One of my earliest memories is sitting next to my mom on the couch, sipping black iced tea, and watching a truly iconic show: The Bold and the Beautiful. One of CBS’s most successful and oldest daytime soap operas, The Bold and the Beautiful follows the glamorous Forrester family, who own a famous fashion house in Los Angeles. The show is on every weekday and never ceases to provide viewers with drama, plot twists and romance. I’ve watched The Bold and the Beautiful on and off for as long as I can remember. The past six months, the show has provided me with some much-needed escapism and mindlessness that has pulled me through some tough times during quarantine.
Now, in order to understand the appeal of The Bold and the Beautiful, you have to understand its main character, Brooke Logan. Brooke is a complicated but well-meaning woman who has caused so many problems for the Forrester family and herself – it’s pretty remarkable. She’s been married to the Forrester family heir, Ridge, at least ten times since the show’s inception. She has also married Ridge’s father, brother and many others. Brooke is not alone in her multiple marriages, but her relationships guide most of the show’s plotlines. And it’s so fun to watch them play out.
But besides the sheer entertainment of Brooke’s relationships, there’s something so wonderful about her resilience and hope through every garbage decision she makes. No matter how bad things get, no matter how many times the other characters in the show cancel her, Brooke somehow always manages to pull through. While her life is by no means realistic, it’s still great to watch a woman make so many mistakes and ruin so many things, but remain hopeful through it all. And even with her flaws, Brooke is still likable. After twenty-plus years playing Brooke, Katherine Kelly Lang has brought great strength and maturity to the character, keeping her intriguing and fresh. Brooke has achieved an iconic status in the world of soap operas and at this point, there isn’t anything she hasn’t seen or done herself.
Now I’m not going ramble about the substance and nuances of The Bold and the Beautiful. I’ll be honest, from sixteen years watching it, I can’t really pinpoint one episode as especially deep or thought-provoking. For the most part, it’s a lot of superficial drama and repetitive plot lines. The acting is decent and the characters’ actions are fairly predictable. But man, the show is consistent and delivers just when you need it. With a new episode every weekday, I can jump in whenever I want and get the general gist of what’s going on after a couple minutes. As a veteran viewer, I can recognize quickly each character’s patterns or the particular trope the show creators are going for. And yes, that would drive some people insane, but for me there’s something so great about the familiarity of The Bold and the Beautiful. But since the show grinds out five new episodes a week, it’s fresh enough to keep me intrigued.
The Bold and the Beautiful is so reliable, they’ve managed to continue production when so many other shows stopped due to the Coronavirus. Adhering to local guidelines and safety measures, the producers of The Bold and the Beautiful found innovative ways to continue production safely. The show pioneered new safety standards for soap-opera production and I couldn’t be more proud. If one show could withstand the trials of the pandemic, I’m not surprised it’s The Bold and the Beautiful.
At the beginning of quarantine I was struggling to find a comfort show that would satisfy me and keep me mindlessly entertained. It only took me a day at home to realize I just needed to return to my roots and a world I’ve always felt connected to: the world of daytime soap operas. The last thing I want to watch right now is a slow-burn drama that’s going to bore me and then emotionally consume me. During these times, I just don’t have the patience and I’ve accepted that. But there’s something so refreshing about sitting down at the end of the day and turning on a new episode of The Bold and the Beautiful, seeing characters I’ve known for so many years make the same mistakes over and over again in a wonderfully predictable and toxic cycle. It gives me a sense of stability when nothing in the world seems stable right now. And for me, that’s enough to keep watching.
