In the manner of a soap opera, i.e., unnecessarily melodramatic, excessively sexual, thoroughly voyeuristic, filled with conniving and backstabbing, and ending in the personal ruin of several people. Also terribly interesting to watch, in a schadenfreude sort of way.
Coined because everybody knows what it means -- everybody watches the soaps sooner or later -- and because the phrase "Shakespearean-tragedic" was too difficult to pronounce.