As a long-time soap opera watcher and a dude with lots and lots of opinions about my stories, I've been thinking about starting a soap blog for some time. And there's no time like the present to get that blog rolling, so here goes...
I've been watching soaps for years, though I admittedly don't watch them all. To me, that would be impossible. Even if I didn't have a full time job, there's no way I could commit to even the four soaps that are currently airing on US television. Because once I commit, I COMMIT. I've been watching Days of our Lives since the 90s and almost never miss an episode, not matter how bad it gets. Not only do I keep up with the current episodes, I also go onto youtube and go back to watch old episodes that I missed from the 80s! (Check out spiesoftheheart's channels and bradyclanfan if you ever want to relive some 80s greatness.) It wasn't until recently that I finally branched out and decided to give a second soap a chance--that soap being General Hospital. The reason I chose General Hospital? Two words--Diana Colville (better known as Genie Francis aka Laura Spencer). I'd absolutely fallen in love with Diana when I went back and watched her storyline. So when I'd read that Genie was going to be coming back to GH for its 50th anniversary, I said--okay this is it--I'll take my Diana however I can get her and if that means trying a new soap, so be it.
When I decided to give General Hospital a shot, I figured I'd just watch the Laura scenes, and skip everything else. There's no way I could catch up with all the other storylines. But man was I surprised at just how quickly I got sucked in. As a disgruntled Days fan who hasn't truly enjoyed the show for at least the past ten years, I figured all soaps had succumbed to the same budget cuts that seemed to limit the show's story telling abilities. The sets got shittier, the cast shrank or became recurring, and because of these limitations, the writing in turn suffered as well. So when I started watching GH, I was shocked to discover that a soap could still be written in a way that kept me coming back day after day, every episode ending in a cliffhanger, keeping me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next. General Hospital seemed like it actually had a BUDGET! The sets were great, using various locations with spectacular lighting. They actually had A PIER. I can't remember the last time Days used the pier and the last time it actually felt like a pier and not a cheap soap set. There's no more fog, there's no more light reflecting off the water, and the lighting washes everything out, creating zero depth. It's glaringly noticable. But I digress... What I'm getting at is that I was blown away by the quality of General Hospital. The writing was superb and the actors were phenomenal and EVERY STORYLINE had me engaged. I couldn't possibly stick to just watching Laura's scenes. In fact, her scenes became the most boring! Aside from Stavros' return (love me some Faux Bo), they did absolutely nothing with her storyline, which is disappointing because I do still love Diana.
So here I am, over a year after I'd started watching General Hospital, and I can't believe that it has already surpassed Days as my favorite soap. I wouldn't say its become my ALL TIME favorite soap, but right now GH is blowing Days out of the water. And while I love that I've found another soap that I can really get into, I'm super pissed that Days can't be this good! They just can't get it together no matter how many writing shake-ups they have! What's up with that!? Is it really the budget that's the problem? Is it the cast I'm not crazy about? The writing? Or a combination of all of the above. There's definitely a reason it's the lowest rated soap right now, even though its ratings are higher than they've been in years...somehow.
So I plan to be posting as often as I can to get my thoughts out on both Days of our Lives and General Hospital. And I hope that someone out there might find my rantings and musings interesting and could maybe chime in once in a while with their own opinions. I've certainly got a specific vision of what I think my soaps should be. And that's what they are--MY SOAPS! Don't nobody forget it!
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