TV soaps?

[Deleted]

Used to watch Hollyoaks in the late 00s/early 10s. Not because I liked it of course, but because it was always on after the Simpsons on Channel Four and I liked Jorgie Porter and Jennifer Metcalfe.







I was clearly a child of simple tastes. I did catch Corrie at my Nan's house, but I was never a proper viewer of these shows.

[iank]

I liked the 80s Aussie soaps. I was never much into the UK ones, though I did start watching Eastenders for a couple of months prior to emigrating in 91, only to find they didn't show it here.
I packed up Neighbours and Home and Away in the early 90s, though did briefly watch the latter again around 95-97. Neighbours had really pissed me off though, and it took over a decade for me to start watching it again in 2004. Somehow they managed to completely win me over again. And then spoiled it all the following year. I gave up in disgust (again) in early 2006 and have never been a regular viewer since.
I would never watch a soap - esp a nightly soap - again now. The entire format is flawed as hell, so even if by some miracle they stumble on a winning formula with characters you like it moves so fast they become shite again very soon.
I'm out!

[zarius]

I was thinking about giving the Neighbours relaunch a try after enjoying the final episodes of the original era, but the twist with Toadie and Terese isn't swaying me

[zarius]

Fo my money, this was the best one ever




I'd sometimes be grateful for sick days and free 'study' hours granted by my school on some weekdays just to catch this

[RobFilth]

Used to watch Eastenders for around the first 15 years, Neighbours for the first couple of years, but my two favourite soaps which win hands down were Family Affairs on Channel 5 which I used to watch until they gave up the omnibus editions(better than Eastenders in my opinion) and the outright favourite one was Classic Prisoner Cellblock H.

I don't watch any of them now, they all require too much investment and I've become more attention deficit as I've got older.

[burrunjor]

I LOVED Coronation Street. I was an avid viewer for years. Unlike the others it wasn't so poo faced and could be hilarious. Blanche was the best. Her revealing the Barlow's dirty secrets was hysterical. Also Ken and Dierdre were always hilarious. I loved the one where Ken left her and lived with Steve and at first you were on his side as Dierdre was in the wrong, but then you saw how awful he was to live with, sitting there in his revealing dressing gown, and lecturing Steve about not drinking or having a carry out as a man's body is his own kingdom he must protect, your sympathies totally went with her LOL.

However I finally stopped this year for two reasons. 

1/ Too much crazy shit. It's ironic as I get frustrated that too much sci fi these days is trying to be a soap, IE focus on the mundane, every day instead of the imaginative and larger than life, whilst too many soaps that are supposed to focus on the every day and be relatable, are instead focusing on sensationalized, crazy bullshit. 

In both cases I think it stems from self loathing. IE modern writers aren't just professionals, they think they're geniuses who are too good for what they're doing. If it's sci fi they think they are wasted, because it's a stupid genre about aliens and death rays, so they try and make it realisitic and down to earth so they can say "actually I was writing about relationships rather than silly monsters I'm a proper writer." Conversly however when it comes to soaps that are seen as silly women's tv, they think I'm going to make it a gritty crime drama to show I can do proper tv not frothy nonsense. The result is neither genres are able to be what they are supposed to be and the people who like them don't get what they want. 

Don't get me wrong however, just as some sci fi does benefit from mixing the every day with the fantastic like Buffy, then some soaps can every now and again explore big explosive storylines. I LOVED Richard Hillman's reign of terror. That is honestly one of the best storylines in soap history, I also loved Mad Maya going nuts for how campy it was, and Tony Gordon was a great villain too. 

Still it's got to the point where every villain is a serial killer or a supervillain, and the latest, the Bin Man was just the most ridiculous for me. I couldn't take him seriously. Granted this wasn't so much because he was the worst, just because at this stage Corrie is more like f*cking Gotham with all of these killers running about and he was the last straw. 

2/ It's right on politics. Oh dear god this show makes Chibnall era Who look like Genesis of the Daleks in terms of how well it handles political content. Again I don't even mind Soap Operas indulging in politics, as they are meant to reflect the world around us. However it's so one sided, so clumsy and so shallow and condescending I wanted to put my boot through the tv. 

They did a story where one of the characters wants to set up a festive market, instead of a Christmas one to avoid offending ethnic minorities who don't celebrate Christmas, and there's a cringe inducing scene where a gammon tries to complain, only for the woman who set it up to own him in a debate, which ends with everyone clapping her. It honestly looked like one of those shit that never happened stories that ShoeOnHead took the piss out of back 2016! 

Also their right winger called Griff (haha you get it he's a grifter like all right wingers) if they'd had him dress as a klan member, slap every woman he meets on the arse and demands she bow to him, go on about gay men being degenerates, whilst kicking a trans person and screaming HEIL HITLER he'd have been less of a caricature than how they portrayed him. 

At the same time however for all of its woke shit, typically it has some really f*cking dodgy attitudes of its own. The romance story they did between Sarah and a gangster guy basically has him stalk her, but that's okay because he's hot and dangerous and she actually quite likes it. 

This sadly undermined the only good story they'd done in the past 3 years, of one of the women being stalked. That was very well done, really creepy and believable, but now they are basically saying "if it's a sexy gangster then stalking is okay and a bit flirty?" Did Molnyeux write it?

Also I despise things that try and glamourise gangsters. It's why Tarantino and Scorzeze can f*ck off with their shit of superhero movies killed cinema. Whilst superhero movies are overexposed, and have become formulaic, I still prefer them to pretentious shit that tries to paint the Mafia, and gangsters as tough, wild men who were born in the wrong century and should be respected. To me they are all wastes of space, and cowards. Your average gangster is someone whose idea of a fair fight is him and his 12 mates armed with guns against some skinny drug addict whose desperate. Ironically Batman has a more realistic depiction of gangsters. Jack Nicholson's Joker pre transformation who acts the hard man when backed up by thugs, but put alone with Batman in a fair fight is painfully out of his depth, that's closer to life than any Godfather bullshit. 

Ultimately I just couldn't be arsed with Corrie anymore. It's a shame as it was such a favourite of mine, but in the end it lost its way. 

Also if we are talking soap babes Maxil, then Alison King from Corrie. Oh dear god! She is one of the most beautiful women who ever lived by far. 

[Deleted]

I'm not joking, in Hollyoaks there are now characters called Tegan, Peri (spelt that way too) and Leela. Has to be intentional. 

[rushy]

Sept 24, 2023 12:22:30 GMT burrunjor said:

Also I despise things that try and glamourise gangsters. It's why Tarantino and Scorzeze can f*ck off with their shit of superhero movies killed cinema. Whilst superhero movies are overexposed, and have become formulaic, I still prefer them to pretentious shit that tries to paint the Mafia, and gangsters as tough, wild men who were born in the wrong century and should be respected.

I don't think their intention was ever to glamourise the mafia (at least not Scorsese, because I haven't seen any Tarantino besides Inglorious Basterds). Sure, Henry Hill in Goodfellas loves being a gangster, but the film makes it pretty obvious that it's a shitty, paranoid existence and he's a shitty power-hungry person. And ofc The Irishman spends a whole hour on how miserable and empty Frank Sheeran's life is, completely alienated from his family. Mafia movies generally first show WHY someone would be drawn into it in the first place, and then the consequences of their actions bite them in the ass. The Sopranos is another terrific example of this, that show is so full of venom towards its own characters, and the way the evil of the mafia perpetuates through generations.

If anyone can be accused of glamourising the mafia, it's Coppola and Puzo with The Godfather trilogy. The real mafia is known to idolise those movies. But even they had Michael Corleone end up lonely and guilt-ridden, collapsing into the dust from a heart attack with no one caring. So it's not exactly like they were recommending the mafia as a lifestyle.

[burrunjor]

Sept 24, 2023 13:47:59 GMT rushy said:

Sept 24, 2023 12:22:30 GMT burrunjor said:

Also I despise things that try and glamourise gangsters. It's why Tarantino and Scorzeze can f*ck off with their shit of superhero movies killed cinema. Whilst superhero movies are overexposed, and have become formulaic, I still prefer them to pretentious shit that tries to paint the Mafia, and gangsters as tough, wild men who were born in the wrong century and should be respected.

I don't think their intention was ever to glamourise the mafia (at least not Scorsese, because I haven't seen any Tarantino besides Inglorious Basterds). Sure, Henry Hill in Goodfellas loves being a gangster, but the film makes it pretty obvious that it's a shitty, paranoid existence and he's a shitty power-hungry person. And ofc The Irishman spends a whole hour on how miserable and empty Frank Sheeran's life is, completely alienated from his family. Mafia movies generally first show WHY someone would be drawn into it in the first place, and then the consequences of their actions bite them in the ass. The Sopranos is another terrific example of this, that show is so full of venom towards its own characters, and the way the evil of the mafia perpetuates through generations.

If anyone can be accused of glamourising the mafia, it's Coppola and Puzo with The Godfather trilogy. The real mafia is known to idolise those movies. But even they had Michael Corleone end up lonely and guilt-ridden, collapsing into the dust from a heart attack with no one caring. So it's not exactly like they were recommending the mafia as a lifestyle.

Well there's glamourise and glamourise if that makes sense LOL. Obviously you can be completely sympathetic and portray them as misunderstood outcasts, which yes the Godfather does. However you can also make them unsympathetic but still make them seem attractive, sexy, alluring in a dangerous kind of way. It's like vampires in a way, IE you can have a sympathetic vampire, or a vampire who is evil, but still captivating and charismatic, and one that is just a monster. 

To me the likes of Tarrantino make gangsters seem cool in a dangerous kind of way, seem like hard men, when they are really just pathetic cowards like Jack Napier. 

[rushy]

There's most likely very many different types of gangsters.

[burrunjor]

I actually did tune into Corrie again this week and saw the end of the Bin Man's reign of terror. That actually was really well done. Again I still think he was one supervillain too many, but still I really enjoyed his death scene. It was almost like a horror movie when he was stalking them, though there was a lot of plot induced stupidity like Jenny going for a drink when a murderer is after her in an abandoned pub. 

I'm glad Jenny didn't die though. I like her, she reminds me of the type of middle aged woman I'd work next to in an office and get along really well with haha. 

Meanwhile if they had killed Carla I would have gone insane!