DRW50

Did it sell well, Ruxton? I'm glad to hear that. I don't know the sales. I'd heard season 1 didn't sell well? The show definitely did get a kick in the pants after season 2. Sid's death, Gary being drawn to Abby, Valene's book, Laura being free of Richard only to see him go insane. There's a lot of good stuff there. I do have a soft spot for the earlier seasons, just because I like Ginger and I like the days when the characterizations were not as set in stone, but I think the "issue" episodes are very badly dated or just dead weight. The show does a lot better with building up story arcs, which starts in mid season 2. Few soaps were more beautifully paced than Knots Landing. At their peak, the pacing was just phenomenal.

That horrified me the first time around (almost anything with Diana tends to horrify me and then let's put her in kabuki makeup with Karen and watch them mug and mug and mug). I just skip it on repeat viewings. I think the season improves after that although to be honest Karen is exhausting all the time when the more passive Sid is around. Mac, at least early on, was a breath of fresh air because he called her on her crap. Season 1 is good, although you aren't missing as much as you might think. For every solid piece of character-driven storytelling, like Lilliame's visit, you have stuff like TEEN BIKERS TERRORIZE KNOTS LANDING! I think it's cheap on Amazon, or was.

I find this "Oh look, Des is a hardcore racist" story baffling, and out of nowhere. He has suddenly become a horrible person. I liked him with Jacqui. She never gets a break.

People have already been complaining to OFCOM. I guess preemptions aren't common over there.

I've been watching the first of Blanche's funeral episodes, and there was one of those "this would never be on a US show" scenes where Steve, Becky, Peter, AND Liz were all puffing away right in front of their children and grandchildren.

I still wonder if Ryan is ever going to have a "dark side", as was promised a year ago. I think Sutton works so well with Alice Coulthard. Their scene last week when they tried to talk about her dating Nikhil and she was still too hurt to talk with him about that -- good stuff. I wish they could find out they aren't actually brother and sister. He and Katie just don't work. I kind of thought Sutton would be leaving soon, but if they can find something for him I hope he stays.

Archie has already been let go. Rhys, I don't know. Malachy is still with Mercedes, he's still keeping quiet that he knows she's been sleeping with Calvin for months.

I almost wonder if they should tell a story where Cheryl has some sort of stroke. Her face often reminds me of Stephanie's on B&B when Stephanie had a stroke. I'm glad they're keeping Malachy around, he's one of my favorite characters, Glen is such an incredible actor.

Wow, they sure know how to make an election fun! Watch Campbell used this Sky journalist like a wind-up doll.

I've been watching some of season 2. I had forgotten a lot of season 2, most of what I remembered was Fairgate-related PSA stories, especially the "Support the ERA!" rally which involved Karen and Diana in geisha girl makeup, "singing" and dancing. No wonder the ERA was never ratified. And then that whole Sid falsely accused of rape story that I didn't care for, as it was more of the same country folk torment the Fairgates stuff that did a lot of damage to the show many years later (remember the brilliant story about when Karen went all vigilante on paintball people and one died in a car accident and his parents, Ma and Pa Joad, gave those city people a big lecture on their evil ways). How odd to see Wendie Jo Sperber AND Helen Hunt as Diana's friends. And only like a year after this Wendy was playing a character on Bosom Buddies who was probably 10 years older. Anyway, season 2 has a much stronger flavor than I'd remembered. In the first half of the season they do such a good job of intertwining the various affairs in the cul-de-sac, with Laura and Richard drifting apart as Richard sleeps with Abby (Abby with no taste apparently) while Abby is truly pining for Gary, who is sleeping with Judy Trent, wife of the man he sponsors in AA. Kenny and Ginger and Karen and Sid have stories of their own, although Kenny and Ginger are much too isolated, which probably helps seal their fate I really liked Ginger. I have a feeling that someone may have decided she was too much like Valene, but I don't think it was a bad thing to have somewhat similar characters on the show, it was just the lack of character interaction or story integration. There was something very naturally wistful about Ginger, slightly strange, whereas with Valene, the whole "She's never been to the ocean isn't she so naive" stuff always seemed a bit more fake to me, and I liked Val better when she had some fire. I was watching the episode Breach of Faith, and there's such a haunting moment when Ginger finds out she's pregnant, a longtime dream of hers, at the worst possible time in her life. The music they use in the scene is perfect, and her reaction is just superb, it really stays with you. It was the same in the first season when Ginger had the flashbacks of when her mother made her have an abortion. I think Kenny dragged Ginger down and she would have been in a better position if he'd left the show (nothing against James Houghton, who did his best with a one-note part). There was this mix of damage and strength in Ginger that could have gone somewhere. I guess for better or worse, they were not interested in the complex women like Laura or Ginger. Constance McCashin would have been the perfect 40s movie heroine, she suffers so beautifully as Laura having to deal with Richard's humiliations. Then there's Abby's slow upward climb, as she truly starts scheming and pulling Gary up with her. I loved the Gary/Abby relationship -- they had such natural chemistry, and he was never happier than when he was with Abby. I love the music for their scenes too, in these early episodes, as it's sort of a lite, slow disco, like an 8 Track Dark Shadows. Abby's flirtations and schemes with JR were delicious to watch, and he had such obvious fascination with her, as she was the closest to an equal he would have found in Knots Landing. I wish JR and Abby had been able to interact more. I know Donna and Larry were on some sitcom together in the mid-70s. I know David Jacobs said that none of the Dallas/Knots crossovers worked, aside from the one with Lucy, but I thought that JR's scenes with Abby and his finally convincing Gary to pursue power at any cost were very strong. And so were his confrontations with Val, even if they were abbreviated. He was always so intimidated by Valene, for whatever reason. The episode where Abby exposes the affair between Gary and Judy Trent (Jane Elliott), once they cut away from Judy's whimpering over Gary, there's some real life there. The very brief confrontation between Judy and Abby is so good, and the ending is an absolute classic -- Abby is waiting for Judy to leave Gary's office. Judy tells Abby that she's going to need a lot of luck against Valene (advice Abby would give Jill Bennett almost a decade later). Abby walks into his office, and simperingly smirks something like, "Are you ready for me, Gary?" as they freeze on that shot. It's like a welcome to just what a true star Abby's going to be.

The Zsa Zsa line was sarcastic. I have never been too fond of her. She did seem to have a following at other boards but apparently not with Kirkwood. Someone at DS said that she chose to leave, I don't know.

Oh. That was a good question.

I just wondered because there hasn't been anything for them in ages. Even their wedding was often not about them. Which question did you ask? I was also wondering if there had ever been anything about that story teaser months ago where someone finds out he's not a father?

He seemed to hint at someone returning for Peggy's exit but it wasn't definite. I know some want Grant to return. I'm not sure if Kemp would go for that though. He didn't say anything about Ricky and Bianca, did he? Or did I miss it? They've fallen off the map this year, and there doesn't seem to be anything in the pipeline. With Whitney also having less and less of a role I almost wonder if that family is on the way out.

This almost sounds like a "No." Or I hope it is. This also doesn't actually say anything about their relationship. It would be a huge step forward if he ended this very toxic relationship and sent them in separate directions. That's very good to hear. I hope it happens. The attempts by Eastenders in the past few years to try to be a glitzy American style primetime soap have been very poor. The show has become too much of a self-parody. I also hope he can do something about the show being so obvious and so plot-driven, where characters do things because it fits the plot, not because it's organic. I hope that means she's not going to have to be hardfaced all the time and depressing, which is something that seems to have become the cliche of an Eastenders female. They didn't used to all be that way.

I'm thrilled with these latest axings. I can't get past the Dick Van Dyke accent and the extremely old (for a teenager) face on Zsa Zsa, and I don't think Emer Kenny is all that great as an actress. She was getting better, but they screwed her over from the start. It was obvious they were thinking of having her with Peter but she looks like his mother! I also don't believe that she somehow had a great place on the show because she was Shirley's niece -- she rarely spent time with Shirley. Leon was deadwood from the beginning. I'm also happy that Denise's sister Kim will be joining the show, I hope that means Denise might survive the clearout.

I thought Ryan was already supposed to be in love with Janine? I think she will end things with him soon enough, it will probably all blow up over Stacey's baby. I'm glad Nitin is praising Nina Wadia, as the show endlessly trashes Zainab to prop Syed.

I'm not exactly shocked at those nominations but I'm not sure about them. I don't watch The Bill or Casualty, perhaps they're good (and The Bill is going soon, they may want to have one last moment of praise). I can't say most of Corrie or Eastenders of the past year deserved an award. Unless BAFTA wants to give an award to a show that treats rape and child abuse as nothing more than a plot device to be shrugged off, never to be mentioned again.

Lucky you. The Ryan/Alex story was so heinous and abusive it has been completely forgotten.

I love Kat Kelly as an actress, especially when she isn't yelling, but I don't know where they can go with Becky. If it were me I would put her back with Jason and then if she still wants a child, he could raise that baby Holly, the one he didn't want anything to do with for a while when she was dropped off at his door before the mother realized Charlie Stubbs was the father. The only time I buy anything with Michelle is when she's with Ryan, she's a believable mother and it's believable when he calls her on her sluttiness. Otherwise, no thanks. The 2008 stuff was dreadful. I still have very bad memories of the way she treated Leanne when she thought Leanne was sleeping with Steve (not that the show remembered this when Leanne went off on Michelle as she thought Michelle was sleeping with Peter).

It wouldn't surprise me, clearly someone at the network thinks she is a big name. Her 2008 stories were a disaster and the character has only recovered somewhat because she has been in a supporting role for an entire year. She is not suited to be a leading player. So she and Eileen have both been signed to new, long contracts. I can't think of two people who are more different...

There was Dr. Legg, and there was that old man, a Holocaust survivor, in the mid-90s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Kawalski#Felix_Kawalski

Here's her casting page and showreel. The clips she chooses seem very Eastenders-esque, so that must have helped her out. http://www.uk.castingcallpro.com/view.php?uid=278147

I think there's a lot of potential in Jackson if the writers invest in him and don't just use and dump him like what happened with Spike on Hollyoaks. As he is now he's too good to be true but that can easily be changed, look at who Marc played on Hollyoaks! I think they should just bring him into the show on his own, not as Aaron's love interest, and let people get to know him. He has a lot of potential. They're right not to rush Aaron into a relationship, although I wonder if they ever will, since Emmerdale can't get away with a lot. As for the David story,

I think Kirk's time has passed but I don't see him as enough of a problem that he has to go quickly. I think they could use him to phase her in, as they did with Julie, although Julie herself is barely around these days.