Although soap operas likeDays of Our LivesandGeneral Hospitalhave relied on the same set of tropes for decades now, that doesn’t mean that viewers have gotten sick of these far-fetched storytelling conventions. Soap operas have been a TV mainstay for longer than almost any other genre of TV save for the family sitcom, and the episode count of these daily dramas vastly outnumbers every other type of scripted series.Some of the best soap operasof the 21st century are network TV shows, but nothing can replace the traditional soap opera in the hearts of viewers.
Whether it isGeneral Hospital,The Bold and the Beautiful, orDays of Our Lives,which celebrated its 15,000th episode in 2024, the soap opera will always have a place in TV history. A critical element of the genre’s success is its reliance on a certain set of melodramatic tropes. While technically predictable, inasmuch as they are closely associated with the soap opera format, these plots are so outlandish that even viewers who have watched these shows for years can’t guess when the next baby swap or long-lost secret evil twin will come from.
9Amnesia
Amnesia Offers An Unlikely But Undeniably Dramatic Plot Twist
Amnesia is a shockingly common occurrence in the world of soap operas, perhaps because someone losing their memory gives other characters a chance to explain what is going on in the convoluted story of the series. However, amnesia has another plot purpose, and it is one that more critically respected movies and shows have borrowed from the often dismissed world of soap operas. Amnesia can turn a villainous character into a hero or leave a more heroic character unsure of who they are, meaning their motivations and personality can effectively change overnight.
Hit Hollywood movies ranging in tone and genre fromMemento, toShutter Island, toThe Bourne Identity, toThe Notebook, to50 First Datesall used the inherent drama of memory loss to fuel their stories.
Recently,Criminal Minds: Evolution’s Voit storylineproved that mainstream network crime procedurals know the power of this twist, as the show’s most odious villain ever became an unlikely antihero thanks to a conveniently timed brain injury. Before this, hit Hollywood movies ranging in tone and genre fromMemento, toShutter Island, toThe Bourne Identity, toThe Notebook, to50 First Datesall used the inherent drama of memory loss to fuel their stories. However, the humble soap opera knew the narrative value of a bout of amnesia before any of these.
8Coma
This Venerable Institution Allows Shows To Keep Inconvenient Characters Around
Comas might be a tragedy in reality, but they are something of a godsend for the writers of soaps, who often need to keep characters around and alive even when they have no plans for them. AsThe Bold and the Beautiful’s fake-out Finn exitproves, the genre can tend to struggle with straightforward exits. Soap characters must hang around in case they are needed for a future plot, but they are inherently volatile, active characters. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be starring in a soap opera.
As such, comas are a helpful way to prove that a character is still alive and kicking, but their multi-episode absence is nonetheless justified.Comas also carry almost as much dramatic weight as sudden deathbut without the pesky reality of writers needing to actually retire the dead character. Once in a coma, a soap opera cast member becomes the proverbial Schrodinger’s character, simultaneously both alive and dead until the plot needs them again. To make things better, their emergence from a coma can even come complete with a case of amnesia.
7Long Lost Twin
This Classic Cliché Sets Up Endless Evil Twin Stories
As proven byJoey’s hilarious soap storylines inFriends, the long-lost twin is a classic soap opera cliché. From Adam and Stuart Chandler, the evil and good twins fromAll My Children, toGeneral Hospital’s Anna and Alex Devane, secret twins, evil twins, and long-lost twins are an incredible cost-saving measure for the show’s creators. Thanks to this genre mainstay, the same actor can portray two characters in the same show, saving the creators from casting another actor and introducing a whole new character.
On a slightly more serious note,twins offer the writers of soap operas a fascinating opportunity to explore their main characters in more depth. Questions about how they developed their personality, how much of their demeanor is nurture, and how much is nature can be interrogated with the arrival of a character who looks and sounds like them, but isn’t. This has also set up plenty of problematic cases of twins pretending to be their siblings in all manner of inappropriate situations, often leading to the next trope.
6Paternity Mysteries
Soap Star’s Babies Rarely Know Who Their Fathers Are
It is a rare miracle when a baby in a soap opera knows who their father is, since contested paternity is such a goldmine of drama. FromThe Young and the RestlesstoGuiding Light, countless soaps have featured storylines where a new baby’s real father was the subject of some great debate. Since many of these shows follow wealthy families where inheritance is a matter of life and death, this carries some serious stakes for the heroes.
While soap operas are obviously full of standard-issue adultery, the genre is also notorious for accidental adultery, wherein an evil twin will stand in as their sibling during a romantic tryst.
However, there is another, more problematic reason that this plotline is so popular. While soap operas are obviously full of standard-issue adultery, the genre is also notorious for accidental adultery, wherein an evil twin will stand in as their sibling during a romantic tryst. This trope has gotten a lot less common since this was recognized as a genuinely odious moral and legal infraction, but the twist still shows up from time to time and renders a baby’s parentage tough to discern.
5It Was All A Dream
The Hoariest Of TV Clichés Has A Place in The Soap Opera
The revelation that “This entire plotline was all just an elaborate dream!” might be one of the most notorious twists in the history of all media, not just television. However, asDallas’s infamous season 9 ending proves, the soap opera is one of few places where this twist can still be thrown at an unsuspecting audience. It is a comically shameless way to escape a storyline that has grown pointless, butthe “It was all a dream” twist is sometimes audacious enough to be genuinely funny and surprising.
4Switched at Birth
This Twist Has Been Seen In Innumerable Soaps
Seen almost as often as evil twins in the genre,the phenomenon of baby swaps is alarmingly common in the world of soap operas. Given how much this trope shows up inOne Life to Live,General Hospital, andDays of Our Lives, it is remarkable that the stars of these soaps are still allowing doctors to take their newborns out of the room at this stage. Like contested paternity and twins, this plot allows soap operas to explore ideas of nature and nurture, although it is just as often used as a completely left-field surprise.
3Character Resurrections
One Life to Live’s Todd Manning,General Hospital’s Lucky Spencer,Days of Our Lives’' Nick Fallon, andThe Bold and the Beautiful’s Ridge Forrester may not seem to have a lot in common, but all of these characters boast the impressive achievement of dying and returning to life at some point in their lengthy soap opera careers. Whether the characters are brought back by life-renewal serums or they had simply been replaced by their identical twin who was brainwashed into acting like them,resurrected characters are the life and soul of soap opera storylines.
EvenThe Bold and the Beautiful’s fake-out villain exitrecently resurrected this trope which, along with evil twins, might be the convention most closely associated with soap operas. There is, of course, a good narrative justification for this, as these long-running shows understandably want to hold on to characters who have proven popular among viewers over the years. Bringing characters back from the dead proves anything is possible in the world of soap operas, thus simultaneously reassuring viewers that beloved characters won’t die while also proving that the next episode’s events are, paradoxically, impossible to predict.
2Tornadoes in America, Lightning in Australia
Unlikely Weather Phenomena Plague Soap Opera Settings
If a soap takes place in Australia, likeNeighboursorHome and Away, viewers can expect that lightning will at some point strike a character or their dwelling. Despite what the famous saying claims, it is quite possible that the same place or person might even be struck by lightning twice. Meanwhile, American soaps have their own variation on this cliché. Tornadoes are dramatic and destructive enough to crop up in countless soaps when the producers are willing to fork out the money necessary to destroy a set.
Theworld’s longest-running soap opera, Britain’s working-class dramaCoronation Street, even offered a uniquely urban spin on this theme when a derailed tram came crashing through the titular setting. Regardless of the geographical particulars,natural disasters and unlikely accidents are a staple of soap opera storylines, as these provide high-stakes drama without needing any proper foreshadowing or narrative justification.
1Unnamed But Deadly Disease
This Affliction Impacts Numerous Major Soap Stars Every Year
A soap opera trope so common that it has a page dedicated to it onTVTropes, the unnamed but deadly disease has been the downfall of characters inDays of Our Lives,General Hospital,Young and the Restless,The Bold and the Beautiful,One Life to Live,Coronation Street,NeighboursandAll My Childrenalike. This disease is hard to spot since it tends to only develop symptoms when a character’s story has become dull enough to justify killing them off.
The disease is incurable but luckily never affects the good looks of its sufferers, and its progress can be reversed entirely when a character proves popular again and, thus, a miraculous recovery occurs. Of course, attendant symptoms include amnesia, comas, and the unfortunate, ever-present possibility of discovering a secret evil twin, a common complication encountered inDays of Our Lives,General Hospital, and too many other soaps to list.
