If this is Spike's idea of torture, being forced to watch soaps are far from it. Not that I think they are at all entertaining, I think they are just stultifying. Not painful, exactly, however. I can just think of about a million things that would be more interesting than watching soaps. To wit:
Watching golf or sport fishing on television
Watching Entertainment Tonight
Preparing a tax return
You get the idea.
Now, painful, on the other hand, would be something like:
Experiencing 9/11 all over again
Having one's foot run over by a careless livery driver taking a corner too sharply
Sitting on an orange crate for hours on end
Having a heel spur
Watching a mime perform on a street corner
You don't scare me, Spike!