The best thing about this episode was Linda Henry. Everything else was predictable and mediocre.
I thought characters were supposed to progress not regress.
The Ugly Side of Stacey.
The best thing to come out of this vignette tonight was Mas dancing and the legend that is Bushra.
It's official: Kush is a dick. He is as shallow as his mother, who - even though her ex-husband was a secular Muslim - should have gauged the cultural background and religious leanings of Shabnam's family enough to have had respect for their traditions and not go bringing booze to the proceedings. That goes double for Stacey, who is supposed to be Shabnam's best friend, and who acted throughout the entire proceeding like a sulky schoolgirl determined to spoil the fun, had Dean not got there before her with the duff-duff.
Kush is a dick because he's such a shallow self-centred person, who's allowed himself to be caught between a rock and a hard place regarding women. Stacey's upset because - as she puts it - the only man she wants is her best mate's fella. Clock that: "the only man she wants" - that's wants not loves.
Stacey has known Kush all of five minutes, and on the strength of a drunken kiss, she wants this man, knowing nothing about him, except that his mother seems to like to knock'em back and party a great deal. What was the most shocking thing of all was the line she levelled at Kush, wondering about him wanting to have a quiet night in on his thirtieth, because it was Ramadan and he was observing it for Shabnam.
So you're going to go all of your life just doing things that make her happy?
It's called "love," Stacey, and it's probably what Bradley would have done for you, had he lived.
No one's told Kush to marry Shabnam, and no one twisted his arm to make him go down on his knees to propose in public. That makes me think either one of two things - either he does, indeed, love her, or he's going through the motions publically in order to convince her and and to convince himself, which is even more cruel to Shabnam.
And, you know, I can totally understand Shabnam's annoyance at Carmel, regarding the party. Neither she nor Kush asked for a big affair like this. They wanted something quiet, if anything at all. After all, this is the man who is still mourning his wife. Instead, Carmel takes over the proceedings, bringing elaborate decorations, including a glitterball which happened to be Kush's first decoration.
It isn't a party until Kush gets out his ball.
I like a good cocktail sausage. It reminds me of my ex-husband.
Is there anything this woman says that doesn't have anything to do with either sex or bodily functions? At the time, the anecdote about her husband fixing curry and then guffing under the duvet covers was a bit shocking and out of place at the dinner table - and in the company of people she didn't know - but the fun's worn off with some of her humour. You'd have thought she'd have respected Shabnam's wishes about this being a traditional engagement party and Shabnam's cultural heritage, but she didn't. She sneaked in booze anyway, and found a willing collaborator in Stacey is spiking their drink.
Not being funny, but this is the sort of cultural arrogance that was shown by those oh-so-middle-class backpackers who stripped naked on top of a sacred mountain in the Far East recently.
The other downside of this vignette was Stacey pulling a massively sulky face when Kush praised Shabnam and proposed to her. Talk about regressing a character.
In case Stacey hasn't realised it, were she to successfully break up Kush and Shabnam, she's be a pariah in Walford. She doesn't have the Slaters or the Moons to screech out a defence and convince her that she's entitled to Kush. Kush is the fiancé of the woman she defines as her best friend. If Kush were catting around with some other woman behind Shabnam's back, Stacey's moral fibre would be such that she would be badgering and berating Kush until she accidentally on purpose managed to tell Shabnam - just as she accidentally on purpose managed to tell Kush about Shabnam's child.
Shabnam is the innocent in all of this, succumbing to Carmel's insistence that she allow the woman to give Shabnam a make-over - she looked stunning in her green outfit, without Carmel's assistance - which was contrived to have Kush be sent to Stacey's flat for eyelash curlers, just for the contrived scene of having Kush happen upon Stacey wrapped in a towel fresh from the shower.
The whole ethos of this situation is that Kush doesn't love Stacey - he lusts after her, and she lusts for him. This isn't love, and I daresay, that whilst Carmel might think Stacey fun at the expense of someone else's engagement party, I daresay both Stacey and Carmel would quickly tire of each other's company. And one wonders how long any sort of relationship with Kush would last - based on the fact that both have lost spouses, but then also based on sex.
I think Kush is a nice guy, but he's also a selfish dick. He genuinely loves Shabnam, he loves her enough to commit to her, knowing her background and cognizant of the fact that he's marrying into a deeply religious family, but at the same time, he's too immature to appreciate that he's going to, at least, meet Shabnam half-way, and that means stop looking for a chick on the side in order to get laid.
Positives about this were threefold - Masood spontaneously dancing was a joy to watch, and Bushra was there. Bushra is a legend, and I'd like to see more of her and her four daughters, including the geeky one;but wasn't there a massive falllng-out with Bushra (again) not that long ago, yet she still shows up at the Masoods' dos.
Finally, I like their imam. They've kept the same man since they've arrived, and I really like him.
Shirley at Her Best. I don't like this storyline at all, simply because I'm not that keen on the appalling attempt at redeeming a rapist, even though eventually, I suspect this is going to be about Shabnam as well, but tonight I tolerated it because Linda Henry put in a masterclass performance.
After meeting Jade and after realising that Jade had cystic fibrosis, Shirley did what she did to Jimbo - she ran away. In fact, she disappeared for the weekend, much to the worry of Buster. When she finally appeared, she was drunk - and by that time, the gossip grapevine had got going between Masood and Buster, and Dean had found out that his child was alive.
Here's the part of the story I found hard to swallow. Dean told Shirley it wasn't too late for him to be a good dad. and he was told that he couldn't barge into whatever situation the child was in and claim her; she may even be part of a loving family. Dean's reaction was pure EastEnders' recent attitude to adoptive or foster parents.
He didn't care. He'd take her anyway. Er, sorry, Dean, but you can't. Shirley countered with the lie that the child had been adopted ages ago, and those records were closed. Then she said something really weird, and it made me cringe at the thought of how fucking bad the writing is still at the moment.
They said it doesn't matter if Dean's name is on the birth certificate, she's been adopted.
Er, sorry ... but there's only one way Dean could be legally on that birth certificate, and that's if he accompanied Shabnam to the registry office and was present when Shabnam registered the baby's birth. He had to give his permission, as a man unmarried to his babymamma, before he's listed as the father. Yet, I thought the child was abandoned at birth, shortly afterward, when she was left on Imzamam's doorstep. Did Shabnam have time to register the birth before abandoning her? Even if she did, Dean still couldn't be named.
EastEnders' writers really need to research family law.
I understand what Shirley's doing. She doesn't think Dean would be able to cope with a child with cystic fibrosis, and to drive the message home, she reinforces her message hypothetically. What if Shabnam had kept the baby? Dean was just a kid, and even so, does he think the Masoods would have allowed him any access to the kid? They'd have banged on about financial support. The best advice she gave Dean was to get on with his life. well, he did, just that ... he brought a stop to Shabnam's engagement party by barging in and demanding why she lied to him about their baby having died.
Boy, Bushra will make mincemeat of that.
(Sigh) Another Non-Victim. I feel sorry for Roxy. Of all the people in Walford, she's the loneliest. She's all but paid by Roswell Ronnie and Charlie to get out of the house and leave them alone - even poor pitiful psychopath Ronnie is so helpless, she manages to manipulate Roxy into doing her nails and shaving her legs just so she and Charlie could have a wedding night.
Ronnie was even complete with self-pithying lines.
I'm so afraid that I won't be able to ... I mean, why would he want to? I'm such a mess.
All guaranteed to guilt-trip Roxy into an evening filled with drinking on her own. So she ends up at Sharon's Singles' Bingo night at the Albert, where we got,earlier, a soupcon of the ridiculous bar wars that seems to be the epitome of storyline they're offering Sharon, by pitting her against Kim.
Of course, Singles Bingo is winning against Kim's weird winter Apres-Ski Christmas theme,. until dynamic businessman Vincent reminds Sharon that tills ringing upstairs and downstairs is good for the bar in general.
Whitney even arranged for Carol to spend an evening at the bingo in the company of Billy Mitchell.
Not much to write home about. Really.
I thought characters were supposed to progress not regress.
The Ugly Side of Stacey.
The best thing to come out of this vignette tonight was Mas dancing and the legend that is Bushra.
It's official: Kush is a dick. He is as shallow as his mother, who - even though her ex-husband was a secular Muslim - should have gauged the cultural background and religious leanings of Shabnam's family enough to have had respect for their traditions and not go bringing booze to the proceedings. That goes double for Stacey, who is supposed to be Shabnam's best friend, and who acted throughout the entire proceeding like a sulky schoolgirl determined to spoil the fun, had Dean not got there before her with the duff-duff.
Kush is a dick because he's such a shallow self-centred person, who's allowed himself to be caught between a rock and a hard place regarding women. Stacey's upset because - as she puts it - the only man she wants is her best mate's fella. Clock that: "the only man she wants" - that's wants not loves.
Stacey has known Kush all of five minutes, and on the strength of a drunken kiss, she wants this man, knowing nothing about him, except that his mother seems to like to knock'em back and party a great deal. What was the most shocking thing of all was the line she levelled at Kush, wondering about him wanting to have a quiet night in on his thirtieth, because it was Ramadan and he was observing it for Shabnam.
So you're going to go all of your life just doing things that make her happy?
It's called "love," Stacey, and it's probably what Bradley would have done for you, had he lived.
No one's told Kush to marry Shabnam, and no one twisted his arm to make him go down on his knees to propose in public. That makes me think either one of two things - either he does, indeed, love her, or he's going through the motions publically in order to convince her and and to convince himself, which is even more cruel to Shabnam.
And, you know, I can totally understand Shabnam's annoyance at Carmel, regarding the party. Neither she nor Kush asked for a big affair like this. They wanted something quiet, if anything at all. After all, this is the man who is still mourning his wife. Instead, Carmel takes over the proceedings, bringing elaborate decorations, including a glitterball which happened to be Kush's first decoration.
It isn't a party until Kush gets out his ball.
I like a good cocktail sausage. It reminds me of my ex-husband.
Is there anything this woman says that doesn't have anything to do with either sex or bodily functions? At the time, the anecdote about her husband fixing curry and then guffing under the duvet covers was a bit shocking and out of place at the dinner table - and in the company of people she didn't know - but the fun's worn off with some of her humour. You'd have thought she'd have respected Shabnam's wishes about this being a traditional engagement party and Shabnam's cultural heritage, but she didn't. She sneaked in booze anyway, and found a willing collaborator in Stacey is spiking their drink.
Not being funny, but this is the sort of cultural arrogance that was shown by those oh-so-middle-class backpackers who stripped naked on top of a sacred mountain in the Far East recently.
The other downside of this vignette was Stacey pulling a massively sulky face when Kush praised Shabnam and proposed to her. Talk about regressing a character.
In case Stacey hasn't realised it, were she to successfully break up Kush and Shabnam, she's be a pariah in Walford. She doesn't have the Slaters or the Moons to screech out a defence and convince her that she's entitled to Kush. Kush is the fiancé of the woman she defines as her best friend. If Kush were catting around with some other woman behind Shabnam's back, Stacey's moral fibre would be such that she would be badgering and berating Kush until she accidentally on purpose managed to tell Shabnam - just as she accidentally on purpose managed to tell Kush about Shabnam's child.
Shabnam is the innocent in all of this, succumbing to Carmel's insistence that she allow the woman to give Shabnam a make-over - she looked stunning in her green outfit, without Carmel's assistance - which was contrived to have Kush be sent to Stacey's flat for eyelash curlers, just for the contrived scene of having Kush happen upon Stacey wrapped in a towel fresh from the shower.
The whole ethos of this situation is that Kush doesn't love Stacey - he lusts after her, and she lusts for him. This isn't love, and I daresay, that whilst Carmel might think Stacey fun at the expense of someone else's engagement party, I daresay both Stacey and Carmel would quickly tire of each other's company. And one wonders how long any sort of relationship with Kush would last - based on the fact that both have lost spouses, but then also based on sex.
I think Kush is a nice guy, but he's also a selfish dick. He genuinely loves Shabnam, he loves her enough to commit to her, knowing her background and cognizant of the fact that he's marrying into a deeply religious family, but at the same time, he's too immature to appreciate that he's going to, at least, meet Shabnam half-way, and that means stop looking for a chick on the side in order to get laid.
Positives about this were threefold - Masood spontaneously dancing was a joy to watch, and Bushra was there. Bushra is a legend, and I'd like to see more of her and her four daughters, including the geeky one;but wasn't there a massive falllng-out with Bushra (again) not that long ago, yet she still shows up at the Masoods' dos.
Finally, I like their imam. They've kept the same man since they've arrived, and I really like him.
Shirley at Her Best. I don't like this storyline at all, simply because I'm not that keen on the appalling attempt at redeeming a rapist, even though eventually, I suspect this is going to be about Shabnam as well, but tonight I tolerated it because Linda Henry put in a masterclass performance.
After meeting Jade and after realising that Jade had cystic fibrosis, Shirley did what she did to Jimbo - she ran away. In fact, she disappeared for the weekend, much to the worry of Buster. When she finally appeared, she was drunk - and by that time, the gossip grapevine had got going between Masood and Buster, and Dean had found out that his child was alive.
Here's the part of the story I found hard to swallow. Dean told Shirley it wasn't too late for him to be a good dad. and he was told that he couldn't barge into whatever situation the child was in and claim her; she may even be part of a loving family. Dean's reaction was pure EastEnders' recent attitude to adoptive or foster parents.
He didn't care. He'd take her anyway. Er, sorry, Dean, but you can't. Shirley countered with the lie that the child had been adopted ages ago, and those records were closed. Then she said something really weird, and it made me cringe at the thought of how fucking bad the writing is still at the moment.
They said it doesn't matter if Dean's name is on the birth certificate, she's been adopted.
Er, sorry ... but there's only one way Dean could be legally on that birth certificate, and that's if he accompanied Shabnam to the registry office and was present when Shabnam registered the baby's birth. He had to give his permission, as a man unmarried to his babymamma, before he's listed as the father. Yet, I thought the child was abandoned at birth, shortly afterward, when she was left on Imzamam's doorstep. Did Shabnam have time to register the birth before abandoning her? Even if she did, Dean still couldn't be named.
EastEnders' writers really need to research family law.
I understand what Shirley's doing. She doesn't think Dean would be able to cope with a child with cystic fibrosis, and to drive the message home, she reinforces her message hypothetically. What if Shabnam had kept the baby? Dean was just a kid, and even so, does he think the Masoods would have allowed him any access to the kid? They'd have banged on about financial support. The best advice she gave Dean was to get on with his life. well, he did, just that ... he brought a stop to Shabnam's engagement party by barging in and demanding why she lied to him about their baby having died.
Boy, Bushra will make mincemeat of that.
(Sigh) Another Non-Victim. I feel sorry for Roxy. Of all the people in Walford, she's the loneliest. She's all but paid by Roswell Ronnie and Charlie to get out of the house and leave them alone - even poor pitiful psychopath Ronnie is so helpless, she manages to manipulate Roxy into doing her nails and shaving her legs just so she and Charlie could have a wedding night.
Ronnie was even complete with self-pithying lines.
I'm so afraid that I won't be able to ... I mean, why would he want to? I'm such a mess.
All guaranteed to guilt-trip Roxy into an evening filled with drinking on her own. So she ends up at Sharon's Singles' Bingo night at the Albert, where we got,earlier, a soupcon of the ridiculous bar wars that seems to be the epitome of storyline they're offering Sharon, by pitting her against Kim.
Of course, Singles Bingo is winning against Kim's weird winter Apres-Ski Christmas theme,. until dynamic businessman Vincent reminds Sharon that tills ringing upstairs and downstairs is good for the bar in general.
Whitney even arranged for Carol to spend an evening at the bingo in the company of Billy Mitchell.
Not much to write home about. Really.
No comments:
Post a Comment