Soap operas, or melodramas with massive ensemble casts, have been a staple in popular culture for nearly a century. Though long-running soaps like “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “General Hospital” have dominated day-time television for decades,

Tunie, whom fans will recognize from her years on “Law & Order: SVU,” has returned to her soap opera roots in CBS’s “Beyond the Gates,” the first daytime serial centered on a Black family in the history of U.S. broadcast television. Premiering Monday, it chronicles the dramas of the Dupree family, the de facto rulers of a tony gated community.

CBS' new daytime drama about a well-to-do Black family in Maryland is pure, glorious soap opera. The last time a broadcast network debuted a new daytime drama, a good portion of America believed the President was a criminal,