This Foundational Issue Needs to Be Addressed if ‘The Bold Type’ is Renewed

Don’t cry over spilled foundation. If The Bold Type Season 2 launches, the stories just need some Shimmer Match Stix and a bit of contouring.

Notice that I said if. There actually hasn’t been word yet if Freeform will be renew the show or not.

However, as a huge fan of The Bold Type, I just want my favorite Freeform show to prosper in the event a season 2 does get the green light.

The Bold Type got off to a great start this summer. However, if The Bold Type gets a Season 2, then it must come harder in order to gain higher ratings and a bigger overall audience.

This summer, the series had talented actor with a wide emotional and comedic range. This season featured stories that touched on crucial topics that should be addressed in all TV shows, such as women empowerment, sexual assault, cancer pre-screenings, and to-dos and to-don’ts in the work place.

Additionally, it emphasized intersectionality, living with systemically or socially oppressed identities, and featured a pretty diverse set of story-arcs.

However, The Bold Type Season 1 had poor story execution. This could be for many reasons.

They had three young women who all had interesting and important stories to tell. Moreover, they only had 10 episodes to tell their stories. How were they supposed to fit more than 30 unique situations in under 45 minutes for only 10 episodes?

Easy: cut down the situations to 10-12 stories that must be explored thoroughly. This solution would have fixed so many of the problems in Season 1, and if The Bold Type can manage this, Season 2 could have incredible potential.

One issue that I outlined in my reviews of The Bold Type came from the gem moments hidden in seemingly filler episodes. It’s not that these “fillers” didn’t cover important general topics; it’s that these stories didn’t lastingly affect any character.

Kat got arrested for hitting that supremacist on the street. This will forever be on her record unless she goes through long and expensive processes to get it off.

Did the man press charges? Did Kat have to go to court? Her arrest will surely have an affect on her position at Scarlet.

This would especially be the case if the board later looked at her performance when they decided to promote her to the head of the Social Media Department.

What about Jane’s test results? It was life changing news, and all we got was a passing reference in the finale.

It’s now imperative Jane acts on this news, but what have we seen her do? We didn’t get to see her set up any follow-up appointments, nor did she have an episode that showed her re-evaluate her life plans. Even more important, we never got the chance to see Jane tell her family.

That had to be a huge milestone she had to gain the courage to cross.

Speaking of milestones, while Sutton was still applying for the fashion job, how was she paying her bills? Usually, application processes for a big company like Scarlet take weeks, and before she was even hired, she had already been replaced by the “new Sutton” at her desk.

Although our job lives might be temporarily suspended, life rarely accommodates us. She would still need to pay for the girls’ endless cab rides, her rent, utilities, etc.

Season 1 did a great job by introducing and re-introducing Sutton’s monetary restrictions, Kat’s impulsive repercussions, and Jane’s compulsion to overthink, so she’s not broadsided by another devastating event like her mother’s death.

However, it missed so many opportunities to make these dynamic stories shine. And I hope The Bold Type Season 2 doesn’t make the same mistakes.

Exploring these topics a bit more would have also developed the side characters, and thereby, given the story more depth.

For example, we mostly only saw things through Kat, Sutton, and Jane’s perspectives. However, their perspectives aren’t the only ones that form their world.

Was Alex actually always simply “okay” with the things Jane and Sutton did to someone who was supposed to be their friend? If Alex was allowed to show more understandable range in emotion, such as anger or pain, this would add an extra layer to every interaction he had with Jane and Sutton afterward.

Exploring other characters’ points of views would give them some depth and better define their stories to make them pop.

This would have also helped Adena’s exploration. What about Adena’s past makes her feel like she needs to be in a relationship? She only broke up with Coco, so she could be with Kat, not because she realized that her and Coco’s relationship wasn’t going anywhere.

And hours after Kat told her she didn’t want a relationship, Adena jumped right back into Coco’s arms. I’d like to know why.

It would have been nice to explore Adena’s vulnerabilities beyond her religion and citizenship, specifically how those oppressed identities in America inform her vulnerabilities as a woman.

The Bold Type did a great job touching on intersectionality, but they had so many opportunities to explore it in depth, and they didn’t take them. We could’ve seen how Kat’s experiences as a woman of color also affected her actions and personality.

Kat was known to be reckless and bold, yet she only showed her conservatism when it came to traveling. Why is that?

These are stories that could thread through an entire season and give the audience more of a reason to come back every episode. Retention comes with angst. It comes with feeling that if you miss an episode, you’ll be confused for all the episodes afterward if you don’t catch up.

This happens when situations are given lasting effects. Additionally, these stories and their creation of dramatic arcs would also better blend on the Freeform network.

Shows like Pretty Little Liars, The Fosters, Shadowhunters, Switched At Birth, etc. all have one thing in common: DRAMA. The level of drama gets so high on these shows at times that the stories could easily fit into a soap opera.

However, The Bold Type missed this. I understand that they wanted this show to be a bit more light-hearted. However, that’s nearly impossible to do when the show also wants to touch on grave stories like deportation, sexual assault, and breast cancer.

These narratives deserve more than episodic, “lesson of the day” treatments.

If a show is going to thrive on network television, it has to fit the tone of the network’s current watchers. And from there, word to mouth might bring other viewers.

TV show viewers are creatures of habit. We have our certain networks where we can simply turn it to the channel and run through the shows. We know what we like, and, generally, the networks we love fill that niche.

So, The Bold Type Season 2 will have to work harder to fill the dramatic niche in which Freeform thrives, but this doesn’t have to take away from the light-hearted narrative.

Just look at Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The entire series perfectly balanced drama and comedy. Seasons 1, 4, and 5 nail the target dramedy tone that The Bold Type Season 2 can adopt.

These seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer still gave us moments where we split our sides open in laughter, but there were also moments that had our faces drowned in tears. It’s about balance and taking time to tell the stories.

I guess what I’m saying is I want more — more drama, more thorough story-telling, more development, just more.

This can only come with a little contouring of the current characters and stories to add depth and a layer of shimmer to their narratives by creating a bit more drama.

The Bold Type Season 1 did a great job framing all that this show can do. So now, The Bold Type Season 2 needs to flex their storytelling muscles and truly explore the world they’ve created — the world that gives us our equal doses of angst, sex, love, and loss.

What do you guys think? Am I way off? Do you have your own suggestions for The Bold Type Season 2? Share your ideas in the comments section below and be the first one to start the conversation!

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