soap and hospital drama

Similarities in Hollyoaks and Casualty.

Micro:
There were many similarities between the two in micro and macro forms. Both the drama's used alot of two-shots, mid-shots, over the shoulder and close-ups. Cross-cutting is also popular, usually switching from scene to scene. The scenes in both Casuality and East Enders both use alot of conversations throughout hence the continual use of two-shot. Both use digetic sound and also contain characters of the same class. Both drama's have many story lines going on at the same time.

Macro:
Relationships are popular in both drama's and the storylines used are like reality only exageratted! I noticed the majority of the doctor's in casuality were male which carries the male steriotype and all the patients in this particular episode were female making them seem almost "helpless".

In this particular episode there was actually only 2 real patients, one the old alcoholic woman and the other the man who's hand was wounded. The other two patients were linked to the dramatic story line. This shows that the programme should consentrate more on injuries and "hospital life", this will make it seem less like a soap. The majority of the programme didn't actually take place in the hospital.
I think casuality should focus on only one or two storylines at the same time which strictly relate to the hospital.The story lines are also very unrealistic, The black girl who is a criminal (black steriotype?) manages to cause a police car crash which has 3 police officers including the driver. Then she has time to open the window with her arm (injures it-hospital bit) and fight off two policewoman before escaping-less of that!