There was a time when soaps routinely took on tough issues such as abortion or drug abuse, facing them in a head-on fashion. Today's soaps are more likely to ignore the former and play the latter as little more than a plot point. Is there value to be had in adding a dose of reality to daytime’s dramas, or should they focus more on being sheer escapism? Should the lives of the people we see each day on the screen more closely resemble the world in which we live?