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Re: Shake It Off’s popularity had to be the music video, right?

Posted by Tabernacles E. Townsfolk (@billstrudel) on March 13, 2024, 11:13 a.m.

Yeah, it fit well with her new image, as I said, but thanks for explaining it so the people less aware of her know what I’m talking about without having to Google it.

You were asking about the soaps. You need the CBS app, but check out the portion of the March 8 episode starting at 15:09 –

https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/kAJolmWvvhRjuDpknpQjHBbERpnMxduo/

This is partly for dramatic purposes but also to bring new viewers up to speed and to remind regular viewers of the history of the storyline. FYI Jordan burned down the woman’s daughter’s house and took the woman’s husband hostage, leaving him jn a locked room to die before the AA woman and his son, who had followed the husband with a tracking device, incapacitates her from behind with a stun gun while she’s delivering a “gloating victorious villain” speech. That was yesterday, and since it came to a head it will probably be lighter today and focus on other storylines. Such is the rhythm of soap operas.

But in that clip you can see a few things. Obviously it’s zero-budget with no retakes, which means sometimes errors make it to print. Also it’s drawn-out, and not even jn the nature of a soliloquy: it’s leisurely paced. It’s almost a hypnotic viewing experience and by soending so much time with these characters with nothing happening – sometimes whole episodes are essentially dramatically static – you really get to know and love them, as I said.

I think the studios are missing out on the massive potential of soap operas now that you can DVR them. You don’t have to be home at midday anymore; you can watch them after work. The open-ended serial drama should be perfect for streaming with a few tweaks. They’d need to shake things up and do a lot of promotion, including maybe prime-time specials, but there’s no reason for the current sad state of soaps.

The only headwinds I can see is that soaps now are intimately connected to live terrestrial network television. Many people don’t have cable or an antenna nowadays. I’m not sure how to fix this, but it could certainly be done.