Which current soap operas are most interesting to watch?

None, to be honest. They are all terrible.

If you get Retro TV (one of the mesothelioma channels) go find The Doctors. It's a million miles better than anything on air today.

DOOL may still have gays. I stopped watching the day Leo (Greg Rikaart, out gay IRL) left Salem. He is now on Y&R, and I started watching again after a 10 year absence because he came back. I have become interested in Mark Grossman, who plays Adam Newman, a villain with an actual reason to be a villain, at least in his own mind, and according to the way he plays it.

I find watching Mark to be utterly compelling.

Adam is not gay, btw. I have no idea whether Mark is or not.

I became hooked on Hollyoaks during my lunch break at home. As an American, the Britishism adds a veneer of sophistication that makes it a little less trashy than ones in the US. It’s on Hulu, broadcasting daily episode about two weeks behind. I think there is about a year and a half of episodes from the past available so you can choose a point to jump in and binge.

There is a now subscription only thread here about it being too gay, and it does seem to be one of the fullest in gay and lesbian characters and you never know when a character is going to go fluid. For example, part time drag queen Scott seems to be attracting the attentions of the stripper doctor, who up until now has been straight.

One of the most beloved gay characters, John Paul, is about to come back after years away exactly as the former high school student who raped him gets released from prison. It was a ground breaking story at the time. One of the longest running gay characters, Ste, is openly married to a man and has adopted children, but for the most part they have straight actors playing gay like twink Parry Glasspool who just wrapped his time on the show.

CNN has basically become the Trump soap opera.

R5 is tiresome.

Yes, r6. Anyone who inflicts anything "Trump" upon us is tiresome, to say the least.

Well, then, r7, it’s a good thing I voted for Hillary.

Yet you still drag Cheetolini into a thread where he has no business being, r8. I don't want to think about him at all, ever, and there are so many threads where you can discuss him. So very many. Leave us alone. Please.

I’ve always watched Days, through good and bad. It will always be “my show”. I started watching Y&R when this new guy started as Adam and Stafford returned as Phyllis. Right now they are sort of the only interesting characters on the show.

To be perfectly honest, I get more enjoyment out of The Doctors on Retro TV than the current shows. It’s old school soap from when I was little. A typical cliffhanger might be a phone ringing with a close up on the phone. It’s slow and plays all the beats which is how I like my soap opera.

I still miss All My Children.

[quote] Adam is not gay, btw

Technically true, but in one of his villainous acts, he slept with a male lawyer to get....well, something out of it (I can't remember what).

It was a bold plot twist and has yet to be repeated, so it doesn't seem that the character is truly bi, more that Adam would go to any length to get what he wanted.

WHAT I FIND ODD in the remaining soaps is? WHERE IS ALL THE SEX AND BODIES SHOWN OFF! that was always the main attraction of soaps... gorgeous people having sex and bodies (mainly men) shown off.. and now? it's a "ghost town" in this regard? what gives??.. i mean especially in the summer, all the soaps shown sex sex and sexual storylines and men men.... it's like the remaining soaps and their writers/directors and so on are just "going thru the motion"?? at least on days of our lives they did have the recent homoerotic storyline of new gay in town leo making moves on xander and brady, and xander is shown off as utter eye candy every other episode or so but other then that??...

All of the current talk about Hurricane Dorian menacing Puerto Rico reminds me of "One Life To Live". This probably isn't the first time a hurricane has shared a name with a soap character, but this one seems particularly apt.

The Australian soap 'Neighbours' has a good gay couple, but they're not on often and I wouldn't call the show 'interesting'. They just split up a sort of pseudo-lesbian pairing. The gay husbands are in a solid relationship, have good bodies and everyone likes them.

They all pretty much suck. They’re zombies mostly just going through the motions. Days looks like it’s produced with the budget of a high school musical. Y&R is so incredibly boring, except for the wonderful Mark Grossman as Adam who was mentioned above. B&B is still writing Brooke as if she were in her 20s, and has an awful Ridge recast and no Stephanie — what’s the point? GH I never got into to begin with so IDK.

I watch mostly old episodes of the canceled P&G soaps.

R13 Because that's not how they do soaps any more. It's rarely sex or romance and even more rare to feature family ties.

Now it's all antihero BS and dark noir bullshit. They all want to be The Sopranos or The Wire or any thing in the world other than what they were.

GH at least still has great man candy like Steve Burton, Maurice Benard and James Patrick Stewart. Storylines are a little dull, although still some good mob action.

In my opinion, DAYS is the only soap on TV worth watching.

r11, I miss All My Children and my beloved Susan 'Erica Kane' Lucci too.

It's all about the British institution EastEnders for me; the best damn soap ever. Granted the states are about 11 years behind what they're currently showing in the U.K. but I watch this show every weekend. I wish they would put it back on a weekday or weeknight schedule.

I still feel so sad for all the jobs lost when this unique form of American entertainment pretty much died.

R17 nails it

The soaps are an American art form and their demise by the networks is a crime. Corporate greed because they weren't bringing in as much money as they once had. No consideration of their meaning and value to American culture, nor their importance to millions. I had a friend who was privy to the death decision making at one of the networks; it disgusted her.

All their problems would be solved and there would be a huge resurgence in popularity if they just brought back the last superstar of Soapdom ... BRENDAD ICKSON!

r22 It's called show BUSINESS, dear.

I just haven't been the same since Ma Perkins went off the air.

The real soap opera is the one going on at Soap Opera Network (SON). Johnnysbro has returned to SON to annoy the shit out of their regulars. This time he has two accounts. If you have visited recently then you know the name attached to his accounts. It is glorious to watch the usual suspects implode because they are not running the show, can’t bully any new person. As always, Johnny will have the last laugh.

I watch, or should I say, I fast-forward, "The Young & the Restless". I find it to be fairly dull, though I've seen it on and off since the early 80's. I'm familiar with cast members who've been on the show for 20+ years. I think soaps are trying to keep up with the nighttime, and streaming shows. Alas, they're dying off.

I'm not a TV exec, so no one is going to listen to me. The problem with soap opera today is that they are so desperate to hold on to the audience that they have, that they have completely forgotten about trying to build new audience. Yeah, only shut ins, the elderly and retired are at home during the day, but who watches TV at the regular time anymore? I haven't watched a show at it's regular time in at least 10 years.

With dwindling ratings, these shows should go for broke. They should just throw anything they can at the wall. Be provocative and cutting edge, while staying true to family and romance and the generational conflict aspects of these shows. Start shaking up the canvases. Make death mean something again. Make them modern and dangerous.

And if the audience doesn't tune in, and if you fail... then you at least failed by taking chances.

I bet if a network dared to put on a soap opera every evening, like EastEnders or Emmerdale in the UK, they’d have a success.

Hogan Sheffer has died and the nasty bitches at SON are already spitting in his grave. Those people are so awful.