After reading the first instalment of Sean O'Connor's long-awaited interview, I have to admit that this episode is a testament of his vision for the show - clouded, jumbled, pedantic, self-righteous.
He cited in the interview that he wanted to return the show's ethos to the days of Julia Smith and Tony Holland - which is, to say, featuring issue storylines that are relevant to the day. That's fine and good, but he's not going about it the right way. Back in the day, when the show started, it wasn't the first show to feature contemporary issues. That credit belongs the Brookside, dead for almost 2 decades and curiously paid tribute to in tonight's episode by placing the Food Bank in a rundown area in a building brazenly labeled "Brookside Boys' Club".
Was that a cute graphic by a knowing director as a passing comment on the show's relativity to Brookside in its dying days?
Again, back in the day, EastEnders - like Brookside - presented contemporary issue storylines played out by very believable characters ... long-term unemployment and the way it affected a man who'd formerly been the breadwinner in the household (Arthur Fowler), teenaged pregnancy (Michelle), menopausal pregnancy (Pauline), rape and the way that can alter a solid relationship (Kathy and Pete Beale), alcoholism (Angie Watts), even racism reared its ugly head in the casually racist language the characters used and in a storyline where the Carpenters were hassled by the police.
I get what O'Connor is trying to do. Honestly, I do; but he's totally doing it the wrong way. I totally understand the rise of poverty amongst people nowadays and the increasing use of food banks; but Denise is not the character to be depicted as suffering from genteel starvation and the endeavours of trying to find unemployment. She's not sympathetic at all. She brought on her own hardship, by her arrogance, her pride and her innate stupidity. Her hardship is self-inflicted.
How about this? The Taylor family, about to be introduced and being presented as having two children with learning difficulties, would have been a prime example of people struggling, in light of all the Tory-imposed benefit cuts, and literally living on the breadline.Their secret could have been their shame at having to resort to a food bank, when the benefits they obviously receive don't do the trick. Or, if not them, how about the elderly couple about to arrive? Allegedly,they're subsisting on a state pension, which isn't much (although Patrick manages to maintain a sizable house and entertain an indefinite holiday in he Bahamas literally at peak season, and he's only on the basic whack).
We've had the bullying storyline, but that's been spoiled by linking it with the putrid tale of Michelle's sexual involvement with a 16 year-old boy, a repulsive tale in and of itself, but totally ignorant and embarrassing that the researcher's made a sow's ear out of assuming that the legal age of consent in the US was the same as in the UK,and then getting caught short when it was presented to them that such laws were maintained by the individual states in the US, and it just so happened that Michelle had actually committed rape in the state in which she lived. The recast of this character was bad enough; the fact that, for a legion of viewers, she's now known as a statutory rapist is quite another thing altogether.
And almost in every tale, there's the inevitable scene where some character would rather - absolutely literally - run away or hide away from the unfortunate truth:-
He cited in the interview that he wanted to return the show's ethos to the days of Julia Smith and Tony Holland - which is, to say, featuring issue storylines that are relevant to the day. That's fine and good, but he's not going about it the right way. Back in the day, when the show started, it wasn't the first show to feature contemporary issues. That credit belongs the Brookside, dead for almost 2 decades and curiously paid tribute to in tonight's episode by placing the Food Bank in a rundown area in a building brazenly labeled "Brookside Boys' Club".
Was that a cute graphic by a knowing director as a passing comment on the show's relativity to Brookside in its dying days?
Again, back in the day, EastEnders - like Brookside - presented contemporary issue storylines played out by very believable characters ... long-term unemployment and the way it affected a man who'd formerly been the breadwinner in the household (Arthur Fowler), teenaged pregnancy (Michelle), menopausal pregnancy (Pauline), rape and the way that can alter a solid relationship (Kathy and Pete Beale), alcoholism (Angie Watts), even racism reared its ugly head in the casually racist language the characters used and in a storyline where the Carpenters were hassled by the police.
I get what O'Connor is trying to do. Honestly, I do; but he's totally doing it the wrong way. I totally understand the rise of poverty amongst people nowadays and the increasing use of food banks; but Denise is not the character to be depicted as suffering from genteel starvation and the endeavours of trying to find unemployment. She's not sympathetic at all. She brought on her own hardship, by her arrogance, her pride and her innate stupidity. Her hardship is self-inflicted.
How about this? The Taylor family, about to be introduced and being presented as having two children with learning difficulties, would have been a prime example of people struggling, in light of all the Tory-imposed benefit cuts, and literally living on the breadline.Their secret could have been their shame at having to resort to a food bank, when the benefits they obviously receive don't do the trick. Or, if not them, how about the elderly couple about to arrive? Allegedly,they're subsisting on a state pension, which isn't much (although Patrick manages to maintain a sizable house and entertain an indefinite holiday in he Bahamas literally at peak season, and he's only on the basic whack).
We've had the bullying storyline, but that's been spoiled by linking it with the putrid tale of Michelle's sexual involvement with a 16 year-old boy, a repulsive tale in and of itself, but totally ignorant and embarrassing that the researcher's made a sow's ear out of assuming that the legal age of consent in the US was the same as in the UK,and then getting caught short when it was presented to them that such laws were maintained by the individual states in the US, and it just so happened that Michelle had actually committed rape in the state in which she lived. The recast of this character was bad enough; the fact that, for a legion of viewers, she's now known as a statutory rapist is quite another thing altogether.
And almost in every tale, there's the inevitable scene where some character would rather - absolutely literally - run away or hide away from the unfortunate truth:-
- Denise runs away from the fact that the employee helping her in the food bank is a former neighbour. But then she also runs away from anyone who shows this ingrate any sort of care or concern.
- Ian runs away from the fact that, despite all his sanctimonious airs and graces and his own arrogance and lack of compassion for the scores of people waiting to be seen in the doctor's surgery, he has been diagnosed as having Diabetes Type II.
- Whitney runs away from the fact that she's the one being dumped by Lee, that he's going to divorce her for unreasonable behaviour. So she behaves unreasonably, and decides she's entitled to all those nice, expensive things that Lee's non-existent money would have bought her and goes on a shoplifting spree- and later tries to justify the fact that, even though Lee didn't want her, Woody would do.
- Jack runs away from the fact that he actually isn't Matthew's father, and that Matthew's father just might have a better claim to the child to whom Jack has absolutely no right.
It's just a mess - a mess of self-entitled cowards, unfunny comedy, infantilised men and just awful, awful characters. Do you know what's the worst thing about it?
The fucker didn't even have the integrity to tell the viewing public that Steve McFadden is taking an extended leave, something we easily figured out for ourselves. But then, who misses him? Who indeed? There was a time when a dearth of Mitchells were sorely missed on the Square, but I'd trade the abysmal Fox sisters being force-fed us, and the cloying Carmel for one hour more of Roxy Mitchell.
I guess the ubiquitous "Brookside Boys' Club" fronting a food bank and located in what appeared to be a rundown community is testament enough that this tit's been sucked dry.
The Perils of Po-Face. (Sigh) How much more of this must we take?
In almost every episode, we're met with another version of the starving Denise. This storyline is such an overt insult to anyone who genuinely finds themselves in a straitened situation, through no fault of their own.
This woman instigated her own hardship, initially by her foul temper and arrogance, her total ingratitude to people trying to help her, and her abject stupidity at not doing anything about her plight until it was effectively too late and then pitching a hissy fit because no one bent the system to accommodate her.
Diane Parish is second only to Jacqueline Jossa in gurning, and this storyline has given her the opportunity, as she starves herself more and more, by subsisting on half a digestive per day and copious glasses of tapwater, of showing us her impression of the legendary Lancastrian comedian, Stan Laurel, who made a mint out of comedy crying:-
Of course, idiots that we viewers are, it simply has to be reinforced that Denise is hungry, ravenous, starving, pitiably so, by showing her in juxtaposition to someone stuffing his/her face inordinately with food. Tonight it was Kim, who showed up on her doorstep,demanding that she sign the Community Centre petition, whilst gobbling away on what appeared to be a cream-filled pastry. She even made Denise hold the thing, whilst she rummaged in her bag for a feather-bedecked pen,and we were treated to Denise almost being tempted to take a bite. The scene ended with Kim bagging the last half of the digestive biscuit on Denise's plate, commenting on how dry it was.
But the real drama came at the food bank - housed inside the "Brookside Boys' Club" - a nod and a wink to another soap who gave up the ghost to a welter of tits, arse and ponderous storyline. As at the Job Centre, Denise runs into and chats with another person who uses the Food Bank's services - this, after holding herself back upon seeing what she thought to be down-and-outs sheltering outside the centre.
The person she meets is a young woman with two small children - a small boy and a child in a pram. When Denise assures her that she won't be returning after this time, the young woman is blasé - she said that too, and she's been returning off-and-on for a year.
It gets easier, she says.
Still, that doesn't convince Denise, who can't understand the girl's pragmatism in using a service that means she and her children have a supply of food when they need it. It's only when she's referred to a volunteer at the food bank that she balks and runs - because her counsellor there is Cora.
Really, Cora was he highlight of this episode, and it's good to see Ann Mitchell looking well and fit after too long a time off-screen. In fact, I was more excited at the return of Cora, albeit I know she's only on hand for a few episodes, than I was at the duff-duff return of the ape-like hulk that is Mick.
Denise is probably one of the most obtuse characters in the show's history. Juxtaposed with her interminable suffering, is the story about Kush endeavouring to move on in his own right. All it took was MummyStacey suggesting the two share a beer to return Kush and Martin to their natural habitats of male, chest-beating tribal banter on the market, revelling in the fact that Kush has signed up for online dating and had already attracted a pretty young woman who was interested in him. Carmel was right there, lapping everything up, including the fact that the girl was 26, and then Kim turned up, to rib and shame Kush by telling him about the various job and romance offers Denise has piling up.
Dee always comes out on top.
That just sums up Sean O'Connor's estimation of her, but not ours.
'Tis a Pity She's a Whore. Mick's and Linda's bedroom has been used as a knocking shop ever since they've been away. First, there was Woody sleeping with Tina, now there's Woody being practically dragged into the bedroom by Whitney, who started the episode off by dressing up to the nines and coming across as a well-healed street-walking whore, who strides off for some retail therapy to recover from Lee's divorce announcement.
This really was a silly storyline. Silly? It was fucking embarrassing. She's been dumped, accused of exhibiting unreasonable behaviour, so she scoots off ... to behave unreasonably.
One of her examples of unreasonable behaviour when married to Lee was expecting him to provide for her expensive tastes, insinuating enough for him to think that buying her expensive bling or allowing her free rein to spend money they really didn't have, would ensure her loyalty and reinforce his image positively for her. He fed her entitlement. Now she goes off to avail herself of all those nice things she thinks Lee should have given her ... without the money, of course.
That's the only correlation I could fathom of this totally gratuitous storyline which only served to act as a dramatic entrance for the returning Widdle Mick. You knew Mick was coming back in this episode all along, even if it weren't released in the spoilers. You knew from the dodgy phonecall which Shirley took and couldn't hear. You knew from Lady Di lounging around the side door of the Vic, as if waiting for Mick to return. And you knew that someone was going to burst into his bedroom to discover Whitney in bed with Woody.
But the shoplifting shit was just that - shit. Stupid shit. Whitney certainly has her issues, and without a doubt, she's one of the most self-entitled and self-obsessed creatures on the show, who reinforces her weak self-esteem by projecting her pejorities on whichever nice guy she's preparing to dump.
But she's been dumped now.
Bin me off as unreasonable? Take that! I'll only go out and shoplift because I'm entitled to have nice things.
That was the gist of this storyline. It showed Whitney blithely shoplifting and getting caught on CCTV, being confronted and then pursued by two security men, only to find that one of them was willing to turn a blind eye to what she'd done in exchange for sexual favours, but he was middle-aged and bald and hoary-looking, so once again, she was portrayed as a victim.
Even down to Woody discovering that she'd left her purse behind and galloping off to help a "damsel in distress". The lechy security man attempting to take sexual favours and being interrupted by hero Woody belting him one and running back to Walford with Whitney. At least she got a posh scarf in the bargain; and when she returns, she has to coerce Woody into having sex with her so she can feel validated again, so she can cancel Lee out, who's moved on, found a girlfriend and taken steps to eradicate the toxic memory of her from her life. She's latched onto another unsuspecting nice guy and she seduces him - just as she did with Todd, with Peter, with Fatboy and ultimately, with Tyler (who lost whatever edge he was supposed to have when she got her claws into him) and then Lee. With all of the previous, she dumped the nice guy for bad boys, who presented themselves as forbidden fruit -Todd for Billie Jackson; Peter for Connor; Fatboy for Tyler; Tyler for Joey Branning.
This time, the object of her desires really is forbidden fruit. He was her husband's father; and because she knew she couldn't have him, that he was off-limits because of that and because he was committed to Lee's mother, she strove to make Lee a mini-Mick. This only exacerbated Lee's already burgeoning mental and psychological problems. Now she's back to her old tricks, latching onto the ubiquitous nice guy, when the bad-boy of her dreams comes hulking through the door of his bedroom like the sulking natural child of The Incredible Hulk and an orangutang.
The Other Side of the Sad Fat Clown. The Beale sitcom rolls on, with Ian becoming insufferably self-righteous in his quest for healthy living - doing extreme exercises, talking about being a gym buddy with Kush, caressing a squash in the market, sitting sanctimoniously in the doctor's surgery and criticising various people awaiting the doctor, reckoning their ailments were the cause of living unhealthy lifestyles.
Again, this was boringly predictable. Ian has diabetes, but like the infantilised man he is - and Jane has reverted to being the mother of a recalcitrant adolescent, rolling her eyes, tutting and hissing, Ian! Please! repeatedly - he storms off, unwilling to accept the truth, or - indeed - evidence of his weakness and mortality.
Crackered Jack. Dot was right. The real person to suffer in this dilemma is Matthew, who's the pig-in-the-middle of a custody fight between Jack and Charlie.
Jack's hunkered down like a besieged bear in his lair, eyeing the public from within, trusting no one. He accuses Dot of siding with Charlie, when Dot, inexplicably, has been fighting Jack's corner all the time. He rails at Honey, for simply witnessing his punching Charlie, when Honey simply told the truth.
His reason for punching Charlie had nothing to do with Matthew; it was because Charlie had insulted Jack's wife. Really, Jack? Well, your wife was once Charlie's wife, and she treated him appallingly. Come to think of it, Jack, I seem to recall her literally running you out of Walford, in what had to be the weakest exit of a major character in the show's history. You left in a flood of tears, and you struck Charlie for insulting your wife? Like it or not, Jack, Charlie is the father of Matthew. He was his sole carer, willingly, for the first six months of his life, until his wife - your wife - became bored with him and slept with a thug in order to frighten Charlie off.
This is pure Jack, however. Once he doesn't get what he wants, he starts casting blame and pushing back.
And all this was played out against Billy on the back foot again, having no money to furnish his new flat and thereby raiding skips, and waiting for a shocking pink carpet to be delivered.
But this episode was awful.
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