Do we complain too much?

[sungrey]

Good points, Jane. For everyone who thinks Bob Guza was a great writer for GH, you'll find many who thought he was sadistic and cruel. There are some who like MAB over at Y&R, others who can't stand what the show's become under her.

[Kylie]

We definitely complain to much. But I like it here as opposed to another site, where people are allowed to come in, tell you why they're right and you're wrong, and to sit down and shut up. At least we all whine together here. LOL

[DRW50]

I think part of it is that the soap press of today, mostly online, overhypes writers and producers - for long periods of time the focus was on fawning profiles of MAB, RC, Valentini, Hogan Sheffer (and any anti-soap comments he made were just lauded even more...oh how daring!). The shows themselves were afterthoughts.

[Max]

I probably complain more than anybody else here at SON, and I realize that turns people off.

However, I agree with somebody's earlier statement that the complaining here is timid compared to other message boards. If one wants to go to a site where things get very nasty and personal, I recommend mediadomain.com. (Which aside from the nastiness, is actually a pretty good site.)

[Steve]

Yup, and I know I'm as guilty of that as anyone else, but I feel the need everytime Zzzendull take up airtime on AMC to complain in that day's thread.

No, because they're not just soap operas. They're shows that used to be at time hilarious and at times inspiring. I got hooked on AMC back in the early 1980s due to Nina & Cliff and later Greg & Jenny, but I stayed hooked due to well-told social issue stories like Mark's battle with drug addiction, Cindy struggling with AIDS and people's fear of it and Michael Delaney's coming out to his high school class. Now, I don't have time to watch all the shows, but from what I've seen on the current AMC and the shows on SoapNet, that type of storytelling just doesn't exist anymore. Daytime used to be ahead of the curve and now it just keeps relying on tropes like Back From the Dead and Who Stole Whose Baby stories.

When Brian Frons first came onboard ABC Daytime, I wrote him a letter explaining what I thought was wrong with AMC and how he could fix it. Of course, it was probably not read, but I feel like we got frustrated because we tried to express our opinions directly to the people in charge and they ignored us. ABC in particular seemed to be out to drive away the long-time viewers for whatever reason and that made me at least want to say on here what wasn't being heard by Frons.

It kind of saddens me that some viewers think the current state of soaps is great. ITA, they used to all be much better and they could be again if the people running things cared about them as much as we do!

What was different for me was the variety of storylines 30 years ago. If you didn't like one couple or story, there were 6 or 7 more that were also frontburner. Somewhere along the line, the shows started doing more umbrella plots that involved half the town. If an umbrella story doesn't appeal to you and there are only 1 or 2 other stories, it's easy to just stop watching.

Overall, I try not to just say how bad a show is but to say what exactly I'm not enjoying about it. I know I'm frequently in the minority (for example, I couldn't stand the first Todd on OLTL and have no interest in watching two of them!), but I love this site because for the most part the other posters are respectful of your opinion even if they don't agree and we usually can find common ground eventually. A few years back, it seemed Cheap21 and I disagreed about most of couples and stories on AMC, but today we're usually in agreement on most of the show. And I have teasingly referred to EricMontreal22 as my lapdog because he and I seem to agree more often than not. So I say, keep complaining, be constructive and maybe someone behind the scenes will finally wake up and pay attention!