Why is this soapie so popular?
by Nick van der Leek
Soapies, as part of modern media culture, are very popular. So what are the ingredients of the more popular soapies? The answer lies in the ideology behind these soapies, and the degree to which they reflect or cathect with the modern (and often beleaguered) television audience.
7de Laan is the most popular soapie in South Africa. Interestingly it is nothing like the dozen or so soapies out there that explore contemporary themes such as good versus evil (Generations), or tackling relevant social issues (Backstage). These soapies are about conflict and drama. 7de Laan presents a utopian community, a coffe shop scenario that unfolds with a fairy tale quality which appears to meet a very specific need in audiences: the need to escape, but it is beyond mere escapism. It is a pleasant mixture of feel-good entertainment and light-fantasy. 7de Laan works because TV audiences want a break from bad news and heavy melodrama. The modern audience it seems (certainly in South Africa) want positive and lighthearted escapism.
In 7de Laan the assumption is that people drink a lot of coffee, and seem to spend most of their lives in coffee shops! 7de Laan presents a utopian South African scenario, where all races seem to seamlessly merge with one another, and the more pertinent questions are not race based, but centre around the forces of attraction and family relationships between the characters.
Another assumption is that someone who is blind can easily regain their sight. A blind blonde girl and a sensitive sweet man with a scarred face form a distinct dyad in 7de Laan. The people who seem most likely to win a contest do, although a little intrigue is thrown in to keep things interesting. There is also an assumption that internet dating is okay, a perfectly reasonably way to meet people. Finally, the maid in a household of some particularly old and peculiar people seems perfectly happy working where she does, and they have a relationship that seems like ‘couple and familiar guest’, not ‘employers and employee’.
The assumption that blindness can easily be cured brings about a ‘wish fulfillment scenario’ which may capture the interest of people who might be unhappy with their reality. This obscures the obvious reality that a) the person she can’t see has a terrible scar across his face and b) this person finds her (the blind girl) attractive even though she is married. There is also the distortion that racism in South Africa does not exist.
The power relations are quite subtle in 7de Laan (unlike many other soapies). The owner of the coffee shop has more power than most, and to an extent, the husband of the blind blonde woman (Dezi) also has power (over her, preventing her from doing what she, perhaps, wishes to do), but this appears to be a limiting, frustrating kind of power, almost an oppressive power. Negative aspects that are excluded have been referred to above: the atmosphere in each episode presents an absolute absence of racism. All races seem to get along perfectly, and other issues (jealousy, love, insecurity, desire to win something, desperation) take centre stage.
The blind Dezi and her guitar playing friend (played by Chris Chameleon) puts the blind girl in a privileged position (based on her beauty) and the guitarist lurks around in the shadows (as a sort of beast).
The poor (as a group) are ignored, and there is very little serious stuff to disturb the utopian mindset. Aids is not mentioned (as it is in Backstage), and racism is virtually non-existent. Also, serious infidelity (adultery) is hinted at but rarely plays out. This is possibly because the audience of 7de Laan is a conservative Afrikaans one with fairly high moral values.
Interestingly, it is not only the Afrikaans segment that appears to enjoy 7de Laan. African High School students (ages 14-16) when quizzed demonstrated high levels of interest and enthusiasm, predictably for Generations (63 votes) and Isidingo (46 votes), but a large proportion were very enthusiastic about 7de Laan (41 votes). The Lab and American soapies reported far lower levels of interest, which goes to show the power and impact of socially relevant (or essentially cathartic) TV content.
It’s also interesting to note that while 7de Laan is a sort of melting pot of coffee slurpers, the Asians are completely left out of this mixed race utopia.
The Dezi-Guitarist binary is a fairy-tale like depiction that elicits mythical themes out of Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast. Oubaas and Hilda also present an almost idealized pair of ‘grandparents’. Their precious epithets (especially from Oubaas) are a type of sentimental crooning that is somehow sweet and disarming (rather than cheesy or saccharine).The coffee shop is also a very mythical place. Everything seems to happen there, people arrange to meet there and there seems to be only one restaurant and 1 coffee shop in 7de Laan land. There are also no real interlopers – strangers passing through as we encounter in real life.
The style of 7de Laan is very homey and safe. The context of a coffee shop also presents a harmless environment for a utopian scenario to be set out. Much of what happens is not earth shattering. Dezi recovering her sight is not a significant or socially relevant moral challenge. Much of the style supports this feel-good formula, and the content often focuses on food, and indulgence, and wish fulfillment (there always seem to be competitions). The folksy gatherings and performances by musicians also enhance the theme styled around safety and community.
The kernel at the heart of 7de Laan appears to be this: that somewhere in South Africa there is a street where everyone, no matter what their disability or skin color or station in life, has their place in the sun, everyone gets along most of the time, and everyone gets to live happily ever after – well, happily until the next hiccup emerges in the next soapie which again, is resolved without unsettling utopia.
7de Laan’s value lies in the safe place it provides (in TV land) for audiences to go to get away from the patently unsafe and frankly hostile place that urban and rural South Africa is. So we see that 7de Laan’s simple and hopeful optimism presents an ideal to which South Africans can aspire towards. This is a subtle influence, but a powerful and invaluable stimulus to a population that evidently needs it.
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