Admittedly, Kiara Barnes choosing to leave is out of Bell's hands but it boggles the mind he would choose her learning about Quarter from Paris to be her last scene rather than write an extra episode where she confronts them and THEN leaves LA in a rage or whatever feelings he chooses for her reaction.

I don't get it.
Again, I am less dissatisfied with the plots themselves than most of you but the pacing, framing, staging and follow-through of each storyline is just bizarroid. He spends episode after episode of character idly speculating about what might happen. And then when the plots untangles, he chooses to barely write any scenes where the characters react to what DID happen.
It just happens and then move on to the next plot point.

Edited July 5, 20214 yr by FrenchBug82

2 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

Again, I am less dissatisfied with the plots themselves as most of you but the pacing, framing, staging and follow-through of each storyline is just bizarroid. He spends episode after episode of character idling speculating about what might happen. And then when the plots untangles, he chooses to barely write any scenes where the characters react to what DID happen.
It just happens and then move on to the next plot point.

This is the biggest problem with the show right now, and if you ask me, it's really starting to hurt the show as a whole.

11 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

Admittedly, Kiara Barnes choosing to leave is out of Bell's hands but it boggles the mind he would choose her learning about Quarter from Paris to be her last scene rather than write an extra episode where she confronts them and THEN leaves LA in a rage or whatever feelings he chooses for her reaction.

I don't get it.
Again, I am less dissatisfied with the plots themselves as most of you but the pacing, framing, staging and follow-through of each storyline is just bizarroid. He spends episode after episode of character idling speculating about what might happen. And then when the plots untangles, he chooses to barely write any scenes where the characters react to what DID happen.
It just happens and then move on to the next plot point.

 

Nailed it.

 

It's so incredibly hard to ever be invested in what happens. I long ago gave up. 

Pet peeve, I know they never mention using the bathroom but how is Thomas handling his potty needs? Is Justin bringing him food? 

I tried catching up with the last 8 months worth of episodes... I went through them for like 2-3 hours. I would hold a moment for max 20-30 seconds. It's so freaking cheap and bad written. How is it possible this is airing on a national tv? I think they are TRYING to get cancelled. And so much lost potential... how dare Bradley Bell ruin the show... This could still be good... The actors are NOT that bad... If someone just WRITES. I feel like crying... my most favourite show on the planet turned into a boring snooze fest. Brooke is a destroyed character... What happened to the Brooke of the 80s... 90... God... Even up till 2013 she still had her moments... Why is she so boring and bad written, without real character and substance... It's like watching KKL struggling to play this [!@#$%^&*]. I am shocked... It is laughable. 

9 hours ago, divinemotion said:

I tried catching up with the last 8 months worth of episodes... I went through them for like 2-3 hours. I would hold a moment for max 20-30 seconds. It's so freaking cheap and bad written. How is it possible this is airing on a national tv? I think they are TRYING to get cancelled. And so much lost potential... how dare Bradley Bell ruin the show... This could still be good... The actors are NOT that bad... If someone just WRITES. I feel like crying... my most favourite show on the planet turned into a boring snooze fest. Brooke is a destroyed character... What happened to the Brooke of the 80s... 90... God... Even up till 2013 she still had her moments... Why is she so boring and bad written, without real character and substance... It's like watching KKL struggling to play this [!@#$%^&*]. I am shocked... It is laughable. 

My feelings exactly. I tend to watch the show by catching up every two months or so and it feels like a chore for the most part. And I would stop watching if it wasn't for the nostalgia factor. The whole thing is absolutely incomprehensible to me - how can a show that was so good in the 80s and 90s be so completely ruined now? Even though the HW hasn't changed since 1993?

I have been watching a lot of classic episodes lately (80s) and two things really stand out to me - the characterization and the long term plot structure. In the early days of the show, it was very obvious that the writers had a plan that stretched many months (sometimes even years) into the future. They KNEW what story they wanted to tell. And they KNEW their characters - as a result, when I watch 80s episodes I can honestly say there is not one character I don't like. They are all interesting and multi-layered and every one of them has a believable motivation, a developed personality and well-established relationships with other characters. Each and every major character has their own storyline and they all progress steadily at the same time - it's really like watching a contrapuntal piece of music.

Today, all of that is lost. There is barely even any rudimentary storytelling and characterization left. I am sure some of it has to do with budget, but that can't explain all of it, especially not the dumbed down writing. I am trying to pinpoint when it started going downhill and I think somewhere around the early 00s is when things started deteriorating. And the show became unrecognizable somewhere around the time Susan Flannery left.

The whole thing is very frustrating to watch because it wouldn't take all that much to get the show back on track, if someone just bothered to do it. Improve the writing and everything improves. The actors and characters have potential. The basic storyline ideas often have potential as well. It's just that the writing kills everything because nothing is ever developed.

3 hours ago, Videnbas said:

The actors and characters have potential. The basic storyline ideas often have potential as well. It's just that the writing kills everything because nothing is ever developed.

My take isn't as dark as yours but this sums it up. I am not giving up because the raw material is there. 
I have watched soaps long enough to see eras at certain soaps where a good third of the characters were awful creations that either bored or irked the audience. The current cast at B&B is almost entirely fine - to the point where the problem is more we are frustrated they are underused rather than wanting to get them off our screen.
I have seen soap era where the stories were a-pal-ling, stupid, insulting, history-retconning-in an-offensive-way. Thats not the case here. Almost every plot is fun on paper and has moments - the baby paternity switch story has Vinny for it, Quarter has had nice chemistry, Thomas in a cage is a time to enjoy Justin getting a turn in the spotlight.
Heck, Y&R right now is galling because *nothing* happens. There are no stories and no moments. I couldn't tell you anything fun or memorable that happened in the past 12 months. I can give you quite a few B&B items!
I have elaborated earlier on my frustration with the writing and I stand by them. I can be infuriated by the completely missed opportunities. But at least I can spot a ton of opportunities. That's more than I can say for other soaps at other times (including YR right now).
So no, I am not giving up and I am not throwing BB in the bin. I still think it is a fun show worth being a viewer and at times a fan off. I just want Bell to do better - and as frustrating as he has been, he does have it in him.

 

Zoe’s exit scenes were seriously dumb and weren’t even the main focus of the episode  but in a sad way it’s a fitting end for a character who’s been largely forgettable since her debut three years ago. Hopefully life after B&B is much more successful for Ms. Barnes there.  
 

I would have like to see Carter and Quinn regroup after the fallout as opposed to going back to Thomas in a cage, Dope looking for a Thomas and Liam in jail ugh. 

17 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:

Zoe’s exit scenes were seriously dumb and weren’t even the main focus of the episode  but in a sad way it’s a fitting end for a character who’s been largely forgettable since her debut three years ago. Hopefully life after B&B is much more successful for Ms. Barnes there.  
 

I would have like to see Carter and Quinn regroup after the fallout as opposed to going back to Thomas in a cage, Dope looking for a Thomas and Liam in jail ugh. 

Other than Zoe slinking out of town, there was no real follow-up to yesterday’s events, which is insane. Basically the same thing happened with Quinn after the Shauna/Ridge fake wedding revelation: Eric ripped her a new one, and she disappeared for what seemed like weeks. 

There are so many loose threads that could have been addressed today: Quinn’s vengeful anger at Paris and Brooke; Ridge wrestling with the betrayal of his best friend; Carter’s status at Forrester; the list goes on.

Instead we got Ridge giving a play-by-play of the aborted “commitment ceremony” 🙄 to Steffy and Finn, and a pivot back to the Spencers/Justin/Thomas stuff. And that pathetic farewell from Zoe…

They treat Rena only slightly better than Heather Tom: they throw her a frontburner story every blue moon to act her ass off and then treat her like a glorified extra.

You’d think, with Zoe gone, Brad might play out the Quarter romance, but like most of his stuff, the affair feels like a stunt and a momentary diversion from Liam. 

Edited July 7, 20214 yr by Faulkner

7 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

Other than Zoe slinking out of town, there was no real follow-up to yesterday’s events, which is insane. Basically the same thing happened with Quinn after the Shauna/Ridge fake wedding revelation: Eric ripped her a new one, and she disappeared for what seemed like weeks. 

There are so many loose threads that could have been addressed today: Quinn’s vengeful anger at Paris and Brooke; Ridge wrestling with the betrayal of his best friend; Carter’s status at Forrester; the list goes on.

Instead we got Ridge giving a play-by-play of the aborted “commitment ceremony” 🙄 to Steffy and Finn, and a pivot back to the Spencers/Justin/Thomas stuff. And that pathetic farewell from Zoe…

They treat Rena only slightly better than Heather Tom: they throw her a frontburner story every blue moon to act her ass off and then treat her like a glorified extra.

You’d think, with Zoe gone, Brad might play out the Quarter romance, but like most of his stuff, the affair feels like a stunt and a momentary diversion from Liam. 

Agreed 100%. The bad thing is the show’s cast is actually very tiny at the moment you would think Thudley would finally find some balance again for the first time in years yet somehow he still only uses 1/3 of the cast. Just gross incompetence on his behalf. No wonder Patrick Mulcahey finally threw his hands up a couple years back.

The weirder thing from last week was Donna’s lengthy flashback montage  of her “honey bear” memories that came out of the blue after first being briefly blink if you miss it teased two years ago when Donna first came back. I don’t know if that is foreshadowing or not lol.  
 

I saw KKL’s picture with Jacob Young and Ashley Jones which I thought was nice. It definitely was a reminder of how much Rick and Bridget should still be on the show even if they fell victim to some really insipid plotlines. I know Young will most likely never return as Rick again.

1 minute ago, soapfan770 said:

I know Young will most likely never return as Rick again.

Why is that?

4 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

Why is that?

Back in 2018 he was inexplicably taken off contract while Karla Mosley was on maternity leave and when she came back it was said Rick & Maya had broken up to which Young took to Twitter to critically slam the show.

56 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:

Back in 2018 he was inexplicably taken off contract while Karla Mosley was on maternity leave and when she came back it was said Rick & Maya had broken up to which Young took to Twitter to critically slam the show.

Never understood why they did that too - another example of a couple being central to stories for years and being dumped as an afterthought in a throwaway sentence.

Honestly, I still think he'd go back. But I hear you: he was probably rightfully pissed.

Edited July 7, 20214 yr by FrenchBug82

I figured the video should be brought over from the ST...good video....

 

• Members

Posted Monday at 10:05 AM (edited)

  On 5/2/2021 at 1:11 AM, Dylan said:

Kimberlin Brown (Sheila Carter) posted she was on Set.

https://www.instagram.com/p/COV106ijYmg/

 

She was on set in May 2021 to film this B&B villains promotion for Australian TV, which was just released July 3:
https://www.facebook.com/Channel10/videos/1490315834680734/

Edited Monday at 10:07 AM by janea4old