Soap Opera Source

After reviewing the latest Nielsen Ratings for Sunday night's programming, I couldn't help but notice that viewership is slipping for CBS' The Good Wife, one of my can't miss shows of last season.

For me the most precious part of my One Life to Live experience will never end with it's cancellation. The marvelous friendships I've made will live on.

The moment John McBain chose to sexually to ease his pain by sleeping with another woman, any sympathies towards him evaporated. One Life to Live has resurrected one of the most loathsome pieces of this characters history.

Robert Ford has committed reprehensible acts since he appeared in Llanview, and luring a mentally ill Jessica into his bed is assuredly the most vile. But was it rape? And can he be redeemed?

We want stories about well developed, complex, nuanced, flawed characters, both male and female, and we want to watch them grow and transition over time. That's the freedom the serial nature of soap operas allows that is denied to most other forms of entertainment. Yet it's being done so much better in primetime, or other genre under far greater limitations.