EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[Bright Eyes]

Other than Peggy, which other characters have a special Julia's Theme?

[Sylph]

Pf.

[All My Shadows]

Whoever came up with the idea to use that shot of the Thames when Kathy left was a genius. That plus Julia's Theme is extremely touching, no matter the circumstances.

I always think they should just let Julia's Theme play out over the credits. The full-length version is a gorgeous piece of music.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Kathy is the only other character that had a special version of Julia's Theme for her exit.

God, I wish they could bring Kathy back from the dead, and they could, but after the Den fiasco, the BBC probably won't allow another return from the dead type story.

Edited December 26, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Now that I've had the time to watch the episode in full...

The show looks great in HD.

That was a great way for Stacey to leave, she had wonderful scenes with the people she was closest to and shared the biggest history with - Max and Jean.

Janine is a sick little f.uck for stabbing herself like that just so she could get revenge on Stacey.

Pam St. Clement has a great voice, I loved when the little we got to see of Pat singing Fever.

All the scenes with Jean and Stacey were wonderful, especially dealing with their differences and how Jean dealt with the news of Stacey being murderer before coming around again and supporting Stacey.

Ronnie and Roxy need to sit their asses down, but their reactions were totally in character.

Stacey and Max's scenes stole the episode though. The way he was able to get her off the roof, and then at the airport when he confessed that he was still in love with her, but she realized that they couldn't be together and are better off as a best friends. Part of me wanted Max to leave with her. Max and Stacey's bond is just so strong. Yes, it makes Max look like a bad parent for waning to leave his kids behind for Stacey, but it's totally in character for him and he would literally do anything for Stacey.

Oh, and Max looking into the sky as the plane was flying away when Julia's Theme kicked in with Stacey on the plane, that was a great touch.

At least the door is left open for Stacey. She was overused, but I think after some downtime, she would be good for a comeback in 5 years or so. The show is going to feel her loss definitely. Lacey Turner was a rare find who was able to handle everything successfully that was thrown at her, even as the character suffered from very bad writing at times.

It's also good that the show can now finally move on from the Archie story...

Edited December 26, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Looks like Pat will be giving Ryan a good slap down in tomorrow's (Sunday) episode:

[DRW50]

That looks great.

I wonder where Pat will go after this, as she washes her hands of Janine. Of course that never lasts.

Some insisted that this made Max look awful or trashed his character, but I thought it was exactly what he'd do.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Preview of Sunday's episode with Pat's slap:

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[BadBoy93]

Why does Ryan get all this heat ? Its wrong because all he did really was try and help Stacey leave and then got ditched along the way. poor Ryan.

[DRW50]

I think Ryan gets the blame because he's there, and also because he slept with Stacey while married to Janine, which helped lead to Janine going after Stacey and running her out of town.

Watching some of the episode again, they crammed so many story threads, years of them, into those 56 minutes. While it wasn't all great (I would have left Janine's stabbing to later in the episode and possibly left it up to viewers to decide whether Stacey stabbed her), I thought most of it was good to excellent, and some wonderful performances. Those scenes with Jean and Stacey, especially the one where Jean got Stacey to admit she killed Archie, were superb. You can see how much Stacey meant to Jane and how everything with Stacey is going to push her over the edge. I also liked that Stacey mentioned her horrible childhood.

Some were upset with Max saying he loved Stacey/leaving his family, or saw it as poor writing, but I think that's true to the character. I will miss Stax. That scene where she left and he had tears in his eyes was gorgeous; Jake Wood is a wonderful cryer. I also loved the scene where he was in bed smoking. It will be interesting to see the fallout with his family, especially Lauren, over his decision to leave. You can tell Tanya is waiting to stomp in and give one of her lectures. Her belittling him during the Charades game was just the start. She is always so insecure. And she's still in love with him.

I loved the scene where Stacey almost jumped and Max had to stop her. That scene could have just been pointless melodrama but instead had a lot of genuine heart. That and the view of London over the credits were my favorite moments. I also think the show did a very good job of showing that even if Stacey did not "pay" for killing Archie, it has taken a huge mental toll on her. Lacey was wonderful through all this, and the way she said she loved silly Bradley, even if she wasn't sure why. That summed up their relationship. Bradley

Janine seems to be crossing over into truly disturbed territory now, and Charlie Brooks is rising to the occasion with some of her best performances in years and years, and yet also very different from her earlier work as Janine. I hope the show has the guts to truly explore her madness and sociopathy.

I wish they'd been able to fit the choir story into the Christmas episode, because I loved those scenes, whereas the stuff at the Vic with Dot didn't work as well, it seemed very edited. I do like seeing Alfie and Kat so happy though. Shane and Jessie really do work well together.

Great work from Ronnie and Roxy when Ronnie told Stacey to go. Stacey and Ronnie are both so damaged, I'm sorry the show never explored that further.

The ratings were pretty good -- 11.3 million, a half a million more from last year. Given that Stacey's exit probably wouldn't get as much interest as Archie's murder mystery, and that the BBC wasn't supposed to have had a very good lineup this year while ITV's was stronger than usual, I think those are very good numbers.

Edited December 26, 2010 by CarlD2

[Sylph]

It was also pretty lame as an exit. A very bloated episode where those very good moments served to disguise the shiteous exit decision. Oh, well. It's good that that evil, psychopathic, vulgar, uncultivated and savage mess of a character, liar and a cheater finally left the premises. She didn't deserve to flee.

And had it been a mystery wetter Janine stabbed herself or whether it was Stacey, it would've been a terrible writing choice.

Edited December 26, 2010 by Sylph

[JamesF]

That would have made it much more interesting to me. I felt there was a certain lack of tension in the episode - a predictability to it that let it down.

I'm a lapsed viewer who dips in for the big events (the kind of viewer I'd usually slate incidentally) so I was watching the episode rather out of context. That considered, I really didn't enjoy it. There were some standout moments such as Jean/Stacey and erm...the final scene but otherwise it just felt weird to me.

I didn't understand half of what was going on and the characters outside of Janine/Stacey/Jean/Max seemed so flat. I barely recognised Tanya Branning and her boyfriend was a mute. I don't know what was supposed to be going on between Tanya Branning and Tanya Turner but I did enjoy the ambiguity of TB's reaction to Max running after Stacey.

Kat/Alfie turn my stomach. Ronnie/Roxy seem completely and utterly played out. I couldn't agree more when Ronnie was telling Roxy to "leave it".

I'm probably being far more judgmental than I should be but from the odd episodes I've seen over the past month, there's very little substance to anything which is strange because to begin with Kirkwood seemed to be working on things. Except for a chosen few, the character personalities seem interchangeable and they react depending on what the story requires of them.

I'll watch tonight after a little less boozing and see if I change my mind.

[Sylph]

It was and they all are. Next Christmas Tanya, Max, Ronnie, Roxy, Kat and Alfie need to die when a Korean missile hits Walford.

Kirkwood isn't doing well... I can almost feel his frustration and nervousness to the point that I could see him quit. As in not fired, just fed up wanting to flee as if pursued by mad dogs.

Edited December 26, 2010 by Sylph

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The peak was 11.7 million.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12080132

[Bright Eyes]

Is EastEnders the only soap on today?