NY Times rips All My Children & One Life to Live reboots

[Vee]

I think we all missed it, but whatever. You did your ten minutes of time, what more can your nation ask of you after weeks of ranting sight unseen?

[chicklitsandfantasies]

In a 25 minute show it's plausible to tell in that amount of time if you're enjoying an epi or not.

[ChitHappens]

Not all. Just you and John.

Matters not. I don't like the reboots because they are not what I want to see in a soap. That really should be the end of it.

[R Sinclair]

It is! Great! Got it!

Let's move on, shall we?

[Errol]

While I don't agree with the "they won't last" mentality, I don't see anything wrong with someone who used to watch either OLTL or AMC decide they don't want to watch the new AMC or OLTL.

[EricMontreal22]

I disagree about UK soaps in this respect. Having to, at various times, jump into Coronation, Eastenders and Emmerdale, I think of myself as a pretty seasoned soap viewer but even after a week or two I really ahd to go on Wiki to learn how characters were related, or not.

[EricMontreal22]

This is the thing though. Reboot or not, the *daily* soap format does make a sort of pact with its audience that if you stick with it, you'll learn the details. That's why IMHo it cannot be approached the same way as a standard TV show, even in this day and age when many standard TV shows are serialized (to different degrees--I know many people who have foolishly tried to jump into Game of Thrones the past year and a half now that the hype has gotten so big for it and actually have given it up simply because there's no way to understand any of it midway through--but it is a different case since it's relatively few episodes and you can catch up.)

To a critic like this, they could watch a classic soap opera episode that you, for example, might love--I dunno, choose your favorite episode from GH in 1980 or whenever you loved it best--and I have a feeling the review would be largely the same. That's where I sense a bias, not in the fact that the critic liked or didn't like it.

[EricMontreal22]

Wait, but you just (quite fairly IMHO) said that it's a personal reaction and people are justified to that. So where is this grand statement of them not lasting (when obviously at least some people did like the first week enough to keep the entire week's episodes ranked highly on Hulu) come from?

I think it's too simplistic to just say that anyone who dislikes the review is merely delusional because they disagreed with the opinion. I *love* reading Pauline Kael's movie reviews that are collected in those thick books. Much more often than not I completely disagree with her on if she loves or hates a movie. I also think she brings her own biases to the reviews (which we all do.) But, for me, they're a joy to read and even hen we disagree completely, I get something out of reading her differing opinion and I always get a sense that her personal reasons are justified for her. That's what a good review should be.

But Vee already said it best--this is a lazy, capsule review, where the critic seems kinda embarrassed that he was even assigned the task to review these shows.

[EricMontreal22]

I guess some people did do that--but I'm not sure who. I know, to name several people on here, Vee, Marceline (at least in regards to AMC) and, well, myself all were hopeful these reboots would show potential but I don't think any of us (though I shouldn't speak for myself, I guess) were bragging that these shows would be edgier and great--we were cautiously optimistic and I know all of us have still pointed out some big faults with the current soaps' in their first week but we're also optimistic these can be improved. Certainly I never made any claim that these would attract non soap fans by the droves.

[EricMontreal22]

Has *anyone* on here suggested that, though? I only see people who don't like the shows claiming they feel pressure that they should like them. Which just seems...odd to me. It seems like being defensive on the opposite side to me.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

I'm not necessarily saying I saw it on this board but I sure did see it on other boards.

[All My Shadows]

Why, in 2013, are people still paid to have an opinion?

[ChitHappens]

I said it, EM. That was only my opinion.

[dragonflies]

All i'll say is I couldn't disagree more if I tried. AMC and OLTL are better than the network soaps by a mile and I mean ALL network soaps

[quartermainefan]

There is a pessimism that is pervasive at times. Go back to the initial PP thread from two years ago and all the "delusional! It ain't happening!" posts. Then came the threads devoted to "these psycho soap fans I feel embarrassed for them" and then came the "Again? I will believe it when I see it. No one wants to watch a soap online". And yet here AMC and OLTL are. So the posts just a week into the show "these soaps suck" sort of are of a trend.