Emmerdale: Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

Poor Deena

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2011/01/14/emmerdale-s-deena-payne-talks-about-her-hurt-and-disappointment-at-her-character-viv-being-killed-off-115875-22847567/

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I bet she's pissed, but handled that interview as classy/professional as possible

No funeral? I guess they really hated her character (or her). LOL!

Edited January 14, 2011 by Y&RWorldTurner

[DRW50]

There seems to be a strong contempt in Emmerdale now for its past characters. I guess they feel they have to "move on" or be "modern." I can't argue with the ratings success so far, but I wonder how that will last. This last stunt seemed so slapped together, from the badly Photoshopped promo on. I guess that might have been down to Gavin Blyth falling in, but the one with Jackson wasn't worth it either.

[Ben]

Not just no funeral, but no burial in the village cemetery next to her husband, Vic's, grave, of which she's lived for nearly 2 decades! They hate her. They're eradicating her from ED history, so they must do.

I knew this was going to be a bad exit for Viv, b/c this story is about Andy/Katie/PsychoCop, and nothing else. The fire merely presented an easy way to get rid of Viv without actually having to write for her. And this story with A/K/PC isn't that great anyway, considering it's rushed, with little to no time to care about Henshall, or growing to care about him and Katie as a couple.

The show seems to have a select set of characters that they're interested in writing for, while others are constantly backburned, like Nikhill (who probably won't get another story for months), Jai (whose stuck in this super slow story with Charity & Cain), Faye, Victoria, Declan, Debbie, Ryan, Gennie, Brenda, Diane, Laural, Ashley... Granted, the majority of the cast do seem to be involved in something, even if that something is small and secondary to everything else that's going on. And a lot of that is very direction-less. Where are they taking Eric/Val/Amy? The Bartons? Zak/Lisa/Derek? Paddy/Rhona/Marlon? Declan's Family?

[DRW50]

I wonder if it might have been different if they had used other characters for reactions. Carl, Andy, Ryan, and Katie wouldn't react if everyone in the world was turned into a cockroach, so why were they put in the middle of a fire? The woman who plays Brenda seemed to go wildly over the top just to compensate.

Apparently Deena Payne said that the show told her they weren't able to get the actors who played Donna and Scott back for her funeral (I'm not sure if they mentioned Adele Silva or not since they must have known they were bringing her back). Deena contacted the actors and they told her the show never even asked.

From what I've read, even Kathy, who was let go after criticizing the show to the press, got a better exit, didn't she?

I don't think they have any real story ideas beyond showing people depressed and struggling. The problem is this just sort of numbs everything. Something like Jackson being upset he couldn't help -- this would have worked if we hadn't already seen Jackson, Hazel, and Aaron wallowing in angst so many times.

The only bright side of all of this is that is proves deaths don't equal great soap drama. I can understand why people disliked the Vic fire but I never understood the idea there, or with Lucas' reveal, that everything would have been more exciting if someone had been killed. Viv/Terry, along with the empty deaths of Steph/Malachy on Hollyoaks and Ashley and Molly on Corrie, show just how little impact soap deaths can have IMO. It's all forgotten in a week or less, on one show after another.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

People tuned in for the shitty fire, at least the second episode, which is closest they've been to EastEnders and Corrie in a while.

From DMN at DS:

Thursday 13th January 2011

19:00 - Emmerdale: 8.60m (38.8%)

* not sure if rating is tape-checked as it started at 19:01

19:30 - EastEnders: 9.73m

* 19:30 to 19:55 - 10.21m (43.5%)

20:00 - Emmerdale

* 20:00 to 20:25 - 9.02m (36.5%)

20:30 - Coronation Street: 9.61m (37.0%)

Edited January 14, 2011 by Y&RWorldTurner

[Ben]

Like?

I guess they threw those characters into the mix, b/c they're men, and it's the whole Action Man complex that they were going for - young guys saving damsels from a nasty fire. You'll notice that they were all women that needed saving (Chas, Katie, Gennie, Betty, Viv). Brenda was a little OTT, but in her later scenes, I thought she was spot on. Actually, her little storyline with Terry before the fire, was the first time I actually liked her character. Now, I bet she'll sail off on that cruise she's been harping on about, in order to get away from it all.

Deena also said she contacted AS, too, and all of them said they weren't asked. Ironically, AS is returning at a later date, so why they couldn't have brought her back for her mother's funeral, is crazy. They didn't want to, that's why. Cleansing the show of Viv is a lot harder to do when you bring back her kids to mourn.

From what I remember, Kathy was serenaded by some singer. It was quaint and nice.

I think it was Sylph, that once said that he liked that all characters can be killed off no matter what their standing (or something to that effect), but I think this is proof of what can happen when shows kill off vets in a hollow story. If there was more apprehension when dealing with vets, then at least we wouldn't have to get disrespectful exits like this. Whose going to remember this fire? Or that Viv & Terry died in it? The plane crash happened in 1993 and it's still remembered to this day, even the bus crash that killed Butch, or the Storm, are more memorable than this fire. Ever since that shoddy house explosion in 2006, the disasters have been poor and hollow.

There was a time when death had shockwaves. Now, death is a quick fix for short term drama. Neighbours killed off Ringo at the hands of Steph, who had been on the show for 11 years, just so they could heap more misery and sadness onto her character, giving her one of the grimiest endings I've seen on the show. Steph had already been taken down, why the need to go further? Why not let Ringo & Donna leave together? But this is the direction all soaps are/have taken; it's like they're all high, always going for the quick hit, then they come down, and it's time for the next hit. This is a slow death.

[DRW50]

People who can make facial expressions

I don't know. Adam or John Barton, or the Sharma brothers being more involved. The fire really just pointed out again how shallow most of the younger characters are and how they can't carry storylines.

[DRW50]

Very well said. I've heard some say that this was "character-driven," and people are unhappy because it wasn't more of a stunt, but where was the characterization? A whodunit so lame they didn't even bother to hide it, full of actors who looked bored. It seemed like a stunt just for the sake of it. I think one of the reasons I'm so disappointed in what Emmerdale has become, this constant misery fix, because the show used to be so much more than this. It was full of very complex, human characters, and plenty of laughs as well as tears. Now it's all so generic and the show seems afraid of any type of complexity or warmth or humor. A lot more than Viv and Terry died in that fire.

I also, as you mentioned, just want to ask "Why?" for many of these stories. I still have no idea what the point of anything with Jackson's paralysis is.

Edited January 14, 2011 by CarlD2

[BadBoy93]

So it was

that caused the fire.

Wonder what is going to happen with Katie ? I sense new bfs a control freak and is planning to try and get Katie away from the village in some way. I don't know but things are getting interesting.

[LondonScribe]

Apologies if this has been addressed previously, but who did they appoint as the new Series Producer?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

No, no one has been announced yet. I assume they're probably waiting until the material that Blyth oversaw to run out in a few weeks time.

[DRW50]

It looks like one of the Youtube Emmerdale uploaders is going to stop, because of Youtube being slow and also because he is tired of the Aaron story (if you can even call it a story).

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Danny Miller interview:

I really don't like this guy, he's so fake. I love how he plays off that awards don't mean much to him, yet he literally begs fans on Twitter to vote for him and how much he thinks he deserves it. He's not genuine at all.

Page 1: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s12/emmerdale/interviews/a299608/danny-miller-aaron-livesy-emmerdale.html

Page 2: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s12/emmerdale/scoop/a299612/danny-miller-talks-aaron-and-jacksons-future.html

Edited January 24, 2011 by Y&RWorldTurner

[Bright Eyes]

Yeah, I'm over him, especially his lame ass character and have been for a long ahwile. I anxiously await the day he quits to "try other things."