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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Why are people so into soaps? obsessed in some cases.

63 replies

vivizone · 19/03/2013 22:27

Like seriously into them. I hear conversations about the characters as if they ae real! A colleague saying "so and so is a bastard.Bianca is well rid". Haha I mean who cares? Then you get the people who actually BUY the soap mags to read about these pretend people!

My cousin's social life revolves around her not missing her soaps.I don't see her often now.

Wouldn't it just be better to watch reality shows once in awhile? Soaps take about 3/4 evenings out of your time. It's rubbish!

Apologies for any spelling mistakes. On phone and no spellchecker

OP posts:

WillSingForCake · 20/03/2013 09:51

Fluffy

Btw, I do think Badger was right to let Ratty in that night, because otherwise Badger wouldn't have known Toad was going off the rails.

I think this Wind in the Willows mag is taking shape already!

TroublesomeEx · 20/03/2013 10:06

YANBU to wonder why some people discuss it like it's real life.

But you are also being VU to suggest that people watch reality TV ever!!

SucksToBeMe · 20/03/2013 16:57

Owl lady, me and my mum just had a good giggle at your husband!!!!

Mrsrobertduvall · 20/03/2013 18:13

I love Corrie and have watched it for 45 years.
Ds has inherited my love too.

It's the only thing, along with the 10 o clock news and the odd thriller, that I watch,

lola88 · 20/03/2013 19:33

I was going to answer but corrys starting and Stella's stuck in a fire and so is sunita and i read someone dies and it's sooooo exciting!

butterflyexperience · 20/03/2013 19:45

They are awful and depressing

And most of the characters are thick as shit

Molehillmountain · 20/03/2013 19:50

It's only on the third reading of your title, which I'd been thinking was a bit odd tbh, that I realised you were talking about the tv programme variety of soap, not the kind you wash with

LaurieFairyCake · 20/03/2013 19:52

I stopped watching them about 26/27 - life became more interesting than fantasy. I can't even imagine watching them now

ComposHat · 21/03/2013 01:46

Cos Corrie lets me forget about my shite life for half an hour and immerse myself in the shite lives of fictional people, plus it is occasionally very funny and comforting when you don't see many people on a day to day basis.

It requires no thought to watch and is excellent mind candy.

melbie · 21/03/2013 07:28

I used to watch loads of soaps. Then I realised I was wasting a lot of my life watching made up people live theirs. I now live somewhere I can't watch any soaps and life is much nicer! I think it is habit mainly but once you get out of the habit you suddenly have so much more time on your hands!

MTSgroupie · 21/03/2013 07:43

In my younger days I was into soaps but only the American 'glossy' ones like Dallas and Dynasty. Watching good looking rich people living in big houses was my escape from Life.

I found the Brit ones quite depressing. I come from a WC background so why would I want to spend my evenings watching programs about the lives of bunch of other WC people?

ImTooHecsyForYourParty · 21/03/2013 08:12

I don't know.

I hate them. They are so depressing. Full of miserable people who go from one disaster to another. Nobody is ever happy for long. Relationships fail, people get betrayed, folks are forever falling out...

What's great about watching the misery of others? I don't understand why people want to watch unhappiness rather than happiness. Why is misery entertaining?

Same reason that news is full of bad things. So many good and lovely things happen in the world, yet the news almost exclusively focuses on bad things. A good news story might get reported as an add on once in a while, but really, if it's not a disaster, a tragedy, a crime or something - it's not news.

Why? Why only bad things? Wouldn't it be nice to have some breaking news that some really wonderful thing has been done that has made so many people really happy and helped loads of people? Wouldn't it be nice to have a soap full of happy people living nice lives in loving relationships?

Why is only bad good? Why is nice not interesting? I don't get it.

digerd · 21/03/2013 08:22

Don't watch any, as the story-lines are ridiculous and the acting awful.

MTSgroupie · 21/03/2013 09:08

Apologies for going off topic a bit but many years ago a friend did a thesis comparing Amercan culture to Brit culture. Soaps was one area she looked at.

Americans like watching soaps about rich, attractive people who work in glam or high power jobs. Basically, they want an escape from Life.

Brits by comparison liked watching soaps like Corrie where the people and their problems mirror their own experiences.

That's the grown ups. Teenagers weren't. that different. I mean, they had Beverly Hills 9021. We had Grange Hill :)

My friend's conclusion was a couple of pages of PhD waffle but basically Americans aspire for a 'better' life. If they can't fulfill that dream in Real Life then at least they can watch it on TV. Brits on the other hand prefer to stick with what they know and is 'real'.

ImTooHecsyForYourParty · 21/03/2013 09:14

That would make sense if they WERE real! . ok, it's been a while since I've seen one, but they're all murder and betrayal and misery and plotting to destroy people. If anyone actually HAD the life of a soap character, they'd end up hurling themselves off a bloody bridge!

StiffyByng · 21/03/2013 09:35

Hahaha! The number of times I've been told I have the life of a soap character.

I don't watch them at all, although I've watched most of them at stages through my life. But I can see exactly why people do. The people on the screen become familiar friends. They are a safe outlet for gossip. They are company for lonely people. They are fake family to bond with others over.

150 years ago, novels were serialised and followed avidly in a similar way. We love an unfolding story and a cliffhanger. Some of the soap stories I saw as a child are in my memory as much as events in my own life.

MTSgroupie · 21/03/2013 17:07

Having an affair with the mechanic is more 'real' than having your trust fund looted by your dad's trophy wife :)

OhLori · 21/03/2013 18:25

Well I am a bit of an oddity on this one. Didn't watch them for years and thought they were a waste of time (Still do, to an extent!). Then a couple of xmas's ago (they put the best soap stories and cliffhangers on at xmas!!) got attached to Eastenders. Some of the writing is pretty good, even funny, the same with the acting. But I do get a bit bored or irritated with some of the storylines e.g. the pregnant teenager girl mooning about being a saint and a martyr Grrr....

My son also loves Eastenders and maybe its even a bit of a bonding experience for us both! .

My mother swears Coronoation Street is much better acting and writing, but I can't let myself watch to find out as maybe I will really get into that too, and that will be two soaps a night!

p.s. And also agree v. much with Styffy's insights "The people on the screen become familiar friends. They are a safe outlet for gossip. They are company for lonely people. They are fake family to bond with others over."

ComposHat · 21/03/2013 18:30

My mother swears Coronoation Street is much better acting and writing, but I can't let myself watch to find out as maybe I will really get into that too, and that will be two soaps a night!

Your mum is right, I can't get into Eastenders, looks too miserable and dark.

Mind you we were never allowed to watch it as kids, due to my mother's hatred of " moaning cockney robdogs"

VodkaJelly · 21/03/2013 19:10

I watch soaps, I really like them. But I dont watch them religiously or record them, if I am in I watch them, if I am at the gym/pub/out etc then I dont watch. I like the escapism of them. I also buy a soap mag once a week. This is due to missing so many episodes, buying the mag means I know what is going on so when I do get to watch again I am not lost.

I dont get why the OP is so upset about them. If they make people happy whats the problem?

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 21/03/2013 19:16

Escapism here too, I've been watching Corrie for about 30 years, it's just a comforting half an hour with old friends, sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's very good indeed. I started watching Doctors recently when I was off work sick for a few weeks, it is so bad it's good IYSWIM. I don't talk about them to anyone IRL much, but enjoy a good natter on here, it is just a good thing to chat about, safe gossip, as others have said.

I've never got into reality TV much though, that is the one that puzzles me.

LadyBeagleEyes · 21/03/2013 19:19

I totally echo your post Hecsy.
I watched Corrie up until about 10 years ago, it used to have some gentle humour in it.
But now it's gone the way of EE as has Emmerdale.(I've only watched a couple of episodes of them though)
They are now all just unmitigated misery.
Im' always that over Christmas there has to be a desperately miserable storyline, and they get huge viewing figures.
Who want's to do that on Christmas day?

ComposHat · 21/03/2013 19:21

Beagle I think it so everyone else's miserable Christmas feels less shite by comparision! You can always say to yourself 'Well at least we didn't have a tram crash through our house.'

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 21/03/2013 19:22

Not me, I record the Christmas ones and watch them a few days later. Corrie isn't all doom and gloom, but it is much more so than it used to be. You still get the odd flash of brilliant humour, mostly from the older characters.

DramaInPyjamas · 21/03/2013 19:26

I used to watch them all - Home & Away, Neighbours, Hollyoaks, Family Affairs, Brookside, Coronation Street, Eastenders, Emmerdale, Night & Day, probably others as well - Can't remember (my brain is fried with soaps watching!)

Nowadays it's just Corrie, Eastenders and River City.

And they get Sky+ and watched whenever it suits so they don't interupt with RL.

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