Daytime dramas, yes soap operas, are addictive but not because the plotlines are unimaginably complicated and absurd.  They are.  Where else could one be a first-hand observer of Abe Carter, the mayor of Salem (somewhere in the Midwest) suffering from severe amnesia for months.  How long would Nurse Whitley hold him hostage, pretending to be his wife?  Intrigue surrounds Victor Kiriokis, missing somewhere in the Greek Isles before his body is discovered by air traffic controllers following a plane crash, leaving his wife, Maggie, to be seduced by his best friend, Konstantin Meleounis.  But . . . proving to be no friend of Victor’s, Konstantin’s only motive is to gain control of Maggie’s massive fortune. Not only does the DuPree family learn that the beloved matriarch, Anita, has cancer, but they also discover that her daughter, Dani, and granddaughter, Naomi, both inherited the Bracha gene.  Their chances of developing cancer have just risen exponentially and they both need the emotional support of the family to help them cope.  However, Naomi has to keep her test results private, even from her husband, Jacob Hawthorne.  Of course Naomi must stay quiet.  Jacob, a police detective, has undertaken an undercover mission on a very dangerous case.  No distractions, even a serious medical situation involving his wife, can impede his work!  After all, he must prove himself to his hyper-critical police chief father in whose eyes Jacob is still a child and can do nothing right.  Erica Cane, Audra Charles, Sally Specter, Adam Newman, Kyle Abbot, John Black, EJ DiMera and numerous others have navigated their own tragedies for decades in long-running daytime television dramas.  They’ve endured kidnappings, imprisonments, betrayals, corporate espionage and sabotage, tawdry trysts and rendezvous and babies switched at birth but that’s all in a day’s work.  What is noticeable only to the most well-trained eye is hidden in the details.  All of these characters, despite their stations in Life, and no matter how dire the situation, are always dressed to the nines.  It’s also perpetually ‘five o’clock somewhere’ on the set since cocktails flow freely and easily in nearly every scene.  Storylines aside, loyal viewers are intoxicated by the fashion and the folly.  

Nicole Richardson, a newly divorced and highly respected psychiatrist in the community of Fairmont Crest, sheds her conservative persona and unleashes her alter-ego on all of the eligible or ineligible men (marital status is of no consequence in these shows) at Uptown, the local hot spot.  In she struts, Sex in a skin-tight, barely-there, flesh-colored, sequin-adorned, Bardot dress, bright crimson three-inch Jimmy Choos, rhinestone chandelier earrings, llama-length eyelash extensions and ruby red come-hither lipstick and slinks onto a barstool . . . a dirty martini in one hand and a sultry smile not-so-subtly inviting attention . . . and finishes her grand entrance.  Questions beg to be asked: what if one of her patients were to see her?  Or better yet: does she even have patients?  She’s seldom in her office, and when she IS there, she’s sharing cognac (and other things) with Dr. Carlton Fitzgerald!  And: Carlton never has patients either?  Is he really a doctor?

“Sheesh!” thinks the viewer, “Nicole is playing with fire!  Of course she’s still in love with Ted (her ex-husband whom she divorced upon discovering he had a secret love-child with a deranged mistress twenty years ago) and she’s got Dr. Carlton Fitzgerald on the line!  What is she doing tramping around Uptown?  But more importantly, where did she get that dress? I have to have it!”

The viewer picks up her phone and types in “worn by Nicole Richardson, Beyond the Gates, January 30” into the search bar.  Exact Match appears on the screen beneath a photo of sexy, not-so-sweet Nicole.  One simple point-click-add-to-cart-proceed-to-checkout later assures that the outfit will be hers within the next seven to ten business days!  Yes, it’s THAT simple! Forget the dirty martini.  The viewer can make her own . . . OR wait for the postal delivery and role play as Nicole at her own local nightclub!

One half hour later, on a different serial matinee,  Audra Charles, jobless and penniless for months, bent on enacting revenge on the entire Newman empire, meets her bestie, Sally Spector, at Society for breakfast.  Given the fact that Audra is unemployed, is unable to  pay rent at the Genoa City Athletic Club where she temporarily resides, buy gas for her car or food for her table, arrives at the restaurant clad in a gorgeous light blue, bell-sleeved, asymmetrical sweater paired with Navy blue wool, boot cut slacks and blue suede ankle boots.  Notwithstanding the problem du jour (hacking into the Newman Enterprises computer system and planting a bug that will destroy all of the files and keeping her criminal past in L.A. a secret from  . . . , well, from everyone in Genoa City), the viewer is caught off guard by Audra’s clothes  . . . and her mimosa . . . and the improbability of it all. 

“That is the most beautiful sweater!  I wonder how it would look on me?  And Elvis has NOTHING on those fabulous blue suede shoes!” 

Audra and Sally continue scheming about the Newmans’ demise, toasting their plan with refills on their mimosas.  

“O.K.,” the viewer continues to dream, “that sweater is a must-have!  

Another session of point-and-click later and the sweater is on its way.  

Meanwhile, back at the Abbot mansion, Jack, Kyle and Diane share cocktails and conversation about their OWN plan to bring the Newmans down . . . And it’s not even noon!  Why are they drinking so early in the day?  Are ALL problems solved over cocktails?

Not to be out-schemed by the Abbots, across town at the Newman estate, Victor, Nikki, Adam, Chelsea and Victoria strategize against the Abbotts and Audra, each with their own glasses filled with something spirited!  (Foreshadowing of more problems being solved!)  Of course, Nikki, Chelsea and Victoria flaunt creations straight from Paris Fashion Week, but as gorgeous and enviable as they all are, the viewer will have to wait to order anything more . . . At least until the first two packages have arrived . . . (unless she ponders the situation over cocktails with a friend?)

So, As the World Turns in these complicated Days of Our Lives Beyond the Gates, tragedies and spectacles continue with All My Children, all of them Bold and Beautiful, sometimes checking into General Hospital, but what always drives the viewership is its fascination with fashion and folly.