Originally Posted by sheepiefarm:
“Yep - talking buns are definitely a step too far
”
“Yep - talking buns are definitely a step too far
”
The icing on the cake? Blooming auto-correct.
Results:"Realism Is Important In Soaps"
Strongly Agree
16 (28.07%)
Agree
14 (24.56%)
On The Fence (Realism & Some Suspension Of Reality Is Fine)
25 (43.86%)
Disagree
0 (0%)
Strongly Disagree
2 (3.51%)
Voters: 57. You can't vote on this poll right now - are you signed in?
Is Realism Important / Does It Matter In Soaps?
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Originally Posted by finlux:
“Soaps (or serial dramas) originally WERE realistic. Look at any old episode of Brookside, Eastenders or even vintage Coronation St, and the storylines had an edge of realism. Both Brookside & early EE were realistic & gritty. It's only in latter years soaps have become more fantasy and comedic.”
“Soaps (or serial dramas) originally WERE realistic. Look at any old episode of Brookside, Eastenders or even vintage Coronation St, and the storylines had an edge of realism. Both Brookside & early EE were realistic & gritty. It's only in latter years soaps have become more fantasy and comedic.”
This!
The soaps in their prime were immensely realistic, playing out as a parallel universe to our very own. The result was that people genuinely asked London cab drivers if they could go to Albert Square, and sent characters money when they were in financial straits on screen.
At the same time the soaps often offered an intelligent commentary on contemporary life, Brookside being the best at this. And the result was their ratings went through the roof.
Over the last 15 years this realism has been jettisoned and all the soaps have become cartoons, with huge events having absolutely no long lasting effect and characters having very little psychological growth. And the ratings have collapsed, people looking elsewhere for mental stimulation.
Big Brother killed Brookside, it's truthful insightful into real human behaviour magnifying the ridiculousness of the melodrama that Brookside had become. People could relate to petty squabbles over someone peeing in the toilet seat, whereas desperate stunt events - such as a helicopter crashing into the close - left the audience cold.
I'd say the scripted reality shows such as TOWIE and Made in Chelsea are more akin to the soaps of the past, their simple focus on the trivia of life having far more relevance to a modern audience than the ridiculousness that has become modern soap.
If the soaps are ever to find their feet again it's essential they regain a firm grasp on reality. Otherwise you may as well tune into old episodes of Tom & Jerry.
On how they portray particular issues, yes, definitely. On the frequency of how certain storylines occur, no, as reflecting boring everyday life, would indeed be boring to watch. I mean for example, nobody in their right mind would want to move to an area that had been the setting for so may murders and drama as that of Watford. Hollyoaks 'Chester', or any of the other fictional towns. But when they depict things such as rape, mental health issues, addictions etc, I expect them to do research and try to be as accurate as they can.
Originally Posted by Steve Soapbox:
“This!
The soaps in their prime were immensely realistic, playing out as a parallel universe to our very own. The result was that people genuinely asked London cab drivers if they could go to Albert Square, and sent characters money when they were in financial straits on screen.
At the same time the soaps often offered an intelligent commentary on contemporary life, Brookside being the best at this. And the result was their ratings went through the roof.
Over the last 15 years this realism has been jettisoned and all the soaps have become cartoons, with huge events having absolutely no long lasting effect and characters having very little psychological growth. And the ratings have collapsed, people looking elsewhere for mental stimulation.
Big Brother killed Brookside, it's truthful insightful into real human behaviour magnifying the ridiculousness of the melodrama that Brookside had become. People could relate to petty squabbles over someone peeing in the toilet seat, whereas desperate stunt events - such as a helicopter crashing into the close - left the audience cold.
I'd say the scripted reality shows such as TOWIE and Made in Chelsea are more akin to the soaps of the past, their simple focus on the trivia of life having far more relevance to a modern audience than the ridiculousness that has become modern soap.
If the soaps are ever to find their feet again it's essential they regain a firm grasp on reality. Otherwise you may as well tune into old episodes of Tom & Jerry.”
“This!
The soaps in their prime were immensely realistic, playing out as a parallel universe to our very own. The result was that people genuinely asked London cab drivers if they could go to Albert Square, and sent characters money when they were in financial straits on screen.
At the same time the soaps often offered an intelligent commentary on contemporary life, Brookside being the best at this. And the result was their ratings went through the roof.
Over the last 15 years this realism has been jettisoned and all the soaps have become cartoons, with huge events having absolutely no long lasting effect and characters having very little psychological growth. And the ratings have collapsed, people looking elsewhere for mental stimulation.
Big Brother killed Brookside, it's truthful insightful into real human behaviour magnifying the ridiculousness of the melodrama that Brookside had become. People could relate to petty squabbles over someone peeing in the toilet seat, whereas desperate stunt events - such as a helicopter crashing into the close - left the audience cold.
I'd say the scripted reality shows such as TOWIE and Made in Chelsea are more akin to the soaps of the past, their simple focus on the trivia of life having far more relevance to a modern audience than the ridiculousness that has become modern soap.
If the soaps are ever to find their feet again it's essential they regain a firm grasp on reality. Otherwise you may as well tune into old episodes of Tom & Jerry.”
Great post. I wholeheartedly agree!
Realism does NOT equall boring - it's the lack of it that makes it boring!
Originally Posted by Steve Soapbox:
“This!
The soaps in their prime were immensely realistic, playing out as a parallel universe to our very own. The result was that people genuinely asked London cab drivers if they could go to Albert Square, and sent characters money when they were in financial straits on screen.
At the same time the soaps often offered an intelligent commentary on contemporary life, Brookside being the best at this. And the result was their ratings went through the roof.
Over the last 15 years this realism has been jettisoned and all the soaps have become cartoons, with huge events having absolutely no long lasting effect and characters having very little psychological growth. And the ratings have collapsed, people looking elsewhere for mental stimulation.
Big Brother killed Brookside, it's truthful insightful into real human behaviour magnifying the ridiculousness of the melodrama that Brookside had become. People could relate to petty squabbles over someone peeing in the toilet seat, whereas desperate stunt events - such as a helicopter crashing into the close - left the audience cold.
I'd say the scripted reality shows such as TOWIE and Made in Chelsea are more akin to the soaps of the past, their simple focus on the trivia of life having far more relevance to a modern audience than the ridiculousness that has become modern soap.
If the soaps are ever to find their feet again it's essential they regain a firm grasp on reality. Otherwise you may as well tune into old episodes of Tom & Jerry.”
“This!
The soaps in their prime were immensely realistic, playing out as a parallel universe to our very own. The result was that people genuinely asked London cab drivers if they could go to Albert Square, and sent characters money when they were in financial straits on screen.
At the same time the soaps often offered an intelligent commentary on contemporary life, Brookside being the best at this. And the result was their ratings went through the roof.
Over the last 15 years this realism has been jettisoned and all the soaps have become cartoons, with huge events having absolutely no long lasting effect and characters having very little psychological growth. And the ratings have collapsed, people looking elsewhere for mental stimulation.
Big Brother killed Brookside, it's truthful insightful into real human behaviour magnifying the ridiculousness of the melodrama that Brookside had become. People could relate to petty squabbles over someone peeing in the toilet seat, whereas desperate stunt events - such as a helicopter crashing into the close - left the audience cold.
I'd say the scripted reality shows such as TOWIE and Made in Chelsea are more akin to the soaps of the past, their simple focus on the trivia of life having far more relevance to a modern audience than the ridiculousness that has become modern soap.
If the soaps are ever to find their feet again it's essential they regain a firm grasp on reality. Otherwise you may as well tune into old episodes of Tom & Jerry.”
WhilstI agree about the soaps - I tend to prefer the more down to earth, less hysterical stories - I can't agree about the reality shows being more realistic. They come across as totally artificial to me
Originally Posted by Glendarroch:
“WhilstI agree about the soaps - I tend to prefer the more down to earth, less hysterical stories - I can't agree about the reality shows being more realistic. They come across as totally artificial to me”
“WhilstI agree about the soaps - I tend to prefer the more down to earth, less hysterical stories - I can't agree about the reality shows being more realistic. They come across as totally artificial to me”
Me neither!! Absolutely loathe the falseness of them!!
Yes I do think realism is important and that soaps are more & more losing their grip of it!!
By realism I don't mean (as i think it was Ourobos said earlier) that we want to watch mundane everyday life all the time, I live in a village & in 52 years you would probably have had enough action for a week's worth of Emmerdale so the realism to me needs to come from the characters more than the storylines!!
Someone said earlier that the characters need to react in a realistic way to whatever situation they are facing, which is spot on, and as well as that they need to remain consistent to their character!! That way we get to believe in situations however ludicrous they might be!!
One glaring example of a complete lack of realism to me is the way other characters are with Tracy Barlow in Corrie!! She spends all her life being foul to other residents, quite apart from being in prison for murder yet everyone still talks to her & buys things in her shop etc!! In real life the woman would be a social pariah!! This is the type of thing that annoys me!!
Gail is an example of what I mean by characters needing to remain consistent to their character!! I think we will all be grateful to see a return of the real Gail full time & a complete end to village idiot Gail that has haunted Blackburn's Corrie the last few years!!
Some characters I find a lot more realistically portrayed than others & by and large they are my favourite characters!!
Originally Posted by notdebbiedingle:
“Me neither!! Absolutely loathe the falseness of them!!
Yes I do think realism is important and that soaps are more & more losing their grip of it!!
By realism I don't mean (as i think it was Ourobos said earlier) that we want to watch mundane everyday life all the time, I live in a village & in 52 years you would probably have had enough action for a week's worth of Emmerdale so the realism to me needs to come from the characters more than the storylines!!
Someone said earlier that the characters need to react in a realistic way to whatever situation they are facing, which is spot on, and as well as that they need to remain consistent to their character!! That way we get to believe in situations however ludicrous they might be!!
One glaring example of a complete lack of realism to me is the way other characters are with Tracy Barlow in Corrie!! She spends all her life being foul to other residents, quite apart from being in prison for murder yet everyone still talks to her & buys things in her shop etc!! In real life the woman would be a social pariah!! This is the type of thing that annoys me!!
Gail is an example of what I mean by characters needing to remain consistent to their character!! I think we will all be grateful to see a return of the real Gail full time & a complete end to village idiot Gail that has haunted Blackburn's Corrie the last few years!!
Some characters I find a lot more realistically portrayed than others & by and large they are my favourite characters!!”
“Me neither!! Absolutely loathe the falseness of them!!
Yes I do think realism is important and that soaps are more & more losing their grip of it!!
By realism I don't mean (as i think it was Ourobos said earlier) that we want to watch mundane everyday life all the time, I live in a village & in 52 years you would probably have had enough action for a week's worth of Emmerdale so the realism to me needs to come from the characters more than the storylines!!
Someone said earlier that the characters need to react in a realistic way to whatever situation they are facing, which is spot on, and as well as that they need to remain consistent to their character!! That way we get to believe in situations however ludicrous they might be!!
One glaring example of a complete lack of realism to me is the way other characters are with Tracy Barlow in Corrie!! She spends all her life being foul to other residents, quite apart from being in prison for murder yet everyone still talks to her & buys things in her shop etc!! In real life the woman would be a social pariah!! This is the type of thing that annoys me!!
Gail is an example of what I mean by characters needing to remain consistent to their character!! I think we will all be grateful to see a return of the real Gail full time & a complete end to village idiot Gail that has haunted Blackburn's Corrie the last few years!!
Some characters I find a lot more realistically portrayed than others & by and large they are my favourite characters!!”
This is more or less my view. We do have to allow a certain degree of artistic licence, but not too much. If it strays too far from realism, I can't believe in it, and I don't care about the characters or about what happens to them.
There needs to be realism in the characters' actions and they need to be consistent in what they say and do. There needs to be realism in the settings and they do need to reflect the modern day but realism doesn't need to extend to the storylines so much - they're always going to be more concentrated and more exaggerated than in real life otherwise it would become quite boring and tedious.
It's important that characters' actions and reactions are what we might expect most of the time - not all of the time but most, otherwise we don't have a buy-in to them or understand them. But that does mean that the writers have to allow for their histories to develop what the characters have become today. EE is better at that than CS is, witness Gail and Liz, for example.
Likewise EE does seem to move with the times more whereas CS seems stuck in a bubble of its own little world - and that grates - from the total lack of people's cars parked on the street to still having a family-owned pub on one corner, a family-owned corner shop on the other, plus a newsagents across the road and a factory that actually makes things, not to mention cobbles still on the street and no parking restrictions or residents' parking scheme. It's not changed for decades, nowhere else that urban has stayed the same for so long. It's simply not realistic and is in danger of looking and feeling very dated. I know there'd be uproar but somewhere along the line, the 21st century has to make an impact in Corrie, surely.
As others have said, Brookside and early EE were very realistic in that they were gritty and the characters seemed genuine and true to life, people that you could relate to. Plots weren't realistic (especially in Brookie where they had a knack for turning the screw further before something got resolved, whereas in CS, something bad happened and then it was all made good very quickly and forgotten about!) but as I said earlier, the plots aren't so important as much as what the characters say and do within the stories and how their environments reflect the changing world that we all have to adapt to and stay up to date.
The one reality that soaps should opt out of is money problems. I can overlook that and how characters pay their way, as everytime a story about debt comes up it becomes tedious and mind-numbingly repetitive and restrictive.
It's important that characters' actions and reactions are what we might expect most of the time - not all of the time but most, otherwise we don't have a buy-in to them or understand them. But that does mean that the writers have to allow for their histories to develop what the characters have become today. EE is better at that than CS is, witness Gail and Liz, for example.
Likewise EE does seem to move with the times more whereas CS seems stuck in a bubble of its own little world - and that grates - from the total lack of people's cars parked on the street to still having a family-owned pub on one corner, a family-owned corner shop on the other, plus a newsagents across the road and a factory that actually makes things, not to mention cobbles still on the street and no parking restrictions or residents' parking scheme. It's not changed for decades, nowhere else that urban has stayed the same for so long. It's simply not realistic and is in danger of looking and feeling very dated. I know there'd be uproar but somewhere along the line, the 21st century has to make an impact in Corrie, surely.
As others have said, Brookside and early EE were very realistic in that they were gritty and the characters seemed genuine and true to life, people that you could relate to. Plots weren't realistic (especially in Brookie where they had a knack for turning the screw further before something got resolved, whereas in CS, something bad happened and then it was all made good very quickly and forgotten about!) but as I said earlier, the plots aren't so important as much as what the characters say and do within the stories and how their environments reflect the changing world that we all have to adapt to and stay up to date.
The one reality that soaps should opt out of is money problems. I can overlook that and how characters pay their way, as everytime a story about debt comes up it becomes tedious and mind-numbingly repetitive and restrictive.
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