EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[Skylover]

I've been in Australia for a month so I haven't seen EE. Has it been any good?

[DRW50]

 

No.

[TimWil]

In some ways it’s even worse than it was under SOC. It’s completely rudderless now.

[Skylover]

Oh gosh, I guess I'll watch it anyway

Please register in order to view this content

 I'm gonna watch Days first though.

[Skylover]

10 minutes into trying to catch up on EE and I feel like switching off. Ugh. Didn't feel like this on my Days catch up. The heist storyline is still going and it's a load of crap.

[TimWil]

The heist storyline is leading into a drugs storyline and that one’s even worse.

[Skylover]

Caught up.

 

Mel and Hunter are fantastic.

[Vee]

I saw on YT that Kat is back, again. I wonder how they'll explain her spinoff. She looks really garish in the pix online again - her usual look - but I thought she looked infinitely better for her age toned down. I guess Jessie Wallace doesn't like it.

[DRW50]

 

From what Jessie Wallace and John Yorke have indicated there won't be a lot of explanation, other than that she survived of course. She also won't have her husband or children with her. Not sure if that will be explained. Yorke is trying to go for a "fun" element of all the Slater women living together again. I can't say I am a fan of the idea, as I think those days are gone and the product onscreen has felt very regressive, but then it isn't written for me. 

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

There are some new promo pics on Walford Web if you want to see them. 

 

(they're big and I think HQ so they will load very slowly)

 

http://walfordweb.com/topic/30501827/21/#post11331629

 

http://walfordweb.com/topic/30501827/23/#post11332876

[Vee]

I'll give them about 90 days tops before announcing Alfie is back for more as well.

 

I don't care either way tbh, the show seems like such a miserable grind. The Britsoaps have it all over us on production value and often day to day writing, but they get stuck in similar but different, higher-grade ruts just as easily as our lazier bargain bin soaps (and much like long-running cable shows like Entourage, Rescue Me, Homeland, etc). When was the last time EE wasn't largely about repetitious misery? How many times can I watch a new family swoop in and another gay kid get marginalized despite often having more exposure than American characters? It just fulfills old cycles. They can do so much more but I think they think some of this stuff is their 'brand.'

 

And yeah, she looked much better on what I saw of Redwater. But I suppose, as Wallace says, that is not Kat.

[DRW50]

 

The odd part is that they have tried to have more 'comedy' this year but it's often just done so clumsily. The worst is when they had lots of comedy racism early this year. At least that's done, for now.

 

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not but there's a lot of speculation that Mel's son with Steve Owen (his name is Hunter) is gay. I'll believe it when I see it.

[Skylover]

I agree @Vee, the British soaps obviously have better production values but the American soaps are written better, I actually think day to day the writing is better on Days even if some of the stories are so ridiculously elaborate, the character writing seems to be better.

 

I think EE's misery is what is killing it. It needs more upbeat stories, I've heard that Coronation Street has more comedy and upbeat stuff, not sure how true this is considering their recent male rape story and the Bethany stuff over the last couple of years, I don't watch that show but I'm not sure it's such relentless misery like EE.

[cassadine1991]

How are US soaps written better than UK soaps

[Vee]

 

Uhhhhhh...... agree to disagree.

[Skylover]

 

I think they delve into the characters more as there's more time to. I think the storylines American soaps choose are often far too unrealistic but I find the scenes are written well.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Edward Skylover