One thing I do love, in a purely cynical way, is how EastEnders, under O'Connor's domain, tries to have a literary, arty-farty bend to it. In a way, it's like watching The Archers in an urban setting, but in another way, it's like watching a schmaltzy movie from the 1930s.
It's Christmas, and it's plodding. But then everything is geared for the Millennial crowd and their wankfest at the re-cast of a horse-faced woman who's supposed to be Michelle.
Seriously.
Phil Throws a Pity Party. I love it when EastEnders tries to be subtle and clever, playing out Scrooge's seminal epiphany moment at his future graveside, wondering how he ever became so soulless and empty that he meandered to a lonely and abandoned grave as the backdrop and voice-over to Phil's current situation.
The star of the episode was Dot, and I'm not a fan of hers, and also the writer Matt Evans, for having the balls to put words into Dot's mouth that was the total and complete truth about the Mitchells as people.
They are cowards. Bullies and cowards, who take the easy way out of a difficult situation. They bluster, blowse and bully their way through life, revelling at being lords of their "manor," but death comes to us all, and it comes in various ways.
Dot was totally right. Peggy was a coward to choose suicide, rather than fighting her cancer to the last breath, and in that respect, everything about her life was a fraud. The same with Phil. I don't know if the writers, in general, want us to feel sympathy for him in his plight; but last night's episode and his behaviour tonight just showed me that what's bothering Phil now, more than anything, more than his illness, is his own mortality.
He's getting old, and no matter that he'll get a new liver - we know he will, and it will probably be Ronnie's as Roxy's will be drug-addled - but it won't strip away the years. He won't be the king of the hill, the big man, the one the people feared anymore. He'll just be an ageing man, watching his health and his behaviour, as younger men of a different ilk step up to the plate.
He's taking the coward's way out, instead of fighting for his life. He thinks so little of his wife and children because he's embarrassed to be revealed as what he perceives to be weak, because he's so ill. Some of the bravest people on earth fight the most devastating illnesses and medical conditions - Steven Hawkinge, anyone? - and those aren't even self-inflicted like Phil's.
So, kudos to Dot, for telling it like it is. The Mitchells - Peggy, Phil, Grant, Sam, the lot of them - are cowards. When the going gets tough, rather than face the consequences and fight, they cut and run. And credit where credit is due, the Sharon in that last scene was 1990s Sharon, brooking no nonsense, at the end of her tether with Phil's self-pity, ingratitude and selfishness, epitomised by the fact that the only way he could express his sentiments to his children was by handing them money instead of saying the words they longed to hear from him.
Finally, finally, the Mitchells are exposed for the sham artists that they are. Faux strong-arms, who fold when mortality challenges them.
The real surprise this Christmas shouldn't be the "return" of a woman who will no more be Michelle Fowler for however short a time than a Dutchman would; the real surprise should be Phil Mitchell's death.
But it won't be.
Steve McFadden can't be surpassed in playing a drunk, but Phil isn't drunk anymore. He's very ill, maybe dying - so why do I think he's acting the way he did when he was drunk? He had that same, bleary-eyed, half-cocked stare, he shuffles, he grunts and pants. One wonders if his liver disease is so late stage that it's developed into hepatic encephalopathy, affecting his brain; but I don't think so. I think McFadden is on autopilot playing Phil in this stage, and he's channelled Phil the drunk.
To watch Phil shuffle about the Square, plying Ben with money, but not ever telling him his feelings for the boy; he gives money to Louise and condones her plans to atten a club night on New Year's Eve, advising her to take a cab home. Sorry, but aren't things like this restricted to people aged 18 and over? I know Louise looks 18, but sending an underaged girl of 15 out to an event like this is playing right into the hands of Social Services, and that doesn't even involve Jay's presence.
But that's Phil's way - give the kids some money to have a good time, and forget about him, and he couldn't even face his wife.
Dot at least had the courage to remind him that he had a wife and children who loved him and called him out on his selfishness and cowardice, for putting himself first, not wanting to live with what he'd become. She spoke the truth when she told him that Jim Branning was more of a man than he would ever be.
In the end, Dot gave up on him.
God be with you ... That means "good-bye".
It's a shame the producers don't give up on this totally worthless character. Since John Yorke started the rot, by tacking the worst aspects of Grant's character onto Phil and calling it development to Kirkwood's pairing him with Shirley and turning them into a pseudo-romantic idea of Shirley as cerebral Phil and Phil and dumb Grant to the shitstorm of amoral terpitude heaped on him by DTC, Phil is a totally irredeemable character, but I get it that he'll be given a reason for living by she-who-can-do-no-wrong Denise and her Holy Rainbow Child.
Spare me.
Secrets and Lies. I don't feel sorry for Lee in the least, but I think Whitney is a whining, puling, little bitch. I get it that Lee has told a porky pie about the type of job he's got, but did he? Or did she assume that because he was working in the City, that he was earning mega bucks?
She's spending money like there's no tomorrow. Is this the money she must earn from her shifts in the pub? Are her purchases bought on Lee's credit card? I get it that she wants to prove a point and outdo Linda in the Christmas League, but the first time Lee tells her that his mother won't like something that she's bought - fancy, expensive crackers - she runs whining to Mick, telling tales about Lee.
For fuck's sake, you're married! You're supposed to be adults, yet you go whining to Lee's father, a man on whom you clearly at one time had designs, telling tales, hoping he'll "have a word" with Lee and tell him to stop picking on or digging at Whitney. Pardon me, but didn't she do the same thing with Bianca, go running to her the moment a boy purportedly disrespected her in some way, and let Biance fight her battles.
I still don't think Whitney loves Lee. She loves the idea of what she believes him to be. In the end, we had another Christmas roof scene at The Vic, with Mick and Lee, in the dead of winter, sharing beers on the roof. At least, Lee managed to tell Mick that he worked in a call centre and that his job wasn't some high-powered financial job in the City. Was Mick stupid ever to think that his son, with no sort of qualifications, could land a financial job in the City?
How much of what Lee told Mick is uncertain, but he did come clean about the job, and Mick advised him to tell Whitney, which he promises to do ... after Christmas.
In the meantime, he's taken the virtual reality headpiece and pawned it for cash, and had the audacity to lie coolly and coldly to the man who should have been receiving the package - a Christmas gift for his nephew.
Lee's afraid of disappointing Whitney. Deep down, I think he knows her love for him is only shallow.
The Show Must Go On ... and On. What was that? The show was slammed by no less than the local critic for The Walford Gazette, and rightfully so. This was some sort of warped tribute to the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney "Let's Put On a Show" musicals of the 1930s ...
Nobody wants to do the show after being slammed by the press - and even Denise the plagiarist was put in her place by the press. Still, not even the holy mother Denise can't convince the people to participate in the second night.
Classic, schmaltzy stuff - leave it to Linda to do a Public Service Announcement and everyone puts the show back together in one hour, after Patrick and Derek had a heart-to-heart - that's DErek, the luxury character, who got another three-second scene with Martin, but SOC's version of Derek is pointed toward the bosom of the Fox-Hubbards. He's invited to spend Christmas with them, without seeking almighty Denise's permission, and even with po-faced snobby Libby home for the holidays.
The show was accommodated to include Danny Dyer's Cockney patois and Martin, Stacey and the kids bursting into Madness's Our House.
Of course, the show was ultimately used as a lead-in to Phil's predicament. As you do.
What will the weekend bring? I wonder.
It's Christmas, and it's plodding. But then everything is geared for the Millennial crowd and their wankfest at the re-cast of a horse-faced woman who's supposed to be Michelle.
Seriously.
Phil Throws a Pity Party. I love it when EastEnders tries to be subtle and clever, playing out Scrooge's seminal epiphany moment at his future graveside, wondering how he ever became so soulless and empty that he meandered to a lonely and abandoned grave as the backdrop and voice-over to Phil's current situation.
The star of the episode was Dot, and I'm not a fan of hers, and also the writer Matt Evans, for having the balls to put words into Dot's mouth that was the total and complete truth about the Mitchells as people.
They are cowards. Bullies and cowards, who take the easy way out of a difficult situation. They bluster, blowse and bully their way through life, revelling at being lords of their "manor," but death comes to us all, and it comes in various ways.
Dot was totally right. Peggy was a coward to choose suicide, rather than fighting her cancer to the last breath, and in that respect, everything about her life was a fraud. The same with Phil. I don't know if the writers, in general, want us to feel sympathy for him in his plight; but last night's episode and his behaviour tonight just showed me that what's bothering Phil now, more than anything, more than his illness, is his own mortality.
He's getting old, and no matter that he'll get a new liver - we know he will, and it will probably be Ronnie's as Roxy's will be drug-addled - but it won't strip away the years. He won't be the king of the hill, the big man, the one the people feared anymore. He'll just be an ageing man, watching his health and his behaviour, as younger men of a different ilk step up to the plate.
He's taking the coward's way out, instead of fighting for his life. He thinks so little of his wife and children because he's embarrassed to be revealed as what he perceives to be weak, because he's so ill. Some of the bravest people on earth fight the most devastating illnesses and medical conditions - Steven Hawkinge, anyone? - and those aren't even self-inflicted like Phil's.
So, kudos to Dot, for telling it like it is. The Mitchells - Peggy, Phil, Grant, Sam, the lot of them - are cowards. When the going gets tough, rather than face the consequences and fight, they cut and run. And credit where credit is due, the Sharon in that last scene was 1990s Sharon, brooking no nonsense, at the end of her tether with Phil's self-pity, ingratitude and selfishness, epitomised by the fact that the only way he could express his sentiments to his children was by handing them money instead of saying the words they longed to hear from him.
Finally, finally, the Mitchells are exposed for the sham artists that they are. Faux strong-arms, who fold when mortality challenges them.
The real surprise this Christmas shouldn't be the "return" of a woman who will no more be Michelle Fowler for however short a time than a Dutchman would; the real surprise should be Phil Mitchell's death.
But it won't be.
Steve McFadden can't be surpassed in playing a drunk, but Phil isn't drunk anymore. He's very ill, maybe dying - so why do I think he's acting the way he did when he was drunk? He had that same, bleary-eyed, half-cocked stare, he shuffles, he grunts and pants. One wonders if his liver disease is so late stage that it's developed into hepatic encephalopathy, affecting his brain; but I don't think so. I think McFadden is on autopilot playing Phil in this stage, and he's channelled Phil the drunk.
To watch Phil shuffle about the Square, plying Ben with money, but not ever telling him his feelings for the boy; he gives money to Louise and condones her plans to atten a club night on New Year's Eve, advising her to take a cab home. Sorry, but aren't things like this restricted to people aged 18 and over? I know Louise looks 18, but sending an underaged girl of 15 out to an event like this is playing right into the hands of Social Services, and that doesn't even involve Jay's presence.
But that's Phil's way - give the kids some money to have a good time, and forget about him, and he couldn't even face his wife.
Dot at least had the courage to remind him that he had a wife and children who loved him and called him out on his selfishness and cowardice, for putting himself first, not wanting to live with what he'd become. She spoke the truth when she told him that Jim Branning was more of a man than he would ever be.
In the end, Dot gave up on him.
God be with you ... That means "good-bye".
It's a shame the producers don't give up on this totally worthless character. Since John Yorke started the rot, by tacking the worst aspects of Grant's character onto Phil and calling it development to Kirkwood's pairing him with Shirley and turning them into a pseudo-romantic idea of Shirley as cerebral Phil and Phil and dumb Grant to the shitstorm of amoral terpitude heaped on him by DTC, Phil is a totally irredeemable character, but I get it that he'll be given a reason for living by she-who-can-do-no-wrong Denise and her Holy Rainbow Child.
Spare me.
Secrets and Lies. I don't feel sorry for Lee in the least, but I think Whitney is a whining, puling, little bitch. I get it that Lee has told a porky pie about the type of job he's got, but did he? Or did she assume that because he was working in the City, that he was earning mega bucks?
She's spending money like there's no tomorrow. Is this the money she must earn from her shifts in the pub? Are her purchases bought on Lee's credit card? I get it that she wants to prove a point and outdo Linda in the Christmas League, but the first time Lee tells her that his mother won't like something that she's bought - fancy, expensive crackers - she runs whining to Mick, telling tales about Lee.
For fuck's sake, you're married! You're supposed to be adults, yet you go whining to Lee's father, a man on whom you clearly at one time had designs, telling tales, hoping he'll "have a word" with Lee and tell him to stop picking on or digging at Whitney. Pardon me, but didn't she do the same thing with Bianca, go running to her the moment a boy purportedly disrespected her in some way, and let Biance fight her battles.
I still don't think Whitney loves Lee. She loves the idea of what she believes him to be. In the end, we had another Christmas roof scene at The Vic, with Mick and Lee, in the dead of winter, sharing beers on the roof. At least, Lee managed to tell Mick that he worked in a call centre and that his job wasn't some high-powered financial job in the City. Was Mick stupid ever to think that his son, with no sort of qualifications, could land a financial job in the City?
How much of what Lee told Mick is uncertain, but he did come clean about the job, and Mick advised him to tell Whitney, which he promises to do ... after Christmas.
In the meantime, he's taken the virtual reality headpiece and pawned it for cash, and had the audacity to lie coolly and coldly to the man who should have been receiving the package - a Christmas gift for his nephew.
Lee's afraid of disappointing Whitney. Deep down, I think he knows her love for him is only shallow.
The Show Must Go On ... and On. What was that? The show was slammed by no less than the local critic for The Walford Gazette, and rightfully so. This was some sort of warped tribute to the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney "Let's Put On a Show" musicals of the 1930s ...
Nobody wants to do the show after being slammed by the press - and even Denise the plagiarist was put in her place by the press. Still, not even the holy mother Denise can't convince the people to participate in the second night.
Classic, schmaltzy stuff - leave it to Linda to do a Public Service Announcement and everyone puts the show back together in one hour, after Patrick and Derek had a heart-to-heart - that's DErek, the luxury character, who got another three-second scene with Martin, but SOC's version of Derek is pointed toward the bosom of the Fox-Hubbards. He's invited to spend Christmas with them, without seeking almighty Denise's permission, and even with po-faced snobby Libby home for the holidays.
The show was accommodated to include Danny Dyer's Cockney patois and Martin, Stacey and the kids bursting into Madness's Our House.
Of course, the show was ultimately used as a lead-in to Phil's predicament. As you do.
What will the weekend bring? I wonder.
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