By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman
There she was in an evening dress with her beautiful blonde hair put up in a sophisticated bun, running through the streets of Monte Carlo. All of a sudden she was caught up into the arms of a strong, dark handsome man, and the two embraced in hard kiss.
Brooke and Bill are at it again.
Was it Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in the 1955 Alfred Hitchcock classic To Catch a Thief? No, it was Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang) running from and then being captured in the arms of Bill Spencer (Don Diamont) this week on The Bold and the Beautiful.
There was only one thing wrong with this beautiful footage on the classic soap. Instead of rooting for Brooke and Bill, we were generally rooting against them.Which is very strange for a soap. As we know, Bill is married to Katie (multi Emmy winner Heather Tom), Brooke’s sister, and has been caught cheating on her with Brooke in the past. Now, after Brooke miscarried Bill’s child, we were asked to root for the cheating couple again, as the betrayed Katie dissolved into tears once more in the living room of the Spencers’ Los Angeles mansion.
Is weepy Katie the architect of her own misery?
Was this new betrayal Katie’s fault? After all, Katie had set up a spying system of cameras and microphones in the same living room to catch her husband and sister together. Although they had acted innocently, Bill eventually found out about being spied upon and used his outrage as an excuse to pursue Brooke to Monte Carlo. Had Katie set herself up for misery yet again, by pushing Bill into Brooke’s arms? She’s done it before!
So, whose side are we supposed to be on? B&B is asking viewers to choose, and it’s a difficult choice. Yes, yes, the heart has its reasons and all that. But seriously, is adultery still wrong? We know it is, and so we root against Bill and Brooke. Yet, on the other hand, they are a handsome, sexy and strangely alluring couple. And yet, on the other other hand, we feel for poor Katie — always the victim, always awash in tears, betrayed by the two people she says she loves most in the world.
Is it right for a soap have a right to encourage fans root for what’s wrong? Some might say old fashioned moral judgments are just too, well, old fashioned for today’s for soap viewers. Or are they? Do you share Marlena’s queasiness about the glamorous Brooke and Bill romance? Do you feel sorry for Katie, or do you think she brings about her own misery? Do you think this is a good soap story, or one that is at heart a love triangle that is too morally confusing for comfort?
Hi Connie/Marlena! I have been loving B&B! It’s quick, it’s fun, it’s old fashioned soap. I am not so sure that I am rooting AGAINST Bill and Brooke! Gulp! Of course what they are doing is wrong and Bill is looking for any excuse to betray Katie again (I adored her hidden camera stunt! I just wish it went on a little longer!); yes, Katie has given Bill ‘reason’ to re-cheat (but let’s face it, no reason will be good enough), and poor Katie is seemingly destroyed once again, but there is no denying the forbidden chemistry of the Bill and Brooke coupling! Their ‘getting together’ is wrong but it’s also sexy and erotic and you can not turn away from the screen! So if this is Brad Bell encouraging me to root for what is wrong, I’m all for it! I vote for this being a good soap story, rooted in simplistic, good ‘ole days of story on soaps (think early 80’s AMC, Bill Bell’s Y&R or even the early days of B&B); it’s sooooo good! It’s sooooo wrong!
Listen folks, watched for a long time – B&B so missed the boat on this story line – Bill ruined Hopes life for so long – what mother would see past that. Brooke basically destroyed Taylor & Eric but yet again you have all 8 men on the show under the spell of a woman that has basically slept with everyone at every age – everyone should be appalled at her betrayal of her sister, whether she fell for him or not – that fact that you are allowing this story line to go on as if they have done nothing wrong and Victoria is completely at fault is so detrimental to woman across the world that truly suffer with post partum along with the fact that woman and men that have heart transplants suffer a like same post partum – thanks B&B for advocating so well for mental illnesses – very sad. Oh, but that’s right Brooke can sleep with anyone anytime and everyone is suppose to not say, wow, what a slut. You went too far this time. I want to see Victoria come out on top and Brooke pay a price this time. As for Bill, his character is so boring and so predictable.
Alas, I see the concept of “rooting” very differently than you do. I don’t need to “believe” in a couple to find them hot. In fact, I don’t need to have them be “a couple” to find them hot. Frankly, that whole idea is OLD SCHOOL, belonging to a time when women were taught that sex could only belong in a marriage. And that marriage led to babies. And that babies led to diapers. And well, you get the picture.
I guess I’ve always watched soaps the way men watch, pardon me, porn. If the couple is hot — if they have chemistry — then I want to watch them. If there’s no chemistry, then, who cares? The story has very little to do with it. (Recasts have shown that again and again.)
Here is a case of THREE very sexy people. Separately and/or coupled. It’s really that simple.
It’s time we stopped thinking of soaps as a morality play. They’re just g-rated porn.
And that’s a good thing.
You know, we’ve put up with a lot from Brooke over the years but, for me, this was where I really started to dislike Brooke.
What happened to the strong Brooke I knew, the one who didn’t take crap from the Forresters and took over the company? When he had the affair with Steffy (okay so they never actually did it), obsessively married his mistress off to his son and put her on the Board, committed fraud and locked his wife, her sister, in a tower, the Brooke I knew would have taken her sister out of that situation to protect her. The Brooke I knew wouldn’t have told her to go back to him for the sake of the baby. She would have gotten her out for the sake of the baby. The Brooke I knew wouldn’t have gone off with a man who repeatedly did cruel acts to her daughter and committed fraud.
I know a lot of people haven’t liked Brooke for a number of very valid reasons. I don’t doubt that she would go off with a someone else’s man. I doubt that she would go off with one who had done such terrible things to her sister and her daughter.
Bill, I’ve never found anything whatsoever redeeming about the character and don’t see the appeal. And Katie? Well Bill once took over Forrester. I’d love to see Katie take advantage of Rick’s weaknesses and do the same.
I haven’t been watching this show for very long…I started when Liam & Hope were to get married in Italy (mainly to see the scenery). Therefore, I don’t know much about the history of the show, but I am pretty disgusted with the way things are going now. I find it very difficult to watch Katie make a 180° turn from the strong woman she was a week or two ago to the blubbering, slobbering weak woman she’s been the last few days.
The women on this show all seem to be that way however, so that is why B&B has been removed from my DVR. I just don’t have enough time to waste on this drivel.
I cannot stand Brooke and I swear on everything that is holy, I don’t view B&B regularly. I can honestly say that I haven’t watched an entire episode in several weeks. Brooke and Bill are foul, disgusting and just sickening. Brooke comes across like an oversexed whore that will do anything to get some X-rated action. She doesn’t care if the man is her son-in-law, brother in-law as long as he has a penis. Bill didn’t want Brooke’s daughter, Hope with his son, Liam, so he repeatedly did hurtful things to Hope. And Brooke has sex with a man who hurts and disapproves of her daughter. She’s quite a mama, isn’t she? Additionally, he is married to her sister. This Brooke/Bill pairing is wrong on so many levels.
I’d love to see Katie cut Brooke off, remove her from her life, flatly refuse to have anything to do with her. I’d like to see Brooke stop by Katie’s house to visit the baby, bringing Xmas and birthday presents and Katie tells her that she doesn’t want her near her child, that she is corrupt and disrespectful, that she had no trouble hurting the child’s mother, so the day may come when she’d hurt the baby. Katie tells her that if she steps foot on her property again, that she will get a restraining order. And when she is cut off, let Brooke find out if being with her sister’s husband is worth losing her sister.
Tess, I like the way you think!!
Thank you Tess!!! I’d watched B&B from the beginning and Brooke’s having sex with 90% of the males on the show turned me off years ago after she slept with Deacon Sharpe, her DAUGHTER’S husband. I did peek in again to watch Stephanie die but haven’t and cannot go back .Brooke and Bill’s “romance” is just plain nasty. Root for them? NO WAY!!! Why doesn’t CBS just show us some soft core porn in B&B’s timeslot because that’s all this soap has become. YECCCHHHH!!!
I think Brook is the most disgusting individual on the planet, oh let’s not forget Bill.How in the name of common sense would you have an affair with your brother in law! Katie continue being strong. Teach Dollar bill a lesson that there are strong WOMEN in this world WHO will rise to the top on sheer astute business savvy and a whole lot of brains for very completed businesses. Who needs a weak man by your side,only causes problems. Bill and Brook are like an albatross around your neck drop the load.