# Soap — Series Sub-Type

> Long-running serialized drama with continuous storylines, large ensemble, melodramatic tone.

## Defining elements

- Continuous storylines (no full resolution)
- Large ensemble
- Melodramatic tone
- Daily or near-daily airing (traditional)
- Generations of family conflict
- Romantic intrigue
- Cliffhanger episodes

## Two types

### Daytime soap
- Daily airing
- 30-60 min per episode
- Multi-decade running (some 50+ years)
- Examples: Days of Our Lives, General Hospital

### Primetime soap
- Weekly
- Higher production
- Examples: Dynasty, Knots Landing, Empire

## International variants

- **Telenovela** (Latin America) — limited duration but soapy
- **Turkish drama** (often called "dizi") — long episodes (2-3 hours)
- **Korean drama** — 16-24 episodes typically
- **British soap** — Coronation Street, EastEnders (long-running)

## Structural conventions

### Multiple ongoing storylines
- 3-5 active plotlines per episode
- Each progresses small amount
- Cliffhangers per storyline

### Generations
- Parents, children, grandparents
- Family secrets across decades
- Inheritances, legacies

### Romantic permutations
- Complex relationship webs
- Affairs, betrayals
- Will-they-won't-they

### Cliffhanger endings
- Each episode ends on hook
- Audience must return
- Often life-and-death

## Voice / style

- Heightened emotion
- Direct dialogue (less subtext)
- Confrontations frequent
- Melodramatic production
- Music underscores emotion

## Common soap tropes

- Long-lost siblings
- Amnesia
- Faked deaths
- Switched at birth
- Coma awakenings
- Family rivalries (Hatfield-McCoy)
- Secret affairs revealed
- Wills and inheritance fights

## Episodes

- 30-60 min daytime
- 60 min primetime
- 100s-1000s episodes possible (decades-long shows)

## When to write soap

- Long-running daytime production
- International market (Turkish, Korean, Latin American)
- Family melodrama
- Mass audience
- Daily/weekly serialized
- Streaming serialized drama (modern soap)
