The Bold Type Review: If You Can’t Do It With Feeling (Season 1 Episode 4)

On The Bold Type Season 1 Episode 4, “If You Can’t Do It With Feeling,” Sutton finally gets her dream job, Jane finally gets the big O, and Kat finally gets the girl, Adena. Life looks like it’s on the up and up for the young women with no strings attached… yet.

The successes of each Sutton, Jane, and Kat are sweet, to say the least.

Sutton has been feeling left behind since Kat and Jane found their callings in their separate fields of Scarlet. Kat’s all about the passionate and trending so she completely fits the role of Social Media Director, and Jane thrives in her journalist work because she likes to think analytically about, well, everything.

Now Sutton has found her unexpected calling in fashion and she’s a natural. I’m glad The Bold Type shows us three young women in three different positions of the magazine. It opens up so many doors for so many different story-lines.

Jane’s budding relationship with Ryan is so cute. Or, rather their situationship is so cute.

I say situationship because Jane refuses to call it a relationship, due to her commitment issues right now. But it’s definitely more than friends with benefits because those kinds of friends don’t take the time out of their day to make sure you’re satisfied in bed or go to a panel about politics to support you.

So a situationship reflects a type of relationship that doesn’t have the commitment but isn’t just physical either i.e. it varies by the situation. It’s clear that Ryan and Jane’s ideas of their situation are different from one another.

Ryan definitely wants a relationship. I mean, one look at those big green eyes as he’s staring at Jane, and you’ll melt from their warmth. Jane’s eyes say the same thing, but you can also tell her mind screams at her to keep the relationship colder.

Speaking of confusing relationships, Kat and Adena’s relationship sails past cold “hellos” to hot kisses on one episode.

Although this is exactly what I want, the current progression of their relationship feels rushed in the mix of everyone else’s stories and the political messages The Bold Type also examines. “If You Can’t Do It With Feeling” doesn’t explore Kat and Adena’s relationship beyond the superficial for long due to Kat’s emotional encounter with the troll from the street.

They talk for a bit, the sparks fly, then fists fly, and all of a sudden Adena’s fingers tangle in Kat’s hair during a passionate kiss. Is Adena still with Coco?

I want them to be together but not at the sake of someone else’s happiness. I’m over over-looking basic morals of people in the name of love. That trope is why our generation doesn’t like to commit now. And Adena seems too compassionate, mature, and considerate to cheat on someone just because they’re no longer on the same continent.

Am I the only one who’s thinking this hard about this? I wonder if they even plan on touching on Coco’s existence again at all.

I’m going to stick to the unproblematic version of Adena and Kat’s relationship origin story until a future episode tells me otherwise. I mean look at them.

How can someone not celebrate and enjoy every second of this epic love story in the making?

Jumping back to the fists flying situation, Kat really has some growing to do. I know a point of contention for her character has always been her reactional nature, but randomly punching someone on the street is crazy.

Don’t get me wrong. The level of anger and outrage she shows in the face of Islamophobia is perfect. That man deserves to know he’s a pig, but that situation could have easily escalated out of control.

She’s incredibly lucky the police showed up. What would’ve happened if the guy got angry and decided to hit her back? He was bigger than Adena and Kat put together. Her reckless way of jumping into things was initially sweet and admirable because she was so passionate and passion is great.

However, the level of recklessness she shows goes too far sometimes, especially on episode 4.

It’s great to see that this show still pushes heavy on the important issues. Women gaining a foothold in politics is a key topic to confront in the face of all the misogyny Hillary experienced in her presidential run. And the exploring of Islamophobia in America is also perfect in America’s current intolerant climate.

The Bold Type Season 1 Episode 4, explores what it’s like to be judged based on your identity. Jane struggles to gain respect from the people in the Young Reporters of Influential Voices panel because she doesn’t have as much clout behind her name as they do. Sutton wrestles with lying about who she truly is to get her dream job, and Adena clashes with the racial tensions between Muslims and Americans.

Nevertheless, Adena’s situation deserves so much more attention, beyond being smushed in between a love storyline. As I explain in my last The Bold Type Season 1 Episode 3, “The Woman Behind the Clothes,” if The Bold Type is going to touch on these situations, it would be great to actually delve into them. Many don’t realize the privilege involved in making choices or to acting out.

Many don’t realize the privilege involved in making choices or to acting out. They take the simple pleasures of having a voice and can’t fathom an existence without one. Kat’s the woman I least expect to need this reminder because she’s also a part of a marginalized community as a black woman.

Her needing a lesson on temperance in the face of police officers or thinking twice before getting into a scuffle with a white male is very telling. Not that I want the show to pull the black card. Many other great shows, like Suits and Harlots, have black women who aren’t reminded of their color every day.

I’m just really curious about Kat’s history. What’s her intersectional perspective that informs the woman she is today?

Regardless, I want more of this “wokeness,” The Bold Type shows. I want more issues on what’s it’s like to be an intersectional feminist in a patriarchal world that prefers distinct categories in which to sort people. And instead of episodic arcs, I want them to be explored over multiple episodes as they progress.

This doesn’t change my viewpoint about this show in its entirety. I still feel amazing about this series and I know it’s been the show we’ve all been waiting. The drama, angst, humor, wokeness, and passion all rolled up into a hit series about 3 young women.

Just when I think I have this show figured out, they surprise me. This show remains just as exciting and fresh as it is bold. I have a lot of expectations for this series, now that they keep raising the bar higher and higher.

Stray Observations:

• Jacquline walking on the treadmill in her heels gives me life
• Why doesn’t Alex have a cohesive story line? I want more from him. Moooreee.
• It’s fun to see Richard’s character beyond his relationship with Sutton. I’d love to see more of him as a person.
• Jane’s “I’d like more serious photos please” in response to the photographer asking her to smile is so her and so perfect. Never change, Jane. Never change.

What did you think of this episode of The Bold Type? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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The Bold Type airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Freeform.

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