Why Do People Watch Soaps

[nailit]

I just don't get it...
I don't currently own a tv but even when I did, I just NEVER understood the reason WHY people (mainly women) got so involved in the lives of fictional characters?...
Please enlighten me.

[nailit]

//It's a bit like reading a book. If it's a good story you can't put it down until you've read it. Unlike books though, a Soap is never ending//
Echos my own thoughts exactly.

prefer a start, middle and ending tho.

[Tilly2]

I must be a bit of an odd-bod because I don't watch any soaps.

[kvalidir]

I don't like Soaps or watch any mainly because, the way they are filmed, there's a super quick turnover, which means that the actors ( some of whom are excellent actors- no snob factor here) are stretched and the general production value isn't very good, purely because of timescale, and as dramas have got better and better due to higher budgets and season breaks etc, we've got more and more discerning about what we consider to be a 'good' production. Writing also tends to be dire in Soaps for exactly the same reasons, so they aren't for me.

[nailit]

//I must be a bit of an odd-bod because I don't watch any soaps//
Far from it Tills, more attuned to reality in my book.

[Arrods]

Just Corrie for me - good from drama to comedy.

They must be doing something right for a programme to have lasted for what is it 58 years?

[nailit]

Agree Kval, a one off good drama beats years of the same old story line anyday...

[nailit]

//They must be doing something right for a programme to have lasted for what is it 58 years? //

Bread and circuses....

[gness]

So, Nailit...if not watching soaps makes a person more attuned to reality...what's your opinion of folk who watch and enjoy soaps?...x

[andy-hughes]

I think it is largely escapism - nothing very much ever actually happens, and people who watch are fine with that.

As previous posters have advised, if they entertain you, you watch them, if they don't, you don't and in that sense they are like any other form of entertainment.

[andres]

Some of the dramas have been tripe . Don't know where you get the quick turnover of actors from Kval. They tend to go on for years in some of the soaps. Can't speak for Hollyoaks ---never watch that.
Each to his own.

[nailit]

//So, Nailit...if not watching soaps makes a person more attuned to reality...what's your opinion of folk who watch and enjoy soaps?//

No opinion one way or the other gness.
Maybe my own opinion was a bit of the cuff, apologies. We all need a bit of escapism.

[nailit]

I just never understood the appeal of soaps...

[AuntLydia]

I don't watch them they are dreadful. Corrie used to be good years ago, funny, with some great characters, I stopped watching when everything started to blow up and people got kidnapped and murdered.

kval as a matter of interest would you accept a part in a soap?

[nailit]

From what Ive seen of EastEnders (at friends etc) it just seems like one of the most negative, depressing shows ever. Just cant understand why people would want to view it.

[Mamyalynne]

Grew up with Coronation Street and continued to watch after I married, watched Eastenders from the start, Daughters watched Neighbours (we didn't).

After Bill died I never watched Corrie or EE again but do watch other shows with recurring characters .

Casualty and Holby are two.

[gingejbee]

"I don't watch them, they are dreadful"......in that case, please explain how you form your opinion of them.

[-Talbot-]

I stopped watching when everything started to blow up and people got kidnapped and murdered.


Aye...but it was a good episode was that.

[david small]

Never watch any soap operas as my brain would dribble down the sofa.

[AuntLydia]

// don't watch them, they are dreadful"......in that case, please explain how you form your opinion of them.//

some members of my family do, not that I need to explain to you.

[AuntLydia]

Talbot, living in a small community rather like the village in Emmerdale I wish we had 1% of the shenanigans that seem to go on. It would make the parish magazine a better read that's for sure.