EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[TimWil]

Good God, tonight's show was dull. Vincent murmuring "Expect the unexpected" to Ronnie was amusing, though. Has he been in the US during the summer and heard Julie Chen aka The Chenbot murmur those very same words over and over and OVER on Big Brother since 2002?

[NothinButAttitude]

Please don't put that in the atmosphere. I think I'd fully give up EE by then. Whitney is just deadweight. She's like EE's version of Daniel Jonas. All her reincarnations aren't working. Only time she was endearing was her original story when she was being preyed on by Bianca's beau.

And Lee is like Joey or the Moon brothers before him. A hot hunk with no compelling attributes or story. The one Carter child that was endearing has already left the building. They might as well send the other two off as well.

[DRW50]

I don't mind Lee, he's hotter than the Moons were and he gets much less airtime, but he does seem irrelevant. For me the family just has no real life or purpose. All the misery over the pregnancy and rape and baby drama. I just read an interview with Danny Dyer and he seemed pretty grounded and honest about the Carter issues (he feels he was on too much last year, he feels the family isn't the same without Johnny, he feels that nothing will be the same with Dean still there), but I just find Mick and Linda so draining to watch and I don't see that changing.

[NothinButAttitude]

See I didn't mind the Moons until they put them in Whitney's orbit. Well Tyler that is. I would've liked him to have been a lothario that spreaded himself all over the Square, which they seemed to be hinting at in the beginning. And I would've liked for them to have made Anthony, the supposed black sheep like Michael, to have been a loser at love that we could all root for. By the time they did start doing that for Anthony with his relationship with Alice, it was too late.

Lee doesn't bother me, I just find him dull. Only time I got something from him was when he was with Lucy.

When it comes to Mick and Linda, a part of me wishes that the writers would've played up on the Queen Vic curse and modeled them after tumultuous marriages/owners before them [Kat/Alfie, Chrissie/Den, Den/Angie]. Had Kat not had that disgusting affair with Derek years before, I would've been all for her being the interloper for Mick and Alice. Stacey too if she wasn't so loose in the past.

I know affair stories are played out but I don't mind them when they are plotted well. EE has a history of telling good affair stories. Plus, Kat is in desperate need of getting out Alfie's orbit. Her being Mick's mistress could've been somewhat more interesting than the rape/baby story.

[DRW50]

I know some fans said they felt that Linda was very similar to Angie (I think TimWil said it too). Too bad they went the misery route instead.

[Ben]

NBA: I don't think you can compare Whitney to Days' Daniel - he's shoehorned into every story going, while Whitney has been on the back-burner for over a year, barely making any appearances. Lola is more entrenched on the back-burner than Whitney, but only b/c she's appeared in even less episodes. I do agree that Whitney's story is over, and really she should just go.

Lee is dull, but inoffensive. He's more than irrelevant, he's basically non-existent. They can't even use him in an organic way. I don't know how he feels about his family dramas, b/c he never has a voice. They focus on Nancy, but not Lee, which is weird. I expected to see a scene with Lee confronting Dean, as that seems like a logical thing to happen, but there's been nothing. Lee does nothing. I kind of want him work, b/c I think he could work if they just put some effort into exploring his character.

I really like Kat & Alfie winning the £1 million scratch card. It's nice to have some positive scenes and some much needed development for these two. The only negative so far were those awful, stereotypical restaurant scenes.

I'm not feeling the Kim/Vincent story, but I do like the Ronnie/Vincent stuff.

[NothinButAttitude]

I compared Whitney and Daniel b/c both are deadweight and both are characters that they writers still try and make work but they never will.

[BetterForgotten]

The last time Whitney worked was during the prostitution storyline when she heavily interacted with Janine.

But then, Janine made everyone more watchable...

[NothinButAttitude]

Exactly. But I didn't even care for Whitney in that story. For me, Whitney's only good story was her introduction story, and that's because it was gritty and hadn't been done before [or since].

[TimWil]

I've resented Whitney from the start because she only seemed to me to be a device to show Bianca interacting with a teenage stepdaughter.

Yes, I did once liken Linda to Angie. I think she's a hell of a lot less neurotic and self-destructive but I think they both share a certain "theatricality."

I don't think Lee is even eye candy. To me he's a thin lipped, pasty faced dullard without an ounce of sexuality. The redhead on Coronation Street who plays the ex military guy Gary is sexy to me in a way that the one who plays Lee totally isn't. They really missed the mark casting him, I think.

[NothinButAttitude]

Tell us how you really feel!

But I do agree somewhat. Lee is OK. He's cute but not sexy like I found the Moon brothers & Joey [even though their acting was subpar]; however, I get my sex appeal from Emmerdale. Those men....

[DRW50]

Lee's ass is his best part, but I think he's OK looking by EE "hunk" standards. Most EE "hunks" of recent years have oddly shrunken or misshapen heads and odd faces that reminds me of Potato Heads slapped together right before taping - Tyler Moon being the one who distracted me most there (the only time this look worked for me was poor Kieron on HO). And they're all very Identikit - Callum Monks, Anthony Moon, Joey Branning, etc. Lee is very slightly different, which by DTC standards is a bold risk.

I agree that he's not sexy, especially compared to Corrie, but sexually desirable men is another DTC no-no, so I can't really single him out.

[TimWil]

Of course very few of them came anywhere near the great beauty that was Paul Nicholls. A lot of people thought Jack Ryder was beautiful but I never saw it. And despite his creepy real life antics I think Neil McDermott is handsome and very sexy.

Edited May 12, 2015 by TimWil

[Ben]

Right. I guess I don't see them trying to make Whitney work, b/c if they were, I figured she'd have story and some kind of direction. Daniel gets thrown into everything and anything, so it's obvious they're trying to make him work, but not so obvious with Whitney. You're right: they are both dead weight.

[Dion]

I know what you mean. I always thought it was a little contrived that Bianca ended up with the same amount of kids as Carol, with the same birth orders right down to Morgan being mixed race like Billie. Thank god Tiffany never started playing the trumpet.

Granted, Whitney is her step-daughter and Liam and Tiffany are full siblings but even so...

Edited May 13, 2015 by Dion