Websoaps--Could they be better than daytime soaps?

[Meldus]

Due to the sad state of soap operas; I have been checking out various web soaps/series. Some are fairly mainstream and some very amateurish. And despite some weak acting in a few cases, the writing for these shows have been better and some instances superior to many of the major daytime soaps.

Now my question is why aren't daytime executives snatching up these upcoming writers who aren't afraid to be fresh and innovative? Why is daytime refusing to grow-up and change? Why are web shows already becoming more appealing than daytime soaps?

Here are some of my reasons web shows are better?

1) Focus is on the characters.

2)Emotions and feelings drive the story and the characters react to each other in "realistic" ways.

3) Relationships are essential and written by people who actually seem to know what love really is or can be.

4)Drama and conflict is created within and between the characters and not just plot points.

5) Story lines are realistic and simple, not about space aliens, ghosts, dead children, three week pregnancies or diseases etc.

6) Most casts are integrated and actually blend well together.

7) Even though some production values aren't that great, they are still better than most of GL's last production model.

8) The actors actually show up in their scenes and appear like they care about their character.

9)Diversity is allowed.

10) Web shows allow me to be entertained in a way soaps haven't done in forever!

[classicmoment]

They sure can until the big dogs find a way to bottle and market them they scream creative freedom to me

[soapfan770]

They can and hold a lot of promise. Unfortunately of the ones I have seen haven't been too terribly good, like Coastal Dreams. Life in General was good but I only saw the first episode. Arianne Zuker, John Ingle, and Brynn Thayer were all very good.

[marceline]

As I said in the Venice thread, IMO, web soaps are like independent film. They're capable of real brilliance and real garbage. Regardless, they will find their audience or their audience will find them. Conversely there will be people who deride them as trivial just like there are some people who are only interested in big summer blockbusters. To each their own.

[quartermainefan]

I think there is a lot of things working against websoaps that have nothing to do with content that makes them worse. More than anything the size of the screen resulting in constant close ups of one face or a face and a half is just a killer. We are talking a visual medium here and not a radio play, and I have yet to see original content for the web that actually looked good. The size of the screen, thereby forcing simple and repetitive camerawork is a real detriment. Maybe as time goes by, bandwidth increases and computer monitors get bigger, these things will have a chance. Also, there has to be a technical reason why episodes of soaps are stuck at 8 minutes a piece or whatever, and that is a deal killer as well.

[Cyberologist]

I WAS THINKING THE EXACT same thing

they will come in on this grassroots genre of storytelling

and take it over with their high and mighty crap

they are already dipping in it...I really like them a lot

they go where GuZa won't...

However I watch most of my soaps online anyway so the screen size doesn't bother

me. I can hook my lap top up to my big screen but I never thought about the technical aspects until just now....that could

be a minus until they find a way to work around that.

Since one eppy lets say of GH is really a webisode of different stories anyway and I look at clips of my favorites storylines only the time element doesn't bother me GH has a lot of segments (stories) in one eppy its almost like they are separate stories their paths only cross every now and again.