#us soaps

What do you mean your main couple is the grumpy gay menace and his bisexual disaster soul mate? What do you mean you actually tell stories that impact the WHOLE show? What do you mean YOU have real sets OUTSIDE? What do you mean characters actually interact outside their ONE set? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE STUNTS AND CROSSOVERS AND PEOPLE ACTUALLY DYING?

That does not surprise me. Out of all the British soaps, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks probably have the best online presence. Hollyoaks because it’s a teen soap opera - targeted at the younger demographic.

But Emmerdale, the majority of that online presence is Robron fans. They have a huge international appeal in recent years and when I’m on Twitter and I’m in other fandoms tag, one’s that are from US shows with a huge export, I notice that a lot of people from other countries watch Emmerdale because of Robron. They are like the gateway to the world of Emmerdale.

It’s nice to see Emmerdale as a soap get the recognition it deserves because for so long the battle for Top Dog was between EastEnders and Coronation Street - Emmerdale has always been underrated.

Emmerdale would trail behind and was kind of dismissed as for older audiences and didn’t have that broad appeal because from the outside, it just seemed to be a soap set up north about farming.

Especially for the younger lot, but I started watching when the Bartons joined in 2009 and was hooked onto Holly’s drug addiction storyline and a fell in love with the other storylines and the location. Aaron and Jackson - my babies.

The best thing they probably did was around 2012-2013 where they gave the theme and credits a MAJOR update, they modernised it and it gave a more broad appeal. The old credits of lots of birds eye views and panning of farming and the Northern landscape - while beautiful did not sell the show as well.

Although now I miss it for nostalgia reasons.

So it’s nice to see that Emmerdale that is so underappreciated is getting the attention it deserves. And even though most of the fan base online likely got into it because of Robron, they probably stayed for the other storylines. Like Ashley’s dementia which I will forever praise. Lachlan White. Joe Tate (Come back you handsome devil!) or Kim Tate’s soon permanent return.

The way I see it, soaps are great for escapism. But while US Soaps are about getting lost in the (melo)drama and getting lost in the romance of the ships - their storylines are driven by relationships - British Soaps are embedded in realism (maybe not so much with Hollyoaks), but EastEnders for example are plot driven, while I’d say Corrie and Emmerdale (especially Corrie) are character driven. Also with British Soaps there is a serious dedication to the stories they are telling and the social issues they are trying to tackle. If they are doing a story about dementia, then they will try and work closely with a charity to make sure they are doing the story justice and are giving an accurate portrayal. For example, I’ve been raving about Sinead/Daniel’s storyline on Corrie - at first I just thought they have been acting their asses off that they have gotten me hooked and it’s compelling - but because they have been closely working with a charity, which is the only charity in the UK that deals with cancer during pregnancy, I never realised how common cancer during pregnancy is. I thought it was rare and in Sinead’s case was being done for dramatic purposes but it’s actually common and it’s important that awareness is raised. Another recent example is Corrie tackling male suicide when Aiden Connor killed himself last year - It’s an important issue to be tackled and they worked closely with charities to make sure it was done right.

US Soaps, I just don’t see that kind of dedication. Like when I think of Mike’s Alzheimer’s storyline, at first I was enjoying it and I loved it because General Hospital is in an endless slump at the moment and Max and Maurice were putting on killer performances, emotional performances and it stood out because it was dealing with a realistic issue, it was a bit of realism that juxtaposed all the melodrama and theatrics of General Hospital’s usual drama. Max and Maurice were able to create this believable relationship considering Max was a recast - Max and him were able to recreate the history for long term fans.

But then they ruined it, by dragging the mob into it and this story, instead of being about a father-son relationship, instead of being about Mike, it became about Sonny and the mob. We see Mike go in a care home not because he needs it (he does) but just so he doesn’t rat out Sonny. They added the standard US soap theatrics. And it damaged the storyline.

Anyway just was thinking yesterday about how on Friday afternoons after all the daytime soaps had ended for the week I would call a pay per minute number to hear spoilers for the next week. Lol

Internet I’m sure was available but I cannot remember if I had it at home yet.

I do know I was living with my parents and had my own landline phone line that I paid for because they would have died if they had seen those phone chargers on the bill. :)

Today spoilers are so easily accessible.

If we don’t like or agree with how spoilers are going we read fanfiction showing the storyline going a different direction or write it ourself.

I remember a time when I wanted the weekend to end because Friday had been left on a cliffhanger and I couldn’t wait for Monday to find out what happened.

Don’t know why I’m sharing this I was just having some thoughts of the past and wondered if anyone had the same experience.

I also remember when they had synopsis for the week in the newspaper.

Same here with Emmerdale. Growing up, I always views Hollyoaks aimed at teens and young adults (even though my parents love it), EastEnders aimed at everyone from young to old. Corrie for the older middle aged lot (Parents love that) and then Emmerdale for the older older lot. 

But then I watched the British Soap Awards and saw Holly’s storyline nominated and was gripped so I went and watched it all, and I just fell in love with the location of the soap, the rural setting and farm life. Although I didn’t know many people my age that watched Emmerdale.

I do think in recent years though - and especially because of Robron that Emmerdale has gained a strong youth audience that I think it might have been lacking previously. I think it’s because British soaps are kind of getting a better grasp on ships. They still don’t dominate, which is good when you look at how messy it can get with US soaps, but there definitely seems to be a dedication to building up pairings. Especially when you think how in the 00s betrayal and plotting seemed to be a strong theme in UK soaps.

But recently I’ve finally gotten hooked onto Corrie because of Daniel and Sinead. Before that I only watched it if my parents were watching while I was downstairs.

As for US soaps, I say stick to GH and Days. I watched B&B and it got tediuous because of the repeatiability and going back and forth with couples. Plus half the time they claim to love one person, gets them then want someone else. And I only watched a few episodes of Y&R - but I felt a similarity to that in the same way.

Old GH was good, it’s been in such a bad rut for the past few years. Days is the better of the US soaps IMO. Though I miss old Days with Sami and EJ - I loved EJami, my problematic supercouple.

With Telenovelas, I have an online Canadian friend on Twitter, he’s part Colombian and he tells me about the telenovelas he’s into, so I went on Netflix and started giving it a go. They can be tedious as well depending on plot and characters. But he likes that I watch it because the one he told me about is now on Netflix so I’ve been watching that and occasionally live tweet him. Which is funny because I got him into a Turkish dizi and he live tweets me with those first. I remember when he first did it because the drama had such plots and twists in the first episode (first two actually) that you are just waiting for the penny to drop.

It’s great to see someone of this side of the pond into American soaps. And at least it’s the good ones as well. I highly recommend getting involved with the GH tag on Tumblr, it’s a small fandom and we mostly liveblog and complain but it’s drama free, it’s so tiny that everyone sorta knows each other lol. Like one of my fave mutuals - I met because of GH and then we found out we have watched a lot of the same thing. While another mutual - we bonded from something else then I started posting and reblogging about GH and found out she watched it or use to and we both started watching/rewatching when Jason (Steve) returned.