Sheila reports for duty – but not at Y&R – she’s in LA again.
I’m not a fan of stories that repeat themselves, especially when it comes to super villains.
Mostly because it makes for lazy storytelling. You can do just about anything and blame it on Helena Cassadine or Stefano DiMera. And they never die (well, almost never), which just makes the stories they touch less and less believable.
But B&B has my attention with the return of Sheila Carter.
Frankly, I never imagined that Kimberlin Brown would ever return to either of the Bell shows. It had been over a decade since her last appearance, and her story had gone relatively off the rails before she left.
There was also that whole business with Phyllis being Sheila or Sheila being Phyllis or Why Does My Head Hurt This Makes No Sense, whatever that was.
And oh yes, the Republican National Convention appearance.
It didn’t enter my mind that she’d be back on either show. But I’m interested in seeing where this goes.
I’ve never quite “gotten” B&B as a show, but there are periods where I’ve tuned it, and it looks like I’ll have to check in on the new Spectras, too.
And of course, my blog post title is an obvious call back to another surprise return. Still and always my favorite.
A | THOUSAND | OTHER | WORLDS 
I’ve watched The Bold and the Beautiful since its premiere with a few breaks here and there, the most recent one being the past three years up until the 30th anniversary week. The initial 1992 crossover of Nurse Sheila to B&B from Y&R was an enthralling one, and a huge part of what drove The Bold and the Beautiful’s ratings. But each time Nurse Sheila has returned since, it has grown less believable and had very little impact on the long-term story of the other characters.
I couldn’t follow the Phyllis/Sheila story either. I never watched, but I did read numerous recaps and still don’t understand it. And Kimberlin Brown’s mindless endorsement of our current president has me seething, to be honest.
But the biggest part for me is that this isn’t what B&B needs. The return of the Spectras, and Thomas Forrester’s decision to invest in keeping Spectra Fashions afloat is a wonderful generator for conflict and story. Yet something feels off about the show this time watching, especially in comparison to Y&R, which feels as close to the quality of a soap from 25 years ago than anything else on TV. For me, a big part of B&B’s issues lie in the brevity of the scenes and lack of depth in the dialogue and conflict. It’s making the new characters come across as one-dimensional and uninteresting. I would love to see B&B revisit its roots in a way similar to what Y&R is doing, but I worry that the return of Nurse Sheila isn’t it.
Thanks, Paul.
I’ve always struggled to get into B&B. There have been individual stories and characters I enjoyed, but the repetitive nature of the Brooke/Taylor/Ridge story, now the Liam/Wyatt/Steffy et al story, always kept me from really being engaged.
It’s funny because I have a post on my “to do” list with the best scene of last year, and it was a B&B scene. But yes, the show often seems to go for a quick burn with no lasting impact. Then again, that could be said of almost all of the remaining shows.