Soap operas are popular television serial dramas that tend to focus on domestic life and relationships. While often dismissed as unworthy of serious study due to their popularity, some scholars argue that longevity is a measure of artistic merit. Soap operas come in different styles such as melodrama, realism, and those that fluctuate between the two. They are relatively inexpensive to produce and are a major source of advertising revenue. Storylines in soap operas are typically serial and focus on themes of love, conflict, secrets, and characters' pasts. Writing involves multiple writers developing long-term plotlines over weeks or months. Characters are often stereotypical but evolve over time. Settings like pubs and

1. Soap Operas A potboiler of a topic!

2. 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. Stephen Logan of Cambridge University suggested that ‘popularity that lasts…remains the most reliable criterion of artistic merit.’