General Hospital Is the Only Soap Opera on TV Allergic to Drama

Even though General Hospital has been on the air for more than 60 years and remains the longest-running soap opera on American television, it doesn't matter that the show has the privilege of putting whatever it wants on viewers' screens without any backlash.

In fact, the longer the show goes on, the more fans expect from it. Having already proven how intriguing and exciting it can be, General Hospital needs to carry that same energy forward. Instead, in recent years, the soap has lost its edge and drama so quickly that fans wonder if they're watching the same thing.

Why Is General Hospital So Bad Lately?

There are many things fans trash the show for, but it all boils down to character favoritism and poor writing, often too lazy to even tie up loose ends. The inflated cast with too many characters doesn't help the show either, but instead of letting anyone go, the executives sit on the actors' contracts for years with little to no storylines.

All General Hospital fans were full of hope when they heard about the recent change in the show's head writers. The episodes written under Patrick Mulcahey and Elizabeth Korte began airing in March, and if viewers gave them the benefit of the doubt at first, giving them some time to make gradual changes, it's now apparent that things have only gotten worse.

Real drama requires that all characters be equally vulnerable. Viewers want to feel the excitement and suspense of exploring conflicts where the stakes are high for everyone involved. Instead, the show tends to protect older, legacy characters like Sonny and Carly Corinthos, shielding them from any consequences of their actions.

Others, on the other hand, have to suffer twice as much, but it never really surprises anyone anymore. The very well-known rule of how Port Charles works is that no matter if you're right or wrong, if you go against Sonny or Carly, you lose and get punished. This eliminates a good half of the conflict and makes every scene with them easy to skip.

The lack of action and the overused clichés and storylines only dig General Hospital into a deeper hole. At some point, viewers will stop responding positively to even long-awaited comebacks like Jackson's or Lucky's. And it is very likely that this failure to bring the fan base back to their screens will lead to the soap's demise.

Until that happens, you can still tune in to General Hospital Monday through Friday on ABC and check out the latest plot developments for yourself.