C'mon, do I mean "Miitchell" or do I mean "monster"?
The Mitchells are, without a doubt, my favourite family, but that doesn't mean I like them all.
I was never the biggest fan of the Sisters. Basically, Ronnie and Roxy are retcons. Archie Mitchell was the brother of Eric that was never mentioned, the way Ajay Ahmed crawled out of the woodwork, when it became obvious that Imzamam was a perv, a lech and an all-around hypocrite.
Suddenly, two sisters appeared out of the blue, invited to a wedding that didn't take place and unrecognised by all relatives present.
Now, not only did Eric Mitchell have yet another brother, this brother was and had been in love all along with Peggy. Now, there were two hardass Mitchell sisters, with whom to contend, the female equivalents of the bruvs.
But scratch the surface, and you'll see that they are anything but the bruvs. One's a raging control freak and psychopath, the other is an overgrown child.
The Mitchells have been on a downward spiral since Peggy left, with only the remnants remaining. A proper EP and one steeped in history prior to the Eastenders 2.0 year of 2006, would have been mindful of the Mitchell-Sharon connection, instead of surrounding Phil with Mitchell runts and waifs and strays with tenuous connections. Sharon would be right there and she'd be in Carl's face as well, questioning him in a way the police would never have thought of doing.
Instead, we get the arrival of the Millenial Mitchell Queen, with Branning links, no less.
I'm seriously in danger of going off my favourite EastEnders' family, which means I'm seriously in danger of going off the show.
When EastEnders loses fans of my calibre, they've lost real fans, and the show is on a hiding to nothing.
The Annunciation.
Ever noticed how EastEnders uses mediaeval symbolism coupled with Greek tragedy? Well, they haven't recently, because Lorraine Newman and her coffeeklatch mates cater to the lower end of teenaged flotsam and jetsam, as well as left-over trolls who'd watch paint dry if you called it EastEnders.
But, really, they used to uses spades of mediaeval imagery and foibles, because soaps are really modern versions of mediaeval morality plays. That's why people who committed crimes - like killing someone - on the show left the Square for prison or were killed, themselves. Of course, sometimes viewers forget that characters they like have actually done horrible things.
Dennis Rickman murdered a man. Stacey Slater not only killed a man, he killed a dying man. And The Ice Queen, herself, not only took another woman's baby, but she left her dead one in its place, and carried on the charade of raising that child as her own. Because she could.
She wasn't mentally ill - if that were the case, she would have been remanded to a like hospital, instead of sentenced to prison. Besides, we have the episode from the 18th April 2011, the aftermath of Ronnie confessing that James was really Tommy. Watch the first few minutes of this clip, with Ronnie talking to the bizzies' shrink. That's not mental illness, that' pure narcissism. Harken her confession that Alfie and Kat meant nothing to her, but their son did. Harken her say that her kidnapping of him was her one "good" lie, and her foremost worry?
That Jack, one of the three obsessions of her life, wouldn't lover her anymore after this escapade.
Narcissism, control freakery, manipulation (that's there too) - all classic signs of the psychopath.
Well, here we are, the day before the return of the prodigal, and Kat is pressing Roxy to tell Alfie of Ronnie's impending release, although how he doesn't already know this is beyond my ken, what with Roxy announcing publically a week ago that her sister was coming home.
Still, Kat's right. This is, indeed, Roxy' call - in answer to Roxy' cowardly assertion that if Kat were all that worried about Ronnie's release, maybe she should tell Alfie.
J
No can do.
Roxy is Alfie's fiancee. She lives with him, in the pub from whence Tommy was stolen. When (if) they wed, Roxy will be Tommy's stepmother, which also means that the woman who kidnapped him will be his aunt. Go figure that one. Roxy's reluctance to tell Alfie not only reeks of cowardice, it exposes Roxy as a weak individual.
What, exactly, does she expect? Ronnie to turn up and Alfie to be all right about her presence on the Square? What a nice surprise at the dinner table that night. Even more bizarre was Roxy even expecting Alfie to understand things from her point of view.
Yes, Ronnie is Roxy's sister, and Aflie was silly not to realise that, at some point, Ronnie would be released from prison, but he wasn't silly in believing that she'd want to return to Walford. In real time, she wouldn't have been allowed to return. There would have been probation conditions set which precluded her living within a certain mile radius of Tommy and his family. There would be regular, and sometimes unannounced, checks by probation officers. She wouldn't have been allowed to leave the country, without permission, and not at all at first, so that puts paid to the silly assertion that Roxy was going to whisk Ronnie off to their own haven of Majorca.
Just the two of them.
That's what she said - just the two of them. Er, sorry, but has she forgotten Amy? Amy, who should have been starting school this autumn?
And even bigger act of cowardice on Roxy's part was the fact that she had yet to tell Ronnie that she'd fallen in love with, became engaged to and was living with Alfie Moon, the father of the child Ronnie kidnapped.
This is a real mess, and Alfie is all over the place, and well he should be. He's been going through the motions with Roxy for months now, trying to will himself on from Kat, whom he patently couldn't trust as far as relationships are concerned. At least, he told himself, he could trust Roxy. But now he can't. Not only did she neglect to tell him about Ronnie's return, she neglected to tell Ronnie about her relationship with Alfie.
So Roxy can't be trusted either.
Not ony can she not be trusted, she's proven herself to be as shallow as shit, believing that Alfie is OK about everything with her and Ronnie, so it comes as one big surprise to her ego, when Alfie announces, after taking Tommy for the weekend, that he can't accept Ronnie's return.
He knows that life with Roxy's sister is going to be a constant barrage of instant visits, interfering and generally being a part of Tommy's life, and he's entitled to feel the way he does. That's understandable, and any of the fanboi numpties who are up for vilifying his behaviour either have never been parents (and aren't about to be) or are just big dumbasses. Because Alfie Moon is the only person in this situation who's acting with any credence.
Another Fine Mitchell Mess.
The show suffers when the Mitchells are down, and it suffers even more when the runts of the Mitchell litter are called to the forefront. Roxy, trying to hone it large at the pub, playing the High Noon card when the Brannings, their latest feud family, arrive to stake a claim on drinking in the Vic. (I mean, has she forgotten that Jack Branning is Amy's father? Wait, she's forgotten Amy.)
Then, we have Billy, doing the usual patrol of the Square, keeping an eye on the Mitchell empire, which consists of the Arches and the Club (where a Branning is employed). Come to think of it, the Arches employs a Branning satellite and Jay, who has a foot in both camps. Billy loves being swept up in his own self-importance, and it's interesting that I start succinctly going off characters I'd formery liked when they get caught up in the Mitchell Big-I-Am Extravaganza.
"Being a Mitchell" turned Jay into a strutting, young entitled thug. Shirley got drunk on the power of the name, and both of them weren't real Mitchells.
But at best, Billy and Roxy have been merely tolerated as parts of that empire. Billy has always been disdained by his family and has even stolen from them. Roxy has had substantial money stolen from her, and by Phil, even believing him when he accused her own mother of doing this.
Okay, Roxy got her money back, in a roundabout way which implicated Glenda, and she was clinging onto the Mitchells in the wake of Ronnie's imprisonment, but Billy certainly has the measure of Phil, if his advice to Jay on the night of Heather's death is anything to go by. Billy reminded Jay that Phil would always put his own interests first, even if that meant throwing Jay under a bus. And yet, so desperate is Billy for acceptance (even after Phil tried to take Lexi from Lola), he becomes Phil's Lord Protector in his absence, patrolling the Square, eyeing Max and Carl. It was laughable.
But not as laughable as the ubiquitous Mitchells-by-the-Bedside scene we had to endure yet again - Phil making strangling sounds and rallying long enough to get one message to Billy:-
Open the Arches.
Once again, Danielle Harold botched it. Her concern for Phil was totally unbelieveable, and even Fenwick, who usually steps up to the plate, failed miserably.
And as for Shirley ... well, using a young child like Lexi to rob an injured man blind. You'd also think that Phil Mitchell would have been suss enough to have changed the combination on his safe. I take it that the money found in the safe constituted all of Phil's assets?
As if proof were needed of Shirley's inability to move forward, clock her line to Lexi as she too the child from her pushchair:-
Do you know, Lexi, this used to be my house?
Bitch, it was never your house. Everything you got came through Phil Mitchell and his good graces. And the money you're taking isn't yours either.
Of course, this is all the backdrop of Mitchells-in-Disarray to be sorted out when the Hard Woman of Walford makes her comeback on Monday.
Branning Freak Show.
The Mitchells are, without a doubt, my favourite family, but that doesn't mean I like them all.
I was never the biggest fan of the Sisters. Basically, Ronnie and Roxy are retcons. Archie Mitchell was the brother of Eric that was never mentioned, the way Ajay Ahmed crawled out of the woodwork, when it became obvious that Imzamam was a perv, a lech and an all-around hypocrite.
Suddenly, two sisters appeared out of the blue, invited to a wedding that didn't take place and unrecognised by all relatives present.
Now, not only did Eric Mitchell have yet another brother, this brother was and had been in love all along with Peggy. Now, there were two hardass Mitchell sisters, with whom to contend, the female equivalents of the bruvs.
But scratch the surface, and you'll see that they are anything but the bruvs. One's a raging control freak and psychopath, the other is an overgrown child.
The Mitchells have been on a downward spiral since Peggy left, with only the remnants remaining. A proper EP and one steeped in history prior to the Eastenders 2.0 year of 2006, would have been mindful of the Mitchell-Sharon connection, instead of surrounding Phil with Mitchell runts and waifs and strays with tenuous connections. Sharon would be right there and she'd be in Carl's face as well, questioning him in a way the police would never have thought of doing.
Instead, we get the arrival of the Millenial Mitchell Queen, with Branning links, no less.
I'm seriously in danger of going off my favourite EastEnders' family, which means I'm seriously in danger of going off the show.
When EastEnders loses fans of my calibre, they've lost real fans, and the show is on a hiding to nothing.
The Annunciation.
Ever noticed how EastEnders uses mediaeval symbolism coupled with Greek tragedy? Well, they haven't recently, because Lorraine Newman and her coffeeklatch mates cater to the lower end of teenaged flotsam and jetsam, as well as left-over trolls who'd watch paint dry if you called it EastEnders.
But, really, they used to uses spades of mediaeval imagery and foibles, because soaps are really modern versions of mediaeval morality plays. That's why people who committed crimes - like killing someone - on the show left the Square for prison or were killed, themselves. Of course, sometimes viewers forget that characters they like have actually done horrible things.
Dennis Rickman murdered a man. Stacey Slater not only killed a man, he killed a dying man. And The Ice Queen, herself, not only took another woman's baby, but she left her dead one in its place, and carried on the charade of raising that child as her own. Because she could.
She wasn't mentally ill - if that were the case, she would have been remanded to a like hospital, instead of sentenced to prison. Besides, we have the episode from the 18th April 2011, the aftermath of Ronnie confessing that James was really Tommy. Watch the first few minutes of this clip, with Ronnie talking to the bizzies' shrink. That's not mental illness, that' pure narcissism. Harken her confession that Alfie and Kat meant nothing to her, but their son did. Harken her say that her kidnapping of him was her one "good" lie, and her foremost worry?
That Jack, one of the three obsessions of her life, wouldn't lover her anymore after this escapade.
Narcissism, control freakery, manipulation (that's there too) - all classic signs of the psychopath.
Well, here we are, the day before the return of the prodigal, and Kat is pressing Roxy to tell Alfie of Ronnie's impending release, although how he doesn't already know this is beyond my ken, what with Roxy announcing publically a week ago that her sister was coming home.
Still, Kat's right. This is, indeed, Roxy' call - in answer to Roxy' cowardly assertion that if Kat were all that worried about Ronnie's release, maybe she should tell Alfie.
J
No can do.
Roxy is Alfie's fiancee. She lives with him, in the pub from whence Tommy was stolen. When (if) they wed, Roxy will be Tommy's stepmother, which also means that the woman who kidnapped him will be his aunt. Go figure that one. Roxy's reluctance to tell Alfie not only reeks of cowardice, it exposes Roxy as a weak individual.
What, exactly, does she expect? Ronnie to turn up and Alfie to be all right about her presence on the Square? What a nice surprise at the dinner table that night. Even more bizarre was Roxy even expecting Alfie to understand things from her point of view.
Yes, Ronnie is Roxy's sister, and Aflie was silly not to realise that, at some point, Ronnie would be released from prison, but he wasn't silly in believing that she'd want to return to Walford. In real time, she wouldn't have been allowed to return. There would have been probation conditions set which precluded her living within a certain mile radius of Tommy and his family. There would be regular, and sometimes unannounced, checks by probation officers. She wouldn't have been allowed to leave the country, without permission, and not at all at first, so that puts paid to the silly assertion that Roxy was going to whisk Ronnie off to their own haven of Majorca.
Just the two of them.
That's what she said - just the two of them. Er, sorry, but has she forgotten Amy? Amy, who should have been starting school this autumn?
And even bigger act of cowardice on Roxy's part was the fact that she had yet to tell Ronnie that she'd fallen in love with, became engaged to and was living with Alfie Moon, the father of the child Ronnie kidnapped.
This is a real mess, and Alfie is all over the place, and well he should be. He's been going through the motions with Roxy for months now, trying to will himself on from Kat, whom he patently couldn't trust as far as relationships are concerned. At least, he told himself, he could trust Roxy. But now he can't. Not only did she neglect to tell him about Ronnie's return, she neglected to tell Ronnie about her relationship with Alfie.
So Roxy can't be trusted either.
Not ony can she not be trusted, she's proven herself to be as shallow as shit, believing that Alfie is OK about everything with her and Ronnie, so it comes as one big surprise to her ego, when Alfie announces, after taking Tommy for the weekend, that he can't accept Ronnie's return.
He knows that life with Roxy's sister is going to be a constant barrage of instant visits, interfering and generally being a part of Tommy's life, and he's entitled to feel the way he does. That's understandable, and any of the fanboi numpties who are up for vilifying his behaviour either have never been parents (and aren't about to be) or are just big dumbasses. Because Alfie Moon is the only person in this situation who's acting with any credence.
Another Fine Mitchell Mess.
The show suffers when the Mitchells are down, and it suffers even more when the runts of the Mitchell litter are called to the forefront. Roxy, trying to hone it large at the pub, playing the High Noon card when the Brannings, their latest feud family, arrive to stake a claim on drinking in the Vic. (I mean, has she forgotten that Jack Branning is Amy's father? Wait, she's forgotten Amy.)
Then, we have Billy, doing the usual patrol of the Square, keeping an eye on the Mitchell empire, which consists of the Arches and the Club (where a Branning is employed). Come to think of it, the Arches employs a Branning satellite and Jay, who has a foot in both camps. Billy loves being swept up in his own self-importance, and it's interesting that I start succinctly going off characters I'd formery liked when they get caught up in the Mitchell Big-I-Am Extravaganza.
"Being a Mitchell" turned Jay into a strutting, young entitled thug. Shirley got drunk on the power of the name, and both of them weren't real Mitchells.
But at best, Billy and Roxy have been merely tolerated as parts of that empire. Billy has always been disdained by his family and has even stolen from them. Roxy has had substantial money stolen from her, and by Phil, even believing him when he accused her own mother of doing this.
Okay, Roxy got her money back, in a roundabout way which implicated Glenda, and she was clinging onto the Mitchells in the wake of Ronnie's imprisonment, but Billy certainly has the measure of Phil, if his advice to Jay on the night of Heather's death is anything to go by. Billy reminded Jay that Phil would always put his own interests first, even if that meant throwing Jay under a bus. And yet, so desperate is Billy for acceptance (even after Phil tried to take Lexi from Lola), he becomes Phil's Lord Protector in his absence, patrolling the Square, eyeing Max and Carl. It was laughable.
But not as laughable as the ubiquitous Mitchells-by-the-Bedside scene we had to endure yet again - Phil making strangling sounds and rallying long enough to get one message to Billy:-
Open the Arches.
Once again, Danielle Harold botched it. Her concern for Phil was totally unbelieveable, and even Fenwick, who usually steps up to the plate, failed miserably.
And as for Shirley ... well, using a young child like Lexi to rob an injured man blind. You'd also think that Phil Mitchell would have been suss enough to have changed the combination on his safe. I take it that the money found in the safe constituted all of Phil's assets?
As if proof were needed of Shirley's inability to move forward, clock her line to Lexi as she too the child from her pushchair:-
Do you know, Lexi, this used to be my house?
Bitch, it was never your house. Everything you got came through Phil Mitchell and his good graces. And the money you're taking isn't yours either.
Of course, this is all the backdrop of Mitchells-in-Disarray to be sorted out when the Hard Woman of Walford makes her comeback on Monday.
Branning Freak Show.
Who deemed them thus? Flabbi? WonderGirl, who's ...
THE. WORST. ACTRESS. EVER. IN. EASTENDERS.
The Brannings are, indeed, a beleagured family, hence, taking a cue from their betters, the Mitchells, and sticking together.
Good to see Krusty, keeping up a fine old family tradition of pouring a stiff drink in times of stress, directly in front of Lauren, who looks longingly at the full wineglass; and the first thing Max does when he returns home is pour a massive glass of red. And Max's response to what he's certain is a set-up by Carl, is to make a very public appearance at - where else? - the pub.
Cue a High Noon moment between Max and his minions, and - of all things, Roxy, the self-appointed Mitchell Godmother of Walford ...
The Brannings, prancing and preening, made a big show - especially since they weren't out in full force. Once again, we had Max and his crew, Jack, Carol and Bianca - with Carol leaving Mas behind to play ayah to Bianca's brood.
Just a moment ... Friday's episode was one day on from Thursday's. Yet suddenly, Bianca's got her enrollment in fashion college sorted, and her bags are packed. Another thing- surely Carl would have been prohibited from interacting with Max, just as Max would have been advised not to interfere with him. Yet there Carl was, in Max's face.
Beales, Butchers and Brannings.
Bianca is in a curious fix - one uncle is accused of trying to kill Phil Mitchell and one uncle is the accuser. How much more is the cowardice of Ian Beale going to be emphasized? In that instant when Carl was in the ER to the present episode, he's managed to negotiate a deal - Ian lies to the police about seeing Max tamper with the brakes on Carl's car and the "debt" is cancelled.
Ian is not the bravest of souls, and now we have the prospect of Lola involved with the son of the man accusing her friend's father of attempted murder, and Jay, a quasi-Mitchell involved with Flabbi the Dough-Faced Girl.
The best episode of the week, but a it really amounted to was a prelude for the arrival of the Ice Queen.
Ronnie did something almost unheard of in albert square history she took responsibility for something, that blonde blue eyed kid definitely looks more mitchell then moon but she didn't keep lying like archie did with Danielle, or hop a plane out of the country like Stacey, or try to pin the crime on someone else like Ben or Phil and their many misdeeds, she turned herself in and afterwards when Jack wanted her to skip court and run off with him she refused and even stopped her lawyer from making any excuses for her because she was going to take full responsibility for her crime. She is not Sam skipping out on her bail, or Bianca constantly shifting blame or even Tiffany trying to set up Grant for abuse and attempted homicide so she can run off with their daughter. She stood firm and separated herself from her father once and for all and owned up to a terrible thing she did instead of cowardly slinking off in darkened corners. Maybe you could ease up on your intense desire to hate any female character that isn't org Sharon or Janine and recognize the Ronnie is a complex and strong female character that will hopefully have a very positive effect on a sinking eastenders.
ReplyDeleteYes, she took responsibility, but in taking responsibility, there's something else known as TACT. TACT means you don't return to the scene of your crime, simply because you CAN, because people you've hurt still live there. Ronnie wantonly divorced Jack in prison, and didn't want to know him until she found that he was about to marry another woman.
DeleteShe is still a manipulator who thinks nothing of anyone but herself.
And you can FUCK OFF, coming on my blog, telling me what to do. Troll. If you want to say something like that in future, please use your screen name, at least, segaiolo.
i always post with the same name, and link to my tumblr i never pretend to be anybody else, I know how much you hate when I post so I haven't for awhile out of respect just couldn't keep quiet while you called ronnie entitled so i took a chance you had cooled down on me, plus i think a troll is someone who tries to disrupt the flow of a msg board which i don't think i qualify for since you never get more then one or two comments due to your abusive nature against anyone offering a differing opinion from your own.
DeleteBullshit. I respond in kind. People who disagree reasonably are always treated as such. You're just a Ronnie-shipper, and you need to look at yourself when you want to see how much of an agenda you're pushing. You like psychopaths? Fine. I don't. Neither Archie, nor Ronnie, nor Michael Moon.
DeleteEmilia, I'm disappointed that you didn't mention Morgan. HE IS ENORMOUS. The closeup of his massive arse waddling upstairs made me feel quite ill.
ReplyDelete