The only name I can think of for it is “stillness.” I noticed it even as a small child: In a soap opera, you will typically see the actors simply talking in a room – no camera movements, no distracting background noises, no background music except during the segue between scenes – and the effect is somehow different than practically anything else you will see on television. For that matter, it is somehow different from what you see in any stage play. Is there a term of art for this?
soporific?
Low production values?
Shot on tape instead of film, with a “soft” filter
soaporific? saponific?
I think part of it is the fact that it is shot with multiple cameras, so the lighting has to be really flat in order for none of the cameras to have shadows. Using multiple cameras also restricts how much cameras can move around so that they won’t be in each other’s shot.
There is very little rehearsal time to block actor and camera movement when producing daytime dramas. It’s best to keep both fairly simple. Hence that “stillness” that characterizes their direction. Being shot with multiple cameras really isn’t a factor: sitcoms shot with multiple cameras don’t have this stillness because, being shot on a weekly basis instead of a daily basis, the director has time to block more complex movements.
Another stillness factor is the directorial habit in daytime dramas of ending each scene with a lingering closeup of one of the actors, or a slow zoom to a closeup, before switching to another scene, or breaking for a commercial.
There is also ‘smell-the fart acting’.
RACHEL: I’m sorry, what?
MONICA: What?
JOEY: It’s like, you got so many lines to learn so fast, that sometimes you need a minute to remember your next one. So while you’re thinkin’ of it, you take this big pause where you look all intense, you know, like this