Jump to content

Emmerdale: Discussion Thread


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Daz was about 18 or 19. He was a few years younger than Debbie. Around 2004-2005 he had a crush on Debbie but she was never interested. That went away when he found out she was sleeping with Andy.

It's weird because I still see his twin on Shameless and that just reminds me of how I miss Daz.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 4.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

And 2009 is finally complete. :)

Charity and Cain getting engaged was hilarious. Those two are always must watch. I totally thought Maisie and Ryan had already slept together and was completely grossed out by all their little looks and secrecy. Of course, I HOPE they DO go there. That ought to stir the inevitable bomb up nicely.

The Christmas Day episode in all was very well done.

Carl truly is pathetic eh? He NEEDS to be slapped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Um, WOW. Paddy just figured out that Aaron is gay. The scenes between them are really good, and quite shocking because Aaron just pummelled on Paddy. This coming-out SL feels quite organic because this seeems to be as much about Aaron despising himself as his realisation that he might be gay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I know there's been some complaints about how the press for the story has focused on being "groundbreaking" or on Aaron not being "stereotypical," and I can understand why some might resent that, but I think the story has been very strong so far. I don't think it's just been a "look at us, we want attention and isn't it shocking to do a gay story," it's been a story that seems very, as you mentioned Cat, organic. The episodes last night took that up to a whole new level.

The anger and denial in Aaron seemed so palpable and he was in as much agony as poor Paddy. I was disgusted when I read about what he was going to do to Paddy, and I still am, but the scenes made perfect sense for the characters. And Paddy continuing to try and get Aaron to accept himself and be happy, even as he was so obviously in severe pain, it just broke my heart. Seeing actors who can turn on the tears so easily and make it believable tends to get a similar reaction from me. :( Dominic and Danny were so damn good. The scenes were so well written and filmed, they were some of the finest I have ever seen on television or film.

I get so annoyed at how often Emmerdale is overlooked by the public and by the press, and episodes like this are the reason why

Edited by CarlD2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

TOTAL WORD. I personally find EE and Coronation Street snoozeworthy but even with a "light" Emmerdale episode, I always find something to keep me watching. IMO, Emmerdale is the best soap airing right now. Even compared with my US regulars!

There was so much "right" about yesterday's episode. I, too, was upset to hear that Aaron would be beating Paddy up. I thought the violence would be unneccessary, that it would be painting all young people struggling with their sexuality as somehow criminally psychopathic. It did not come across that way at all. Aaron beating up Paddy WAS shocking for all the reasons it was meant to be -- because it was an awful act of violence. But Aaron's contrition afterwards was equally powerful, and Paddy's forgiveness of the boy who is, for all intents and purpose, his son, was the most moving part of the whole episode. Paddy understands Aaron. He understands that he is a boy whose first instinct is to lash out in anger. He also understands that this violence is not the sum total of who Aaron is, and that once he can accept himself, the anger will become a thing of the past. Because Aaron hates himself so much, and feels like such an outsider and a freak.

I also thought that the actor who plays Paddy hit all the beats -- some of which were not even in the dialogue. Paddy has always been that chubby guy he gets beaten up on. He's always been an underdog. This was his worst nightmare -- somebody he cares about beating him up like back in the schoolyard or when he went up against Carl. Paddy overcoming all that baggage in order to empathize with and support Aaron was a HUGE step for this character. It was actually a perfect soap moment, IMO. And this is why Emmerdale is so strong! It showcases Paddy in both comic and serious story arcs and, in doing so, presents a multi-dimensional character.

What can I say about the actor who played Aaron? Honestly (and I know I'll get booed for this, but it is JMO) he puts the Nuke and Kish stories to shame. This guy is so talented and Aaron feels so real because he is both completely unsympathetic and totally heart-breaking. His face when he looked in the mirror and told Paddy about how he used to beat up on a kid at school because he was gay... and later listening to Paddy talk to him from behind the door. I haven't "felt" so emotional when watching a soap in a long time. This story is not going to be some banner-waving, trendy SL. This is going to be about Aaron learning to accept himself for the first time ever. And I'm psyched to watch!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I agree with everything you said. Paddy being used so often for comedy yet perfectly at home in this dramatic story is one of Emmerdale's strengths. On the other soaps there is a sharp dividing line between comedic characters and dramatic characters but on Emmerdale, at its best, they can easily go back and forth.

What really worked about these scenes were when I realized they were not what I expected, in that this was about Aaron's secret or Aaron being gay. This was about Paddy as much as being about Aaron. The monologue from Paddy about how he had hated Aaron for so long and yet in the end Aaron was the one good thing he'd gotten from being involved with Chas...I was so moved. And you could see Aaron was very tense, using sarcasm and waiting for Paddy to lead into telling him how awful he was, and then Paddy showed him such love, and tenderness.

I think all the soaps have their ups and downs but Emmerdale is for me the most human of all the soaps and the one that when it is truly good, is most likely to seem the most genuine and the one that isn't trying to tell you how to feel. With Aaron's story, for instance, I have never felt like, onscreen, I am being told this story instead of being shown it. This is the main reason Christian/Syed on EE don't work that well for me -- we have never been shown most of their relationship, instead we were told they were supposedly in love when the only real point of this seemed to be so the show could get attention and so the characters would have conflict.

I'm just glad they toned down the violence that was originally supposed to be in the episode and instead went with the emotions. Dominic and Danny were both so incredible that this could have even worked as a silent film, you could just see everything on their faces and in their body language. I think that's one of the reasons I was so affected by it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Poor Sam. He has had better stories than this. I guess she's more interested in Eli anyway isn't she?

David is such an unbelievably gorgeous man. Why does he still have that patchy beard which looks like random pieces were shaved off? I hate that look.

I think the Barton family has potential but the daughters aren't very good actresses, especially Holly. I need a story about John secretly becoming an escort or doing nude photos to pay the bills or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Give the actress that plays Maisie SOMETHING! You could tell she had so much fun playing the s.hit out of this material!

Natasha is my HERO for killing Mark. "You don't get to make decisions anymore, Mark. *BANG*

I had a breakdown right along with them.

Edited by Amello
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
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.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

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