Was shocked by Chrissie's return.

Meh. They really gotta cease doing murders on X-Mas. Zoe "killing" Anthony is stupid. And all that peace that Chrissie supposedly made upon being released was pointless.

I’m certainly not a Chris Clenshaw ‘devotee’ and he was far from perfectly consistent, but holy moly, the drop off from him to Ben Wadey’s stewardship, and how quickly it occurred is both heartbreaking and astounding.

I promised I’d give it 6 months before making up my mind and that’s reflected in my lack of posting in this thread.

But Nigel, Phil and Julie aside, I’ve not liked what I have been watching. Characterisations have been torpedoed to serve the plot and the ‘shock factor’ (what the heck was that with Anthony Trueman?) and the stories have been structured in a stodgy way.

Christmas 2025 wasn’t for me, and with the show not showing much promise (and guaranteed when the previews for 2026 come out, Wadey will use the words ‘dramatic’ and ‘explosive’ and ‘shocks, shocking, etc’ a lot of times) I’m ready to tap out fully, my watching already intermittent.

Viewers are already calling for Wadey’s head, but I don’t believe the BBC/Kate Oates will act that quickly, so the hope should be that this messy period was to get to 2026 and enough pieces will be in place that the show can kick on and increase in quality.

I think Annie’s paternity reveal should’ve been a bigger deal.

Everybody seemingly has forgotten about Martin (Lola was given more lip service after her death than Martin)

I like the infusion of more humor, but I just don’t think it was necessary to include that in Max vs Jack at the Beales. That’s one thing I can give Wadey, he has included a few witty funny moments (Max saying he’s a great dad, Ian and Kathy over Christmas).

The Xmas episodes didn’t get interesting until AFTER Chrissie revealed herself and Sam entered the scene. That’s like 15-20 solid mins of entertainment.

And Max and Cindy? I knew it was going to happen but again, played for laughs.

Wadey is seemingly trying to rejuvenate the show by revisiting old previous highs and it’s falling flat. We didn’t need Anthony to get the Keanu treatment and get murdered in the Vic. We still have no solid confirmation he’s the father of the twins or why Zoe kept it from him. Just a load of plot driven drivel.

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by MichaelGL

16 hours ago, LondonScribe said:

I’m certainly not a Chris Clenshaw ‘devotee’ and he was far from perfectly consistent, but holy moly, the drop off from him to Ben Wadey’s stewardship, and how quickly it occurred is both heartbreaking and astounding.

I promised I’d give it 6 months before making up my mind and that’s reflected in my lack of posting in this thread.

But Nigel, Phil and Julie aside, I’ve not liked what I have been watching. Characterisations have been torpedoed to serve the plot and the ‘shock factor’ (what the heck was that with Anthony Trueman?) and the stories have been structured in a stodgy way.

Christmas 2025 wasn’t for me, and with the show not showing much promise (and guaranteed when the previews for 2026 come out, Wadey will use the words ‘dramatic’ and ‘explosive’ and ‘shocks, shocking, etc’ a lot of times) I’m ready to tap out fully, my watching already intermittent.

Viewers are already calling for Wadey’s head, but I don’t believe the BBC/Kate Oates will act that quickly, so the hope should be that this messy period was to get to 2026 and enough pieces will be in place that the show can kick on and increase in quality.

Shock value and plot over character are two of the reasons I zoned out most of the time with Clenshaw. I'd agree that's still the case, just with more incoherent plotting. Anthony was never a very nice man, he was just the idea of a nice man, so I could go along with the story to a point, but the whole execution was sloppy and his death was even worse (and part of another "mystery" we didn't need).

I don't care a great deal about fan complaints because many of the most vocal complaints are people just care about what their pet characters are doing, not the show (like the fans who immediately went from praising to panning the show once Callum cheated on Ben), or they just want viral tweets, or they just want Elaine in the Vic retching up camp one-liners, but I wish improvements were made as Wadey does not know how to tell a story. This isn't getting any better. There are nice relationships and scenes, but the storytelling is the pits. At this point I just have to accept he is never going to learn, and some of those above him aren't either. Kate Oates is too busy canceling shows and probably trying to figure out another way to get hunky men to beat each other up and kidnap each other. And whoever else is in charge, like Susan Batten, have been out to sea for years.

If the show does get a new producer and it is just back to the Clenshaw mentality, I'll pass. He did a lot of good for EE but by early 2024 tuning in became a chore for me. I still cringe at the Panesar stories or Cindy/Junior or twitchy Reiss (killing Martin was also a very stupid, ego-driven producer decision - I don't care if James Bye wanted to be killed off). One of those cases where I could respect a producer's efforts, as he was clearly better than any who had been there before him since somewhere around 2013 or 2014, but I did not enjoy the product.

People also end up having so much focus on the producer above the rest of the show, which creates a constant heaven/hell pattern. I don't want to hear people talking about their sexual fantasies for a producer any more than I want to see people sending death threats to a producer (not that that's on the same level of severity), yet here we are. Fans know too much about these shows, yet they also don't know as much as they think. I include myself there.

The last six months or so are the most I've watched EE in a few years, but as we enter into 2026, I am tempted to go back to my old pledge to avoid the British soaps until they stop trying to be everything they never were. I doubt I will, but I should.

4 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

I think Annie’s paternity reveal should’ve been a bigger deal.

Everybody seemingly has forgotten about Martin (Lola was given more lip service after her death than Martin)

I like the infusion of more humor, but I just don’t think it was necessary to include that in Max vs Jack at the Beales. That’s one thing I can give Wadey, he has included a few witty funny moments (Max saying he’s a great dad, Ian and Kathy over Christmas).

The Xmas episodes didn’t get interesting until AFTER Chrissie revealed herself and Sam entered the scene. That’s like 15-20 solid mins of entertainment.

And Max and Cindy? I knew it was going to happen but again, played for laughs.

Wadey is seemingly trying to rejuvenate the show by revisiting old previous highs and it’s falling flat. We didn’t need Anthony to get the Keanu treatment and get murdered in the Vic. We still have no solid confirmation he’s the father of the twins or why Zoe kept it from him. Just a load of plot driven drivel.

I enjoyed the Max and Cindy scenes. It's very cliched but somehow they made it work. The Max Christmas scenes were the most I enjoyed his return so far.

Martin isn't mentioned now, after many months of mentions, but other than Ian and Kathy (Ian is selfish and Kathy barely has anything of value to say - I was flabbergasted when she was suddenly written like it was in 1995 again in Nigel's special episode), most of the people who are left are not going to bring him up. To be honest I found the mentions completely hollow - Clenshaw never cared about him while he was alive.

Annie's paternity reveal was rushed and poorly mishandled, and Linda's behavior makes no real sense. Then again I never thought she'd sleep with Max in the first place.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by DRW50

9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Shock value and plot over character are two of the reasons I zoned out most of the time with Clenshaw. I'd agree that's still the case, just with more incoherent plotting. Anthony was never a very nice man, he was just the idea of a nice man, so I could go along with the story to a point, but the whole execution was sloppy and his death was even worse (and part of another "mystery" we didn't need).

I don't care a great deal about fan complaints because many of the most vocal complaints are people just care about what their pet characters are doing, not the show (like the fans who immediately went from praising to panning the show once Callum cheated on Ben), or they just want viral tweets, or they just want Elaine in the Vic retching up camp one-liners, but I wish improvements were made as Wadey does not know how to tell a story. This isn't getting any better. There are nice relationships and scenes, but the storytelling is the pits. At this point I just have to accept he is never going to learn, and some of those above him aren't either. Kate Oates is too busy canceling shows and probably trying to figure out another way to get hunky men to beat each other up and kidnap each other. And whoever else is in charge, like Susan Batten, have been out to sea for years.

If the show does get a new producer and it is just back to the Clenshaw mentality, I'll pass. He did a lot of good for EE but by early 2024 tuning in became a chore for me. I still cringe at the Panesar stories or Cindy/Junior or twitchy Reiss (killing Martin was also a very stupid, ego-driven producer decision - I don't care if James Bye wanted to be killed off). One of those cases where I could respect a producer's efforts, as he was clearly better than any who had been there before him since somewhere around 2013 or 2014, but I did not enjoy the product.

People also end up having so much focus on the producer above the rest of the show, which creates a constant heaven/hell pattern. I don't want to hear people talking about their sexual fantasies for a producer any more than I want to see people sending death threats to a producer (not that that's on the same level of severity), yet here we are. Fans know too much about these shows, yet they also don't know as much as they think. I include myself there.

The last six months or so are the most I've watched EE in a few years, but as we enter into 2026, I am tempted to go back to my old pledge to avoid the British soaps until they stop trying to be everything they never were. I doubt I will, but I should.

I enjoyed the Max and Cindy scenes. It's very cliched but somehow they made it work. The Max Christmas scenes were the most I enjoyed his return so far.

Martin isn't mentioned now, after many months of mentions, but other than Ian and Kathy (Ian is selfish and Kathy barely has anything of value to say - I was flabbergasted when she was suddenly written like it was in 1995 again in Nigel's special episode), most of the people who are left are not going to bring him up. To be honest I found the mentions completely hollow - Clenshaw never cared about him while he was alive.

Annie's paternity reveal was rushed and poorly mishandled, and Linda's behavior makes no real sense. Then again I never thought she'd sleep with Max in the first place.

I don’t I’ve ever explicitly asked you @DRW50

When was the last time you consistently enjoyed Eastenders while watching?

We seem to only put you in the position to explain what doesn’t work but, not detail what worked for you with the show and where in could go to make it more watchable.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by LondonScribe
More substance added.