Does it seem like The Bold and the Beautiful is caught in a loop? It's like a record album that's stuck in the groove, repeating the same line over and over and over again. How else can you explain the encore storylines played out this past week - Rick vs. Ridge on the rooftop, Nick and Bridget and a wedding. I know I've seen these scenes before, and so have you. Forgive me for being judgmental, but it's just too much the same old same old. B&B needs a shake up and it needs it now!
Let's start with the rooftop. First of all, if I were Rick Forrester and I had tumbled off the roof of the building just a few months before, the last place I would go to think about my future would be said rooftop. It would just bring back memories of a near-death experience and that's not something I'd want to recollect. So, after his encounter with Steffy - we must be together, we can't be together, we have to be together, let's find a way to be together, we will overcome everything to be together, yada-yada-yada - Rick might have been wiser to go to the lobby and admire the water feature or the F & C of the Forrest Creations logo. Anywhere but up on the deserted roof (by the way, where has the rooftop lounge gone? Wasn't that on the roof in the last year?).
So Rick's on the roof, thinking deep thoughts when who should show up to threaten his life but Ridge. Wow, what a shock! Who would have seen that one coming? I mean, wasn't it just last week that Ridge tried to run Rick off the Pacific Coast Highway? And didn't Ridge try to murder Rick when they were in Sydney on business? Note to Rick Forrester: when you are in a potentially lethal situation with Ridge Forrester - any time you're alone - leave the room a.s.a.p. But no, we get the dangerous confrontation that escalates to a catastrophe when Ridge lunges at Rick and is flipped right over the rooftop and is hanging by his fingertips with only Rick to save him. Will Rick pull Ridge to safety? Will Ridge fall to the ground like Rick had months ago? Will Eric ever install safety bars on the roof to avoid this ever happening again? I think the company's insurer would insist, don't you?
At least with Ridge and Rick there hasn't been even the illusion that they like one another. The hatred has been pure and unchanging. On the other hand, it was only this week that we learned how Jackie really feels about Nick and Katie. I was stunned; where did that come from? When the absconded Forrester designs were being prepped for the Jackie M. runway, Jackie and Nick talked about how Katie could not have been the spy, and never once did Jackie suggest that she didn't like her daughter-in-law to be. Even when Jackie chose Bridget's designs and hired her as Madame X, there was no indication that Jackie was angling to get Nick and Bridget reunited because she resented Katie.
Therefore, the blow up at the wedding was really a shock. Nick looked shock, too. The minister was hilarious - "Should I stay?" Beth (back again but again with no discernible memory trouble thanks to the dropped storyline about her having dementia) and Katie disappeared upstairs while Nick had it out with Bridget and Jackie. Okay, Bridget is entitled to be upset about Nick. However, hasn't it been months and months since the end of Nick and Bridget's second marriage? Her righteous indignation has been brewing for so long I forgot that she felt that way. Maybe she should carry around a sign that indicates the level of her emotional upset so the viewers can be clued in - red means she's really, really mad, blue means she's cool. Let's get a similar indicator for Jackie.
Back to Rick for a minute, the idea of him going into the Army was inspired. But I was right there with Ridge; I didn't think for a minute that Rick would actually follow-through because he couldn't pass the physical. In fact, before they said it was the injury from the rooftop fall that disqualified him, Ridge had a line of dialogue that reminded viewers that Rick only has one kidney. That should have been why he was turned down, and that would have been something Rick knew in advance. Of course, when Rick keeps saying that he wants to serve his country, he could do that without wearing the uniform. Maybe he could volunteer to rebuild New Orleans or join Habitat for America or any one of a thousand community organizations. Let him prove himself to Steffy in that way. Ironically, if he were to do something like that, he could actually ask Steffy to join him in a noble, charitable cause that would be hard for the family to condemn. It could go like this, "Mom and Dad, Rick and I are going to the Gulf Coast to rebuild homes for Katrina victims. We're going to volunteer for our country. Okay?" Let's hear Taylor and Ridge and Eric and Stephanie complain about that!
I'm really hoping that next week we start to see and hear some new tunes out of B&B. The same old songs are familiar and comfortable, just not inspired. I've always loved that B&B thrives on throwing us curves. They don't do the expected. So, here's my suggestion to Bell & Company - give us something fresh and different and make it good.
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