EastEnders: Discussion Thread

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yep.

I always thought Michelle Ryan had better chemistry with women than with men. I did like her final goodbye with Kat though, and through all the different regimes, they did a good job at Kat/Zoe's relationship after the mother/daughter reveal, which was the most interesting thing about Zoe.

I really hated Wendy Richard's butch haircut.

I remember Sharon and the Slater's interacting quite a bit in little moments when Sharon first came back in 2001-2002. And of course Sharon was at the dinner get-together the night of the "You Ain't My Muvether!" reveal, but 2003 onwards, the characters were on different spheres on the show it seems.

I know many accused Kat, Alfie, Sharon, and Dennis of eating the show alive from 2003 to 2005.

It's kind of funny to see Pat living with Billy. I wonder if she'll go back to living in her own house when the Vic burns down. Her, Carol, and Bianca living under one roof? That should be interesting.

[DRW50]

I think Alfie probably got more airtime than he deserved but other than that most of those who hogged the show probably helped save it from a ratings freefall, especially in 2005. Look at what happened after most of them were gone in 2006.

I agree that most of the regimes did a good job with the Kat/Zoe relationship. That's the type of thing which would have been easy to just overlook or forget about after the shock wears off. I'm glad that after Anthony they never fought over any other men. I never liked that type of storyline.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Kat was the most iconic character EastEnders created in the 00's. I would say she IS the definitive EastEnders character of the 00's. No one else comes close. Maybe Stacey in recent years, but Kat really became such a strong presence on the show from the get-go. That's why I can't wait to see her back. I could always take or leave Alfie though.

And this of course is still the most iconic cliffhanger of the 00's on British Soap:

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[Y&RWorldTurner]

Today's episode:

I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit when Minty and Heather started shagging towards the end of the episode.

But Minty should have known what he was getting himself into with Sam. She'll never think of him in that way.

Is it me or has Sid Owen (Ricky) been looking kind of cute lately?

I enjoyed those scenes between Max and Vanessa when Vanessa wanted Max to open up more about himself. He's obviously not gotten over Bradley's death, and it's nice to see some real and bonding moments between Max and Vanessa. Vanessa obviously has some type of OCD disorder, with her obsessiveness in having a very clean house.

It's a good thing Mercy's grandmother is just a recurring supporting character. I don't think I could stand her in large doses.

I really enjoyed the Beale family moments. That scene where Jane helped Ian with the tape was so simple, yet so real and tender. This is all obviously the build up to the upcoming drama between them. Looks like Lucy's in hot sh!t now...

It looks like Ian's insecurities this time around was showing his kids that he thought he was "cool" at one point in his life.

I'm really enjoying Dot a lot more lately. She seems more like her old self again, and her friendship with Fatboy has made him come into his own and more tolerable. I had to laugh when she barged into Max's house after he and Vanessa had just screwed.

There were a lot of references to past history in this episode I noticed.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[Ann_SS]

Only Dot and the Beales saved this episode.

The Beales are a wonderful family. This stuff with Ian reclaiming his youth and trying to convince his kids that he was once cool just doesn't ring true with me. Also, Ian knows that Lucy was planning to cheat so why is he acting surprised? Poor Peter. Lucy will always make his life difficult.

Arthur is the sweetest boy. We have got to see more of him.

Vanessa definitely has OCD.

You and me both. Gross. I don't know why Kirkwood insists on torturing us like this instead of just sending Minty on his way. Gah. Minty is such a fool. He deserves to be treated like crap by Sam.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Ann_SS

[DRW50]

Sid Owen is cute. I think he looks a bit better with some age and without the longer hair Ricky had for much of his first run.

The scenes with Max and Vanessa were very well-written. I'm glad we're seeing them try to understand each other and how resistant Max is to talking about his life. I think they have a natural chemistry together and there is none of that endless, smirky superiority and self-righteousness that "Tan" exudes.

I just cannot watch most of the scenes with Heather and Minty. He constantly makes faces like the donkey in Shrek and he's a delusional ass.

I thought Bradley was buried? Weren't Rachel and Dot at his mausoleum? I can't remember. I wish we'd seen a bit more of Dot reacting to this but I did like her scene with Fatboy.

I liked the scenes where Ian had the drum kit, and all those silly little Ian moments like his saying, "OK" when Grace pretended she didn't want to go in his car, and his saying did they really need to pay Lucy and Peter for their grades, and his teasing Jane about whether she'd ever been a student. The scene where Jane helped him put the tape together was good too. And we got to hear Sharon's voice again...perhaps not in the circumstances we might have wanted.

They seem to be trying to make her into the new Yolande. She was saying a lot of Yolande type stuff about laziness and judgment which I don't remember her saying before.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Ohh, Sharon's last episode (well, at least part of it) from 2006 is up:

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<object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90x2d_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0"></param><param'>http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90x2d_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90x2d_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0" width="480" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x90x2d_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms">Eastenders - Sharon's exit 13.01.06 part 2</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/Ryanlcfc2">Ryanlcfc2</a>. - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/us/channel/shortfilms">Full seasons and entire episodes online.</a></i>

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Stacey and Nana Moon get arrested, and Kat's top matches her hair.

<object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xclpm5?additionalInfos=0"></param><param'>http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xclpm5?additionalInfos=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xclpm5?additionalInfos=0" width="480" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xclpm5_eastenders-stacey-and-nana-get-arre_shortfilms">EastEnders - Stacey and Nana get arrested</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/Ryanlcfc2">Ryanlcfc2</a>. - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/us/channel/shortfilms">Watch feature films and entire TV shows.</a></i>

You know, watching a lot of stuff from 2005 over again, while the show had seen better eras, I don't think 2005 was that bad of a year. I think I prefer it to 2007/2008, which was supposed to be a "comeback" era. I also think pairing Stacey with Bradley killed some of her spunk in the long run.

[DRW50]

I think the problem with Stacey wasn't the relationship with Bradley (Bianca still had a lot of fire even when she was with Ricky for ages) as much as it was the show refusing to ever give her stories beyond Stacey self-destructing or sleeping around or being miserable. They also never let go of the will they/won't they with Bradley and Stacey. While this did apparently work with viewers, I think it did bad damage to Stacey and pretty much killed Bradley's character.

From what I've seen of 2005 the show is watchable, entertaining, thanks to the big characters. They were gone by 2006, for the most part.

I was never a big fan of Santer so I am not a fair judge but I think 2007 had some good moments, unfortunately in the long run the moments didn't add up to a good program. Probably the pacing was better then, and they had a very solid story with plenty of good small moments and a decent conclusion in Stella's abuse of Ben. The aftermath was not good (because they decided to turn Stella's suicide into a "did Phil or didn't he" and they also ignored or downplayed most of Phil's bad parenting) but the story was good. I think that the Steven return story could have been good but the show seemed afraid to deal with any of what they brought out with Steven. And then in 2008 everything with Stacey/Bradley/Max/Tanya/Jack was pure hell and character-devastating.

The main difference in 2005 and 2008/a lot of 2007 is the latter did not have that one strong story. 2005 did.

I think opinions of that era might also depend on Sean. I thought he was a racist jerk played by a not that great actor, but others loved him.

Sharon's exit -- kind of sad that she's almost an afterthought to the ongoing mob war. I know she did the whole thing about just taking a break but they really didn't have any idea she wasn't returning? She didn't even get Julia's Theme. She's so broken and bitter, it's tough to watch, as is Phil suffocating her. I did like the last look at the room she shared with Dennis.

Edited August 25, 2010 by CarlD2

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think when Bradley basically pressured Stacey into having an abortion, it screwed up Stacey forever, and she was never quite the same after that fiasco. I never understood why she would want to be with him after that. That whole thing basically killed Stacey's spirit and I don't know if it's ever really recovered, despite Lacey acting the hell out of some very tough writing.

I'm kind of sad Stacey is leaving just as Kat is coming back. Jessie and Lacey are very believable as family and had a great dynamic towards the end of Kat's first run. Kat and Stacey had very similar, yet uniquely different sensibilities about things. Apparently, one fan who recently visited Elstreet and spoke with Jessie said that Kat had a lot of scenes with Stacey coming up before Stacey leaves. I'm looking forward to that.

Yeah, they lost Kat, Alfie, Sharon, and Dennis within days each other. Those characters carried the show through some very rough patches.

I really do think that wasn't supposed to be a final exit and she was supposed to be back at some point, but maybe plans fell through. That exit didn't really have a "final goodbye" sensibility to it.

[DRW50]

I wonder what plans they would have had for Sharon if she had returned. I also wonder what plans they had for Peggy if Barbara hadn't fallen ill in mid-2003.

I think that it was something which would have always haunted Stacey but I think one of the best aspects of Eastenders is the women who have problems in life but still fight back and are allowed to have fun. Kat, for instance. Santer never did that with Stacey. She was miserable, and even when she was "happy", it was always a facade for misery and self-loathing. She went for a year without any real storyline, just the Callum mess, she was cut off from relationships with her family -- they just made her this plowhorse for anguish and shocking plot twists, as they did with Ronnie. I think that's one of the reasons we rarely see Stacey now, even with her taking a break to film a Being Human episode, because there's very little you can do with Stacey. She's just secrets and self-loathing and she's one of the most boxed in characters I've ever seen on a soap.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I've also heard that Lacey requested a lighter work load this year, especially coming off the bipolar story. Though, she's allegedly featured a lot throughout the fall leading up to her exit at the end of the year.

[DRW50]

Oh. That makes sense. I wonder what they'd be doing with her if they could show her more.

[dannigold]

Apparently Emma Rigby and Leah Hackett have been spotted auditioning at Elstree. This could be for either Holby City or EastEnders.

[BadBoy93]

Emma Rigby on EE would be a great addition. New Family in the works maybe.