DRW50

I like the relationship between Dot and Fatboy - my only real hesitation is that Dot's stories in recent years have kind of gone in a depressing loop. Hopefully they will help each other. I like the idea of Lauren and Ryan, although it seems rushed, but I think that this story is going to be overshadowed by the real life scandal Neil McDermott was involved in. I would have considered giving this story to Lauren and one of the new Moons. I wish they didn't so often limit Max to the same few stories with Tanya and his daughters. So much fondness I had for the character last year has ebbed away.

I like Tamwar and Afia, but not as dramatic characters. She just seems to be acting, and he looks gormless. He's better with some wry humor and she's better with quirkiness. I know they are at the center of all this drama so we have to see their reactions but I think they were much better at moments like the scene where she got him to dance with her in the Argee Bargee (however it's spelled) - it was such an honest little scene, awkward, and the first time I believed they loved each other. It makes me sad but I wonder if they fired Mercy because of her appearance, which often seems to get negative remarks. With better hair she would look great. I will miss Mercy, she has such a thoughtfulness and basic sweetness which the show never properly used. People go on about how she weighs Fatboy down, but it was his love for her that helped define him in the first place. Without her I'm not sure what he will be. I also wonder sometimes if she was fired because they may have somehow felt they'd reached a quota for minority actors. I hope that isn't the case, as minority actors are, along with a few greats like Janine, basically the main ones keeping the show going as EE continues to struggle with how to write for Kat, Jack, Michael, and Ronnie. I wish they'd just cut their losses and get rid of Phil...

I never thought of the first season as gritty realism anyway. It was more real, yes, and the characters were less one-dimensional, but it still had howlers like Krystal's bridal shower where all the ladies oohed and awed over the rich man outside her apartment window.

I thought Monday's episode was one of the best in months. Every scene worked, with the exception of the Masood/Afia/Tamwar stuff (Hamesh Patel and the girl who plays Afia are NOT good in dramatic situations) and the idiot plotting of Phil suddenly getting a job in Dubai and hating Yusef because Yusef inexplicably won't help Phil out. The episode was full of intertwined stories and moments, and effortless character interaction - it should have seemed forced for Dot to have deep conversations with relative strangers like Christian and Shirley, but it felt natural. Her shame when Grace spoke to her about Jim was a tough moment but the most painful was when she had wandered around the empty living room before finally curling into a chair. I know this has been a part of Eastenders for a long time but I feel like Kirkwood has added more of these silent moments which speak volumes. This was June Brown at her best. This isn't exactly a popular story but I love Fatboy's devotion to Mercy, who has been pushed into all of this without having time to process. I still think there was a place for Mercy on the show and I think she brings out such a kind side to Fatboy, instead of dragging him down, as many say she does. Fatboy also looked so incredibly handsome throughout this episode. Syed and Zainab, their talk was everything I want out of their relationship, all sides. The love, the tenderness, memories of the past (which were beautifully written and didn't ever sound like lines on a page), regret and fear for the future. I was especially surprised when Zainab joked/admitted that she had interfered in Syed's life. Nina Wadia is best at this melancholy; having Zainab as more than just the shrew who is duped by Yusef makes you care more. It's this type of shading which poor Masood never gets. What can I say about the Syed/Christian scenes? On the one hand, I think Christian is a very insecure man and I don't like the way he essentially pouted and played the brat when Syed wouldn't rush into accepting the proposal. I can't see this relationship lasting. On the other hand, after I spent much of 2009 and 2010 resenting/hating/being annoyed by this couple, I've grown to accept them, especially compared to the horror shows at Hollyoaks and Emmerdale. They actually talk to each other and since Amira left have not been laden with ridiculously overly melodramatic stories that are forgotten about overnight and show how hollow they are. Even if John Partridge is a bit overdramatic, he and Marc Elliot work incredibly well together, building up a strong bond that carries through their scenes even when they were heavily censored. This made the bed scene seem surprisingly natural. This was a hugely groundbreaking scene - a male couple on the nation's most talked about soap, in bed together, clearly in the afterglow, both shirtless (breaking the Hollyoaks rule), kissing - yet there was no OMG THIS IS SO SHOCKING!!! tinge to the scenes. The BBC is going to catch real hell for this and I applaud them for their guts. I also think Marc Elliot has given his absolute best performances in the last few months. I also didn't realize what a nice ass he had! I have to admit that I wasn't sure if Daran Little would be able to change his style to Eastenders, as some of his first scripts were almost like a parody of Eastenders. He's gotten better and better and these last two episodes were just superbly written. Among many other things, I love the way he writes for Kim. She's loud and crude but she's also strangely graceful and subtle. Little moments like her birthday celebration, or crying at Fatboy's wedding, are what I love seeing on soap opera.

Interview with David Essex. Looks like he might not be around for long. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/interviews/a322231/david-essex-eddie-moon-eastenders.html

The credits are a lot of nothing. That basically represents today's Emmerdale, sadly, but it's not very pleasant to watch. I can't believe they started off with the car ad. Why?

Why am I not surprised that we see no farmland anywhere? It starts off like a car commercial. It's not a real advertisement for Emmerdale. The theme is OK, but it sounds like one of those old, dirty records that skips, and loops back - it repeats itself several times for no apparent reason. At least foot fetishists will be pleased.

Swajeski's run is certainly not perfect (stuff like the Derek Dane story, not enough utilizing of certain characters, a bit too much fondness for her own creations, the hackwork done on Donna) but the pacing was decent and most of the stories were good, sometimes great. I guess it helps that at this time AW had a good EP and P&G was still run by people who cared. I know Eddie Drueding felt the show was fine until JFP. I haven't seen enough to say that myself and I know the show was close to cancelation before then but it's a shame they had to so drastically change the show. After that time AW just seems so generic and only some of the stronger actors carry the last years.

This is where Carl tells Ryan. There is a very lengthy video series called "Carl's Redemption", that heavily features the steps of Carl and Ryan and Carl/Rachel, although it also features a ton of other characters.

Quite a bit of Carl's redemption, which began around 1992 or 1993, was in his learning that he had a son, Ryan Harrison. Ryan was true-blue, a good guy no matter what, and Carl, perhaps haunted by the horrible way he'd treated Perry, his other son who had died very young, began to care about Ryan (before this they had just been enemies - a lot of 1991 was spent on Ryan trying to bust Carl). This made Carl want to reform. I don't know if the scenes where Carl finds out is online. This has a bit of when Ryan finds out.

Yeah, Maggie, the casting director, is the fuller-figured woman who had the story about pole-dancing. I'm not sure what stories she's had since. I think she was ward to a teenage girl who tried to turn a man straight and then got bored and got with someone else and wasn't sure about losing her virginity, etc. It's definitely refreshing to see them talk so openly about pushing actors out, although I wonder if they really believe these actors will return.

Oh, I see. Well even if you do get to see them you can probably skip a fair amount, as many episodes seem to have filler stories (bets or musicals...hopefully not called Isidingo-Crossed Lovers).

I have an interview with one of the Amy's from the early 70's - when I have time I'll put it up.

Sorry, hope I didn't give too much away. There's still so much we haven't seen (and probably never will - I'm not even sure how many episodes the Africa Channel shows or if they go in a loop) so I just read what I can. I wish more clips were available. This talks more about the behind the scenes chaos recently. http://www.iol.co.za/tonight/tv-radio/more-suds-for-hit-soapie-1.1056086

http://www.horizondeep.co.za/

There is a fair amount of behind the scenes stuff (a bit tabloidy, but with some nice photos) here. http://teeveetee.blogspot.com/search/label/Isidingo

Yes. It's the type of thing that few shows would want to talk about, yet it does happen. Isidingo is one of the glossier shows, since they go on location (everything on Generations seems to be indoors, and if any events happen, like fires, they are referenced, not shown), but you can see the ramshackle nature at times. Cherel also seduced Haines Barker's son to get close to Barker, then when the son (Duncan) caught on to her, she killed him. This is the level of cold-bloodedness that most US or even UK soaps wouldn't go near, because they would be afraid of going too far or ruining the character, but generally, viewers will eat it up. When I clicked on the episode synopses at their official site, it looked like 5 days a week, one episode a day.

A very interesting paper on how the show deals with HIV/AIDS and sex. http://ruc-dk.academia.edu/NorbertWildermuth/Papers/385990/Isidingo_The_Need_A_mainstream_approach_to_HIV_AIDS_communication_extended_version_ 2007 party photos. http://www.tvsa.co.za/default.asp?blogname=tv&articleID=4073 Memorable moments. http://www.women24.com/Templates/Articles/Article.aspx?sid=13&cid=2498&acid=2637&cb=TVAndGossip/SoapBox&aid=48501169082444d39023bb2a42c3a346

Scenes from the episode where her character was killed off:

Ashley Callie, who played Lee, died from a car accident not too long after the episodes currently airing (early 2008). She was a very popular actress and a huge part of the show. Ultimately the character was killed off, and the actors who played her friends and family grieved for Lee the way they had grieved for Ashley.

The most confusing part of Isidingo is the opening credits, which are very very slick and full of action, danger, intrigue. Then you watch the show, and you get some of that, but you also get a story about a full-figured woman learning to pole dance. This same woman is in the credits looked terrified of some danger. I guess it was pole-dancing... Isidingo has an integrated cast and there is much more violence and gunplay than on Generations. The episodes running on the Africa Channel are up to November 2007. The current stories are: Letti, a young mother, was for some reason in the crosshairs of a crime boss, Bra Fox. He told his son, Cyprian, to kill her. Cyprian could never quite go through with it, but Letti was terrified at all times, and borrowed a gun from a friend. Cyprian ended up being shot by a cop, Alec, when Alec got a tip on his whereabouts and thought Cyprian had a gun (it was a torch). Alec fled. Cyprian then died, and his father swore vengeance. The cops weren't sure whether the shooting was justifiable, and Alec's girlfriend, Lee, daughter to Barker Haines, began to investigate for herself. When she tried to talk to him about it, he backhanded her. I'm so used to seeing violence against women on soaps that I was pleasantly surprised to see this shown as being unacceptable, and that no matter how much pain he was in, she could never forgive him. She broke up with him immediately. Alec was already on an emotional meltdown before any of this and it just got worse and worse. Bra Fox still planned to kill both Letti and Alec, and the police couldn't get involved. Letti got a fake driver's license and went away to secretly confront Bra Fox before he could kill her. She used a stun gun on him and took his gun. He tried to get to her, but she held steady, and was about to shoot when Alec walked in and told her to leave - he'd take care of it. After she left, Alec shot and killed Bra Fox and disposed of his body. There are also a lot of business dramas with Barker Haines and various employees that are hard to follow. His daughter Lee works for him, along with her mother figure, Harriet, a woman who looks like she had some very bad plastic surgery. A lot of story revolves around some other twenty or thirtysomethings who all live together. Len, a controlling and insecure type who is a talk show producer, Paul, who is one of the talk show hosts, Lolly, Maggie, and Len's girlfriend, Farrow. They liked to do bets that ranged from silly (being a slave, pole-dancing) to dangerous (driving too fast, driving your car into a canal that has a damaged drain pipe). When this story waned, they got another roommate, Priya, a cop who may or may not be a lesbian and whose presence made Maggie spout negative remarks about lesbians and blather on about Will & Grace. Priya's sexuality wasn't clear, but she did say she thought men were responsible for all violence and hatred. Her arrival coincided with a story where Paul was in the paper, kissing a male DJ. He was subjected to vile anti-gay comments on-air and in his personal life, repeatedly being called a pedophile and other slurs. He began to have a breakdown and against Len's protestations, quit his job as a talk show host. This story is all over the place but I do appreciate them dealing with homophobia and also repeatedly saying that just because the law forbids homophobia does not mean it goes away. The scenes where Paul and Nan were hosting the show, friendly, positive, and then these bile-laden calls come through, they really did hit you.

Along with Generations, The Africa Channel runs Isidingo. First shown in 1998, Isidingo is seen as a more daring soap than many others, one that mixes glamour and high drama in with serious social issues such as homosexuality, domestic violence, and AIDS. Isidingo has had the on-and-off adventures of Cherel, a woman who solved the problem of her demanding boyfriend by hiring a hitman to kill him and his entire family! She then sank her claws into Barker Haines, a Daniel Benzali lookalike who is deeply involved in the many crimes of Horizon Deep. Cherel was written out for a few years, I believe in a prison sentence, but is back now. Contrasting Cherel is long-running character Nandipha, pool shark, talk show hostess, and infected with HIV after being raped. Nandipha stayed on the show for many years, and was in a wide variety of stories which entertained and educated viewers, including one where she and two friends got drunk and took too much coke and had a threeway! This was unprotected sex and both men spent months taking meds for possible HIV infection. Not the type of story you'll see on most soaps these days. You have to sign up, but you can find episode synopses that go back to the early part of the 00's, or longer. They also have some character profiles, although they seem to be 2-3 years out of date. http://www.isidingo.co.za/FrontEnd/HomePage.aspx

I think Maeve was off the show at the time. Jerry, I don't know. At that time GL was pushing Dinah so much. I had to stop watching at one point because of this and a few other heinous stories.

It's great to see another fan posting here! I keep meaning to watch more than I actually do. I still miss Rosie and Frazier...

It's in The Sun. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3603613/Ken-left-for-dead-by-his-own-grandson.html I think it's a big waste of potential, not because I just loved the James character, because he was not that developed, but because there's no real reason to trash characters this way, especially when it's only for a few minutes of shock and then they are never mentioned again. Remember what they did with Paul Duckworth a few years ago? I liked Amber, and would like to see her back again for some of what you mention. I just don't buy that she would be with Sophie or that Sophie would somehow turn her into a lesbian. It seems very random to me. The only enjoyment for me would be if she sat around making one-liners about Rosie/Kevin/Sally.