B&B: Old/Classic Discussion & Articles

[Maxim]

@Anooj Which do you consider to be the show's worst 5 storylines... ever? From what you've seen.

[Anooj]

 

Tough to rank precisely, but off the top of my head:

- The initial 2011-2012 round of the Hope/Liam/Steffy triangle (September 2011 to September 2012 is easily the worst season of the show I’ve seen all the way through, with nothing redeeming about it that I can remember)

- Ridge/Bridget (2003)

- The Donna/Nick/Pam triangle (2011) - Extremely forced, with zero chemistry between either of the pairings. So bad it disappeared into a limbo after a month or two.

- Nick tries to quit smoking (2011) - ZZZZZZZZZZZ, bad PSA with zero subtlety, and Nick/Aggie were a comatosely boring couple (I even had to google her name as I was writing this).

- Amber trying to pass off her unborn baby as Liam’s (2010-2011) - A massive character regression for Amber to be turned back into the scheming person she was at the start of her original run. Liam was written as a pathetically passive doofus, Amber’s affair with Marcus lacked development, the whole ”will she have a white or black baby” thing was recycled from the Raymond storyline, and why was Amber mixing up with this new younger crowd anyway? Isn’t she like 50 by then, given that Mary/Erica was SORASed overnight by 15 years, and Hope was born around that time and is now an adult?

Edited November 13, 2024 by Anooj

[Maxim]

Great list! I got hives just reading... and reminding myself of these ludicrous storylines... One thing I will add to your list - the entire 2020-2024 period. 

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[Maxim]

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[Rmodelboy]

There was a Donna/Nick/Pam triangle  ?????? Like seriously 

[kalbir]

@Anooj @Maxim I wonder if those early 2010s storylines made Susan Flannery decide to retire. Maybe in the grand scheme of things, she was smart to leave when she did.

[Videnbas]

It's interesting that you made the same observations about the Sheila storyline vs the Anthony storyline that we made in the YT comment section at the time! It was interesting to compare the two since they were "parallel storylines", and I absolutely agree that the Anthony storyline was superior to Sheila's storyline. Even the climax of Sheila's storyline felt less suspenseful and threatening than the climax of Anthony's storyline (I remember Nick and I had a discussion about "surprise" vs "suspense": Sheila's goodbye party was based on surprising twists - look, it's Sheila! look, she has a gun! look, she drinks poison! - whereas Macy and Anthony's final scenes were all about suspense - we knew about the gun and the tape recorder all along, and the suspense was in how these objects would come into play and who would ultimately defeat the other. Those scenes actually had a Hitchcockian feel.).

[Maxim]

I don't even remember this, but it sounds plausible. Nick was like a public toilet in his last few seasons on the show. Bradley Bell would pair him with any woman on the show that had no work at that particular time. Thank God eventually he was written out.  

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[Anooj]

Must be a trauma response to how terrible that plotline was. Not surprised you’ve forgotten it

I do wonder why both Jackie and Nick were let go at the same time. I wasn’t sad to see Nick go by that point, and Jackie wasn’t exactly a great character either, but writing out both of them doomed the Jackie M storyline, reverting us back to having just one fashion house. Like, couldn’t the show just send Nick off on a sea voyage (his involvement in fashion made no sense anyway), and bring in new characters to work with Jackie?

Speaking of other bad storylines of that era, does anyone remember the Rick/Jackie/Owen love triangle, where the two men were disguised as statues and started chasing each other around the Jackie M office? It also got dropped fast.

I actually think the show’s quality rebounded just slightly between 2013 to mid-2015. 

Part if it was that the departures of three classic characters (Ridge, Stephanie, Taylor) ”differentiated” the show enough from its past self, so it now felt more like ”that crappy Hope and Liam show” than a corpse being raped. Like, it wasn’t suddenly a good show again, but it could be better enjoyed on its own (very low) merits. 

The end of original incarnation of Bridge seemed to free Brooke from the 2003-2012 era schizophrenic writing, where the show inconsistently jumped between regarding her as the redeemed ”designated heroine” and a source of scandalous drama (look up my critique of 2003 a few posts back, where I explain it more eloquently). While one might argue Brooke having a sex scandal with her sister’s husband indicates a lack of character development or whatever, it was ACTUALLY EXCITING because the show stopped that 2003-12 era tendency to gaslight us into liking her, and the lack of having Ridge around made it feel like anything could happen (rather than them predictably reuniting).

Also, given how Taylor’s character was ruined after her (ludicrous) resurrection, it was honestly not painful to see her go in 2013.

The Liam/Hope stuff, while still not great, was also improved by adding Wyatt and Quinn into the mix. Liam fighting with another guy over Hope was much more believable and entertaining than portraying Liam as some prize to be fought over by Hope and Steffy. Quinn brought some of those Sheila vibes back, as did Aly to some extent, and the latter’s romance with Oliver was rather sweet. Deacon coming back was promising, even though he was ultimately wasted.

Then, in late 2014, two things dramatically improved things. First, the sudden departure of Kim Matula as Hope forced the writers to severely scale back the extreme screentime allotted to Liam. The other was the Ridge/Caroline/Rick/Maya quadrangle, maybe the last good thing to come out of the show. The first half of 2015 was actually semi-decent. Then the show made some severe miscalculations in the latter half of 2015 (reset-buttoning the Rick vs Ridge businness storyline, Aly getting killed for a cheap shock, Maya’s niceness transplant after the trans revelation, the stupid rape-retconned-as-romance thing between Caroline and Thomas), and much of the momentum got wiped out. 

[Maxim]

I think you understand and know this show better than even Bradley Bell himself. 

[BoldKara]

Dear Angel/s

Is there any more from 1998? (2771+)

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[Maxim]

We are still watching Classic Bold (mostly because my husbands wants to watch, I'm quite sick of Bold actually)... and just passed the Portofino period and Macy's return. I had forgotten how cringe these episodes were. Macy's return was so pathetic, I'm sorry. Fake... unrealistic... absurd. And the melodrama was laughable. Ugh... At least the fashion show was good! And Brooke was stunning at the end. But I'm already disgusted by where they are going with Ridge and Bridget. I don't know how I'll be able to continue watching. I may look on my phone while my husband watches... till Bridget-Ridge passes... He is not quite bored like I am...

Edited November 17, 2024 by Maxim

[EyeOnFashion]

These people are disgusting and abhorrent. 

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[Anooj]

I remember liking Macy’s return at the time, but I’m honestly not sure how I’ll react to it this time around, once I finally get to those episodes.

But regarding that, was her return actually planned to occur from the start? I do recall it was mentioned several pages back in this thread that the Portofino storyline was planned for 2001 (hence the monumentally misjudged insta-trashing of Throoke), but cancelled due to 9/11. But was some vague plan for her resurrection already in place in 2000?

Kimberly’s exit scene (when her father comes to take her away) has a certain vibe to the effect that she’s still alive (when viewed in retrospect), and there was of course that unnamed woman (I think it was a passerby or the driver of the truck Macy crashes into) who tried to help Macy out of the car before it exploded, possibly thrown into the plot to explain why ”Macy’s” burned remains were found strewn around the place.

Then again, it’s hard to believe Brad Bell actually sat down and thought: ”Oh, I guess Adam somehow sneaked into the scene and snatched Macy away from the car during the 10 seconds Thorne & Kimberly were looking away, somehow getting her legs free although Thorne couldn’t, and somehow the passerby woman didn’t move away so her remains get mistaken for Macy, and I’m gonna reveal this all later”.

Edited November 18, 2024 by Anooj

[BoldKara]

This is the same show that had a broken-necked (clearly dead) dangling at a horrible angle Angela Forrester / Deveney Dixon and brought her back a few months later 

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