Members ChiTownBoi03 Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 I certainly don't consider myself a fickle soap viewer. ATWT made me pull my hair out half of the time, especially at the end, but I was *still* invested (for the most part) right up until the end because at least s**t was happening. Action, romance, suspense (at the speed of light, no less) but I knew whatever crap they put out was going to be entertaining, or mildly engaging. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was awful--but hey it was consistent. The same as with B&B, which I only catch sometimes. However, my mother has been watching it since it first started in 87'. She tells me all the time the show just gets on her nerves sometimes, but at others she just can't miss it. For the most part, they've told those types of camp *hit or miss* stories since the beginning--so its consistent. If I turn on B&B, I don't expect to see anything different--its still pretty much about the Logans, the Forresters, and who owns the company this week. Ridge is Ridge, Brooke is Brooke, and Stephanie is Stephanie. DAYS, on the other hand, is like a totally different show to me now. It has been boring as all hell for years now. To top it off, I barely recognize anybody anymore. Stefano is *severely* watered down, walking around Salem like a regular citizen(???), Vivian is not creepy or dark anymore but a wimpy, whiny cartoon character who lets people like Brady and Nicole get the best of her, Melanie is now the epitome of a stepford wife, Bo is--I don't know what he is really, Sami has become Marlena-lite, Caroline has been reduced to yelling *the hard truth* at everybody, and Victor does more cracking jokes (really good ones though) than plotting. The only person who seems like themselves is Nicole, and perhaps Kate. I never thought we would get to a point where the show focused on two non-acting people like Daniel and Chloe, but thats kinda where we are right now. This is not very consistent, so they can't ask for me to be a consistent, loyal viewer. This is their fault, not mine. Even though the headwriters might change, they still have the same executive producer (who should have knowledge of the show) so theres no excuse for all these identity changes. If they indeed want me to stick around in the midst of all this foolery, then at the very least tell me a damn good story that is more than just uninteresting people standing around talking, day in--and day out. A little action and suspense goes a long way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SFK Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 I agree, especially bolded. That was definitely the case for my mom. And she particularly liked soapy drama as seen by her love of the epic TV movies of the '80s, penchanct for keeping her cable box parked on Lifetime all day Saturday and Sunday, and affection for mass market romance novels and weepies like Beaches and Steel Magnolias. My mother talked about getting in on this whole message board thing shortly before she passed, but the [!@#$%^&*] storm bts was never something that interesred her on the level of the folks around here, she just could take or leave whatever popped up on the screen and she wouldn't hesitate to quit taping one of her stories for a spell. Although she loved reading her SODs, over the years I tried to share with her some soap trivia-type books and she really wasn't all that interested ("[her nickname for me], you know you need to give me something with a story. ") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members marceline Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 The concept of viewer loyalty is a joke. I stopped being "loyal" to these shows when they stopped caring about my viewership. The people making soaps now wasted no time in informing me that I am too old and too dark for their taste. So be it but you'll excuse me while I celebrate your destruction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 Well, ChiTownBoi03, a lot of what you say downright scares me. I mean, would you listen to a same song without pause for 376 hours? Over and over again until you go nuts? Watching B&B is the same: Stephanie being still Stephanie is a part of its problem. Actually... Scratch that: Stephanie isn't really Stephanie, she's become a loon of sorts & a sociopath. Brooke has been trashed, Taylor has been trashed, Ridge you can't trash because Ridge is nothing, Eric is the same petty vanilla idiot he always was. Then there's a bunch of these weird people that go in and out of the show and just get ruined every time they return. One really sees no point in bringing them back. The stories, though, are sheer repeat ad nauseam with a lot of incest in them. Awful. Who in their sane mind can say that Brooke wants Ridge, Brooke gets Ridge, Ridge sleeps with Taylor, Brooke still wants Ridge and Ridge goes back to Brooke for a while, but then again chooses Taylor is what makes a good soap opera?! B&B kind of has two weeks tops of (very) good episodes a year and that's it, but you hate yourself for loving those episodes because they go nowhere and in the mean time usually ruin an important character. M-W says consistent means, among other things, "free from variation or contradiction". I have no idea how that can apply to any of the soaps, now or in the 1970s. Soap and consistent usually don't go hand in hand, except for brief periods of time. This is one of those weird traits of soap fans: they don't want change (or seem not to want it). People change, they make progress (or the oppositie), but rarely does someone stay the same. That can only be an illusion. So soaps character should change too. ATWT does not need to and should not become a primetime show, for sure, but it must be in tune with the times in a lot of aspects: writing, sets, shooting techniques etc. Since it failed to do so and actually regressed, it died. Same will happen to all the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members marceline Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChiTownBoi03 Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 Its a given that things should grow and change. People grow and change, but their basic temperaments usually remain pretty stable. I don't still play with fisher price toys, I moved out of my parents house, my goals have shifted, I'm more independent--I've progressed. Despite these relative changes, I still for the most part react to situations and adapt to life circumstances the same way as I always did. It's the same for soaps. Characters and stories should grow, progress, evolve, but the foundation should still be consistent. A soap opera is set up in a way that perpetuates this loyal following. They bring us into this universe with families, characters, and a basic premise in a serialized format on a daily basis and moves at a much slower pace than a movie or primetime TV show. It's not like soap fans are some bumbling idiots forever stuck in the 80s, which your post suggests. We have much more time to become invested in a show, attached to it and its characters. It should grow, but drastic character and story changes seem like a contradiction to the genre. B&B, despite its faults and audience erosion, still manages to stay above the pack. I suspect due to its foundation and premise remaining relatively the same. Its fairly easy for longtime viewers to figure out whats going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MontyB Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 Oh wow!! Thank you!!! I simply don't reply to a lot of these "oh soap operas show grow or evolve" posts because my biggest question is, grow into what? The genre is doing exactly what it's supposed to do (except maybe get better writers). I will say it over and over again, if the genre is THAT detrimental to anyone's well being, change the darn channel. Stay off soap sites and find something else better to do. The question is it really that hard to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 Change look. Number one. Dump the dated tape look. And so on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MontyB Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 I guess that's a matter of one's personal aesthetic. Videotape is fine with me. Can you imagine the cost of using film everyday?And please don't go there with that FilmLook nonsense. AMC looked terrible for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TeamEric Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 As a HUGE Trueblood fan (my username says it all), I visit two boards where there is plenty of beyotching about Alan Ball's choices. Most of the fans I post with see tons of potential wasted and find like on soaps a writer too taken by one character, that the story suffers. Go figure, in my experience, a lot of the complaints ring the same about AB as I hear from soap fans here. I posted for 9 years on the old big X-Files site, and even the 4th season which most agreed was its finest hour, saw plenty of complaints. It's the nature of the boards to rip apart versus praise. JMO, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TeamEric Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 Several primetime shows have taken a page from soaps slower, serial storytelling, and attracted many ex-soap viewers. Smallville for example has taken years to develop Lois and Clark as characters and as a couple. On X-Files, fans shipped and shipped Mulder & Scully as badly as soap fans scream for their couples. It took 9 years before M&S became a real couple and many fans hung in there. The Sopranos was at its most basic, just a much better written soap than Dallas. Soaps have tried to steal a page from primetime but the reverse is true, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MontyB Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 I loved X-Files. I've seen every episode. Things is, I can't get into watching them in re-runs. TeamEric, what you said is contradictory. You started out by saying primetime shows have taken a page from soaps, but at the end you said they don't. They definitely steal from each other. Primetime has to tell the story much quicker. Very few primetime shows outlast soaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TeamEric Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 Hi MontyB, X-Files rocked but CC like soap writers, rewrote his own mythology a tad too much those last 3 seasons. My line should read: "Soaps have tried to steal a page from primetime but then primetime has tried to steal a page from soaps, too." The two mediums were once quite different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MontyB Posted October 17, 2010 Members Share Posted October 17, 2010 I agree. It got a teeny bit confusing towards the end, but it still rocked. My only real complaint about X-Files was that last movie. I don't what happened there. I don't think they really thought it out. Anyway, IMO the soaps need to get back to basics and STOP trying to fix things. They all could more diversity, but all in all get back to basics. That's what worked best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted October 18, 2010 Members Share Posted October 18, 2010 Yeah, it depends on the board...I think some boards gravitate more towards nostalgia for what once was. TWOP can be like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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