I recently asked my mom if she knew of a good soap opera to watch, and she immediately suggested “As the World Turns” and began reminiscing about the “old days” when she would watch every new episode in sequence. Even now, people follow soap operas on a regular basis. What makes these television programs special that people would be drawn to the television week after week? Perhaps the answer lies within a soap opera “story formula” analogous to the one for a hero’s journey as expounded by James Campbell. I hope to probe into this possible explanation by comparing the common themes between individual episodes of Gossip Girl (GG) and General Hospital (GH) in American soap operas.
At first glance, GG and GH are very different shows. The first focuses on the drama in the lives of wealthy teenagers at a private school in Manhattan. The latter is about the lives of several families and their relations. However, a closer look shows very basic similarities, such as the use of multiple storylines and the interconnectedness of all the characters and how it affects their actions and decisions in life.
The pilot episode of GG starts out by presenting the viewer with a compelling unknown. Why did Serena, popular rich girl at school, leave for boarding school last year? Why did she return to Manhattan? Similarly, in the second episode of the 48th season of General Hospital, viewers are immediately faced with several questions: will Sonny be convicted for Claudia’s murder? Will Dante and Lucky figure out who really beat Kristina? Both GG and GH start their episodes with a question to be answered during the episode or season.
Conflicts arise almost immediately in the stories, and for GG and GH, they have mostly to do with character relationships. In GG, there is an obvious friendship and power struggle between Selena and Blair from the start. And in GH, there are conflicts between Kristina, her family, her boyfriend, Keifer, who beat her, the family of the boy she blamed, Ethan. There is also the conflict of Sonny being convicted for a murder that his son, Michael, actually committed. All of these dramatic elements serve to hook the viewer into the story.
Finally, there is always a resolution to at least one of the multiple storylines. GG wraps up the mystery of Serena’s unannounced disappearance and reappearance by the end of the first episode, revealing her secret relationship with Blair’s boyfriend. The end of the episode of GH shows Keifer beating Kristina and then being seen by her mother. This wraps up the question of whether Keifer will be caught and Ethan’s name cleared. However, both shows leave the viewer with a new unknown for one of the storylines. In GG, we still do not know if Blair and Serena will become friends again. We also know that there is a sparking romance between Serena and Dan, but we don’t know if it will last. Similarly, in GH, we don’t know if Kristina is still alive or if Maxie will be able to stall her witness account long enough for the truth about Sonny and Michael to remain a mystery to the jury by the end of the episode.
Both GG and GH use multiple storylines and follow the narrative arc of unknown, conflict, resolution, and cliffhanger. This cycle of story seems to play a significant role in the keeping viewers engaged and following these soap operas.
I found your point concerning the interconnectedness of all the characters in both Gossip Girl and General Hospital a really good point, one that seems applicable to most soap operas! This interconnectedness is able to supply audiences with endless drama and variation, even with a fairly limited or set list of characters. It's like creating combinations in math, the number of possible combination of characters far exceeds the actual number of characters. In this way, audiences are provided with many variable plot lines without having to get to know multiple new characters, making soap operas both enjoyable and easy to watch.
ReplyDeleteReading your post made me laugh a little just because of the contrast between the drama of GG and GH. GG’s conflicts of friends and questions of who had sex with who seem pretty tame next to murders and beatings. I think why this contrast is so large might be due to the fact that the GG episode was the Pilot and the GH episode was far along in the series. It seems to me that series start getting more and more dramatic to ridiculous points once they’re run the course of more tame conflicts. Having watched a bit more of GG than the pilot I know that this is true for GG, the problems become more serious with legal and life or death implications.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, cliff hangers seem to be a major component of soap operas in general. Gossip Girl constantly introduces new plot lines, so that the viewer never feels completely satisfied and comes back for more. The types of conflicts in various soap operas also seem to be quite similar in nature. While Gossip Girl appears to be different from soap operas like General Hospital at first glance, the same components are included but are tweaked to make them relatable to the target audience. For example, Gossip Girl touches on teen drinking and sex, while General Hospital touches on murders and beatings.
ReplyDeleteI found it funny that your mom was reminiscing about As the World Turns because when I brought up the topic to my mom I found out she used to watch it too. One thing she had to say about it though was that the story throughout the week never really went anywhere until the last episode of the week so she really didn't miss much if she watched the first and last episode of each week. Maybe GG isn't set up like some soap operas, but from watching the episode of that, I feel ike it might be kind of hard to skip multiple episodes and come back in with no explanation. Did you feel that way about General Hospital? I'm just curious if its a common thing for soap operas.
ReplyDeleteI also watched General Hospital for my soap opera of choice and I agree completely with what you noticed. They are essentially the same show, with unending cliff hangers and drama. Yet, I argued that Gossip Girl is more applicable to mainstream media with it's popular, clothes, music and notable location.
ReplyDelete@sryken: I have to admit that I had a hard time jumping into GH because I didn't know the characters and how they were all connected. However, the isolated episode I watched had at least one storyline that I could "hang on" to, namely, the girl, Kristina, getting beaten by her boyfriend. That is what kept me watching, even though the complications with the court trial and witnesses kind of lost me. I wonder if screenwriters purposefully include plot lines that can be started and completed in 1-2 episodes in order to engage new audiences.
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