Too Close for Comfort
Now, I want to warn readers right off the bat of something. This is not my usual column and by usual I mean all griping. Yes, there is a new crop of pretty disgusting musical beds, mainly on The Bold and the Beautiful, but this column will mainly be tongue in cheek. Believe me, I find the subject of incest very seriously, so don't for a second think that I don't. And if any of the soaps were actually trying to really pass off incest as a romantic story, believe me, the tone would be different. Nevertheless, this is not the stern kind of finger wagging tone my column on rape had for example. This is an odd time for me to get humorous and light-hearted, I know, but sometimes, soaps practically beg for you to laugh at the ludicrousness of the story. When Port Charles had Alison believe she and Rafe were siblings, it was good for one episode worth of conflict, strife, and drama. But the endless wailing about it was ridiculous not just for its' repetitiveness but because simple blood tests could answer this (unless you want to argue Rafe is a member of the living dead and has no blood). After awhile, when Alison whined about them possibly being related, it simply called for a good chuckle. Come on, I can't take that seriously, I can't argue improper tackling of incest on soaps when that is one of my examples.
I know why soaps like mixing and matching family members, it adds to the "conflict" and "drama". Isn't it much more traumatic to see your husband and sister in bed than your husband and his secretary? I can't speak from personal experience, but I'm guessing it just ups the level of betrayal. B&B is a handy example because Brooke sleeping with her daughter's husband is well, the definition of tragic. Some girl from a coffee shop wouldn't have leveled Bridget and changed her life completely would it now?
Of course, when one does that, one only confuses a family tree even more and it is already hard enough explaining family trees. On a soap like B&B, where most of the cast is related, you are going to get yourself into a lot of trouble if you keep on twisting up the bloodlines. Imagine if Bridget had stayed with Deacon, her half sibling would also be her stepchild. When the next generation of Forresters grew up, that would be a big mess wouldn't? You notice a lot of family fights for love interests avoid a lot of full term babies for this exact reason. ATWT's Kim didn't learn her daughter was alive until long after her sister was dead, Days' Carrie never had a baby with Austin and then it was revealed Will wasn't even Austin's, GL's Cassie never had any biological children with Richard, and on and on. That's no accident. You don't want to get yourself into trouble when you flaunt those barely related teenagers now do you? But that brings us to the problem we have today. Isn't already getting way, way too weird with these family romances? I'm not talking about that uncomfortable story where siblings go after one person which has been done on every single soap. I'm not even talking about the sleeping with your in law method. I'm talking about sleeping with people that are relatives or are about as close as they can possibly be. And that doesn't even include OLTL drowning themselves in stories where being aware it was sick was part of the appeal.
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