there (other than "mildly p!ssed off", which is not appropriate when the love of your life just betrayed you). The dialogue ALSO sucked, but JMW did not rise above it...she was sucked into the hollow, soulless writing.

The plane scenes were engaging from a "cheese-tastic" perspective, I will acknowledge. But can you respect a show that does that all the time? Answer: Look at where it got Passions.

I am taping it nightly again, and watching it. I am as loyal as they come. Each day, I hope the show will find itself again.

I wonder when I'll finally lose hope?

In the meantime, I too miss "Papa Bell". Therein lies the secret, I think. Brad has to let go. Hold onto the EP reigns, and allow some fresh blood in.

[bellcurve]

Okay, so the plane sh!t rocked. LOL. And here's why:

Was it cheesy? Absolutely! But I appreciate that B&B at least made an attempt to make the airplane chase somewhat serious, instead of some Soup parody. It's one thing to aim for laughs(i.e. "Not Gonna Happen Rrrrrrrick"). It's another for it to be pure camp.

The plane chase was classic B&B.

This show is damaged, yes. No question about it. But I appreciate it when B&B takes itself seriously, even if it does come off campy.

And does B&B finally have some kind of "B" story? With Owen/Jackie? I know I've been asleep at the wheel when watching this show, but I'm glad all this teasing with them finally went somewhere. I loved the dialogue between them before their sex, even if the bathtub in the living room was a lame, cost-cutting device to get Jackie's cherry popped.

And on a more shallow note, I see the wardrobe department learned from "Days of our Lives'" mistakes and put Brandon Beemer in black boxer briefs. But that didn't help anything if you saw Owen from the profile view. I think his junk should have it's own zip code.

Oh, and this one will make MarkH happy: I can admit that Shannon Bradley's Wednesday script didn't suck this week, like most of her scripts do. I'm not quick to call her the messiah, but her script was devoid of those corny pop culture references made by older characters and avoided using weird comparisons to dog meat.

[MarkH]

Yes, I admit it. I watched every day this week, which means I was engaged.

You know what? Photobucket just deleted my pics of Beemer in white undies (Days) and now black undies (B&. Indecent. Seriously!

The thing is, I'm not happy. I want this show to capture my heart. That's the problem though. I like the B&B that makes me feel (like when young Brooke had to watch Ridge marry Caroline, and Stephanie tortured her in the greenhouse with the fact that she'd never have Ridge again...we're talking OLD SCHOOL Bill Bell B&...not just smile. And I don't think Brad Bell has that vision.

That said, I'll take the camp if it is well acted (Down, Flannery). But "Sick" needs to go...and I see no signs that it will.

Kyle Lowder, though, is transforming his character into something I deeply admire. He's bad, soulless. But he really doesn't see that in himself. He is a totally vacuous, amoral phenomenon. That gets interesting to me. He's more than the "male Brooke"...though he's close. Literally, he heard himself say those awful things in the recording, and the actor's choice was ... he didn't see it as awful. He didn't see it as hurtful. He saw it as "all is fair in love and war". That is a BEAUTIFUL level of self-delusion. That makes me watch, to see how sick he can get.

[Sylph]

Brimike will be sad to read that!

Whereas it does the completely opposite thing for me.

[bellcurve]

See, I'm not familiar with Bill Bell B&B. I've only seen the show in clips and edits from YouTube and the glory days of WoST.org.

I began watching the show on a regular basis shortly before Taylor was shot by Sheila. Maybe alot of you thought the show was ruined by then, but I loved and enjoyed the show for how fun these characters were and how deep the rivalry between these characters were. And I thought Brad Bell did a really good job of mining that history for years. But maybe I grew sick of the repetition like everyone else.

The thing is, is that if you've never watched B&B, all of this seems new to you. But almost a decade into watching and following B&B, alot of this seems like old hat.

My problem is that I don't think Lowder plays him sick and soulless enough. Or maybe the show isn't writing it that way? I can't figure it out.

I don't feel like Rick is ruthless and sick enough. But he's getting there.

I don't mean sick or evil like Todd on OLTL. But I want to see Rick truly unapologetic for being a bastard but at the same time, avoid playing a constant beat of "woe is me" and "desperation." It should be a motivation for the crap he does.

[bellcurve]

Photobucket sucks. Why else would someone want to use their crappy photosharing service? If someone wants to share photos of friends and family, they'd just use Facebook or e-mail them.

ETA: Hopefully the end of Rick and Steffy means the end of that crappy "De Beers" theme with the cheesy saxophone. I throw up in my mouth everytime I hear it!

ETAA: Taylor's plea to get Ridge back was pretty pathetic, but whatever. I still think she's infinitely better than Brooke. If that were Brooke in the same position, she would have had on the lingerie and the chocolate strawberries on the coffeetable, begging and wiggling and jiggling.

What a great week of shows. I'm just hoping this continues.

[Rakesh]

Use Imageshack.

[JSROCKS]

I see a kind of Oedipus complex developing and think that if Rick's s/l were to go in that direction Lowder could pull it off.

[Sapounopera]

I haven't watched in ages (although I really tried) and haven't heard anything about Rocco's return. Wasn't he supposed to return for some reason? A storyline or something? From the recaps I have the impression he appeared once, said hi to Donna and was never mentioned again.

[MarkH]

Like with Jake McLaine, they seem to have brought him back as an extra.

I thought they might rebuild a Donna-Rocco-Katie triangle...but that is not in the cards...they have other plans for Donna.

So, seriously, there seems to be no point. Surprise, surprise.

[Sapounopera]

B&B is no longer a soap opera. It is a cartoonish telenovela about Rick and Steffy. Is there another story on the show right now?

[bellcurve]

The Jackie/Owen stuff picked up steam this week. And made for a great second story.

I hope this week signals the END of that cartoonish telenovela. Onto another story.

[Khan]

I'm a little surprised Rocco's return lasted this long. You know Bradley Bell and his infamous attention span.

The only thing Lowder can pull off is his shirt -- and that's why you often see him without one.