DRW50

What happens when you shoot a plank of wood?

I'm surprised they are going to involve Janine. They had Janine feel bad for about ten minutes and then she stopped caring. She's even taunted Ronnie over killing her child. This must be some rehab attempt.

LOL! at Janine using Morgan to get rent money. I love Janine, despite the havoc she always causes for herself.

I don't get tired of Janine because she's self-destructive, it's because they have no idea what to do with her. The last time she was on the show she caused serious havoc for people. Now she's kind of a joke, and all they can come up with is having her use kids, like she did with Morgan or with Tiffany, or having her as some random plot device, like when she ran over Danielle.

First part of an interview with Matthew Robinson, who produced from 1998-2000 and did a lot of big stories in that era. He also fired a ton of cast members, some of those decisions, like the exits of Kathy Beale and Cindy Beale (and the death of Cindy) having longterm repercussions. I remember I was watching episodes from around 96-97 at this time on a PBS station and when I found Walford Web back then I looked at a cast list for current UK episodes and couldn't believe that a lot of my favorites were gone or going, like Gita, Ruth, Simon, Tiffany. I guess in some ways it worked out but I still miss some of those characters, like Gita.

http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/item.php?id=2314

You can sense the hatred for Martine McCutcheon.

Corrie's 50th anniversary logos. Can't say they do a lot for me.

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s3/coronation-street/scoop/a211428/corrie-unveils-50th-anniversary-logos.html

I'm not gonna lie, the demented part of me had a brief good laugh when Aaron came back into the house and Paddy was on the floor afraid and jumped up like someone who was undergoing electroshock therapy.

I think that would have been a little less jarring if they hadn't edited out most of the scenes where Aaron was beating Paddy senseless.

If anything you would think Phil being married to Shirley would lessen his chances of getting a child. She abandoned her two children and to this day they loathe her. How would she be seen as a proper mother?

Hollyoaks has so many interracial couples, it's almost difficult to find any black couples in the show's history. I'm glad they are at least going to finally bring in a mixed-race family, not just a brief pairing that goes nowhere.

Phina Oruche is joining as the matriarch of a new mixed-race family. She was on the last series of Footballers' Wives. You may also remember her from Buffy, she was in several episodes as Giles' girlfriend, around the time of the mute episode.

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s13/hollyoaks/news/a211351/footballers-wives-actress-joins-hollyoaks.html

Danny Miller/Aaron, Dominic Brunt/Paddy. You're right, they were great, and they did a good job of showing and telling us about Aaron's self-loathing.

He was a con artist but one who wanted to become some type of showbiz name. He was also less goofy at the time. He was a double act with Butch, who was somewhat dumb (he was like Sam). He spent a lot of time as the close friend of the show's Mary Sue heroine in those years, Kathy. I think it was once he met Tricia that he started to become more of what he is now -- goofy but also serious and emotional. She was his big love. In emotional moments he would yell "TRICIAAAA! TRICIAAAA!!!"

I hope they put some of the stuff on Youtube or somewhere else with Tricia's mother, Steph Stokes. Have you ever seen her? She is beyond fascinating, she's just this complete monster with a baby voice, yet you can't quite hate her.

Marlon.

I kind of wonder if they may bring that up again at some point.

It's funny, Marlon came on the show as a con artist, one who drove a fancy car (not his) and sunglasses and wanted to be a big name. Hard to believe today.

I loved Kat in her first few years. I enjoyed her relationship with Dr. Trueman and the Kat/Zoe story broke my heart, even if I wanted to throttle Zoe most of the time.

I didn't see a lot of the show after the daughter reveal, so I didn't see her Alfie years until more recently. I can see why some weren't too crazy about that, and Kat also changed, as Jessie Wallace was going through so much personal stuff. Still, she seemed to have the Kat humor which made her stand out. I hope they won't forget about that. Kat was the classic Eastenders character -- tough on the outside and vulnerable on the inside. EE's strongest characters, male and female, often end up like that.

I hope they take Stacey back to a supporting role for a while, she needs it after all the crazy stuff her character has done. I also hope they can take the Slaters a bit more back to the fun and lively place they used to be in, also with some heart, in their first few years. I have no desire to see Lynne or Little Mo or Zoe again, or Sean, but I'd like to see Belinda.

I know you've probably already seen this but the beginning of this clip is classic. And Charlie Slater as the tough guy, hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qmw0_Kdh5s

Hard to imagine Bianca was going away to fashion school. Stacey was going to do that too. That way lies doom apparently.

I've never gotten why Ricky and Bianca were so popular. Their first wedding was a national television event in the UK in 1997.

She helped give him some excitement and he grounded her as she was always very overwrought and hysterical. They had a good rapport. These days she's more hardfaced and bitter so it doesn't work as well but I think the chemistry is still there. I can't see her working with anyone else, unless they really work on bringing out her vulnerability and not keeping her as the Shameless knockoff.

It helped that their first wedding was so much fun. Ricky's bachelor party was priceless.

At least she's working with Zainab now, which should be good entertainment. I don't know why they had the weird conflict with Ian, it came out of nowhere. They have her as meddling because they don't have a story of her own to give her, I guess. I just wish they'd brought her back without Billie. They could have Dan come back and cause problems with Bianca and Carol. Dan was a great character.

Patsy Palmer says she didn't want Ricky and Bianca to get back together. I guess that explains why she didn't really show a lot of love from Bianca to Ricky in the buildup to their wedding. I wondered why there wasn't more affection. I wonder if they may split up soon.

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a210643/palmer-didnt-want-ricky-bianca-plot.html

I don't know if Kirkwood will be a lot better -- McDean was overrated and rushed, although they did at least kiss and we saw them in bed together. John Paul and Kieron were also rushed and told, not shown, and John Paul lost most of what made his character interesting. Kieron was a fascinating character who was then killed for no real reason because hey, why make an effort when you can just swing the axe.

I know Eastenders cannot really show anything between men, I would just like to see better pacing. If they had spent months showing Christian and Syed slowly fall in love I would not have cared if we only saw them hold hands or hug. It was seeing them immediately fall into bed and start the extremely degrading, ugly treatment of each other and Amira that made the story poor. This just made the sudden lack of any intimacy between them even more jarring, because there was nothing to fall back on. The problem is that like most Santer stories, it does not exist beyond PR. They wanted to get publicity for telling a story about a gay Muslim. That was it. As Ronnie's and Whitney's sexual abuse and Stacey's rape were all plot devices, not worth exploring in their eyes. And as any interest in bipolar was stopped in time to make Stacey a murderer. They want praise for "issues" without actually bothering to follow up.

The show is so hollow these days but people aren't as likely to notice because they have been trained to think well it's OK things are naturally supposed to be slow until the latest death/reveal/shooting/rape. At its best, Eastenders didn't used to be that way. They had a colorful enough cast that entire months did not have to be worthless filler populated by actors who can barely read their lines.

Gay romances tend to get a following, especially angsty relationships. This story should have been much better than it is. Between the bad pacing in not actually letting us see them fall for each other, making Syed and Christian so cold, the not so great casting for Syed (he always seems very weak and teary-eyed to me), and the decision to barely ever show most of their time together, it's all been underwhelming.

I think Christian works as Jane's brother and Lucy's uncle. I'm sorry that part of the character is gone.

I wouldn't shed a tear if Christian left but I think the problem is with the writing on the show, which scalpels away everything interesting about a character in order to service the plot. Christian could still be salvaged if the writing improved. On a show where the likes of Roxy are considered star attractions, you can't get much worse. If they start cutting their losses with bad stories or characterizations, only about a half-dozen characters would be left.

Upcoming story...

Apparently Christian is going to get beaten up AGAIN. How ridiculous. The Christian character has been riddled with tired gay stereotypes from his first scenes, and now he's going to get beaten to a pulp twice in one year? They seemed to give up on anything interesting for this character a long time ago. This story is so empty, the show only seems to care when it's time for them to get publicity.

Don't worry about it, they are sort of the same type of character, and they look alike. Jasmine was a stronger character though, she had some backbone, whereas Scarlett is often more simpering and pointless, although she has her moments. I like her best with her brother Jimmy.

She doesn't go by Jasmine. Jasmine left last spring. She was Ashley's niece, on/off girlfriend of Debbie.

Most of the Barton stuff doesn't seem that bad to me. It's just Holly and Hannah can't act. The bullying stuff wasn't bad. Anything with Holly fails if she's in a major role -- she worked OK as the bored beard for Aaron.

I do think they don't quite gel. Adam needs a woman who will give him more personality (Scarlett doesn't have one to give), and I'd like to see a bit more from Moira and John. I'd also like to see less of John clothed.

This is random. Jane Badler is going to be doing a brief guest stint on Neighbours. I wish she'd have been able to go back to OLTL briefly as Melinda.

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s14/neighbours/news/a210890/jane-badler-joins-neighbours-cast.html

I know that big production values are helpful and I think Santer has done a good job of budgeting at a time when the recession has slashed the money they get. Some of the special effects are better than others. Remember when Danielle stood in the road for what seemed like hours and was then killed by the world's slowest moving car? What I don't get is why they can't work out any type of momentum. Why have these big stories you publicize about Lucas and about Syed/Christian and then leave them to wither on the vine for thrilling stories like 30 year old looking gangs and stolen mail and Roxy shouting at random people.

I assume Stacey will have the baby, since that will cause problems with Ryan and Janine. If this new Zoe Lucker character becomes popular then I won't be shocked if Janine is written out. The material for her since her return has been strained and goes in circles and she often comes across as a joke.

Maybe he's just not my type of producer, as Dominic Treadwell-Collins and his Roxy love aren't my preference. I like the Eastenders of the 80s and some of the 90s, and some of the years when Sharon returned.

Eastenders was my first British soap so I will always have some fondness for it. I like most of the British soaps, at the moment I think Emmerdale is the best and then I'd tie Corrie and Eastenders and Hollyoaks in last. Obviously ratings don't agree though.

Congrats to Larkin Malloy on being named one of the 50 best actors in soap.

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/03/50-greatest-soap-actors-45-larkin.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/03/flashback-larkin-malloy-1986.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/03/classic-clips-larkin-malloy.html