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Venice is getting its own soap opera that sounds like an unironic interpretation of the SNL skit "The Californians" crossed with Romeo & Juliet.
Odette Annable and Bruce Greenwood are cast as the star-crossed lovers in the ABC pilot, according to Deadline. Here's the description that promotes Venice, the neighborhood in Los Angeles, to a full city (and a seductive one where boutique owners command great power):
Venice is a soap about the haves and the have-nots of California's most seductive city, Venice. It focuses on two rival families, the Nances and the Carvers, and a forbidden and dangerous romance emerging between them as the families battle for control of Venice. Annable will play Sophie Nance, the owner of the hippest boutique in Venice, who falls in love with the offspring of her family’s archenemies, Chris Carver. Greenwood plays Sophie’s father Gordy Nance, the most powerful man in Venice and head of the Nance family. Jennifer Beals plays the Carver matriarch.
So maybe all soap premises sound hilariously terrible. The question is will it be more like "Dallas" or "Pasadena"?