When soaps lose the plot!

(I'm claiming this to be an article but it's more of an essay so anyone who manages to read to the end gets a gold star!)

Over the years all soap operas have had their highs and lows and continue to do so. I say this after having watched the past couple weeks of Eastenders and it got me thinking about when soaps lose their way.

I mean if we look at what's been going on on Eastenders recently (admittedly I dip in and out of the show and have done for the past 10 years), now I don't want people to think this is me taking a dig at Eastenders because I'm not at all, and let's be honest there will be people saying far worse things on Twitter. So a couple of weeks ago I went on Twitter to see what people were saying about this supposed big week in Eastenders (it was currently Thursday at this point and I'd not yet watched said episode, only Monday's and thought the gas explosion was the big stunt and that was that, how wrong was I?!). What I didn't expect to see people saying was that Eastenders had basically crammed what could have been a year's worth of storylines in to one episode, and mocking the show for it after having done a storyline for months about the lack of bin collections. Obviously I had to check the episode out for myself to see if it was as crazy as people were making out, but lo and behold they were right, it was mad! Never have I seen a soap do so many huge storylines/stunts in one episode before that weren't connected to each other. I mean, had someone put a curse on the square that day or something? Because that was beyond bad luck!

The question is, why did they choose to tell so many storylines in one episode? Was it sheer panic from making the mistake of thinking telling storylines about the bins not being collected would be a fascinating topic? Or a desperate attempt to try and drive in more viewers by going insanely over the top to the point where it backfires and the audience actually mocks you for it?

But what I'm pointing out is how soaps always seem to have this happen every few years. One minute they're riding high, the next they are dishing out storylines about bins and expecting people to think it's entertaining (I really need to stop talking about bins!) It seems that no matter who the producer is, it's still keeps happening. I especially don't think it helps when a lot of producers tend to have their own agenda (and a bit of an ego) and therefore think all their ideas are brilliant and that everyone will love them as much as they do. Also with Eastenders lately they've seemed to be having trouble finding a middle ground, it's either dull and boring or crazy and over the top, which over the years admittedly many soaps have also struggled with.

Eastenders isn't the only soap to fall foul to having an out there idea and running with it. Back in 2011 the Hollyoaks producer at the time thought it would be a great idea to tell one week storylines which, believe me, didn't work. Trying to cram a beginning, middle and an end in one week was ridiculous and why anyone thought it would work, I don't know. Not surprisingly this new genius idea was scrap after a mere few months.

It's not always a case of producers failing with their bad decision making and desperately trying to do something new and innovative but in some cases on the flip side of that you have some producers not bothering with that and instead favouring to tell tired and clichéd storylines instead. I mean take Emmerdale for example. This year has been filled with wall to wall cheating plots and no one has stepped in to say to the current producer 'I think we maybe need some new ideas', except for the fans who have been more than happy to point out the show's constant repetitive storylines, especially over on Twitter. But luckily for Emmerdale and the producer that hasn't stopped the fans from still voting in their droves for them at all the various soap awards, and fair enough they don't have too much competition right now what with Eastenders falling apart at the seams of late and therefore leaving only Corrie as any real threat. But that doesn't ignore the fact that many fans aren't happy with what is currently happening on-screen and they could easily end up pushing the viewers too far to the point where they decide to tune out and watch The One Show instead.

I think one of the main problems is that we've got to the point now where audiences have become too savvy to it all meaning that predictable storytelling isn't cutting it anymore as the audience can figure out the ending way before it happens. I get that soaps have been running for a long time now and therefore most storylines have been told ten times over but there are untold stories still waiting to be told with an audience that's crying out for them. It's just a case of whether producers can be bothered to think of them instead of being lazy and reverting back to the tired and overdone stories instead.

I guess it all comes down to producers constantly trying to put their own stamp on the show by trying something new (or not new in some cases!) But the problem is 9 times out of 10 it goes down like a lead balloon and they run the risk of losing viewers instead of gaining them which goes against the whole reason for pulling such elaborate stunts in the first place. This leads me back to my earlier comment about producers and their egos. I often think them trying to be clever gets in the the way of just good old fashioned basic storytelling. I often believe they think they need to come up with these crazy ideas to keep people watching in a world where there is so much choice and competition for what to watch. However at the end of the day I think all the viewers want to see is an original idea, written and acted brilliantly and when done right can be amazing as we've seen many times before, and these are the storylines that are always most popular. I just hope soap producers eventually come to realise this and put their big clever ideas where they belong - in the bin!