Soapy Stuff of which I'll never tire

[YRBB]

"Nothing will ever come between NAME and me..."

 

"I promise you, everything's going to be alright."

 

CUE everything is NOT alright!

[Khan]

 

I love that [!@#$%^&*], too, lol.

[j swift]

Two people hug, and as the camera focuses on one of them the audience can see their contempt for the other all over their face

 

The wacky bride and/or groom missing their ride to their wedding

 

Wise cracking household staff; in uniform

 

Magic bed sheets where every woman wakes up with her breasts covered while her bed partner's chest is exposed for all to see.

 

 

 

[SteelCity]

You also have to love bruiseless slaps and punches!

[Gray Bunny]

A woman with perfectly coiffed hair and in full makeup after a full night of sleep and/or hot sex. 

[Fevuh]

Didn't scroll through all the responses - but a really good eavesdrop when the secret was REALLY big, and the truth is found out by the one who the secret is being kept from and then they continue to act like they don't know until they DROP THE BOMB or doublecross the other person...

[j swift]

The complete lack of subtlety in these types of scenes is part of my love of soaps.  Any genre could use the device of the victim overhearing a plan, but soaps use tons of tropes to make sure the audience knows what is happening.  Nods to those watching at home include: the discordant tense music during a pleasant interaction, an arched eyebrow straight to camera while the other character is talking, and a high pitched vocal tone in conversation, contrasted with a lower tone when they scheme.  No other genre would dare to use all of these conventions in one scene, which is why soaps seem so over the top to those who are not fans.

 

Can use imagine a baseball player coming to bat, smiling at the pitcher, and then snaring to the camera for the audience at home?  Or a cooking show host hugging their guest but mugging behind their back?  I often giggle that soaps are produced as if you should still be able to understand the scene even if the you are vacuuming and can't hear the dialogue. 

[Gray Bunny]

During the Reilly DAYS, I found it hilariously soapy when someone would have a flashback and they would literally turn and look off to the side to have their flashback moment even though they were in the middle of a conversation with other people in the room. 

[DramatistDreamer]

When star-crossed lovers finally occupy the same space after seemingly kept apart by outside forces. 

 

Perhaps across a crowded room at some public event, they catch each other's gaze. 

 

One lover tries to look away, convinced that they could never work and he/she shouldn't entertain the notion that they could ever be together but cannot resist beholding the other person in his/her sights.

 

With conversations swirling around them, they remain fixed in each other's gaze, full of longing.

[Paul Raven]

How could we not include

 

Characters talking to themselves, not just a few words as we all might do, but monologues sometimes recapping entire storylines.

Flashbacks

Voiceovers

 

Also, character A answering the door to their rival/enemy (who has performed all sorts of dastardly deeds against them) and instead of shutting the door in their face they LET THEM IN.

Sometimes there's a token push of the door but the other party just barges in saying' 'you will listen to this!!'

[vetsoapfan]

I love when a show's theme music starts to play during a particularly poignant or heart-wrenching scene.

 

In 1987 (I think) Ed and Johnny Bauer were exchanging Christmas gifts, and when Ed unwrapped his, he was surprised to see that it was an old-but-beautiful baby pillow. He was unsure how to react for a second, but then Johnny explained that the pillow had been made by Ed's mom Bert many years before. The theme music (My Guiding Light) started to play gently in the background as the men referenced the beloved matriarch, Ed got choked up, and my tears started to flow. It was a beautiful moment.

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[EricMontreal22]

This one just recently came up on an episode of Coronation Street (and yet some Corrie fans like to claim that the show doesn't use soap opera cliches and tropes--of course it does, it just does them in a less glamorous way

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)

Someone will try to defuse a potential bombshell involving them--say a lie they told or whatever that's about to be revealed--so they run over to that person's house to tell them, are starting to tell them and the other person plays being calm, etc, only to reveal someone else already revealed the secret in the worst possible way when THAT person walks in from the other room and had been there all along, or whatever.  (OK I didn't explain that clearly but surely any soap fan knows that I mean.)

[titan1978]

I didn’t re-read to see if this was brought up, but I love a trapped on a deserted (or not so deserted) island story.  I blame the Cruise of Deception for that one.  Didn’t Alexandra and Fletcher have an island adventure on GL, as well as Alan and Hope?

 

Tied into this is a soap plane crash where nobody really dies in the crash except a pilot.

 

Also a soap staple- somebody is presumed dead, but their love interest knows they are alive because their love is so strong they would feel it if they were gone.  See any Days couple from the 1980’s supercouple era to Luke and Laura, etc.  Laura knew Luke wasn’t dead in Puerto Rico.  She just knew it!

 

Also- the very special episode/chemistry and acting test of putting people together to see what happens that normally have nothing to do with each other.  Sometimes it’s one infamous scene (Brenda and Nikolas on GH), Luke and gay Lucas coming out (which was a why is he telling Luke this moment), sometimes it leads to more (Roger and Maureen on GL).  GH used to do this organically, with people going to the hospital and sharing scenes with folks they never worked with, like Stone having Alan and Kevin as his doctors.

[Paul Raven]

I guess an extension of that is random characters who have never really interacted, suddenly confiding all sorts of deep and meaningful troubles...possibly because the actor scheduled for that scene is unavailable at the last minute so someone else is dropped in or that actor is working that day and the set is up so Mary will suddenly be at the hospital talking to Dr John.