Soap Barometer: Where Are We At?

[Cat]

How do you view your viewing habits in the near future? Looking forward to what stories or cast additions in particular?

GH and Days, mainly.

I am truly loving Days. Even if plot doesn't necessarily "progress" on a certain day, there is always something to keep me watching. I feel a fondness for all the characters which has been lost with other soaps.

GH, well, it is always love/hate between GH and I. Right now, I want to see where the Claudia Trial ends up, what is going to happen with Kristina (I love the Davis clan) and the direction for Dante's character. The weight and spread of SLs has never been so well balanced. If Guza [!@#$%^&*] this up, though, and returns to "Sonny and Jason fart rainbows and flowers," then I will be gone.

Are there shows which unless they do something in particular you see yourself abandoning?

Y&R and B&B have already been abandoned for this very reason.

Which shows you think — and expect from spoilers — to improve and which to just keep going down the sewer?

Improve:

-Days

Could go either way:

-GH. Frons has a hard-on for Mo and Steve. But he also has a newfound need for the core audience to remain loyal.

-AMC. The Bad: David Canary is gone. Alicia Minshew is returning. Cameron Mathieson is still on the show. The Good: Fan support for David & Greenlee could outweigh the Ryan worship. Also, this show seems to have found some of its confidence and swagger again.

Down the shitter:

-"I just know Bill Bell is looking down on us today and going 'Right on, Maria!' " So, yeah, obviously Y&R.

-B&B. Bradley Bell wouldn't know a good SL if it smacked him around, fucked him up the ass and crawled into his inbox.

-OLTL. Dead man walking. Cancellation is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point.

[Ben]

I'm stuck with OLTL, until my interest burns out. It's the only soap I've got left, so I'm not about to give up on it, yet. Weirdly, in the past, I've always been instantly turned-off by the show, so to actually have liked what I saw last year, and tune in regularly, means that I'm gonna stick it out. I can tolerate John, and Todd (depending on who he's in scenes with), but struggle with Rex, big time. Seriously, this guy needs to die!

Days: It's my fall back; the show that I still retain some interest for, even though I haven't properly watched since 2003 (sporadic interest in 2008). It's the show I may consider tuning in regularly for, if/when I can no longer stand OLTL. Or, if the show manages to capture my interest when I tune in for the special episodes in June... but that's a *big* if.

I've abandoned Y&R and B&B. The former took me a little while to get into the show, so now that I've tuned out, I probably won't want the hassle of trying to get back in to it, should it ever improve... which is doubtful.

Sadly, after 12 years of B&B, I finally gave it the push last year. My interest and fondness for the characters had 99.9% been extinguished by the hack writing. It no longer felt like B&B any more.

I've never really been a fan of GH, and I've never watched AMC.

[SouthOfSoap]

I'm down to just DAYS. I'm not even keeping up with Y&R and B&B in the spoilers anymore. I feel nothing for dropping Y&R, but do have a sadness for B&B because I watched that show from when it started in 1987.

That being said, DAYS is only ok. I love the show, its characters are great, on paper its doing the right things, but often I find it has 2 weeks of pure awesomeness followed by 2 weeks of dreary boredom. From my selfish viewpoint, I would have been ok if the show went off the air in September this year, so I can be done with this genre - at least it would have gone out with some respectability I never expected it to ever regain. Again, I'm ok if it goes off the air next September too.

None of the other soaps look even remotely enticing to me. If I wasn't a DAYS viewer already, I doubt it would look enticing to me either...

[JackPeyton]

Ive never understood this mindset. WHy dont you just quit then? I guess i dont understand it because ive never had an issue quitting a show im not enjoying.

But i agree how its 2 weeks good, 2 weeks of utter bore.

[Steve]

I may be a minority of one, but I'm really excited about AMC lately and about Swajeski & Kreizman coming aboard as headwriters. I just can't believe the people in charge at ABC would have Broderick restructure the show if they weren't planning on having the permanent headwriters follow in her footsteps and write a traditional, multigenerational show. I'm looking forward to the week of May 12th!

[EricMontreal22]

I'm in that Pollyanna ship with you Steve--though a bit less confident. I have, hesitant, excitement to see what those two "show killers" do. It's been a joy to, while not perfect, enjoy the show so much the past two months.

When Broderick returned I loved it, then it seemed to lose some momentum and I was worried that it was the typical "first month back is great, then not..." but it quickly found its pulse again. I agree with Shadows that maybe it's not compelling as it should be--I'm glad whenever I watch and the hour flies by, but I don't think about it at work or anything. Still... But yeah cautiously, very, optimistic about the future.

My other show, OLTL, is... a mess. As we all know

[YRBB]

Y&R and B&B have been dumped... perhaps for good, unless something changes. It feels weird, considering I've spent literally half my life watching them, but they're bad, uninteresting, boring and I will not keep watching them even though I hate them.

DAYS is the only one I like--despite eye-rolling moments, boring episodes and largely awful production values, it does a lot of things well and it manages to often entertain me and help me unwind. That's all I can ask for.

Otherwise, I dabble in AMC and OLTL but the British soaps is where it's at. Or soap, since I only find CORRIE to be (very) good.

[Faulkner]

Done with Y&R. Haven't watched a moment of it in weeks. And that was "My Show" for over 20 years.

AMC? I was a fan for many years, but I didn't even care enough to watch Palmer's memorial or Adam's departure. The show feels that remote to me.

If I'm flipping through channels, I might watch an episode of GH simply because the dialogue is so entertaining. But would I consider myself a loyal viewer? Nope. Do I even watch GH an average of once a week? Nope.

None of the other shows even register for me. They all feel so stuck and dead and old-fashioned (in a bad way). I've watched them all (except B&, and somewhere in the past decade, they've all lost me for some reason. And the longer you've been away from a show, the less invested and the less connected you feel to the characters. The novelty of Nuke and Kish on ATWT and OLTL almost brought me back to those shows, but novelty wears off really quickly when you realize that these shows are fundamentally stunted.

[ian]

Bahahahah! Good thing I wasn't drinking water right then, it'd have come through my nose. Reminds me of something my friend once asked me: If you woke up with a sore ass next to a broken roll of quarters, would you ask what happened?

Mostly just watch Days when I can which is surprising because I haven't been able to see it was watchable since Reilly's reign of destruction. Thought I'd always be done with it, it was one of my very first soaps though so it's nice to be home. DEFINITELY looking forward to June

Everything else is kinda craptacular right now, but I'm keeping an eye on AMC...

and that's about it. Soaps are shittay right now - not expecting much this summer unfortunately.

[SouthOfSoap]

I think its different for everyone. Some hate the show, but still hold onto the hope it will get better, due to some nostalgia from when it was good (the abused housewife syndrome). Others hate the show and expect it to continue sucking but still watch out of habit/loyalty. And on and on. As for myself, I dont hate the show per se, I guess I'm apathetic to it, in some no-man's land - dont hate it enough to switch it off, but dont love it either - and thats why I'm ok with cancellation and I'm ok watching it too, I'll just go with the flow... for now. I suppose another reason I watch is just to "see" the characters and actors I enjoy - I'm pretty sure when DAYS is done, we'll never see actors like John Aniston, Louise Sorel, Jo Mascolo, Lauren Koslow, Suzanne Rogers etc. on a regular basis again (perhaps they will land guest spots, but being realistic they wont get high exposure roles) so I feel I want to see as much of them while I still can.

[marceline]

I only watch one soap and that's AMC and I'm geniuinely enjoying it. I'm not going to declare it "on fire right now!!" because I hate that mindset but it's working for me. I'm even finding Greenlee tolerable. I'm not particularly thrilled about the new regime but I'm willing to keep hope alive.

The self-immolation of OLTL has been wildly entertaining. Trying to predict how they'll screw up next is like watching a game show where all the contestants are locked in a room with the heat turned up, fed PCP and told to fight their way out with sharpened spoons.

[ian]

lmao - OLTL is like Saw.

[EricMontreal22]

Sylph--where's your soap barometer--master of questions.

[wingwalker]

LMAO!!! :lol: How hilariously accurate.

[juniorz1]

I firmly disagree with that- of all the soaps, DAYS is the one that gets events like this right 99% of the time. MacDonald Carey's tribute was great, but I think the Frances Reid one will eclipse even that.