Drama, Daytime or Otherwise

Ok, now what is the attraction of soap operas? Honestly? I dunno if any of you have ever watched an episode of "Days of our Lives" or "General Hospital" (I much prefer Specific Medical Center) but I can't find the attraction. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about drama. Drama, romance, intricite webs of emotions and relationships, deep dramatic cliff hangers, and speeches that no normal person would make. And if you think those qualities are limited to soaps and romance novels, you obviously haven't watched Babylon 5, or read Rising Stars, or Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series (the saga that I think gave birth to the "space opera" genera). But, why, oh dear Lord in Heaven, why must your average soap opera have actors more two dimensional and wooden than Keanu Reeves? Ok, yes I took a crack at Keanu, but everyone has, right? Still, my point stands. If they could get decent actors, the shows would improve quite a bit, but that still keeps them sub-par in most cases. Any show where the answer is: "last season was all a dream sequence" needs to have the recordings set fire to and then have the ashes scattered across the plains of Aesir. Does this mean all "soap-opera-esque" things are bad? No. I quite enjoy Smallville (even though I haven't been able to follow it regularly since season 2, stupid schoolwork), and that is very much a soap-opera-esque thing. But it's just better all around. I don't care what genera you're in, you need to have 1) a good plot, 2) good writing, 3) good acting, and if you're going to do special effects ... 4) enough budget to do them descently. Kirk dodged better explosions back in '67 than the ones seen on General Hospital.

P.S. Karen informs me that the OC (Orange County, to those of you who haven't seen a tv guide recently) is better than all the other soap-operas out there. So I guess it can't be too bad.

In other news, I do believe that this is the only chain letter that I will ever send to anyone. Hurray for soapboxes.

And say goodbye to those power bricks for your personal electronics. God I love easy to use technology.

Oh yes, and you may have noticed that there is a new forum up. I finally got some better software installed. Unforunately, the files from the previous forum won't transfer, so if you registered previously, don't forget to do so again. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but damn if it's not pretty.

Welcome to the Comedity. Don't step on the Penguin.
Garth (Monday - February 21, 2005) -22:50:15