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Debate- The alleged decline of soaps


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Old 03-03-2014, 17:04
Goosebee
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Hi all, reading on here over the last few days it has become apparent that in general soaps are less well received than they were even a decade ago. Here comes the point of debate; is it really that the quality has declined, or have we as a soap viewing culture become more adept at guessing the twists and turns we will be thrown resulting in less enjoyment? For example the media is far more intrusive now with pictures and tweets shared left right and centre, making it far more difficult to either avoid spoilers kr for the soaps to keep them secret anyway.

Additionally- one of the reasons I feel I am currently enjoying soaps less is because given the choice I would wrote certain characters and storylines VERY differently. So maybe Im ruining my enjoyment by being too critical- and lets face it the EPs are paid lots of money to write, im not (unfortunately).

Any thoughts?
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Old 03-03-2014, 17:07
_elly001
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There is no decline. Soaps have always had good periods and bad periods when it comes to quality. The perceived 'decline' you're talking about is simply due to the nature of the internet, where spoilers are dissected and judged before they've even begun to play out on screen.

If you feel that soap quality has declined, it's probably time to step away from the internet and simply enjoy soaps for what they are: escapist low-brow TV.
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Old 03-03-2014, 17:14
Goosebee
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I didnt say I personally thought they had declined- just that they seem less well received. Perhaps declined was the wrong choice of word. I do still enjoy watching certain soaps but often wonder if im enjoying them less than I expect to because I woukd handle them very differently.
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Old 03-03-2014, 17:14
Harlowe
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Decline or not I find it hard to believe that Soaps will ever be eradicated totally, they fill a large part of schedules and air time for broadcasters and are still a relative cheap form to produce.

I think its acceptable to say that viewing habits have changed vastly over the years and the way we view shows have a bit of impact on the dramas.

It's true we are more spoiled now because we know a lot of the deeds to storylines before hand and maybe that is a problem in spoiling out enjoyment and can in a part make viewing the storylines less enjoyable, maybe the fact is the soaps need to keep some things secret to the air date but they also do need to release things to generate interest for people to want to tune it.

I can see DTC is taking note of this and giving more surprises, HO did once with the death of Lyndsey so it can be accomplished.

And maybe we as viewers have been watching for so long a lot out of habit we do become too use on what is going to happen because we know the characters, the storylines and twists like the back of our hand.
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Old 03-03-2014, 17:18
_elly001
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I didnt say I personally thought they had declined- just that they seem less well received. Perhaps declined was the wrong choice of word. I do still enjoy watching certain soaps but often wonder if im enjoying them less than I expect to because I woukd handle them very differently.
Sorry, reading my post back it specifically looked like I was aiming it at you, but I just meant people in general who feel that soaps aren't as strong these days as they used to be. If anything, I would say soaps have generally evolved in quality over the years to keep up with modern expectations (they have a LOT more competition these days), yet people still talk about the good old days because there's this mentality that the grass is always greener.

I just think people need to look at it rationally. This board is great to discuss plots, characters, actors etc, but generally speaking the people on here don't represent the majority of viewers who watch soaps on a non-analytical level.
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