I miss "old people" storylines on All My Children.

I miss stories that have a beginning, middle and end.

I miss stories about friendship.

A good whodunit. I remeber when Grant Harrison shot himself and framed Vicky for it. That was good. I don't think it was a whodunit though.

I miss a story building slowly. I also miss unbrella plots. I miss real talented actors and real writers who aren't afraid to take risks.

I miss when a proper story from beginning to middle to end was told period...

I miss affairs in marriages and I dont simply mean a one night stand which is used to advance plot. Im talking old fashion spouse carrying it on multiple times with someone on the side, being torn and conflicted about feelings for both lovers. Soaps dont really do that anymore. The closest thing in recent memory I can recall is OLTL's Echo/Charlie/Viki but that was so sloppily done and not in a beleivable way at all.

I miss when a proper story from beginning to middle to end was told period...

Thanks for stealing my thunder.

I miss a story building slowly.

YES.

I don't understand this attention-spans-are-shorter nonsense, I really don't. Patience for a well-crafted, well-executed tale never goes away. And you don't have to indulge in the crutch of repetition to keep a story from moving too fast, either, as long as you're willing to dig very, very deep into characters' psychologies and exhaust every single nuance of a story.

I miss strong female characters.

I miss stories that didn't portray women as worthless whores.

I miss when sex was the culmination of simmering emotions between people - even people who were involved in separate relationships - and not just something to do b/c it's Friday and Mark Lawson looks better without his shirt on.

YES.

I don't understand this attention-spans-are-shorter nonsense, I really don't. Patience for a well-crafted, well-executed tale never goes away. And you don't have to indulge in the crutch of repetition to keep a story from moving too fast, either, as long as you're willing to dig very, very deep into characters' psychologies and exhaust every single nuance of a story.

Like JER's Possesion. JER took his time and set everything up. I was rewatching clips of it and was amazed at how slowed he moved it. He didn't just go right into it. He had to set the whole story up, with John being the preist and the John/Kristen/Tony Triangle. I will praoblay get slapped for what I just saud.

YES.

I don't understand this attention-spans-are-shorter nonsense, I really don't. Patience for a well-crafted, well-executed tale never goes away. And you don't have to indulge in the crutch of repetition to keep a story from moving too fast, either, as long as you're willing to dig very, very deep into characters' psychologies and exhaust every single nuance of a story.

Or, they can just ignore the story. I wanted Gigi's lies about Shane's paternity on OLTL to last forever. Okay, considering current circumstances, that might not have been a good idea, but imagine if that show still had decades in front of it. Gigi keeps that lie, it stops being a major story point, and all of the characters go on living their lives and going through other storylines. There aren't any lingering shots to remind us over and over again that she's a filthy liar, there aren't years of "close calls" where the truth is almost revealed. She just gets away with it. And then, ten or twenty years later, the truth comes out, and there's epic fall out. Imagine waiting around for twenty years for the big reveal, and then it finally happens. That's sh!t-on-ya-self television.

I miss Friday CLIFFHANGERS!!!

While I love long-burning stories too, I think short term arcs can still be just as powerful. It's just that no one currently knows how they hell to write and execute them properly.