The Bold and Beautiful Weekly Blog!
Ridge & Steffy come to grips with loss. (Soaps.com)
B&B Breakdown Week of December 8.
This was one emotional week! It was also a great week for the actors to showcase their talents, but enough chitchat, lets get down to business!
The Tears of a Soap Star
If you can’t cry, don’t try. In my opinion, if you can’t naturally produce the tears, it’s better to go smaller than it is to go bigger because it only emphasizes the fact that you’re acting. Actors who overdo emotional scenes should take a cue from Susan Flannery (Stephanie). Upon first hearing of Phoebe’s death, she was subtle and quiet and you could really see the effect it had on her character. She didn’t need to wail and cry and scream; her face said it all.
The Grieving Process
After her emotional reaction, Stephanie turned her devastation into rage and she was just as fantastic. I thought she was excellent expressing her anger over the situation and I understood every bit of it, however, I think she went a bit too far immediately going after Rick and Brooke. Shouldn’t she have been consoling her family or being consoled herself? I was with her regarding her anger until she said, “If it was an accident” to Ridge at the morgue, suggesting that Rick was at fault. It was pretty poor timing I thought. And isn’t she partially to blame since she kept Rick’s secret that he was sabotaging Ridge? I was surprised Brooke didn’t question Stephanie when she revealed that she knew Rick was lying about everything lately.
Mourning as a Family
I thought it was odd that they didn’t show Taylor’s full reaction to her daughter dying. I read some of your comments suggesting that maybe the show was trying to be sensitive to Hunter Tylo since she just lost her own son last year. If that’s true, then kudos to them, but she still has to go through the memorial scenes and Christmas without her onscreen daughter, so it’s not like she’ll get a reprieve. I wonder how Hunter is dealing with this and how the show presented the storyline to her. We will never know though, (unless we ask her ourselves) so believing and spreading online rumors will get us nowhere and it is insensitive to the actress and her family. So to everyone speculating whose idea the storyline was and the reasons for it, it really should stop.
That being said, not seeing Taylor’s reaction enabled us to witness Ridge and Steffy dealing with Phoebe’s death together on Tuesday and it was fantastic. I thought it was very touching that the two of them discussed Phoebe and went to the morgue just the two of them. Ronn Moss (Ridge) is good at the smaller quieter scenes and I really felt his pain, more so than when he’s crying. And don’t get me started on Steffy! I didn’t think I was going to cry, but when she talked to her sister and cried that she didn’t know what she was going to do without her, I had a hard time seeing my computer screen to type the daily update through my tears. Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy) was so good playing the grieving sister that she made me think about the possibility of losing my own sister and I kinda lost it. However, I thought Wednesday was too much with her going on the ledge and saying, “I can feel you”. I didn’t feel any of Steffy’s pain that day and thought they should have stopped at Tuesday. I know a lot of you thought it was just as emotional, but I thought it was overkill.
Mama Bear Mode
From the comments on the boards, it seems many of you are disdainful of Brooke defending her son, but I think it’s totally understandable. Of course she wants to defend him and reassure him that it’s not his fault. I am not a parent myself, but I know how protective my mother is and other mothers are with their kids no matter what their age, so why shouldn’t she come to Rick’s defense? Stephanie’s doing the same thing isn’t she?
Remorseful Rick
Kyle Lowder has also done a really good job portraying his character’s pain and remorse. Again, it’s the smaller reactions that are more effective and I think Kyle has done this well and perhaps for the first time, I am responding to and am sympathetic towards his character. I thought his scenes with Taylor were well done and I could feel how difficult it was for him to face her.
Speaking of, Taylor was amazing not to blame Rick (of course she doesn't know the full story yet), but don’t you think she could have gone without the makeup and perfect hair? I would think the last thing a woman who just lost her daughter would do is make sure she looked pretty.
Who is to Blame?
With everyone blaming themselves for Phoebe’s death, why is Stephanie the only one who isn’t taking responsibility for her role in the events leading up to the accident? She blames Rick for deceiving everyone, but she knew about it and didn’t say anything. Is this just denial on her part? Steffy thinks it’s her fault because she told Phoebe about the kiss; Taylor thinks it’s her fault because she got involved with Phoebe’s ex-boyfriend; Rick thinks it’s his fault for obvious reasons; but Stephanie is the only one who can’t see her part in the tragedy.
Ultimately, it was just an accident and Lt. Baker said it best when he told Stephanie that sometimes an accident is just that, but wow, Stephanie is in serious denial and I truly hope it comes to light that she knew about Rick and didn’t say anything.
Again, it was a great week with great performances and I can only imagine what’s to come. What did you think? Share your thoughts below and come back next Friday for more B&B discussion.
- Lori Wilson
