A Critic’s Review Of The Bold and the Beautiful: A Roundup of the Best and Worst of 2022

Unlike some, more cowardly competitors, we here at Soap Hub are never shy when it comes to giving The Bold and the Beautiful its lumps when it proves grating or downright frustrating, nor are we backward at coming forwards with praise when it’s due – moi especially.

In that vein, below you’ll find a roundup of the staff’s Best and Worst of B&B followed by my ever-cheeky, always heartfelt endorsement or rebuttal…how surprised you must be to hear that I don’t always agree with my colleagues.

The Bold and the Beautiful — Soap Hub’s Best and Worst of 2022

I can but applaud wild speculation Queen Amber Sinclair’s giving Best Reunion to John “Finn” Finnegan (Tanner Novlan) and Steffy Forrester Finnegan (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) — #TeamSinnAllTheWay indeed! — and Worst Reunion to Stephen Logan (Special Guest Star Patrick Duffy) and the Logan girls — yes, it was too short, and Brooke’s romantic woes pulled way too much focus.

Ditto, her submitting Carter Walton’s (Lawrence Saint-Victor) and Paris Buckingham’s (Diamond White) parting of the ways for Best Breakup and Quinn Fuller’s (Rena Sofer) random dumping of Carter — offscreen I might add — for Worst Breakup.

Best Prop: Here’s where Amber and I digress. She’s all about the Hope mannequin; I loved Sheila’s severed toe.

Best Villain: Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown). Enough said.

Biggest Shock: Finn’s alive!

Biggest Waste of Talent: Don Diamont [Bill Spencer] — across the board.

Best Character Turnaround: Steffy Forrester Finnegan, without a shadow of a doubt.

Least Personal Growth: Dollar Bill Spencer, and how!

Further B&B 2022 Musings:

Character Who Induced The Most Whiplash: Paris. One minute she’s gung-ho to have the life that Steffy and Finn are leading, the next she’s a carefree spirit who couldn’t imagine being tied down by Zende Forrester (Delon de Metz), and then the next she’s acting as if she’ll die if she doesn’t become Mrs. Carter Walton.

File The Bold and the Beautiful finally — FINALLY — staging a fashion show some eight years after the previous one under It’s About Damn Time.

I wish that I could nominate Taylor Hayes (Krista Allen) and Brooke Logan’s (Katherine Kelly Lang) decision to choose themselves rather than return to Ridge Forrester (Thorsten Kaye) for something like Best Story Swerve or Biggest Shocker or, as contributing writer Hope Campbell suggested Best Resolution To Soaps’ Longest Love Triangle, but since the moment didn’t feel earned or, to be honest, keeping in character I’ll just avoid labeling it all together.

Much Ado About Nothing: Of all the sins that Thomas committed, apparently the most egregious was *gasp* using a pocketknife to peel an apple in the vicinity of his young son. Huh?!

The Bold and the Beautiful 2022 Report Card: C- All the ingredients are there to make B&B an A+ contender, but Bradley Bell’s insistence on putting all his metaphorical eggs into one basket at a given time and repeating dialogue and providing endless reams of recapitulation continually drag this show down to middling level soap at best.

The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

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