Something that’s always made me wonder . . .
Why do otherwise sensible, reasonable, 'normal' people watch soaps?
Why do people want to subject themselves to such spirit crushing tedium, bordom, back-stabbing and hate on a daily basis?

How is EastEnders so popular? It's constantly filled with such hateful, sour, scheeming, miserable, loathesome characters.

Corronation Street? How do people last beyond the funeral march theme tune?
Hollyoaks? Home and Away? How can people care about any of this stuff? It's not even escapism, it's just someones representation of daily life. . .

Why do people make themselves endure such mundane sludge? I'll never understand.
(SigourneysBeaver took off and nuked the entire site from orbit on, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 7:29, 17 replies)

Answer that and you'll understand the female mind.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Fri 14 Oct 2011, 7:50, closed)

Had a friend, of sorts...
...who planned most of his evening around the various soaps.

Come to think of it, he was a cock.
( Another_tragic_case wished he hadn't eaten all the cake, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 7:55, closed)

It's not just women - the former Mr Quar was obsessed with the soaps.
They ruled his life. Probably still do.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 8:02, closed)

How do you know that
EastEnders is filled with such hateful, sour, scheeming, miserable, loathesome characters? Or that Corrie has a funeral dirge theme tune?
Hmmmmm?
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Fri 14 Oct 2011, 8:15, closed)

Personally, I favour Hollyoaks with the sound off.

( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 8:48, closed)

Can't say I'm a big fan, but soaps do strike me as reasonably escapist.
My life is nothing like those portrayed on Eastenders.

My only soapy vice is The Archers, all the others are just trash.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 8:58, closed)

There hasn't been a juicy sex scandal for a while though, has there?
Apart from the usual sheep-bothering.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 9:11, closed)

I rather prefer the more genteel storylines.
I'm in no hurry for a repeat of the shower scene.

It's Christmas soon, so Linda's yearly am-dram troubles will keep me well entertained.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 9:50, closed)

as long as Joe's farmer's lung doesn't keep him out of the cast I'll be happy

( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Fri 14 Oct 2011, 13:34, closed)

Here comes the (social) sciency bit
First, I must declare an interest: I agree with every pixel in every character of the OP's post.

But having said that, I have heard the following theory to explain this otherwise baffling phemomenon:

The natural state of humans is to live in tribes or villages. The maximum comfortable size is about 150; more than that you can't keep track of even as vague acquaintances. Members of such societies naturally know pretty much what everyone is up to - gossip is an anthropological universal.

Now, in modern western society we tend to be far more isolated. Many people know almost nothing about their neighbours, and apart from their friends treat everyone else in the city as potentially threatening strangers.

So, the theory is that soaps, with their ongoing (fucking endless) tales of trauma, misery and betrayal, satisfy the unfulfilled need to be part of a village environment. We (or rather soap fans) replace a real village with a fantasy one.

Which also explains why many people (though I use the term loosely) seem to have trouble separating the characters from the actors.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 9:58, closed)

Is this a long-winded way of saying that
most people are mouth-breathing morons?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 13:27, closed)

Hmmm...
Sounds like a reasonable suggestion. So what you're basically saying is that people who follow soaps are unevolved simians? I'll buy that for a dollar.
(SigourneysBeaver took off and nuked the entire site from orbit on, Sun 16 Oct 2011, 17:58, closed)

I cant click this hard enough
I fucking hate soaps with a passion and would dearly love to take them off the tv altogether. As far as i can tell the devil packages up his dried pus, shit and snot and sells it to tv companies as soap operas.
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 12:17, closed)

I like Eastenders, I don't see it as escapism, but like anything on TV it is entertainment. I see it as a comedy, it's actually funny. Why watch anything? Why read anything? Why do anything? If it entertains you, makes you laugh or cry then that's why so many people watch it.

(Just because it's guff doesn't mean it doesn't entertain)
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 13:02, closed)

So far as I can see...
too many of the storylines hinge aroung person A needing to tell sommat to person B but person B not letting them complete what would have been, at most, a 13 second sentence for the sake of having to empty the drier at the laundrette or some such.

But I could be wrong because I don't watch them either.
(karnuvap, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 15:12, closed)

Person A being murdered by person B
And B being murdered by C, who is a long-lost relative of person A who themselves will end up being murdered by person D, the long-lost relative of person F, who only turned up two weeks ago but has already made life-long friends with everybody and has been asked to be person M's best man in his seventh wedding after wife number 6 left him for the brother of person A who himself has committed several murders after leaving his ninth wife who ironically enough was also married to person B, C, D and G all of which were murderers and bigamists before they themselves became victims of murder.

At least, that was the gist of two episodes of Eastenders I managed to watch last month.
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 15:57, closed)

Drug of the nation
T.V. is the place where the pursuit of happiness has become the pursuit of trivia,
Where toothpaste and cars have become sex objects,
Where imagination is sucked out of children by a cathode ray nipple
T.V. is the only wet nurse that would create a cripple.

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - 1992
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 15:52, closed)