DramatistDreamer

I was going to mention Downton Abbey in an earlier post too!!! Yes, they as well as a lot of BBC/PBS series are adept at sustaining long story arcs and they remain highly popular with a whole range of viewers, including young ones. To me, it's all about intention on the part of the showrunners and writing staff. Do they have the will? Because where there is a will, there's certainly a way. I think the soap genre has convinced itself that they have to drop everything that came before (even those techniques that were tried and true and actually worked successfully) and take up the latest trend. It's why I mentioned that today's remaining daytime soaps seem to be in something of an identity crisis.

More mess from the Trump campaign being exposed as it concerns the Russian interference investigation. Lawyer Accused of Making False Statements in Russia Investigation

I think it's very telling though, that some of the longest running soaps (i.e. those that lasted longer than 20 years) had storyline arcs that ran longer (at least until the late 80s, early 90s).

I wouldn't mind if this also became a movement.

This is an interesting question. I can't speak for all soaps but thinking about ATWT, it seems to have begun, in earnest, when writers started writing stories as if the characters were players in some type of reality show. By the mid-90s you had shows like The Real World that not only were they ratings juggernauts but they had snared an entire generation of viewer-- a younger generation and we know that soaps were usually on a quest to grab those younger viewers (sometimes to extremes that resulted in disaster). It just seemed as though by the late 90s, some soaps (e.g. ATWT) cast their younger characters who looked as if they were plucked from a reality show. We know that many reality shows had continuing stories but their story arcs usually went from week to week (every week a new explosive conflict or fight, revelation or scandal in the house). Some soaps may have picked up on this and started shortening their story arcs trying to appeal to the reality show crowd (who skewed younger). I think the unfortunate thing that many of the soaps didn't pick up on (until it was too late) was that they needn't mess with the technical aspects of how they wrote the stories, what they needed to tinker with was the content of those stories. Some of the stories just didn't move with the times, in terms of contemporary issues and by the '00s, even those stories that did have contemporary themes seemed poorly executed, sort of sloppily written. Today's soaps seem to be experiencing something of an identity crisis, of sorts, IMO. They can't compete with the cable and the Netflixes and Amazons or Hulus of the world because they're on daytime network basic broadcast TV. At this point, CW shows and many primetime shows like Scandal are too racy for the daytime shows, so the daytime soaps take a kind of 'middle ground' which can sometimes leave viewers feeling unsatisfied by what they see. Not to mention that all the limitations of writing for daytime will not exactly attract a whole lot of writing talent. Let's put it this way, if you're a talented writer and you have a chance to put your energy toward landing a gig in daytime soaps or writing your own webseries that could get picked up by Netflix or get you noticed for your own HBO show, which path would you choose?

Oh, I'm sure there will always be interference but I liken it to... if a writer sits down to write a screenplay and is already thinking about box office, I think that screenplay likely won't turn out well. I don't think you can focus on all of that while focusing on the technical aspects of writing a good story--it's too much to think about. I tend to think that Phillips, Nixon, Bell and Marland and the rest just put those things out of their minds and focused on writing good stories (at least while they sat down to write before the network execs could get their hands on the scripts). There were lots of soaps that were short-lived even back then but I don't think the great writers allowed themselves to think about all of that when they sat down to write their scripts, it just would've been too much weighing on their minds. Perhaps today's writers allow themselves to think about this too much and it impairs their creativity and ability to sustain a storyline. That's something I never considered before. I think we may have discussed this on the boards previously, I know I've thought and mentioned it a couple times (especially before ATWT's cancellation) but I really think that the daytime soaps should've tried to scale back down to 30 minutes. I mentioned this to someone years ago and I still believe this would be a good idea. Perhaps this might also have the effect of stabilizing the storylines so the flow is less frenetic and stories sustain themselves a bit better.

The finding from the investigation that concluded that certain candidates benefited from the actions of the Russian troll farm. Stein was one of those candidates who was promoted by Russian trolls. It was mentioned in the indictment.

I think if someone writes scripts based on hypotheticals, their story will be already be in trouble. Better to focus on writing a good effective story with vibrant characters and a compelling plot.

TBH, burning quickly through a year of storyline in a matter of months seems to be the M.O. of today's soap showrunners.

There was an Op-Ed piece from a parent who lost a child in the Columbine disaster who gave America, including politicians a thorough tongue-lashing for failing to let her son's death be the last death from a mass shooting at school. At the risk of sounding indelicate, on a different topic but also something of a lashing, apparently Jill Stein is being lashed across all media after having something of a meltdown on one of the morning news talk-shows.

The two Liens and three Mulans http://disneymoviesandfacts.tumblr.com/image/71920312269

Episodes 4 and 5 of Season 2 are really good, IMO.

Yeah, I'd say Goffin is definitely the one with the bad luck. Hopefully his eye will be alright. I guess he took over from Tommy Haas in the freak accidents department.

Have people seen this?

Parkland survivor slams GOP for shrugging off dead kids -- but freaking out over 'rainbow wedding cakes'

I'd love to hear from April Lerman from the first season's cast. Maybe Baio wasn't as self-assured on the show to try anything that early on since it was the first season and they (including him) were all new to the show.

Yes, of course they tried to suppress minority turnout-- straight outta the Trumpist handbook.

Just in time for President's Day, an indictment.

I've been wondering this since Polinsky sent that initial tweet about a month ago. Today, I was just thinking that it's time for some of those who worked behind the scenes to step up and talk. I realize that many will not want to admit that they essentially stood by while this happened (or perhaps tried to convince themselves that it wasn't what it was) but they can help the two actors now that they didn't help when they were children.

More great news, Alt-Ryan is also out.

28 Aces, his opponent Radu Albot was serving at 44% and Isner still loses?? Maybe he should stop favoriting all of Trump's tweets and spend more time learning how to return a ball. Nah, it's more fun to watch him get bounced out.

Also, ICYMI there was a shooting on the campus of the NSA headquarters in Meade, MD yesterday.