What is it that you want?

[Sylph]

I've been checking some comments in the ratings thread and this one from SteveFrame came out:

Steve is hardly alone in this and I wish, I really do, I felt the same.

But I just can't escape the thought: why do we want something awful, something that always disappoints or angers to continue? Because hope is the last to die and they just might improve? What makes us think the quality might improve when God only knows how many examples of the exact opposite we've witnessed in recent years? Things either don't change, change to slowly or just plain worsen.

I want them to continue, I do, I like soaps, I always did and probably always will, but at the same time (this is all brimike's fault, he and his dilemmas ) I do not want to see an hour worth of absolutely unwatchable cr*p — whether it's the terrible, terrible B&B closely followed by the mob infested, dark, nasty, misanthropic GH or a soap no one seems to be watching (ATWT)... Or any of the other ones. I know that once they're gone, they're gone. For the foreseeable future.

So how do you feel? Honestly. Will you follow them until the end? Do you really believe it's the end? The deep breath before the plunge? Are you hopeful something will improve? Or are you perhaps content with what you're getting and trying to find the good in a sea of bad stuff?

Not intended to be a pretentious thread, but if someone feels the need to wreck it, OK.

[JackPeyton]

I have this to ask....

If you (not you personally, people in general) HATE the current soaps so much and want them to be axed, why are you watching?

[brimike]

LOL! My dilemmas?

I don't think this is pretentious at all. I do think the Internet has given way to a certain amount of schadenfreude when it comes to soaps. We've discussed that here before. And I do think it goes overboard sometimes.

I can only speak for myself, but I will continue to watch... and complain... and occasionally praise... and complain again... until they go off. And yeah, a certain part of me will find a little enjoyment in shows that I see caving to their own hubris going down in the ratings. But I guess I have a different outlook on it because I don't have a Nielsen box. I would probably have an entirely different perspective if I did. But since I know that what I watch or don't watch has absolutely ZERO effect on the fate of these shows, I tend to have a little more freedom in terms of what I watch to enjoy, what I watch to make fun of, and how freely I talk about what I want and don't want. Right now, for all of its flaws, I continue to be entertained by both the good on soaps (very little), the bad on soaps (a lot more), and the lively discussions with the people on here, all of whom I think are pretty freaking cool. It's a nice hobby on the side, and it's satisfying to me - the whole experience: praising, bitching and dissecting. And when it goes, it will go, and I will miss it.

But if I had a Nielsen box, I would absolutely feel a larger sense of responsibility (even though I'm just one box in THOUSANDS), and being the big TV geek that I am, I would be much more careful about what I watch, and the reasons WHY I watch it. I wouldn't want to reward crappy writing and producing just because it's a habit, and I'm obligated to.

But since I'm not a Nielsen family, there is a certain amount of entertainment from jumping into a OLTL thread (just as an example) and bitching about how awful a character Stacy is after I've watched that day's episode. Or whether or not Gloria should still be on Y&R. There's a satisfaction I get from watching a show, and then logging in. And I'll continue to do it, as long as I don't have a Nielsen box, and there are people willing to do the same online.

[Sylph]

I have absolutely no idea. I mean, I obviously like something. Sometimes that's a storyline, sometimes a performer I follow, sometimes it's the attachment, sometimes you see a glimmer of hope. Sometimes you read a spoiler and you're interested how things will develop. Sometimes you want to see where's the bottom. Lots of reasons.

[Toups]

I don't believe Sylph watches soaps right now. I never see him talk specifically about something.

[Difficult Diva]

I don't want to see this genre die out, but at the rate of how things are going (especially when it's very clear to me that it's TIIC that are slowly, but surely destroying it themselves) hope (and at many times denial) is all that we as a viewing audience has to hold onto.

Even during the 70's and 80's (and one or two times in the 90's) of soaps being cancelled, we had new soaps being produced. Now, I don't think that production companies and networks (cable and/or tv) are willing to take the chance in creating new soaps for the next generation.

I know that some new viewers get annoyed when posters talk about the "golden years of soaps", but I truly feel that those years are long gone. It's not even based on networks and production companies coming up with new production values or ways of reaching out to a "younger and more wanted" demographic. It's about the storylines and writing. You can put crap into a shiny new bag. It's still crap and we're not willing to keep quiet about it anymore.

[Vee]

You're not seriously going to do this again.

Playing along, for a moment. The obvious answer for me is, despite the declining business and trying times, I think there is still good work to be done in difficult conditions, and always hope. If there was a universal consensus of hipster nihilism, then this board and the threads and commentary about actual shows that you see around you would not exist. Different people clearly enjoy Y&R or B&B or DAYS or even GL or OLTL, or even AMC or God forbid GH. People find stories, characters, couples, ideas they enjoy, and their feelings have value. So to attempt to render an absolute judgment about these shows' quality or lack thereof - which is what you always do to further your strawman argument - is a pointless endeavour doomed to failure, since you can't thought-police the entire audience.

As bad as the soaps are, your choice of the same repetitious soapbox over and over to explain to us why we are all secretly in denial is far less creative. I am amused, however, that you basically asked the same question you have yet to answer me about.

[rhythmchyc]

This is like watching pundits on CNN try to forecast what the economy's gonna be like in 6 months or postulate on what Obama's next move will be based on the reports released to the media by his spokesmen.

It drives me crazy. Hate it or love it but don't sit worrying about what's gonna happen.

[All My Shadows]

I still watch because, contrary to popular belief, I don't think they're the as bad as people make them out to be. Are they different from what they were 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 30 years ago? Yeah. Do I wish that most of these shows would get back to their roots and do what they were created to do? Yes. But does that take away from the things that I do enjoy on some of the shows? It shouldn't, and for me, it doesn't (most of the time).

Simply put, my #1 reason for watching anything on TV is to be entertained. If they can keep me interested, I will watch. If I lose interest, I will not watch. There's no point in analyzing it anymore.

[Phoenix11]

Top 5:

1. I want Guiding Light to find a new home.

2. I want Otalia to be a full-fledged romantic couple.

3. I want Phillip/Beth and Josh/Reva to reunite.

4. I want Bill/Lizzie to find some happiness.

5. I want people to give GL a chance and stop treating it like a punching bag because it's really improved in 2009.

[Bright Eyes]

Exactly. There really is nothing else to say.

[MTSRocks]

MTSRocks Stamp of Approval ©

[Soapsuds]

What is it that you want? Sylph to work....You better work Sylph!!! And FINALLY answer Vee's question!

[Khan]

Nevermind.

[DavidEvanSmith]

Ideally I want TPTB of each soap to take its own characters seriously again. I think ALL characters have been diluted to the point where they are:

1. Interchangeable.

2. Difficult for actors to justify anymore.

3. Viewed no longer as characters, but as vehicles to push executive agendas and overhyped actors.

Soaps used to be an ensemble piece, about a cast and a fictitious community, but somewhere in the 90s, they became like the old hollywood star system, actors landing contracts and being given any vehicle an executive could throw together to show over and over again why this actor has "it".

So if soaps really sat down and decided WHO characters were and focused on THAT... I think things could change.

That was the question posed in the title, but the thread and body of the initial post itself leans more toward the usual "why the hell do you still watch this garbage" fare.

I still watch to study it. At this point I don't expect it to get better, and the ratings are reflecting just what I expected it to. The bottom (GL) drops out, the rest sort of start to meet on one ratings plateau (1.8) with a weekly variance on upper and lower echelons, with B&B hovering at a not-so-distant second, and Y&R remaining at the top, but plummeting relative to the rest of the soaps.

I watch for storyline dynamics. What relationships this plot point is designed to affect, and what dynamics are actually explored. Missed opportunities, on-target explorations, etc. What do they get right, what do they get wrong, in terms of what I feel soaps should be. It's a study in character dynamics. It's still the best one, at a five-day-a-week rhythm. You can't get that day-in, day-out character dynamic study anywhere else. It's still fascinating to watch a show get it right for about a month, and then watch it all go to hell in a handbasket for 8 months, what they recognize as a failure (OLTL's Vanessa) and what they refuse to recognize as failure (OLTL's Stacy). You wonder the whys of it all, and listen to idle gossip from people who probably don't really know and ultimately... it really doesn't matter.

Soaps will live, but I'm resigning myself to them dying, in this format, at least, because for years now it hasn't been what I originally fell in love with.