MY TOP 10 SOAPIES FOR 2012

Everybody loves a good soapie. Housewives stop what they're doing to watch the latest episode of a popular soap opera. Some people even go as far as installing extra TVs around the house just so they don't miss an episode of Isidingo, or one of the other popular soaps. I enjoy a good story and the soaps shown here locally cater for all tastes, whether you like romance, drama or mystery. This list is my 10 favourites that I watch or have watched:

1. Days Of Our Lives ......... this is one soapie that I've watched virtually from the beginning when it was first show locally. All the villians are there, as well as the heroes and heroines, not forgetting the well loved characters who some of them have sadly since passed on. And judging by the recent visit by "John Black", "Nicole Walker" and "Raeff" to our shores recently; I can see why this is one of the popular soapies on South African Television. Even though we are two or three years behind American viewers, that doesn't stop us from watching!
2. Scandal (eTV) ............ another hugely popular soap in South Africa. Well they do say "local is lekker" even though some soaps lose the plot along the way and start dishing out ridiculous boring story lines. Luckily Scandal is not one of them! It has a bit of everything, from murder to romance to humour. All they need to do now is to broadcast an omnibus of the week's episodes every weekend to keep the fans happy!
3. Isidingo: The Need ........ I think there is a soapie war going on here, because SABC3 made a decision awhile back to change the broadcast time to a later time slot (19h30) which actually clashes with eTV's Scandal which is on in the same time slot. Decisions, decisions......luckily Isidingo has an omnibus every Sunday morning.
4. 7de Laan....... a local Afrikaans (with English subtitles) soapie, all about life in Hillside. Don't bother to look for this delightful little town on the map because it doesn't exist. A story line with characters that I'm sure most of us have encountered in our own neighbourhood. If you miss an episode there's an omnibus on the weekends too! But 7de Laan is the type of storyline that if you miss a few episodes you don't miss much and can quite quickly catch up again.
5. Generations ...... This is probably one of South Africa's oldest locally made soapies. Although I find it entertaining I don't go out of the way to watch it as it's one of those stories that you could miss a whole lot of episodes and still be able to follow the storyline. Actors and actresses come and go, their characters getting "killed off" in the process. It's not the end of the road for them and are soon doing something else.......
6. Inkaba .......... written and produced by world renowned South African actor, John Khani, this soapie has a lot of potential. I would call it a local version of "The Bold and The Beautiful" as the fashion industry plays a key role in the story. Once again if you miss a few episodes, you can catch the omnibus on Mzanzi Magic every weekend.
7. Muvhango ....... I don't watch this much, but sometimes I catch the repeat on a weekday afternoon. Sometimes characters get resurrected from the "dead" which makes the plot unbelievable. Even though the language of Venda is used, there are English subtitles. In fact I think they do cater for the hearing impaired as well as the subtitles would sometimes read: Cell phone rings! Big up to the producers for that!
8. Rythym City ........ to be honest here I have never really got into watching this soapie. Maybe it's the fact that there are too many to watch or because it's a very run of the mill soapie. Definitely not as good as Scandal or Isidingo.
9. The Bold and The Beautiful ...........I have a problem with this soapie as a lot of the actors are actually ex actors from "Days". In fact even "Stefano DiMera" has had a role in this soapie. Very confusing!
10. The Wild........ a local soap that's due to be canned very soon. I can actually see why......it has the most boring storyline in a soap. I think I've sat through two episodes and actually dozed off!! I notice it doesn't even have a Facebook fan page.

And there you have it.........my views or should I say my choice of  soaps that I have watched last year! Further imformation on SA Tv programmes can be found at TvPlus  on Facebook. All the links shown here are Facebook links.