Friday, February 24, 2017

The Worst of Times - Review:- Friday 24.02.2017

Ever since Sean O'Connor took over the helm as EP, there's been an on-going theme about rubbish collection, rats and dysfunctional society, a loss of community. Dominic Treadwell-Collins normalised murder and murderers. O'Connor's stab at normality is to make everyone whinge and moan about fortnightly rubbish collections, having a Square on the cusp of trendy Stratford awash in stinking rubbish, rats and rude children, something harkening back to the Middle Ages.

EastEnders was always in a bit of a time warp, even in the 1980s, but this is ridiculous.

Fortnightly bin collections are what's happening in councils across the land. Authorities have been tightening their belts for once. Instead of whingeing, whining and moaning, Denise could do something very British for once in her pathetic ego-centric life - belt up, belt up in a car and go to the dump. She doesn't have a car? Her brother-in-law does.

Kush has a car, Martin Fowler has a van, Jack Branning has a car, Mick Carter has an ageing SUV, Billy Mitchell has a hearse, the Mitchells have vehicles. Everyone on that Square has access to transportation to take excess rubbish to the amenity tip. It's called "getting on with it", something people the world over have done since day one.

Rubbish and rats are one thing, mouthy kids are another; and the show has made them the hateful cartoon variety. Some of these urchins, most of whom are played by adults, are stereotypes. 

When did EastEnders get this bad? The truth is that the show started on the slippery slope downwards with John Yorke's tenure, and started to go off he road under Berridge's tenure. It's been bleeding viewers since 2003, and what happened that year? The show raised the first corpse from the dead. It started spinning out of control with Bryan Kirkwood, went off the rails entirely with Dominic Treadwell-Collins ... and now, regrettably, I think it's in freefall.

Something Easily Lost Is Difficult to Regain. I hate this storyline. I hate how this producer has ruined forever the character of Michelle Fowler. I hate how archly hypocritical she is, how she is capable now of telling bare-faced lies to her brother, and how she abuses the hospitality and responsibility handed to her by her oldest friend, the trust of looking after Sharon's son and stepdaughter. As her mother would say, she treats the Mitchell house like a knocking shop.

Rebecca is a stupid girl. Very intelligent and smart academically, but she's easily led into morally precarious situations. The most interesting thing about the awful group of teens which have been foisted on us, is the weird friendship existing between Rebecca and Louise.

I used to think the friendship shared by Michelle and Sharon was unusual to say the least. Had I a friend like Michelle, who repeatedly betrayed me with people who were closest to me, she wouldn't be my friend - even moreso in that she would naturally assume I'd forgive her anything, whilst the first slip-up I would make would have her giving me more than the cold shoulder. The friendship of Rebecca and Louise is more than quirky, it's almost sadistic.

Rebecca is the older of the two, yet she's the more immature. She's supposed to be smart, yet it's Louise whose virginity has been held intact, and it's Rebecca who's name has been passed around now, by the two ubiquitous mean girls who roam in and out of the camera lens, from pillar to post because she was caught in bed with someone who, for all intents and purposes, is a stranger. Five minutes before she was whisked upstairs, she was telling Prestonovich that it was too soon to get physical.

She allowed herself to be manipulated into having sex with Shakil, only because he was horny, and then was surprised that he, effectively, dumped her. At the time of her initiation into the sexual world, it was clear that Louise was living vicariously through Rebecca's experiences, judging by the way she rushed out to confront Rebecca and hear everything about "the first time" from her very lips. And, to be sure, Louise was doing her level best to push Preston in the direction of Rebecca only recently, even going as far as telling him that Rebecca had "had every boy in school."

She's caught between craving acceptance by the casually mean and intentionally cruel Snagglehead and Sniggle, yet she was mature enough to step up and stop the ruthless baiting and trolling of Rebecca as she sat in the café. She should really have told these cartoon characters where to go and how to get there, and here's a big criticism of the show at this moment. 

I know Snagglehead and Sniggle or Madison and whatever other trendy name the other one has are characters of the moment. They neither live on the Square, nor do they have parents or relatives who live there, and they don't appear to have that watchable quality that makes us want to see more of them - the way a Tiffany Raymond or a Mickey Miller or even Nigel Bates had, occasional characters, all, who became permanent. These two, along with Keegan, are simply caricatures of mean teens, the two girls being female equivalents of Keegan, who deal in inane bitchery. 

Who in their right minds would have called out ...

I always knew that girl was a tramp ... 

... as Rebecca was unceremoniously led from the Mitchell house, begging Michelle not to tell Martin? Surely, they knew that Michelle was Rebecca's aunt, but Michelle was too focused on getting Rebecca out of that situation and back home.

As for Michelle, she told a bare-faced lie to Martin, partly out of respect for Rebecca's frantic wishes, but mostly because she knew if she told Martin what happened, and Martin kicked off, then the truth would out about her and Prestonovich and the real reason for her sudden appearance in Walford. This lie was as much about her self-preservation as about respecting Rebecca's wishes. 

The lie was stupid, however. All Martin has to do is say something to Shakil about Rebecca texting him, and the lie is exposed. At least Michelle had the shame to demur when Martin pointed out that Rebecca looked up to Michelle, and he also made the common assumption of the lowly that Michelle must be something of a success because - hey, she's got a university education. 

Ted Bundy was a lawyer. Sarah Palin has a university education.

Whatever shame Michelle felt was wiped away as soon as she allowed herself to go upstairs and fuck a child again. I totally get it that TPTB are desperately trying to make Michelle sympathetic, someone who, in a moment of madness, fell into the arms of a student who happened to be under the legal age of consent - and I think it's being insinuated now that he was the one who wore down her defences, even after she related that sorry tale of him standing outside her seedy hotel, crying in the rain.

It doesn't matter whether he pursued her or she groomed him. She was the adult. She should have known better. Ultimately, the blame lies with her. 

As for the boy, he's as much a vile piece of shit as Keegan, but in a different way. The [i]double entendre[/i] remark he threw Rebecca's way as she scurried from the Mitchell house, was meant to insult and humiliate her as much as Snagglehead's and Sniggle's bitchery.

And now, like Michelle, and thanks to Michelle bringing this idiot into the Fowlers' lives, Rebecca's sordid little reputation will always precede her.

The Public Service Announcement in the Worst Possible Taste. Ian in the nude was inferred, and it was an encore of the time, also offscreen and inferred, where a reluctant Stacey had to help him from the bath.

Far more repulsive was the up close and personal shots of Ian Beale's enormous belly, complete with a full plate of food resting on top of it quite comfortably. Not only did we get a shot from that angle, we also had to have a shot belt level from between his legs.

We know Ian's overweight. It's been emphasized by TPTB having Adam Woodyatt tuck his teeshirts into the belt of his Mom jeans instead of wearing the ends loosely over his belt. I can only imagine this storyline is being run in conjunction with the actor trying to lose weight. Good luck to him, but the sitcom feel isn't funny. Not at all.

Life in the Pub. I like Konrad, and I like him with Shirley. If anything, his appearance only emphasizes the desperate need this show has for viable new characters - and someone in Konrad's ilk, instead of silly secondary school children in a half-baked attempt to imitate Grange Hill.

But what was that dialogue all about, with the plumber eyeing Shirley from afar when he should have been doing a quote for Mick.

I've lost count of how deep in debt Mick is. I don't know how many thousands Lee owed, which Mick repaid on his credit cards, but surely Linda must realise that the cards are maxed out. The payday loan he got for 14 grand, to medivac Elaine and Linda back from Spain, must need to be repaid, and then there's his 20k fine for breaking licencing laws. Now, he'll need at least 2 grand to cover work done by Konrad or Konrad's friends or whoever.

Jack was being nice, his only time, when he offered Mick a lifeline, but Max seemed to squelch that. It's been mooted that Max is behind all the misfortunes at the pub, and some weeks ago, there was that mysterious scene with Simon Williams's character at the top of the Gherkin. Max is out to destroy the pub, not to take it over, but to destroy it, but why?

I did like the scene where Abi handed Jack his arse, even at the expense of TPTB making Dot look like the typical ditzy old lady, who can't see two inches in front of her face. The car wasn't damaged, but the fact that she'd been brought home by the police for dangerous driving (and for getting herself out of a scrape) quickly escalated into a car crash scenario. The only person crashing was Jack, and Dot was right. Matthew is her only relative and no relation at all to Jack. Why does he even have this child?

I really would like to see Charlie Cotton return, but since Declan Bennett isn't coming back, we have to live with Jack taking the moral high ground. Denying Dot the right to see her relative was totally wrong. Even worse, was the horrendous and unnecessarily cruel baiting Dot endured by the drunken Kim.

Once again, I suppose Vincent is home minding the baby. You have to ask yourself, as well, where were Lauren and Steven when Jane was having a drink at the pub with Stacey and Ian was preening in front of the mirror. There was no mention of the Beales babysitting. Maybe Vincent's running a baby-sitting service, since that seems to be all he does these days. Kim was well and truly plastered.

The scene where she was mouthing off in the pub and when she found it necessary to call out Dot on her affliction was totally unnecessary, and totally cruel. It was a briliant depiction of exactly how the Square has broken down into mean little units of people who all take the moral high ground, in and of themselves, but who have no right to it.

Interesting that whilst Denise was making an abject fool of herself, mouthing off to the reporter about a broken community and snarling, mean-spiritied neighbours, Kim was the walking embodiment of just that. A drunken lout, who's shamed by Dot's tears. (Actually, that was a totally embarrassing scene).

Meanwhile, with Linda away and Lee gone for good, Mick is beginning to treat Whitney, subtly now, like a wife or a potential love interest instead of a daughter-in-law. She's got him in her crosshairs, and the character, for all she was lying in the dark feeling sorry for herself, comes across as sly and conniving. When she's persuaded to do a shift downstairs, check out how she stops before actually entering the bar and clocks a sloe-eye in Mick's direction, and her handling of a drunken Kim earned her the sort of affectionate reaction Mick used as a public display towards Linda, the touching of her hair and face.

I tell you, it won't be long before he's sleeping with her, and I hope Linda finds out and reacts accordingly.

The Soul of Discretion. Just a couple words about Carmel, whom I thoroughly detest. On the one hand, she was right to recommend counselling to Denise, not just because she's put her child up for adoption, but also because Denise has always been someone to react precipitously and then regret it. She did this when she toyed with Fatboy's affections for the sole purpose that she was horny.

In fact, maybe when Sharon wises up to what's been going on in her home behind her back, Michelle can go stay with Denise. They both have a predilection for picking up and sleeping with much younger men, and both have done the dirty on Sharon by having a child, each, by a Mitchell brother. They could compare notes on living without shame.

However, Matt Evans, the writer of tonight's episode, got a bit of dialogue wrong when Carmel said she felt compelled to speak out against Denise's behaviour because it affected one of Shakil's friend. Only yesterday, she was berating Shakil, in front of Keegan, for even associating with him. What she should have said, and she would have been well within her rights, is that she felt compelled to speak out because people were judging Shakil by his association with Keegan, when, in fact, Shakil had done nothing wrong, especially when the odious Kim was quick to remark that bad behaviour was usually the parents' fault, insinuating that Carmel was a bad parent. Kim is one to talk. I wonder how Pearl will enjoy watching Vincent hold Kim's head over the loo the next morning as she throws up the night's takings from before?

Denise thinks she's clever. In fact, she's the reverse of Rebecca. She thinks she's got common sense, and that she's a cut above the local yokels now that she's read a few books, which also reveals Kim to be hypocritical in view of her remarks about Michelle being snobby. Denise has always sneered at local people, and this time she's using the reporter she's called to rant about the state of Walford, literally blaming the council's fortnightly bin collections, the rubbish and the rats for youths like Keegan acting like sociopaths. 

She was shocked that the reporter seemed aware of her crime, and she bit the bait he offered her, encouraging her to talk about this, telling her that "people would relate to her action". Isn't she aware that she isn't supposed to shoot her mouth off as part of her non-sentence? Also, she makes one rant too many, when she goes off on one about the prices at The Minute Mart being excessive and throwing away good food whilst people use food banks.

The Minute Mart will always have prices in excess of those at Tesco, Sainsburys or Aldis. Because you pay for your convenience. Does everyone on the Square do a weekly shop at The Minute Mart? If so, they surely must be able to afford its prices. She's so far up her own arse in self-importance and high dudgeon for having assaulted a schoolkid, that she's gone off on a tangent about the community being broken, when Denise has always held herself aloof from the community in general, unless it suited her. 

In the 90s, sometimes, Kathy used to get on my nerves when she was in the café. She could be bloody rude to people at times, but then, she was having to deal with a difficult marriage to Phil; but Denise is rude ad hoc and to all and sundry, bar Patrick. The fact that she's grasping at straws by using the community to fight her case against being fined for being in the wrong is a joke. An even bigger joke is that she's been subtly tricked into bad-mouthing her employer, and after being allowed to work there after being sacked for pilfering.

Go figure.

And Finally ... Ben and Jay stealing glasses from the Vic. WTF?

This show is dying on its feet.

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