Coronation Street: Discussion Thread

[BadBoy93]

I agree with a lot of you. It feels very tamed and not much was given away. Dissapointed that Corrie has no returnees because thats what i feel the show needs. It needs a lot of Nostalgia pumped into it to get more heads noticing.

Never the less some stuff does sound sort of interesting though.

Can`t wait for Gavin`s interview.

[Ben]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the interview was a major disappointment. Boring is not the word. It was so robotic and bland, and read as if he has no clue as to what Corrie's problems are. Nothing much interested me, or made me want to tune in on a regular basis; he focused on, either, dull storylines, or characters I'm not interested in.

Why no mention of Sophie & Sian, Dev & Sunita, Sally, Gail, Ashley & Claire, Roy & Hayley, John & Fiz, Janice... The former were supposed to be a big story, and they haven't even featured since Sian 'fessed up her feelings for Sophie - that's a disgrace, and really lazy playing their relationship off screen. The only positives I could take from all that is, Michelle working in the factory; Nick & Leanne won't be revisiting their history (thank God!); Natasha's exit may not be what we all believe; the Windasses deal with Gary going to war; Graeme & Tina aren't a 2 month pairing.

There doesn't seem to be a story for Carla, apart from building her relationship with Michelle, yet he talks about community and friendship, yet is totally neglecting Carla & Leanne, who are supposed to be BFF's! This annoys me. And he's extended the Molvin story, which is really annoying, especially when he thinks it has legs. I understand it's an umbrella story, which he seems to love, but keeping it going b/c it effects a whole chunk of people is no reason. The story needs to end. Molly having her baby does not mean it needs to carry on into next year! I'm also disappointed about the no returns. A real missed opportunity to honour the past, while celebrating the shows future. The Armstrongs sound dull. And the show doesn't need a new Charlie Stubbs moving onto the Street - ATM, I just don't care enough about Cheryl.

[All My Shadows]

He's kinda contradictory, too, no? He says that he's all for looking ahead and never looking back and not going down memory lane, but he's all for looking back at Nick and Leanne's past relationship.

But anyway, Thursday and Sunday's shows...

~ Eileen should have laid into Tina even more than she did. WTF is Tina thinking? Graeme is who she wants? Really? She was turned on by that goofy way he was acting with Ashley and Ciaran at the butcher shop? He's standing there with Ciaran and Ashley, and it's Graeme(!??!?! that she notices? WTF, man. Jason deserves better if it's gonna be like that. I did enjoy the Rita/Tina scenes, though.

~ Lloyd/Cheryl, whatever. I'm still pissed on Teresa's behalf. The speed dating night ended up being all about them and Ciaran/Michelle anyway, so it wasn't all that interesting. I would have loved to see Janice and company ripping on everybody from a corner of the Rovers.

~ They really do want to sneak Max Headroom into every single episode, don't they.

Two fairly dull episodes, really. I have nothing left to say.

[DRW50]

Yeah, it's kind of odd to say you aren't going to look back and then say you have the new Charlie Stubbs. I think there's a way to not go too far backwards and yet still use past characters for present story. Why not have Martin Platt return for one or two episodes to tie up his relationship with his son David? Or have a few old faces like Curly or Terry show up as Jack leaves? Or bring back Jed Stone to tie up his story with Tony and to talk with Emily one last time about the old days of the Street?

Not to mention that Charlie Stubbs started out slowly and most of his stories involved people who had been on the show for a while. I don't dislike this Cheryl but it's hard to care about her.

The problem is that the show seems to have very little future at the moment. I don't think there are a huge number of the cast who are such burdens that they have to go immediately, but there's a lot of dead weight and I think some viewers might be waiting to hear about a clearout before they start back again. By not doing this the show isn't committing to moving forward. And since they aren't bringing anyone back for the anniversary that means they also aren't trying to bring back viewers who have left but might return to see some old friends. And they also aren't saying anything about clearing up some of the poor storylines which have cropped up in recent years. So they are pretty much not doing anything to commit to their past or their future. If viewers don't want to stay around who can blame them?

Leanne did mention her as a reason why she wanted to start Underworld up again but other than that nothing.

Is it me or did he seem very adamant about Carla not getting any family? That was one of the strongest parts of the interview.

I almost wonder if they are phasing Carla out of the show, either through firing Allison or through her wanting to leave, and that bringing Michelle into the factory and having Nick run his own version of the factory or whatever might be a way to give her a clean break.

[DRW50]

I was cringing for most of the Graeme/David "comedy" scenes. The actors were obviously enjoying themselves, and that's great, but that was pretty much the entirety of the scenes -- actors making silly faces and yelling. Everything was so forced, like the Joker painting a smile on a victim.

This is a story where:

- Graeme hopped into bed with a woman in need of serious professional help, who not even a month ago was obsessed with sending an innocent woman to prison and could barely leave the house. So what is Tina now? Oh, that's right -- she's a piece of a$$ for three men to fight over. She has no purpose or point of view of her own.

- David is a lunatic - not a comic relief lunatic, but someone who nearly killed Jason, nearly killed his mother, drove his car into the canal, etc. etc.

- Graeme is a selfish, petty character, one who passes himself off as a nice guy. Graeme claims this was difficult for him and yet he sits there and repeatedly taunts David after telling him the news. Graeme claims he cares about Tina, and yet he reduces her to nothing more than "his" woman when he's talking to David. This isn't about Tina at all, it's about Graeme landing an attractive woman who 9 times out of 10 would not give him a second look.

So what is this story exactly? Is it comic relief? Is it supposed to be some sort of great love for the ages? To me it seems like nothing but an easy way out. Tina yet again throwing herself from one man in that family to another. Graeme making stupid faces for laughs. Rinse and repeat. It's a huge waste of Michelle Keegan's talents, frankly.

They seem to be wasting no time at all in this stuff with Lewis and Deirdre. While I'll be glad to see Deirdre knocked off her high horse soon enough, I kind of wish they'd just had Lewis and Audrey break up because she realized she had little interest in him once he stopped being some sort of forbidden pleasure.

It's an odd episode when the best scenes involve Michelle and Ciaran.

[DRW50]

News of the World seems to be saying:

[All My Shadows]

Wow. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Sacrifice one of my favorites to make one of my least favorites look better. Corrie's starting to act like a US soap!

[DRW50]

Yeah, I'm really hoping it's not true, I know the tabloids can sometimes be wrong. Between

there seem to be a lot of very desperate and very grim, not to mention derivative, stories coming down the pike. Most of which do not represent the heart of Corrie at all, IMO.

[All My Shadows]

I'd never heard that Colin spoiler either. Wow, that's dark stuff. I might have to take a break from the show soon if that's the way it's gonna be because all that together is depressing as hell, and there's nothing that I'm particularly looking forward to balance that out. Corrie needs help, bad, and this Doctor Who dude is not the one for the job at all. This is what happens when people think that success on one show means success on another.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It's pretty sad if Phil Collinson really does think this way.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3/coronation-street/news/a234012/corries-david-to-be-centre-of-rape-plot.html

Edited June 27, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[DRW50]

That Toyah storyline offended a number of viewers. I have heard that story and Alma's cancer storyline (which even the actress criticized -- the message was just awful, saying that a woman got wrong smear results and then through some missed tests, had a cancer which was now untreatable) were both big ratings losers and helped cause the regime change in 2002.

The Toyah story was not just her being raped, they also had some kind of "whodunit" where she would accuse one man after another.

I don't think any viewer wants to see a "gritty and realistic" Graeme. I also don't know how many viewers want to see Tina, after losing her father and having an extended mental breakdown, get raped. They have already seriously damaged her character as it is. And that's not even getting into what would happen with David.

And if this is some sort of cute dodge, like "he doesn't actually go through with raping her" or, "She's raped but it's not by David, she just thinks it's him," that's even worse. And to "temper" the way this is filmed is a copout.

I do not mean to sound like some type of Corrie expert, because I'm definitely not, but these type of backbreaking stories do not seem in any way appropriate for this show. And again I would suggest people look at where the show was in 2000-2002, when violence, drug-fueled murders, brutal beatings, rape, and death took over more and more of Corrie, and Eastenders became the dominant show.

Edited June 27, 2010 by CarlD2

[All My Shadows]

You don't have to be an expert to know this. It's ridiculous and I really don't think I'm going to watch it. If this is what this guys thinks is what Corrie needs, then I guess I don't need Corrie.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Christmas death spoiler:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3033784/Coronation-Streets-Molly-Dobbs-to-be-killed-off-in-Christmas-storyline.html#ixzz0sBy7rpxK

[Bright Eyes]

Depressing story of depressing story. Who's writing this? Dena Higley circa the OLTL years?

[DRW50]

I guess Molly was the new Vera Duckworth after all!

I hope this is at least going to be a boy. After what happened to Kevin's last son I wanted him to get to have a son. Even if these are awful circumstances.

I wonder what will happen to Tyrone...