The Bold and the Beautiful: The Critic’s POV

Eric Forrester’s (John McCook) slow sashay down the runway of life continues to be a vague, frustrating, eye-roll-inducing disgrace. And I, for one, would love to know exactly how many people can be clued in on the inconvenient truth(s) — that Eric is dying and that he didn’t actually win the fashion showdown — before the storyline devolves from out and out ridiculousness to a full-on farce. I would have said three, maybe four. But at last count, there are now ten people well aware of where things stand.

And while I understand that suspicion of disbelief is a necessary evil to further the plot along, how is it that Eric, who’s never before struggled to read a room or failed to deduce a surface emotion, can’t at least intuit that something is amiss? As if Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Thomas (Matthew Atkinson) weren’t huddled together before him, looking like they’d just been told their favorite relative was going to die.

Further B&B Musings

* Now, while we all heard Hope (Annika Noelle) say that she loves Thomas (Matthew Atkinson) for loving her, there’s no doubt that what Thomas heard was that she loves him, yes?

* On the one hand, Liam (Scott Clifton) is a total sleazeball. On the other, at least he’s a consistent sleazeball. Once a waffler, always a waffler. And an obsessive waffler at that.

* So much for Carter (Lawrence Saint-Victor) being Ridge’s (Thorsten Kaye) best friend and an honorary Forrester, huh?

* What does it say about the security at Forrester Creations that Li (Naomi Matsuda) and Poppy (Romy Park) can just conduct a Jerry Springer-esque blowout in one of the executive offices? And while it’s nice that we’ve finally elucidated the root cause of Li’s actual hatred of Poppy, continuing to paint her as an out-and-out bully of a relative child (who’s a relative no less) is not a good look.