A song for the star-crossed lovers:-
Is anyone sad that they're going? I'm not, and neither is Marc Elliot by the sound of his interview in The Sun. Elliot dubbed the duo Dryed, because they were, in his words, so boring.
On Digital Spy, the commentators KatrinaK (a Chryed fangirl) and Miss Lola (a realist) are having a ding-dong because of this. KatrinaK sees Chryed as a romantic and tragic duo, who'll be missed by all when they leave. Miss Lola sees the couple as characters totally defined by their sexuality.
I'm inclined to agree with Miss Lola.
Chryed weren't characters who just happened to be gay, they were the gay couple with every storyline centering around their sexuality. Their sexuality defined their characters.
Syed's coming out and its repercussions apart, everything which transpired afterward centred around their sexuality. Syed, as Marc Elliot reiterated, was the gay Muslim.
As well, after the initial coming-out lolapalooza, when Chryed moved in together, Syed was left to fester. There was absolutely no character development. Syed has always only ever interacted with either his family or Christian. Christian was connected to the Beales, he was friends with Roxy, he could be seen, on occasions, propped at the bar of the Vic, sharing a pint with Jack and gabbing with Alfie. For the longest time, Syed was only seen within the confines of their flat - cooking, cleaning, catering for Christian's needs. He saw his brother only surreptitiously. He was shunned by Zainab and Masood.
He trained as a masseur, but nothing came of that - except a reiteration of his sneaky, dishonest nature, which always bubbled slightly below his facade. There was the pisspoor attempt, after some producer or writer read too much into tweenie longings on Walford Web Kindergarten's page about how peachy super-keen it would be if Tanya, that most brilliant and open of minds (not), and Syed were to form a friendship. Why, it would be alike another, albeit calmer, version of Christian's friendship with Roxy - ne'mind the fact that both Christian and Roxy were hard partiers, whilst Tanya was a drunk and Syed still, at heart, a practicing Muslim.
Still, they colluded in robbing Roxy blind - only because Syed was jealous of Roxy's influence on Christian - was he afraid she would open Christian to a straight relationship? - and Roxy sorta kinda didn't trust Syed to be faithful to Christian. Pretty perspicacious, for Roxy.
So Syed was slated to become Tanya's gay friend.
So Syed and Tanya robbed Roxy, and the attempt at friendship floundered and failed. Syed was back to Square One, borrowing money from Janine and in conjunction with his ex-wife Amira, attempting to make a fortune in tourist tat off the Olympics. Now it was Christian's turn to be jealous. Christian initially decided that it was time (with no consultation with Syed) that they should be parents. Again, without Syed's consent, he tried surrogacy with Roxy, then forged ahead with adoption before all that fell by the wayside in the welter of confusion surrounding Yusef and mistrust surrounding Amira's reappearance with Syed's natural daughter.
Now Chryed were angling to become the gay parents, and when Syed won the right to have his daughter stay from time to time, Christian went through a brief period of feeling jealous that she was restricting his party time too. However, in recent times, Christian's gone from being the party animal to the glorified au pair, whilst Syed has reverted to type - sneaky, calculating, dishonest and not averse at all to blaming anyone for his shortcomings but himself.
The first time he was caught dipping into family business expenditures (by his father), Mas copped the blame for Syed's crimes and bore the wrath of Zainab; now Syed's thinking nothing of blaming his ineffectual younger brother for the mess he's made worse at the Argee Bahjee. And once again, he's discovered by his father - but more importantly, the astute Masood has discovered that, quite possibly, Syed doesn't want to marry Christian, that he doesn't want to be constrained by domesticity now. Syed has only just come to terms with his own sexuality, he's only had one long-term relationship with a man who's been there, done that, read the book, seen the movie and bought the teeshirt and now wants a quiet, comfy life with his husband, their daughter, some slippers and a fire.
Danny was right. Syed wants more, even to the point of getting a high off the danger of seeing his fiance' interact with a man whom he's been seeing, flirting with and kissing on the sly. Syed is as morally bankrupt as the likes of Max or Roxy, except - like many others - he would rather die than admit it.
On Digital Spy, the commentators KatrinaK (a Chryed fangirl) and Miss Lola (a realist) are having a ding-dong because of this. KatrinaK sees Chryed as a romantic and tragic duo, who'll be missed by all when they leave. Miss Lola sees the couple as characters totally defined by their sexuality.
I'm inclined to agree with Miss Lola.
Chryed weren't characters who just happened to be gay, they were the gay couple with every storyline centering around their sexuality. Their sexuality defined their characters.
Syed's coming out and its repercussions apart, everything which transpired afterward centred around their sexuality. Syed, as Marc Elliot reiterated, was the gay Muslim.
As well, after the initial coming-out lolapalooza, when Chryed moved in together, Syed was left to fester. There was absolutely no character development. Syed has always only ever interacted with either his family or Christian. Christian was connected to the Beales, he was friends with Roxy, he could be seen, on occasions, propped at the bar of the Vic, sharing a pint with Jack and gabbing with Alfie. For the longest time, Syed was only seen within the confines of their flat - cooking, cleaning, catering for Christian's needs. He saw his brother only surreptitiously. He was shunned by Zainab and Masood.
He trained as a masseur, but nothing came of that - except a reiteration of his sneaky, dishonest nature, which always bubbled slightly below his facade. There was the pisspoor attempt, after some producer or writer read too much into tweenie longings on Walford Web Kindergarten's page about how peachy super-keen it would be if Tanya, that most brilliant and open of minds (not), and Syed were to form a friendship. Why, it would be alike another, albeit calmer, version of Christian's friendship with Roxy - ne'mind the fact that both Christian and Roxy were hard partiers, whilst Tanya was a drunk and Syed still, at heart, a practicing Muslim.
Still, they colluded in robbing Roxy blind - only because Syed was jealous of Roxy's influence on Christian - was he afraid she would open Christian to a straight relationship? - and Roxy sorta kinda didn't trust Syed to be faithful to Christian. Pretty perspicacious, for Roxy.
So Syed was slated to become Tanya's gay friend.
So Syed and Tanya robbed Roxy, and the attempt at friendship floundered and failed. Syed was back to Square One, borrowing money from Janine and in conjunction with his ex-wife Amira, attempting to make a fortune in tourist tat off the Olympics. Now it was Christian's turn to be jealous. Christian initially decided that it was time (with no consultation with Syed) that they should be parents. Again, without Syed's consent, he tried surrogacy with Roxy, then forged ahead with adoption before all that fell by the wayside in the welter of confusion surrounding Yusef and mistrust surrounding Amira's reappearance with Syed's natural daughter.
Now Chryed were angling to become the gay parents, and when Syed won the right to have his daughter stay from time to time, Christian went through a brief period of feeling jealous that she was restricting his party time too. However, in recent times, Christian's gone from being the party animal to the glorified au pair, whilst Syed has reverted to type - sneaky, calculating, dishonest and not averse at all to blaming anyone for his shortcomings but himself.
The first time he was caught dipping into family business expenditures (by his father), Mas copped the blame for Syed's crimes and bore the wrath of Zainab; now Syed's thinking nothing of blaming his ineffectual younger brother for the mess he's made worse at the Argee Bahjee. And once again, he's discovered by his father - but more importantly, the astute Masood has discovered that, quite possibly, Syed doesn't want to marry Christian, that he doesn't want to be constrained by domesticity now. Syed has only just come to terms with his own sexuality, he's only had one long-term relationship with a man who's been there, done that, read the book, seen the movie and bought the teeshirt and now wants a quiet, comfy life with his husband, their daughter, some slippers and a fire.
Danny was right. Syed wants more, even to the point of getting a high off the danger of seeing his fiance' interact with a man whom he's been seeing, flirting with and kissing on the sly. Syed is as morally bankrupt as the likes of Max or Roxy, except - like many others - he would rather die than admit it.
No comments:
Post a Comment