Emmerdale: Discussion Thread

[Adamski]

Has Charity ever articulated why she wanted to buy into The Woolpack, or why it was so important to her? She really feels shoehorned in there, and those endless weeks of "I'll get the money, Doug, promise!" did her no favours at all. 

 

[I Am A Swede]

I wonder how Amos and Henry would feel about it! 

[TimWil]

Would those coppers in tonight's episode REALLY let Holly scoot past them without demanding to see what was in the bag? That looked beyond dumb.

Edited June 22, 2016 by TimWil

[DRW50]

A variety of detailed spoilers here, of varying quality.

 

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/emmerdale/

 

What I am looking forward to (sort of):

 

 

What I just don't want:

 

[NothinButAttitude]

 

[DRW50]

 

Natalie Anderson interview.

 

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[NothinButAttitude]

[DRW50]

[NothinButAttitude]

[DRW50]

Summer trailer.

 

Pretty good.

 

http://sorenkingsley.tumblr.com/post/146560890894

[NothinButAttitude]

Like we discussed before, I hope this leads to the end of Lachlan. He needs to go. 

 

Belle is pathetic. 

 

I am actually interested in Holly's story for once. 

 

Ugh! I root for Rakesh but he always revert back to old ways. 

 

[DRW50]

I don't even know where they're going with Belle...it seems endless. I wonder if when Lisa and Zak reunite, as I'm sure they will, she will suddenly be all better.

 

Holly's a weird character, as Sophie isn't that great an actress, but there's something vulnerable about her that makes me care. It looks like Jai is going to have more of a role - I vastly prefer him when he's not playing out the same scenes over and over with Megan. 

 

The best part of the promo for me was the Laurel stuff. I especially love the, "I'm not Harriet...MY NAME IS LAUREL!" When Laurel gets so broken it's just spellbinding.

 

I really think this must be it for Lachlan. It's too bad they didn't do more with Thomas Atkinson. They're lucky they have other good actors in his age range - unlike Eastenders and Corrie...

Speaking of Rakesh:

 

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[NothinButAttitude]

 

 

I hate to see Laurel suffer. I know Charlotte Bellamy is gonna kill the scenes when Ashley leaves the show. I hope she gets the recognition she deserved this year. 

Edited June 29, 2016 by Nothin'ButAttitude

[DRW50]

My main reaction to the fire stuff wasn’t really disappointment, as I know these things are always going to be overhyped, and I don’t really care about effects. Soaps aren’t Hollywood blockbusters, and honestly even a lot of those have had poor effects in recent years. I didn’t really think the effects today were that bad anyway, mostly because they were kept to a minimum.

I did think the whole thing felt a bit pointless in the end, and I’m not sure if any of it was needed (I assume ITV pushed to do a stunt so they had no real choice). I guess we’ll see if the aftermath (which was MIA after the helicopter crash) makes up for it. In the short term, seeing the consequences for Nicola, Ronnie and Rakesh will be interesting. And it was nice to see Carly and Dan trying to help out even though they will get no story from it - a nice reminder of Dan’s pledge to try to help people (and of course a homage to his role in the helicopter crash last year). I just hope this won’t have to be Rakesh’s exit story - not when so many other characters get away with so much more.

I will say that I don’t understand when Priya started calling Rakesh “Rak.” Oh, and I think Nicola would have spent less time waiting and listening once she didn’t hear anything downstairs. And I think we should have gotten a reaction from David in the shop. 

Otherwise I thought it was alright. Not anything to remember, but not bad.

For me the best part of the episode was Victoria struggling with her attack. We so rarely get proper aftermath on soaps now, especially in the last year or two of Emmerdale, where unless there's a reason for hospital scenes, beatings, car crashes, etc. are quickly forgotten. Seeing confident Victoria lose herself, Adam being frustrated, the consequences for Finn, Holly's guilt, Moira talking about her car accident - this is what soaps are supposed to do. It's not boring or filler, it's absolutely necessary. And these days I appreciate it when it arrives, like water in the desert. 

[DRW50]

I'd been looking forward to the scenes with Laurel finding Gabby and Jacob and then the aftermath with Laurel being humiliated and drinking. It was a perfect twist of fate that the two episodes ended up airing on the same night, which I don't think was supposed to happen if not for the Euros. They were one of the more logical double bills in a while. 

 

I liked the balance of light comedy along with seriousness (from David and Leyla) the usual helplessness (Bernice), poor Ashley, and then Laurel being the one initiating everything. She still sees Gabby as her daughter even as Gabby lashes out at her. I don't think she even knew just how much Gabby resents her until this episode. And when Gabby humiliated her about the bruises she left on Jacob's arm, she also realized how alone she is - the only one who defended her was Ashley, and he's increasingly less able to do this by the day. 

 

The last scenes where she finally gave in to drinking again were wonderful - a blend of harrowing and just a slight dose of camp, but not enough to overshadow how wrong her relapsing is and how much stress she's under to make her relapse this way.

 

I can't help comparing the writing for Laurel to the writing for many women on Eastenders now, where characters like Sharon and Denise seem to have different personalities from day-to-day, or sometimes, scene-to-scene. You don't see a lot of push from Emmerdale about Laurel being a "strong woman," because they don't feel any need to prove this, or to pat themselves on the back with a questionable idea of just what a strong woman even is. She's a complicated, yet incredibly consistent character, and it goes without saying. I'm just sorry Charlotte Bellamy never gets more credit for everything she gives Laurel.