Soap Round-up: 2011 so far... - Part 3

It's been quite a bumpy year for Emmerdale so far, with the show recovering from the tragic loss of former Series Producer Gavin Blyth, and the appointment of Stuart Blackburn. Whilst the show hasn't quite reached some of the dizzying heights achieved throughout the peak of Blyth's tenure, I'll always have a soft spot for the residents of the Dales.

The year started with a story that put the Dingles right back into the heart of the show, when Lisa was raped by the seemingly harmless Derek during a late-night shift at the Sharma's factory. The story took the viewer on a real emotional journey ass Lisa struggled to cope in the aftermath, and the episode where Lisa finally found the strength to speak out against her attacker is my favourite episode of the year so far. Jane Cox put in a marvelous performance, and Steve Halliwell was just as fantastic during the scenes where Zak was told of Lisa's ordeal. Derek eventually took to the stand when it was revealed that he had assaulted another woman, and while he was found guilty of that attack, Lisa was devastated when he was found not guilty of attacking her. The ordeal also left her and Zak's marriage on the rocks but, thankfully, things seem to be getting better for them. Hopefully the producers have realized what an asset the show has in Jane and put her at the forefront more often. 

Emmerdale also started the year off with a bang, when dodgy cop Nick Henshall burned down a row of houses and attempted to frame Andy Sugden for it. The fire also ripped through the post office, taking the lives of long-serving residents Viv Hope and Terry Woods. However, the fire lacked any real tension, and the fact that Viv and Terry's deaths occurred off-screen was a real insult to the years of service they gave the show. Granted, Terry hadn't been involved in anything substantial for years, but anything would've been better than the exit that we saw. The aftermath of the fire saw the village turn against Andy after believing he had started the fire, and after weeks of drowning her sorrows, Brenda drove her car into the caravan he was staying in (both were unharmed, and Brenda hasn't touched a drop of gin since - thankfully). Eventually Henshall's lies were found out during a stand-off between him and Katie - who was racking up the 142nd notch on her bedpost - and he ended up shooting himself. Those episodes were certainly better than the dire fire scenes but not by much. 

It's also been a busy year for the Dales' Master of the Tearstick, Aaron Livesy, as he helped his boyfriend and eternal misery, Jackson, to die at his home. Jackson had been left paralysed following a collision with an oncoming train, and after spending most of the year moaning about how shit his life is - pausing for five minutes to enjoy a bit  of skydiving - his mum Hazel and Aaron finally agreed to help him breathe his last. The grim nature of the story made it difficult viewing, not least because I don't believe Marc Silcock is as talented as everyone else seems to think. Pauline Quirke was the one who carried this storyline, whilst Danny Miller seemed to spend most of his time brooding about in every scene he appeared in. Weeks of misery and wails of "It's what Jackson would've wanted" followed, and three months on from Jackson's death, Aaron is now self-harming. Is it too much to ask for some lighter material for Aaron? It's something that plagues all the soaps at the moment, where they latch on to one character and throw everything including the kitchen sink at them, while other, more underrated actors wait on the sidelines. 

Away from the Aaron woes though, I don't feel the show has been as bad as some of its harshest critics make out. There will usually be something in an episode that will amuse me, or grab my attention - whether it's Brenda's eccentric remarks as she serves a customer in the newly-refurbished cafe, or David donning a wedding dress and getting bladdered in the Woolpack. I was quite sad to see Leyla Harding leave the show, and even sadder that she never got away with ultimate brat Jacob, who would still moan even if you'd got him a two metre stick of Toblerone. Ironically, the plot device that sparked her exit storyline is now in tatters, with Alicia having to call off the move to Spain after Andy decided the health of daughter Sarah comes first (more on that later).

Leyla hasn't been the only departure this year, as we've bid farewell to characters including Faye, Ryan, Scarlett, Eve, Roz, Ella, Mia and Dermot (he'll always be Father Jack to me). Some of these exits were a shame, but at the same time it exposed the fact that several of these characters were only really brought in with one story in mind with little thought for what they would do afterwards. Ella's drunken slurs are something I'll particularly miss - she truly came into her own just before she left.

Another sad development is the separation of Nicola and Jimmy, one of my favourite pairings to emerge from the Blyth years. A blow to the head had left Jimmy with amnesia and thinking that he was still in love with former flame Kelly Windsor, and a devastated Nicola left him even after Kelly's lies were exposed. Here's hoping that there will be a reunion before the year is out, and we can get back to normality. 

So to wrap this blog up, here are a few things I'd like to see from the Dales in the not-too-distant future,

-Give Victoria a story in her own right. The friendship between Victoria and the eternally orange Amy is great, but I'd really love to see Isobel Hodgins get her teeth into some proper material.

-Lighten up Declan a little. His ruthless streak gained at the start of this year doesn't work with him at all.

-DON'T do a Marlon/Laurel affair storyline. Please, just don't.

-Don't be afraid to let Aaron crack a smile for more than five minutes.

-Give Moira Barton a good storyline - she's not being used enough right now. 

My round-up for the events in this week's soaps will be posted over the weekend.

Soap Round-up: 2011 so far... - Part 2

In December 2010, Coronation Street celebrated it's 50th anniversary by dropping a tram on the cobbles and unleashing hell on the residents of Weatherfield. Now as much as I love a good soap stunt, I thought it was only to be expected that after the huge drama of the tram crash, Corrie would lay off with the big stunts for a considerable period of time. How wrong was I...

 

In the space of nine months, we have had;

-Tracy Barlow attacked in her own back garden by Claire Peacock

-Sophie Webster cannon-balling from the church roof and onto a conveniently parked car

-Kevin Webster crushed by a vehicle after Tyrone took his frustrations out on the new hydraulic lift

-Jim McDonald spectacularly failing to rob a building society

-John Stape falling from a hospital roof - he miraculously survived

-Fiz Stape being run over by Owen

-Becky McDonald bulldozing her way through Number 1 after thinking Tracy had reported her to social services

-a riot breaking out in the Rovers Return

-Leanne Battersby tumbling down a flight of stairs and losing her baby in the process

-Carla Conner getting drunk and smashing her car into the bookies, knocking Stella down in the process

I've probably missed something out, but Corrie's over-reliance on stunts and shock plots hasn't done much for me this year. Even more annoying is the fact that we're now finding out every single detail of the storylines via the tabloids - there's a big storyline for Carla coming up, yet I wonder if there's any point in watching when I know every twist and turn in the story. It's the equivalent of an attention-seeking child, who will throw a tantrum if the attention isn't on them and only them. 

Another thing that's bothered me about Corrie this year, is that when they're not smashing the sets up, characters just seem to be fighting or being unpleasant towards each other. There seems to be a fight in the Rovers every other week, and they're no longer entertaining to watch. Perhaps they should look back at some of the classic fights on the cobbles, such as Gail and Eileen's 2004 brawl and see if they can restore that kind of magic. Kevin and Sally's split has been awful viewing - for the first few months of the year all we got from them was petty squabbling, which came to head with some embarrassing scenes in which Sally discovered that Kevin had won on a scratch-card. The trials and tribulations of Steve and Becky have also been a chore to watch, although with Becky now moving on from Steve there may be some hope for her yet, as we enter her final few months on the street. 

I don't want this to be one big pile of negativity though, as there have been some highlights in Corrie this year. The arrival of Roy's mother, Sylvia, has given the Croppers a good boost, and there were some really good scenes from when she found out about Hayley's past. The Croppers are such a great unit in that it's nigh-on impossible to give them material that doesn't feel forced or contrived, and although Sylvia isn't quite up there with the legend that is Blanche Hunt, she's entertaining enough. 

I was skeptical about the bizarre pairing of David and Kylie when I first heard about it, but over the last few weeks I've been won over by them. Paula Lane is proving her worth with some great scenes alongside Helen Worth and Sue Nicholls, although I just hope the writers don't go down the same route with them as they did with Steve and Becky. And despite a truly horrific comeback scene I'm also warming to Tracy Barlow, of all people. Perhaps it helps that she's been put up against the likes of Becky and the truly awful James, who both made Tracy look like Mother Teresa. I'm sure this phase will wear off whenever she decides to go back into OTT panto bitch mode though, but who knows.

Elsewhere, the ongoing troubles with Carla, Frank, Peter and Leanne rumble on...and on...and on...and on. You'd think that with three really capable actors in that mix we would get some fantastic material from them, but sadly there isn't much to praise. It all started coming apart in February, when Peter rumbled Leanne's affair with Nick Tilsley, who is now on the verge of looking older than mum Gail. Peter chose to confront Leanne at the alter during their blessing, and even presented her with divorce papers (as you do). It looked like it was all over for the couple, but after some advice from Ken, Peter managed to catch up with Leanne at the train station and they reunited. Just to give an idea of how ridiculously rushed this plot was - it was only a week between Peter actually finding out about the affair and him and Leanne reuniting at the train station. 

So while those two had some time off-screen, Carla got together with new arrival Frank Foster, a man with about as much charisma as an HB pencil. Maria wasn't too happy about this, seeing as Frank had tried it on with her a few months earlier, leaving her terrified and thinking that he'd tried to assault her. Carla didn't take any notice of Maria's warnings - in fact no-one did. You'd think they would've all learned to listen to Maria after what happened with Tony Gordon but, would you believe it, they're all hopeless cases. Carla's also spent the past year trying (and failing) to overcome her drink problem and an obsession with Peter, which culminated in her trying to seduce him. Peter vowed to stay faithful to Leanne, which is odd considering it was Leanne who had the affair. Meanwhile, Cindy from EastEnders new arrival Stella revealed herself to be Leanne's birth mother, in another whirlwind plot, and now we seem to be in a cycle of Leanne getting close to Stella, before pushing her away again and letting her back in - although that's now been put on hold as Stella is on her way to A&E following the events of last night's episode.

Corrie attracted some criticism from the tabloids over the summer months, with most articles attacking Michelle Collins' accent on the show. While I've yet to really warm to Stella as a character, I do feel it's unfair to label her as the sole cause of the show's problems at the moment. Of course, some might argue that she is, while others may say there are no problems with Corrie at all. At this point, the best thing Corrie could do to win me over with Stella is if she could demolish HMP Weatherfield with Fiz trapped inside. That would most certainly be a godsend.

In the third and final part of this round-up I'll look back on the past nine months of Emmerdale, which has seen tears, tantrums and traumas - mostly from Aaron "I like tearsticks" Livesy.

Soap Round-up: 2011 so far... - Part 1

Instead of going straight into reviewing the soap week, I thought I'd start by sharing a few random thoughts on how the soaps have progressed over the last nine or so months. Note that, due to my viewing of Hollyoaks being all over the place at the moment, I'll be leaving that out.

In general I'd say all the soaps have so far had a decidedly average year. They've all had good moments, they've all had bad moments, and they've all had moments that have made me hold my head in my hands in complete and utter despair. It's been a year of cheating, lying, stealing, scheming, baby swapping, hilariously accidental killing, pill-popping, house-trashing, fire-starting. We've seen characters battle cancer, sexual exploitation, assisted suicide, car crashes, roof collapses. We also saw Jim McDonald try to rob a building society but that was quite shit.

As there is a lot of ground to cover, I'll be splitting this into three parts. Parts 2 and 3 will follow at some point this week.

So, where to begin with? Well, it would be fair to say that EastEnders had quite a rocky start to the year, with the growing controversy over the baby swap storyline and the announcements of Samantha Womack's departure and the ending of the story being brought forward. The story saw Ronnie Branning snatch neighbour Kat Moon's baby following the discovery that her own new-born had died, leaving Kat and Alfie to believe that it was their own son that had died. The initial story ran until April, when Ronnie finally handed back baby Tommy on the day of Tanya and Greg's wedding, after Max had been involved in a car crash - which, despite the brutal force of the crash, both Max and daughter Abi managed to walk away from virtually unhurt - in fact Max seemed to take more damage just a few weeks later when brother Jack beat him to a pulp. Ronnie spent some time in prison before returning to the Square for her final few weeks on the show, which was enough time for Michael to grow obsessed with her and try to set her up on her sentencing day. Even though Jack desperately tried persuading her that they should go on the run (a true Mitchell solution, Peggy would've been proud), Ronnie chose to face her fate and even got Kat's forgiveness in the end. Now, for all the good acting from the main players in this storyline, it was a very clumsily-written piece - relying too heavily on coincidences on the night of the swap, and then not really going anywhere for a few months until the truth came out. Ronnie's final scene, in which she sat in her prison cell and seemed to genuinely smile for the first time in God knows how long, was quite poignant, but the story has done some real damage to Kat's character. Kat is being ruined fast and it doesn't help that the EastEnders producers are intent on chucking bowlfuls of misery at her, and when she isn't dealing with another trauma she has a face like a slapped arse on her, being vile to anyone who dares as much to say hello to her.

Away from the baby swap scandal, it's been quite a mixed bag for the residents of Walford this year. The best storylines have come from the massive Branning/Jackson unit, who are a real asset to the show with some fantastic characters and actors. Whitney's sexual exploitation storyline, reaching it's initial climax in March, gave us what I think is currently the best episode of EE this year. Shona McGarty proved herself to be a very talented young actress, Charlie Brooks was on terrific form playing a very different side to Janine, and Jody Latham played a blinder as the sinister Rob. Elsewhere, the Brannings have had to cope with the aftermath of Tanya and Max's affair being revealed, during which Vanessa had quite possibly the best ever TV breakdown after repeating the immortal words, "bubbly's in the fridge", about 140 times before going nuclear in No. 5. Of course, this being Walford, the mess was cleared up before anyone could notice there was a picture out of place. The current big story though is Tanya's ongoing battle with cervical cancer, and as a huge fan of Jo Joyner it's great seeing her play out some more serious drama again.

The year has seen several new arrivals and some old faces return. Leading the charge of the returnees is Mandy Salter, who blasted back onto screens only last week, where Ian found her being threatened by a burly man outside a strip club. Ian's had a pretty awful year in terms of character-material. After sleeping around with Glenda, he lost Jane and then spent a few weeks letting some local mums think she was a widow, although why being a widow makes you more attractive I'll never know. Whilst Mandy's return hasn't quite given him anything really meaty to get his teeth into, it has at least given Ian a fresh direction on the show, which is more than what can be said for certain other characters right now. What are Tyler and Anthony Moon meant to be? These two twits have arrived and only ever seem to spend episodes touching each other up and trying it on with every girl in Walford who has a pulse. Only Anthony has any shred of potential in him so please, if it's not to much bother, strap Tyler to the Walford tube-line and ensure that he never darkens the Square again. Other newcomers include Lola, taken straight from the stock warehouse of mouthy teenagers, and probably won't be around for too long. It's a real shame that we've lost the talented Cathy Murphy for this unoriginal character, although I suspect those of you reading this (and managing to get to this point) are struggling to remember who Julie was given that she was barely used until her exit story kicked in. Jodie Gold also gained a friend in the shape of the ditzy Poppy Meadow, who everyone but me hates. Now on paper, I should detest Poppy because she adds nothing to the make-up of the show, but she's actually won me over. I would actually rather watch thirty minutes of Poppy and Jodie repeating each other's sentences as opposed to a moody Kat rampaging across the Vic because someone took the last chocolate digestive.

Sticking with newcomers, I feel that Bryan Kirkwood has had much more success with older characters than the young ones. Cora Cross is a fantastic addition to the show, played effortlessly to perfection by the formidable Ann Mitchell. In fact, the extension of Tanya's family has been something I've wanted for ages so to bring back Rainie was another great move. Similarly, Rose Cotton looks set to bring some fun to the Square, much to the dismay of her half-sister Dot. Heather Chasen's brief stint as Janine's long-lost granny Lydia was very enjoyable too, although sadly the same cannot be said for Lydia's irritant of a son, Norman, who looks as if he should be flogging something on QVC. It's been a painful few weeks, watching Jean stare longingly at him from across the bar in the Vic, with it all culminating in an embarrassing state of affairs involving Norman, Pat and a lot of stitched on buttons. Speaking of Pat, I'm absolutely gutted that she's leaving, and even more gutted that the material she's been getting lately is so piss-poor. Hopefully we'll see more of the Pat I know and love before the time comes to say goodbye.

I could probably say more, but if I did I'd probably be up writing all night. So I'll conclude by saying that I do not believe 2011 will be remembered as a vintage year of EastEnders. It's been a year of inconsistencies with the odd bit of brilliance thrown in. There is a lot of potential in the show right now, but that potential only works when the production team are able to see it and use it in the right way, rather than messing it all up.

In the next part I'll look back at the past nine months of Corrie, and set myself the difficult task of drawing positives from them.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of Television

If you're reading this, then welcome to my new blog, created because I've realised that sometimes Twitter isn't quite enough for a decent-length rant. I'll be using this place to share my non-sensical ramblings and thoughts on whatever I see on the tellybox, as well as a weekly review of the soaps.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter - I tweet on a fairly regular basis, and most often when the soaps are on.