Soaps

How easy is it to get addicted to soap operas? And first of all, isn't it funny that they're even called "soap operas" or soaps for short? I thought it was because in those days, housewives usually watched it while they were doing laundry in the afternoons. But upon further research, it seems that it began even earlier than that, when soaps were broadcast on the radio and were sponsored by soap companies. (This is an educational blog as well. lol)  Anyways, there's always something happening on a soap. Just when you think one drama is ending, another one is in development. There's something about it, that makes you come back time and again. One might think that a soap opera is just something easy to watch. Something you don't have to concentrate on. It's not like a multimillion dollar movie, or an evening drama. But, it asks something even more of its viewers - it constantly asks you to S.Y.D. (Suspend your disbelief). How else can you accept the fact that if someone dies, it doesn't necessarily mean they die, but might be re-incarnated again as an evil twin, or how a kid will go away to summer camp, and then come back as a high school senior, getting ready to run their father's company? Or a couple who gets married and divorced, then marries people who used to be married, then got divorced, then divorces them and gets married again?(I'm talking to you, Victor and Nikki!) Its all so confusing. Yet, we are all usually able to keep track of everyone's relationships, no matter how convoluted they get. In fact, we as the audience are the only ones who know what's going on. We know who slept with whom, who the real mother is, who's behind the crimes, who has amnesia. How can all of these occurrences happen in this fictional town? How many times can someone be kidnapped? But everytime, after every hour, we are on edge, waiting for the next episode...what will happen? It's pretty easy to get sucked into watching one again, even if you haven't watched for years. You will get caught up in a few weeks if not days and you will once again know the lives of the characters who never seem to change or age. (Except of course when they were kids, and grow up to be adults). Sometimes I find myself yelling at the characters on tv saying "How can you not know? It's so obvious?!" I get so mad or excited and it's because I know these characters. I've lived with them for so long, I want to know what's going to happen to them and even though it never seems to resolve, once in awhile, your favorite characters are happy...until something or someone comes along to make their lives miserable and it all begins again...

That's it for today...stay tuned to see what I write about tomorrow...