Soap Opera Conventions: Eastenders
Narrative
Soap operas have many parallel storylines that sometimes interlink, in this episode the main story involves two women fighting, Stacey is arguing for the right to look after and keep her child, as Janine is making false accusations to social security and causing a major uproar between the two parties, the local and some of their family as Stacey throws Janine to the floor and punches her in the face, this story is not impossible and things like this do happen, however it is not seen very often, and is quite a rare occurrence, storylines like this entice the audience as the ending to this storyline is left on a cliff-hanger at the end of the 30 minutes viewing time, this makes the audience watch the next episode to find out what will happen next, other storylines were included in this episode, a complicated relationship that is broken due to lack of trust, a single parent trying to balance work and home life as he struggles to connect with his two teenage girls which both seem to hate him, and finally a married couple trying to buy the queen vic (pub, which is one of the main settings in the soap, however was not used in this episode) to impress his wife but he cannot afford to buy it, therefore he rents it from the owner which does not seem to please his wife, these storylines are ones that we as the audience can relate to much more as these situations can happen within everyday life and are very common within society of this day and age.
Characters
The characters within Eastenders shows the multi-cultural diversity of London, with all different ethnic backgrounds within the soap, however the main type of character is white-English, these characters have the biggest/main storylines, there is a diverse range of character which can adds excitement to the soap e.g. evil characters, argument stirring character, basically characters that add controversy to the soap prevents the soap from becoming just another soap and adds excitement to it. All of the characters within the soap speak informally, and use slang throughout their language/vocabulary, within the Eastenders soap there are characters that all types can relate to e.g. younger audience or teenagers with the inclusion of a young couple that heavily use slang, adults, lots of different types of adults within the soap with different situations e.g. marriage, working. Even the older audience can relate to characters as the soap also has older characters that might please the older audience.
Realism
The Eastenders soap opera has a huge sense of realism added to it, I think it is this that makes it so popular and successful, even though a convention of a soap opera is realism, Eastenders does this very well as the characters create realism, not only that, the storylines are also based on events that can happen in reality, there is also a real gritty feeling to Eastenders that other soap do not have, I think this is Eastenders unique selling point, especially within the episode I analysed the fight scene brought a dark and gritty side to the soap as it looked very real and believable, also the acting within that scene made it more enjoyable to watch as we can see certain characteristics of each character as Janine almost enjoys getting beaten up by Stacey. The clothing within the soap opera also brings realism as the characters do not use designer brand, just normal clothes that are seen on the high street and most of the clothes within the soap are casual clothing that are not expensive
Audience
I think the whole of the Eastenders fan base can not miss a single episode as they are so hooked, with the deep storylines that will make you want to watch the next episode as firstly everyone talks about the hapennings in Eastenders on a daily basis e.g. people at work, friends and family. The good thing about Eastenders is that even if you haven’t watched it before, you can pick up the storylines with ease and catch up to everyone else within days, I think the media is to help with this as so much of soap opera’s are advertised within magazines, especially women magazines such as ‘ok’ magazine, the soap opera also create a whole new debate within everyday life as people always love to talk about what happened in last nights episode. The entire list of Eastenders characters are all working class people which means the audience can relate to them much more easily, especially within their storylines, their everyday lifestyles and the struggles they go through each episode.
Narrative
Soap operas have many parallel storylines that sometimes interlink, in this episode the main story involves two women fighting, Stacey is arguing for the right to look after and keep her child, as Janine is making false accusations to social security and causing a major uproar between the two parties, the local and some of their family as Stacey throws Janine to the floor and punches her in the face, this story is not impossible and things like this do happen, however it is not seen very often, and is quite a rare occurrence, storylines like this entice the audience as the ending to this storyline is left on a cliff-hanger at the end of the 30 minutes viewing time, this makes the audience watch the next episode to find out what will happen next, other storylines were included in this episode, a complicated relationship that is broken due to lack of trust, a single parent trying to balance work and home life as he struggles to connect with his two teenage girls which both seem to hate him, and finally a married couple trying to buy the queen vic (pub, which is one of the main settings in the soap, however was not used in this episode) to impress his wife but he cannot afford to buy it, therefore he rents it from the owner which does not seem to please his wife, these storylines are ones that we as the audience can relate to much more as these situations can happen within everyday life and are very common within society of this day and age.
Characters
The characters within Eastenders shows the multi-cultural diversity of London, with all different ethnic backgrounds within the soap, however the main type of character is white-English, these characters have the biggest/main storylines, there is a diverse range of character which can adds excitement to the soap e.g. evil characters, argument stirring character, basically characters that add controversy to the soap prevents the soap from becoming just another soap and adds excitement to it. All of the characters within the soap speak informally, and use slang throughout their language/vocabulary, within the Eastenders soap there are characters that all types can relate to e.g. younger audience or teenagers with the inclusion of a young couple that heavily use slang, adults, lots of different types of adults within the soap with different situations e.g. marriage, working. Even the older audience can relate to characters as the soap also has older characters that might please the older audience.
Realism
The Eastenders soap opera has a huge sense of realism added to it, I think it is this that makes it so popular and successful, even though a convention of a soap opera is realism, Eastenders does this very well as the characters create realism, not only that, the storylines are also based on events that can happen in reality, there is also a real gritty feeling to Eastenders that other soap do not have, I think this is Eastenders unique selling point, especially within the episode I analysed the fight scene brought a dark and gritty side to the soap as it looked very real and believable, also the acting within that scene made it more enjoyable to watch as we can see certain characteristics of each character as Janine almost enjoys getting beaten up by Stacey. The clothing within the soap opera also brings realism as the characters do not use designer brand, just normal clothes that are seen on the high street and most of the clothes within the soap are casual clothing that are not expensive
Audience
I think the whole of the Eastenders fan base can not miss a single episode as they are so hooked, with the deep storylines that will make you want to watch the next episode as firstly everyone talks about the hapennings in Eastenders on a daily basis e.g. people at work, friends and family. The good thing about Eastenders is that even if you haven’t watched it before, you can pick up the storylines with ease and catch up to everyone else within days, I think the media is to help with this as so much of soap opera’s are advertised within magazines, especially women magazines such as ‘ok’ magazine, the soap opera also create a whole new debate within everyday life as people always love to talk about what happened in last nights episode. The entire list of Eastenders characters are all working class people which means the audience can relate to them much more easily, especially within their storylines, their everyday lifestyles and the struggles they go through each episode.
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