EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[BadBoy93]

seriously is he going. All he does on the show is moan and grumble like all teenagers are on EE>

[DRW50]

The Pat/Peggy "comedy" scenes, especially the shoving match, were some of the worst moments I've ever seen on this show. And the drunk scenes were little better. If I was watching this for the first time I would have no idea that Pat or Peggy were ever important characters.

They need to give Ben less scenes where he has to speak or cry. The scenes he had with Heather were, somehow, the best part of the episode. I don't say that lightly about Heather.

I loved seeing Masood turn the screws to worthless whimpering Syed. I know this is all going to end badly and we will probably have to see something about homophobic Masood and Zainab and how Zainab did not trust Masood and poor Syed is the victim, but I just like seeing Syed squirm. Then again, he squirms all the time, doesn't he? And I also want to say that I hate the way Christian says "Sy." I don't mean to make it sound like I support their homophobia, because I don't, but I just can't bring myself to feel any sympathy for Syed.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yeah, I enjoyed those Heather/Ben scenes too. Poor Ben. I know many hate him, but I don't mind him and fine amusement in the character.

The Masood stuff was good too, and that end shot with Masood's cut hand in the sink, eww.

The Pat and Peggy drunk stuff was amusing, but looks like another guy is coming between them again...

[DRW50]

http://tinyurl.com/y3wmphr

[All My Shadows]

I started watching this last week. I'm in no way at all as versed in EE as I am in Corrie, so I've been doing a lot of reading and clip-watching over the last couple of days to get a better understanding of the show and its characters. Anywho, my thoughts on what's been going on:

Pat/Peggy - Another "it's supposed to be great/funny because their rivalry used to be great/funny!" mess, similar to Viki/Dorian on OLTL, I see. I like both characters through what I've read and watched online, but jeez, this story just seems like the writers' way of saying they really don't know what to do with them, so when in doubt, have them hit each other.

Syed/Christian - Poor Amira. Christian is pathetic, really. If a man don't want you, or if a man don't want you enough to admit it to the world, then it's pointless. Syed is even more ridiculous. He wants everything to be his way. Amira is the only innocent party here, and maybe she's a little guilty for putting on blinders to the fact that her marriage is in a very, very poor state, but it's not like Syed isn't trying to make it seem like they have a happy home.

Fatboy and his people - Wow. Is this what "cool" guys are like in London? I don't really have too much of an issue with him, though, he's kinda funny.

Ben - How uncomfortable that poor actor has to feel playing these scenes with big, hulking Phil. Jesus H. Do they even have a plan for all of this? Because I'm sure there'll be backlash for having "another" gay character on the show, especially one who isn't even connected to the gay story. The little sister is an annoying brat, and I like Phil's girlfriend.

I'm not completely clear on what's going on with the guy in the hospital (Jack?) and the girl running the nightclub (Ronnie?). But it looks like he ended up in the hospital thanks to an incident at the club, so the club was closed for a while, and now it's reopened, but people are still apprehensive about going back there. Is this right?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yes, Jack's nephew, Billie Jackson, was involved in some gang and one of the members tried to shoot Billie, as he wanted to leave their gang, and Jack got in the way.

Jack and Ronnie have an on and off again relationship thing going...

[DRW50]

I don't think they have a plan for any stories on the show, to be honest. As for Ben, I don't think they are going to have him actually identified as gay for a long time, if they ever do.

Ronnie/Jack are a huge mess of a couple. They got involved in late 2007, but had problems because of his ex-wife and his crippled daughter Penny. He slept with Ronnie's sister, Roxy. Then he began banging his sister-in-law Tanya, who was on the rebound. He dumped her after a few months, as she was clingy and he mainly seemed to enjoy tormenting his brother. Meanwhile, Roxy had a child and passed the child off as Sean Slater's. A few months after the baby was born, everyone found out at Christmas dinner (Jack's sister Suzy found the paternity test result and put it Sean's Christmas cracker) that Jack was the father. Ronnie couldn't handle this and fled town. Ronnie then began having an endless mental breakdown when she learned that the daughter she'd given away 20 or so years before was living in Walford and had tried to befriend her. She and her daughter were about to share a happy reunion when the daughter was run over by the world's slowest moving car. Ronnie decided she wanted another baby and she got back together with Jack and began poking holes in his condoms to make sure she got pregnant. When Jack learned about this, he dumped her. Jack began porking Ronnie's and Roxy's cousin, Samantha Mitchell.

Ronnie managed to find Joel, the father of her dead daughter and he left his wife and kids to get together with her. After a few months, she learned Joel had gotten a vasectomy, and she dumped him. Ronnie then began having sex with an unbalanced man named Owen -- Owen was Libby's father; Libby is the black girl with glasses. Lucas killed Owen but no one knows that. Ronnie got pregnant, but her evil father Archie slammed her into a bar tabletop and she had a miscarriage. Archie was murdered soon after this and Ronnie, Jack, and many others were suspects. Ronnie later revealed that Archie had raped her for years.

Jack's nephew Bradley took the fall, literally, for the murder, to protect his crazy wife, Stacey, the real killer. Jack and Ronnie got together again, but a few days later, Jack was offended by a remark Ronnie made and he told her she was damaged. Ronnie began wandering around aimlessly, no one wanting to speak to her or look at her, and she rends her garments and tears at her hair. Jack began giving sperm donations to Chelsea, whose only purpose on the show tends to be sleeping with someone for a week or two. Jack was then shot by one of his nephew Billie's pals, and since then he has been in the hospital. He and Ronnie are becoming close again, and he dumped Chelsea, offcamera.

And just to try to liven this up we have his shockingly inappropriate doctor, who dances to Single Ladies and macks on Ronnie.

The club Jack runs used to be Ronnie's and Roxy's club, R&R. Roxy ruined it for them, IIRC. That club has been on the show in one name or another for a long, long time. I can't remember how far back. At least 10 years.

Edited April 20, 2010 by CarlD2

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Didn't Santer and Collins always brag about how much they love Ronnie? You'd never know after the endless torture they infect upon her.

Collins said he was a "gayboy crush on Samantha Womack" on Twitter, you'd never know that...

Also, didn't Santer say one of the reasons he didn't want to bring Sharon back was because Ronnie is a similar character and fills the role Sharon once did? I don't see it. Sharon was a much more complex character.

[dannigold]

They refer to Ronnie as the tragic heroine, who will never find happiness.

[DRW50]

There's a poster on Digital Spy (one of my favorite posters, probably, as they are not a fanboy type and are very incisive) who is convinced that Santer just didn't want to bring Sharon back because she would have shown Ronnie and Roxy up. And she would have.

I think they consider all this half-baked melodrama some sort of great stuff, because they think people won't focus on the actual stories, just on the constant misery Ronnie goes through. They think people only want to see Ronnie unhappy. I don't think they get the type of very damaging long-term affect this has on a character. If someone is miserable for the sake of being miserable, if the strings are showing, then viewers lose faith. They also claim to love Roxy, and her writing has been almost as terrible.

Of all the characters that Santer claimed to love or think highly of, the only one I think has actually had decent writing over the past few years is Ian. It's not perfect or even close but I have always had a soft spot for Ian and damn that character has had some terrible, pathetic writing unworthy of such a longstanding character. Kicking dogs, head in a toilet, the endless rivalry with Phil that Phil always won...

Edited April 20, 2010 by CarlD2

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I've always wanted Sharon to come back ever since she left. I LOVED her 2001 comeback when Peggy sold the Vic to an anonymous buyer, who turned out to be Sharon, and the look on Peggy's face when she found out.

[BadBoy93]

I`m keen for Ronnie & Jack to get married and just be locked away and make hundreds of blonde macho Mitchell-Brannings.

I also want Sharon to return and hopefully Kirkwood will acheieve that.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I loved how rude Masood was towards Christian in the Vic today, and the moment with the slap on the shoulders.

I like how protective Shirley is of Ben.

I also liked when Ronnie and Jack were arguing and how Ronnie mentioned when things get tough he drops his trousers for other women.

And we all so saw Amira getting pregnant....

[DRW50]

I like the Jack/Max scenes and how Max genuinely cares about Jack but also doesn't put up with his crap. And the doctor is hilarious. The punch scene, I loved it. Too bad it had to turn into the usual Jack/Ronnie stuff. Jack seems to have gotten over his slurring very quickly.

Christian's overly whispery voice is starting to get on my last nerve so I enjoyed Masood shutting him down. That whole scene where he bragged about his quickie to try to throw Masood off the track was odd -- Phil would never have just joked along with that, he is not exactly a progressive guy, and he's very upset about the thought of his son being gay. But Masood's scenes at the mosque were fantastic.

Doesn't it seem like we have seen much more tension and anxiety over Syed's sexuality from Masood than we have EVER seen from Syed?

For some time I wished that they had done the affair between Masood/Christian, not Syed/Christian, because Nitin is a much better actor than Marc and because I think Masood and Christian have better chemistry. I do love Zainab and Masood, but I still think that relationship would have had more impact.

The ice cream stuff was poor. I can't look at the troll doll Zsa Zsa or 50 miles of bad road on his face Leon. Fatboy looks like a runway model compared to them.

Shirley deserves so much better than Phil. They should put her with the Polish guy and bring in his family.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Jack also managed to get a full haircut with half of his head wrapped in bandages...