Emmerdale: Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

 

I think Chas will lose the baby (with Paddy going back to Rhona) and Rebecca will leave with the baby after Lachlan is exposed, leading Robert and Aaron to have a baby (probably via Victoria).

[TimWil]

I like your ideas, Carl. 

 

I know this won’t be the first time I’ve posted this but I really hope Emily Head (Rebecca) scoots over to EE to play the baby sister of another Chrissie. Hey, they can call her Rebecca, too, since there’s nobody on the show with that name at present. I’ve always thought Head resembled Tracy-Ann Oberman physically and especially vocally. I can see Rebecca going to work for either Mel at E20 or Kat (at The Albert?) to pave the way for her her big sister showing up and taking over either business.

Edited March 21, 2018 by TimWil

[mikelyons]

When is ITV going to fire Iain MacLeod? His stewardship of EMMERDALE has been uninspired, boring, poorly structured, and downright mind numbing to watch on a daily basis.

The last good story was James Barton's death and Emma's descent into madness because it enveloped the whole canvas, but they coasted on it for way too long, killed off too many characters, and now it's a mess of a show. The wonderfully plotted, beautifully shot show I watched with baited breath has been replaced with one where plots come out of nowhere, storylines are resolved in a matter of days, and the Dingles keep taking over the show (and I like the Dingles!). One thing I always loved about EMMERDALE was that stories sprang from character and they never really had a beginning, middle, or end because they were parts of a character's bigger life that created a sense of unity and cohesion across the whole show. 

I felt like the deaths of Laurence, Chrissie, Finn, and Emma were unnecessary in every sense of the word. Also, where are our seniors? The hole left by Edna, Sandy, Alan, and so many more is felt because they provided a sense of continuity and stability to the show. The quirky, richly drawn female characters (Priya, Alicia, Layla, and Tracy) have been battered beyond recognition by being saddled into storylines with David, who is no longer the lovable ne're-do-well he was when he schemed with Nicola to turn the church into flats.

I've been watching EMMERDALE every day since January of 2007 and I've never posted one comment about it on a message board. Am I alone in my thinking or is it simply show fatigue? 

Edited March 27, 2018 by mikelyons

[I Am A Swede]

^^

You're not alone in your thinking. I'm also really struggling with the show right now.

My hatred for all things Dingle is hardly a secret here and right now I feel that they are monopolizing the show again. Joseph has, as expected, fallen victim to the Debbie Dingle curse. I feared that this would happen and now it has. A promising return completely ruined.  

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I'm sure this will mean that Debbie's involvement in the acid attack on Ross will remain hidden, just like Cain's brutish behaviour towards Simon, and it makes me sick.

And Liv must surely rank as one of the most useless characters ever created for this show. Her only purpose is to give Aaron more screentime and angst, as if he needed that.

 

I know that it was Gillian Kearney's decision to leave, but I so wish she could have stayed. Emma was such a fascinating character and her absence is more noticeable than even Ashley's.

Speaking of that I'm not all impressed with this Laurel/Bob/Brenda story. I guess I should be glad that Laurel isn't backburnered, but couldn't they have come up with a better story for her than this?

 

Victoria seems to have been reduced to sporadic appearances again after Adam's departure. Why is it so hard for this show to write for her, but they can give Debbie story after story after story.....

 

I can't completely let this show go, but it's now more of a chore to keep up with it at the moment.

Thank god for Youtube and old episodes......  

[DRW50]

 

I always loved that too but I can't say it's anything I've felt the show has lost recently. I'd say it started losing this years ago, especially after Gavin Blyth took over in 2009. Since then I have never managed to watch on a consistent basis as there are lengthy dead spots, lots and lots of plot over character, and lots of stories that are hyped but in the end feel nasty and pointless. I'd say Kate Oates was the worst for that. A number of her stories, like the Alicia rape story and the Katie death story, damaged the show in ways it will never fully recover from.

 

I barely bother to watch at present and I doubt a new producer will make a difference. The strengths of Emmerdale remain its cast and some of the individual scriptwriters. Hopefully that will continue to be the case.

 

As for when Macleod will be fired, the ratings are still good, and producers are rarely let go, so he won't be. All of the Corrie and Emmerdale producers of the last few decades only stay 3 years, so this will likely be his last year.

 

I'd say Liv is mostly there to recreate Aaron's old stories, more than giving him anything to do. Aaron has become a meaningless character - nothing is about him.

 

Isobel Steele is a wonderful actress so I can see why they will want to use her until she moves on. I just wish her stories weren't interchangeable misery.

 

The problem with Tracy is the show's refusal to write her as anything but a victim and a "poor me" character. They posture about how tough she is, but all of her stories from the time they brought her back have been the same. I've lost count of how many characters have been damaged to benefit her.

 

The problem with Priya is that she is and has always been a plot device. She was brought back for this purpose, so that Cain could sleep with her to hurt Jai. Then she was there to keep David and Alicia apart. The only time they almost wrote for her in her own right was when she was pregnant and when she was involved with Rakesh, but she barely appeared. And then last year when she began to get airtime again - shocker, she's back to being a plot device. Maybe this will change. I hope so, as Fiona Wade is a good actress with real charisma.

 

I'd say that the grimy, trashy affair with Jai damaged Leyla more than David ever did. And she's another character who was trashed to prop up Tracy. 

 

David was changed for the better as a character when he got involved with Leyla and slowly began to mature, rather than just being a dumbass. Of course that too also had to eventually be ruined for Tracy prop duty.

 

Tracy Tracy Tracy. I don't mind her, really, but they are desperately insecure about how viewers feel about her, and it does nothing but damage all in her life, and the show as a whole.

Edited March 27, 2018 by DRW50

[mikelyons]

I'm with you, I Am a Swede.

Victoria shouldn't be relegated to the back burner or anyone's agony aunt because she is Jack Sugden's daughter and Annie Sugden's granddaughter. I haven't thought about it until now, but Victoria deserves a real story for a young woman with her own business (whatever happened to that?!?), a husband on the run, and a village full of sexy men. A while ago, I briefly saw a rumor that Daz (not the current Daz) was headed back to town, but I guess they meant the current Daz. I suppose Victoria's greatest moment will be falling through the ice, seeing Shane, and having no one believe her for months and months. That was an epic story which engulfed the whole show, sent Debbie to prison, drove Jasmine crazy, and so much more. 

Liv is the most useless character that EMMERDALE has ever introduced. DeeDee had more of a purpose and they shipped her off to Australia after two weeks. The problem with Liv is she has no life outside of Aaron or complicating Aaron's life. Aaron has gone from one of the most beguiling, complex character who only came back to town as a teen because Gordon had enough of him and we watched him struggle with his own life, then his sexuality, then dealing with the fallout of coming out, and so much more. Now he just frets about Robert and Rebecca. I want to scream at the TV that Aaron loved Jackson so much he was apart of his assisted suicide. That was a story!

My least favorite character from that day in January 2007 when I first started watching until now is Paddy Kirk. He's useless, never has a storyline or family of his own, sticks his nose in everyone else's business and then tries to tell them how to run their lives when he's far from a stand-up character. Let us not forget he ruined Rhona and Marlon's relationship, insisted he was one of Leo's dad's (umm... no.) and cheated on Rhona with Tess which introduced Piers, who Tess warned Paddy about when they were having an affair. Every time Paddy is on screen, I roll my eyes and check my phone. Ugh.

I will say that I've always liked Debbie. Maybe it's because I like Charley Webb, but every time Debbie is off screen for an extended period of time, I just want her back in the village. The writer's haven't done Debbie any favors in years. The Debbie/Cameron/Chaz story was a beautifully told, extremely complex tale with a man I wouldn't've kicked out of bed... It seems like the writers think it's easier to make Debbie a perpetual victim instead of the tough young lady who went to prison for the woman she loved and fought Andy to regain custody of Sarah. 

The only storyline I hated before the current producer, but kept me enthralled, was Laurel and Marlon's affair. I detested every minute of it, but Charlotte Bellamy's performance was too riveting not to invest in on a daily basis. Laurel and Ashley were the perfect soap couple (Highs! Lows! Gabby! Daniel!! Getting Arthur back!) and splitting them up made me furious...until they were remarried.

DRW50, I do agree with you that the cast and some of the writers have kept EMMERDALE at peak quality especially in the last year (for me). I have noticed a few strong storyliners have left in the last year and that may be why I'm unimpressed with the show. If there isn't a strong hand guiding even the most ridiculous story every day, then does anyone really stand a chance to shine?

 

 

The return of Joe Tate has been a flop since the day after his real identity was revealed. I'll always remember the first or second day Charity was in the village after Debbie walked in on Charity and Michael's wedding with Noah and Debbie screamed to Noah, "Your daddy was a very bad man who did very bad things!" That was how many years ago and I can remember it. I can't even remember what Joe did two weeks ago. Ugh. I heard the actress who originally played Zoe Tate is ill, but it would've been wonderful for one of Joe's siblings to be controlling Joe from a distance or something to that effect. Ned Porteous (sp?) isn't a strong enough actor to convey all of the anger and vitriol of the Tate family towards Charity. He'd be a fine solicitor/local posh boy love interest for Rebecca or Victoria, but he's a dud as Joe Tate. 

Ah, you make a lot of good points! 

I like Tracy, but without Finn and Val, she has no one on her side because we always know Eric (and everyone else except Vanessa and Frank) will side with David. If no one on the show roots for Tracy, why will the audience care about her?

Fiona Wade is a wonderful actress. Yes, you're right that her last good story was battling anorexia through her pregnancy. Why they don't write her as a woman battling her spoiled brother for control of the family business is beyond me. Oh, I wish they'd bring back Georgia!

Leyla, Leyla, Leyla. I counted the days until she came back to the show. I've always adored Leyla and Roxi Shahidi (sp?). They haven't known what to do with her since she came back to town and it's a real shame. Such a unique, interesting, flawed character played by a great actress and we get... Well... Yeah...

Oh, and this is a pet peeve of mine, but can David either adopt Jacob or can Justin come to the village and fight for his son? Alicia is in Portugal and her ex-husband, who has no rights to him, is raising him when his biological father and stepmother live down the road? Come on, EMMERDALE. 

Edited March 27, 2018 by mikelyons

[DRW50]

 

I think Ned Porteous has done a decent enough job with Joe's anger toward Charity, but the story has barely been about Charity. They don't seem to know what they want to do with Joe. They want us to boo and hiss him, which is why we get the [!@#$%^&*] boring, one-sided pissing contests with Robert, yet they also want us to seemingly care about whether or not he loves Debbie. 

 

I think that Justin mostly lost interest in Jacob after he remarried, but it would be nice if they remembered him.

 

Ah yes - Maurel.

 

I hated the Jackson stuff and especially Viv and Terry's deaths. I was not watching when Carl was ruined. I would have hated that too. Then I hated the Katie death plot. Since then I have mostly just checked out mentally, as that told me "my" Emmerdale was gone. I do think the Finn and Kasim story was a huge piece of [!@#$%^&*] though. And I hate the way the show treats Aaron's mental illness. A mockery of self-harm. A mockery of sexual abuse. Using his sexual abuse for a romantic reunion (with a man who abused him and didn't even believe Aaron over his father). And most recently, having Aaron say if he didn't fully accept Robert's son, he was no better than his father. Sick writing.

 

I think most of the village will side with Tracy, but I just don't really care. I'd rather they move Tracy on and let her mature. 

 

I agree with you both about Victoria. Sadly she has been so downgraded over the last decade she doesn't even have a personality anymore. 

[mikelyons]

You're right about Justin... He checked out eons ago.

Viv was a wonderful character who I adored and I'm still baffled (as with the actress who portrayed her) why they killed Viv in the fire. Terry, too. 

The way they killed off Katie was gross, but I waited for Robert to get his comeuppance, but... Yeah...

And why have they gotten rid of all of the animals on the show? Tootsie, Alfie, Daisy, Dog... *sigh*

On a production level, I hate what they've done to Home Farm by shrinking the set in half and getting rid of the stables. Most of this happened when Declan lived there and ran the business into the ground, so I get that "it never recovered", but it's egregious. It reminds me of what they did to the Chancellor Mansion on The Young and the Restless following the death of Katherine Chancellor. 

Lastly (and I promise!), can we go back to the old opening title sequence with the full orchestra and luscious shots of the Yorkshire moors? When they used the original theme song for Jack's funeral (where Robert watched from a distance) was so moving I nearly cried...and I don't cry when I watch TV.

 

[DRW50]

 

The budget is likely too small for Home Farm now. They should scrap it.

 

I miss the old theme. I've never liked the current version. A former writer called it drunk carnival music, or something like that. 

[mikelyons]

Drunk carnival music. HA! Yes, it is!! But aren't the Dingles meant to be travelers, so I guess it fits... (That's a joke, everyone.)

[MichaelGL]

Where do I start with Emmerdale? 

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mikelyons I think you just covered everything that has been wrong with Emmerdale for quite sometime. The current EP started off pretty good as I was one of the first to notice that compared to Oates, he was adding more of a community feeling to the show and trying to instill a bit more humor. However since his first year, he's been pretty abysmal. Sure it's nothing like killing off Viv and Terry, which is the definition of destruction, but he's made the show feel like a meandering ship that doesn't know what direction to go in. 

There should've been some other way to write Emma off without killing her. The websoap writer in me envisioned her taking little Moses and disappearing until the actress was willing to come back; such a thing would have had a riveting affect on Charity and Ross as characters. However, we got poor Finn being left for dead in the woods and a lame ass murder mystery that showed a very ugly side to Moira that I quite simply wasn't fond of. 

I wholeheartedly agree with what you said about the absence of the seniors. Quite frankly I wasn't all that impressed with Edna's funeral, and knew from there what path the show was heading down in regards to its older cast. 

 

I'm thankful MacLeod didn't reunite Paddy and Rhona after that Tess/Pierce nonsense, but I assume my gratitude should be directed towards the single writer on the show who might have nixed the idea because looking at our EP's track record he would've probably reunited them if he had it his way.

 

Since MacLeod came to the show, he's extinguished any love that I once had for Tracy. The character that we used to sparingly see at the Bed and Breakfast with Finn and Eric, has been shoved down our throat with one story after another in order to just prop her. Is Tracy's dad even on the show anymore? How do you waste the actor that plays her dad and the one that plays Megan? It baffles the mind. 

 

The less said about Bob/Laurel the better. Completely out of nowhere like the other 1000+ affairs that have continued to occur on this show from Oates now with MacLeod. 

The show just feels directionless and ho-hum. It's predictable in the sense that of course a storyline with promise will be used to prop up MacLeod's favorites. It's boring because there really aren't any heightened stakes on the show anymore. There's a few good ideas, but the execution is just poor and completely lazy. 

 

[mikelyons]

Funerals used to mean something on the show. I'd never seen EMMERDALE before 2007, but when Stef showed up at Alan's funeral, you just knew she was trouble, the villagers were shocked to see her, and it was a big deal - even if for an episode. Ashley's funeral was bunk. The whole cast should've turned out for it. Edna's, too. (Side note: There shouldn't be anymore births or deaths in the village for three years. I can't keep up!)

Remember whenever a character was leaving the show, they'd almost always leave in a taxi out of the village? *sigh*

I do think the fact that the show saves every big moment for the two Thursday episodes hurts the overall structure of the show. Surprise me in any day that ends in "y". Don't save it. (Sorry. That's the producer in me.)

[mikelyons]

Does anyone have a link to the first episode of EMMERDALE FARM? There's a copy on Dailymotion, but it's out of synch and it was driving me crazy. The second episode doesn't seem to be online either, but the rest of the original run seems to be on YouTube. Thanks in advance!

[DRW50]

 

If Macleod wanted to reunite Rhona and Paddy I imagine he would have, rather than a random writer talking him out of it. I imagine they will be reunited after the Chas pregnancy plot is over. I hope they aren't.

 

Tracy's father was just on last week. I don't think he's ever added to the show, mostly because they only brought him in for the sake of one story (Tracy's poor me routine). They've never had any other role for him, outside of the aborted Megan/Charity triangle. I'm surprised Michael Praed has stayed but I guess he needs the money.

 

To be honest I'm not even sure why Megan is still on the show. Oates ended the character with yet another of her short-sighted failures by killing off Robbie. Everything else has felt like biding time and not wanting to admit reality. The stuff with Jai cheating and her having his baby was interesting, but probably should have been her exit plot. If Gaynor Faye weren't a respected actress with a respected TV writer for a mother, I think she would be long gone.

 

I loved Steph, she's one of my favorite characters, but if I were a new viewer I can't imagine having much of a reaction, because outside of her return I thought the whole thing was extremely flat, with no suggestion of what Alan actually meant to the canvas. Edna's funeral also lacked some heart, although there was a bit thanks to Sandy. 

 

Emmerdale lost its heart years ago and it now just comes in random fits and starts, depending on the actor or scriptwriter. There's no attempt to properly tell a story or give motivations, so nothing feels real.

 

I think killing Emma off was the right decision. Taking Moses would have been a cloud hanging over the heads of the characters and if they weren't upset every minute of every day, people would have said it was unrealistic, as they do with Moira ever being happy while Adam was on the run. And I doubt Ross will be around much longer so if he'd just left to go find his son it would have been seen as a flat ending. The problem was having Moira as her killer and having Adam take the blame. It was done for a "moment" and in the long term was a very damaging idea.

 

Meandering is a good word for the show, although I'd say it's the case no matter who is producing in recent years. Some hide it better than others. Kate Oates was good at getting publicity for herself and throwing things at the screen, but by her last year the seams were showing and the characters had become truly unlikeable, bar a select few who didn't get any airtime. 

 

There is a lack of focus or cohesion at the heart of Emmerdale that just eats away at any good left over from the last strong years of the show (2008, 2009). A part of that is that ITV likely doesn't have any interest in the show Emmerdale once was. You can see that with the treatment of the older characters. The last new older permanent character brought in was Declan's father, and they did nothing with him, in spite of being played by a beloved actor (Frank Kelly). Since then it's just been a very morbid waiting game where the show lets its elder cast retire or die out. 

 

[mikelyons]

Many, many thanks for the first episode!