Soapies

Last night was a great friend of mine, Pierre's birthday party and it was truly wonderful. Before that Take The State had a gig, which went well so it was a great evening. For those of you who are regular readers, hang in there until Thursday, and you can read all about it in "New Adventures", for now I will be talking about something that really gets some people talking: Soapies.

I love soapies, but I actually don't know why. I started watching an Afrikaans soap named '7de Laan' when I was in grade 9 because I was doing pretty badly in Afrikaans, and it sort of just carried on from there.

These days I watch '7de Laan' every day [even though I've been out of school for 3 years] as well as Generations when I get a chance. I also occasionally watch 'The Bold and the Beautiful', but I don't really enjoy it much. I also watch 'Isidingo' when I have nothing else to do.

I suppose I find them entertaining, although most of the time the acting is appauling and the script is usually extremely stiff, and almost never funny. But I still watch. Every now and then I get tired of a specific storyline, and I stop watching for a few weeks.

For example, I've noticed in 7de Laan there are usually between 4 and 7 different stories being told at a time. There is usuallu 1 long term story, which will be refered to in every episode and usually lasts at least 2 months, sometimes more.

Then there are usually 2 mid term storylines which are in most cases less serious than the long term story, and they last between 1 and 2 months. Finally there are always at least 2 weekly storylines which as the name suggests, last about a week. Sometimes they are only 3 days long or so but they will always be resolved before Friday.

So if we take '7de Laan' as an example here are the current stories:

Long Term: Errol, a street child who was adopted by Charmaine, has moved in with his biological mother. Unfortunately his biological mother has an abusive boyfriend who reguarly hits her and is verbally abusive. What will happen to Errol? Will he survive? Will he tell Charmaine about what's going on? And if so when?

Mid Term: Terry, a troubled teenager, who is the niece of Ryno has moved in to the lane and is sneaking out of the house because she wants to party and drink. Her parents don't care for her and as a result she is failing at school. Will Terry pass her exams? When will Ryno find out she is drinking and flirting with older guys? What will happen then?

Mid Term: Paula is writing a calendar of Golden Thoughts and she and Altus are slowly growing closer and closer. When will the eventually get together? Will the find each other? Will Paula publish her calendar?

Mid Term: Hilda is faking being sick to force Jan Hendrik to stop the development in Hillside, and she is loving being waited on by Oubass. When will Oubass find out the wool has been pulled over his eyes? And what will he do then? What will happen to the development in Hillside?

Short Term: Alice and Mandla have broken up and Alice is angry with Mandla. Mandla did however do the right thing but Alice won't see reason. What will happen next. Will Mandla swallow his pride and apologise? Or will Alice make him so angry he never comes back?

Anyway, all of these stories are happening in all of the soapies I love to watch, but I don't know why I carry on watching them. Do you have the answer? Is there something that you love and have no clue why? Comment away!