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?

As a teenager I'd watch 4 different soaps a week. Now I don't watch any. Not sure why. They just don't appeal to me anymore and I don't really have time. It's a lot of time to invest in a soap - they seem to have so many episodes each week.

The problem now is that they have so many episodes to fill resulting in the quality of the writing declining,
Corrie used to go out twice a week for 30 minutes. No it's 3 60 minute programmes a week. That's a lot of writing.
There are still some pockets of good old northern humour, Tim and Sally are hilarious and I'm hoping Tim has survived his "ordeal"

The soaps on TV lost their way many years ago and just recycle the same tat, dressed up in a different form, depending on what the current woke trend is.

I have bar soap and bar shampoo. There are some lovely ones around.

Well whatever it is you've got on your plate, I hope it all goes smooth and turns out well. ❤️👏🏻

Yes they have lost their edge.

I thought it was just me.

I remember watching Eastenders religiously now it makes my teeth itch.

There was a post about proper soap soap not too long ago.

I remember it cause I got all inspired and went crazy and bought a couple of 'nicer' bars than my usual old fashioned Coal Tar Bar.

Which I've now found out that DD hates the smell of...
even though she's used it for her whole life...
Poor girl, so hard done too, she apparently didn't know that nice smell soap was a thing and thought all bar soaps smelled of Coal Tar. I'm expecting the police to come take me away tbh. 🤪

But they never had any ideas for big storylines in the old Corrie. Just day to day living with characters who we got to love. Fine acting with plenty of humour.

The big dramatic storylines don't keep us hooked, but an argument in the street between Hilda and Elsie did.

Modern Corrie is shite compared to how it used to be.

The current storyline re Stephen has been building slowly for years and all of sudden it's hurtled to its denouement over about 3 episodes. It feels as though the scriptwriters were on crystal meth when they wrote the last few episodes.

Both Corrie and, to a lesser degree, Eastenders seem to suffer from a lot of the narrative revolving on chance encounters between characters, which damages the credibility imo. Far more of the narrative used to take place within families, in homes, the pub or in one or other workplace, and were much more character driven. (I've never got into Emmerdale or any of them others, so can't speak for them).

Even R4's The Archers is suffering from this a bit, and it feels far less natural than it used to. They'll leave a character out for what seems like months on end, and then all of a sudden they rock up in the village shop or pub when you've practically forgotten who they are. And some characters have "gone silent" because the actors have left (or died, in one case) so you have this ridiculous situation where they're still referred to as though they're part of village life but never actually do anything.

It's almost as though they're still working like they were during Covid, when they could only have a few actors at a time.

That's why I stopped watching Coronation Street. After over 50 years of watching it. I still enjoy Eastenders though.

There's no money in soaps though. Only British people watch Coronation Street or Eastenders or Emmerdale. Networks put more money/effort into dramas which can then be sold to Netflix or other networks overseas.

Agree also that there are only so many stories you can tell and situations you can put characters into.

Just be grateful that none of you south of the border have the abomination which is River City cluttering up your telly screens.

Eastenders was always a bit preachy. But it had really good characters, so that compensated for it. I don't think soap will ever be as good again as it was when Den handed Angie the divorce papers or the mystery over who got Michelle pregnant. Or the classic Deirdre, Ken and Mike storyline from Corrie.
Corrie had lots of gentle humour and characters who lived in our homes for decades and felt like family. Soap has suffered by being on too many times in the week - twice was plenty, And having too many characters come and go and too many unrealistic plots.
Watching people go about their day to day lives with affairs and bickering and laughter was much better.

I used to watch Eastenders, Corrie and Hollyoaks but stopped around 20 years ago.

When we only had four channels the biggest soaps were pulling in around 6 million viewers every episode, it must only be a fraction of that now.

I tried to go back to watching Eastenders a couple of years ago but I found it boring. I don't know anyone who watches soaps these days besides MIL. Gen Z aren't interested, my younger cousins cousin (on their other side of the family) joined the Coronation Street cast and when I asked them about her joining they shrugged and said 'we've never watched it'.

All soaps are and always have been utter shit. They only seem to have got worse because OP has realised.

Don't forget Daran Little, wrote for Corrie 2000 - 2010. Brilliant writer, knew how to write women characters. He's gone to Eastenders now.

Yes another one here who was worried this thread was about the downfall of bar soap. I hate shower gel.

They were ruined when they increased the episodes. DH and I were talking about it. In the 80s you could go on holiday for 2 weeks and catch up, the stories were all slow burn and went on for ages.
They were meant to be set in real life but surely the square in Eastenders, the houses would be worth a fortune now. It’s on a tube line as well!