I have a confession to make. My mother's maiden name was Carter, and when I was born, she christened me with that as a middle name, so the depiction of this lot pains me a great deal.
The Carter-centric episodes, especially the ones where there's a special meal or a bit of a do (in tonight's case, both) are becoming just short of predictable and tedious. It's just another version of the Mitchell's food-throwing bunfest, prevalent in the 1990s and usually ending with Peggy pitching the feast up against a wall or, more recently, the infamous Branning meals - of which we usually got one weekly - where something almost always went wrong.
The Carters are no different, but I can't decide if we've been overdosed on traumatic bunfests in the recent past or overdosed on incessant episode featuring the family flavour of the month to such a point that we are de-sensitised - well, at least some of the viewers are.
Tonight's episode was no different.
The Carters are the new Brannings.
Let's Keep It in the Family. Stan is dying, and nobody knows it but Babe, who is the last person you want to know a secret like that. Of course, it's also Lee's birthday. He's 22, which means he must be 11 months older than Nancy, who was 21 last month, herself, which means as teenagers, Mick and Linda must have been at it like rabbits, which also means, since the PR blurbs introduced the Carter kids as being 23 (Lee), 21 (Nancy) and 19 (Johnnie), the ages have been surreptitiously changed by TPTB, who probably thought that it looked a bit better for a couple of teenagers to start sprogging at 15 and 16, rather than 14 and 15. How's that for a run-on sentence?
Besides, it would accommodate another retconned story we heard recently about a Shirley and Kevin in their late twenties getting a teenaged Mick drunk on cider in the park, when as per DTC's last stint, he established that Shirley had left Kevin long before her late twenties.
So Babe knows Stan's secret and what does she do? Well, first of all she nags the living hell out of him to tell "the family." They have a right to know. Well, yes, they do, but that's Stan's call, you old trout, and he's being wise in choosing not to reveal his illness on his grandson's birthday. That's called being thoughtful, something Babe has never been in her life.
I found the happy-clappy Carter scenes a bit hard to take and couldn't figure out what the great amusement was being shared by Stan and Nancy when she was trying to hang that banner.
Of course, this segment was totally carried by Timothy West and Ann Mitchell, as per usual. One thing I've noticed is that, as time has gone on, West has become increasingly more posh in his delivery, but then why should he care about authenticity if it means good drama?
The whole gist of CarterVille today was Stan's tragic secret, which hung about the piece like the elephant in the room, and I'm not referring to Babe. It was Babe, however, who chose her moment to suit her own means. Of course, she had to blurt it out at the most inopportune time, during Lee's birthday lunch, after Stan's speech telling everyone how much he loved them (this was a maudlin piece of dialogue for whom West did it justice). How NOT to have a happy birthday, thanks to Babe. Has this woman got no common sense, or is she just another in a series of psychopaths walking the streets of Walford? Still, anyone with any modicum of common sense would realise that, yes, Stan has to tell his family the truth about his illness, but maybe not today. Maybe tomorrow. Or next week. Just not today.
Well, maybe not tomorrow either, since Linda's arranged for an abortion about which she's told no one. She's done what the most amateur of liars does - cross lies and gets caught. Linda is desperate to tell someone what's happened and what she's contemplating. One of the two highlights of this storyline tonight was the scene between Sharon and Linda, when Linda is so desperate to confide in Sharon but cannot make herself say the words. She's told Mick that she's shopping with Sharon the next day, she's told Sharon she's taking Mick up West on the same day, and Sharon, inadvertantly, reveals her lie. Then, she covers the whole thing with Mick by saying she's going Christmas shopping on her own. By that time, Mick is so stymied by Babe's revelation about Stan that all he wants is a cuddle.
Throughout the entire Carter conflab, we have there own Banquo's Ghost putting a damper on the situation, and even more of one after the revelation, and that's Dean, forced to sit at the table with Linda. Yet there was another ghost stinking up the place from beginning to end.
Shirley.
We just couldn't do without the ubiquitous Shirley reference.
Be nice if Shirl were here for Lee's birthday. As if Shirley ever remembered Lee's birthday. In fact, until the end of last year, in ShirleyVille, Lee didn't exist.
Wonder where Shirl is. Shirl should be here. No, she shouldn't. A lot of viewers don't miss her.
Here we are, all at the table. Isn't this nice. Well, Shirl's not here.
Then, after the big ka-boom, we have that scene between Dean and Mick, where Dean whines about not wanting to lose Stan -and I'm still trying to get my head around how Dean knew Stan at all - and Mick whining about the same - and this is the same Mick, these were the same people sat at that table who, until recently, treated Stan like a piece of shit, left him deserted in a wheelchair in the cold on a street late at night a long way from his home, simply because Shirley had infected Mick with her toxicity towards Stan. That says it all. Mick is too influenced by Shirley. Oh, well, boys and their mums.
But Stan's revelation must make Mick feel like a prime piece of cheese. His reaction?
We gotta find Shirl. Shirl should know about this.
Because this is really what Timothy West's leaving line is all about - the re-introduction of Shirley.
The scene in the launderette with the Cokers and Cora was poignant, with Cora watching the Cokers make a dance out of folding their sheets and smiling to herself, then her opening up to Pam about losing her husband long ago and learning to live on her own. Cora was uncertain about pursuing Stan, and Pam gave her hope, hence her trip to the Vic to see him.
The fact that she heard the truth about Stan's terminal cancer from Tina's and Tosh's big gobs brings it back to the viewer that Cora doesn't deal very well with terminal cancer or any serious illness. It brings back the trauma of losing her husband. Without even uttering a word, Ann Mitchell gave a masterclass in the subtlety of tragic acting. One of the good things DTC has done is bring Cora to a good place. At the risk of annoying a certain duck, I love this character, the most sympathetic character of the piece.
Stupid remark of the night goes to Tosh:-
He doesn't look ill.
Not a good night for this ready-made, instant, processed family, with all their tragedies, like rotton eggs, being dumped in one basket only to be cracked open to a big stink on Christmas Day - the return of Sylvie, Stan's death, the revelation that Mick is Shirley's son, Linda's pregnancy and the fact that Dean raped her. What else can happen? Can Lee be Lucy's killer?
Let's Keep It Between Ourselves (Literally). As much as I'm liking Stacey this time around, I keep being reminded of the fact that she really isn't the best judge of character at the best of times. She's vulnerable, on her own, at a low point, and she's "saved" by sleeping with Dean, for comfort. However, Dean isn't Deano anymore. He's made inroads with Lily, who wants to know if Dean is now Stacey's boyfriend, and even though she doesn't want to enter into anything serious with Dean, she's drawn to doing just that. She's jealous of the attention he's giving clients, and when he indicates he'd be willing to change if it meant a future for him, with Stacey and Lily, she holds him to it by doing the most romantic thing a gal could do - buys her smoking boyfriend a nicotine patch.
The most intriguing part about this ongoing saga isn't the irony of Stacey getting romantically involved with a rapist, after being a victim of rape, herself; it's the fact that the viewers are being presented with a rapist who, on one level, can be understood as almost a sympathetic victim, suffering from rejection issues, himself.
Some parts of this episodes were interesting, some were contrived.
The Carter-centric episodes, especially the ones where there's a special meal or a bit of a do (in tonight's case, both) are becoming just short of predictable and tedious. It's just another version of the Mitchell's food-throwing bunfest, prevalent in the 1990s and usually ending with Peggy pitching the feast up against a wall or, more recently, the infamous Branning meals - of which we usually got one weekly - where something almost always went wrong.
The Carters are no different, but I can't decide if we've been overdosed on traumatic bunfests in the recent past or overdosed on incessant episode featuring the family flavour of the month to such a point that we are de-sensitised - well, at least some of the viewers are.
Tonight's episode was no different.
The Carters are the new Brannings.
Let's Keep It in the Family. Stan is dying, and nobody knows it but Babe, who is the last person you want to know a secret like that. Of course, it's also Lee's birthday. He's 22, which means he must be 11 months older than Nancy, who was 21 last month, herself, which means as teenagers, Mick and Linda must have been at it like rabbits, which also means, since the PR blurbs introduced the Carter kids as being 23 (Lee), 21 (Nancy) and 19 (Johnnie), the ages have been surreptitiously changed by TPTB, who probably thought that it looked a bit better for a couple of teenagers to start sprogging at 15 and 16, rather than 14 and 15. How's that for a run-on sentence?
Besides, it would accommodate another retconned story we heard recently about a Shirley and Kevin in their late twenties getting a teenaged Mick drunk on cider in the park, when as per DTC's last stint, he established that Shirley had left Kevin long before her late twenties.
So Babe knows Stan's secret and what does she do? Well, first of all she nags the living hell out of him to tell "the family." They have a right to know. Well, yes, they do, but that's Stan's call, you old trout, and he's being wise in choosing not to reveal his illness on his grandson's birthday. That's called being thoughtful, something Babe has never been in her life.
I found the happy-clappy Carter scenes a bit hard to take and couldn't figure out what the great amusement was being shared by Stan and Nancy when she was trying to hang that banner.
Of course, this segment was totally carried by Timothy West and Ann Mitchell, as per usual. One thing I've noticed is that, as time has gone on, West has become increasingly more posh in his delivery, but then why should he care about authenticity if it means good drama?
The whole gist of CarterVille today was Stan's tragic secret, which hung about the piece like the elephant in the room, and I'm not referring to Babe. It was Babe, however, who chose her moment to suit her own means. Of course, she had to blurt it out at the most inopportune time, during Lee's birthday lunch, after Stan's speech telling everyone how much he loved them (this was a maudlin piece of dialogue for whom West did it justice). How NOT to have a happy birthday, thanks to Babe. Has this woman got no common sense, or is she just another in a series of psychopaths walking the streets of Walford? Still, anyone with any modicum of common sense would realise that, yes, Stan has to tell his family the truth about his illness, but maybe not today. Maybe tomorrow. Or next week. Just not today.
Well, maybe not tomorrow either, since Linda's arranged for an abortion about which she's told no one. She's done what the most amateur of liars does - cross lies and gets caught. Linda is desperate to tell someone what's happened and what she's contemplating. One of the two highlights of this storyline tonight was the scene between Sharon and Linda, when Linda is so desperate to confide in Sharon but cannot make herself say the words. She's told Mick that she's shopping with Sharon the next day, she's told Sharon she's taking Mick up West on the same day, and Sharon, inadvertantly, reveals her lie. Then, she covers the whole thing with Mick by saying she's going Christmas shopping on her own. By that time, Mick is so stymied by Babe's revelation about Stan that all he wants is a cuddle.
Throughout the entire Carter conflab, we have there own Banquo's Ghost putting a damper on the situation, and even more of one after the revelation, and that's Dean, forced to sit at the table with Linda. Yet there was another ghost stinking up the place from beginning to end.
Shirley.
We just couldn't do without the ubiquitous Shirley reference.
Be nice if Shirl were here for Lee's birthday. As if Shirley ever remembered Lee's birthday. In fact, until the end of last year, in ShirleyVille, Lee didn't exist.
Wonder where Shirl is. Shirl should be here. No, she shouldn't. A lot of viewers don't miss her.
Here we are, all at the table. Isn't this nice. Well, Shirl's not here.
Then, after the big ka-boom, we have that scene between Dean and Mick, where Dean whines about not wanting to lose Stan -and I'm still trying to get my head around how Dean knew Stan at all - and Mick whining about the same - and this is the same Mick, these were the same people sat at that table who, until recently, treated Stan like a piece of shit, left him deserted in a wheelchair in the cold on a street late at night a long way from his home, simply because Shirley had infected Mick with her toxicity towards Stan. That says it all. Mick is too influenced by Shirley. Oh, well, boys and their mums.
But Stan's revelation must make Mick feel like a prime piece of cheese. His reaction?
We gotta find Shirl. Shirl should know about this.
Because this is really what Timothy West's leaving line is all about - the re-introduction of Shirley.
The scene in the launderette with the Cokers and Cora was poignant, with Cora watching the Cokers make a dance out of folding their sheets and smiling to herself, then her opening up to Pam about losing her husband long ago and learning to live on her own. Cora was uncertain about pursuing Stan, and Pam gave her hope, hence her trip to the Vic to see him.
The fact that she heard the truth about Stan's terminal cancer from Tina's and Tosh's big gobs brings it back to the viewer that Cora doesn't deal very well with terminal cancer or any serious illness. It brings back the trauma of losing her husband. Without even uttering a word, Ann Mitchell gave a masterclass in the subtlety of tragic acting. One of the good things DTC has done is bring Cora to a good place. At the risk of annoying a certain duck, I love this character, the most sympathetic character of the piece.
Stupid remark of the night goes to Tosh:-
He doesn't look ill.
Not a good night for this ready-made, instant, processed family, with all their tragedies, like rotton eggs, being dumped in one basket only to be cracked open to a big stink on Christmas Day - the return of Sylvie, Stan's death, the revelation that Mick is Shirley's son, Linda's pregnancy and the fact that Dean raped her. What else can happen? Can Lee be Lucy's killer?
Let's Keep It Between Ourselves (Literally). As much as I'm liking Stacey this time around, I keep being reminded of the fact that she really isn't the best judge of character at the best of times. She's vulnerable, on her own, at a low point, and she's "saved" by sleeping with Dean, for comfort. However, Dean isn't Deano anymore. He's made inroads with Lily, who wants to know if Dean is now Stacey's boyfriend, and even though she doesn't want to enter into anything serious with Dean, she's drawn to doing just that. She's jealous of the attention he's giving clients, and when he indicates he'd be willing to change if it meant a future for him, with Stacey and Lily, she holds him to it by doing the most romantic thing a gal could do - buys her smoking boyfriend a nicotine patch.
The most intriguing part about this ongoing saga isn't the irony of Stacey getting romantically involved with a rapist, after being a victim of rape, herself; it's the fact that the viewers are being presented with a rapist who, on one level, can be understood as almost a sympathetic victim, suffering from rejection issues, himself.
Some parts of this episodes were interesting, some were contrived.
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