DRW50

Absolutely. I really thought EE would win this year. This was the hat trick for Emmerdale and I'm so proud of them.

I tend to prefer Michelle more with Sharon and the Mitchells than with Martin and Stacey. Some think that Glenda will end up sleeping with Jack. I don't think that will happen, although I wonder. I figure she may be running a long con. Annette Badland has been better in her last months in the role. You may have missed some really bad stuff last year when she was the panto villain blackmailing nonstop. They haven't said yet about the driver, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I knew that's what this would be about. Yes, same old Debbie stories. The Charity comedy bits and the brief return of that crazy comedy lady who seems to have popped in from Corrie made it better for me. I will always have a soft spot for Debbie but they haven't gotten the character right in a long time. I just hope if we're going toward Debbie/Ross again it's not as awful this time around.

Yet again this man is enabled and given money... http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/robby-mook-corey-lewandowski-speaking-engagements-234157

Another one - the episode right before.

Another one - the episode right before.

Nancy Addison in one of her early Loving appearances.

It's a Christmas miracle a month late - another episode of Loving has popped up. And I think it may be Deborah's first episode, or close. I can't get over how beautiful some of those sets are compared to a soap in recent years.

I appreciate the idea, although I have a feeling there won't be a response...

I mostly saw an actress giving a performance, but more fans agreed with you.

And they'll find some too, likely fabricated, but enough to get the cheap seats nodding along. If they work hard enough to drop in buzzwords like "New Black Panthers" the media will drop their pants right then and there.

Not a big fan of the false equivalence at the top. I have zero pity for Richard Spencer getting punched, but it's never a good idea to start handwaving assault because something worse is happening elsewhere.

Sadly they tainted themselves years ago, long before there was a Trump candidacy.

Thanks.

I liked the opening, which was less like a soap than a video game cut scene - Carmel slowly waking up and reacting to the horror around her. This episode was so well-directed and tightly made - it never really stopped. A few times I lost interest thanks to poor acting or clumsy writing, but most of it held my interest and felt like a genuine snapshot into the reactions of emotions of people who have been essentially put under siege. Using this Keegan character to ghoulishly document the carnage (with a grin on his face the whole time) was unsettling, and a good look into how many people today do see disasters - with voyeurism. Too bad they also had to include the scene of him stealing, with SOC once again overegging the pudding just in case we don't get that he's a bad person. The scenes on the train with Sylvie/Shirley/Tina were the perfect contrast to everything going on in Walford. They could have seemed like time-fillers or like deterrents to the main drama, but they didn't. It was especially nice to see Shirley, who has so many understandable issues with a mother who treated her like garbage, slowly warming to her over the course of the stop. And as often happens when she gets the right material, LBW gave a lovely performance. Lauren and Steven arguing over the crash and over Peter after they have been bit players for eons was an odd writing choice, and it just made Lauren look like a complete dumbass (as many people react to events in different ways at first - surely she would know this given the disasters she's seen in Walford) and also made it look like she was using a horrible incident to score points. Bad writing. This was another of those episodes where Babe was fascinating rather than a tired self-parody - we saw that side of her again where she was clearly doing her best to foment chaos and fear (with Honey and Donna). It was genuinely so gripping to watch - she is just a monster. She feeds on pain and paranoia. I guess Keegan is now taking her place in that department, but I'm not sure it will have the same effect. Of everyone trying to do "shocked" or "hysterical" acting, I was most impressed with Lacey Turner and Emma Barton, with Emma even making a panic attack (which is so difficult to play) feel natural. Jake Wood was also good. The hamming from Tilly Keeper and Bonnie Langford spoilt some of the key scenes early on, so I was glad to see them take a backseat in later scenes. If I was supposed to feel sorry for Kim, I can't yet. It's easy to feel something for a person who almost died, but she wasn't there for Denise when Denise needed her most. I hope Denise keeps her distance for quite a while. I liked the moments where they were looking for Donna, where Vincent found her but she couldn't move because of her injuries and disability, then her comforting Honey in the Vic. Whoever thought when DTC introduced a character that could easily be dismissed as another Adam Best (a disabled character there to berate other characters), she would become such a likeable and integral part of the markets? The ending was a bit cheesy but it actually would have worked for me if not for the endless loop of callous behavior from Mick to Lee and thoughtless, selfish behavior from Whitney. Thanks to that I can't bring myself to care about how Mick feels, or if Whitney is dead. If Lee's dead my only reaction will be one last shrug of disappointment at how poorly his story has been handled.

If they did launch an investigation I have a feeling we'd get some trumped-up "evidence" and we'd just become even more of a blatant banana republic.

Joking aside I actually can see them doing this

More foot-stamping about immigration. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-immigration-dreamers-234126

Given that a number of the people who marched weren't US citizens some idiot is going to use that for voter fraud conspiracies.

It's a good joke but that isn't actually what the show was like back then.

Trudeau tried the same thing after the election and was mostly mocked on all sides. I think in Bernie's case it's more about showing everyone how magnanimous and Above Politics he is than anything else. A waste of time.

Phil is going to have story with that wooden child (Aaron) and his mother so I don't know what will be going on. Maybe Sharon Marshall is wrong, or maybe Denise keeps the baby and Phil doesn't go for custody. I don't know. All I know is I will be annoyed. I love Sharon sometimes but it's mostly Letitia's work. The character herself is so sad and so submissive. And they've done nothing to make us think Phil cares about Ben. Nothing.