DRW50

Summer 96. I put a TV Guide preview article about it (where the producer let us know it was not a soap!!!) some pages back in this thread.

Has Andrew Ridings vastly improved as an actor...?

To me TB always felt like another character (the same character she's played on most of her shows...). I think that's why people often seem to like her even as they hate Carly in general. What worked with Carly when Sarah Brown was in the role is that she wasn't written as being justified or right (not until her last year, maybe). She was often supposed to be wrong, it's just the performance that added layers of ambiguity. When Carly became a moral voice, it made the character irrelevant. I loved when Carly would lash out at characters like Liz back in the day, as I hated Liz, but I knew that wasn't the word of the writing gods. Now, when they have Carly go on about AJ being a drunk loser who deserved to die, or whatever, I know it's supposed to be how we should feel, and it repels me.

She really only had two - Jason just lied because Guza had to make the story all about him.

I watched some of the July and August episodes yesterday morning, along with a September one a few days ago, and Tony + Tony/Ally are huge dead spots in literally every single episode, often isolated and repetitive. No wonder the ratings stayed so poor - why did they think any viewer desperately needed to see Tony 3-4-5 days a week?

Why is it Ashdown left?

He uses Sharon more than I thought he would (although often as uber-camp and mostly to remind us that she can't lead the Mitchells/is just there to prop Phil), but I'm wary of where a story will go. I wish some of the writers who wrote for her in her better years were still around. Did Sarah Phelps write anything good for her?

DS always gets the vapors for Eastenders when Santer and/or DTC are around. It's all about PR and hype (just as they only liked Corrie when Collinson was around). They need their heads patted and their butts wiped. As soon as DTC is gone, that love will fade, minus a few loyal posters.

http://dirtylittlegreasemonkey.tumblr.com/post/109224848292/the-wedding-week-trailer The DS brigades will, and it will get a lot of hype and promo because of the anniversary and it's a murder mystery of a longtime cipher (er...character), but it doesn't deserve a fraction of the ratings it will likely get. It's a half-assed shock value story with an embarrassing promo that reminds me of the far superior Neighbours Halloween webisodes last year.

This trailer has a few decent moments but is mostly self-serious and cheesy beyond belief (especially the end). It's a great encapsulation of everything DTC gets wrong as a showrunner. Emmerdale released a trailer today that was 100 times better and will get 100 less times attention. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hqbgv

For me DHK and Nancy made it work well (I haven't seen enough of the later Franks), as they had both playfulness and passion. I did prefer her with Seneca, but the show really did heavy damage to him starting with his attempted rape of Jill and then with the Kimbo saga. I think the show just kept recycling stories too many times for some of their central characters. This began to take a toll once it got to 1979, 1980, 1981, as character-based drama gave way to stunts. Some of the characters were no longer strong enough to withstand the increasingly weak writing. I was more supportive of a lot of Jill's stories than many fans seem to be (I liked the Ken George Jones story enough to where it's even my Youtube name), but once it got the Night at the Museum...eh.

ellabelle did you see the 1981 episode posted on the last page? Lots of good Erica scenes in that (with Brandon and Mark) and some classic Erica lines. I wonder if they had Dimitri act that way to set up the Anton story (his having a long lost child). Or if they wanted people to know why Erica would cheat with Jackson. It's a shame that the show was so cavalier with Erica/Dimitri (as they also were with Travis/Erica earlier), as they could have been a strong longterm couple, at least if Nader had kept clean. 1996 episodes - it'll take a while for me to sit through those...

The pacing was just terrible...I think in the space of two or three episodes (I might have the timing mixed up) JP walked out on him because he thought he was having sex with Lockie (for drugs), he gave Lockie bad coke (for revenge or whatever) that Lockie gave JP (since JP had randomly decided to snort coke to get over his troubles). JP had a terrible reaction and had to go in hospital. Ste had sex with the guy, threatened his family with the flower pot shard in a rehab bid, and went off to rehab, with John Paul watching him go (Lockie telling JP as Ste left that Ste had given him the bad coke). I've heard the HIV reveal episodes were very good. I just don't know if I care about watching right now. These characters are so shallow I don't care about real world issues. Why bother with the pretense? Remember the pretense of Maxine/Patrick being about stopping domestic violence? Does anyone believe that? They should have just kept Ste in the fantasy world where drugs and sex do nothing to you. If anyone sees this show as real life, they have a lot of problems a message story won't fix.

Hamlin's done a lot of guest roles. He was on Shameless recently as another old gay man. He was on Veronica Mars and Mad Men at one point too. For someone who complained at length about how playing gay kills your career, he sure leans on it to pay the bills.

I always liked Donna and Matt too. What a waste.

I don't remember Robinson having a ton of chemistry with Nancy Addison either. The thing with Frank is that, IMO, he was not a sympathetic character. I think DHK offset that with his own all-American looks and humor. Robinson was a more than decent actor, a better actor than DHK, but I still didn't feel any particular connection to Frank when he was in the role.

When I watched a few loltastic clips, Ste slept with him right before he threatened his family with a broken flower pot and went to rehab. After Sinead.

Since DTC has only been there a little over a year I think he'll stay past the anniversary. I wonder whatever happened to that company he was setting up with his fellow saint of Digital Spy forums, Santer.

Blythe pretty much ruined the show for me. I tuned out for what I thought was for good when Viv and Terry died. If not for Robert I wouldn't have come back. Hell, he's even made me praise Aaron/Danny Miller, and you may remember how rare that was. I guess I'll see how the show handles him as to whether I stay in or not. I wonder if Adam Thomas is leaving. Something he tweeted makes me wonder.

This time around it worked for me because it was supposed to be cringeworthy - sad really, because she'd lost so much and she didn't realize. I didn't realize he was playing the vicar. I've been avoiding Corrie because I'm so let down by the cheap ass, pathetic stories they've given to Todd to destroy the character, but I may have to watch some of this (I guess this is what Cotton has been talking about not getting any backlash - Sean is so asexual, no wonder). I also didn't realize he was only 35. He looked 35 on Emmerdale.

Chloe was an interesting character. So spiky, but she had a heart deep down underneath, when given the chance. Her plan at the end went on for a while and really did take a toll on Chas and Carl. I used to have that episode where Carl was living with Chas and Chloe and he was walking around in tight white boxers (Chloe made sure she was in her slinkiest negligee, as she knew his ex wife and kids were coming by [he didn't] and she knew his ex would see this as a sin den and not let the kids visit). Tom Lister had such a hot body and such a natural, everyday charisma, and the show, when it tried, really knew how to display it. I'll never understand why they killed Carl off.

Emmerdale really knew how to do exits back then (and they had quite a few - Cain/Sadie/Nicola all around the same time, with Tom dead by the end of the year). I'd forgotten about that guy and his annoying mother. I think Nicola loved him a lot until their relationship fell apart. Ivan is one of the few bi characters in soaps, and was an odd fit for the show as well as for Paul. He'd probably fit in more now. I remember they had him and the other guy stay around for a few more months but nothing came of it and they moved to Spain or something.

It never made a lot of sense to me either, although they were mostly written as bumbling schemers at that point. I think it ended once and for all when she had sex with Jimmy (I still can't believe they've been together 5-6 years...). It's hard to believe Nicola was a flat out bitch and Bernice was her foil and semi-comedic central heroine.

Sorry, I was just joking about his Doctor Who character. I meant Donald de Souza. Nicola and David were going to try to kill him for his money (they didn't have the nerve to go through with it). I still wish the show had done more with Anna de Souza. I liked her a lot, as well as her relationship with Matthew. Do David and Nicola even interact now? This reminds me of how angry I still am over what happened with Viv. (thank goodness he cut that Owen Wilson hair) I still miss Jasmine too. At least Jenna Coleman has kind words. http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/jenna-coleman-doctor-who/#_ Donald's last days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQAOtyqqfxk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yGf1u9IZWw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlZ6bvExII0