Anna Pickard writes in The Guardian:

My new year's resolution (well, one of them - I do have others that don't involve watching television, I swear) is to attempt to understand, and to appreciate, the art of the American Soap Opera. I'm going to try one a month. January is Days Of Our Lives month, mainly because the first time I flicked past it I was hooked in by an English guy called Elvis and ... well, isn't that enough?

The main things I know about US soaps come mainly from pop culture memories of Dallas and Dynasty - things I would never have been allowed to watch at the time. I know that while UK and Australian soaps, the ones I've known so well all my life, are concerned with neighbourly relationships, everyday dilemmas and a general realism (albeit expedited and sexed up a fair bit), US soaps revel in fantasy, coincidence, escapism and, and occasionally, the supernatural.

I have never been a very soap opera-ish person. I can see how they provide entertainment and solace for many, many viewers - and career beginnings for many actors, writers and TV directors whose work I enjoy. And I am clearly not immune to the general concept of soapiness - having a guilty addiction to Grey's Anatomy, and Brothers & Sisters, among other things. So why shouldn't I enjoy proper, honest soapy-soap?

In accordance with my new year's resolution, I got my season pass for Days of Our Lives, and in the first recorded omnibus, I have already encountered amnesia; someone trying to buy a baby (with a fiancee who believes she is already eight months pregnant); someone in hiding for reasons I have yet to identify; a psychic; two engagements, three affairs, a break up and, finally, in the latest episode, something that looks like it might turn out to be a murder, though I'll have to let you know for sure after the cliffhanger gets resolved.

She gives some hilarious commentary on DAYS' dialogue. Hysterical. She also asks that "If anyone knows anything about US soaps and can point me in a promising direction, I would be as pleased as apple pie to hear it." Anna, Y&R. Quick!

Edited January 13, 200916 yr by Faulkner

What a horrible place to start. It's like traveling through the world of sitcoms and starting at "My Mother the Car."

LMAO @ her Days comments.

LOL @ "Dr. Lovebulge." I presume she's referring to Daniel?

Edited January 13, 200916 yr by Cat

I love her review of DOOL. She will find all the soaps equally silly.

It's interesting to see what she thinks of Y&R and Guiding Light which is very similar in style to their soaps.