ER Tosh

I like the idea that during the Watergate era. Nixon people in the White House were like "That cad Phil Brewer!!!". I have a bad feeling that if Ron saw this article he would bring Phil back from the dead and turn him into like a super villian.

So the Jamey was complaining that the Roy/Haley story made many US websites when "characters on US Soaps try to kill themselves all the time". I know most people here have mixed feelings about today's Corrie and all but you can't really compare a storyline that went on for months and ended with Haley taking her own life with Maxie being suicidal for one episode of GH.

It seems Jannie may be on again before she leaves the show permanently . I kind of hope she has a breakdown in jail where she admits to some of her wrong doings over the past 12 years and seeks psychiatric help (even if it is in jail). And maybe in a few years she can come back to the show and try to be a better person.

Say what you want about the Christmas ratings but I loved the episode. David and Janine work so well together. (and David Witts’s return to the show has really worked for me and I think with Janine gone he may be my new my favorite character). I love the way that David started off just blackmailing Janine for pure greedy reasons and then when he found out about Carol's issue he was trying to convince himself that he was doing this for Carol. But eventually (Before Carol called the cops anyway) Janine convinced David to give her time to leave the country with her baby before calling the police. (keep in mind that this is a few hours after Janine tried to run down David with her car)..

Current Eastenders is by no means perfect at all (and to be frank most of the year kind of sucked). But you don’t find the kind of dialogue that David and Janine had on a Cartilini show.

I will do that. It ain't easy scaring up EastEnders talk in the Colonies.

When I began watching the show I marveled at how many of the leading men were middle-aged and normal looking. Max and Phil were all over the first week of episodes, and I had never seen more scalp on a soap since Carlo Hesser and Mortimer Bern on OLTL. But he was supposed to be an oily villain, while Max and Phil were played like romantic leads.

It gave this male middle-aged normal looking viewer hope. My dream of being a soap heartthrob is not dead!

I have always wondered what some of the middle-age Eastenders characters would look like if they were on USA soaps. I guess Phil would look like Sonny, Sharon would look like Sharon on Y&R and Ian would look like.... Peter Bergman from around ten years ago?

Tina to Shirley, talking about holiday cooking plans): "I'll peel spuds, but I ain't sticking my hand up no bird."

Lola: "It wouldn't be the first time!"

I began watching EastEnders in October. As an American I can't believe how much money they get to spend making this thing. That giant city set is epic, and they even use characters in the background sometimes. My jaw dropped when they used a real plane for Alfie chasing after Cat after kicking Roxy to the curb.

This is a great soap. Reminds me of Ryan's Hope at its peak, and only in part because of that fantastic pub.

Btw I have only been watching Eastenders for about two years and when I first started watching the show I had similar thoughts..

So JE killed it today. Great work!

He was on Hotel Babylon in its death throes.

I read that Sharon and Ian apparently don't even acknowledge each other. What's with that? Why did they bring Sharon back?

Speaking of death throes, I ended up watching some of the episode where Pat and Yolande fought in the Vic, as Kevin Wicks was about to leave. He got involved with the fight, then his daughter arrived, etc. It's difficult to think of other actors who were so jarringly terrible and wrong in every line the way that Phil Daniels was.

Sharon and Ian have talked many times since she returned to the show (well mostly in her first few weeks) people may be talking about the other day when Ian went to the Vic for his birthday with his kids and Dot. Sharon should of likely been with them.

Ugh Kat and Bianca were such bullies to Tamwar yesterday. Those two can be so annoying together.

Tanya seems to be a really hated by most online UK fans. They keep on talking about her "phony middle-class ambitions" and other stuff that has to do with working class British society that as an American I don't really understand..

Is coronation Street a "Daily Soap" like here? Also, what is the Delay of these Hulu Episodes?

Yes it is on a few days a week. It seems to be a two week delay from the UK.

I was watching some early 90's EE the other day. and it was interesting to see Ian being such a jerk as early as 1991 (He wanted to buy the bar his mom was raped in and he told her to "get over it") It was finding out that Cindy cheated on him plus Steven not being his real son that made Ian stop being a somewhat normal person right? The 1993 jazzy Eastenders theme is so strange to me.

Started watching August. I really like EastEnders. I think it's got an interesting cast and I love the interaction and community feel and how everyone interacts.

I love British soaps for the fact that they just seem more real. I totally believe I could run into these people and I love the natural dialogue. Again like real people.

I am of course starting with a fresh perspective. I'm around the point of the community cook off and Ian's return.

I like the dynamic between Janine and Michael, however, Janine is really annoying. I want to like her. I've read on here she's a bitch. Where is that? Why are we getting this exasperated mother act? I'm not loving it. Not a great introduction for me to the character.

The Masoods seem boring and fluff characters. They really dominated the show at one point? Oy.

I like what little I saw of Christian and Sayed. Thank god they are pretty (Sayed's hot as hell) but they sure are wooden actors. Wow, they're bad.

I like Kim and Denise. Ray is ehh to me. He seems like a jerk to Kim, who really comes off a tad desperate and tempermental. But I like her. I do hope there's more to Kim/Denise than Kim yelling at Denise for being a sourpuss and Denise huffing and puffing and sighing about Kim.

I like Kat. However, it sounds like she's a whore. I take it she and Michael hook up? Or have? Her and Alfie are really boring together. Why is she with him? He adds nothing. He's an OK supporting character but man they use him a LOT.

Shirley must be a love/hate character. I like that she's different and somewhat crass with an attitude. Is she leaving?

Can anyone do a brief update for me on like the last month so I feel kinda caught up? Or I can read up more now that I'm into it.

I take it this particular time isn't that rough for the show? I think it has a lot of dead weight but the Brit soaps seem to have large casts with all of them serving as supporting at one time or another. I like storyline rotation.

This is interesting since I just started watching Eastenders about six months ago and thanks to the internet I have learned and watched so much of it's history already. Janine and Ian are the characters that really kind of got me into the show..

I liked Barry's character even though he was a sad sack.

Oh, I would love for Janine to push Derek off a cliff. She's good at that kind of thing.

The Branning that I really have affection for is dear old Jim Branning. Miss him.

ITA about everyone needing to be the new ______ on soaps, both US and UK. It would be nice if TPTB to tried to blaze a new trail instead.

When I first started watching EE, I couldn't understand half of what was being said. My ears weren't used to the lingo or accents. It didn't take me too long to catch on except with Phil Mitchell. Sometimes I still can't understand a word he says, but I think that more due to Phil talking fast while mumbling more than anything else.

Now off to watch some episodes.

Exactly!. When I started really getting into the show earlier this year it took a while for me to understand some of the accents/lingo but now it is mostly okay except when a few people (Like Phil or Alfie) talk kind of fast, I loved the part of the wedding episode when you can see the look of relief on Janine's face when Ricky and Diane came.

OMG I saw this and thought it was Rex adn Gigi

Not sure if Jessie Wallace ever gave this board the finger or not

"There are brave men knocking on our doorstep, lets go kill them!!

Bwahaha. I will have to go to DS and see the meltdowns over the husk known as Corrie not getting Best Soap. It's those damn teenage fans who are so stupid and shouldn't be voting! (until Corrie wins a fan vote, then it's fine).

Yep just checked a few hours ago and they are doing that. Are the DS forums known for being pro-Corrie and anti-Eastenders? ( I have really just started watching both in the last six months so Im new at this).

You know it is still strange for me on British soaps how most characters ages make sense compared to the madness of SORAS on US soaps.

Hi guys, I have been filling my OLTL void in the last few months with getting into Eastenders. It is interesting how it some ways the show is similar to US soaps (I guess you can say that Phil is like Victor Newman or Sonny) and of course in some major ways it differs. (They hire over 60 year old actress to become cast members for one thing) Do you think most message board using US soaps fans could get into the show if they had a chance or would some of the cultural differences make it kind of hard?

Well SID got a shout out on the show lol.

"Richard Simmons now in every issue" lol

Were you going to mention how Phoebe looked into the camera at the beginning of the first clip?

SOD praised AMC for giving Phoebe that line about Ann.

Wow. Enough cannot be said about Julia Barr's work in that second clip. Knowing she had a young daughter of her own must have given her plenty to draw upon. The sight of that little cream casket and all of those cream roses is just too much, so sad yet beautiful. The last time I remember seeing Laura was when she was being naughty and lying to an adult (the last shot of the scene was her crossing her fingers behind her back). I'm trying to remember if that was her fibbing to Barbara about going across the street, because I remember my mom telling me that she was killed soon after that.

Was Sean still on the show at this point or did he just come back for the funeral? Seeing Frankie, Scott, and Bobby again makes me wish they had reestablished these kids' friendship as adults.

I think it's a Hawks vs. Doves reference.

I think Frankie talked to Scott once around 2009/2010 and they talked about the goonies or something.

Our lovely Eileen I think that's the only interview I've ever read/seen with her.

So strange how someone can work both with Sir Laurence Olivier and the likes of Rebecca Budig .

I still do not understand why Alan is gone but Edward is around. Was it a money issue?

Love that Carla from the City got a shout out on today's GH.

I love that Carla got a shout out. I guess Gino had two other kids we never heard of.