Well, English networks can be very uncreative, especially ITV1, who have been producing and commissioning the same type of shows for several years now, and well, they're struggling because of their copy-cat out put. The networks don't think there's a market for (un)realistically written shows about rich and beautiful people. When they do decide to pluck up the courage, the out-put is something like Footballers Wives or Suburban Shootout (Desperate Housewives meets The Sopranos ). A wider variety of "gritty" would be nice.

So, are American networks different, then? I've always thought that US networks are more gun shy at producing gritty shows, showcasing the poorer side to America. ER springs to mind as being one of the few gritty dramas, in that sense.

Risk taking is not uncommon in American TV, but the bosses always want a successful show. One day you have Lost, the other - Chuck, Bionic Woman, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Pushing Daisies, Moonlight, Babylon Fields, Journeyman. One sci-fi show, the next season ten of those. So they just rip each other's ideas off - OK, I won't write about the mysterious goings on on a tropical island, I'll write a show about mysterious goings on in ordinary people who become superheroes' lives. It's not the same show, but the genre is always the same. It always incorporates fantasy, it has a similar structure (arcs), it's basically a soap opera etc.

Like in UK - one gritty show (drugs, depression, people on the bottom of the food chain, alcoholism, abuse etc.), dozens of them every year. Same thing.

Edited August 26, 200718 yr by Sylph

See, this is what I'm saying, Tony's HIV was done really well (they raised awareness, tackled common misconceptions, were informative in giving out info that most people probably didn't know, etc.) and B&B was still a campy, melodramatic soap back then. So why can't a serious issue of rape be treated in the same way as other social issues, like Tony's HIV?

If Brad really cared about this HIV Plot, he would have found a way to integrate the characters of Tony, Kristen, and Zende onto the canvas. Yeah, Brad told a story about HIV, but as soon as it was done, he didn't want to deal with the aftermath of the story or with Tony as a character because he couldn't hop around from woman to woman.

The story may have shattered misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, but it didn't really change the characters lives or the canvas. These people still have unprotected sex and no one hardly ever mentions Tony anymore.

Feel free to tell a storyline about social issues...but make it worth my time as a viewer.

Crippled by flu or whatsoever I didn't manage to post at all last week... Since Tuesday my mood also changed; I was also VERY disappointed how this rape story has been handled. It feels so fake and unrealistic. Where's Brooke's angst/terror, why did she remain so civil with Stephanie and just throw her out in anger???

I must also agree that everything is told way to razy which is saddening and unusual for B&B whilst takling such serious issues. I might have hated the Tony-story because it was insta-thrown in but it had more heart unfortunately.

Finally; I think it was a mistake not to bring Deacon back at this pivotal time...

I guess, it's suffering on a high levl compared with the other soaps because the show is still good but I expected more.

If Brad really cared about this HIV Plot, he would have found a way to integrate the characters of Tony, Kristen, and Zende onto the canvas. Yeah, Brad told a story about HIV, but as soon as it was done, he didn't want to deal with the aftermath of the story or with Tony as a character because he couldn't hop around from woman to woman.

The story may have shattered misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, but it didn't really change the characters lives or the canvas. These people still have unprotected sex and no one hardly ever mentions Tony anymore.

Feel free to tell a storyline about social issues...but make it worth my time as a viewer.

I really wish they had kept Kristen and Tony around. I miss Kristen a lot.