![]() ![]() Plot Expansion : A plot develops/extends over a long period of tike in soaps often this can be over many years! Rotating Plot Lines : Shifts from one set of characters to another…this is part of the serial structure. Brown (1987)suggested that soaps have an infinite middle Emotional complications & climaxes : The emotions of the characters are crucial in soaps. Some soaps employ the Block pot style, where one central story line is resolved but the series still remains a serial with many narratives not resolved. Soap Opera Narratives Soap operas are first and for mostly serials, whose conflicts are not resolved at the end of each episode, although cliff-hangers are still commonly employed! In East Enders, the actors talk of the last page in scripts as the ‘dum-dum, dum, doosh!’-the dramatic high point with which the programme ends. ![]() (Multi-national brands tend to want these prime time slots) The Institutional Context… Soap Operas are relatively inexpensive to produce Sets and costumes are fixed Soaps bring in huge advertising revenues for commercial networks such as ITV & C4. (Note: You can mention your knowledge of naturalism from Boys from the Blackstuff ) Suburbia : Australian soaps fluctuate between melodrama & realism. Style Melodrama : Usually associated with US soap operas…good & evil tends to exist in extremes Realism : Concerned mainly with social issues and associated with UK Soap Operas. ![]() Stephen Logan of Cambridge University suggested that ‘popularity that lasts…remains the most reliable criterion of artistic merit.’ Popular Culture… Many people have a problem taking Soap Operas seriously! The very fact that they are popular often categorises soaps as unworthy of study. ![]()
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