Television series
Loving
Other titles called Loving: the 2016 film.
Loving is a daytime soap opera set in the fictional Pennsylvania town of Corinth, following the wealthy Alden family through decades of romantic entanglement, corporate intrigue, and generational conflict. It's intimate, melodramatic, and designed to be watched obsessively—a show that rewards deep investment in its characters' messy, interconnected lives.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy soapy melodrama played straight, where rich families scheme over boardroom power and bedroom loyalties and the plotting feels earnestly old-fashioned.
Skip it if you need modern pacing and restraint; its sudsy plotting and reliance on family rivalry can feel dated to viewers raised on tighter storytelling.
What it asks of you: Eight episodes of roughly half an hour each, so it's a light commitment, but each one moves briskly through a lot of plot.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Young and the Restless1973
The gold standard of soaps: beautifully paced storytelling that balances intimate character work with genuinely shocking plot twists. Newman family dynamics alone justify years of viewing.
But If you're not prepared to commit to 40+ years of accumulated mythology, you'll feel adrift. Modern episodes assume you know everything that's come before.
All My Children1970
A soap that understood ensemble chemistry, with storylines that genuinely surprised viewers and characters allowed genuine growth. Pine Valley became a fully realized world.
But The show's 41-year run means starting at the beginning is a significant investment, and quality varied across decades.
General Hospital1963
Probably the most purely fun soap, with a willingness to embrace adventure, crime, and romance with genuine warmth. Luke and Laura remain iconic for reason.
But The medical hospital premise gets abandoned almost immediately in favor of soap melodrama, which feels narratively untethered if that bothers you.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Loving
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Olive Kitteridge2014
Both prioritize character accumulation and relationship complexity over plot, with the view that seeing how people hurt each other and themselves matters more than spectacle or resolution.
An HBO miniseries that captures what soap opera storytelling could become with cinematic resources and serious literary adaptation. Multiple timelines, ensemble focus, genuine emotional devastation. The restraint makes it hit harder.
But It's only four hours and entirely self-contained. If you're seeking the ongoing narrative immersion that soaps provide, this ends too quickly.
More like this (5)
The Colbys1985
A primetime soap with bigger budgets and more cinematic ambition than daytime shows. Dynasty's spinoff captures wealthy family dysfunction with real style and genuine stakes.
But Primetime soaps moved faster and wrapped plots quicker, which means less character breathing room than daytime equivalents.
Knots Landing1979
The best primetime soap by a significant margin. Suburban ensemble cast with real emotional depth, managing to be both intimate and epic. Consistently excellent.
But It's 14 seasons long and the early seasons move slowly. Requires patience to build momentum.
Dynasty1981
High-gloss primetime soap that leans fully into camp excess and visual spectacle. The costumes alone are worth it, and Joan Collins is genuinely fascinating.
But The plotting becomes absurd by design, and if you want emotional authenticity over glamorous absurdity, this will exhaust you.
Santa Barbara1984
A daytime soap that actually dares with its plots, including supernatural elements, time travel, and genuine gothic atmosphere alongside romance. More experimental than most.
But The willingness to go weird means tonal whiplash; it's impossible to predict whether an episode will be grounded drama or surreal melodrama.
Scenes from a Marriage2021
Both understand that serialized television can be an intimate form, but where Loving multiplies characters and storylines, Bergman narrows everything to essentials—same medium, opposite philosophy about what sustains attention and reveals character.
Bergman's miniseries dissects marriage and intimacy with such unflinching precision it functions as the anti-soap: everything melodramatic stripped away, leaving only raw emotional truth. Five hours of two people in a room changing each other.
But There is no plot. It's unrelentingly interior and sometimes cruel. Some viewers will find it unbearably slow and emotionally punishing.
People
Writing
- Agnes NixonCreator
- Douglas MarlandCreator
Production
- Jean Dadario BurkeExecutive Producer
- Jane ElliotProducer
- Laura RakowitzProducer