I’ve been watching Y&R and B&B lately – Y&R because it’s on a nice creative upswing and to check out the work of Tom Casiello, and B&B….well, mainly because it’s between Y&R and ATWT.
There are some things I cannot stand about the show (namely, Rick and Steffy). But I always love watching Susan Flannery as Stephanie. A Stephanie day is a day worth watching, since every scene Flannery is in is a master class in acting.
Last week, I watched scenes with Stephanie and Taylor and thought I sensed some subtext……
That subtext? Is that Stephanie and Taylor are about to…..dream big purple dreams, so to speak.
Apparently I’m not the only one; the Sound and Fury blog has also talked about it.
These are excellent blog posts and lay out some really compelling reasons why it would be an interesting story. We’ve heard rumors that Y&R is bringing on a gay character. B&B could do so, too, or have a romance similar to the Otalia story on Guiding Light.
It’s always been my understanding, though, that B&B’s vast international audience made that subject matter taboo. (Because please, we all know the fashion world would be filled with larger-than-life gay characters in real life!)
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Stephanie and Taylor??? Really? How interesting, how bold. I would never have expected those two to get together, but I think it could make for some great drama.
I’ve watched B&B from day one. I would give a standing ovation to a realistic gay story on that soap.
I’d be fine with Stephanie realizing that her lack of passion for Eric all these years stems from issues beyond his infidelity. Flannery has intentionally portrayed Steph as fairly asexual, and she’s done many near-leering scenes with Katherine Kelly Lang. So, it would work.
But for very specific reasons, I do not want her partner to be Taylor.
First, in a show afflicted with incestuousness, Stephanie is the one pure voice that has risen above all that (because of her asexual nature, and if we skip her early flirtations with her daughter’s husband Clark Garrison).
Second, while Stephanie’s motives for loving Taylor have always been unclear (did she love Taylor for her moral nature, or did she love Taylor instrumentally–as an obstacle for Brooke?).
Third, Taylor has been torture to watch since coming back from the dead a second time. The stable moral voice of the show (not everyone would agree with that, by the way) suddenly had sex with half the men on the show, killed a veteran and beloved character, became an alcoholic. Dismal. Many of us hope for the return of Taylor as the sensibe voice. I do not feel that plunging Taylor in another “incestuous, keep it in the family” love story would achieve anything. Fourth, if they ever did take Steph down this incestuous route, it HAS to be Brooke she nurtures an attraction for. Given the past 22 years, nothing else would make sense.
Really, though, users at Soap Opera Network have lobbied for a gay male diva fashion designer instead. That would make MUCH more sense (think Marc Jacobs). It would create a fierce, unapologetic, out, realistic depiction. I think GL has cornered the market on “best midlife lesbian coming out”. Let’s let them have that crown and let B&B push the envelope in another way.
That said, Nelson Branco claims that Y&R may soon also “sexually diversify” its canvas, and I cannot wait.