Soap operas offer a much-needed escape from the stress and pressures of the real world. The Bold and the Beautiful provided that escape for Finland, which experienced economic turmoil in the ’90s. This is archived in a new documentary titled Soap Fever, directed by Inka Achté.
Key Takeaways
- Achté investigated the global popularity of American soap operas in the early ’90s.
- The Bold and the Beautiful was a hit in Finland, which was going through an economic downturn in the early ’90s.
- Seeing families living a prestigious lifestyle gave the Finnish people hope.
Soap Fever Chronicles Success of B&B
Director Inka Achté spoke to Variety at the premiere of Soap Fever at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. She thought about the popularity of American daytime shows in the early ’90s. She had an urge to “examine what kind of soil” she grew up on to explore the stories that were told on screen.
Finland was going through economic turmoil at the time. However, that didn’t stop them from tuning into U.S. soap operas like B&B. Surprisingly, a show about the privileged and wealthy in Los Angeles gave Finns a sense of “hope” in a time of crisis.
“The show arrived during Finland’s worst economic crisis, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when people had lost jobs, homes, and hope,” Acthé explained. “That contrast between national despair and glamorous escapism felt cinematically powerful.”
This passion led the director to explain the success of daytime dramas in Finland. She gathered old footage, talk shows, news reports, and clips of the American stars who visited Finland at the height of their fame. More importantly, she gave the documentary a human touch.
“I was looking for people who could tell their stories engagingly, conveying both humor and the touch of pain quintessential to that era in Finland,” Achté said.
Original B&B Cast Members Featured in New Documentary
Achté was able to connect with some of the original cast members of the soap opera. However, the film’s budget made it difficult for her to film outside of Finland. But she wanted to mostly focus on the “collective story of us Finns and our recovery from collective trauma.”
Achté was asked whether another American pop culture craze could hit Finland today. She noticed that the media is different today because it’s driven by social media algorithms.
“Collective monoculture moments are rarer,” Achté continued. “That said, shared phenomena still exist, but they happen alone, across borders, often without geographical concentration.”
But Achté misses the heyday of an American soap organically becoming a hit. B&B created a sense of community among the Finns. Achté’s goal is to end the stigma that’s associated with daytime dramas and soap operas.
Some critics see it as “lesser-than” entertainment, compared to movies or primetime dramas. “As a teenager, I thought the BB fans were unsophisticated, only because their favorite pop culture wasn’t as ‘cool’ as I thought the pop culture I consumed was,” she noted.
Even in the age of streaming, Achté noted that this kind of entertainment is necessary. She dismissed the era of prestige television, arguing that soap fans “need connection.” Achté added, “Also, TV is free. Going to the opera isn’t. A soap opera can carry as much emotional weight as an arthouse film if it becomes part of someone’s survival story.”
READ: Inside the untold legacy of The Bold and the Beautiful—you’ve never seen this before.
MORE: Soap documentary goes behind the scenes at the B&B and the Bell family.
