22 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

It might not be a spoiler anymore, but just in case.....

 

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Mandy Dingle

 

is returning for a short visit in the new year. No word on how long the visit will be.

 

I have a feeling this will end in her dying [and a long-lost child for Paddy] I think you'll enjoy that first part!

20 hours ago, UK LAW said:

It’s been about a month or so since Iain McLeod exited stage left at Emmerdale (at least as far as what’s in screen is concern, loose-ends notwithstanding).

 

Is the show any more watchable?

 

I'm not watching regularly, so I'm not the best judge. The show is a bit sluggish but there are some interesting things. There is a very disturbing story being built up with David's son Jacob being groomed by David's new girlfriend, Maya. 

On 11/20/2018 at 11:42 PM, UK LAW said:

It’s been about a month or so since Iain McLeod exited stage left at Emmerdale (at least as far as what’s in screen is concern, loose-ends notwithstanding).

 

Is the show any more watchable?

 

I think the show is quite watchable now. There's no "big" story going on, but after the fiasco of Kim's weeklong return it feels nice that they've dialed things down a bit. It's more relatable human stories right now which is far more preferable than big stunts.

It's very quiet here right now. Is anyone else still watching?

Although you could say that not much is happening right now I think it's a nice change of pace after the action-packed year we've had with Lachlan's crime spree and Kim's (depressingly bad) return. It feels like they're resetting the show and slowly laying the groundwork for future stories instead of jumping from plot point to plot point.

10 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

It's very quiet here right now. Is anyone else still watching?

Although you could say that not much is happening right now I think it's a nice change of pace after the action-packed year we've had with Lachlan's crime spree and Kim's (depressingly bad) return. It feels like they're resetting the show and slowly laying the groundwork for future stories instead of jumping from plot point to plot point.

 

I am watching some, not every day but sometimes. The Maya and Jacob story is interesting, although I'm wary of them doing the topic justice. Still, this story is an example of one of the strengths of allowing child actors to stay in the roles as they get older, instead of recasting over and over. The pain that Jacob and Noah are going through has more weight because we've seen the actors for a decade now. 

 

Did you hear that

the Christmas episode is mainly going to be about Jessie marrying Marlon, or at least getting up to the wedding, anyway, I don't know if they will go through with it.

?

No I hadn't heard that. Not exactly the couple I would have chosen to focus on for Christmas, that's for sure..... 

There are worse couples on the show, but the couple in question is so bland and uninteresting.

So Debbie got no punishment for her involvement in the acid attack on Ross..... Geez, what a surprise.

I know that it wasn't her idea to throw acid at him, but she still hired Simon to attack someone, and she deserved some kind of punishment for that. This show......

26 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

So Debbie got no punishment for her involvement in the acid attack on Ross..... Geez, what a surprise.

I know that it wasn't her idea to throw acid at him, but she still hired Simon to attack someone, and she deserved some kind of punishment for that. This show......

 

I guess the idea is she lost Joe and was in prison, so that was enough. 

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

 

I guess the idea is she lost Joe and was in prison, so that was enough. 

 

Not in my opinion.   

9 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

 

Not in my opinion.   

 

You're definitely not alone there.

 

I feel like the pacing has become very stretched out this year, a bit more like the show used to be pre-Blyth. The Daz endless goodbye has that tone - it's not quite repetitive, because the story does progress, yet it does stretch out. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like the idea - I just wish the stories could get stronger. Maybe next year, if they don't have a big ratings drop and can keep the pacing the way it is now, we will get some good payoff. 

I like the slower pace, although I agree that the stories are lacking something. I just hope that they will keep this tempo next year, and that it's not just that they're stalling for time until Kim comes back. It's somewhat reminiscent of how the show used to be when it was good in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. And that is ironic since the show only aired two episodes a week back then, compared to six episodes a week now.....

2 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

I like the slower pace, although I agree that the stories are lacking something. I just hope that they will keep this tempo next year, and that it's not just that they're stalling for time until Kim comes back. It's somewhat reminiscent of how the show used to be when it was good in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. And that is ironic since the show only aired two episodes a week back then, compared to six episodes a week now.....

 

The show was beautifully paced in those years. 

 

You'd think with 6-7 episodes a week they would use that to take the time to slowly develop stories and characters. They have done just the opposite, with bang boom crash and lots of padding in between. 

 

There are some stories lately that feel a bit like the old type (like the Jacob and Maya story). I just hope that can continue.

 

Oh I was going to send you a few more episodes - sorry for not sending any recently. 

To be fair to them they have a much bigger cast now, so it must be harder to give everyone something to do. That could be one of the reasons the tempo is so rushed. Then again, it's usually the same characters on the front-burner all the time, so they're not very good at distributing screentime evenly between them. And that is a major reason why the show feels disjointed. Some stories get heavy screentime for a week or so and then disappear for a few weeks, so that you've almost forgotten what happened by the time it is picked up again.

 

8 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Oh I was going to send you a few more episodes - sorry for not sending any recently. 

 

Please don't feel bad about that. I'm eternally grateful for everything you've done so far.

2 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

Please don't feel bad about that. I'm eternally grateful for everything you've done so far.

 

Sent.

On 11/16/2018 at 2:26 PM, I Am A Swede said:

Since there's not much else going on here right now I thought I'd share a little Emmerdale Farm trivia. I was browsing through "Inside UpDown", a book about the creation and production of "Upstairs, Downstairs" (my all-time favourite tv-show), and discovered that Gail Harrison, who played Marian Wilks off and on during the 1970s, was a contender for the role of Georgina Worsley. The role eventually went to Lesley-Anne Down.

I had of course already read this, since I have owned the book for several years, but I never really connected the dots before.

 

I adored U/D sooooo much when I saw it in the 1970s. I wish I could watch it again. I don't have the funds to buy the boxset, and alas, cannot find it online. :(

On 12/20/2018 at 5:46 PM, I Am A Swede said:

 

Not in my opinion.   

 

I am tired of criminal behavior going unpunished on soaps. In the good old days, TPTB knew the difference between right and wrong.

1 hour ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

I adored U/D sooooo much when I saw it in the 1970s. I wish I could watch it again. I don't have the funds to buy the boxset, and alas, cannot find it online.

 

The entire original series is streaming on BritBox, which is $6.99 a month! They also offer a 7-day free trial, if you're feeling adventurous and can watch the entire run during that time. 😛