If you are new to soaps, maybe you think the mobster trend is new. In reality, crime bosses have been used in soaps for decades. Granted they weren't always in the form of Mafia lords, in the seventies and eighties, mob bosses were second fiddle to the much more popular espionage stories. But it is basically the same; a crime lord for some reason endangering a town, a couple, or an anti-hero. They are convenient for soap writers because they are constant and realistic bad guys. Days' Stefano is such an enigma with no real clear career, 15,000 lives, and power that came out of thin air or science fiction.
But the humanity of One Life to Live's favorite double agent David Renaldi has far more possibilities and realities to it. The intrigue, the danger, the suspense of whether he would remain good or turn out to really be bad gave him far more potential than some mustache-twitching villain. Soaps managed to carry this trend rather successfully for a long time. And no matter how insufferably long it seemed that these crimes bosses were sticking around, most of them are gone while As the World Turns' James Stenbeck is still around 25 years later.
But somewhere along the way, soaps began to drown in Mafia driven or gangster type stories. It isn't just about soaps taking on a dark atmosphere or a cloud of negativity; that can be done other ways. There are a few soaps that don't have these kind of stories crowding the canvas but have enough lies, death, and pain to make up for that. We're talking about soap towns where most of the characters are amassing criminal records. Soaps becoming riddled with thugs, the drug underground scene, and mob bosses running the town.
It isn't just on this side of the pond either. In the UK, some soaps have focused on dark characters who run suspicious businesses, run gangs, and bully the town. Once again, the lack of balance and moderation have taken an idea and run it into the ground.
Believe it or not, a steady diet of gunfire, revenge, car bombings, and bloodshed is not good for soaps. Where is the storyline in any of that? Why is The Sopranos a success? Not because of the cursing and the severed heads, that alone would be a gimmick, a way to be splashy, make waves, and have quick success. You know, the same kind of the thing soap writers are doing during sweeps as of late. Instead the show is focused on people. People based in illegal activities yes, but that is acknowledged, that colors their character, that is what drives their emotions, actions, and relationships.
