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If you follow me on Twitter, you know by now that I am an avid football fan and much like football, B&B’s performance in 2015 can be divided into halves. Sometimes a team will come out and struggle in the first half then completely explode in the second. And sometimes, it’s the complete opposite. In football, there is always one play that shifts the momentum entirely in another direction. The momentum shifter on B&B didn’t involve a football. It involved a rock. Here’s a look at the two polarizing halves of B&B’s 2015.
Photo Credit: © Sean Smith/JPI
The First Half
The year started with a bang and gave us one of the best lead ins to February Sweeps I’ve ever seen on a soap before. January saw the reveal of Rick’s master plan to gain irrevocable control of Forrester Creations while publicly decimating his marriage to Caroline after falsely leading her to think they were on the mend. This reveal also gave us Linsey Goddfrey’s 2015 Emmy reel as she pleaded with Rick not to do what he ultimately did anyway. Then there was the Lady Of The Manor painting. A year later and the portrait of Maya over the Forrester fireplace still has people talking. The show stumbled a bit when it actually hit sweeps. I was initially excited about the first return of Steffy Forrester, but it didn’t really lead to much of anything. The fight for Forrester was hot but incorporating a desperate plea from Steffy to only sign over her shares if Liam left Ivy for her was silly and a waste of a character and a storyline. Before I could dwell on that too much, Steffy was gone again. The first half of the year also gave us two weddings — Bill and Katie and later Deacon and Quinn. Months removed from it, I still feel the same way about this as I did then — Katie and Bill’s reunion was rushed and not earned. Their reconciliation, engagement and marriage all took place over a span of about three weeks. Then there was Deacon and Quinn which felt a little off too with Brooke’s drunken interference and an odd as hell iPad Hope interruption. However, both of the weddings were beautiful and the couples rootable. The third wedding of the year was a lot more plot driven and silly but also offered up another Emmy moment. When faced with deportation to Australia, Ivy asked her then beau Liam to put a ring on it to keep her in the lap of luxury in LA. Being a rescue ranger as Quinn says, Liam agreed. Never mind that at the time he was struggling with his resurfacing feelings for Steffy who had returned for a second stint on the show. This time on contract. When she found of about the impromptu wedding, Stephanie Jr came out and threw a fit. And a vase. And a back hand. There is nothing more enjoyable to me on soaps than a woman with a backbone. Vowing to never be Liam’s second choice again, Steffy walked away and fell into the lips of Wyatt. I didn’t know about this potential pairing at the time because I was still holding on to my Steam feels, but there was an instant spark. It didn’t last long as the deportation issue ended up being a misunderstanding; Liam and Ivy annulled the marriage and Steffy set her sights on Liam again. Not to be overshadowed by the love triangles on the show, the business stories were on fire as well. With her return, Steffy promised her shares in Forrester to Ridge who was able to muscle the CEO position from Rick. With Steffy in as President and Liam on board as VP (which is STILL ridiculous) the new regime rolled out a new line with an existing face but a bit of a new identity.
Photo Credit: © Sean Smith/JPI
The main reason why B&B excelled in the first half of the year was due to the introduction of Maya’s little sister Nicole and the atom bomb of a secret she brought with her from Illinois. At first fans speculated that Maya was really Nicole’s mother, but that would have been far too easy. Instead Brad Bell decided to drop a gauntlet on Daytime by revealing that their current star heroine was transgendered. The impact of the Maya/Myron story made its way to mainstream media and gave fans some of the best written material we’d seen on the show in some time. And as if the powerhouse of newcomer Reign Edwards was not enough, Hollywood vets Obba Babatundé and Anna Marie Horsford were added as Maya and Nicole’s parents. I cannot say enough about the performance of these four, add to that the resurgence of Jacob Young who felt quite subdued during Rick’s marriage to Caroline. All of which culminated to the best wedding of the year. Not for the dress or the vows or the romance per se but because of the irruption in the middle of it. It was so amazing that you could literally see the actors who were serving as guests become enthralled with what they were witnessing along with the viewing audience. The ability to infuse so many authentic beats into a story that is fairly new to Daytime was amazing to watch. Also amazing to watch was the young love blooming between Nicole and a returned Zende Forrester (Dominquez). It was fresh, innocent and far removed from the other plot driven triangles and quadrangles this show is constantly defaulting to. The minute Zende showed up, he and Nicole were drawn to each other and the chemistry was instant. What made them special was the slow build to their relationship — they spent a good three months in the friend zone. Bonding over their internship and a desire to prove something to their families, their friendship was rooted in a desire to see the other be the person they knew they could be. Ever referring to each other as BFF’s, the audience knew that status would change at some point and when it did, it proved to be worth the wait. After hearing about a random kiss Thomas had laid on Nicole, Zende’s testosterone kicked in and he finally made his move to show Nicole his true feelings. With Maya and Rick serving perfect couple goals and Ridge’s vasectomy bomb, there was no way in the world that you would have been able to tell me that The Bold and the Beautiful wasn’t the best show in town. Until it wasn’t.
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