Manny

OMG, so I watched August 8 and the scenes between Ben and Callum were very well acted. It started soft and then when Callum brought up Lewis (I was like: Who?, but then realized it was a guy that raped Ben.. I read something somewhere about it, so luckily I was able to figure it out). But my God, Ben said things in this fight! Wow.. It was sad. 

So I went to EE Fandom site and read Ben's history since he killed Heather. And OMG... He's a full on villain!! Now I have completely different perspective. He killed Heather and then upon being released, he just became straight on gangster! Kidnapping people and trying to kill people... wow! Horrible!

And speaking of that, he got Martin involved.. I don't know why but I thought Martin was a good guy! I don't know Martin at all, since he was not there when I used to watch. But for some reason I thought he would be a good guy. 

I read some article where they say how EE used to be about every day life and grounded storylines, but if you only look at what happened to Ben in recent years, wow, not really everyday life stories at all lol

Ben was never a "good guy" character, I get it. But I just didn't expect him to become all of this. I guess they made him into his dad. Sad.  

I hope you all don't mind me just continuing blabbing my thoughts

August 7 2023:

So we finally move away from the Knight sisters and from Freddie's storyline (it was nice and I liked it, but it's nice to see other storylines a bit).

So it is the court day for Jay to become a guardian of Lexi. It all happened so fast, but I could tell that something was wrong with Ben since the first time I saw him several episodes back. I had no idea it was the eating disorder  They are really throwing everything at this character  But earlier in the episode, Ben seems to not want to go to court to give Jay the guardianship role? Why would he not want that? From what I understand, Jay has been Lola's husband, so he was already in Lexi's life. And on top, Jay is like his brother, they grew up together. Obviously I don't know if they had some fall out during the years I didn't watch, but based on what happens later in the episode, it does not seem like it. So I was a bit confused about where the conflict is coming from with Ben's hesitation to go to court. And then they had Anna and Gina's dad give Ben advice and push him to go? Why would they choose him? From what I have see Knight family came to Walford in June, this is beginning of August. Does he even know Ben to be able to give him such advice? I guess this is one of the pacing issues I mentioned where UK soaps just go too quick and establish some character connections too fast. 

Anyway, Ben goes to court and Jay is the guardian, quick! Family celebration at the pub, I really loved those scenes. Ben's speech for Jay was lovely, I got teary eyed.  I love Ben and Jay! And was good to see Phil, even though he barely said anything. 

Jay and Lexi's scene was hilarious, where she wants him to be the mommy in the relationship LOL And all the talk about her period  

And then Honey realizing Ben's eating disorder. I mean she explains how she got there, but that was some good catching on, because I noticed something was wrong, but she was able to catch it was an eating disorder. Good on you, Honey! It was nice the way she talked to Ben through the doors.  

The other storyline was Sonia and Reice (is that how you spell his name?) Anyway, she's not pregnant, but we learn he cannot have kids, which is why he was acting out and she concludes that he does want kids, but not with her. I hope they break up. I would like to see Sonia with someone else. She doesn't seem happy in this relationship. 

I am liking the show more and more as I get to know the characters again!! 

Saw now August 3 2023

Oh poor guy, Freddie... It was really sad seeing him in his bed crying at the end of the episode. I really like the scene he had with Gina at the rooftop and their conversation. Are they setting the two of them up romantically so that's why they had this bonding scene? I hope not. I could like them as friends, but not as a couple. Maybe it was just again the juxtaposition of Gina getting the drugs and then not using it, and Freddie eying the dealer's door and maybe getting drugs? I hope not

I like Anna and Gina's talk too. And Anna convincing Gina to dump the drugs into the toilet and then cancelling the mom search. However, I wonder what will now propel the storyline further if it won't be Anna who finds the mom. Is Ian just going to come back to town with Cindy one day? I suppose not... and I wonder if Gina is fully done with drugs.

Another bonding conversation I liked was Anna and Bobby, where he talks about killing Lucy. What was actually the reason that Bobby killed his sister?

Sonia's potential pregnancy... I don't really get what she sees in this guy. He's really creepy and disgusting.  

On a shallow note, who is the hunky car mechanic?  

10 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

Kim is still around they had just wrapped up her PTSD storyline from when she crashed her car in the square. I think it was wrapped up before the start of August. 
 

All I can say is is there is a nice treat for fans of Fatboy towards the end of August. 

Oh a shame I missed Kim's storyline then. I really enjoy her! I am used to seeing her in usually funny storylines. This was quite different. But I am sure I was interesting.

Oh yay, Fatboy might be back? Yay! Looking forward to it

Saw August 2nd now.

I am quite enjoying the Freddie storyline. The young actor is quite nice. I loved the look he had on his face when he met his dad and his whole face lighted up. I like that they didn't just immediately have this important conversation on the street and decided to meet up later. But uh-oh, now that Kat & gang told Freddie the truth, I am curious where it goes next. Is Freddie not going to believe them and still want to spend time with Graham? 

Btw, I was always fascinated by the difference in US and UK soaps in terms of speed at which the story is being told. I mean, in only two episodes, Freddie has found out who his dad is, met him and learned that he raped his mother. Sometimes this speed hurts the storyline, I feel, because you miss some beats, but sometimes it is quite good. US soaps really drag on for too long sometimes. 

There was a Jay sighting! Oh my he grew up! He was such a kid when I watched. lol Anyway, in order to not bother everyone with questions all the time, I looked it up and learned he was married to Lola (I know she died, I read that somewhere earlier this year). So I guess they are going with Jay and Gina romantically next? 

Is the guy that Gina visited her dealer? I guess so, she just got more news from Anna about their mother, so she must be stressed out. I wonder where this will go with her addiction.

Ben is here, he looks different, but I am okay with this actor so far. And he's married? And raising Lexi? Okay.. Ben has changed quite a bit, I guess. Didn't he kill Heather? How is he out of prison? But I always liked Ben, so I hope I will like him now.

I enjoyed Kat yelling at poor Bobby, trying to get him to tell her where Freddie is. I like Bobby and Freddie's friendship. 

This episode was alright. I am already warming up to these new characters!  

7 hours ago, DRW50 said:

The story was well-acted, but the handling of the material was, for me, very questionable. I felt like there was an unnecessary sexual focus - we repeatedly saw them making out and saw Jacob half-clothed, which I don't think we would have seen if genders were reversed. It fed into the narrative that young men who are groomed by women are just lucky. The choice to give Maya a baby, with a "who's the daddy" paternity story, was also gross.

I see. Seems like a lot of bad choices were made here.

18 minutes ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

Remember Jacob and his grooming teacher Maya. Jacob already has experience with mature women lol

and in both cases (Maya and now Victoria) were Love interests of David lol 

Victoria and David??? I don't know if I would have liked that either. lol 

I better stay away from Emmerdale indeed hahaha

6 minutes ago, LondonScribe said:

This response is based on your timeframe and not today.

The landlady is Elaine, Linda Carter’s mother, and fiance of George Knight, ex boxer. George is father to Gina (older and taller) and Anna (younger with blonde hair). Elaine helped Linda purchase part of the pub after the latter’s husband was presumed dead at Christmas. She moved George and girls in much to Linda’s surprise. Linda didn’t trust George who was initially cagey about his own ex-wife and mother of the girls. The mother is called Rose, and she vanished 9 years prior. Though we found out in June that Rose was in fact the long presumed dead Cindy Beale, who is in France with ex-husband Ian, and son Peter. Ian knows the Knights are in Walford, Cindy and Peter do not.

Bobby went to prison/juvenile detention when the truth came out. He re-appeared as a teenager, upon his release and having converted to Islam. He’s generally a kind, good natured young man now, though he’ll always be tethered to his past. 

This largely occurred when I wasn’t watching but I believe when actor Lacey Turner went on maternity leave, Stacey was sent to prison, and while in there she met ex-lawyer Eve Unwin and they married out of convenience to assist Stacey’s case for release. It’s well-known within the square that’s what it is. Eve is gay, Stacey is not, but they are best friends, and if you stick with it, you’ll see how clear that is.

Reiss Colwell is Dot Cotton/Branning’s great-nephew, who first appeared towards the end of 2022 at when Dot was being laid to rest (following both hers and actor, June Brown’s passing). He’s Sonia’s boyfriend, though he is married. His wife is has been in hospital in a coma for a number of years. He’s a character that divides opinion among the fanbase.

Bobby is smitten with Anna and she’s fond of him, but nothing more substantial than that has occurred. Gina has been willing to leave the question of their missing mother in the past, though it’s suspected that her drug-taking stemmed from ‘Rose’ disappearance. Anna, however, wants to know what happened and where she is, even if just to provide closure.

In short, Freddie Slater is Little Mo’s son, and the product of a rape by a man called Graham Foster, who was imprisoned in 2004. Freddie doesn’t know who his dad is or how he was conceived. Little Mo has refused to tell Freddie and none of the family want to go behind Mo’s back. But as Freddie decides to find out, Kat is panicking. Anna’s search for Rose spurred Freddie on to find out his dad. Or was it the other way round?

Oh, and a quick note. Freddie and Bobby are best friends.

See above…

Stacey’s 12 year old daughter, Lily became pregnant by Ricky (Jr) Mitchell (Sam Mitchell and Jack Branning’s son) and Stacey has been experiencing money woes. Earlier in the year, she took to doing cam work, a take off of OnlyFans. One man seemed particularly keen and he paid her handsomely to chat over the app while she dressed up/down for him. She couldn’t see him, he could see her. At roughly the same time, Freddie was diagnosed with ADHD and went to confront his old teacher, Theo Hawthorne, who made school harder for him. Theo appeared contrite and they came to an understanding. Theo ended up privately tutoring Lily who stayed at home during her pregnancy.

Stacey is also getting close to her ex, Martin Fowler again.

Long story short, Stacey’s mystery benefactor is a lot closer to home than she realises. 

I don’t have much time left to type this one out but perhaps someone else can explain?

OMG, thank you so much @LondonScribe!! So kind of you!! I know I could just go to wikipedia, but I am trying to avoid spoilers, so thank you so much!!

I realize now I don't know how to do this nice quoting of part of the response, so I will just reply here LOL

Ok, Elaine, Linda's mother... got it! Makes sense that she would be running the pub. Last time I tuned in for a bit, the Carters were running the Queen Vic. (I was in London and I realized our TV had BBC, so I made sure to tune into EE at least once or twice hahahaha).... Ooh, so Cindy Beale is the mother in question!! Okay, that makes it interesting! Now I am interested in this very much so!

Interesting that they made Bobby discover Islam! Hm, I like that. I always loved Jane, so I am curious to follow Bobby's story (even though I don't really know is character, I know Jane...)

To be honest, I am glad that they didn't make Stacey gay, just because I've see Stacey with so many men, it would be hard for me to swallow that she's now suddenly a lesbian. Not that it does not happen in real life, but I just couldn't buy it with her. But they did an OnlyFans story with her?! Now that's a storyline I would not enjoy to watch for Stacey! Glad I missed that! I like her with Martin. I am rooting for them.

I am sad I missed Lily pregnancy storyline..  Was Ryan there?? I loved Ryan back in the day...

Oh Freddie storyline now also is more interesting!! 

I realized how many of my favorites are not on the show anymore... Max and his family... (I saw they killed Abi!! OMG!).. I loved all of them! Max, Tayna, Abi, Lauren...; I miss Dot (I know June died ), I miss Jane, I miss Masoods (they were so dramatic!! Zainab was awesome). I miss Carol.. I miss Fatboy!! Is Kim still around?

Anyway, thanks a bunch for your answers!! Sorry for all of my questions!! After not watching for so long, I am confused haha

8 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Sonia is dating Reiss (who is verbally/emotionally cruel to her and lies to her repeatedly but we're meant to see this as endearing). She did not know until recently that he is married and his wife is in a coma (he kept this from her even as he repeatedly berated her as he falsely believed she was sleeping with other men and told her Dot would be ashamed of her). Sonia went through a pregnancy scare around the time you are watching these episodes, I think. 

Whitney slept with Zack and got pregnant. They decided to get together for the sake of the baby, as a real couple, but learned the baby had a condition which meant it would die very young and in a great deal of pain. They decided to terminate her pregnancy but stayed together as a couple. She doesn't ever want to try for another biological child as she had already had a miscarriage before this, with her ex-husband. She does want to adopt or foster, which Zack does not as he spent several years in foster care and is traumatized.

 

Ooh thank you very much as well!! I did NOT get that vibe from Sonia storyline at all!! But it certainly sounds soapy. But he sounds like a horrible guy. Feel bad for Sonia  

I never really cared for Whitney. But it was nice seeing her still there, I guess. 

20 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

Yeah. In 2018, Jacob was groomed by his teacher who was messing with David at the same time too. 

Oh so icky! Was it a good storyline to watch at least? I mean, interesting and dramatic?

So I just finished watching August 1st episode. That's the first episode I found available for me.

I last watched EE during the live episode during the Lucy storyline. Was that in 2014/2015? And even before that I had a long break of not watching.

Looking at the cast list in wikipedia, it is so HUGE.. how do they juggle all these characters? How can they all have stories? I guess they don't....

Anyway tuning in now, I barely recognize anyone... Stacey and Jean are there, Kat too.. Jessie Wallace has not aged.

Someone else seems to be running Queen Vic

There is Bobby Beale, but he's a teen now. Didn't he kill Lucy? How was he punished for that? I know he was a kid, but still..

I'm sorry, Stacey is now married to a woman?! Whaat? 

Who is Sonia's boyfriend/husband?

From the story perspective, I was bored, I must admit. This girl (Anna?) is searching for her mother. While her sister is doing drugs and boxing. And Anna is dating Bobby?

And this other kid (Freddie?) is looking for his dad.. weird that they have two same storylines going on in parallel. A teen searching for a parent... anyway, why doesn't Kat want to tell him who his Dad is? And baby Tommy who has now grown since last I watched is here to reveal the truth! Ok, lets see who his Dad is and what this Graham guy is all about....

I think storywise, not else much happened... Stacey went football watching, got pestered by some drunk dude and "saved" by another guy.. don't know him. But I am still shocked Stacey has a wife now. 

Didn't really understand what's happening with Sonia... and Whitney...

8 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

OMG! I didn't know that he was 21 now, but still. I think it is icky to have Victoria pursue anything with Jacob given that he was groomed by an older woman previously and the village all saw the effect it had on Jacob. Yes, I know he's now legal but it seems out of character for Victoria to even go that route. 

I didn't even know that part. Considering I last watched in like 2014 or something lol That makes it even worse, I agree with you!

45 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

Wait? Victoria and Jacob?! But he's just a baby. Lord... I have not watched in eons but what the h*ll is going on with my beloved 'Dales?! This doesn't make any sense. 

I mean, looking at actor's ages, she's 29, he's 21.. but back when I watched like 10+ years ago, Jacob was such a small kid and Victoria was already a young adult.. so it's icky lol 

I just never like when soaps do these kinds of relationships. I don't know if Jacob and Victoria even interacted through the years (back when I watched, I don't remember them ever interacting), but still... ick!

2 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

Emmerdale no. Eastenders, depends on who you ask. I'm enjoying it personally. 

THanks, I might have a look! Hope there is not a ton of new people I don't know haha

I was just about to come here and ask if there is any point to tune in Emmerdale or EastEnders maybe (after years of not watching), but I have no desire to watch David leave and Jacob and Victoria hooking up.. 

54 minutes ago, DynamiteKiddo said:

LOLOL.  It was Dena Higley. 

That was Kyle Brandt's Philip's intro, too.

LOL Wow, Dena Higely... such a visionary.. who would've though?!  

I stopped watching Y&R when the damn Chipmunk showed up. It was too much.

Stopped watching DAYS during Tinda Lau storyline (don't remember anything else from that period, I just remember it was super boring).

For Y&R, it was the crazy Tricia and Matt Clark storylines (as well as Mac/Billy). 

For DAYS, what really got me hooked was the Coronation Massacre, as well as the Baby Switch and Salem Bombings. 

For GH it was the Metro Court Hostage Crisis.

For AMC, it was the tornado of 1995 and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I am sure this was already mentioned here, but I just recently started watching the reality show "Love Is Blind" on Netflix. And watching it, I thought it was really familiar to me in its concept and name. And then I remembered that waaaay back during the Last Blast teens, Belle, Mimi and Cassie participated on the reality show Love Is Blind where they competed for a guy without seeing his face!

Who would have thought it would actually become a real reality show in 2020s?!

I wonder if the creator of the LIB got inspiration from DAYS Maybe B&C (or was it Reilly?) should get some royalties hahah

Omg, I have chills and I am so sad right now.

How shocking!

RIP

I think some people here are overestimating the number of people that would be watching old soaps.

As it was said here, this was attempted via SoapNet in the past, and it was shown as a non-profitable thing. Introducing One Tree Hill was probably done as a result of unsatisfactory ratings, in hope to gain young viewers who were watching OTH then.

How are they doing it with BB Youtube thing, no clue. Maybe because BB is more international? But even their views are very low, from what I can see majority eps have around 30-35k views which seems very low.

To invest money in digitalization and servers to keep all those thousands of episodes for shows, some which have been gone for more than 30 years? Seems like a bad idea to me, as much as I would personally watch (maybe) some of them. I started watching BB on Youtube and then I stopped after some time...

It is really sad what Y&R has become.

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

April 13, 1984 Y&R Victor and Nikki wedding.

Wow, I would have expected a rise. But instead they fell from week before. I would have thought that the lead up to the wedding, which was Friday, I guess, would have gave the show a boost. And even in the subsequent weeks after the wedding, the ratings just kept going down. 

55 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Alright, Days!

The climax of the Salem Slasher really helped. 

Poor AW though. Not even the 20th anniversary and Jacqueline Courtney’s return helped much 

Oh I was about to ask what happened on DAYS! Salem Slasher climax, okay, nice!

Looking forward to seeing how premiere of Loving fared against other soaps that week in 1983!  

Thank you, Jason!!

Just for my records, do we have full 78 now? I am missing some weeks, but I don't know if those are generally missing or I missed to input them in my spreadsheet  

Great news!! Cannot wait

13 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

I think it was Worldvision that handled the P&G soaps at that time. Definitely a distribution company.

AW had previously aired on the 9 network in Oz in the 70's at 11am at one point for several years.

14 hours ago, will81 said:

It was also very common for networks here to have package deals with companies that included several shows and were effectively forced on them. So it is impossible to know. Network 10 that aired it may have done a deal with the distributor, not P&G, that included big shows as well as others they were trying to get into international markets. 

I remember in early 90s, in Croatia we suddenly had Guiding Light, As the World Turns and Edge of Night all airing for one year. I guess our main TV Network at the time bought the package of the soaps for one year. Unfortunately, I guess none of them caught on with the audience, because I am pretty sure they only aired for 1 year.

13 hours ago, Skylover said:

The more fans we have, the better! Have you watched Neighbours before, @Manny?

No, never!

Actually it has been many years since I watched any daytine soap and I thought Neighbors coming to Prime would be a great time to start watching a soap again.. but alas........

7 hours ago, Liberty City said:

VPNs are a life-saver! I never used them before but now I swear by them!

I keep hearing that

I already watch too much TV and I am worried that VPN will offer so much more and I will never leave my home hahaha