EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

I read that he shaved his head for charity (Scott Maslen I mean). It's odd they didn't work that in better.

Tony Jordan interview.

http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/item.php?id=2335

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Jordan must be happy Kat and Alfie are coming back.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

When Alfie busted into Kat and Andy's wedding to tell Kat he loves her:

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[BadBoy93]

cant wait for the upcoming ben storyline.

He starts Abusing Louise...repeat of what Stella did to her.

[dannigold]

I assumed Jack's hair was shaved before he went into surgery.

[Ben]

Lets extinguish that flame before it grows - no way is Fatboy a representation of a cool Londoner. There are some guys that are deemed cool, as that slang usually accompanies some kind of bad boy persona; but generally, never. It's also mostly teens that talk like that, or street kids (I.e Billie's crew), and Fatboy is neither.

I loved the Mosque scenes, too. I thought they were really well written, and addressed the issue perfectly. I like how Masood's beliefs are quite polarising compared to Zainab, especially in how they're dealing with it.

Syed is annoying. For a story that was supposed to be about him being torn between being a good Muslim boy, and being gay, they sure have glossed over a lot of his religious anguish. Zainab has addressed that angle more so than Syed has, much like how Masood, is more tormented by the gay angle more than Syed himself. But Syed is pathetic anyway, as is Christian, and for the story to have any meaning, they'll have to be together in the end, chemistry or not. Plus, Syed is not the first gay Muslim; Family Affairs already told this story in 2005, with Sami Shafiq and his Australian lover, Brett.

[DRW50]

Was the Family Affairs story better?

This whole story has been something which seems to be based only on plot points, nothing underneath. It was probably done for shock value and not much else. It's odd because I love good stories on soaps with gay characters yet in this story the gay characters are the ones I'm least interested in.

[Sylph]

EastEnders: six characters to get the chop. But are they the right ones?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Outside of maybe Charlie, all of the characters axed are throwaway characters that served very little purpose on the show. Hell, even Charlie has served very little purpose for years now.

[Sylph]

Yep. He needs to axe a few more.

[Ben]

Sort of... I say that apprehensively, b/c not everyone liked Sami; he was flamboyant, kinda OTT, but in a grounded sense. If you've ever seen clips of Yasmin, then you'll understand how these two became BFF's. But this was all balanced out by the straight Brett, who really made you root for these two - they had chemistry, too, unlike Chryed.

Sami's mother, Aamina was introduced, and we got to know her, and see their relationship (his other family members weren't IIRC). Every time she'd visit, he used to hide all of his personal "gay" items, like photos of himself and his then separated married boyfriend, Max Lawson. That guy broke his heart when he ultimately chose his family over Sami (they did try the whole thing where his kids visited, but they never took to Sami). Aamina arranged him a bride, and a wedding, and was prepared to go through with it, even though the bride knew his secret. Brett gave him an ultimatum, and Sami decided to tell the truth, but his bride (who was in love with another man, and wanted their shame marriage to keep up her pretence) blackmailed him into going through with the wedding. Ultimately, Sami backed out of the wedding at the last minute, and Aamina found out her son was gay. She disowned him. Sami and Brett reunited. Then his father had a heart attack and died, which triggered a huge confrontation between Sami and Aamina, where she stabbed him with a knife. He survived, and left for Australia with Brett, whose visa had expired. Aamina went to prison.

Family Affairs had a lot of gay characters, of all varieties; some worked, and some didn't. I think Sami worked, for the most part. Sami drove the story, and you understood his plight. The religious angle was dealt with, and there were moments of drama, sadness, and comedy. He has qualities that Syed is missing. I do wonder if Sami and Brett would've stayed, had the show not been cancelled.

Edited April 21, 2010 by Ben

[DRW50]

That Guardian article is odd. Let's fire Peter? Really? Of all the characters on the show? Who cares about Peter? And let's fire Dotty...who is no longer on the show? Is that the same person who wrote that bizarre article claiming Roxy was one of the best EE characters of all time?

Ben, thanks for the detailed information. I was wondering if you remembered the story where the one gay guy, who was later stabbed to death, where his cop boyfriend had sex with his best friend while he was away on tour. What did you think of that story? Did they claim that he was bisexual, the boyfriend, or was he not interested in women until that point? Was that just a fling between the woman and the cop or a longer relationship?

[Ben]

Carl, that scenario is puzzling, as I remember there was Sean Steel, who was stabbed on New Year's Eve, and died, but I don't remember him being involved with a cop, who dated his best friend. Sean was one half of the Will & Grace pairing, and his best friend was Tanya, who was carrying his IVF child. Sean dated closet case bisexual Brendan Boulter, who ended up marrying Melanie Costello - he was way in denial about the whole thing, and even had numerous one-night-stands. They did make a point of labelling him bi, which Melanie came to understand; she later regretted it, after he continued to lie to her. Brendan, thankfully left for a new life in France; the guy was seriously wooden, and pairing him with self-centred, whiny Mel, didn't do any of them any favours. I was never really a fan of this story, as it all felt a bit like, yet another gay storyline, and Brendan had no charm. He was dull, and felt very unimportant. It also made Melanie a victim, and she had enough to whine about, without adding a cheating bi boyfriend. What also bugged me, was that they made a point of Brendan being bi, but he was only ever with Mel - all of his flings were with men. It felt like they wanted to give him this label, to show how they were representing bisexuals, but really, it felt like Brendan was simply gay.

But I've done some research, and found that there was a gay cop, called Adam, who dated Clive, and slept with his best mate, Gabby. This happened in the early days, and I think Clive was FA's first male gay character (Holly being the first lesbian). I don't remember him at all. Clive was really annoying; he bugged me for some reason, so whenever he had storylines, I tended to tune out. I also wasn't a regular viewer at the time, so that doesn't help. But I did like Clive's friendships with Gabby and Declan (who he crushed on at one point). They made a nice little trio. Adam, though was a guest character, so they didn't delve all that much into his storyline. I think it was as simple as being exposed for a cheat, and leaving town. IIRC, Clive was never meant to be happy at all.

[DRW50]

Thanks for all that, I got the characters mixed up. Your info about FA is a real resource.

Tonight's EE episode seemed as aimless as ever. Even when they're trying to tell dramatic stories the tone is increasingly off. The Amira/Chelsea scenes were bizarre. Like someone was trying to write this forced breeziness, like they were in Audrey's hair salon on Corrie. The meaning of the scenes was lost under all the fake flippancy. Not to mention Chelsea somehow deciding that the identical pregnancy tests she mixed up were now any kind of accurate read. I did like the part where Amira asked if Jack wanted a kid of every color, and the part where Amira had to admit just how rarely she and Syed have sex.

Jack/Ronnie seem to be the same as usual. I thought Jack being shot might change how they act towards each other but instead his shooting and five minute paralysis were window dressing for some rushed fling between Ronnie and the doctor, leading to Jack huffing and puffing and an even more rushed reunion. Hard to believe that only a week ago, Jack could barely even speak. The proposal scene was well-acted but felt short, as a scene was cut out.

The scenes with Ben's attempts to talk slang made me cringe. I would say that was the point, but I don't think they meant them to be quite that ridiculous. They seem unsure of how to treat Ben's problems. It's still much too easy for fans to laugh at him and see him in the same way that the girls who bullied him did. This is the problem with the show's cardboard writing -- every time they try to do a story where someone is supposed to be sympathetic or bullied, the show heavily leans toward seeing the person being mistreated as some kind of a joke. Heather, Ben, among others.

Zsa Zsa and the E20 losers stuck out like a sore thumb. Putting them in the middle of the darts match was strange because a) they have spent their time sneering at the older and more established, conservative characters, they're supposed to be hip and edgy and b ) if you are going to cast people who are so much older than their roles, putting them around people who look the same age as they do yet are playing characters in their 30s and 40s, not a good idea.

Christian and Syed -- that last scene with wimpering Syed putting his head on Christian's shoulder said it all for me. At one time I felt a little more sympathy for Christian but these past days of the overwrought whispering and the crying have taken me out of that. The more the show sells them as victims the more I dislike them. Was I really supposed to feel sorry for Christian in that scene where he wept as Masood tried to bribe him into leaving town? Masood and Zainab are the only ones keeping this story going.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Zainab was hilarious when she talked about showing off to the world that her son doesn't shoot blanks.

I hate Syed and Christian...