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.
Great post TA! Joe from Walford Web.
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