Who remembers when the biggest retcon EastEnders ever did was make Ian Beale, who was formerly younger, older than Sharon?
Now "retcon" is a way of life in EastEnders. Sharon returns, she's been there since August - she's been there almost six months, and still the names "Michelle" and "Vicky" have yet to leave her lips. She didn't even remark on Pauline's death, and Pat's death got the barest of shoulder shrugs. She calls Tanya, a woman she formerly wouldn't think twice about wiping her shoe on, her "best mate." She sleeps with Jack, a man she hasn't known an hour, on her first night back in Walford. Within weeks, she's moved in with him - this is something Sharon, a deliberate, calculating and discerning character, would never do. Although she bakes a cake on Dennis's birthday, the anniversary of his death passes without her mentioning his name. She uses Ian as an unpaid babysitter, she was non-plussed at seeing Dot again.
Who is this woman? She is almost dichotomous. Sucked into the Branning vortex, she assumes their characteristics of shallowness, selfishness, hypocrisy and utter, aggressive bitchiness. Only when she associates with Phil Mitchell does she approximate the character of Sharon that we know, but even then, the writing for her is so stilted that she and Phil seem like inanimate stick figures, puppets on a string in a drama catered for the lower end of the juvenile spectrum and pie-eyed shippers who wouldn't admit how far EastEnders has fallen, did it end up falling into the ubiquitous vat of steaming shit, which is where it's heading at the moment.
As for the perpetrator of all this, Lorraine Newman, she's being given an easy ride, considering the state in which the show was left by Bryan Kirkwood; but she signs off on the wonky characterisation given Sharon, the bad writing, the awful continuity and the perpetual retconning. As Series Producer, she signed off on the ruination of Kat's character, the emergence of Bianca as a feckless chav, and Bimbo Sharon.
One awaits, in dubiious trepidation, the return of Janine.
Tonight was a Branning-centric episode. It seems to be an unspoken truth that at least one episode per week should feature what has easily become one of the most unpopular families ever to be forced down the throats of viewers. Thus the week began with a Branning gathering, and thus it ended. It goes without saying that Thursday's episode was the best of a bad lot, because it featured the least number of Brannings.
He's Just a Jealous Guy.
They say John Lennon wrote this song for Yoko after he smacked the shit out of her for talking with someone whom he thought was chatting her up. He did the same thing with his first wife too. Hey, he was just a jealous guy, you know.
So is Jack Branning.
He was feeling insecure.
She might not love him anymore.
Well, I'm not at all surprised, because he's acted like a fucking pillock, and if Sharon can't see that, after the way he's behaved this week, after the way he's lied and shifted the blame onto Phil (he lashed out against Phil in self-defence) and even Sharon, herself (she made him do it by wanting to take Phil's free 19% share in the R and R).
Phil's decision not to press charges against Jack the Peg, exonerates Sharon from leaving her sugar daddy, and she's still with the prick - cosying up and cooing, the hair back to its flowing, big bouffant cheapness, and looking even more like she should be in a production of Hairspray rather than EastEnders.
Jack still isn't keen on her taking up a share in the club, even though she explains to him, and subsequently to her new BFF, Tanya, that this manoeuvre is more to ensure her son's financial future than anything else, and this is good business, to provide for her child - which is more than Jack does for his various sperm droppings inhabiting three different countries in total.
Jack is not only desperate, he's duplitious - listening to a voicemail left for Sharon by Phil's solicitor overseeing the share transfer and then deciding to hide her passport in the most puerile of gestures. Jack Branning, Mr Control, who treats his "women" as his own personal property. He even lies about it when caught in the act.
This should clearly wake up Bimbo Sharon to what she used to be. She stood up to worse from Grant and survived. Her independence was such, at one point, after her marriage to her brother Saint Dennis, that he resorted to acting like the latent adolescent he was and took to skulking in the depths of the bookies, which she should now own, but has subsequently forgotten about as she's forgotten about all her previous life in Walford.
Jack is just a walking penis, and who can find such a pillock attractive. This is the same Jack who beat the shit out of Max and told him he'd never see his children again. This is the Jack who hauled Roxy out in the middle of the night and left her in the middle of nowhere because she'd witnessed him being unfaithful to Ronnie with his ex.
Jack is not a nice person, and Bimbo Sharon is better off without him. Besides, since when is Jack Branning attracted to a man in drag?
Girls Talk
Now let's get this straight. Sharon's supposed to be looking after Lexie and picking Phil up from hospital later, remember? So, Sharon asks Lola, Lexie's chavmother, to watch the baby whilst Sharon puts herself first and flounces off to have a coffee with Tanya, who doesn't appear ever to work at the salon. After all, it runs itself, just like every other business in Walford.
There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder ...
Like Tanya's hypocrisy in judging and disdaining Sharon's acceptance of Phil's offer of a share in the club. Not that Tanya would ever do anything like that, and for no strings ... Nope. Tanya sleeps with a man, based on what that man can financially and materialistically achieve for her.
If Tanya hadn't met Max by chance - and, no, Luddites, Tanya never babysat Bradley, she was Max's hairdresser when he had hair - if she hadn't met and got up the duff by Max, she'd still be some kappaslappa hairdresser, giving blue rinses to old ladies and living on a council estate someplace, married to some no-mark who kept a meth lab in her kitchen, and she'd be a grandmother by now. (Hold that thought, something's on the rise).
Max got her off the estate and scrubbed her up into a middle class approximation. Jack was going to buy her a villa in France. Greg had a fat wallet and was gormless enough to buy her whatever she wanted. This is the truth: Tanya disdains Sharon taking a free stake in the club, even though she points out (and I do believe this bit is genuine) that this is for her son's sake more than anything else. Sharon is in her mid-forties and doesn't own a pot to piss in - ne'mind, she has the roof over her head provided by her sleeping with Jack. Maybe she's moving away from the bimbo mindless prostitute phase and looking to establish something of her own, which she can pass onto her child. Of course, for Jack the Peg, this signifies independence, and Jack likes his women to be totally dependent on him, even to the point of obsession (Ronnie).
As for Tanya, she'd never once even think of a legacy for her kids. She's the very embodiment of Branning selfishness - or should I say Branning/Cross selfishness. But she's never achieved anything except off the back (or the dick) of a man.
The ironic part about her looking down her nose at Sharon's association with Phil Mitchell and her appalled horror that lumpy old Phil would even ask Sharon to sleep with him, much less that she would even contemplate it, is that within the next few episodes, Tanya's going to find herself in a compromising position with Mr Potato-Head, herself, the slut.
There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder ...
Line of the night:-
Abi: We made love.
Shut up. You fucked. That's all, and the fact that you didn't make any kind of comment when Lola, who is
sixteen going on forty-eight and who's probably had more men than Dot's had fags, remarked how unrealistic romance in the movies was, where lovers never ever used condoms. Newsflash: They don't use them in Walford either, and someplace down the line, silly Abi is going to run crying to Daddy Max because she's pregnant and she doesn't know what to doooooooooooo ...
Abi's either lying or she didn't go as far with Jay as she thinks, because very few times, especially when it's the first time for both the boy and the girl, does the earth move for someone like her.
Please, can she choke on a chip or something; because she's totally unbearable, and this Jabi shit is just shit for the birds. It doesn't even approximate Sonia and Jamie. Yuck.
The gist of this girl talk was Abi and Lola were so absorbed in Abi's verbal essay entitled "How I Popped My Cherry" that they failed to notice Lola had got hold of a biro and was waving it about. Now this could be potentially dangerous, as Phil found out when he unexpectedly returned.
This doesn't mean Lola is an unfit mother, but it does mean that she's very young, very immature and easily distracted, which could result in her child getting harmed. Oh, and the new backstory of Lola always wanting to be a mum and the shelter in the park she used for her dolls ... plot device for next week. Still, it's nice to see her bonding with Sharon.
I'm not the biggest Lola fan. In fact, I hate her, but I find her much more watchable than the silly, insipid "we made lurrrrve" Abi.
The Demise of the Younger Woman.
This is not Masood and Ayesha.
So Ayesha wants Masood to leave with her, and he's seriously thinking about it. But that begs the question: what happens to the house? Masood, if I recall correctly, re-mortgaged the house in order to finance the purchase of the Arjee Bahjee. Does he propose to saddle the ineffectual and workshy Ajay and Tamwar with perpetual mortgage payments they can ill-afford or does he propose to sell the house over their heads and make his son homeless?
I'm glad he got his reality check and saw Ayesha for the selfish, little bitch she was. She wanted him to go away with her and just dump his former life, forgotten. As much as his attitude towards women reflected the general Ludditish, thinly-veiled misogyny representative in the likes of the Branning Bruvs, Phil Mitchell and Joey Branning, Ajay drove home a point to Mas.
This is a midlife crisis. If he wanted to, he could set Ayesha up in a bedsit somewhere and she could get a job. She's gone from being coddled and cared for by her father and now she wants the same from Masood, only with some sex in the bargain as well. This is Mas's reaction to Zainab's leaving - although, we must remember even if he doesn't, that it was Mas who asked Zainab to go; but at the end of this venture, he realises that his son is far more important to him than some fickle girl who would lose interest in a middle-aged man within the next couple of years.
Bye bye, Ayesha, and don't come back. Don't let the tube barriers hit your skinny arse on the way out.
The Wrath of Dot and the Old Grey Hag.
Another mini-storyline is brewing with Dot. Something's missing from her house, and Cora proved just what an ungrateful and selfish old bitch she is tonight, with her disparaging remarks about Dot and her home -the home which might be taken from Dot through Cora's negligence.
Dot's silver or pewter ashtray may have been a nicknack the filthy old hag filled with cigarette ash many times, but to Dot, it meant something. It was a gift from someone who died. And Cora's quick to make a pissy remark about Dot's house being a run-down council property, but as Dot said, it's her home, something which Cora doesn't have. In fact, she's been evicted from every property she's had - evicted from her own rundown council flat for anti-social behaviour, kicked out by Dot for wrecking her home, and only welcomed grudgingly by her own daughter.
As for Cora's remark about Dot's smoking, saying Dot was a slave to her addictions, that's rich coming from someone who can't let a day go by without sucking on a bottle of whiskey, as she proved later on in the pub, when she was trying to trashtalk Dot to Denise, and got blanked.
What a horrible old trout! Dot's not the old trout (and I don't even like Dot most days), but Cora's just a drunken old bitch. Matriarch? My arse.
Cora was the second man-in-drag to make an appearance tonight. I would imagine the fact that Cora's stopped smoking would have something to do with Ann Mitchell's emphasyma.
The Beale Brigade
Just two observations:-
1. It's Ian's birthday, and there's nary a mention of that by Sharon? Nor does he even think to invite her to his do - small wonder, considering he's been treated like unpaid help ever since she started sucking Branning arses. Still, you'd think she might make some effort - even a scene of her delivering a card - considering he went to visit her for her fortieth three years ago, although - according to Letitia Dean - that's not possible, because Sharon's been in the UK for four years. Still, at least we got a mention of Michelle and Vicky tonight, even if it is from Ian. Sharon appears not to remember them, which is odd, since Vicky is her sister.
2. The understated introduction of the new Bobby Beale tonight, and it's obvious why Alex Francis was replaced. EastEnders now have a hattrick of stageschool kids to rival the infamous Simon Barlow on Corrie - Tiffany Mitchell, DamienDen and now Bobby Beale. Francis couldn't handle more than one or two lines of dialogue. This kid is either a budding diva who'll rival Tiffany and Denny - or he's a midget ...
Simon Barlow, Denny Rickman and Bobby Beale as you've never seen them ...
Patrick
Tonight, the sublime became the ridiculous. The storyline is realistic in it shows how difficult it is for younger, working family members to care for elderly, disabled relatives when they have to work, themselves. Denise obviously wanted to attend Ian's birthday do, but there was no reason why she couldn't have brought Patrick along, knowing she couldn't depend on Kim, who was God knows where and totally unfunny. He would have liked the company and could have had a drink at the Vic. Instead, we have a totally silly situation of him upending himself and raiding the rum, in the end, not hurting himself, but hurting Denise. Kim rounded out the hattrick of men in drag tonight.
Kim's prototype ...
Yet another Friday episode which should have been a cliffhanger, making us look forward to Monday and instead only ending up being tiresome. Again.
Now "retcon" is a way of life in EastEnders. Sharon returns, she's been there since August - she's been there almost six months, and still the names "Michelle" and "Vicky" have yet to leave her lips. She didn't even remark on Pauline's death, and Pat's death got the barest of shoulder shrugs. She calls Tanya, a woman she formerly wouldn't think twice about wiping her shoe on, her "best mate." She sleeps with Jack, a man she hasn't known an hour, on her first night back in Walford. Within weeks, she's moved in with him - this is something Sharon, a deliberate, calculating and discerning character, would never do. Although she bakes a cake on Dennis's birthday, the anniversary of his death passes without her mentioning his name. She uses Ian as an unpaid babysitter, she was non-plussed at seeing Dot again.
Who is this woman? She is almost dichotomous. Sucked into the Branning vortex, she assumes their characteristics of shallowness, selfishness, hypocrisy and utter, aggressive bitchiness. Only when she associates with Phil Mitchell does she approximate the character of Sharon that we know, but even then, the writing for her is so stilted that she and Phil seem like inanimate stick figures, puppets on a string in a drama catered for the lower end of the juvenile spectrum and pie-eyed shippers who wouldn't admit how far EastEnders has fallen, did it end up falling into the ubiquitous vat of steaming shit, which is where it's heading at the moment.
As for the perpetrator of all this, Lorraine Newman, she's being given an easy ride, considering the state in which the show was left by Bryan Kirkwood; but she signs off on the wonky characterisation given Sharon, the bad writing, the awful continuity and the perpetual retconning. As Series Producer, she signed off on the ruination of Kat's character, the emergence of Bianca as a feckless chav, and Bimbo Sharon.
One awaits, in dubiious trepidation, the return of Janine.
Tonight was a Branning-centric episode. It seems to be an unspoken truth that at least one episode per week should feature what has easily become one of the most unpopular families ever to be forced down the throats of viewers. Thus the week began with a Branning gathering, and thus it ended. It goes without saying that Thursday's episode was the best of a bad lot, because it featured the least number of Brannings.
He's Just a Jealous Guy.
They say John Lennon wrote this song for Yoko after he smacked the shit out of her for talking with someone whom he thought was chatting her up. He did the same thing with his first wife too. Hey, he was just a jealous guy, you know.
So is Jack Branning.
He was feeling insecure.
She might not love him anymore.
Well, I'm not at all surprised, because he's acted like a fucking pillock, and if Sharon can't see that, after the way he's behaved this week, after the way he's lied and shifted the blame onto Phil (he lashed out against Phil in self-defence) and even Sharon, herself (she made him do it by wanting to take Phil's free 19% share in the R and R).
Phil's decision not to press charges against Jack the Peg, exonerates Sharon from leaving her sugar daddy, and she's still with the prick - cosying up and cooing, the hair back to its flowing, big bouffant cheapness, and looking even more like she should be in a production of Hairspray rather than EastEnders.
Jack still isn't keen on her taking up a share in the club, even though she explains to him, and subsequently to her new BFF, Tanya, that this manoeuvre is more to ensure her son's financial future than anything else, and this is good business, to provide for her child - which is more than Jack does for his various sperm droppings inhabiting three different countries in total.
Jack is not only desperate, he's duplitious - listening to a voicemail left for Sharon by Phil's solicitor overseeing the share transfer and then deciding to hide her passport in the most puerile of gestures. Jack Branning, Mr Control, who treats his "women" as his own personal property. He even lies about it when caught in the act.
This should clearly wake up Bimbo Sharon to what she used to be. She stood up to worse from Grant and survived. Her independence was such, at one point, after her marriage to her brother Saint Dennis, that he resorted to acting like the latent adolescent he was and took to skulking in the depths of the bookies, which she should now own, but has subsequently forgotten about as she's forgotten about all her previous life in Walford.
Jack is just a walking penis, and who can find such a pillock attractive. This is the same Jack who beat the shit out of Max and told him he'd never see his children again. This is the Jack who hauled Roxy out in the middle of the night and left her in the middle of nowhere because she'd witnessed him being unfaithful to Ronnie with his ex.
Jack is not a nice person, and Bimbo Sharon is better off without him. Besides, since when is Jack Branning attracted to a man in drag?
Girls Talk
Now let's get this straight. Sharon's supposed to be looking after Lexie and picking Phil up from hospital later, remember? So, Sharon asks Lola, Lexie's chavmother, to watch the baby whilst Sharon puts herself first and flounces off to have a coffee with Tanya, who doesn't appear ever to work at the salon. After all, it runs itself, just like every other business in Walford.
There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder ...
Like Tanya's hypocrisy in judging and disdaining Sharon's acceptance of Phil's offer of a share in the club. Not that Tanya would ever do anything like that, and for no strings ... Nope. Tanya sleeps with a man, based on what that man can financially and materialistically achieve for her.
If Tanya hadn't met Max by chance - and, no, Luddites, Tanya never babysat Bradley, she was Max's hairdresser when he had hair - if she hadn't met and got up the duff by Max, she'd still be some kappaslappa hairdresser, giving blue rinses to old ladies and living on a council estate someplace, married to some no-mark who kept a meth lab in her kitchen, and she'd be a grandmother by now. (Hold that thought, something's on the rise).
Max got her off the estate and scrubbed her up into a middle class approximation. Jack was going to buy her a villa in France. Greg had a fat wallet and was gormless enough to buy her whatever she wanted. This is the truth: Tanya disdains Sharon taking a free stake in the club, even though she points out (and I do believe this bit is genuine) that this is for her son's sake more than anything else. Sharon is in her mid-forties and doesn't own a pot to piss in - ne'mind, she has the roof over her head provided by her sleeping with Jack. Maybe she's moving away from the bimbo mindless prostitute phase and looking to establish something of her own, which she can pass onto her child. Of course, for Jack the Peg, this signifies independence, and Jack likes his women to be totally dependent on him, even to the point of obsession (Ronnie).
As for Tanya, she'd never once even think of a legacy for her kids. She's the very embodiment of Branning selfishness - or should I say Branning/Cross selfishness. But she's never achieved anything except off the back (or the dick) of a man.
The ironic part about her looking down her nose at Sharon's association with Phil Mitchell and her appalled horror that lumpy old Phil would even ask Sharon to sleep with him, much less that she would even contemplate it, is that within the next few episodes, Tanya's going to find herself in a compromising position with Mr Potato-Head, herself, the slut.
There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder ...
Line of the night:-
Abi: We made love.
Shut up. You fucked. That's all, and the fact that you didn't make any kind of comment when Lola, who is
sixteen going on forty-eight and who's probably had more men than Dot's had fags, remarked how unrealistic romance in the movies was, where lovers never ever used condoms. Newsflash: They don't use them in Walford either, and someplace down the line, silly Abi is going to run crying to Daddy Max because she's pregnant and she doesn't know what to doooooooooooo ...
Abi's either lying or she didn't go as far with Jay as she thinks, because very few times, especially when it's the first time for both the boy and the girl, does the earth move for someone like her.
Please, can she choke on a chip or something; because she's totally unbearable, and this Jabi shit is just shit for the birds. It doesn't even approximate Sonia and Jamie. Yuck.
The gist of this girl talk was Abi and Lola were so absorbed in Abi's verbal essay entitled "How I Popped My Cherry" that they failed to notice Lola had got hold of a biro and was waving it about. Now this could be potentially dangerous, as Phil found out when he unexpectedly returned.
This doesn't mean Lola is an unfit mother, but it does mean that she's very young, very immature and easily distracted, which could result in her child getting harmed. Oh, and the new backstory of Lola always wanting to be a mum and the shelter in the park she used for her dolls ... plot device for next week. Still, it's nice to see her bonding with Sharon.
I'm not the biggest Lola fan. In fact, I hate her, but I find her much more watchable than the silly, insipid "we made lurrrrve" Abi.
The Demise of the Younger Woman.
This is not Masood and Ayesha.
So Ayesha wants Masood to leave with her, and he's seriously thinking about it. But that begs the question: what happens to the house? Masood, if I recall correctly, re-mortgaged the house in order to finance the purchase of the Arjee Bahjee. Does he propose to saddle the ineffectual and workshy Ajay and Tamwar with perpetual mortgage payments they can ill-afford or does he propose to sell the house over their heads and make his son homeless?
I'm glad he got his reality check and saw Ayesha for the selfish, little bitch she was. She wanted him to go away with her and just dump his former life, forgotten. As much as his attitude towards women reflected the general Ludditish, thinly-veiled misogyny representative in the likes of the Branning Bruvs, Phil Mitchell and Joey Branning, Ajay drove home a point to Mas.
This is a midlife crisis. If he wanted to, he could set Ayesha up in a bedsit somewhere and she could get a job. She's gone from being coddled and cared for by her father and now she wants the same from Masood, only with some sex in the bargain as well. This is Mas's reaction to Zainab's leaving - although, we must remember even if he doesn't, that it was Mas who asked Zainab to go; but at the end of this venture, he realises that his son is far more important to him than some fickle girl who would lose interest in a middle-aged man within the next couple of years.
Bye bye, Ayesha, and don't come back. Don't let the tube barriers hit your skinny arse on the way out.
The Wrath of Dot and the Old Grey Hag.
Another mini-storyline is brewing with Dot. Something's missing from her house, and Cora proved just what an ungrateful and selfish old bitch she is tonight, with her disparaging remarks about Dot and her home -the home which might be taken from Dot through Cora's negligence.
Dot's silver or pewter ashtray may have been a nicknack the filthy old hag filled with cigarette ash many times, but to Dot, it meant something. It was a gift from someone who died. And Cora's quick to make a pissy remark about Dot's house being a run-down council property, but as Dot said, it's her home, something which Cora doesn't have. In fact, she's been evicted from every property she's had - evicted from her own rundown council flat for anti-social behaviour, kicked out by Dot for wrecking her home, and only welcomed grudgingly by her own daughter.
As for Cora's remark about Dot's smoking, saying Dot was a slave to her addictions, that's rich coming from someone who can't let a day go by without sucking on a bottle of whiskey, as she proved later on in the pub, when she was trying to trashtalk Dot to Denise, and got blanked.
What a horrible old trout! Dot's not the old trout (and I don't even like Dot most days), but Cora's just a drunken old bitch. Matriarch? My arse.
The Beale Brigade
Just two observations:-
1. It's Ian's birthday, and there's nary a mention of that by Sharon? Nor does he even think to invite her to his do - small wonder, considering he's been treated like unpaid help ever since she started sucking Branning arses. Still, you'd think she might make some effort - even a scene of her delivering a card - considering he went to visit her for her fortieth three years ago, although - according to Letitia Dean - that's not possible, because Sharon's been in the UK for four years. Still, at least we got a mention of Michelle and Vicky tonight, even if it is from Ian. Sharon appears not to remember them, which is odd, since Vicky is her sister.
2. The understated introduction of the new Bobby Beale tonight, and it's obvious why Alex Francis was replaced. EastEnders now have a hattrick of stageschool kids to rival the infamous Simon Barlow on Corrie - Tiffany Mitchell, DamienDen and now Bobby Beale. Francis couldn't handle more than one or two lines of dialogue. This kid is either a budding diva who'll rival Tiffany and Denny - or he's a midget ...
Simon Barlow, Denny Rickman and Bobby Beale as you've never seen them ...
Patrick
Tonight, the sublime became the ridiculous. The storyline is realistic in it shows how difficult it is for younger, working family members to care for elderly, disabled relatives when they have to work, themselves. Denise obviously wanted to attend Ian's birthday do, but there was no reason why she couldn't have brought Patrick along, knowing she couldn't depend on Kim, who was God knows where and totally unfunny. He would have liked the company and could have had a drink at the Vic. Instead, we have a totally silly situation of him upending himself and raiding the rum, in the end, not hurting himself, but hurting Denise. Kim rounded out the hattrick of men in drag tonight.
Kim's prototype ...
Yet another Friday episode which should have been a cliffhanger, making us look forward to Monday and instead only ending up being tiresome. Again.
One positive from this ep: at least we saw Asian Cheryl Cole bog off back to Newcastle. Horrible character, awful actress.
ReplyDeletePlot device, who only ended up making Masood look foolish.
DeleteI have to disagree with you on Tanya not how she is now but when you talked about how she only got out off the council bc she got knocked up & only got where she is today because of Max. She was very young when they got together and had been caring for her ill father while her mother was off at the track or down the pub just because she was washing hair doesn't mean if she hadn't met Max and gotten pregnant so young she wouldn't have done anything with her life or would have gone looking for another man to sponge off of. She might have achieved much more in her life had she not met Max actually I think the last thing she ever wanted to be at that age was her mum. She might have gone to school and really done achieved something, I think thats why she always pushes Abi to choose her studies over Jay bc she doesn't want her to make the same mistakes.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but that's utter bullshit. The dying father storyline was totally contrived as an extra bit of sensationalism to add to the cancer cold, which - again - was contrived to make the simpering public like Tanya again, after she returned as a green-eyed monster bitch, jealous that Max had dared to move on with Vanessa after she was entitled to marry gormless Greg.
DeleteWe never even HEARD about either of Tanya's parents, even with Rainie making appearances - first, when Cora appeared for the wedding and then, during Branning week, when Daddy dearest made a mention. Case in point: Tanya listened to Sean express his reservations, guilt and fears, thinking he had killed his father. Why wasn't something mentioned then? Same as this shit with Ava - Cora wallowing in guilt and suffering in silence all those years. Ava's birthday came and went last year with not even a hint from Cora. She was introduced as a means of exploring Cora's past, and she's only made Cora look worse, and she's proving a pointless character, herself, who's going to be paired with Billy Mitchell, of all people!
Tanya is and always has been presented as the ultimate hypocrite and snob, the material girl who cannot function without a man in her life, specifically Max, who loves Max because he gives her good sex and money enough to aspire to middle class status. She is a drunk and she's not above prostituting herself to get what she wants. Always has been this way, and always will be. She finally talked the talk 2 weeks ago about putting her children first, but like everything Tanya's said, that's amounted to bullshit too, as we'll see when she sleeps with Phil Mitchell.
Awful character, awful mother, awful example of 21st Century womanhood, awful woman. She can't leave quick enough.
And Ronnie was not dependent on Jack she started R&R, she had the strongest work ethic of any woman I've seen come through Albert Square.
ReplyDeleteShe couldn't buy the club without Jack's investment. And she slowly became obsessed with him. Ronnie may have had a strong work ethic, but she was not a strong woman, and she was not above breaking up a marriage (Joel's) to get what she wanted. Another character I don't want returning.
DeleteWhen have you ever heard a female character talk like that on EE, and is there any character on the show you actually like?
Deletehttp://youtu.be/dAiCTuIKcHo?t=1m23s
Janine. Until the current idiots in the writing room bring her back and totally rip her character to shreds. Roxy. Carol. Ian. Denise. Any other questions or critiques?
DeleteJanine slept with men for money, tried to scam her way in the r&r, I love her don't get me wrong but she's not someone who decided to work hard to get where she is, she married men for money, roxy couldn't keep on at R&R after Ronnie went to jail she couldn't handle phil so she sold her share to Janine and is only at the pub because Phil needed someone to babysit the kalfie train wreck- also don't misunderstand I love Roxy, Ian yes but he leans the other way putting way too much value on having a wife, Denise she works at the minute mart and picks up the slack from lazy Kim at Kim's palace, I like Ronnie, and don't understand why its such a crime to disagree with you on what 3 things? 1. Ronnie being dependent on a man 2. Tanya bedding Max to get out of her mum's house and 3. the Lauren Joey relationship which I haven't even posted about because I like reading your blog and don't want to get into a whole thing, its not something I want to fight over but Ronnie being weak you bet I am going to say something. Sorry if thats too many critiques maybe if you don't want anyone to disagree with you you shouldn't have a comment section.
DeletePardon me, but how long have you watched this show? Don't you know about Janine's abandonment issues? I've watched Janine since she was five years old and through three incarnations - the afterthought child of a dead marriage, whose mother died when she was a toddler and whose father couldn't cope with her so he farmed her out to be raised by her older sister, who passed her back the moment Frank married Pat. This is why Janine and Michael Moon are so similar - massive Daddy issues with their fathers always making them feel on the periphery of the real family, losing their mothers at an early age, feeling of isolationism amongst their sibling units. Janine suffered greatly from Frank's repeated abandonment. She was just beginning to bond effectively with Pat as a young adolescent when Frank emerged again, took her to Manchester and left her there with Clare to return to court and marry Peggy. For the longest time, Janine latched onto older men because of her father complex - Terry Raymond, even Billy Mitchell. When Frank and Peggy split when Janine had just turned sixteen, Frank abandoned her and Peggy flung her onto the street.
DeleteShe lived with Terry until he abandoned her. She learned a pattern - look for a solvent sugar daddy. Comfort was an older man who'd look after her, and when she didn't have that, she scammed and grifted to make her way. When she finally met a man of her own age demographic whim she could trust (Ryan), he betrayed her in a matter of months, with Stacey Slater - another perpetual victim whose ethos was entitlement.
Roxy Mitchell is, like Billy, one of the Mitchell runts, but she's loyal, she has a good heart and she's loving. She is childlike because her sister mollycoddled her and babyfied her until she was well into her thirties. She has, however, evolved into her own character, from the moment she stood up to her control-freak sister and decided to have her child rather than terminate the pregnancy because Ronnie was jealous.
Ian is another one I have seen grow from adolescence. His "need" for a wife stems from his seeking approbation from his father and validation that his choice of career brought the trappings of success. Ian's first two wives were trophy blondes, the next two were plain women - all of them cheated on him, basically because he is so driven to succeed and he was so hurt by his first wife's double infidelity, the last one with his brother. At times he has been craven, unlikeable and petty. He has the worst traits of the Beale family, but he is also loyal and supportive and, whilst not the best of parents, he loves his children and does his best to provide for them.
Denise has had a hard life, based on the men she chose. The one man who truly loved her and treated her well died, but she rose above all that and she is one of the truly strong women on the Square. I would equal her with Janine and also Carol as being really strong, stand-alone women.
Your points:=
DeleteRonnie was dependent on a man, specifically Jack. She had to have Jack above all else. That is why she lied and deceived Sam about Jack's attitude to Richard and did the same with Jack re Sam and his son. In the end, everything she did, including the baby swap, was to keep Jack, a great trophy prize.
Tanya has never achieved anything on her own without the help and aid of a man, usually one she slept with. She even slept with Sean Slater, a psychologically vulnerable young man, in order to get him to help her kill Max, the object of which was to land him in it to take the blame. Max gave her a middle class lifestyle, bought her a business and set her up as a busineswoman, Jack was going to buy her a villa in France. When she split with Max after Stax, instead of reassuring her children and concentrating on her business, she dwelt on herself and her own petty revenge. Every time she splits with Max, she hits the bottle. She nabbed Greg for his money, got a new house and her business back (which she stole blind from Roxy) and then cheated on him. She is one of the most entitled and selfish characters ever to appear in the programme. If you cannot see how Tanya uses men to achieve what she wants, and that includes feeding her alcohol dependency, then you need to look harder.
Lauren and Joey are a joke. Lauren is the worst representation of a young person on that programme ever. She is selfish, spoilt, entitled and lazy. She has inherited alcohol dependency from her mother's side of the family. Her grandmother is a drunk, her aunt is a drunk, her mother is a drunk and she is a drunk. She thinks it's OK to fuck her cousin. She thinks she's in love after a week. That was a fuckfest. It wasn't even a developed forbidden love story between two sympathetic characters for whom the public could root. Joey started out as a mindless unintelligible thug. He's his old man in minor, except he's played by a worse actor.
As far as not wanting people to disagree, that's your own opinion not mine. It's not fact. You just got your knickers in a twist because I called bullshit on your assessmentn of Yummy Mummy. And I'm not the only one to think this either.
oh good lord, okay look I don't care about Tanya enough to fight over her, but how can you have so much sympathy for Janine's plight or Ian's father issues, for Denise's hard life and zero understanding for Ronnie who was raped by her father and abandoned by her mother?
DeleteAs for the Joey Lauren thing, you've mentioned Thomas Hardy on here before, he is one of my favorite writers so Jude the Obscure? does that offend you as well?
Roxy has grown up a lot since her sister left and I love that she is standing up to Kat.
I don't understand why you are being so hostile to me, thinking the only reason I see things differently from you is either 1- how long I've watched the show, or 2-my overall intelligence.
Ronnie's dynamic and backstory changed immensely from her arrival to her departure. As most viewers realised, Ronnie and Archie were simply an extension of Sharon and Den Mach II. The original ethos for Ronnie was that she was supposed to be a control freak like her father, something about which she was in denial. That was made evident by her treatment of Roxy.
DeleteThe child abuse situation and her rape by Archie was something that was added at the last minute by Santer to make Archie more evil and to justify Ronnie's ambivalent attitude toward Stacey's rape by Archie - something, incidentally, that neither Lacey Turner nor Larry Lamb fathomed as happening at the time. They are on record as saying that.
Ronnie was abusive to her sister, willfully broke up a marriage where children were involved simply because she could, whored herself out to various men in a series of one night stands in an effort to get a child and lied and manipulated both her cousin and the man she supposedly loved. She bullied Sam into lying about Richard's paternity and didn't give a damn about the effect such a lie would have on Ricky's and Bianca's marriage. Even at the very end, when she was in custody, she was telling the police psychologist that she cared nothing about Alfie's and Kat's feelings when she took Tommy because they meant nothing to her.
The late addition of the child abuse or not, a lot of Ronnie's actions were reproachable, and had more to do with her being more of a calculating and manipulative person like her father than anything to do with her abuse.
the abuse storyline was evident before archie died in 2009 Sam didn''t leave till 2011 remember after her miscarriage caused by archie in the hospital her screaming at Jack " he won't leave me alone he never leaves me alone!", she broke up a marriage- which by the way takes 2, because she desperately wanted Danielle back. She is the one who kept archie from getting to Roxy and unlike her father she came forward and accepted her sentence regarding Tommy something he would never do finally freeing herself of his control. She watched her daughter who was always a storyline since she first came on, and archie, by the way, we saw abuse ronnie when he very first came on- relishing in telling her that her daughter was dead not to bother looking in the streets for her and then throwing her on the couch and choking her. Jack already had a baby with her sister and now he was going to have one with her cousin, she didn't handle that well who would? When James died she went up the stairs to the Vic same as Danielle did with Amy, remember ronnie caught her trying to take amy and said "this isn't your baby she can not replace what you've lost." You get so angry when people ignore the facts to support their own feeling about a character but you are doing exactly that with your hatred towards Ronnie.
ReplyDeleteand nothing about Jude the Obscure?