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Sensationalism v Realism |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: With MyAndy!
Posts: 15,200
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Sensationalism v Realism
Thought this might be an interesting discussion.
This week we have had Emmerdale and Corrie with big weeks and sensationalism in that they had big stunts, controversial stuff going on: Corrie -David being locked in the cellar -David swearing - Approx ten residents of the street being able to lift a car. - Mary and Beth swapping places. ED The whole week ![]() In comparison Eastenders and Hollyoaks have put out fairly normal realistic weeks. Hollyoaks was mostly about Jade dying from Cancer. Eastenders was about Dot seemingly losing her eyesight, Kim not being able to drive, Claudette showing her true colours, William being bullied. So do you watch and expect sensationalism every week, want realism or a mix of both. Reading the forums over a long time, ppl wanted Corrie to have more drama and to stop being "boring" that happens and some complain even further! Eastenders is the other way round the rest-cons and fan fic have stopped but now it's "boring". I don't think it is! |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Feb 2012
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Eastenders has gone from one extreme to the other. From garbage sensationalist fan fiction that DTC and his cronies produced and lied about, to utterly banal, terminally dull plots about bins and driving lessons.
Neither are healthy, and the current boring approach will not lure back the many hundreds of thousands of viewers driven away by DLC or DMV or whatever he calls himself. |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 1,383
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I expects soaps to find a medium where they are an exaggerated version of reality, reality is frankly boring on it's own for the majority of the time, sensationalist plots one after the other are completely unbelievable.
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#4 |
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Join Date: Sep 2009
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Corrie reigned supreme with realism back in the day, I don't think there was any sensationalism, deaths were few and far between and they weren't afraid to let a storyline play out, slowly, as if in real time. So a shooting or tragedy was a real shock! It's humour was it's strength and stopped the "realism" from becoming boring.
With Emmerdale this week there was plenty of sensationalism - just how many times can one person break his leg? (and head ) BUT, when Emmerdale do do (!) serious, such as Ashley's vascular dementia and the shock Holly dying storyline, it's researched extraordinarily well and there's nothing to touch it.
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#5 |
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Join Date: Feb 2010
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Realism every time.. you can have fantastic dramatic stories without being ott.
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#6 |
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Join Date: Dec 2010
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Quote:
Reading the forums over a long time, ppl wanted Corrie to have more drama and to stop being "boring" that happens and some complain even further! Eastenders is the other way round the rest-cons and fan fic have stopped but now it's "boring". I don't think it is!
EastEnders does currently seem to have the right idea, in working on character development and interaction, so that when something bigger happens later on it has a far bigger impact. Though people are kidding themselves if they think the current output is going to have universal appeal. People expect a balance of the two these days, which of course would be possible now if the current producer didn't have to do so much ground work first. |
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#7 |
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Join Date: May 2013
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I like a mix of both. Too much of either can be boring.
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#8 |
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Join Date: Nov 2011
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For me the problem started when soap awards started. Before they existed soaps were able to do everyday stuff and mix it with big stories and the occasional shock or sensational stuff.
Viewers were contented, it was largely believable stuff even when we saw the out of the ordinary. Of course this was also an era before the internet where people were able to express their thoughts. However with the soap awards now heavily in the thoughts of all the soaps they are constantly chasing ratings through shocks, mainly because the award categories such as spectacular scene, best dramatic performance, best episode, best villain etc, all these are obviously going to lead to soaps going to extreme lengths to shock us even more than the previous year. ED is not doing itself any favours by constantly going down the sensational stunt route as its hard to keep bettering the last one before people start to call out that its gone beyond any sort of realism. So its hard to answer the question when you see that things are a lot different now to what soaps used to be about. People need to accept its a different era completely now. |
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#9 |
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Join Date: Jan 2014
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A mix of the two finely balanced makes for better drama
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#10 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 38,853
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Quote:
For me the problem started when soap awards started. Before they existed soaps were able to do everyday stuff and mix it with big stories and the occasional shock or sensational stuff.
Viewers were contented, it was largely believable stuff even when we saw the out of the ordinary. Of course this was also an era before the internet where people were able to express their thoughts. However with the soap awards now heavily in the thoughts of all the soaps they are constantly chasing ratings through shocks, mainly because the award categories such as spectacular scene, best dramatic performance, best episode, best villain etc, all these are obviously going to lead to soaps going to extreme lengths to shock us even more than the previous year. ED is not doing itself any favours by constantly going down the sensational stunt route as its hard to keep bettering the last one before people start to call out that its gone beyond any sort of realism. So its hard to answer the question when you see that things are a lot different now to what soaps used to be about. People need to accept its a different era completely now. My favourite era of Corrie to watch is still the 70's when nothing sensational happened at all! Just drama and comedy. When Ernie Bishop was shot and killed in 1978 it was a storyline that stretched for months - today it would be forgotten the next week to make way for the next murder! lol Back then it was characters and storylines - and comedy. Give me that over an explosion and murder a week anyday! ![]() A TV mag did do a Soap awards - no ceremony of course - in the early 90's. I remember Jack and Vera won the best couple and Sarah Lancashire won best actress. About 1992, something like that. The award looked like a figure made out of soap! I've still got pics of them with their awards! |
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#11 |
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Personally, I prefer character driven stories but that said, the odd bit of sensationalism does get me quite excited in spite of myself.
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#12 |
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Join Date: May 2006
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Quote:
Realism every time.. you can have fantastic dramatic stories without being ott.
I only watch EE, so I can't really comment on the others. However, I personally believe that EE is currently going through a transitional period - trying to undo the fan-fic/sensational era of DTC. Once that is done, I'd imagine that the drama will increase - still keeping the realism that us fans of EE expect. Just give it time. ![]() Don't get me wrong, some of DTC's work was good, just OTT at times. |
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#13 |
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Join Date: Sep 2014
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A bit more humour wouldn't go a miss as some situations in real life can be humorous and some people even laugh and joke when in times of strife.
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#14 |
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Corrie was real back at the beginning, when it was new and fresh. It lost any realism long ago, however, and I'm not sure any of the other soaps ever had any realism.
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#15 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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I also think EE has budget constraints so doesn't film on location as much. They're building the new set so they'll be added locations. So you can still do realism but add some flavour to it. The way Emmerdale is shot (even on regular weeks) sets it apart from the other two.
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#16 |
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Join Date: Jul 2005
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All I can say is that there's no point putting people in comas, paralysing them or having them dying for want of a liver if we don't give a jot. The drama is just wasted.
How many times do we hear there's going to be a crash and react by hoping certain characters get killed or permanently disabled, or that they're losing all their money and think 'oh good'. Let's have more reality and less panto. The EE episode threads have been a lot quieter since we no longer spend our time booing and hissing and screaming 'rubbish'. |
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#17 |
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Certainly realism every time for me!!
Big stunts & killing off characters just for the sake of raising viewing figures for a couple of episodes is the mark of desperation & a dearth of imagination from the writers imo! Let's divert the time & effort taken organising stunts into developing the characters in a realistic way so that the audience can engage with them & care about them enough if & when we do get those 'big' moments & scenes!! As a good current example Anna's character on Corrie has been so much all over the place in recent years that many on here feel no sympathy or empathy with her now she has been badly injured from petrol burns & some even wanted her burned to death!! ![]() I'm sure that wasn't the intention or expectation when they filmed the scenes but if you place big storylines before character development that is what's likely to happen!! |
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All times are GMT. The time now is 12:30.



) BUT, when Emmerdale do do (!) serious, such as Ashley's vascular dementia and the shock Holly dying storyline, it's researched extraordinarily well and there's nothing to touch it.

