When you get soapier and soapier, your characters suffer because they start to show up just to deliver plot, and you lose sight of who they are.
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It's vibrant and smart, and not afraid of soapier moments.
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Both shows display a gritty realism that feels worlds away from the soapier fare of Gossip Girl.
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It's a little soapier, and faster, than some of your faves, but it scratches that same itch.
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That said, the soapier flourishes -- including Sarah Bolger's role as the aforementioned woman from EZ's past -- play as a bit cliched.
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"Valor," for example, features a female pilot (played by Christine Ochoa), with producers suggesting that and the show's soapier elements would set it apart.
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That means it occupies a nice middle ground between the soapier elements of something like Grey's and the more procedural elements of a show like House.
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By accumulating a larger mass of drama, season two has found itself with more detritus, and it's led the show to lean into its soapier, more satirical side.
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"The Night Of …" was written by Richard Price and Steven Zaillian, though, and Mr. Moffat's own work, including "Criminal Justice" and the legal drama "Silk," is slicker and soapier.
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Sweeter and soapier than we've come to expect from the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, "The Commune" swaddles the pain of a disintegrating marriage in a good-natured cocoon of laughter and larks.
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In the two episodes of The Family that were screened for critics, the show certainly indulges in some soapier TV traditions (because it can), and some unnecessarily flashy episode structure (because it wants to).
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Other Gossip • The standoff between Jamie and Black Jack Randall (also played by Menzies) felt a little over the top, even for "Outlander," which wholeheartedly embraces some of the soapier conventions of the fantasy and period genres.
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At the time, it was reported that those shows would include a soapier Starfleet Academy show from the creators of Gossip Girl and Marvel's Runaways; two limited series, including one based on The Wrath of Khan; and an animated series.
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That backdrop, though, actually provides rich fodder for the soapier qualities, with James's new teammates resenting and seeking to undermine him, while the kid finds himself essentially caught between two worlds -- the neighborhood he left and the one to which he's trying to acclimate.
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After flirting early with themes of national identity and aristocracy in decline, the story turns soapier at the midpoint, largely around the character of Natasha Rostova (Lily James), a carefree young woman who becomes engaged to Andrei but then contributes to his disenchantment by having a fling with another prince (Callum Turner).
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Brian Lowry from Variety gave the series a mixed review, stating that he enjoyed the action sequences but that "the soapier elements mostly fall flat", and called the series "painfully old-fashioned". Mike Hale, from The New York Times, called the series "average" and "good on the action, a little muddled on the ideas". He added that "the tone is placid and slightly monotonous, as if we were watching the Walton family at the end of the world". The Washington Post reviewer Hank Steuver criticized the actor portrayals, writing that "the show is slowed by so many wooden performances, Wyle's included".
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