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Soap Opera Storylines Fans Are Totally Sick Of

Dorathy Gass

July 4, 2018

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With some of the soap opera shows currently on the air for over five decades, daytime dramas have two major challenges, one being to create compelling content that will bring in new and younger viewers and another is to develop storylines that older fans haven’t seen before. This can be a struggle as long-time soap fans have seen it all before. Therefore, below are soap opera storylines fans are totally sick of.

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12. GH’s Cassadine Curse

When General Hospital’s (GH) Luke and Laura got married in 1981, Helena Cassadine cursed the couple, launching a rivalry that lasted decades. A slew of Cassadines have passed away over the years only to return to Port Charles to continue fighting with the Spencers, including Helena herself, her son Stavros, and now Valentin. With the entire Jason/Drew storyline moving forward, and Helena’s name mentioned on the show multiple times, fans can’t help but speculate if she’ll return to life? Many fans hope not, simply because they are tired of the curse and just want it to go away.

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11. Y&R’s Annoying Couples

There are some Young and the Restless (Y&R) fans who love seeing Billy and Lily and Devon and Amanda together; however, there are those who find these duos utterly annoying. Some find it unrealistic how sappy these couples have become, while others feel that they lack substance.

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10. DOOL’s The Mystery Of John Black

Even as a senior and respected citizen of Salem for decades now, John Black continues to remain a bit of a mystery. Undoubtedly, Black is one of the most popular Days of Our Lives (DOOL) characters in history; however, his past is still uncertain. The one things many fans hope for John in the future is that his past doesn’t creep back up to haunt him. It seems like whenever things lag in Salem, something pops up from Black’s past that he doesn’t remember. By now, it seems that John has dealt with every decade of his life before Salem and DOOL writers should just leave well enough alone and focus on other storylines for this pivotal Salem character.

©Paul Skipper/JPI

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9. Paternity Switch-Ups

Was anyone else sad to see the Abbott family crumbling? Many Y&R viewers were devastated when it was purported that Jack wasn’t John’s son and that Tracy Abbott seemed to be the only child linked to John Abbott, biologically-speaking. Paternity switch-ups plague all soaps, from GH’s Franco once being considered a Quartermaine and Jason’s twin to him later becoming a Baldwin. Even the popping up of Stefan DiMera on Days raised a few eyebrows. While some of these ‘secrets’ that come out decades later are nicely linked to history, some arrive out of the blue and make everyone want to roll their eyes.

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8. Ruining Well-Established Families

Speaking of, one of the reasons many Y&R fans were so upset with the Jack Abbott paternity storyline is that when you look at the Abbott family, a once prominent one in Genoa City, it was dwindled down to four characters: Traci, Billy, and Billy’s kids, Katherine and Johnny. The Quartermaine mansion on GH used to be the center of the universe in Port Charles too, and thanks to passings, character exits, and plot twits, the family is a lot smaller. Some GH fans also once viewed the Cassadines as an established family, but now that family only consists of Valentin, Charlotte, Victor and Spencer.

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7. Y&R’s Victor and Nikki

These two have been on a roller coaster for decades, falling in love, breaking up, making up, getting back together, breaking up, making up… you get the picture. At this point, with both Nikki and Victor being grandparents, the two have to stop this craziness and either decide to be a loving couple or part ways for good.

©Aaron Montgomery/JPI

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6. GH’s Hero Franco

While there are many who adored Franco Baldwin, there were some haters out there who felt like the character was being ‘pushed’ on audiences. GH writers continually placed Franco in romantic storylines with popular female leads (i.e. Carly and Elizabeth) when many felt the chemistry was not there. They also used to place Franco in situations where he didn’t belong but ended up being the hero. Franco passed away and actor Roger Howarth now portrays Dr. Austin, so we’ll see if a similar trend continues in his new character.

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5. DOOL’s Obsession With Islands

Abigail, Steve, Kayla and Sarah were just rescued from Kristen DiMera’s island, and that’s part of a long legacy with DOOL. Remember when Sonny, Paul, Chad, Gabi, Lani, Eli and J.J. were stranded on an island in 2017? John and Bo landed on one and needed rescuing in 2010, and then there was Melaswen Island in 2004. It’s clear, DOOL is obsessed with jungles and islands, and every so often, writers will center a cheesy storyline around this. Days fans are just sick of them.

©Paul Skipper/jpistudios.com

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4. De-SORASing Characters

Most soap opera fans are familiar with the term soap opera rapid aging syndrome (SORAS) where a child character will go off to boarding school and three months later return as a teenager. While this is an annoying occurrence as it is, de-SORASing characters is even worse. This is when an older character is put in storylines that make them appear younger than they really are. Like the Y&R’s Phyllis hanging out Hilary, Marlena Evans expecting in 2005 when she was technically in her late 50s, and even the coupling of Ava and Griffin are examples around how some older characters are kept young on soaps.

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3. The Paternity Question

Anytime a woman within the child-bearing years has an affair, soap fans can see what will happen from a mile away. Yes, the ‘who’s your daddy’ storyline launches and while some of these can be interesting if there is a twist involved, some feel like the same old, same old. DOOL’s Abigail technically didn’t cheat on Chad with his brother Stefan (due to her mental health issues); however, fans saw a paternity storyline on the horizon immediately for these three.

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2. Mental Health Issues

Speaking of, while GH has been able to nail mental health with stories that show a realistic (for soaps) view on bipolar disorder (i.e. Sonny and Morgan Corinthos), for the most part, when mental health is involved in a soap storyline, it’s way too over the top. Many DOOL fans will agree that actress Marci Miller did a phenomenal job with her dissociative identity disorder (DID) storyline; however, the arc in itself was cheesy. Y&R’s Pattie Williams was entertaining when she showed up in Genoa City, but her mental health issues sometimes came off as exaggerated.

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1. The Baby Switch

This storyline was intriguing when first done a few times on soaps years ago but now is simply too much. Two women in the same town end up expecting and either one of two things end up happening (with the same baby switch result): either both babies are born and purposely or accidentally switched, or one mom loses her baby and moves on to pretend she’s expecting, only to steal the other women’s baby or have some else do the stealing/switching. Said baby (or babies) live in a household with parents that aren’t really theirs for months… sometimes years! It’s a crazy storyline that has lost its shine, and many GH fans are hoping there isn’t another baby switch on the horizon any time soon.

Dorathy Gass

Dorathy Gass is an avid fan of daytime drama and has been watching Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, and Young and the Restless for over two decades now. As a full-time freelance writer, she gets to combine her love of soap operas and writing through her Fame 10 articles. Also a mother of two busy girls and a mommy blogger, she's been published multiple times over in Huffington Post Parents and Scary Mommy.