Bristish Soap Awards 2010

[DRW50]

It bothers me more when so many of them are undeserved. The only ones I'd say they deserved were Lacey's and Best Exit. So many wonderful actors on Eastenders weren't even nominated, like Jake Wood or Gillian Wright, yet Marc Elliott and Scott Maslen are winners?

Nick Miles (Jimmy King) said the panel didn't watch Emmerdale. I guess he was right. Eastenders was going to win no matter what.

[All My Shadows]

I really don't mind Elliott. It's a bland, boring story (the "forbidden romance" aspect of it, at least -- the family drama is amazing) and the characters we're supposed to root for are not very root for-able, but I think he does what he can with what he gets, which isn't anything more than the usual weepy queer stuff. I like him in the family scenes, but then again, I think those four actors have some of the best family chemistry I've ever seen on a soap. Oh, but I'm not too blind to miss that Elliott probably won only because of the gay mafia. That type of [!@#$%^&*] transcends oceans.

I guess I'll have some real stock in these awards next year, if I can keep up with the shows all through the year.

[DRW50]

The McDean story never won anything and neither did Todd on Corrie, I believe. I'm not sure how much it was about gay mafia and how much it was about him being on Eastenders and there not being a lot of competition. Cheryl is annoying and Hollyoaks is barely watched these days, the Doctors is not that widely seen, and while I think Lyndon is somewhat underrated as an actor and is very cute, he's playing a not very nice character on a show that doesn't win a lot of awards.

I think Elliott just fumbles with a lot of key moments. The constant sad faces and teary eyes are bad enough, because he brings them into every single scene, except the ones where they would have been useful. He often looked like he was blissful when he was around Amira. There was zero indication that he was only marrying her because he had to. For months people were sure that Syed was bisexual. Only when the script specifically pointed out that Syed did not want to be with Amira did this stop. Even then, Marc Elliott would often play their scenes as if he loved being around her. If I were a casual viewer I would have thought Syed truly loved Amira and that any relationship with Christian was based on self-loathing and stupidity -- surely that wasn't the point of the storyline?

But he's a better actor than Scott Maslen, who can't even manage to pretend to play a seriously injured man for more than three or four episodes. Not even on American soaps have I ever seen someone recover from a gunshot wound to the head that quickly.

There's some putdowns by EE fans about how Danny Miller didn't deserve to win (because he used a tear stick for one scene -- apparently Lacey Turner has also done this, so that means she didn't deserve to win), but really, Danny is a much stronger actor than any man from EE who has won awards in recent years, unless you count the comedy award Masood won. It's telling that the show's best actors were not even put up, aside from Lacey Turner. It's all about the most shallow choices.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Well, I'm happy for Lacey Turner, truly one of the FEW soap actors that can play almost ANYTHING.

I'm not surprised by the EastEnders domination, I predicted it.

What other Brit soap had the big ratings and media buzz behind it last year? Their only threat was Corrie for Best Soap, and Corrie isn't regarded to be in its best shape at the moment either.

I'm glad Sarah's parachute death from Hollyoaks won Spectacular Scene.

I'm not really surprised Emmerdale was shut out, when it comes to attention, they always live in EastEnders and Coronation Street's shadows.

Oh, and I'm happy for Craig Gazey and Michelle Keegan too!

[dannigold]

Eastenders got 16.6 milion viewer's for its live episode, so the Archie storyline was always going to dominate the awards.

[DRW50]

Eastenders only had media buzz during the anniversary and live episode, the show wasn't that noticed in 2009 and has lost seemingly every viewer it had gained from the live episode.

They did manage to get a nice viewer increase before that, from where they were a few years ago, and that's been sustained, but in terms of buzz, the show has been poor for months, one after another their hyped episodes (the Stax two-hander, Amira's exit) have not done as well in the ratings as they were supposed to do. They've managed to squander a golden opportunity. If they continue to be as lazy as they have been since February then I think they are going to have a sharp dropoff eventually.

I'm not surprised with the viewer votes but I do think it was a copout for the panel to also hand them awards. It comes across as elitism, or laziness. So do the nominations. Who Killed Archie? shouldn't have had a panel award over Stacey's bipolar disorder. If the panel is about rewarding quality that public voters may not reward, then why not stick with that?

It's not even so much as Eastenders winning everything as what Eastenders won. Does that make any sense?

But you do agree that Emmerdale deserved a few awards?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Actually, I think EastEnders is the only soap up majorly in viewers from last year. I think Corrie and Hollyoaks are the ones with the major year to year ratings loses. EastEnders had had a consistent trend and rise in ratings year to year. Let's not forget, this award show also covers the earlier part of 2010.

[dannigold]

Eastenders is weak because they have run out of storylines. It will remain that way until Bryan's episodes have been on screen for a couple of months. Eastenders is the only soap up in ratings this year and half the time it is beating corrie, which is unheard of.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I probably would have given them Best Story, on the panel side, but the odds for some major award love were always realistically stacked against them.

Yes, EastEnders has been beating Corrie consistently for a while now in the ratings. Is this their biggest victory streak over Corrie?

[DRW50]

Their increase is from before the live episode. They lost everything they had gained with the live episode. I do give them credit (not that they need my credit) for the increase, but they could have built on it, instead they have spent months almost inviting people to stop watching. That may be why their stunt episodes since the live episode haven't panned out in ratings increases.

Considering that Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, etc. don't have the same opportunities, generous timeslot, or hype as Eastenders has had for so long, they are on a different scale, so I judge them differently.

I just think if you're going to give Eastenders an award for best story, Who Killed Archie? is a very odd choice.

[dannigold]

I think this is their best ratings period since John Yorke was in charge from 2000/2001. The panel have always been strange they awarded a dog best exit one year.

[DRW50]

They didn't run out of stories though, did they? Lucas and Chryed were leftover stories. I remember people at DS saying after the live episode that there was no need for fans to worry about a slump, because those stories were still running. Those stories then proceeded to fall apart or vanished, and viewers were treated to months of stolen post, E20, Danny Mitchell pouting, and Billie Jackson's gang comedy hour.

[dannigold]

The Chryed storyline was not planned to finish until later this year, but then Preeya quit.

[DRW50]

So the time they had the storyline offcamera, for 3 months, was when they didn't know Preeya was leaving? I guess I can understand that. I do think the story was very poorly paced to begin with and the show wasted a lot of opportunities in getting people to be more invested, especially in Syed's point of view. If Preeya hadn't quit then they may have still just kept repeating the same scenes over and over.

I wonder what happened to the Lucas story. That story seems to go off the air for quite a while and when it's coming back it looks like it's going to go in a much darker direction.

[dannigold]

I am not entirly sure but I think Diederick left the Lucas storyline for Bryan to conclude, which is why the storyline has changed.