Playboy may have found popularity by publishing risqué photos of women, but as the old excuse goes, some people actually read it “for the articles.” And those who picked up the March 2014 issue of the popular mag for reading purposes only were in for a lovely daytime related surprise: The publication stripped down popular primetime series made predominately for a male audience and declares they’re exactly like “The Bold and the Beautiful,” The Young and the Restless,” “General Hospital,” and “Days of our Lives” — with a manly twist.
“Don’t be fooled by the testosterone — your favorite TV show is a soap opera,” proclaims the article titled “Drama Kings” of shows like “Mad Men,” “Justified,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “The Walking Dead,” and “Sons of Anarchy.” “Many of the most popular and critically acclaimed shows on TV center on the romantic and family entanglements of men. Many of these shows are also goofy as hell. But it takes a mega-masculine setting such as a biker-gang bar or a boardroom to make us feel less like we’re watching ‘our stories’ and more like we’re partaking in ‘prestige drama.’”
In fact, author Julieanne Smolinski goes so far to say that if you really look at some of TV’s most popular shows, you’ll find that they’re actually daytime soaps repackaged. “Mad Men,” for instance, has had an ‘I didn’t know I was pregnant’ twist. “Justified” has had just about as many shootings as “General Hospital,” and “Sons of Anarchy” is “basically a ‘Dynasty’ episode about the importance of helmet safety,” the author writes, adding that as long as the main character of such shows has a “tough” job, men will accept the soap opera form.
“Give a character a job that has historically required testicles — sheriff, outlaw, soldier, spy, executive, congressman — and he can do insane things and emote like crazy,” she writes. “Hell, he can even break into an actual soliloquy.”
So what do you think? Are shows like “Mad Men” and “Justified” the same as CBS, NBC and ABC’s sudsers? Or should Playboy stick to showing women rather than delving into “women’s” shows? Sound off below!