Buffy and Ats: Soaps?

[scarybunny]

Hey everyone!!

I have a very tiny but annoying question:
Are Buffy and Angel TV soapies?

I never really thought so, I always saw these shows as drama/fantasy/comedy all mixed in one, but never a soap.
I look at 'Passions', 'Bold and the Beautiful', 'Days of Our Lives' as soaps and judging from those I would think that Buffy and Angel were not soaps...

Agree with me? Disagree with me?

I want to know.

[SarahRegi]

well of course not, Soaps take forever. they're like eternal on tv. at least that's what i've known. therefore Buffy and Angel are tv series.

[Rosamunde]

I remember reading a German magazine where they described them as "teen comedies" and the Radio Times once referred to Buffy as "the long running teenage soap" so I suppose their are a variety of interpretations.

I'd never class them as soaps, but I think the eternal angst of Bangel would be more at home on a soap! Soaps are longer and more rambely than Buffy and not half as funny.

[LRae12]

No, I wouldn't classify them as soaps at all...there are some nighttime dramas I would have classified as soaps, such as Dawson's Creek, Beverly Hills 90210, Dallas, etc. but Buffy/Ats were more of a sci-fi/horror genre-type shows. Most TV series have an element of soapiness to them, but I would not classify them as soaps.

[vampmogs]

I think it depends entirely on what aspects of the show you want to focus on. The great thing about both shows is that it is many things meshed into one; we have the supernatural aspects of the show, the drama and the soapie pregnancy plots of Ats

However, as a whole I don't think it can be classified as a soap, if anything I'd say it was more of a supernatural drama.

[Veverka]

Weighing in to more or less agree with most people here, I think it's a matter of opinion, really, everyone just chooses a place to draw a line. I don't know, but I kinda assume, that soaps maybe don't have a "ten year plan" or something to that degree (ergo recycled storylines!), whereas we know that Joss was always thinking in advance.

[Risa]

I would never in my life call Buffy the Vampire Slayer a soap or a teenage comedy. First of all, even though Buffy deals with vampires and other demons, it looks and feels more realistic than half the soaps on television. Second, at least if you missed a couple weeks of Buffy, when you went back you pretty much could still tell who was sleeping with who. Can't do that on a soap. Miss one episode and you are lost. I would like to seriously injure anyone that relates my favorite show to a daytime soap opera. And it certainly is not just a teenage comedy. It has its funny moments but they are put there to lighten up the mood a bit and make it not so dark. Buffy is what it always has been...a fantasy type drama. Not soap opera, not a comedy, not a sitcom...but a drama.