B&B: Bold from the beginning

[Videnbas]

But that was just her final three weeks (and btw I thought Ashlyn Pearce did a wonderful job rising above the mediocre writing).

I'm talking about Aly's entire run. We learned more about Aly as a person in a short time than they ever bothered showing us about any other character in her generation. And her storylines were based around her personality, not her love life.

Little things like her hobbies and quirks (dressing up in Medieval clothing, writing in her diary, declining a date because of her goldfish's feeding schedule), and her special bond with Pam (who was usually not taken seriously by the rest of her family).

Her grief and the trauma of what happened to her mother, and the initially sweet relationship between her and the imaginary Darla.

Her naiveté and obsessive idealism.

Her anger issues that went back to when she was four years old.

Her sweet awkwardness in her first romance with Oliver, and how he helped build up her confidence and mental stability.

Her combination of academic precociousness and emotional immaturity.

Her inability to understand metaphors, subtext and nuances, instead interpreting everything literally and in black or white (I wondered at the time if the actress tried to portray Aly with high-functioning autism).

Her touching bond with Thorne.

Her dream of becoming a shoe designer. 

That is a lot more fleshed out and complex characterization than we've had for most other new young characters. And it was done without getting Aly caught up in some silly triangle - the character itself was the driving force in her storylines.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Videnbas

[sheilaforever]

+1

 

I Loved Aly. It was a terrile decision to kill her off - in such a wasteful manner.

[Soaplovers]

She probably was killed off because Bradley Bell didn't understand subtext...which the actress infused into Aly.

 

[Forever8]

I wish Brad would've put more thought into Stephanie and Eric's other children and grandchildren other than Ridge's progeny. 

I also wished that they would've had Ridge, or somebody tell Aly that this "Idyllic" version of Darla she had in her head was just that and that her mother was a lot more like the women she branded as "impure and disgusting" in her younger years. 

So much wasted opportunity. 

[DramatistDreamer]

How many grandchildren do Eric and Stephanie have? Is Felicia’s son Dino their sole biological grandchild?

[Aback]

I loved Aly. 

[sheilaforever]

I think so: Ridge is not Eric's son, Thorne had only Aly, Kristen never had a bio child and Felicia had only Dino who has not been around since 2006!?

[DramatistDreamer]

Looking at photos of Colleen Dion, her “Felicia” and Ronn Moss’ “Ridge” look as much like siblings as any of the Forrester siblings. They were clearly meant to have the same exact parents.
 

One can always debate the “nature vs. nurture” factor when looking at the earliest episodes where the show was clearly trying to highlight the similarities between Ridge and Eric, but the Felicia factor really makes it odd and incongruent that the show chose to undo those  obvious biological ties between Ridge and Eric and Ridge and his siblings. Looking at these early seasons, it is especially regrettable to consider what will take place decades later.

[Videnbas]

I think making Ridge not Eric's biological son was one of the worst, possibly THE worst, decisions the show has made. Aside from short term drama, the only function it served was opening the door to a whole lot of quasi-incestuous pairings between people named Forrester.

[Liberty City]

#431: Caroline is pissing me off. Saying she responded to Ridge in a way she never responded to Thorne. Girl, you married him so quick, as a gut-reaction to being raped. Let's be real. You didn't want that marriage in the first place.

Ugh. It hurts that Clayton Norcross was replaced. His work has been nothing short of outstanding. He is a genuine mix of Susan Flannery (Stephanie) and John McCook (Eric).

[Maxim]

BTW. The youtube channel has started premiering 4 episodes a day.... which means 28 episodes a week. Or that would mean... 1460 episodes a year... That means that next year on the same date the channel will be premiering episode 2170... or November 1995... And 2 years from now... it will premiering 3630 or september 2001. So well be having a lot of drama the next 2 years.

Edited May 14, 2022 by divinemotion

[DramatistDreamer]

Were they trying to appease Joseph Mascolo in an effort to get him to stay on B&B? Massimo didn’t even stay and Nick Malrone seems like a footnote in B&B’s saga. Hardly worth the effort to retroactively change the entire backstories of core characters (Ridge, Stephanie and Eric) just for a story that offered temporary  shock value but ultimately had no “legs”.

It really served to show that Caroline had no friends.

Not one person tried to say “Hey girl, you just had a marriage fall through at the altar and now you just endured a violent rape and exhausting trial. Why don’t you continue with getting counseling, give it six months before getting romantically involved with anyone? Nobody spoke to say maybe get your mind together before making any major life decisions. I know that’s what I would’ve told my good friend…or hell, anyone who asked!

Even Bill was prodding her to marry her former fiancé’s brother. Really, y’all?!

[Liberty City]

It's gross. Very gross. But it also shows the times of how little mental health was considered. I would've told anyone that, too, and I have.

[DramatistDreamer]

What if the writers would have at least had Brooke grapple with her own self interest and desires to decide to ultimately urge Caroline to take more time, only to see Caroline decide to marry anyway? And not the morning of the wedding, but before. Making one woman the aggressor and the other, the victim also strikes me as gross.

I can now understand why, as a kid, when I used to program the VCR to record some soaps, I would sometimes skim B&B, some of the stories didn’t make sense to me, even back then.

[Liberty City]

Touché.