A tale of sibling rivalry, the evolution of soap operas and how our desire for drama might be changing our relationships, but not for the better. No llamas were hurt writing this article...
When I was growing up, all the way back in the 70's, things were a bit calmer, particularly on telly. Yes there were several 'light entertainment' programmes that wouldn't pass muster now, but in general the programming was pleasant if sometimes weird (check out The Avengers), reality TV didn't exist and we didn't have that many soap operas.
The two biggies at the time were Coronation Street, which is still going strong, and the fabulously bad Crossroads. Crossroads was on ITV (one of the three channels on offer) before the early evening news so clashed with kids TV. My sister (who was 8 years older than me) loved it, so I made it my duty to always want to watch what was on the other side, however crap it was. This wasn't too much of a hardship as she had a TV in her room, but it denied her the ability to watch it in colour and generated a bit of drama in the Martin household.
I remember Emmerdale starting (it was called Emmerdale Farm then and was Sugden heavy) and the slow introduction of more soaps, including the main Corrie competition, Eastenders. Roll on to the 90s and me and the missus would regularly watch Corrie and Emmerdale, but never bothered with Eastenders. There was just too much drama going on all the time and it was always over the top. We just didn't get why anyone would watch it - isn't real life challenging enough without watching a souped up version of all the worst bits of human interaction ? Well according to the ratings, clearly not and people are still glued to the telly when it comes on, particularly in the murder season - or Christmas as we call it.
My best guess for why it was so popular was that watching people having a sh1ttier existence than we are experiencing brings us some joy maybe ? Or we just love the drama ? Fast forward to today and there is no such thing as a nice, pleasant, easy to watch soap any more. All the soaps are trying to outdo each other with darker and darker storylines, just to maintain their ratings. The drama bombardment is further bolstered by reality TV shows galore that range from entertaining to sleazy. The latest hit, traitors, has manipulation and betrayal at its core and the discerning viewing public are lapping it up. And don't get me started on the news !
We phased out Emmerdale when the storylines got dark and excruciatingly long, and dumped Corrie shortly after. We did get sucked into some of the bigger reality TV shows but have weaned ourselves off them, apart from the occasional episode of Strictly and maybe a bush tucker trial or two. Streaming allows us to choose what we watch of an evening but if you stick to the scheduled programming on the main channels it can be back to back drama !
In parallel with this people's lives seem to be more drama filled than ever. We all know someone who seems to be a drama magnet and a passing 'how are you' can turn into a 2 hour download about all the stuff in their lives. That someone might even be you. The percentage of friends and acquaintances that are living an almost soap-like life seem to be increasing as does the general bonkers-ness of the world and the younger you are the more drama there seems to be. So I'm starting to wonder whether there is some kind of link between the two.
Are we getting so used to seeing drama at every turn and in every context that we've started to normalise it and integrate it into our lives as the way life works ? Has our desire for vicariously enjoying the chaotic lives of drama llamas come home to roost and we're getting some kind of karmic retribution ?
