Sunday, January 18, 2015

The Party's Over.



I've only just watched this episode. Having 8 puppies ready for new homes takes time in the evening (2 left to go), so I was bushed by the time all the usual domestic duties had been done.

Sharon Marshall is usually a good writer (and should write more episodes), but once again, Friday's is the weakest of the week. Whenever there's a do at the pub, for whatever reason, it usually results in a weak episode. Still watchable, however, but infuriating.

There was a curious sense of déja vu about this episode. Was it only a year ago, when Linda initiated what had been a tradition at her other pub, a Ladies' Night? Carol had just been diagnosed with cancer, Kat was pregnant and expecting twins, Denise was Ian's fiancée, Cora was drunk.

Just look at how things have changed now. Oh, and Shirley Queen of Scrotes reluctantly admitted that Linda was good for Mick.

I was never so happy to see two people than I was to see Mick and Linda at the end of that episode. 

Party's over, Your Majesty.

Can't ya just hear Fatboy sing? Oh, and it was really an evening chock-full of Queens - a drag queen, Shirley Queen of Scrotes and the Queen of Bovine. (Sorry, Fatboy, but "curvaceous" Jane is only curvaceous in a sirloin sort of way).


He Shoots, He Scores! He Gets the Consolation Prize.

Well, TPTB have obviously forgotten that Carol is breast-less, and since there's been no talk of reconstructive surgery, you'd think they'd do a better job in flattening her out. No matter how loose the clothing is, the perceptive viewer can still cop sight of the fact that Carol has two very pronounced mounds topping her upper front midriff section, and I don't think they're prostheses.

Used correctly, Arthur is a sweet character, but they have to get away from him being every older woman's stud muffin. He relates well to older women as maternal figures - Dot and Carol - but he's not above servicing some of the cougar-types. I really enjoyed his relationship with Denise, and I feel there's something to explore there, because I think there's a genuine attraction, and it would do the show well to portray a relationship between a much older woman and a younger man. I still remember the when the Fatboy-Denise initial relationship began, when he asked, quite poignantly, if Denise were merely using him.

Well, he got used in this episode. Instead of comforting Denise, who's lonely and who was thoughtlessly insulted by the Queen of Bovine, who stated that Ian was only marrying her again because there was no one better. (How I wanted Denise to smack the living cowshit out of her, the smug bitch). 

Instead, Arthur ends up with everybody's consolation prize - Nurse Sonia, who's not allowing herself to be pursued by Tina, a character who took a step backwards in development tonight.

First of all, why is Tina even worried about Sylvie going to a care home? Sylvie hasn't been present during the majority of Tina's life and obviously didn't give her a second thought. Now, all of a sudden, she's insulted by the fact that the rest of the family, most of whom weren't even on speaking terms this time last year, want the absent mother to be even more absent from their lives, and Tina is still being treated as "the kid." Well, if you've dressed, looked, behaved and acted like a five year-old, even throughout the years you were a mother, how do you expect to be treated?

Tina is clearly attracted to Sonia, who's clearly attracted to her, and Sonia is also in full-on victim mode. Oh-woe-is-me-I'm-getting-a-divorce-I'm-a-failure... As far as the failure of Sonia's marriage to Martin is concerned, I'd say she's more than 50 per cent correct, but Tina fuels her victimhood even more.

If your marriage didn't work out, he's not the right one for you.

(And, of course, you are, Tina). What a load of bullshit! When a marriage breaks down, usually, it's the fault of both people. Martin may have been, in Sonia's view, a negligent husband - both have been unfaithful - but I don't imagine poor, pitiful Sonia has helped matters any, the way she willingly and openly trash-talked him to all and sundry (mostly Tina) during last year. Now, she's feeling mightily sorry for herself because they mutually decided that their marriage wasn't working - this was after Sonia admitted that she wanted more than Martin could give, and Martin was more than willing to give into this selfish woman's demands. 

Martin has their child. Has their been one word from Sonia about missing Rebecca or wanting her to be with her? She didn't even put up any resistance to Martin saying he wanted custody? That's how much Sonia cared for a child she fought so hard, and even broke the law, in order to get her back. Instead, she'd rather kick up her heels, steal charity money and have a good time, living with Mummy as if she were a child again. She doesn't even deserve the name of Fowler, and I hope TPTB do link Martin, when he returns, with Stacey, just to see Sonia screw up her face in an open-mouthed cry.

So Arthur, who's leaving the Butcher-Jackson abode, did, indeed score tonight, but with the consolation prize of someone who'll use him for casual sex, because she's too afraid to admit her real sexuality.

Arthur is too good for the atrocious Sonia, and you know what? So is Tina.

The Queen of Bovine Is Really Mean.


Jane goes to Ladies' Night because the Great Bromance which is Alfie and Ian, plus Bobby the Beaver, have taken over her couch and her pizza. The poor oppressed murderer accomplice to a murder woman is stuck ironing all of the Beale family's clothing, so she takes herself off to the Vic, where she sits with, respectively, a nosey old gossip (Pam), a drunk (Cora), a religious fanatic (Shabnam), a sensible woman (Stacey), the help (Denise) and a dirty girl (Kat) and lords it over all of them.

She is so convinced of her own superiority that she, unthinkingly, insults Denise by remarking that Ian's only marrying her twice because there's no one better in Walford for him to marry, dissing Denise to her face and never thinking of what she said. Maybe Denise should have replied that there's no one in Walford stupid enough to marry Ian Beale, and that Jane - who left Walford the last time, calling herself Jane Clark, is the only one who'll put up with Ian.

There were a lot of unthinking insults which went on at that table - Denise's remark about a morgue as Carol sat close by, was another one, but I was glad to see the two women resolve their differences in the ladies' room.

If Denise is drinking too much, it's because she's supporting Patrick on her own. Is there an element of self-pity here? Perhaps, but Denise didn't ask for or deserve the appalling treatment the Beales meted her. 

Is it me or is Kim proving refreshing this time around. Line of the night goes to Denise, when Kim objected that she had spent the previous night looking after Patrick and hadn't had a night out in ages. 

You've spent the past year having a night out.

Kim's baby is due in April, but we all know that the child will arrive early  which means we might get a sight of Mr Hubbard. In fact, Kim's reasons for going out were quite amusing - that she hadn't told Walford of her enceinte condition, and that it would give the residents time and inclination to heap gold, frankincense and myrrh (as well as vouchers) on the baby's head. Loved Denise's apt remark that Kim was no virgin, but at the end, I liked it that Kim subtly advised Denise to drink some water, and Denise acknowledged how glad she was to have Kim back.

The fact that Kim had been away for more than a year was brought home by her remarking how strange it seemed not to see Kat and Alfie behind the bar. Whe Kat grudgingly asked about Alfie, Jane remarked that Kat could visit him whenever she wanted, which prompted her to try the dirty girl routine with Kush, who seemed to tolerate her presence, but didn't encourage her. In fact, he literally shoved her off his lap.

It was quite telling to see her leave the pub and make her way home to her squat alone and looking miserable, whilst later, when Jane told Alfie that Kat asked about him, he took heart from the measure. The dirty girl is going to be a tough nut to crack. From the get go, she was openly rude to Tamwar, who was doing his Asperger's Syndrome tonight, and even rude in a comment she made about Shabnam.

Kat's lost any moral high ground she had over Alfie's scam with her dirty girl behaviour earlier.

The Queen of Scrotes Is Not The Queen of the Vic.



You just knew that, at the end of this episode, Mick and Linda were going to make an appearance.

Shirley is one manipulating bitch. She has no right to bring Dean into the Vic to live, and actually, Dean was right for once - he is 27 years old. She isn't going to undo by this gesture, something and someone she ignored for a lifetime, and he does have a room at Denise's. Actually, no. He still has a flat, because he was the principal tenant at the flat where Stacey and Kat are squatting. And the Vic is more the home of Nancy and Lee than it ever is of Shirley. This is a business in which she owns ONE PER CENT. She is living there ONLY by Mick's good graces. It's just that - a grace-and-favour abode, so she is clearly taking liberties here.

Her manipulative reasoning to Nancy didn't get past me either. Takings are down. Am I right in assuming that the Carters, generally, haven't been that successful with the Vic this year? Certainly not with that bitter, wizened old crone looking like vinegar behind the bar. In fact, this is one of the few times I've seen Shirley work in HER business. The rest of the time, she's propping up the bar with a drink. And all the pep talk with Nancy resulted in was Nancy purporting to Shirley the wrong end of the stick in her assumption of what happened between her parents and Dean. Based on Nancy's knowledge that Dean kissed Linda, she's assumed an affair, which would explain why Mick would go batty, and that's all the ammunition Shirley Queen of Scrotes needs.

Because as has been reiterated, Shirley's real measure is to get Linda out of the picture and reign supreme as Walford Matriarch of the Vic, to show both Dean and Mick how Linda was an adverse influence on them both and assume command. Stan, in his dotage, will believe anything. It's impossible to believe that a year ago, these people were barely talking to one another. Now they've got the absent mother (a meme in CarterVille) ready to be committed, the granddad is dying and is seeing everything through rose-coloured glasses, Shirley's the self-appointed Queen of the Vic and a "proper landlady" ready to resume motherhood on two sons she's abandoned - why does she never mention Carly?- and she's even managed to control Mick's two children.

So, one year later, Denise is drinking, Carol is breastless, but alive, Kat's a dirty girl again with three kids, and Cora's still drunk.

The real line of the night went to Mick.

The party's over.

Let the games begin.

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