Guilty Pleasures: The Bold and The Beautiful

Ah, The Bold and The Beautiful, a 1/2 hour of Guilty Pleasure every day. Watching this show is like having a decadent piece of dark chocolate. But just like chocolate, you can have too much of a good thing which is another reason why I like B&B. It's only a 1/2 hour everyday which is manageable for me.  I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that most of the remaining daytime shows could take a leaf out of B&B and either scale back to a 1/2 hour or learn how to write tight.

B&B revolves around The Forrester family who own Forrester creations and their rivals Jackie M. What cracks me up about this show is that they are probably the only two fashion houses that have no gay designers on staff. I have a friend who is jonesing for Thomas Forrester to come out of the closet (which would be fabulous and might actually justify the actor who plays him the Emmy he won this year for basically doing nothing).  Jackie M is sort of the low-rent version, say Allen B to Forrester's Carolina Herrera.  Forrester Creations is classy while Jackie M relys on sex to sell their line.  Jackie M is now being designed by Bridget Forrester who used to be a doctor (don't ask, it's too long a story), and is owned by Nick Marone, Ridge Forrester's half-brother.  There's also Bill Spencer who owns Spencer Publications which produces glossy fash mags.

The lovely blonde on the left is Brooke Logan Forrester Forrester Forrestor Marone Forrester among other names. She's the heroine of the show or at least one of them. From the wrong side of the tracks, she fell in love with Ridge Forrester at first sight and has spent the past 23 years trying to win his love, often vying for it with brunette beauty Dr. Taylor Hayes.  Along the way Brooke has married Ridge's father (by whom she had two children) and both of his brothers. She also had an affair with her daughter's husband (the father of child number 3) and now she's 'accidentally' had sex with her other daughter Hope's boyfriend at her Hope's graduation party (don't ask, it's a long story). 

The stories on the B&B move quickly, almost too quickly. Certain storylines (the death of matriarch Stephanie Forrester's estranged mother Anne, Beth Logan's death) were over in like a week.  Nick Marone who just found out that his wife slept with his much younger stepfather just filed for divorce and slept with another woman, all within like a week. I'm beginning to think that the head writer and executive producer Brad Bell has ADHD.  On the other hand, the show is filled with impossibly beautiful people, seriously this is probably the best looking cast on daytime. Not that the acting is terrible, Susan Flannery could give master classes in acting.  They've even managed to attract Patrick Duffy to play the recurring role of Stephen Logan.

The best change the show has made was changing Steffy Forrester from rather boring to a miniature version of her namesake and grandmother. When she first came on the show she was involved with a boring romance with her sister's and her mother's ex-boyfriend Rick Forrester (don't ask, it's too long a story) which bordered on incestuous. Now she's a schemer who will stop at nothing to get rid of the Logan family who she feels have take over the family business and dragged them down. Also Brooke Logan stole her father from her mother Dr. Taylor Hayes, the former alcoholic pyschiatrist.

I'm telling you this show is like crack, I can't stop watching it. It's the only soap that I watch on a regular basis.  Try it, and see if it doesn't become a guilty pleasure for you too!