Soap opera are reflective of the time in which they were created. Soap operas evolved for the period of time they exist in. If the 1960s were dominated by the sexually repressed housewife who constantly searched for a more enticing life, than the 1980s bore the weight of extravagance and untold fear. Soap operas confronted and humanized those fears to educate their audience. When Robin contracted HIV in the 1990s, she was a middle class white girl from a good family. Robin Scorpio was directly responsible for helping provide accurate information on how people can contract the disease to a portion of the population in this country, who wanted to look away from the crisis. When Claire Labine wrote Delia's character, it helped define and portray an accurate account of Borderline Personality Disorder. Soap operas comments on society, character, morality, faith, and money like no other genre. I say this as a science fiction fan.
You can imagine my disappointed at the way soap operas have veered away from this practice. Soap operas apt to follow the quickening pace of primetime story telling have swayed away from its biggest strength: long form story telling.
The pacing may change but telling intergenerational stories about families or towns will never get old. The success of primetime shows like Jane the Virgin, or This is Us supports this claim. Primetime shows are encroaching on territory daytime soap operas use to occupy.
Daytime soap operas need to take more risks on their content and writing. Having people who are not white, cisgender, or heteronormative may help.
