by Andre Wilson

Created on: June 12, 2010

Entanglements is one dynamic that makes soap operas so popular as does romances, but the dangers of love usually can take on a stressful meaning. Especially when it comes to one person loved by two others. It has become a format storytelling tool to keep audiences who watch soap operas getting into constant debates with friends, love ones and co-workers at the water cooler who Sally should choose to marry, which that story could carry on for many months, entrapping the fans to keep glued rooting for their favorite couple in the triangle.

Sometimes love triangles could get very tiresome for some viewers. Take the ever-going tug-of-war of Brooke, Ridge and Taylor on CBS' "The Bold and the Beautiful". A story that never has an ending, going on two decades now. Even though if Brooke gets Ridge back from Taylor, Ridge cannot seem to let go of Taylor or vice versa. NBC's cancelled yet popular series, "Passions" is another good example of a stale love triangle formula, with the ever-so-persistent Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald making things so affectionately difficult for Ethan Crane to make a decision between spending a long happy life with Gwen Hotchkiss or elude himself into Theresa's delusional fantasies. Usually some triangles could form around a very popular central character to a soap, who's charisma, beauty or strong grip is hard to resist. For instance with "All My Children's", Erica Kane, who is known for her share of back-and-forth relationships most notably with off again/on again beau Jack Montgomery. Ms. Kane is one female heroine, year-by-year finds herself caught up with a new mate, whether they are using her or the mate is swallowed up by another fish. This had been one of a few bad stipulations that this character has had to endure over the years, it seems the writers can never let this character settle down with one man.

Although there is a bit of a repetitious stigma with triangles on soaps because they drag on and on and there never really is an end, because if a character is presumed dead, their spouse moves on falls in love with someone else and then years later all of a sudden that "deceased" lover just has to pop back up in town at the most convenient moment to spoil that happiness. Nevertheless there are times when triangles can be great and don't last forever and that usually happens on prime-time dramas. Because the format is so different, and more branded into real-life, the sufferings of love triangles,daytime soap cliche doesn't become a template, because prime-time is far more fast paced and doesn't take months to solve.

But viewers could come to apperciate love triangles on soap operas because at times the entertainment value could be quite liberating, despite its flaws.

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