B&B: March 2025 Discussion Thread

[I Am A Swede]

Bingo!!

Ridge is a misogynistic pig now, and why any woman with an ounce of self-respect would want him is incomprehensible.

Brooke looks like an absolute fool for still pining over Ridge. This pod person has no resemblance to the Brooke I used to know and love, and not even KKL can sell Brooke feeling anything but loathing for Ridge now.

Taylor is simply not Taylor anymore. I feel bad for Rebecca Budig, who I'm sure can do solid work under normal circumstances, but she's so, so wrong for the role of Taylor.

Hope is a mystery. I don't know what Brad Bell wants to do with her anymore. He just throws stories at the character that just doesn't make sense with how Hope used to be.

And Steffy is the worst, mainly because she's obviously meant to be the lead character. JMW tries, but the writing fails her as well. She's to hard as an actress to convincingly play a victim, which Brad Bell has tried, but the character also lacks the ingredient which kept Brooke rootable despite her shenanigans: the underdog status. Without that Steffy just comes off as an entitled, spoiled, hypocritical bitch.

Sheila is boring, Luna is insane and what Brad Bell has done to Bill Spencer alone should be enough to remove him from the position as headwriter.

[Maxim]

That's a razor sharp analysis of the situation. Agree

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[1974mdp]

The character of Ridge was always a bit unsufferable, but it's REALLT bad now. He just comes off as a total ass. Why woman, apparently, find him with his misogynistic so appealing is a mystery?

I feel like Hope used to be better defined as the long-suffering good girl, but I don't know who the hell she is at this point.

I've never been a big Steffy fan to be honest. Knowing all the things she's done in her past, she's far from sympathetic. 

RB is sooooooooooo NOT Taylor. She should have been a brand new character without the baggage of a character that she's at least 15 years too young to play.

The worst for me is Brooke. She used to be the ultimate soap character, IMO. I was a huge fan. Girl from the wrong side of the tracks who made good but was her own worst enemy at times. The way she runs after Ridge BEGGING him to pay her attention is downright insulting to women in general.

[Maxim]

Hope and Steffy are the biggest mess. Mess with a capital M.

Prepared to be the new generation of leads... Bradley did a HUGE... mistake and decided to flip their characters 10 seasons in.

Steffy, who he originally wrote as the dark-haired Brooke - "slut" with no morals, stealing men and making girls like Hope - cry... and Hope - closer to Taylor and Caroline in terms of characteristics - a character that symbolized RIGHT and goodness and was contrast to her mother's past...

All of a sudden, without any build up or prior settings... Bradley decided that he MADE a mistake when decades ago he decided that Taylor's daughter will be a mini Brooke and Brooke's one - a mini Taylor... and said - Fu-ck THAT... Hope's last name is Logan... so from this day forward - she is a slut, a bitch and etc... And Steffy is called Stephanie! After our long gone matriarch... So I'll make her a mini Stephanie - I'll turn this once dynamic character into a moralizing, always sour-faced, always forbidding people BULLY. 

And this change of dynamics... has led to total chaos.  

[YRfan23]

You pretty much nailed it!! Although, I still wish they had acknowledged back then that Steffy was really acting like Brooke which was the important beat missing in the insufferable Liam/Hope/Steffy triangle. It was never Steffys fault where Stephanie and Taylor were concerned…they could have at least admitted back then that Steffy was a vessel of payback for Brooke being the sl*t from the valley all those years, but instead they (Steffys family) took Steffys behavior as being this total badass who knows what she wants and how to get it, and morals be damned as well as anyone named Logan…..yet now Steffys  preaching people about morals and it’s just horrific writing and I can’t express enough how much these actors and Bell himself need a reality check with everything!!!

 

 

Edited Thursday at 10:38 PM by YRfan23

[Maxim]

Yup. That's why some days I gasp when I catch Steffy fans slut-shaming Hope circa 2025. If you are going to stan a character that was doing the exact same (even more hardcore if you ask me) stuff that you are condemning another character for... Then you can't make me take your opinion seriously.

I am even starting to think that a lot of these people have not watched the OG JMW Steffy. They are new fans from the last couple of seasons. They really don't know the history and what they are talking about. 

And I'm gonna say something very honest now. Steffy used to be fun. I preferred her when she was Brooke wannabe. JMW had that sexy thing that not a lot of actresses possess. And what did Brad Bell do? He made her matronly... Moralistic and quite frankly insufferable.

And when all the other so called whores listen to her monologues about them and do nothing about it... Don't defend themselves by using The history of the show and FACTS... That's when I jump the boat. It's offensive for me as a viewer to watch this.

[Fevuh]

I’ve missed a couple days completely but this has been my problem with Steffy, Ridge AND Taylor - they talk about the Logans as if they have no knowledge of themselves.  Ridge courted and banged Brooke’s little sister, Taylor has shot people, Steffy slept between two brothers and claimed love for both just like they rail Hope for. Only actually Steffy was in bed with both within TWO days.  Loll.  Liam bumped his head and didn’t return a text so she immediately jumped in bed with Wyatt.  
 

Every time any of them run their mouths - calling Hope a Bitch??  Brooke should be retorting, listen Man-Whore - you have 2 bitches of your own to take care of - go heal your broken heart syndromes in fu**ing  Ibiza.  Lolllll

[1974mdp]

Not to mention that the whole "takeover" story missed two really big beat IMO...RJ and Donna. Both of them would have been caught in the middle and adding to the conflict. Yet, they weren't even mentioned.

[YRfan23]

I still feel like that was done intentionally. We don’t even know the status of Josh Hoffman who plays RJ. They kept him offscreen just to keep everything one note in Steffy and Ridges favor. IMO 

[1974mdp]

The way RJ just went missing all of a sudden and not even mentioned was sooo weird. The actor had even begun to grow on me...or at least his muscles did! LOL

[dragonflies]

Carolyn Hinsey spot on again lol

 

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I know she's talked about wanting Brooke to go back to being a chemist. I bet she hates that Brooke is basically an extension of Hope and Ridge

I do have to chuckle cause Hope is basically Brooke's living breathing karma, every single day for how she betrayed Bridget lol 

How is Daphne a human trafficker, that makes no sense. She was there to seduce Carter, not kidnap and ship him off to another country for sexual slavery. Steffy didn't kidnap her and bring her to town to be a sex slave. Daphne's autonomy wasn't taken away, she was in all for it

She did it for a friend, that's not illegal and it's a soap trope to get someone to seduce a boyfriend/girlfriend away from someone

I mean if this were so then Brooke is one too given she brought Caroline JR to town years ago  and hired her to seduce Rick away from Maya.

IF anyone should be in jail it's the treasonous traitor's Carter and Hope 

Yep he goes too far, write's characters into a corner(Hope, Poppy, Carter, Bill, Liam) and then doesn't know how to write them out of it and makes them unlikable in the process and then pulls stuff out of his arse to try and "fix it"

That this ended with a dull thud shows there was no thought put into this at all. I don't think he expected this story to be as unpopular as it was. Might help if he realized how unpopular Hope is and Carter going under the bus for her made it all the worse

Edited Friday at 06:41 PM by dragonflies

[dragonflies]

JMW has been the star of B&B for near on 5 years now. KKL is hugely popular, but Brooke can't carry this show, and let's face it without a Stephanie type character to keep Brooke in check or to call her on her crap, Brooke has no relevance. Plus KKL can't carry a story, the "Why did I drink" story was awful and showed her limitations as an actress and the story tanked big time

[Cheap21]

when was the last time Jack Marone, Nick's son with Brooke and Taylor mentioined by anyone?

[I Am A Swede]

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  Can't carry a story?? She carried this whole damn show for years! 

Of course she has limitations as an actress. No one has ever said she's Meryl Streep. But give her the right material (fat chance of that as long as Brad Bell is in charge though) and she most certainly can deliver.

[MontyB]

My sentiments exactly. It's beyond frustrating, especially when I realize screaming at TV screen at them is futile.