SOAPS ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE
Soaps have become the very stuff I was trying to escape from through watching them.
In general, soaps were populated by funny, eccentric though warm hearted characters. For sure, there was always the villain in their midst but the other characters would always unite to overcome this usually pantomime type villain and there would be resolution and a happy ending. The story telling was always tight and economical and there always seemed to be a feeling of warmth and satisfaction at the end of each half hour or so.
These days it is very difficult to find a single character in any soap who you might warm to. To watch an episode of a soap now is to find yourself in a dark place of unremitting misery and nervous tension. It is often hard to distinguish the good person from the villain. Oh yes, the writers and producers will make claims of ‘gritty realism’ etc etc. They will claim to be dealing with ‘social issues’ but, in many ways, I think the dark nature of today’s soaps, as well as most other television dramas may well be contributing to the very problems that these writers, producers and actors are claiming to reflect.
We need some light relief from ‘gritty reality’. The News is ‘gritty reality’ enough!