Lately, TikTok has been feeding me clips from the early years of The Bold and the Beautiful. I was struck by how beautifully structured the show was: the pauses, the dramatic staging, the score, the direction.

It inspired me to create a thread where we can share our ideas on how to improve BTG (provided you think it needs improving!). Here are mine:

1. Trim the families.

There are simply too many family members. Every time something happens, we spend five episodes watching everyone being told the same news and reacting to it. There are only so many ways you can stage those reactions, so we essentially end up watching the same scene over and over again.

2. Cut down on phones and pointless dialogue.

Enough with the endless texting, video calls, and phone interactions. And please, cut all those meaningless exchanges like “Okay, I have to go now. See you later!”. Sure, these interactions are realistic, but they don’t make for compelling drama. Not everything that happens in real life belongs in a script.

3. Give Nicole a split personality.

Sorry, but at this point, I think that’s the only thing that could make her interesting. Ever since Naughty Nikki was first mentioned, I thought it would make a fabulous name for Nicole’s more uninhibited alter ego. And I’d take it one step further: make Martin Anita and Vernon’s biological son.

Hear me out. Years ago, Nicole was struggling to conceive and developed a phantom pregnancy, complete with a growing belly despite not actually being pregnant. Meanwhile, Anita became pregnant with Martin later in life. Because of her age and the risks involved, she decided to keep the pregnancy secret from the press. So when Anita gave birth, she handed Martin over to her distraught daughter to raise as her own. After all, Anita would still get to watch him grow up and be closely involved in his life, almost as if she were raising him herself.

4. Create a central workplace that brings characters together.

The show desperately needs a shared professional environment where characters have organic reasons to interact. It could be a coworking space, the Dupree Foundation headquarters, or some other business hub housing Dani’s modeling agency, ChelseaKat, and other ventures.

Give these people a reason to cross paths beyond constantly running into each other at restaurants.

5. Give us a torrid affair that tears the Duprees apart.

My vote? Kat and Jacob. Have them sleep together and blow up Jacob and Naomi’s marriage. We need MESS. We need betrayal. We need to take sides.

I’m sorry, but enough with these happy little couples who get along all the time. They’re boring, and there’s rarely anything at stake.

6. Make conflict the driving force behind EVERY scene.

This should be the writers’ number one priority.

7. Enough with the therapy speak

Let characters be irrational and unaware of what’s going on behind the surface 😭

I understand it's probably due to budgetary constraints, but I'd much rather see the events play out on screen than have them explained afterward. Simply telling the audience what happened makes those scenarios far less impactful.

The Duprees definitely need more conflict ASAP. The endless praise is starting to irritate even my superfan nerves. 😆

Kat and Jacob is fine, that would solidify her being the garbage I've always felt she is.

😈

Putting aside characters, characterizations and specific storylines and sticking to the technical aspects, there is too much repetition in the storytelling, which is not being maximized.

Episodes air five days per week (give or take preemptions) and each episode has a run time of about 37 minutes per episode. So many of the episodes feature repeated conversations, at the same time, details of actual importance often get mentioned, almost as an aside, it seems. There's also the aspect of the "show me, don't just tell me" where the actual visual medium is not being utilized.

If you're really using your characters who are on the canvas (especially the ones whose actors can actually act and memorize dialogue well) , we wouldn't be feeling as if we're hearing the same conversations over and over.

Also, either the writers tinker (or allow the actors to tinker) with the dialogue to help some characters to develop speech/dialogue that sounds more natural, less forced or let a few folks go because there are a few actors who still stumble over their dialogue-- whether it's because the dialogue is stilted or they just struggle to emote huge swaths of dialogue. Going into Season 3 tptb really need to fix that, because some scenes really lumber along and it slows down the impact of some scenes/sequences.

Yes, I'd get rid of some of that clunky dialogue. Some recapping is necessary, although soaps in general are too heavy on it. But often it's just reeling off info instead of incorporating it more naturally.

Visually, some sets need an upgrade-they've already addressed Jory's back room. Caffeine Fix is still a bit of a mess and the fluro green at Uptown should be replaced with something classier.

And a workplace for Martin-the depiction of him as a politician is unconvincing.

Hospital needs a gathering place not in front of the nurses station.

The Hamilton living room is a complete disaster. I get they were going with Hayley being flashy but it doesn't come off.

It would be nice to have more variety. Dani is always in the kitchen, the Duprees always in the living room. These people are supposed to live in mega mansions so another room would help.

Too many meet ups/convos in restaurants.

And we need to see Rowena-it's laughable that they can't/won't have someone recurring in that role.

Having couples where one member is recurring is problematic. Kat/Thomas, Nicole/Kial, Ashley/Grayson, Chelsea/Madison, Leslie/Marcel etc They don't get enough airtime and focus to really depict/develop the relationship and play up conflicts.

And enough on how Vernita are amazing/inspiring.

1. I love that the main family is nice and big, but maybe all of them aren't needed on canvas at the same time.

2. A second core family to contrast the Duprees-- a scrappy "
   Spectra" type bunch perhaps. Maybe give Shanice a sibling or Silk Press some cousins, do like Bill Bell did and build a new family from an existing character.

3. Serial killer storyline to rid 1-3 minor/deadweight characters and to provide a suspense arc.

On 10/24/2026 at 11:58 AM, Aback said:

Lately, TikTok has been feeding me clips from the early years of The Bold and the Beautiful. I was struck by how beautifully structured the show was: the pauses, the dramatic staging, the score, the direction.

It inspired me to create a thread where we can share our ideas on how to improve BTG (provided you think it needs improving!). Here are mine:

1. Trim the families.

There are simply too many family members. Every time something happens, we spend five episodes watching everyone being told the same news and reacting to it. There are only so many ways you can stage those reactions, so we essentially end up watching the same scene over and over again.

2. Cut down on phones and pointless dialogue.

Enough with the endless texting, video calls, and phone interactions. And please, cut all those meaningless exchanges like “Okay, I have to go now. See you later!”. Sure, these interactions are realistic, but they don’t make for compelling drama. Not everything that happens in real life belongs in a script.

3. Give Nicole a split personality.

Sorry, but at this point, I think that’s the only thing that could make her interesting. Ever since Naughty Nikki was first mentioned, I thought it would make a fabulous name for Nicole’s more uninhibited alter ego. And I’d take it one step further: make Martin Anita and Vernon’s biological son.

Hear me out. Years ago, Nicole was struggling to conceive and developed a phantom pregnancy, complete with a growing belly despite not actually being pregnant. Meanwhile, Anita became pregnant with Martin later in life. Because of her age and the risks involved, she decided to keep the pregnancy secret from the press. So when Anita gave birth, she handed Martin over to her distraught daughter to raise as her own. After all, Anita would still get to watch him grow up and be closely involved in his life, almost as if she were raising him herself.

4. Create a central workplace that brings characters together.

The show desperately needs a shared professional environment where characters have organic reasons to interact. It could be a coworking space, the Dupree Foundation headquarters, or some other business hub housing Dani’s modeling agency, ChelseaKat, and other ventures.

Give these people a reason to cross paths beyond constantly running into each other at restaurants.

5. Give us a torrid affair that tears the Duprees apart.

My vote? Kat and Jacob. Have them sleep together and blow up Jacob and Naomi’s marriage. We need MESS. We need betrayal. We need to take sides.

I’m sorry, but enough with these happy little couples who get along all the time. They’re boring, and there’s rarely anything at stake.

6. Make conflict the driving force behind EVERY scene.

This should be the writers’ number one priority.

7. Enough with the therapy speak

Let characters be irrational and unaware of what’s going on behind the surface 😭

Number 6 would serve as the "be all and end all" in my opinion. CONFLICT! There simply isn't enough of it to where it almost appears non-existent most of the time. Too many past opportunities to showcase LOTS of it were missed.

Piggybacking off of @ranger1rg 's comments in the monthly thread, the GH-level propping of awful characters as these paragons of virtue and morality really needs to be ended too.

That's one of the reasons I've pretty much lost interest in BTG

Edited October 28Oct 28 by AbcNbc247

11 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Piggybacking off of @ranger1rg 's comments in the monthly thread, the GH-level propping of awful characters as these paragons of virtue and morality really needs to be ended too.

That's one of the reasons I've pretty much lost interest in BTG

I am so tired of the propping. It's insufferable. Let US decide why and how much we love these characters. Don't tell us. SHOW us.

Look at today's show with Sharon and Tracy visiting Anita. Hearing them sing a few bars was nice, but for me the execution of everything else was all wrong.

Why not have them in a recording studio? If The Articulettes are truly important to this show, get them some kind of set. Instead we get Anita faking her voice and hiding that she's in form. Why? So they can again yell "Articulettes Strong"?

And miss me with more reminiscences of Barbara, who we never met. I'm sorry, I don't care about her, and I don't care about using her recordings. The number of people who do care wouldn't make a dent on Spotify -- which that demo doesn't even use.

But yeah, let's throw in a reference to Dionne Warwick and The Spinners. Let's hear them call each other queens. Let's have Tracy date a guy who looks like Marvin Gaye -- a guy we're never going to see. This stuff does not work for me.

On 10/24/2026 at 8:54 PM, Paul Raven said:

Having couples where one member is recurring is problematic. Kat/Thomas, Nicole/Kial, Ashley/Grayson, Chelsea/Madison, Leslie/Marcel etc They don't get enough airtime and focus to really depict/develop the relationship and play up conflicts.

You made A LOT of great comments about the sets, and I really agree with this couples comment, too. This is a huge problem.

Instead, we get a big buildup -- like with Madison's job, lawsuit, etc. -- and then it all disappears with a few lines telling us everything was resolved offscreen. Now Madison is gone again. Tomas? Same thing. We got a buildup of his problems with Kat and at work, and now he's gone again.

And no, "Don't worry, BTG never forgets and will bring them back!" doesn't work for me. Not when it happens all over the place.

On 10/24/2026 at 12:58 PM, Aback said:

7. Enough with the therapy speak

Amen to that. Too often a character is the therapist voice of reason in a conversation. Izaiah is even worse than Nicole. He's yet to become a real character to me because he sounds like a textbook dispensing advice.

To me, the airtime distribution is one of my pet peeves. We'll have Dani on almost everyday... I swear she sneezes, has a breakdown because she sneezed, and is consoled by either Andre, Bill, Naomi, Chelsea, Nicole, or her parents.. and we see it all play out... while other stories that are teased/introduced are focused on for maybe a week or two before the airtime is dropped to once a week or not shown at all for awhile.

In regards to the Duprees, too many are on the show. I don't understand why Tyrell and Samantha are around when they're hardly shown and could easily be written as attending school in a different state. And I've said this before.. but Chelsea has been an afterthought for the writers since day 1. If it doesn't involve Dani or Kat.. Chelsea is barely focused on whatsoever. Her trople story was shown maybe two or three times, Allison was shown maybe a handful of times before she kidnapped Chelsea, post kidnapping Chelsea almost acts as though it didn't happen, she had two dates with Madison before they got engaged, and the lawsuit happened and was resolved off screen.

Scale back the Duprees.. and beef up the Hawthornes and Vanessa's family (Vanessa/Doug/Donnell/Deanna should have been a family unit shown on the show since day 1.. had we seen both kids from day 1.. we could be more behind the trauma and grief that they're going through).

Ashley has been scaled back and she works as supporting.. but I have to admit it was nice to focus on her.. one of the few non Duprees and her neurotic tendencies and her single mom Jan and hints about Ashley's father. All that seemed to be dropped.. and after a promising start to her and Grayson.. they're hardly shown at all unless it's support.

SPS/Leslie needs to move beyond the Ted and Dupree obsession... she has money, has a clinic, has a nice no strings attached relationship with Marcel... and she had a nice simmering feud with Darlene partly based on the fact that she was friends with Marcel's soon to be ex wife. Having a meal at a restaurant between the Hawthorne parents and Marcel/Leslie would have some nice simmering conflict... while SPS/Leslie promising interactions with down on their lucks Noah and Grayson shows that she has a heart buried beneath the over the top presentation.

The Sets would also need to be reconfigured. Have Vernon/Anita's living room and dining room be the main Dupree gathering space... use Dani's gate house as a headquarters for Chelsea/Kat, and since Nicole is at the office at the hospital... refit her at home office for someone else and use her living room for either Vanessa or the Hawthorne family.

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

To me, the airtime distribution is one of my pet peeves. We'll have Dani on almost everyday... I swear she sneezes, has a breakdown because she sneezed, and is consoled by either Andre, Bill, Naomi, Chelsea, Nicole, or her parents.. and we see it all play out... while other stories that are teased/introduced are focused on for maybe a week or two before the airtime is dropped to once a week or not shown at all for awhile.

given how many times have one of us written some variation of those words, it’s impossible to believe that the writing team is unaware of the issue and how frustrated viewers are.

but that frustration doesn’t seem to be resulting in a significant drop in ratings. so, go figure. frankly, with taping 4 months ahead of air, and writing 7 months, i don’t really see anything ever changing.

Edited October 29Oct 29 by wonderwoman1951

People asking for a scaleback of the focal point of the soap are laughable. Genuinely. It's as if no one paid attention to how the serial was sold and promoted. 🤣 And Nicole's office was repurposed for her bedroom set (hence why the double doors are always closed in her living room), which is also what they did for Jacob and Naomi's bedroom (now living room). I swear, so many want this soap to just be absolute garbage and it shows. I needed a good laugh tonight. Ha.

I think some of the issues with the day-to-day execution of Beyond the Gates are that, while there is a story being told, it doesn't always play out in an interesting way. Depending on the day, some episodes lack intrigue, which could be an issue with the EP. I think at least three out of five episodes each week need to have some kind of intrigue to keep viewers invested. Unfortunately, that isn't always happening, and it can make an episode feel all over the place, with characters popping up in locations that sometimes feel random.

Another issue is the show's couples. Like others, I've noticed that most of the partners in these relationships are recurring characters, and many of them aren't written with much depth. Some couples also lack chemistry, which makes it difficult to invest in their relationships.

I also agree that the show needs a communal workspace where we can see characters like Martin, Vanessa, and others in their professional environments. We hear them talk about their jobs, but we rarely see them in action. For example, I wish we had been introduced to Martin's political opponent, who could be running attack ads about Smitty being a murderer. Imagine an ad asking, "Would you vote for someone who has a murderer in his bed?"

I also wish the show would do more with the next generation. I see potential in Tyrell, Chessy, and Jessica, but, as I suspected, it seems unlikely that we'll see much of them until Christmas. Samantha, meanwhile, often feels like a background character rather than someone with a story of her own. At times, I wonder whether it would be better to send her off to boarding school and bring her back later with an actual plan for the character, rather than having her exist primarily as Smitty and Martin's daughter.

I agree that there's too much harmony within the Dupree family. You're telling me that a family that is essentially the modern-day equivalent of the Kings or the Kennedys wouldn't have more serious disagreements, and that those disagreements would be resolved so quickly, almost like a '90s sitcom? When Martin was attacking Naomi, Nita's response was essentially, "We don't do this." I wish the conflict between Naomi and Martin had escalated further instead of being smoothed over so quickly. I also liked that, during the show's first week or so, you could tell Nita was getting fed up with Dani's antics. Lately, however, that tension seems to have leveled off. I'm hoping that, if and when the truth about Bill and Dani's elevator encounter comes out, Nita goes all in on Dani, creating a genuine rift between them. I'd love to see the Duprees become a little less "Dupree Strong", with some of those family relationships changed by the fallout.

I do wonder whether the NAACP's involvement has anything to do with this, particularly if there's an emphasis on portraying a close-knit Black family.

And honestly, if the writers aren't going to do anything substantial with Chelsea and Madison, I'd consider writing them out after their wedding. Perhaps Madison gets a fellowship in San Diego or somewhere else, and they leave town together.

Beyond the Gates still has tremendous potential, and that's what makes some of these issues frustrating.

1 hour ago, Forever8 said:

I think some of the issues with the day-to-day execution of Beyond the Gates are that, while there is a story being told, it doesn't always play out in an interesting way. Depending on the day, some episodes lack intrigue, which could be an issue with the EP.

Sending a few producers packing would probably improve things, IMO.