Soaps - Have they lost their edge?

[Moonbowlspoon]

When I was growing up my mum watched all the soaps, and they seemed genuinely dramatic and full of great characters. The one that sticks in my mind most was the domestic violence / body under the patio storyline in Brookside. It was hugely gripping.

These days I only watch Corrie, and even then only if I’m in and have a bit of time to put it on catch up. It seems a shadow of its former self, some decent characters but a lot of rubbish ones, with irritating drawn-out plots. A lot of the light comedy seems forced too, it’s not the everyday humour I recognise from growing up in a Northern working class community.

Have they had their day?

AIBU?

Aren’t they all just lecturing everyone about some latest woke cause. Everyone’s an activist in soap land nowadays. No one wants to be lectured by soaps.

I really thought this was going to be a thread about the popularity of body wash!

I'm actually very surprised soaps are still going.

They're really really shoddy and crap by modern TV standards.

Back in the 80s my mum loved them all. It gave her a glimpse into what she thought was typical English life of various places.

Emmerdale Farm - country folk
Brookside - Liverpool (I think?🤔)
Corrie - Manchester
EastEnders - Cockneys

We tried to tell her that that's not how English people live, but she wouldn't have it ..
She was shocked when she met a 'northerner' and they didn't have pigeons out the back. 🤣
(I exaggerate, but not much ..)

Sad, came on this thread to enthuse about bars of soap.

This. It's affecting numerous franchises. Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Hollywood in general have all fallen down the same pit. Early 2019 was the start of the rot.

The Mario Bros movie is a promising sign of going back to pre-2019 times though as there were no politics in that. Just a fun, eye candy and simple CGI movie for children and adults alike to veg out for 90 minutes.

I thought this was going to be about the soaps you wash with. Colour me disappointed.

I imagine it must be hard to write for soaps. Many have been going for decades, and it surely difficult to come up with fresh and new story lines to keep relevant and engaged with the audience. It is not like they can introduce a fantasy element to keep it interesting (a dragon in Corrie would make me tune in!).

But, times move on, as does technology, awareness of things like mental health issues, crime, moral issues, and things like gender identity etc.

I only watch Eastenders. The only real issue I have is that is if someone is looking to move to Albert Square, surely a quick Google would put them off? So many murders and dodgy dealings in such a small postcode.

When I was growing up I watched all the soaps but now I only watch Eastenders, and I do that on iplayer so I can fast forward the filler parts. I came across old clips of Corrie recently on social media - the acting was much better and so were the storylines.

The quality of Coronation Street has gone down dramatically in recent years, I watch Classic Corrie and Modern Corrie, the difference in the standard of the writing, the storylines, the dialogue and acting is stark, I think the budget to produce the show must have gone down dramatically, in classic regular characters are there just often in the background, they didn’t have to be part of a major storyline to appear, this added to the realism, it reflected day to day life with casual interactions and conversations, now it feels more like watching a stage play, x marks the spot where the actors deliver their lines, storylines start and then disappear for weeks on end, characters don’t interact, there are barely any extras, I could go on listing the demise. It saddens me because I have watched it since I was a child so won’t give up on it, I just wish the glory days would return.

I imagine it must be hard to write for soaps. Many have been going for decades, and it surely difficult to come up with fresh and new story lines to keep relevant and engaged with the audience

Come over to the Corrie thread we all come up with some cracking ideas for storylines! we also remember the characters history unlike the actual scriptwriters who don’t have clue.

When you think Corrie used to have writers of the calibre of Jack Rosenthal, Geoffrey Lancashire, Tony Warren - I don't know who's writing it these days but I haven't watched it since the old characters disappeared.

I have never seen Emmerdale, I watched Brookside from beginning to end, and I watched Coronation Street and Eastenders for many years (I am 53). I stopped watching Coronation Street maybe 20 years ago but I kept up with Eastenders until maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I think my main irritation is the way they cycle characters through different relationships with each other.

Agreed. Don’t watch any of them any more. I used to be an avid Corrie fan but it has long since lost what made it special. It’s just a soap now.

Me too!

I read it as soups

Surely every bomb scare/ unexpected death / pregnancy / tragic misunderstanding/ bad boy getting away with it / bad boy getting comeuppance etc etc has been covered at least once and they have run out of sensible -ish ideas.

@PurpleMonkeys
Thank you, at the start of what is going to be a tricky day, your comment really made me laugh. 💐

On the whole I agree with you. Too many cast members who flit in and out of storylines. However, I have been amazed by the recent Mack, Charity, Chloe scenes on Emmerdale. Brilliantly filmed!

I don't watch any of the evening soaps and haven't done for years. I watch Doctors during the day sometimes when not at work.

Also disappointed this isn't about imperial leather etc

I think I should also clarify my position on soap too, given the above.

I think it’s had its day, apart from novelty stuff for gifts. My Gran always used Imperial Leather. I haven’t bought any soap for about 25 years.

I do have a bar of gardeners’ soap that was a gift that I used occasionally when I’ve been gardening.

I dont watch any these days, it's actually partly down to them trying too dramatic storylines too frequently, plus the characters churn too quickly

The Archers is consistently brilliant imo. I do think that a lot of the moaning is down to nostalgia- Everything was better in t'olden days!

@Moonbowlspoon Thank you for that. I too think its being replaced by handwash

Best of luck with your day. Channel your inner Elsie Tanner

I stopped listening during lockdown when they started doing those awful internal monologue episodes. Keep meaning to start listening again.