Current topic of discussion on Digital Spy now is a thread wondering how and why Jacqueline Jossa went from hero to zero in the short space of one year's time.
Yes, this time last year, Jossa was being feted and fanned as the "next big thing" EastEnders had to offer; besides that, she was - how shall we say it? - hot. Guaranteed to have every pubescent school boy (and several older) wanking under the sheets at night with fantasies of Jossa or Jossa as Lauren.
Besides that, EastEnders even gave her a ready-made boyfriend in real life, in the form of Tony Discipline; and they are now about to pair her with anotherhunk of beefcake wood male fantasy figure for teenagers, that eminent thespian (not), David Witts.
Some commentators have reckoned that it's bad writing and pejorative storylines that are doing Jossa harm, as her character really isn't very likeable, and this is true. Lauren embodies all the worst aspects that Max and Tanya share - their selfishness, their whineyness, their inability to accept responsibility for their actions, their sense of entitlement, their hypocrisy, and their addictive personalities.
Like her mother, she is a budding drunk. Like her father, she's totally amoral, except she doesn't own that - she blames her father for it. She treats both her parents, especially Max, like shit. She is an attempted murderer who should be languishing in some juvenile detention centre, playing bitch to some bully dyke and fearing a time alone in the shower. She is lazy, having quit school on a whim, but she's not encouraged either to work, by her parents, or to find something that might spark her interest. Her interests lie in partying and getting drunk, wanting to be treated like an adult, but expecting her parents to support her financially.
She is the total embodiment of everything pejorative about young people today - shallow, materialistic, selfish, devoid of compassion, disloyal, self-obsessed, narcissistic.
But the other reason I think that Jossa's proving a bomb right now is that the actress, after winning her gong last year, began to believe the hype surrounding her. Within a short time, art became life, and it doesn't help that the teens and older teen characters on the programme are written to suit the characters of the actors who portray them, mostly.
Therefore, Jacqueline Jossa is really being Jacqueline Jossa when she's portraying Lauren Branning. Just like her contrived squeeze, Tony Discipline, is really being Tony Discipline when he's pretending to be Tyler Moon. It's all these kids know, as they've had precious little, if any, acting training.
It also doesn't help, as another commentator remarked, that Jossa shouts all her lines. She's not the first, nor the last actor on the programme to do this - Kellie Shirley made that her signature when she portrayed Carly Wicks the first time. Scott Maslen and Rita Simons do it regularly. And so does Jossa.
Do these people not realise that the sound stage isn't actually a stage per se? Microphones abound. But Jossa takes it one step further and continuously uses exaggerated facial expressions, to the point of gurning, to emphasise a point. It's off-putting, amateurish and just bad.
Jasmyn Banks apart, who's relegated to portraying a drip, the younger characters have had substandard or not enough dramatic training and really ought to go back to school for some extra training.
And some lessons in not being too blase about what they consider to be their own entitlement.
Yes, this time last year, Jossa was being feted and fanned as the "next big thing" EastEnders had to offer; besides that, she was - how shall we say it? - hot. Guaranteed to have every pubescent school boy (and several older) wanking under the sheets at night with fantasies of Jossa or Jossa as Lauren.
Besides that, EastEnders even gave her a ready-made boyfriend in real life, in the form of Tony Discipline; and they are now about to pair her with another
Some commentators have reckoned that it's bad writing and pejorative storylines that are doing Jossa harm, as her character really isn't very likeable, and this is true. Lauren embodies all the worst aspects that Max and Tanya share - their selfishness, their whineyness, their inability to accept responsibility for their actions, their sense of entitlement, their hypocrisy, and their addictive personalities.
Like her mother, she is a budding drunk. Like her father, she's totally amoral, except she doesn't own that - she blames her father for it. She treats both her parents, especially Max, like shit. She is an attempted murderer who should be languishing in some juvenile detention centre, playing bitch to some bully dyke and fearing a time alone in the shower. She is lazy, having quit school on a whim, but she's not encouraged either to work, by her parents, or to find something that might spark her interest. Her interests lie in partying and getting drunk, wanting to be treated like an adult, but expecting her parents to support her financially.
She is the total embodiment of everything pejorative about young people today - shallow, materialistic, selfish, devoid of compassion, disloyal, self-obsessed, narcissistic.
But the other reason I think that Jossa's proving a bomb right now is that the actress, after winning her gong last year, began to believe the hype surrounding her. Within a short time, art became life, and it doesn't help that the teens and older teen characters on the programme are written to suit the characters of the actors who portray them, mostly.
Therefore, Jacqueline Jossa is really being Jacqueline Jossa when she's portraying Lauren Branning. Just like her contrived squeeze, Tony Discipline, is really being Tony Discipline when he's pretending to be Tyler Moon. It's all these kids know, as they've had precious little, if any, acting training.
It also doesn't help, as another commentator remarked, that Jossa shouts all her lines. She's not the first, nor the last actor on the programme to do this - Kellie Shirley made that her signature when she portrayed Carly Wicks the first time. Scott Maslen and Rita Simons do it regularly. And so does Jossa.
Do these people not realise that the sound stage isn't actually a stage per se? Microphones abound. But Jossa takes it one step further and continuously uses exaggerated facial expressions, to the point of gurning, to emphasise a point. It's off-putting, amateurish and just bad.
Jasmyn Banks apart, who's relegated to portraying a drip, the younger characters have had substandard or not enough dramatic training and really ought to go back to school for some extra training.
And some lessons in not being too blase about what they consider to be their own entitlement.
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