Jump to content

EastEnders: Discussion Thread


Toups

Recommended Posts

  • Members

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. :lol:

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 8.6k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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:

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgUf9hlTnnU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgUf9hlTnnU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgUf9hlTnnU?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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 by Y&RWorldTurner
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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 by Ann_SS
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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

<object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90sbu_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0"></param><param'>http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90sbu_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/x90sbu_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/x90sbu_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms">Eastenders - Sharon's exit 13.01.06 part 1</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>

<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>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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

<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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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 by CarlD2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • That’s one of the things I’ve liked since the new writers came in; more interactions between characters that they hadn’t really had scenes with 
    • Such a missed opportunity… 
    • Loved Valerie Mahaffey as crazy as a box of frogs Sandy Cooper on Wings. 2025 needs to chill out already. May Ms. Mahaffey rest in peace.
    • She was great on there. And Wings. And so many shows. I don't feel like we get those character actors as much now.
    • Cady did have a southern accent as Dixie in her first few years playing the character... but it started to minimize the longer she played the character (which tracks because my aunt had a heavy southern accent when married my uncle and years living in the north has softened it quite a bit). Her initial stint playing Rosanna was partly due to mirroring the previous actress and eventually developing her own take on the character. And the thing about her take as Kelly on Y & R was that she was too sedate when she first took over playing the role (she was supposed to play a woman that had recently lost her child.. and trying to keep things together) and then went OTT crazy and didn't play it well.    And I don't care to remember her attempt at playing Jennifer on Days. I think this Pamela character is the first time she's playing a character from the start and I think she's like a kid at a candy store.  She's having so much fun trying different things... and I hope eventually she decides to settle on a more consistent character for Pamela (perhaps her love of accents is a character trait based on something traumatic that happened to her in the past maybe).
    • That's sad. I remember her mostly from ER and the shortlived, yet very funny, sitcom The Powers That Be.
    • As always loved seeing Ric with Liz. I hope the show forever keeps them in each others orbit even if it’s just platonic. I’m sure she’s going to cut him out when she finds out he’s blackmailing Alexis though. So darn.
    • I have to be honest I’m really struggling with this show. I love everything with Eva/Leslie/Ted/Nicole/Kat and enjoy Dani and Bill’s shenanigans (I’m on the Hayley needs to be recast train now tho), Chelsea is second to Kat as my favorite Dupree grandkid and I loved her coming out to her mom. The show was on a truly great run with the big Leslie and Eva reveal at Nicole and Ted’s anniversary party and the fall out has still been good even with the unnecessary Ted recast and them making Leslie kind of dumb by exposing herself too much unnecessarily. The real problem for me started when they rotated back to way too damn much screen time for Derek/Ashley/Andre (if anyone should have been up first for a recast it was these three IMO). They tried way too hard to drum up drama between Ashley and Derek and the actors were clearly fighting for their mediocre charisma less acting lives to make it work but none of it landed, just horrible. Naomi and Jacob and this weird homeless woman story are also BORING. I can see where its potentially going but IDGAF at all, my only hope for them is that they’re building a triangle with Naomi/Jacob/Kat because Jacob and Kat have stronger chemistry together than their current love interests (Eva is the only one who can make the awful Tomas work). Martin, his secret and still cringe worthy acting got kind of interesting with Bill dropping hints to Smitty but they completely lost me with that lil fakeout scene at the country club. The lame “teenagers” (air quotes because Samantha is no Bianca Lawson and never beating the black Andrea Zuckerman allegations) can get off my screen as well. Joey creeping on Vanessa is grossing me out at this point, I actually quite like Vanessa and Doug now but Joey falls totally flat as a villain and someone we’re supposed to buy Vanessa being enamored with. I’m glad they’ve finally set up something interesting for Vernon and Anita to do with this girl band reunion instead of Anita wringing her hands and telling us she feels darkness coming and Vernon giving a civil rights speech every episode but yeah… People who’ve posted with me for other shows know I’m not one for fast forwarding or hate watching either, if I find a majority of a show is not working I usually just quit but because of what this show represents for me as a Black male soap fan I really want to stick it out. Its just become a challenge lately. I saw Guza has left the building and I REALLY hope we hear about some more BTS changes. The additions of Tracy Thompson and Jamie Giddens don’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence from me tho. Honestly praying hard for a new EP to replace JHC, a lot of the stuff that annoyed about her PC and AMC runs has started to match up here. I’m giving the show through the Summer to rectify some things but IDK how long I can hold on tbh. Its been a struggle to even finish some of these episodes lately.
    • I agree. I liked the episode but it felt jarring to suddenly return to a bunch of plots that had been put on pause since the Nurses' Ball started. Although I did like Laura popping in at the end to tell Alexis that millions of dollars have suddenly disappeared from Ace's trust fund. One set of scenes that made me feel optimistic for the next few months were between Sofia Mattsson and Rory Gibson. While Rory has been good as a darker, colder Michael this week, I was worried that he might not have much range. But he really warmed up with Mattsson, and I thought that (for the first time) Michael and Sasha had some genuine chemistry.
    • Next week is going to be such a sad time... I just feel it based on what was shown today. I'm wondering if the whole John being bandaged thing being a throwback to how he first arrived on the show was a Ron C idea since it just seems as though this would be something he would come up with.  If so, it's good that Cwikly/Ford are in charge with the implementing of the idea instead of him. Just a delayed thought from the Ciara scenes earlier in the week, or last week.. and how she had an odd way of dressing/acting.  I chuckle because little Ciara did say that she admired and wanted to be just like Kristen when she grew up.  So the fact that her outfit choices are so odd/off beat and her manner is a bit OTT just fits.. especially since Eileen's Kristen had an odd sense of fashion and that frantic OTT undertone to her delivery. With that said, a part of me wonders how Eileen's Kristen would have handled the scenes being done this week in regards to John's situation.   
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy