2900 Happiness - Aarhus Universitet

SUMMARY
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the structuring of time and how it can affect the storyline
structure and how the storyline unwinds in the first season of the Danish soap opera 2900
Happiness. It is also to examine if so called dogma rules can strengthen the relationship between the
structuring of time and the storyline structure and thereby improve the quality.
In chapter I and chapter II the history of the soap opera is examined and it is illustrated how the
soap opera has developed in regard to form and content. The soap opera has developed from its
original form in different directions resulting in so-called soap opera hybrids that in spite of the
similarity cannot be defined as a ‘pure’ soap opera. The development of the soap opera shows that it
is necessary to create a genre definition that can separate the soap opera from all the hybrids and
other genres that have elements in common with the soap opera. This necessity for a genre
definition is recognized by Dorothy Hobson and in 2002 she defines the pure soap opera as a series
that must, for example, be transmitted at least 3 times a week and 52 weeks a year. This is a genre
definition that sorts out the hybrids leaving what Hobson calls the pure soap opera or what could be
called the normative soap opera.
The genre of 2900 Happiness is analysed in chapter III and the analysis shows that the series
deviates somewhat from the definition of the normative soap opera. The most critical deviation has
to do with the transmission time. During its first season 2900 Happiness was transmitted over a
period of only 12 weeks, whereas Hobson’s definition states that the pure soap opera should be
transmitted 52 weeks a year. In spite of this critical deviation from the definition of pure or
normative soap opera, 2900 Happiness is still defined as a normative soap opera. The reason for this
is that the series is produced as a normative soap opera and is constructed with the complex
narrative structure of parallel and interwoven storylines, which is characteristic of a series created
for transmission 4 days a week. This means that the viewer in theory perceives 2900 Happiness as a
soap opera in the moment that it is transmitted.
The analysis of time and storylines in 2900 Happiness in chapter IV and V shows that the series’
relationship to time is diffuse. This is generally due to the lack of time indicators showing the time
line of the fictional story, both in the individual episode and from episode to episode. In addition,
the excessive use of jumps forward in time from episode to episode results in a lacking structuring
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