La telenovela

Have you been thinking about watching a soap, but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry – it’s easy! Just turn on the TV and go for it!

If you are just starting out watching Soaps, the trick is to find one couple or story line that strikes your fancy and just let it suck you in. I watch all my soaps on TiVo so I can FF through the people I find boring, but many soap fans watch them straight through. For novices, I suggest watching the whole thing. At first, it might be best to have the soaps on in the background while you’re cooking or cleaning. Just keep you ears to the ground and before long a story line will have gotten to you. To me, this seems the most natural approach; as with most fans, I began watching soaps because they were always on in the background (for me because my G-mom watched them). Do not worry if you don’t understand what is going on. Most of what you need to know gets explained, or you can get the gist of it.

While each soap is different, people often seem to follow network allegiances.

The current NBC soaps are: Day of Our Lives and Passions. Days was my first soap, and I have recently found myself pulled back into it. In my opinion, it used to be a much better show. The stories are extremely slow moving and the writers seem to have a "tell don’t show" philosophy. The families of Salem have long been plagued by the DiMera’s, so if you like big arch villain type stories, this is for you. Days has its charm and it can be funny in its ridiculousness and the clothes are always worth a laugh or a dropped jaw. The same seems to be true for Passions. This is the one soap I have never seen even one episode, but apparently it has some serious supernatural aspects to it, and that might interest some. Nothing about this soap is realistic, however, so if you want realistic escapism, try CBS or ABC.

CBS is home to several soaps. Young and the Restless, the Bold and the Beautiful, Guiding Light, and As the World Turns. These soaps all take place in Middle America, except for Bold and the Beautiful which is a ½ hour long spin off to Young and Restless and takes place in California. Guiding Light and As the World Turns are my favorites. While the stories are not "realistic per sea," they do seem real and most of the actors are quite good. Many of the stories revolve around romance and family. Both often have mysteries to solve and can make fun of themselves and the soap genre. GL is particularly humorous at times. Because so much of the drama revolves around solving mysteries or crimes, court scenes are abundant. For those of you in law school, these scenes might be unpleasant because they are so far from reality it’s not even funny. Overall, however, these are great soaps.

ABC has three soaps: All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital. I used to watch all these soaps. If you like Mob-type stories then General Hospital is for you. Rick Hearst, who played Alan Michael on Guiding Light is now on this soap and he is one my all time favorite soap actors. The ABC soaps are all really good at dealing with social issues, and all three also have intentionally funny moments that create genuine chuckles.

For those of you who always wished you watched soaps, I hope this helps. Soaps are really fun, especially if you watch them with a friend. Enjoy making fun of them when they deserve it, but don’t be surprised when you reach for that Kleenex during your favorite character's death scene (unless you are watching Days because no one really dies on that show).

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