EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[BetterForgotten]

They should just kill his entire family. Did Sharon seriously call Linda her best friend recently? I guess Michelle Fowler no longer exists in her mind.

[NothinButAttitude]

I am totally not against killing the Carter clan.... with the exception of Deano. Blow the pub up for the 1000th time and kill them all and a few others.

And DTC only made Sharon say that crap to prop Linda and get the audience behind her.

But when it comes to Michelle, why not recast her? Susan Tully does not want to return, but Michelle is desperately needed. Plus, I'd like for a recast Vicki and Mark Jr. to return. It's about time that EE's best kept secret [Mark being Grant's son] comes out.

[Ben]

Killing off Dean will make Shirley a martyr, so this cannot happen for that reason alone. Shirley has yet to take responsibility for being an awful mother, so I don't want to see her having a pity party over her dead rapist son who hated her guts.

I think they've missed heaps of opportunities for Dean's character, and I think they've brought him back just to throw him under the bus to prop Mick/Shirley. When the truth comes out, you know Shirley will finally have the son who treats her right.

Sharon/Linda would have made better frenemies than forcing them into the best friend category. They have no depth and no real chemistry. I thought Sharon's revenge would rejuvenate the character and be really interesting, but it's been mediocre so far. It didn't get much air time, and it was full on contrived set ups, like Marcus meeting Sharon in The Albert where he could easily be spotted by Phil. I think Sharon would be better leaving the show, as they continue to waste her.

[DRW50]

The whole story with Sharon was sold as being about her but mostly seems like a con so that people will once again see how much they should love Shirley and Phil and their tragic dysfunctional beauty, which DTC was also heavily pushing the last time he was at the show. And just like that time, no one cares. Just as no one cares about Shirley as Mick's long-suffering mother.

If not for the PR push of "Eastenders is back!" and DS posters always needing heroes and villains to make themselves feel important, fans would call this out for what it is - empty trash for someone with no attention span.

It says it all that you go to DS and you see threads like "100 things Stuart Blackburn has done wrong!" "100 things Bryan Kirkwood has done wrong!" "100 things DTC has done right!"

They care about their little scorecards, not about the soaps.

[BetterForgotten]

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[TimWil]

I agree 100%, Ben. It was absolutely ludicrous that Marcus and Sharon conducted their secret meetings in The Albert. London is a big city. Surely they could have met in a pub in Shoreditch?

There's a "huge surprise" on tonight's episode, apparently. I'd love for it to be Michelle putting in a phone call to Sharon.

Edited September 25, 2014 by TimWil

[Bright Eyes]

Peggy was the surprise tonight. Barbara Windsor was hammy as all get out. (Is that the phrase?) Anyway, I was far more excited to see that Ronnie is back. I missed her like crazy.

[TimWil]

The retconning of Peggy back to hating Sharon again after their "truce" in 2006 was really unfortunate. And that was Barbara Windsor on UK screens last night, not Peggy Mitchell.

[Ben]

Everything (bar Ronnie) about Peggy's cameo was awful. The acting was seriously bad, chewing the scenery bad, and the dialogue was the worst - 90% exposition and unnecessary recap. Peggy declaring all out war on Sharon felt like they'd accidentally added in scenes from 2001. The characters had moved on, and while they will never be BFFs, Peggy would have declined the invite, not had a silly OTT meltdown.

On the plus, I did like the scenes with Sharon softening towards Ben, and that scene in The Vic with Shirley being put in her place by Ben declaring his support of Sharon marrying Phil. I feel like they're trying to downplay Ben's previous psychotic behaviour a bit, probably so they can "feasibly" pair him with Johnny.

[DRW50]

Johnny needs an acting coach, not a boyfriend. But of course he has to hook up with Ben since they're the only two gay guys on the show.

For all the time DTC overused the Mitchells the last time he was around, he never had any idea what to do with them, and he still doesn't.

[TimWil]

The only conclusion to this gun-on-the-go thing should be a bullet in Shirley's head. But this is EastEnders, innit, so we're not allowed to have nice things.

[DRW50]

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[TimWil]

Thanks for that, DRW50. A visit from Inland Revenue for Ian? When he was, like, 21?

Some of my show bizzy friends in the UK told me horror stories about the "presenter" of Blue Peter, Andi Peters. He was apparently an all-round nightmare who got into constant fights with John Barrowman (who was a "roving reporter" on it) over who'd get to date this or that boy band member/actor/chorus boy!

[Bright Eyes]

A live episode for the 30th anniversary and live portions in every episode that week.

http://www.digitalspy.ca/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a600317/eastenders-to-go-live-again-for-30th-anniversary-celebrations.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=dsuk&utm_campaign=twdsuk#~oRorIDqHhcWWqT

[YRBB]

It's all about the shock & the event!