Sunday, January 22, 2017

A Tale of Two (or Three) Families - Review:- Friday 20.01.2017 Part II

This was a mediocre episode, although things began to fall into place about certain storylines. It was uneven, repetitive and downright bizarre in some instances.

Round and Round the Garden with Denise. Sean O'Connor has his own version of little twists. He gives us this brief, but brilliant scene between the increasingly appalling Kim and Donna in the market, which should have been an epiphany for Kim, and then it serves no purpose, but to show how obtuse and ignorant Kim really is.

When she questions Donna about her birth mother and if she ever thinks of her, Donna gives the hallmarked response of any adoptee - Claudette was her mother, she never thinks of the woman who gave birth to her, and she had an amazing and loving childhood, growing up with Claudette for a mum and Vincent for a brother. She wasn't raised by strangers, but by people who loved and wanted her. 

I honestly thought that this would provoke Kim into thinking about what Donna said and relating it to Denise's situation, but then when Denise tried a rapprochement by ringing to invite her to lunch, she hung up on her.

We also found out a bit about Denise's family history in the exchange that went down between Kim and Emerald or Ava or Grandma Medusa, whatever she's calling herself, that made me wonder just exactly how old Kim is supposed to be. I know Denise is 47, the same age as Ian and Sharon. I had thought Kim was fortyish, because Vincent is past forty. I didn't think she was in her thirties at all, but yet she remarked to her mother that when she was seven, Emerald handed her over to Denise to raise, and that Denise raised Kim and their other sister Daphne. So have they made Kim significantly younger or Denise significantly older? 

Kim is no spring chicken, and she hasn't been since she joined the show almost seven years ago. So how could Denise, who would have been a schoolgirl, at best, take charge of two younger sisters? EastEnders fails again in continuity.

The other thing I noticed about this segment of the second episode is not only how emasculated Vincent the character has become, but also just how much of a background character Kush has become. Apart from Patrick, Vincent is probably the most likable of the Fox-Hubbard dynamic, but even Patrick is emasculated to a point in that he's reduced, sometimes (and was even so at the end of the episode) to a level of speechless stupefication in the face of the Fox sisters' determination. Good old Patrick, always there to bend to their will.

Now it's Vincent. It's Vincent we see caring for Pearl. Kim takes her out for walks just so Kim, herself, can see and be seen. When Vincent takes the child out, it's for pleasure; but whenever we see the family dynamic, it's Vincent caring for the child, Vincent cooking for her and feeding her. In this episode, when Kim wanted to confront her mother, she didn't ask

I hope Grandma Medusa is short-term. She's another stock character in which EastEnders tries to specialise - the horny grandmother character, poncing about the house half-naked, coming onto her son-in-law and making racy comments with Kush. In the episode prior to this one, Kush and Denise sorta kinda bonded again over the fact that he's had to give up his son for Martin to raise, when he was handed some home truths about his preying on vulnerable women and being as self-centred, but in a different way, as his mother. I hope that wasn't a foreshadowing for someone - Phil or Kim - go fanagle the Christ Child back onto the Square and bring him up right under Denise's nose. In fact, I thought her scene in the previous episode with Libby was very much a laying to rest of the child in question, a moving on.

But everything was blown to the wind by Kim's intransigence, and her literal disowning of Denise because she put her child up for adoption. Kim is simply one stupid bitch, who deserves smacking down by someone, and I'd nominate Libby to do the job. After Donna eloquently described her life and childhood as an adopted child, Kim still cannot see the forest for the trees. No one ever gives a child up lightly, and maybe she feels slighted by the way Grandma Medusa allegedly passed her from pillar to post, but Kim has no right sitting in judgement of Denise, when she's a pretty shitty mother heself. She uses the adorable Pearl as a mini-reflection of herself, dressing her in identical outfits which border on ridiculous, in the hope that people will be attracted to Pearl and then notice Kim. Other than that, she cares little for the child. It's Vincent, with whom we see Pearl mostly. Kim's too busy putting herself and her dodgy ideas about. 

Denise is working a zero hours' contract job on probably minimum wage. Childcare will cost her more than she earns, unless she uses Patrick for free babysitting, but he's an elderly man, himself. Kim is just one intransigent, selfish, stupid bitch. She's probably jealous that Denise had the guts to tackle a problem and do something she seriously would have liked to have done, herself.

On the other hand, I hope this is an adoption story with an end which doesn't mean either parent getting the child back, because for too long the show has dissed the concept of adoption, and that's an insult to every adoptee or adoptive parent everywhere.

And Now We Know ... Another subtle little twist O'Connor interjected in the second half episode, which I thought was marginally better than the first one: I thought when Grandma Medusa, Denise and Libby were having breakfast at the Vic buffet, that once Libby and Denise sussed that Babe was doling out beer in a teapot, that one of them, most likely Libby as she's such a stick, would be the one to grass to the authorities. 

(Mind you, Grandma Medusa got the line of the night about Kim not ever being one to get the best from a sausage).

But the moment I saw Babe top up the brew of the stranger in the Vic and the moment he asked about the licence covering serving alcohol at breakfast, I knew he was someone official. Her coy answer about rules being made to be broken will cost Mick his livelihood. Seriously, you have to be some serious alcoholic who would want to start his day with beer for breakfast.

But the twist to this was the same bloke rocking up and being served in the café and overheard by Kathy reporting Mick, Linda and Shirley as the Vic's licencees, asking that their names be run through the computer for criminal or lesser offences. 

I was right when I predicted that Ian or Kathy would be the downfall of both Babe and the Carters losing the Vic's licence. She reported Babe to the police for sabotaging her coffee machine with ratshit - vandalism - but the guy, in investigating that incident, stumbled onto something much bigger - the Carters breaking licencing laws. The worst that could happen is Mick, Linda and Shirley being hauled off to the nick; the least that could happen is that they'll lose their licence.

You know where this is leading, don't you? First, it will probably lead to Babe leaving Walford, being run out by Mick for one sin too many, namely losing him his livelihood. And second, and here it is ... I predict Sharon will take over the licence of the Vic and the Carters will remain as tenants and manage the place for her, much in the same capacity as they did for Elaine. In fact, I can picture the scene - Mick despondent, not knowing what to do, everyone tearfully packing to leave and suddenly, Shirley has an idea, and goes running to Sharon, to eat crow and ask a favour.

Phil's Search for a Son. They should have a gameshow spin-off from EastEnders - Ladies and gentlemen, Phil Mitchell's Search for a Son .... will YOU be the lucky lad Phil takes home tonight?

Phil attracts waif-and-stray urchins like a magnet attracts metal. He has a difficult relationship with his own son, who constantly craves his attention and love, but Phil can't see past his homophobia. So he has Ben, the real son, about whom he cares little. 

Then there's Jay, the sometime son, who wandered in off the street and appeared to be everything Phil ever wanted in a son - heterosexual, bullish, bullying tendencies, male interests. He even got the boy to change his surname to Mitchell. Alas, Jay's conscience and his propensity to land himself in situations embarrassing to Phil Mitchell's pride, has meant that on numerous occasions, Jay has been consigned to the periphery of the Mitchell kingdom and has reverted to using his original surname of Brown.

(Come to think of it, why is Jay still living at the Mitchell residence? Immediately before Christmas, the Mitchells were told by Social Services that Jay had to find alternative accommodation or else, Louise would be taken into care. Well, Christmas was a month ago, everyone's back at work now, Jay's still living with the Mitchells and Louise is still very much there bopping about the place in her pj's. Has O'Connor forgotten this? He can't surely have forgotten that Jay is a registered sex offender, and that part of his conditions of freedom is that he not live in a household where an underaged girl lives. This can't be yet another piece of forgotten lore, like Billy's post?)

Candidate number three after Jay is Dennis Rickman Jr. Phil's bonded with the boy, for whom he feels a guilty responsibility for Dennis's father's death. Dennis, like Jay, is impressionable and all boy. He loves Phil, who's the only father figure he's ever known, and until recently, Phil was willing to make him a full Mitchell by adopting him and giving him the coveted Mitchell surname. That was before Candidate Number Four came into being.

Candidate Number Four is the holy Fox-Mitchell One-Night Mistake, and he's being carted off to adoptive parents, whisked away from Phil before he ever got a plan in shape to fight for him.

And now, there's another candidate on the scene.

The phonecall Phil received on the eve of the Blisters' funeral wasn't from Grant or Sam or Denise or anyone we knew. It was from Aaron, the aenemic-looking son of Tony, Phil's unseen liver friend, who died. This is another instance of Phil feeling remorse and guilt - guilt that he got the liver that Tony should have got, and Tony died.

They meet in the café, and almost immediately Phil asks if there's anything he can do for the lad, the cheeky little blighter reels off a list of things he wants, which include new trainers, a new computer games console and a trip to Orlando.

Phil's reaction is to dig deep into his bottomless pockets and growl:-

Let's start with the trainers.

You what? He's never seen this kid before and when he asks if he needs anything - like maybe some compassion and emotional support, the little arsehole starts reeling off a list of things his father was obviously too sick to buy him. Not only that, but Phil is a stranger, an older man whom he doesn't know, who offers him money.

At least the boy's mother, who appears to be French, had enough nous to storm around the Mitchell house, in front of Sharon, and rightfully castigate Phil for giving her son money for trainers.

I don't think this is the last we'll see of these people. I think Phil has just inherited another surrogate son, and the likes of Jay, poor little Denny and the holy child will fall by the wayside. And along with the surrogate son, I can see him eventually comforting the mother as well - probably when Sharon gets involved with saving the licence on the Vic. (Phil always reacts precipitously and pejoratively when Sharon gets stuck in on a business project). 

And when he is inevitably found out by Sharon, he'll blame everything and everyone but himself - after he lies, he'll say it was because he was missing the child he lost through Denise's decision, he'll say he was mourning Tony, who is just a name to most viewers because we didn't see him after all, so why should we relate? I hope this will mark the end of Phil for Sharon, because I still think she's going to get her real baby back - the Vic.

But Phil needs to give some attention to his daughter.

Louise Takes a Trip to TrumpLand. On the day when a self-avowed sexual predator is sworn in as the most powerful man in the Free World. the show continues with the ritualistic and misogynistic humiliation of Louise by this cocky little piece of shit, Keenan. 

This is basically cyber bullying - stealing the intellectual content of a boy she likes and whom she knows from Drama Club, and pretending to be him. It shows her naivete and trusting nature - Louise may act all street-suss, but she really isn't. She thinks she's arranged to meet a boy, Travis, for an afternoon, but when he's late, she's confronted by Keenan, and his multi-hued gang. Really, they covered every colour going - bi-racial (Keenan), Asian/Middle Eastern (Shakil), one white lad and one Afro-Caribbean. The BBC is nothing, if not an equal opportunity employer. 

It's then that Louise finds out that Keenan's been the one she's been texting,thinking he was Travis and telling him her innermost thoughts and secrets - like how she misses Peggy and songs Peggy sang to her, as well as her thoughts about Ronnie and Roxy.

This is toxic and actually quite disturbing to watch. Remember this bloke wanted to inviter her to his males-only bash just for the humiliation ritural. It seems, however, that Shakil is not too comfortable with this behaviour, but as yet, he's not found his balls and stood up to this creep.

Happy Families. Glenda wants to raise Matthew, and she has a right to do so. Jack has no rights to Matthew at all, and for some ungodly reason - probably because Declan Bennett is busy with his cabaret in New York - Charlie doesn't seem to what to know his son, and Yvonne doesn't seem to be bothered either.

Those are the only three people who have any right to Matthew, so I didn't take too kindly to Sharon sticking her oar in and having a go at Glenda, whatever Glenda's motives are, and I have to think that she views this as a genuine second chance to make amends for failing Ronnie and Roxy. Instead, we get plotting and planning, the Brannings and the Mitchells, Sharon giving it the big I AM, and Max urging Jack to turf Glenda out.

At least we now know Jack is going nowhere. I thought he'd bought the house in Ongar, but he mentioned cancelling the rental, so maybe he thought about renting it and selling Ronnie's house instead. Max reminds him that all the time he's in Walford, he'll have Sharon and Honey doing his housework and Lauren babysitting (because that's all Lauren seems to do), so he has to stay.

At the end of the day, the simplest thing for Jack to do would have been to ask Glenda to stay and help him with the kids, which is what he did eventually, but not until after the woefully bad scene where Danny showed up and offered to get Glenda to relinquish any claim for Matthew in exchange foro 20 grand. We then had to witness two really bad feigned punches from Jack on Danny (who can't even take a fake punch decently) and then the sounds of Jack beating him up, whilst we watched Max bathe his bacon sarnie in ketchup. The symbolism wasn't lost.

This is how you get rid of Danny and keep Glenda, but Glenys Barber is only in the UK for six months out of the year, so I shouldn't think it will be too long before Jack is bonking her for sympathy sex.

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