This was in todays "the sun" in the Ally Ross column. Even i think this is a bit harsh on Eastenders, but i wondered what you thought. It said;
"Taylor and Burton. Sid and Nancy. Romeo and Juliet. And now, we have the most explosive affair of the lot
Demi and Leo. Walford's star crossed lovers
The Millers and the Taylors. Two families seperated by blood and a crap storyline. And i mean a really crap storyline. The Eastenders. Eleven Big Brother weeks i cheerfully ignore them, hoping that during the break, they might turn into something at least half worth watching. Or at least a half decent impersonation of a decent soap.
Instead?
We discover somebody no one cared about, Sid, has died of an overdose, and that Ian Beale is thinking about getting his vasectomy reversed.
Though dont think for a moment that's the bum end of the deal
For even if we ignore Dots never ending Drivng lessons (who insures a 78 year old woman?) at least two other charcters have emerged recently for the title of worst long running plot line.
Firstly the decision to turn Alfie into a love rat, effectivly ruining the sho's last bankable asset,
But secondly- and beating it for sheer stupidity and unlikeliness- Dennis Brickman's enduring love for his Giant, Orange Sharon "150" watts.
The world's most incompatible couple. A pair forced to intermarry becayse of the staggering lack of alternatives int he sealed ocmmunity of Walford (average age 138). A situation that's now reaching unsustainable levels.
Because the truth is, soaps now survive on sex. EE now has no sexy charcters and the problem has hardly been rescued by the squares latest red-hot lovers.
Minty the fat extra. And Emma. Another EE clone, right down to the boiler suit, who might be perfectly presentable in real life. But once she's gone through the Alford frumpifier she looks like Victoria Wood five weeks after shes taken a carck overdose and been drenged out of the Thames.
Allied to the unsustainable population of course, EE also remains cursed by vanishing charcters, shifting feuds and the permantent cloud of misery that hangs over walford.
Collectivly, its a crisis. And calls for the immediate mass sacking of the scrip writters, the life blood of any soap, who clearly have no idea what they are doing.
Which makes what EE have actually done even mroe remarkably funny
For, faced with meltdown, the BBC1 show has not only ripped off a 450 year old Shakespeare story but also taken the drsatic step of introducing- trendy camera angles.
Yep. Wobbly tracking shots that are ,meant to make us think we're watching 24 or a Woody Allen movie. But as most of them are in the Vic, actually just make us think the cameraman is drunk.
And its times like this you really give up of EE. Because there;s a convincing arguement that says- EE is too arrogant, set in its ways and (right on) agenda-driven to realise the deep trouble they're in. And the show will now just keep on losing viewers untill it eventually disappears.
But hey
Lets end optimistically. The one bit of good news is, Dirty Den's body is about to be discovered. So the show can finally bury it's past, and forget about balding sex perverts.
and then- WAHAY- Steve McFaddens back."
what do you think?