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EastEnders: Discussion Thread


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I'm so glad it wasn't Alex Lamb, as some speculated. I also hope that he will break away from the smug, stalled out, bad camp feel DTC always immerses EE in. 

 

The Kat stuff was the highlight of this year so far - I wonder if he had anything to do with it?

 

I don't think the cast is that bad at the moment (not as bad as it was the last time DTC/Santer left), but I think Gavin, Kush, Claudette, Vincent, and unless the writing drastically improves, Ronnie and Roxy need to go.

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This change up sounds exciting. DTC's first six months were great, but it just became one thing after another. I've watched every episode of his tenure, so there were things that kept me around day to day, but his worst trait was his constant regression of characters. 

 

Trying to be realistic, if the new producer gets rid of anyone, I hope it's Claudette. A complete DOA character.

 

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Right. And for nothing - has anything with Ben been of value since his return?

 

I just wonder if this was planned or if the BBC had become concerned. I doubt it was a big factor but I'm sure they aren't thrilled that the show is basically in a tie with Emmerdale these days, mostly because of the ratings drops for EE over the last year.

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It's too bad Kat was finally back to a great place during this most recent short stint, and now she's off as a new EP who helped storylined her best years and most iconic stories is now taking over without her on the show. 

 

The Slater heavy material in January would have probably been a lot better if Sean was the one executing it and not DTC. 

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I'm surprised it took me this long to discover this item.

Sean O'Connor fascinates me as he is what I used to call a 'not quite' man. Not as a term of criticism because often what he does is very good but never for long enough before other factors get involved:

As series producer of Hollyoaks (with Liza Mellody) in the early 00's they came up with interesting ideas, such as comic character Bombhead's growing secrecy, that turned out to be him looking after the skeleton of his mum (who had died without anyone knowing) and the 'mysterious' Bella's developing romance with Cameron. Both ideas and stories were immediately halted when they were swiftly removed in favour of stalwart producer Jo Hallows.

 

Footballers Wives had quite the following, with the advent and popularisation of the WAG culture. But it was the creation of the Tanya Turner character and general change of the show in Series 3 (under Sean O'Connor) that seemed to spark it onto life. Opinions on actual show quality vary, however.

 

I think the most prominent example of 'not quite' was Family Affairs. Made series produced after Paul Marquess moved Alison Davis over to The Bill, O'Connor revamped the cast, getting rid of Dave Matthews and his son, Jake, as well as other characters as well as introducing and highlighting Sami, the openly gay Muslim man and his closeted, married (I believe Jewish) boyfriend, Max. The tone and types of stories changed but darned if I remember much of them. Then came what I call a quiet revamp in the first week of September 2005 when the show went from 'film' to 'live' and Pete Callan was killed off. It was also the first use of musical scores in the show, something that would occur increasingly. The Swan burned down, Eileen fell into the Thames, Eileen left, the pub was rebuilt and renamed The Phoenix, complete with mysterious new landlord, Rex Randall and his obsessive sister (whose name escapes me), Gary Costello was caught drink driving and lost his license and job, then lashed out at the increasingly bratty Chloe. The feeling was he was going for a 'younger', 'sexier' and more scandalous show with the kind of characters  (student nurses and a junior doctor, a former footballer and his wife, a policeman and his wife) and antics such as Eileen flushing Pete's ashes down the toilet, and Sami's disapproving (and culturally ashamed) mother stabbing him when he refused to deny his homosexuality. There were interviews about he, his executive producer, Johnathan Young, and his story producer Dominic Teadwell-Collins, projecting stories 2 years into the future 'opening up Charnham' and possibly renaming the show... 

Then Channel pulled the rug from under it all and announced the show would finish at the end of the year.

 

Only in the last couple of years has he been able to implement any kind of vision and that was on the radio soap (and more popular than most would realise) The Archers. I don't listen to it on any regular basis so I won't say too much other than I remember raising my eyebrows when he got the job as the Editor of the show (that being the equivalent title for show runner) and many devotees aghast with horror. The general view is his vision is a little more in keeping with telly soaps, though it does seem to be in the general conversation more than before. Or maybe I just notice it more. The one storyline that has people talking a lot is a not very nice man called Rob who has been manipulating, controlling and mentally dissecting his wife, Helen, playing on her insecurities and looks like he's trying to mine issues of the past such as anorexia and is succeeding in isolating her from her very close family. It's playing out in 'real time' apparently and has been a source of interest and frustration to those used to shorter term stories.

 

So there you have it, more (factually shaky) ramblings from me on something wholly inconsequential. I'm not even going to try and predict how he could affect the show. I'll just see what happens.

Edited by UK LAW
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Thanks for the detailed writeup. Some good stuff in there. I wish more of his FA Run (or any of FA) was available. I know some blame him for the show ending but others have said the decision was made before he arrived. 

 

I don't know if you saw it but I put a link in the FA thread to a lot of Pete Callan clips.

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I hope it is true. There's a lot of deadweight on the cast that needs to go. The only people I could see wanting to go with DTC are his creations: The Cokers, the Carters, Kush, Carmel, Vincent, etc. They can all go. 

 

Only characters I care to stay are Denise, Masood, Jay, Sharon, Kathy (even though she's brain dead), Dot, Jordan, Patrick, Kim, Lee (the ONLY Carter I like), Ben, and Martin. 

 

Abi can go. Phil can most definitely go. Ian at this point can go. Jane needs to die. Ronnie and Roxy can go. Just clean f-cking house. 

 

Tonight's episode:

 

All I gotta say is Abi is gross. I don't find this story making me root for Abi or even making me love to hate her. I just want her to go away. 

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