Yesterday's EastEnders

I've only ever given up watching Eastenders once before. Something about Ian pretending to be gay or married to someone he wasn't married to, or some other farcical thing that he was doing to get well in with the local chamber of commerce. I'm very close to giving up again.

Cupla focal ar Eastenders! All is forgiven.

this programme, fuck sake. just wow.

Friday was like watching a show where rhe main cast were all on holiday.

the whole thing of Karen and Masood having a clean-off and her saying mr popaloo, mr dopapom, mr popadoodle.... i mean WHAT

Don't like the Taylors anyway, but Karen's racism idiocy (and Mr Papadopoulos letting it slide and still considering her for a job) is just awful.

At this stage we've all been watching soaps long enough to know the drill: mouthy, noisy family moves into the square/onto the street, shakes things up for a while, gets accused of all sorts, turns out to be solid gold, and eventually gets sucked into the same routine as everyone else. Battersbys, Slaters, Taylors, they're all the same.

The stuff with the launderette was ridiculous. Masood's ice cream van thing was ridiculous. Mel's hat not being blown off her head on the ferry was particularly ridiculous. Maybe they should go back to two half hours a week.

I'm sure it's less than a year since we had someone take a briefcase to a fake white collar job.

This Tiffany storyline is awful as well, like why wouldn't Whitney just pick up the phone to Bianca at any point rather than swallow every single thing that comes out of Tiffany's mouth?

Shakil's funeral episode was really powerful. I've never seen anything like that done on a soap.

Not having watched Eastenders regularly for a while, I caught a few bits of it recently. I'm kind of disappointed that they've retconned Tina so that her inability to take anything seriously, including motherhood, right up into her forties is the result of a trauma. I've never liked that character, but I always admired the writers for having someone who was just plain old useless.

it's really bad just now but apparently Kate Oates, the exec producer who just left Corrie and turned Emmerdale around a few years ago, is being considered for the job

it's truuuuuly awful. it's not just the writing and storylines though, it's the directing as well, like why are people talking like that? like they're in a comedy sketch from the 1970s?

Corrie has been dreadful under Kate Oates. Good luck Stenders :-(

I think its been a lot better than it was under the last guy. Phelan took too long to finish off but David's attack and Aidan's death were brilliant.

Yeah, but both brushed over far too quickly in favour of more Connor factory shite and more Bethany shite (and particularly affecting because David, Shona, Aidan and Eva were up to the acting, unlike most of the rest of the cast). The repercussions have been minimal (see also Phelan where Anna was sent on her way after killing him, Nicola and Michelle were shot with no lasting effect, and no-one seems to even really remember he was there). Oates' thing seems to be rushed issue-led storylines and a complete disregard for longer-term continuity.

Shall we head over to the Corrie thread to discuss the upcoming McDonald debacle?

that upcoming McDonald debacle really needs to not be discussed, or happening

Yep. It's going to be the thing that finally stops me watching, I think.

I don't know what you are referring to and google gives a lot of conflicting information so please do take it to corrie rolling.

I can't get over some of the acting in Eastenders and suppose I've always felt this way. It's either so pantomimey or so gruff and dull and one-note. A lot of Emmerdale actors are poor but most of the bad ones at least have a modicum of charm. Corrie's cast still has charm in abundance even when it's bad. Who are the charming or charismatic performers in Eastenders? As grindingly depressing as Ee can be it's the tin ear with comedy that truly lets them down. That heist episode with Mick in novelty slippers truly beggared belief.

This show is really grim. I've gone through periods of watching it recently because I've been looking after my quite ill mother and she has it on but she stopped watching it on the reg because it was getting her down. I saw tonight's though and, omg, mum otm.

The Sharon-Keanu affair storyline complete with extended shirtless scenes seems dreamed up by a lab to be as camp as possible on paper and yet utterly useless on screen

How many people live in Martin and Stacey's house?

15?

not only that but a lot of them are small children - a total nightmare

I was also agog at the new Slater family tradition which seems to be recreating the dance routine from Mean Girls?!

The general consensus is between 15 and 17 people, so let's do some maths and see if that is correct: there's Stacey and her three children (four) Jean, Kat and Mo (seven), Whitney and Tiffany (nine), Martin (10), Hayley and her newborn (12) and now Alfie and the kids (16).

https://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/eastenders/a25406097/eastenders-how-many-people-stacey-fowler-house/

I forgot about Tiffany.

Ben Mitchell as a camp arch-villain in the style of Brendan from Hollyoaks - completely at odds with a lot of the character's history but watching it play out on screen has been hilarious

I stopped watching and have only just learnt I missed a '30 years on' appearance from Lofty and Mary the Punk.

https://youtu.be/FMIn07983n0

Which was utterly pointless as anyone they would have recognised was on panto leave

Eastenders is really good just now

What an episode tonight… Serious fire, heroics, a birth, comedy. The ratings fight back is clearly on.

"Comedy"

Well the Jack scenes were in the time-honoured line of EastEnders’ tin eared feel for comedy, but I did like Jean’s expression at the end.

I haven't watch Stenders in ages, but I couldn't resist the lure of the 1979 episode. Sadly, it wasn't very good, but I love the idea, and the casting was spot on. They haven't done a high-concept episode in such a long time. I hope they're getting back into them more.

both Eastenders and Corrie are really, really bad at the moment. Eastenders is improving slightly, I really like Stacey's surprise lesbian wife and the Panesar mum, but there is a lot of nothing happening and I need Ben to simply not be in it for a while.

I really like EastEnders - but am aware I do cut it a lot of slack. The writers have just got rid of two young characters - Dana and Jada - that were starting to develop well after shaky starts. Janine as pantomime villain is getting a bit tiresome though.

I really liked Dana. It was nice to see a young woman who wasn't a sexy siren with a secret or a troubled vixen with a heart of a gold.

Eve (the aforementioned lesbian wife) is great, but they really need to use her in a major plot. I like all of the Panesars. I really like Bobby Beale’s range of expressions.

I see that Lofty and Mary the Punk, and Colin and Barry, will be back briefly ‘for Dot’s final farewell’ this autumn.

and Lauren! Jac Jossa must be bored of making sponsored Instagram content. It will be interesting to see how they handwave away Ian, Max, Carol and Bianca all not being there.

Maybe they will be? You know how they like to stack the surprises.

Eve (the aforementioned lesbian wife) is great, but they really need to use her in a major plot. I

Can’t complain about tonight’s developments on that front …. Also distracts from the terrible Alfie

I don't understand how Brian Conley and Shane Ritchie can both be in it at the same time. Surely it's one diamond geezer end-of-the-pier entertainer at a time?

Denise and Jack? Are they honestly going to pair up every single adult with every other adult at some stage in this programme? Can't wait till Phil and Martin have their spring awakening and end up together for six months.

Jack’s become incredibly dull and in dire need of a good plot. He’s been basically reduced to overprotective dad. Rumours are he’s about to stray from Denise.

I've only just found out they're a couple and now I'm furious that he's going to cheat on her. Who with? Is it his turn with Sharon?

Jack's already been engaged to Sharon.

Jesus christ, this programme.

Innit though. it's like how everyone in Corrie is no more than one degree of separation from Steve, Gary, Leanne or Maria.

I read an interview with the Maria actress in one of the soap mags lying around my grandparents' house a few weeks ago and she was saying the character has had 31 partners in her 20-odd years at Corrie.