Manny

I still have this week's episode to watch, but I fell behind at some point due to life, but now I have just finished Karen's exit story and it was amazing!!

I never really cared for Karen or in general the Taylors, but I have to say... how everything unfolded was awesome! And amazing acting by Lorraine Stanley! She was so good, you could see Karen was heartbroken at taking the fall for her son, even though she resents him that he let her. And goodbye scenes with Bernadette and then Mitch agreeing to come with her. It was nice. I love that they took Phil's money. I don't like Phil. I hope Bernadette snitches on Keanu at some point. 

Count me in as someone who LOVED Nish/Eve scenes. I had no idea that Nish didn't know about Eve/Suki. When I came back to the show and was reading about certain characters, for some reason I thought that everyone knew that Suki and Eve had an affair. But it was great acting and really well done. Nish telling Ravi to take Eve and kill her reminded me of Snow White And then Ravi takes Eve to the forest (like the hunter does with Snow White hahaha) and eventually lets her go! Awesome! I do wonder how this will unfold when Eve comes back. I feel bad for Suki, Nish is really disgusting. I also wonder how Ravi will get out of this, since he already has Denise knowing he killed that guy on the video, plus now Ravi is involved with Eve's disappearance. 

Speaking of Ravi, I just hate his ex and his new daughter. They are both so annoying. Especially the daughter.

And then the story with Linda and Dean... Not knowing the history, I wanted to ask everyone how the show played the rape scenes. Was it really rape or did they have an affair? Based on the comments here, I see that it was rape. So it really makes Dean really disgusting. I feel bad for Linda. But like @Chris B said, these things happen.. men get set free all the time for rape, so I get the story from that perspective. But I really hope he gets punished. Because he's more than gross.

And something that happened in the previous episodes, Cindy clashing with Ian over Bobby, that was interesting. Lots of conflict there. 

All in all, even though I enjoyed a lot of stuff in second half of November and early December, I do hope EE lightens up a little bit with their stories. Every story is so dark and heavy. They need to have a least one lighthearted and cheerful story to balance it out. 

I like Linda and Alfie's friendship too! It would be refreshing if they do just remain friends

Oh thats true! I hope they don´t kill Alfie! I really like him.

I am guessing they won´t... it seems they are also building up a Linda/Alfie/Kat/Phil quadrangle, no?

Oh my, awesome episode today!! I really enjoyed it all!

Beale storyline is great right now, all the drama... Cindy vs Kathy; Rocky hiding the truth; Cindy reporting Kathy to the cops; Peter being the one most hurt vs Bobby being less hurt... really good drama. I am really curious how this will continue now. I like that they used this moment to bring Cindy and George more closer too. 

Alfie is back! Yay! But oh no, his cancer is more aggressive than they thought. Shane Ritchie was so good in the scenes with the doctor and then especially in the scene with Kat. I was heartbroken for him. 

Really good soapy stuff right now! Cannot wait for tomorrow!

Oh wow, so two of my most boring storylines have reached some exciting points within the story! Wow!

Firstly, I would have never guessed that this boring Sharon/Keanu storyline would ever go into the "fake kidnapping" direction. It was very interesting to watch and I am curious what happens after Sharon finds out. Knowing the casting spoilers, I assume which way it will go, but still... should be interesting. However outside of the kidnapping, I am really bored with Keanu and Sharon as a couple and I don´t see any chemistry.

Secondly, the betting storyline for Rocky.. wow! How much did he owe to Nish? My God, they were always mentioning some small amounts and then this was enough for him to set Kathy´s restaurant on fire?? And then Bobby goes in and through a series of stupid events, Bobby makes the restaurant explode?? Wow! Did not see that coming! I saw this betting storyline as a C tier side thing, but wow did it have an impact. I still don´t care what happens to Rocky, but I am interested in Peter and Bobby. Although Bobby not calling the fire department and starting to clean the place up alone in the middle of the night was very stupid. 

I am interested what happens today! 

8 minutes ago, JAS0N47 said:

TWO BIG NIELSEN RATINGS EVENTS HAPPENING IN THE NEXT TWO DAYS!

Tomorrow, I will be posting the last weeks of 1989, which completes the entire decade!

On Tuesday, the week of 1/8/90 will be posted, which is the last week that Soap Opera Weekly did not publish. So, as of Tuesday, every week of Nielsen ratings from 1979-Present will be available online (except the week of 8/24/81)!

 

Great job, Jason!! Thank you for sharing all of this with us!!

So Jay is already awake from his coma. I am sure he will be up and about by next week. Just like Gina after her OD episode. This was always  bothering me in UK soaps, how fast they are going through things. 

Anyway, a lot of Keanu/Sharon/Dorian, which is boring to me. Ian/Cindy have also started boring me. I did enjoy her return, but these last few weeks, she´s been very boring. I did enjoy her bonding with Gina over Jay. They continue this Rocky gambling story which is zzzzz...

Dean Wicks came back. I have never watched the show while he was there, so that is not really shocking to me, but lets see how it goes this time. I will have to read his story. Oh so Cindy and Ian brought Dean as their partner? They have been searching for one for so long, that I am glad they found someone, so that we can move on. 

This is my last episode (31 October) for today, so I will finally stop my monologues here LOL

OMG, this damn show is making me cry!! Great acting from Perry Fenwick, Max Bowden and the little girl playing Lexi. 

Ben telling Lexi about Jay´s accident, then them speaking to Jay over the phone and then Billy telling Jay he is his son and not to die... omg, been a long time since I cried while watching a soap...

Oh, the scene where Jay argues with Ben and Billy and mentions their [!@#$%^&*].. it was nice when he told Ben that he´s not a saint.

But then they argue over Lola´s ashes and drop the urn.. omg, heartbreaking  And now police comes over and Jay might have been in a car accident.  

Some good scenes here!!

Days really crashed there between 20 Feb and 27 Feb.. and I guess they will just continue to free fall, considering they´ll be hitting 5s soon..

Ummm, so Billy finds a hangover Jay in his office with an empty bottle of vodna next to him and learns Jay has been dating Ketamine and then what he does is takes Jay out for a beer to the pub... right...

I did like Jay/Lexi/Billy/Honey/Ben scenes where Lexi says she wants to scatter Lola's ashes around the square.

I finally caught up and then I had my vacations and now I missed the passed two weeks, so now I have to catch up again lol

Watched 16 and 17 October and now watching 18 October now. I am kinda enjoying this Panesar drama with Nugget and his new mom. The new sister of Nugget is a bit too much. Her coming onto Martin and Zach was a bit icky. 

The other stories in these episodes are a bit boring. I don´t care about Rocky, or Sharon/Keanu. Jay storyline is okay, I guess...

I think this is an issue with these cast/story rotations. Not all stories are equally entertaining and when we get into a period of less interesting stories/characters, it is not as fun to watch. So I wish they would cut their cast and focus more on the more interesting people. 

EDIT: Seems like they are putting Priya into Peter´s orbit.. and Peter is now talking about his kid.. of course he has a child.. everyone has a child on this show.. I forgot he has a child with Lauren. 

Thanks for the clarification  I guess that explains it haha

I guess I wouldn't mind it so much, but I feel like so many characters have storylines which revolve around their kids. Stacey was dealing with Lily, while Lily is dealing with her baby, Jay/Ben/Calum are dealing with Lexie, Whitney is dealing with fostering kids, Sonia is dealing with in-vitro, Sharon and Keanu are fighting over a kid, Ravi's son disappeared.... it seems because so many characters have a child, a lot of them are dealing with children in some way at the same time. And while all of these storylines are different and they are also all dealing potentially with some other stuff, I am not saying it bores me, but I notice a very children heavy or children focused show sometimes  

And with young characters, it kind of then limits their story potential and just like in real life those people tend to grow up faster than they would have without kids. So that's why I would hope that they don't saddle young characters with kids early on, because we could have some variety in storylines with those characters and leave the kid-related stories to older folks.

On 10/12/2023 at 10:22 PM, All My Shadows said:

Jay is breaking my heart! I saw the preview of today's episode on FB not too long ago, and it's already got me feeling sad.

The one thing that's really frustrating for me with the show right now is how it seems like they are rotating stories in and out by the week. Last week, it was heavy on the Theo drama, this week it's nowhere to be found. The Keanu/Sharon story is back after being gone for a few weeks. The Cindy stuff is missing at the moment, so I bet she'll be back at the center of everything next week. I just week there was a more natural integration of storylines across episodes.

I just finished this week's episodes. I am so sad for Jay.    When he punched Callum, I was really surprised. With him agreeing to seek help, I wonder if he will relapse. Because I am pretty sure Ben finds out first and goes crazy...

Sharon vs Karen in the Vic was funny lol Sharon was vicious! Also, Keanu kissing Sharon during the boxing fight to seduce her... I mean, she cannot be that stupid, right? She should see through to him that as soon as she says she's leaving the country that he is into her suddenly.

I was bored by the Rocky gambling story. 

The pacing is really interesting. I cannot say I am annoyed by it, but it is really jarring when they just stop showing certain stories and switch to something else. But so far it is okay for me. But the problem is that some other stories were much stronger than what was on this current week. At least for me. What's frustrating for me is the pacing is too fast at times. Keanu and Taylor come up with a plan for him to seduce Sharon and take the child away on Thursday, but by the end of the episode, Keanu has already kissed her and seems to be gaining her trust. All in one episode. 

Or Rocky has been seen gambling beginning of the week and by the end of the week, he's like a full fledged gambling addict (maybe they showed him do this already before August, when I started watching, so maybe that's on me). 

So some of this is happening too fast, where it is not as believable. 

I am all caught up! Yay!

The Stacey/Freddie/Theo drama was so good! I really loved how they made the tension with Stacey watching TV and the silent still camera shot of her eating pizza and drinking wine, combined with creepy shots of Theo walking in the dark streets and walking around her house. And then suddenly he's inside. OMG! 

Freddie coming, the fight.. all great! But the following episode with the fallout from the fight was really intense!! Everyone did an awesome job! 

I am glad Theo didn't die because:

a) well I don't want another person (Freddie) to be a killer

b) it would have been too easy for Theo to get off for what he has been doing. 

Whereas for the rest of the storylines, I am into the Beales storyline. Sonia/Reice storyline could be interesting. I wonder where it will go. Whitney foster storyline is meh, mostly because I don't care about her. Jay and his prostitute storyline is meh.. But I love Jay so I am curious where it will go (and based on the cliffhanger of yesterday, not good for Jay  ). The missing Nugget storyline is okay. I wonder if and how Denise and Suki will find the evidence against Ravi. I really don't care about Taylors (this thing with Keanu trying to get his kids from different women.. yawn). 

On 10/3/2023 at 11:09 PM, detroitpiston said:

I’m enjoying the show aside from this Only Fans stalker with Stacey but now Freddie’s maybe killed him so hopefully the stalking bits almost over. The UK soaps always have to have at least one predator story and way underage pregnancy plot going at all times and its my only real annoyance with them

Love Cindy being back and her new black daughters and ex are decent new characters I really picked the show back up for them. Shame they’re attached to Linda (her Mick and Shirley and the two daughters drove me away from the show way back) but at least they run The Vic. I’ve never been an Ian fan either and Bobby is just as much of an insufferable loser his entitlement to the one daughter is gross I hope they ship him off eventually and just keep Peter around.

I like Ravi but the writings on the wall. He better not be the Christmas death cause it’d be really lackluster. Suki and Denise are two other characters who really grate for me I wanted them to leave him and Chelsea and his kid alone

I like Kat with Phil, him cheating was pretty dumb but I enjoyed Alfie, Sharon and Keanu’s involvement.

Add Sonia and Ben to characters I dislike list but thankfully the pace of the show is so quick and they aren’t being played heavy so they don’t really bother me I just zone out when they pop up. 
 

I really wish Janine and Sam were still around when I tuned back in they are my favorite UK vixens. Hopefully Sam pops back in soon

I skipped your post earlier, cause I was not all caught up yet But I went back to read it now  

I have enjoyed the Stacey storyline quite a lot! Some good intense drama!
But OMG, I wanted to ask if it is normal in UK that kids are having kids Because Stacey is a grandma and she's not even 40! And Ravi looks super young to have such a grown up son. Ben having a 11-12 year old daughter etc. 

Oh it's a shame you don't like Bobby. I find him quite cute and I like his journey and find him interesting as a character. But I agree about Ian. I never liked Ian.

I am opposite from you again, I don't like Kat and Phil at all! So I cannot wait for the truth to come out about him cheating (and about Alfie's cancer!) I forgot to mention that I was shocked at the twist that Alfie really does have cancer! I was so sure it was just used as a plot point to get Kat closer to him, so Phil can have an excuse to cheat. 

4 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

Definitely don't believe Cindy has forgiven Bobby. You'll see soon she still treats him like dirt, so the resentment is still there bubbling under the surface. 

Oh good! Not that I want such anger be pointed to poor Bobby all the time, but I just find this to be a good drama source. 

11 hours ago, Skylover said:

Just as I was losing interest they had a really good week with the Stacey/Freddie stuff.

Happy to hear  

I am almost caught up. I am starting October now.

I liked Cindy confronting Bobby for a short second. It was a very real conflict. But it seems it has been sorted out in 2 min. Shame. I hope Cindy is only pretending to have forgiven Bobby. It's quite a natural conflict between all the Beales that should remain. It is funny that they spend more time with Cindy finding a business investor than dealing with her daughter's killer who is her current husband's/boyfriend's son.

I kind of only enjoy this Ravi storyline because I like watching him, since he's very hot hahaha 

Through the years, I've seen Cento Vetrine (Italian soap) meaning "Hundred Windows", and is set in a shopping mall, if I remember correctly (hence the name  ).

There was also Incantessimo (Magic spell), which is also an Italian soap. That was hugely popular in my country.

Obviously I have watched Croatian version of Germany's Verbotene Liebe. This was Croatia's first attempt at having an ongoing soap opera and it ran for several years before being cancelled. I was into it for a bit, but finally I gave up on. Cast was changing so fast, it was annoying. 

Also, coming from Croatia, we can watch also Serbian channels, so I have seen some of their soap Srecni ljudi (Happy people). 

I reached episodes which focus more on Chelsea and Ravi... The only thing I know about Chelsea is that she is Denise's daughter. But now I see she has a son and she is dating Ravi, who I wanna say is Gina's dealer? If I remember correctly, there was that short scene where Gina goes to him for drugs. 

Anyway, Denise is against the relationship and she just found a video on some old laptop Suki gave her in which Ravi seems to be (shocker!!) killing someone??

If someone can maybe share what this storyline is about, I'd be grateful

The Bobby/Anna/Freddie thing has been revealed quickly. I wonder how Bobby and Freddie will move on from this. I loved Gina punching Ian at the pub after he reveals that Anna slept with Freddie.

Alfie/Kat/Phil/Lola's mom storyline is okay.. not so much into it, but it's fine. I liked Kat finding out about Alfie's cancer scare and I liked Shane Richie's acting when he finds out he does not have cancer. I like Alfie and Kat. I hope Kat and Phil don't get married.

Ooooh, I know people said here they don't like Stacey storyline, but I just watched Stacey learning Theo is her stalker while Lily was giving birth!! It was exciting!! Lacey Turner was great, but my God, the girl playing Lily is a real find! She is so believable!! Awesome job!!

Anyway, I am enjoying this Stacey storyline so far. I mean, the cops just questioned Theo and said: Your word against his.. but I mean.. they could ask others if what he said was true.. lol I mean, he claims him and Stacey are couple in a fight, but if they ask anyone, they will know that's not true  So I guess that story beat is lame, but otherwise I enjoy the performances. Lets see where it goes  

Also, I decided my people to root for as Jay and Bobby.. well so far.. I really like Bobby. Yes, he killed his own sister, but he was a young and it was apparently an accident, and he's really sweet now.. so I am rooting for him. And I have always liked Jay. This last episode, he was watching a video of Lola talking to Lexie and he was so heartbroken. It was so sad!! Almost made me cry!! Jamie Borthwick is awesome!! 

Speaking of Lexie, she had her first day at school and claimed it was great. But it isn't, I am sure. She was weird. I'm surprised none of them picked up on that.

9 hours ago, Skylover said:

I think that's my issue. It's too cold, no one to really care about.

They really need some positive good people. And not just one! 

Oh btw, there was a short scene with Fatboy in that flashback episode for Cindy. Was that his short cameo? I hope he comes back full time  

I am really liking Cindy's return to Walford. So soapy and choatic. Gina overdosed, Anna slept with Freddie, Kathy makes Ian choose between her and Cindy (and he chooses Cindy), poor Bobby... some good drama.

The issue I have is that everyone seems to have killed someone at some point or at least tried to kill someone at some point. It's too much. Feels like there is no good characters, everyone is just vile (or was at some point)... I find it hard to root for majority of them. 

Oh I love Lauren and Jacqueline Jossa (is she who will play Lauren again?)!! Cannot wait to see her back!  I wish, Max, Tanya and Abi were also there.. I loved their crazy dysfunctional family dynamics

I am still catching up. Just finished September and OMG, love the Cindy being revealed to everyone!! So soapy!! 

Not a daytime soap, but still soapy... Gilmore Girls...  Stars Hallow looks like a charming little town, and people there are always fun, goofy and lovely.

1 hour ago, Liberty City said:

They juggle it pretty well... unlike a certain American half-hour soap opera, which only focuses on three to four characters....

So far seems good. I forgot that the storytelling flows much faster, so I assume that they have time to rotate every throughout the year. 

I want to catch up with current episodes of EE, so I will try to see another episode today

B&B was always the worst soap to me.