I am not a soap fan...
Sep. 21st, 2007 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayA channel here has started airing Days of Our Lives. I normally don't watch soaps because I find them dull as dishwater.
Yet I love things like Days and All My Children, which is completely illogical given that I really don't like soaps.
The only reason that I can come up with is that it's the difference between American and British soaps and why I watch TV.
I find the Brit ones boring and the characters simply not people that I can be bothered with. In most of them, having a bit of ambition or, even worse, going to university is almost always an excuse to punish the character. The exception to the rule seems to be Hollyoaks, which has a university as a fairly big part of the show. For me, they're quite depressing and most of the characters are like characatures of the people that I pass on the streets every day.
I watch TV as an escape so the last thing I want is to be watching what could happen if I just peaked into the kitchen of my next door neighbour. Admittedly, the number of things that happen to each character make me glad that I don't live in any of those soap towns, but it's more of a compressed view of daily life than anything else.
When I'm not watching sci-fi, my TV habits tend towards hospital dramas, period dramas, the CSI things and the odd murder mystery of the dafter variety. They're all great escapist fare.
I think that's where the American soaps fit in. They are completely escapist for me, there is no way that half of the stuff could ever really happen (particularly in Days - supernatural plots anyone?) and thus I find them highly entertaining. It's more likely to be a scandal if the kids don't go to college than if they do. People get to have ambitions and some people even succeed. There's a sense of fun in them, even in some of the more serious plots, that British soaps seem to lack.
Does this make me a totally shallow viewer?
I watch Torchwood. Possibly that says everything :-)
In other news, my French assignment just needs to be written out neatly this evening and then it's ready for the post tomorrow morning. Lazy weekend here I come! I may even by myself some totally indulgent Gu product to celebrate. I'll diet next year :-)
Yet I love things like Days and All My Children, which is completely illogical given that I really don't like soaps.
The only reason that I can come up with is that it's the difference between American and British soaps and why I watch TV.
I find the Brit ones boring and the characters simply not people that I can be bothered with. In most of them, having a bit of ambition or, even worse, going to university is almost always an excuse to punish the character. The exception to the rule seems to be Hollyoaks, which has a university as a fairly big part of the show. For me, they're quite depressing and most of the characters are like characatures of the people that I pass on the streets every day.
I watch TV as an escape so the last thing I want is to be watching what could happen if I just peaked into the kitchen of my next door neighbour. Admittedly, the number of things that happen to each character make me glad that I don't live in any of those soap towns, but it's more of a compressed view of daily life than anything else.
When I'm not watching sci-fi, my TV habits tend towards hospital dramas, period dramas, the CSI things and the odd murder mystery of the dafter variety. They're all great escapist fare.
I think that's where the American soaps fit in. They are completely escapist for me, there is no way that half of the stuff could ever really happen (particularly in Days - supernatural plots anyone?) and thus I find them highly entertaining. It's more likely to be a scandal if the kids don't go to college than if they do. People get to have ambitions and some people even succeed. There's a sense of fun in them, even in some of the more serious plots, that British soaps seem to lack.
Does this make me a totally shallow viewer?
I watch Torchwood. Possibly that says everything :-)
In other news, my French assignment just needs to be written out neatly this evening and then it's ready for the post tomorrow morning. Lazy weekend here I come! I may even by myself some totally indulgent Gu product to celebrate. I'll diet next year :-)
