CBS' "The Bold and the Beautiful" Has the Quirkiest Quintet of All

I usually call attention to one of the four daytime dramas on the broadcast networks when something significant is happening … like the recent long-term storyline on ABC's General Hospital that chronicled one character's battle with Alzheimer's Disease, or the ongoing relationship travails of two gay men on NBC's Days of Our Lives, or the life-affirming romance between a transgender woman of color and a wealthy, white, arrogant businessman on The Bold and the Beautiful. Or, I might call attention to the integration of sponsors into a daytime drama storyline, like the time when four of the young people on General Hospital had a detailed conversation about their favorite Ruffles potato chips, or Colonel Sanders visited Port Charles to talk with two primary characters about the joys of fried chicken. (I am not kidding about that!)

But this is different. B&B's mannequin story is crazy in the manner of many of the most memorable soap storylines from the genre's Eighties heyday, when soaps were arguably bolder and more beautiful than they are today. In other words, it's unapologetic fun. It centers on Thomas Forrester, a young man who after years of scheming and committing many nefarious deeds in his pursuit of sweet and wholesome Hope Logan (Annika Noelle) has lost his grip on reality and is now communicating with a live-in mannequin that looks (and sounds!) exactly like her. Indeed, Thomas is so far gone that he made out with the mannequin, unable to resist its allure. Not surprisingly, Hope's good-guy husband Liam (Scott Clifton) walked in on this bizarre display of affection and, from his angle in the doorway, assumed he was watching his loving wife getting busy with Thomas. Then the distraught Liam dashed away and is now seeking comfort from his ex-wife Steffy (Jacqueline McInnes Wood), who still carries a torch for him, even though they have been married and divorced three times. I don't think I have to point out where the Liam-Steffy thing is headed. Again.

Thomas has been trying everything he can to win Hope's love for a while now, stopping at nothing in his quest for romantic fulfillment. He has even inflicted psychological torment on his little boy, and another woman he planned to marry, as part of his twisted plan. But all of that played out in the realm of what I would call soap opera "realism." The addition of the mannequin, with its glowing eyes (alternately devil red and ghostly white), its haunting voice and its disturbing movements (Thomas sees it walk), moves B&B into an arena it doesn't normally occupy. It's not another essential tale of star-crossed love, or a powerful issue-driven story (the likes of which B&B does with consistent brilliance). It's something else entirely. (Also, I think it's an inside nod to the "intimacy mannequins" soap operas have been using in sex and kissing scenes during the pandemic.)

None of this would work without the powerful, multi-layered performance by Matthew Atkinson (pictured at top and throughout with Annika Noelle) as the increasingly odd Thomas. (See what I did there?) Like Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore, Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, Judith Light, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman (among others), all of whom started on soaps, this guy has got the chops to make it big. Even at Thomas' worst, Atkinson's emotionally super-charged performance -- part fearsome, part fearful and always fearless -- makes the character as sympathetic as he is sinister. I need to note that Noelle more than holds her own in some very challenging scenes with him as a mannequin and a real girl.

NBC's Days of Our Lives practically spins around crazy -- characters are routinely killed off, only to be reanimated by the maniacal Dr. Rolf, a pivotal character in the lives of almost everyone on the show's canvas. (That's even nuttier than the legendary story of the weather machine on General Hospital that steered all soaps into the fantastic.) But B&B doesn't usually go there.

This much is true: Wherever it does go -- a deep dive into a woman's long-term struggle with terminal brain cancer; an unflinching exploration of the homeless crisis on Los Angeles' skid row; an instructive presentation of the challenges faced by transgendered individuals, and now a disturbed man's break from reality that has him imagining the unimaginable -- B&B does so with complete conviction. #ThomasandtheMannequin is the proof.

Photos by Howard Wise/Courtesy JPIStudios Inc.®

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