I Am A Swede

Not be a Debbie Downer, but everyone in charge at all the soaps have been around for a long time, but that still doesn't stop them from doing things that doesn't work. What would make Michele Val Jean stand out from them? Why does everyone think that she will be any different from people like Brad Bell or Frank Valentini in that regard?

They're really not wasting any time turning Christine into an ungrateful, spoiled brat. It's almost too sudden, too much of a change from how she was earlier. I wonder if this was always the plan, to have her relationship and marriage to Joe turn sour this quick.

I hope you enjoyed it. It's a bit uneven in my opinion. Some great episodes, and some not so great. Never bad mind you. I think the only episode I found bad during the entire show was (ironically) The Swedish Tiger from season 1. A horribly convoluted plot that is almost impossible to follow.

Mark Snow, ‘X-Files,’ ‘Ghost Whisperer,’ ‘Blue Bloods’ Composer, Dies at 78

I should have known better than to doubt Emmerdale Farm. I was wondering how they were going to make the very rapid breakdown of Joe's and Christine's marriage believable, since everything has been so rosy up till now. But the first cracks have started to show. Christine may have enjoyed playing farmer, but deep down she's used to another way of life, and that's beginning to show. It all makes perfect sense now. And it also shows that her father was right when he warned Joe that Christine likes to do things like this. Go all in on a new interest until she gets bored. I'm completely in love with the old episodes, and I can't stop watching. I've binged over 40 episodes in just a week. It feels like I'm spending more time in 1970s Beckindale than in the present. I enjoyed a funny little reference to another favourite early 1970s British tv-series of mine in a recent episode. Franklin Prescott, during an argument with his wife Diana, said something (and I'm paraphrasing) about her enjoying sitting around in her little cottage playing Lady Marjorie.

Then maybe they should write Katie out and use the money for another, new character (or characters). This show desperately needs some new blood. Incestuous doesn't even begin to describe it anymore. A new business rival for FC would be most welcome. Something to get away from the incessant love triangles.

I've finally found time to go back to old Emmerdale Farm, and I'm now halfway through 1974. The first half of the year wasn't the best period for the show to be honest. Mainly due to two irritating characters, Dryden Hogben and Ethel Ainsworth. Dryden was tolerable I suppose, but Ethel must rank as one of the worst non-Dingle characters ever. The whole story with her and Amos was so boring, and made Amos look like an idiot. Thank heaven she's gone now. If I'm not wrong Dryden will leave soon as well, and I can't say I will miss him very much. Apart from those two I'm loving every second of the show, completely Dingle-free. It is funny though that Sam just mentioned another family, the Brewers, who sounded more or less like a blueprint for the Dingles. A bunch of small-time criminals and troublemakers. Back then there was no risk of a family like that ever becoming as prominent as the Dingles have become. Back then crime was frowned upon. Going into the second half of the year we have another sad departure looming on the horizon. I know that Alison will leave in a few months, and I think I'm going to miss her even more than I miss Frank and Janie. Knowing, as I do, that Carolyn Moody, who played Alison, died young, not yet 50, will only add to the sadness of seeing her leave.

Is this a first step, a trial run if you will, to see how postponing elections will be received? Will cancellation be the next step? Or am I reading too much into this..... 🤔 City of Miami postpones November 2025 election to 2026, extends officials' terms

There comes a time when you have to let a character go, especially when it's someone like Sheila who has been pushed beyond the point of no return. It's a mistake that most of the current soaps have made. They have tried to hold on to characters like that and have been forced to dumb down everyone else for it to work.

I'm sure Bill Bell would be appalled if he knew what Brad has done to his creation, and by that I don't mean only Brooke, but B&B as a whole. The show is creatively bankrupt and it's painfully obvious that Brad Bell is incapable of doing anything about it. With stubborn determination he just keeps churning out the same stories over and over again, even though they stopped being interesting decades ago.