Websoaps: Are we apathetic or are they just bad?

[beebs]

I'm so curious about this because I personally can't get into the few websoaps I've seen, and I notice there seems to be an great dearth in interest here on SON for them. I do see We Love Soaps try to promote them, which is great, but outside of that, I hear little-to-nothing on the matter. We see the TV soap stars either developing the shows themselves (Gotham, Venice), or joining series (The Bay), but I never not once hear about the stories on the shows, nor all that much interest in them.

I confess, I've tried watching The Bay and get put off by the abysmal sound quality (which, as a TV Broadcasting student, is elementary and unacceptable), and the dialogue is about as natural as plastic cheese. Are the storylines also as bad as the dialogue? And what would get you to watch one regularly.

Let's be honest, the network soaps have essentially been ruined, and there's likely no going back to financially sustainable ratings, so the internet is the future. But yet the interest in this community at least (I don't know about other forums, as I only frequent here) seems minimal at best.

I confess, I'm partly doing this selfishly, as I've decided to turn the Nine Lives story I was writing in the blog section into an actual webseries (thus the lack of updates). So any feedback is appreciated in more ways than you'll know!

[DRW50]

Daytime Confidential talks about them a little. There's a thread at TWOP, although last I checked it seemed more like PR.

I always mean to watch some but for some reason I just don't have the interest. I'm not sure why. I like the idea of websoaps. I used to read websoaps, and try to watch the very, very grainy clips, when they briefly had their surge of popularity in the late 90's. Other than that my experience has mostly been watching some bits of Gotham to see old ATWT favorites and laughing at some recaps making fun of Venice (I also watched Wed-Locked, which was more of a comedy). Sometimes it's the promotion of them which pushes me away - for instance, DC promoting Anacostia by talking about how Martha Byrne had been cast as the hottest white woman around, or white chocolate, or whatever. Why?? That's like casting Liz Hubbard as Phyllis Diller.

[quartermainefan]

I have tried watching The Bay and the amateurish production values just turn me off. It looks like they are shooting in real bars, real houses and real whatevers using someone's iPhone.

I don't now why we are seeing the ceiling. It just adds to the effect that this was done for pennies and there is a guy crouching down with a camera in some room. And the room...could it be lit any more drably? Who decided this was a good look?

And every scene is like this, you never are allowed to forget this is not shot on a set, and that the people lighting and recording the show have no budget. I think it is great all the soap actors are doing this, but it comes across more like they are doing it for fun and not as a professional project. If it was a student film I would say it was great.

The only decent web series I ever saw was that one from a couple of years back with Vanessa Marcil. It looked professionally done.

[AllMyDaysatGH]

I recently edited two episodes of someones independent "web soap" and it was exactly what I thought it would be...as quartermainfan said, amateurishly produced and also way too predictable/boring (and SHORT) episodes. If this is our future then I'm staying away from it....LOL. Just because you have a really good camera & decent actors does not mean your show will translate well on screen, IMO at least...LOL! My problem with them is the stories & production models.

I looked at "Venice" and "The Bay" which have bigger budgets I'm assuming, and some actors that I LOVE, but I was still kinda bothered by the look, feel & sound of the them. I just don't know. Maybe they'll get better as time goes on.

[DRW50]

It's weird because I can watch cheap old soaps from the 50's and still be drawn in. I think the writing just isn't good enough today. I also feel like casting so many soap vets, while I do like the idea, can sometimes seem like someone's home movies, not a real show.

[Chris B]

I do think Venice since it's second season is at a high level of production values and the stories are better. Especially now that the episodes are a half hour. My problem is a lot of the ones geared towards the soap community are terrible, yet are praised (THE BAY) so nothing is ever done to improve them. The Bay has the potential and the money to be great, but the writing is horrific. Why won't that creator be objective and hire some decent writers? If he really wants to get that show on tv, that's what he needs to do. Also, he has this leading man, I think his name is Kristos, and this guy got his own spin-off and is like a centerpiece on the show. The only problem is that he can't act to save his life! This is the same thing that drives people away from regular soaps.

[Cheap21]

Never watched any....dont care. Completely irrelevant to me

[marceline]

I tried a few: "Venice" and "Gotham" but they didn't really stick for me. However I've become a maniac for "The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl." I'm as addicted to that as I ever was to a network soap.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

Just bad. Especially the production and writing. I agree with an earlier poster. I can watch scenes from the soaps of the 60s and 70s and they're riveting, mostly because of the writing. The web soaps are forced and rushed. No character development. Basically: boring. If this is the alterative to network soaps, we soap fans are in deep you know what.

[Eric83]

[beebs]

and why exactly?

[Cheap21]

Why should I?

[beebs]

I don't know. I'm not you. I'm just curious what would happen if one was well-written/presented and appealed to the old network soap fans in a real way. Would you ignore that too?

[Cheap21]

It could be well written and presented now for all I know. I just have no interest. I guess I dont care for little bite size scenarios with no longevity. Not worth my investment

[frequentsoapfan]

I only saw an epi of Venice. All the actors in it suck and I would never pay to watch them online. I tried to watch The Bay but it bored me and the camera work is terrible, looks like it was filmed with a flip camera. I've seen 20 somethings and children make less cheap looking web shows on a lower budget.