DRW50

Cute promo.

There's still going back if the writing makes the effort. Will they? I doubt it. This seems to mostly be about how Andy and Aaron will suffer, with Robert as the plot device.

I hated this story so much. I still hate it even in a promo decades later. It ruined Liza as a character. And she and Michael Lowry were terrible together - zero chemistry (look at how awkward their kiss is). Awful.

There was a Dave Gibbs who had a bit role on AW as a cop during the time Tim was on the show. Was it the same guy?

I have to laugh at melting mannequin Schock recycling old stale Taylor Swift lines (I'm sure he thinks he's being very very "sassy") over his stupid office, only to learn that one of the idiots working for him was spewing racist garbage on social media. What happened to "haters gonna hate"? http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/congressman-aaron-schock-alleged-downton-abbey-office-haters/story?id=28731489 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=28756347

I had one of those books (I still have it somewhere) that explained the long breaks. I can't remember now. So Sandie was her name. Thanks. All I remember of her was she wanted a career and she had an abortion and she was involved (?) with Eric Pollard. I almost wonder if she begged the show not to kill her off, and she had incriminating photos, as they were happy to kill off every other Sugden. I like Debbie, but yes, it is sad that after this with Robert, it means Victoria, Andy, and his kids are the only Sugdens. I think they knew Sammy Winward wanted to leave so they thought, hey, Robert is bad, and we made him bisexual (since bisexual = murderer in fiction), so he can kill her, and isn't this shocking and amazing, and we'll all boo and hiss and he'll go. Most of the reaction I saw was apathetic so it didn't even work. Ugh.

How far did they go in the DVD releases? I think I may have some up to 1976... Yeah, if they were going to kill her it should have been a total accident rather than this, which will probably turn into Robert bumping off randoms and being killed off so poor Annie can return for yet another Sugden funeral (if Sheila Mercer is still able). The whole thing angers me. I wish I could say, "They won't take that road with Robert," not with how important he is to the show's past and future, but I just don't have any trust. They've killed off and written out so many Sugdens. Why do they keep doing this? I'd say I wish someone would ask the producer, but we won't get a real answer anyway. They cast such a wonderful actor in a vital role and we get this, with endless fan hate just to solidify his sure departure. While characters like Andy do everything but blow up the town and get a free pass every time.

Robert shoved Katie to the ground when she was going to try to get away with evidence of his cheating on Chrissie. She fell through the floorboards and died. I would say, "He didn't mean to kill her," but it's already turned into a coverup, and him guilting Aaron into silence, so given that many fans already hated the character, the neon signs of "serial killer" are flashing above his head. I doubt he'll be around more than another year, at most. A huge huge waste on a show that needed good male characters. I'll still watch past stuff, so thanks for reminding me. It just sucks. I guess that's what I get for falling for it.

Well that's bye bye Emmerdale for me. Not here for "Robert abuses poor Aaron" or "Robert the villain/serial killer who will hold the town hostage" or however the script usually goes. Robert could and should have been so much more. He could have been the center of the show, a legacy to build on. Not another Cameron whatever his last name was. I quit with Terry and Viv and I should have stuck to my guns. Nice talking to you guys, and keep me updated if anything good happens.

September 1990 Weekly

September 1990 Weekly

September 1990 Weekly

September 1990 Weekly

January 1954 Radio Mirror

I love seeing the fights between Rachel and Mac. Douglass and Victoria gave everything they had - it felt so real, especially the mocking and cruelty of their jabs in the Lemay material.

Mentally unstable as in Belle - no. Mentally unstable as in screwed up from a host of unresolved issues and likely to snap when pushed the wrong way (which is true of most Dingles, especially one of his favorite Dingles, Uncle Cain) - yes. It's one of the more interesting parts of the story for me (whether it's even intentional or not, I have no idea), in that he tried to put that past him and seem grown up once everything happened with Jackson. Robert never knew about any of that, Robert just saw a hot, stubborn guy he enjoyed unraveling. And he did unravel Aaron very effectively (and I don't think all of that was completely intentional either), but what's underneath the front Aaron has tried to put up the last 3-4 years is really a big mess.

She said she wanted him to focus on school and he also wanted out, I think.

She denied that was the reason, but who knows. He looks a lot like Kim there.

It's rough, but then, the day before Aaron told him he didn't like him or fancy him anymore. He cut everything off with Robert and I don't think he expected Robert to lash out. What Robert doesn't get is that Aaron isn't entirely stable himself...he's very volatile and has just been trying to suppress it for ages. The end of this is crazy eyes Aaron I haven't seen since circa 2009.

It didn't feel like they were as dominant. They certainly were dominant, but they weren't a major part of stories like Who Shot Phil? or Sharon's return or everything with Steve Owen. There were also fewer of them, with more care taken to give each of them an individual personality. The Carters are just misery hidden under jolly sing-songs. There's no sense of fun like there was early on with Kat, even though she had a very hard edge. Sour, bitter, unpleasant people, but worse than that, empty, uninteresting people. What can you tell me about any of them? Beyond what they wear or who they're involved with? Add in that Danny Dyer is incapable of carrying major story even though he's supposed to be the head of the family, and the confusing, pointless retcons to make Shirley a part of the family (when every "twist" involving Shirley and Dean in this story has been a sensationalistic flop), and you're just left with nothing. Then there are the "issues" thrown at them like rotten eggs. Did anyone get anything out of Johnny's coming out (dropped almost immediately to the point of driving the actor off the show)? Or the abuse story with Tina? Or the rape story? Or the euthanasia story? I'm sure we'll be getting the pill addiction story soon enough. The relative isolation of the Slaters worked, because they bounced off each other. The relative isolation of the Carters just shows that, deep down, they're all the same character - one that deserves a fraction of the airtime they've received. And there's always this weird guilt-tripping if you don't like them, because they "saved" the show and you just don't "get" them.

Madchen looks almost exactly the same as she did on TP (especially in the photos with Dana). Eerie.

She seems like a constant exercise in damage limitation to me, especially after the backlash from last season.

I think it was the other way around...? I get the idea of EE not ever being that diverse. I wish it could be, and it has been more diverse in the past (Santer mostly just resorted to tokenism until his last year, and we're back there again), but I get it. The problem is when you go around making yourself a martyr for staying with a mostly-white cast. He was one breath away from saying "PC." He's so ridiculously smug.

Michelle Gayle (ex-Hattie) speaks up about DTC's bizarre back-patting over not "box-ticking." She was more polite than some would have been, considering how arrogant and smug he was about it. (if any other producer had framed it that way, the purity brigades would have torn them apart) http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/eastenders-racism-row-michelle-gayle-5107426