Okay, how can I put this. First off, I'm not anti-gay or anything like but let me say this.... gay soap storylines well..... suck. I haven't seen one that was worth while. Replace the gay characters with straight characters and they'd be booed by the soap community. But for some, because they're gay characters and I quote "it's just awesome that a soap is being so diverse with its characters".
Diverse is one thing, creating lameass storylines is another. Seriously, what is it about writing for gay characters that causes these writers to have some sort of brain stoppage and suddenly write so simplistic or so over the top that it just falls flat on its face?
And honestly, soaps are supposed to reflect some type of real life right? Okay, so where's our anti-gay people? When was the last time there was a big old gay hater on a soap? You want a villain there's a villain everyone can hate, not these shades of grey guys that are so damned popular these days.
It may be that soaps just need better writing but let's at least try a little harder when it comes to representing the gay community. To quote one of my gay friends "If there's one over stereo-typed characters in soaps, it's their gay ones."
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"If you were looking for something clever or witty or funny here, you've come to the wrong place."
Brandon, I agree with you that most of these storylines have fallen flat, and have brought a lot of criticism from the gay community, instead of praise.
I don't know what the solution is, but right now I'd say that the writing stinks on soaps on essentially an equal level. I'd had rather high hopes for the Reese/Bianca storyline, and look what happened with that!! They might want to hold off on doing any further gay storylines until they all get better writers...
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
It IS the writing, that's for sure. Soaps in general have been failing in that area, and I can't understand it either, considering that theses are full time jobs.
I know you guys don't watch Y&R but there is a first ever gay story there and it is beyond excruciating. In fact, the actor who created the role quit because of the writing for that character, and frankly, I don't blame him.
This is kind of like when they hire actors of different nationalities thinking that they are doing good for the people in those communities. But then they either don't write for them or they make them the bad guy.
