There was a lot of surface action in this episode, but no real depth. We all knew what the eventual duff-duff would contain, and the only real tension leading up to the climax only occurred in the last few seconds of the episode. A great deal of it, and June Brown, I'm looking at you, was camp hamminess, which, at least on my part, elicited laughter and not tension or empathy.
It didn't occur to me until the episode had ended that most of the characters featured tonight, apart from a handful, are pretty unpleasant or have major flaws which impede their development. I never thought I'd see the day I was glad to see the return of Nick Cotton.
This was, in fact, a pantomime - a watchable pantomime, but a pantomime much the same.
The only thing that saved the episode was, once again, Nick, and this storyline seems to have superseded the investigation into the death of Lucy. So on Hallowe'en, we're left not with Sabrina the Teenaged Witch, but an investigation into the death of Lucy the Teenaged (barely) Bitch.
Mad About the Boy. That could be "mad" as in angry or "mad" as in barking or "mad" as in mad, bad and dangerous to know. In fact, it's all three. First, there's Abi, who's hell bent on spending a quiet (read: romantic) evening with Ben. This is "mad" as in daft as a brush. Abi thinks she's got the house to herself for her own private paradise in black with NuNuBen, until Lauren rushes in, scared shitless that someone has been following her again.
Yes, Lauren is that self-obsessed.
I love the way Abi accommodates her.
Then there's NuNuBen, himself. It dawned on me tonight that NuNuBen was trying to act like Phil, in the way that David Witts used to try to imitate Jake Woods's mannerisms. He arrives at the party for two, which has become three, baffled by the fact that Johnny Carter thinks NuNuBen has a girlfriend.
(Aside: Who isn't surprised that the Carters dress up for Hallowe'en en famille as the Munsters? I caught the garbled reference to Stan being Grandpa Munster, but it wasn't until Johnnie, dressed as Eddie, confirmed the earlier garbled conversation between Fatboy, Roxy, Ronnie and Mick Carter:-)
Roxy to Mick: What have you come as?
Fatboy: 'E's Frankenstein, man!
Ronnie: No, Frankenstein was a doctor.
Mick: I'm a Munster.
Roxy: What?
Mick: Well, er ... it works better with the kids around ...
Anyhoo, the scene where Ben discovered Abi had been putting about the information about Ben having a girlfriend was too precious. Actually, Ben was quit e scary in that scene when he shouted at Abi not to get involved. Even Lauren was affected, but not impressed, by his curt good-bye, after she'd called him out on sulking. It served as a bonding moment for Lauren and Abi, until simpering Summerhayes turned up and convinced Lauren to go to the Vic to the party with Whitney.
That was all Lauren needed to dump Abi and run. Actually, tonight's episode was significant for Lauren, in that two very important characters in her dynamic tried to get through her thick, entitled, selfish and self-absorbed skull that life wasn't all about her, that there were other people in the world, and she wasn't the distinct centre of it.
When she suggested that Abi find new friends, after having Jay break up with her, and Ben be curt, Abi couldn't understand why she had to be ostracised, instead of them. Her reply to Lauren was priceless and beautifully bitchy:-
I should find new friends? So you're going to give me relationship advice now, are you, Lauren? Why don't you tell me how you coped with all your exes - Joey, Jake, and - let's see, where exactly is Peter?
Whitney tried twice to get her to go to the Hallowe'en party, the last time being rebuffed by Lauren's fear of being followed (any other time, she'd be intrigued by the attention). It's triggered by a phantom phonecall.
Whitney: It's a prank call. It's Hallowe'en, Lauren, it's what people do. It's not always about you, you know.
This is the bizarre millennial non-beauty of the Lauren and Whitney friendship, and it was the basis, moreso, of the Lauren and Lucy friendship. These girls keep company with each other, not because they particularly like each other, but because they provide a sounding board for talking about themselves, assured that whoever they're talking to isn't really listening, so falling out with one another is easy. It's a shallow friendship, with no depth or nuance.
At least, the friendships of Sharon and Michelle, Bianca and Tiffany, and Tanya and Jane, albeit skewed and sometimes based on jealousy, dependency, and mistrust, had layers to explore, instead of whining about the latest piece of beefcake to stride onto the Square and bed them. Beneath the jealousy, dependency and mistrust, these women genuinely liked each other. I don't think these three girls ever did. Whitney, for all her faults, is miles above the others in her compassion, her listening skills and her outlook.
It was absolutely no surprise at all to find, eventually, who was following Lauren to scare her ultimately - Abi. This was Abi the Mad (as in Angry), the scorned woman, who was dumped by her boyfriend, dumped by her friend and unceremoniously dumped by her sister, left to keep company with the jittery, insipid Summerhayes ...
Summerhayes (wringing her hands like Uriah Heep): Abi, why didn't you go to the pub with Lauren?
Abi: Did you hear me being asked? Er, I don't think so.
Abi's tactic was to get even with Lauren by scaring the piss out of her. I think she succeeded. Stupid move of Lauren to chase after an unknown figure all on her own in the dark of night.
Compounding this storyline were two other interesting titbits. The first was the totally unnecessary appearance of Summerhayes, hemming and hawing and almost visibly trembling in her pursuit of Max, but scared and uncertain of Max's children. Already lying to Max and his family, she continues the lie about the journalist trailing Lauren, texting Cameron Bryant and meeting with him, accusing him of doing this out of jealousy. Bryant leaves suddenly, muttering that he doesn't have to "put up with this."
Neither do we.
The second titbit is NuNuBen, now devolving into Ben the Closeted Gay who hides behind homophobia. Pardon me, but wasn't it Ben who made it painfully obvious to Johnny last week that he was interested? Now, he's accusing Johnny of pursuit, assuring Johnny that he's not like him, that his homosexuality was only a phase. Will this version of Ben see him turn into a closeted gay gay-basher?
Ghost Story. Of course, this was what it was all about. Nick being Lazarus and such. This was the storyline which saw Rita Symons return to her position as Queen of the Zingers.
(Roxy about Mrs Doyle: Who's that dressed up as Nanny McFee?)
The niggles are beginning to show with Roxy and Aleks - her nagging him about not having a costume, him nagging her about showing too much leg. In all of this, who was watching Amy and Dennis, I wonder?
Of course, this was all the understated engagement party for Ronnie and Charlie. Interesting to note that, whilst Mrs Doyle is pleased about the Cotton-Mitchell Damien, she's not too enamoured of Ronnie or anything Mitchell. (Good call) We all know that Phil's not too pleased about the association, still thinking Charlie is a cop. (He may not be that bothered when he finds out that Charlie's just a glorified bog cleaner).
All of this is played out against Dot's alleged sighting of Nick in the previous episode. Who'd have thought such a firm Christian as Dot would believe in ghosts, but she's determined that Nick's soul isn't at rest because he didn't repent his sins.
I'm sorry, Brown was at her hammiest tonight, and Dot, herself, is never hammier unless she's getting all the attention and cossetting which she thinks she's due, and she plays it to the hilt. First, she had Sharon and Ian dancing attendance. (Aside: Sharon's presence tonight was weird - considering she and Phil are long-awaited newlyweds, they sure staked out the opposite ends of the pub). Ian and Sharon tried to remonstrate with Dot about how they still remember Lucy (recently dead) and Dennis (barely thought-about-dead), Sharon seeing Dennis in every corner. I should think she would, and I'd hope he'd scare the shit out of her (and Phil).
Dot feels that Nick is alive, as only a mother can feel a son is alive, no matter how much or how fervently Charlie might lie. Leave it, however, to Mrs Doyle to drop the clanger, when Dot whined about having wanted to see Nick's corpse. Mrs Doyle remarked that Charlie was right not to allow her, a fact that Dot picked up on but which could have been covered by Mrs Doyle by simply saying that Charlie had told her he hadn't allowed Dot to see Nick's corpse.
This prompted the line of the night from Dot ...
'E's al-i-i-i-ve! 'E's al-i-i-i-ve!
Odd, that Charlie never told her until Phil confessed that the money he had paid Charlie was padded out with paper, which prompted Charlie, literally, to run for his life back to Dot.
There were plenty of the tension-inducing teasers - the entry into a cafe, where Charlie mistook a black-clad man for Nick, Dot hearing Fatboy enter the house and fearful that the sounds were those of Nick. Yet Dot knew Nick was in that house, which led to the climax of the episode and the inevitable ...
'Ello, Ma ... 'Appy 'Allowe'en!
Really, he couldn't say anything else, and the fact that he'd nicked (pun intended) her lighter from her coat and snapped it out to light Dot's cigarette, was a classic moment.
If I'm looking forward to Monday's episode at all, it's because of Nick.
It didn't occur to me until the episode had ended that most of the characters featured tonight, apart from a handful, are pretty unpleasant or have major flaws which impede their development. I never thought I'd see the day I was glad to see the return of Nick Cotton.
This was, in fact, a pantomime - a watchable pantomime, but a pantomime much the same.
The only thing that saved the episode was, once again, Nick, and this storyline seems to have superseded the investigation into the death of Lucy. So on Hallowe'en, we're left not with Sabrina the Teenaged Witch, but an investigation into the death of Lucy the Teenaged (barely) Bitch.
Mad About the Boy. That could be "mad" as in angry or "mad" as in barking or "mad" as in mad, bad and dangerous to know. In fact, it's all three. First, there's Abi, who's hell bent on spending a quiet (read: romantic) evening with Ben. This is "mad" as in daft as a brush. Abi thinks she's got the house to herself for her own private paradise in black with NuNuBen, until Lauren rushes in, scared shitless that someone has been following her again.
Yes, Lauren is that self-obsessed.
I love the way Abi accommodates her.
Then there's NuNuBen, himself. It dawned on me tonight that NuNuBen was trying to act like Phil, in the way that David Witts used to try to imitate Jake Woods's mannerisms. He arrives at the party for two, which has become three, baffled by the fact that Johnny Carter thinks NuNuBen has a girlfriend.
(Aside: Who isn't surprised that the Carters dress up for Hallowe'en en famille as the Munsters? I caught the garbled reference to Stan being Grandpa Munster, but it wasn't until Johnnie, dressed as Eddie, confirmed the earlier garbled conversation between Fatboy, Roxy, Ronnie and Mick Carter:-)
Roxy to Mick: What have you come as?
Fatboy: 'E's Frankenstein, man!
Ronnie: No, Frankenstein was a doctor.
Mick: I'm a Munster.
Roxy: What?
Mick: Well, er ... it works better with the kids around ...
Anyhoo, the scene where Ben discovered Abi had been putting about the information about Ben having a girlfriend was too precious. Actually, Ben was quit e scary in that scene when he shouted at Abi not to get involved. Even Lauren was affected, but not impressed, by his curt good-bye, after she'd called him out on sulking. It served as a bonding moment for Lauren and Abi, until simpering Summerhayes turned up and convinced Lauren to go to the Vic to the party with Whitney.
That was all Lauren needed to dump Abi and run. Actually, tonight's episode was significant for Lauren, in that two very important characters in her dynamic tried to get through her thick, entitled, selfish and self-absorbed skull that life wasn't all about her, that there were other people in the world, and she wasn't the distinct centre of it.
When she suggested that Abi find new friends, after having Jay break up with her, and Ben be curt, Abi couldn't understand why she had to be ostracised, instead of them. Her reply to Lauren was priceless and beautifully bitchy:-
I should find new friends? So you're going to give me relationship advice now, are you, Lauren? Why don't you tell me how you coped with all your exes - Joey, Jake, and - let's see, where exactly is Peter?
Whitney tried twice to get her to go to the Hallowe'en party, the last time being rebuffed by Lauren's fear of being followed (any other time, she'd be intrigued by the attention). It's triggered by a phantom phonecall.
Whitney: It's a prank call. It's Hallowe'en, Lauren, it's what people do. It's not always about you, you know.
This is the bizarre millennial non-beauty of the Lauren and Whitney friendship, and it was the basis, moreso, of the Lauren and Lucy friendship. These girls keep company with each other, not because they particularly like each other, but because they provide a sounding board for talking about themselves, assured that whoever they're talking to isn't really listening, so falling out with one another is easy. It's a shallow friendship, with no depth or nuance.
At least, the friendships of Sharon and Michelle, Bianca and Tiffany, and Tanya and Jane, albeit skewed and sometimes based on jealousy, dependency, and mistrust, had layers to explore, instead of whining about the latest piece of beefcake to stride onto the Square and bed them. Beneath the jealousy, dependency and mistrust, these women genuinely liked each other. I don't think these three girls ever did. Whitney, for all her faults, is miles above the others in her compassion, her listening skills and her outlook.
It was absolutely no surprise at all to find, eventually, who was following Lauren to scare her ultimately - Abi. This was Abi the Mad (as in Angry), the scorned woman, who was dumped by her boyfriend, dumped by her friend and unceremoniously dumped by her sister, left to keep company with the jittery, insipid Summerhayes ...
Summerhayes (wringing her hands like Uriah Heep): Abi, why didn't you go to the pub with Lauren?
Abi: Did you hear me being asked? Er, I don't think so.
Abi's tactic was to get even with Lauren by scaring the piss out of her. I think she succeeded. Stupid move of Lauren to chase after an unknown figure all on her own in the dark of night.
Compounding this storyline were two other interesting titbits. The first was the totally unnecessary appearance of Summerhayes, hemming and hawing and almost visibly trembling in her pursuit of Max, but scared and uncertain of Max's children. Already lying to Max and his family, she continues the lie about the journalist trailing Lauren, texting Cameron Bryant and meeting with him, accusing him of doing this out of jealousy. Bryant leaves suddenly, muttering that he doesn't have to "put up with this."
Neither do we.
The second titbit is NuNuBen, now devolving into Ben the Closeted Gay who hides behind homophobia. Pardon me, but wasn't it Ben who made it painfully obvious to Johnny last week that he was interested? Now, he's accusing Johnny of pursuit, assuring Johnny that he's not like him, that his homosexuality was only a phase. Will this version of Ben see him turn into a closeted gay gay-basher?
Ghost Story. Of course, this was what it was all about. Nick being Lazarus and such. This was the storyline which saw Rita Symons return to her position as Queen of the Zingers.
(Roxy about Mrs Doyle: Who's that dressed up as Nanny McFee?)
The niggles are beginning to show with Roxy and Aleks - her nagging him about not having a costume, him nagging her about showing too much leg. In all of this, who was watching Amy and Dennis, I wonder?
Of course, this was all the understated engagement party for Ronnie and Charlie. Interesting to note that, whilst Mrs Doyle is pleased about the Cotton-Mitchell Damien, she's not too enamoured of Ronnie or anything Mitchell. (Good call) We all know that Phil's not too pleased about the association, still thinking Charlie is a cop. (He may not be that bothered when he finds out that Charlie's just a glorified bog cleaner).
All of this is played out against Dot's alleged sighting of Nick in the previous episode. Who'd have thought such a firm Christian as Dot would believe in ghosts, but she's determined that Nick's soul isn't at rest because he didn't repent his sins.
I'm sorry, Brown was at her hammiest tonight, and Dot, herself, is never hammier unless she's getting all the attention and cossetting which she thinks she's due, and she plays it to the hilt. First, she had Sharon and Ian dancing attendance. (Aside: Sharon's presence tonight was weird - considering she and Phil are long-awaited newlyweds, they sure staked out the opposite ends of the pub). Ian and Sharon tried to remonstrate with Dot about how they still remember Lucy (recently dead) and Dennis (barely thought-about-dead), Sharon seeing Dennis in every corner. I should think she would, and I'd hope he'd scare the shit out of her (and Phil).
Dot feels that Nick is alive, as only a mother can feel a son is alive, no matter how much or how fervently Charlie might lie. Leave it, however, to Mrs Doyle to drop the clanger, when Dot whined about having wanted to see Nick's corpse. Mrs Doyle remarked that Charlie was right not to allow her, a fact that Dot picked up on but which could have been covered by Mrs Doyle by simply saying that Charlie had told her he hadn't allowed Dot to see Nick's corpse.
This prompted the line of the night from Dot ...
'E's al-i-i-i-ve! 'E's al-i-i-i-ve!
Odd, that Charlie never told her until Phil confessed that the money he had paid Charlie was padded out with paper, which prompted Charlie, literally, to run for his life back to Dot.
There were plenty of the tension-inducing teasers - the entry into a cafe, where Charlie mistook a black-clad man for Nick, Dot hearing Fatboy enter the house and fearful that the sounds were those of Nick. Yet Dot knew Nick was in that house, which led to the climax of the episode and the inevitable ...
'Ello, Ma ... 'Appy 'Allowe'en!
Really, he couldn't say anything else, and the fact that he'd nicked (pun intended) her lighter from her coat and snapped it out to light Dot's cigarette, was a classic moment.
If I'm looking forward to Monday's episode at all, it's because of Nick.
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