http://www.independent.co.uk/news/me...-a6669661.html

I found this article to be intriguing and interesting and felt it was worth sharing on a soap forum for discussion 👍

Interesting read, I agree with the viewpoint that soaps alienate viewers by consistently focusing on sensationalist plots rather than drawing on real life experiences.

Do you feel all soaps in the round are equally guilty of this?

Fair article. I only watch EE, but the only episodes that I thought really good this year were about what I'd call real life situations...Stan's death, Kat's return to the convent, the stillbirth and the introduction of Christine. I also like the everyday relationships between families and friends, and their ups and downs.

They do make a good point about soaps becoming more sensational but using boxsets as an example if what people now prefer to soaps, shows like breaking bad and game of thrones aren't grounded and relateable lol. I do think it would be a sad day if the soapsdied, to me they are as british as fish and chips.

They're right. All the soaps are locked in to a race to the bottom where they're on far too much so there's little time to breathe and take stock, have become ever more sensationalist and stories and archetypes have become over familiar.

It will only stop if the big 3 reduce their episodes IMO but short term thinking prevails.

Kat's episode was her best in years but then she caught secret sprogitis which is a plot device that should be used sparingly IMO. I understand why they did it though.

Neighbours is much better at drawing on real life situations (well it did when I watched it). I think it balanced its stories much better than other soaps. If Karl Kennedy was having marriage troubles in January, come February his only concern would be trying to get a gig for his band.

In Eastenders some characters just have misery after misery piled on them, this is true for the highest paid actors as they feel it's a waste if they are paying someone a lot of money to take part in filler plots. But sometimes the filler plots are necessary, if a character has so much misery you just end up not caring what happens to them because you have seen it all before. It's much harder to like a character these days.

To a degree although Hollyoaks is the clear winner in this category

As someone from the US who has watched our soaps die a slow painful death I find an article like this on the British soaps almost hilarious. Coronation Street, Emmerdale and East Enders all get over 30% share of the audience in a world where everyone has 200+ channels, Netflix, Hulu and DVR. To put that in perspective Empire which here in the US is a run away hit and has had ratings like the 4 broadcast networks haven't seen in years had a 5.8 ratings share, if our soaps got ratings like that we'd still have 12 soaps on the air instead of 4. Second from what I've seen the the pie is shrinking for tv audiences so the total # of viewers has gone down but their share of the audience has not, so again there is no real cause for alarm.

Another thing is the British networks seem to be committed to their soaps and realize their importance by investing in new sets, keeping their quality and giving them the prime time spotlight that they deserve. I think now the US broadcasters are starting to realize they made a mistake, ABC canceled All My Children and One Life to Live they thought they'd save money by replacing them with talk shows, but the talk shows failed and were not able to get the type of ratings AMC and OLTL could produce even in their final days. Plus most of ABC's primetime line up is nothing but soapy shows like Scandal, Grey's Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder. If ABC had invested in AMC and OLTL like ITV and BBC do with their soaps they'd both still be on and in great health.

Very interesting point Mark.

I think part of what underlines the point about boxsets is that they are a time limited emotional investment for the viewer to watch on their ownterms. There's conclusions and payoffs from stories and this may be more suited to an increasing number of viewers rather than soaps?

Another way of looking at it is British channels are killing the goose that lays the golden egg and milling UK soaps until their dry!

I agree and I think Ronnie Mitchell is a perfect illustration of what your saying.

While I agree that they don't want go into over kill with the soaps, I don't think they are at that point. Showing 5 30 min episodes a week doesn't fall into that category IMHO.

That's who I had in mind

Dramas with a beginning, middle and end have always existed though.

True, but not in the ways they're available now. I remember the days when you got one episode of something, then had to wait a whole week for the next one. The anticipation! Now that you can stream whole series, you can watch pretty much at your own pace. People go on box set binges.

There's also a lot of talent in TV drama these days - the film industry has mainly gone over to mega-blockbusters and superheroes, and TV has filled the quality drama gap. Soaps can't really compare. Specially when they so obviously change storyline directions/character personalities as they go along. They just end up looking a bit naff.

I think Doctor Foster on BBC1 recently showed how a non sensationalist story interwoven with many characters can be well written, well paced and of a really high standard.

Of course I'm comparing a 5 episode show with a soap, but principle of well-written drama remains. You don't need unrealistic plot twists at every turn, you just need characters who you emphasise with and who you can relate to.

I'm loving the plot twists and turns in EE at the moment (although hate that they're now making out 'Hello Princess' was Gavin's line) but I do prefer the show when they do hard hitting, well written drama, such as the still birth plot with Shabnam.

How do you think this will play out over the longterm?

I enjoyed Dr F and it was a great succees but it was utterly mental and it got ripped to shreds as much as any soap does on DS.

I don't know H. Soaps still rate competitively well on a regular basis and if they are still getting strong shares as Mark says they will stagger on for at least ten/twenty years IMO.

The way we watch tv and the impact of the internet is still an unknown too.

That dinner table scene. I could watch it on repeat. It's the sort of writing EE and the rest could only dream of.

The problem is, for that plot to translate into soap it would need about 6 months to a year of affair before the reveal and twists take place.

It was fantastic though.

I agree. Initially I thought it was just melodramatic tosh but the way it built I had to keep watching. And the finale was fantastic. Love the way she walked into the sea to drown herself, then looked at the old man and said, "Then I thought NO!" I would love EE to have a character like that.

I loved the shot of her slowly walking away from the dinner table, whilst all hell broke loose behind her. She didn't even dignify herself to slap the tramp sleeping with her husband.