[kenny7]

What have they done to Jay? Ridiculous storyline today. And get rid of Lola too, what's her actual purpose?

The hospital stuff was really good though, loved SJS again.

[never say never]

was i the only one that got a little cringed when michael was 'crying' i know it was sad but its seems as though sjs cant cry lol it sounds too fake

[BubblysInFridge]

Personally , i would of prefered this episode just to have Janine,Michael,Diane,Ricky, Tiffany,Morgan and Ray in. Everyone else's appearance just seemed pointless.
Surely the Jay stuff could of been cut out what actually was the whole point of that? Lola wasn't needed at all!
The Joey/Alice/Derek stuff could of waited until the next episode allowing this episode to feature around the main events of Fridays episode 'Janine's premature birth'
it seemed as if Anthony/Tyler/Whitney was only used to give them more screen time too, i know Anthony/Tyler are MM's family but surely there wsa enough family their already.
The Kat/Alfie/Jean screentime also could of waited till tomorrow it really didn't serve a purpose especially with Jean not revealing to Anthony/Tyler about the scam.
I really hope EE give Diane a contract, she's a breathe of fresh air and im enjoying her stint, she works so well with Janine.

[Lion_60]

Originally Posted by felixrex

The houses on the webcam are just part of the outdoor set; there's nothing inside them. The indoor scenes are filmed inside a studio

Thanks.


Pats voice. The baby is so little. Poor Janine.

Alice lives now with her Dad. That will be not good for her.

Ricky should please go... And Joey should stay. For 50 quid I would also talk with Derek for 10 minutes @Max. If they will ever have a good relationship together ?

The reference to Pat was sad.

What was Michael doing at the end ? Looks like the heartbeat from the baby go up and the this noise and the nurses came in. Then he goes. That was a cliffhanger. Wow. What was he doing ?


Very emotional episode.

[VirginiaDem]

Originally Posted by dullagj2

Tonight wasn't as good as the hour-longs last week but was still an enjoyable ep.

Janine: Charlie plays every scene to perfection. You can tell that she is a mother in real-life. It's going to be a long 6 months when she departs in October. She has said that this story has made her broody........hopefully she doesn't get pregnant any time soon. I know it's selfish of me but the show NEEDS Janine.
Loved her hearing Pat's voice. The last few episodes have really missed Pat. Thankfully Ricky & Diane are still around(2 more episodes after this).
The scene where Janine & Diane reminisced about Pat was lovely and I liked the way the camera panned out which reminded me of Janine & Pat's final scene.
Loved how her bitchy side still came out with her wanting the best for her baby.

Michael: Again SJS was great tonight. I liked the Michael/Ricky scene where he asked about being a father. It's going to be fascinating watching these two being parents. I thought he gave her the touch of death at the end. The last scene was very chilling watching him leave the hospital. There are a few levels of interpretation but I think he couldn't bare to see the child suffer, he's afraid she's going to die or maybe he feels like he's getting too close, losing control and feeling emotions he hasn't felt before.

Jean: She shouldn't have gone to the hospital but them Goons blaming her when they didn't know all the facts. The sooner they leave the better. Lol at Tyler saying that Jean should be locked up- the irony.

Kat: The whose the shagger gains pace............

Joey: undecided whether he's good yet. He's definetly better then the Goons but that wouldn't be hard!

Lola: She was showing a nice side to her during the time of Hev's death but any develpoment she made has gone out the window. She needs to grow up, she has a baby on the way.

The Brannings: watching back Friday's episode I realised how much time was dedicated to this family unnecessarily ala Pat's funeral & death episodes.
Derek is literally shoehorned into every episode and story. He even gets involved with AJ in a couple of weeks.
It was interesting watching EE's whodunits on Watch at the weekend. Simon Ashdown spoke of the Brannings like this big family who were going to continue to take centre stage. This was at the time Lauren knocked her father down. He really is obsessed with them and they've been at the forefront of the show since the Stax reveal. IMO the 2008 stuff was awful. Tanya/Sean, Tanya/Jack, Tanya burying Max, Max wanting his brother killed and Lauren trying to kill her dad. And looking at the stuff coming up, it's the same old same old.
Kat's story: 60% chance of it being a Branning with all 3 brothers involved.
Derek/Max's secret, Derek feud with his son, Lucy, Michael.
What's the betting Derek will be involved in the reveal of Hev's murder and one of the brothers will be f**king Sharon before the year is out.

7/10

I wonder how unpopular this family really is? If they keep expanding them, the dumbasses in the writing room should realise that they'll risk alienating their audience because sooner or later people will get fed up with them in their entirety.

In my opinion, (as I've been told to say that now), the most watchable Branning is Max, but it seems in my opinion that Simon Ashdown & co are intent upon us investing ourselves in Derek - otherwise, his children wouldn't have been brought into the fore. Oh, and there's an ex-wife, Suzy has two adolescent teenagers about and the mind boggles how many there could be.

I don't like them. They're a family of serial cheaters, sleazers and losers. In my opinion, the show started sinking fast when they started expanding.

[Lion_60]

I wanted vote for 4/5 not 2/5. Damn.

[Sez_babe]

Originally Posted by never say never

was i the only one that got a little cringed when michael was 'crying' i know it was sad but its seems as though sjs cant cry lol it sounds too fake

We've seen Michael properly cry - like when he told Ronnie about his mum

[tweenie]

Originally Posted by VirginiaDem

Notice the patter in the Branning men of walking away from young children they sire - Derek with Joey and Alice, Max with Bradley, Jack with a gaggle of kids.

Originally Posted by SULLA

When he demanded £50 for 10 minutes conversation, Derek should have got up and left. I would have done.

Shades of Jamie Foreman's real life here, currently having to pay for his now adult children.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ged-22-20.html

Although to be fair, from this article, we don't know what relationship he had/has with his children. Jamie will certainly be hoping his contract is renewed which is probably likely now they have brought his children into storyline.

[dan2008]

Brilliant episode....

Nice start to the episode with Janine hearing the voices of Pat

Nice scenes with Diane and Janine i thought
It was pretty emotional seeing them talking about Pat and then crying.

Tyler was a bit nasty to Jean. She didn't even do anything to Michael and i think Kat's right Jean needs to tell the truth now and let everyone know just what Michael is like.

Lol at Tiff acting like the Mother of the family

Joey=Hot and a very good actor.Him,Alice and Derek are really interesting to watch and im looking forward to more scenes from them.

Has Michael left Janine to deal with everything?

8/10

[VirginiaDem]

Originally Posted by dan2008

Brilliant episode....

Nice start to the episode with Janine hearing the voices of Pat

Nice scenes with Diane and Janine i thought
It was pretty emotional seeing them talking about Pat and then crying.

Tyler was a bit nasty to Jean. She didn't even do anything to Michael and i think Kat's right Jean needs to tell the truth now and let everyone know just what Michael is like.

Lol at Tiff acting like the Mother of the family

Joey=Hot and a very good actor.Him,Alice and Derek are really interesting to watch and im looking forward to more scenes from them.

Has Michael left Janine to deal with everything?

8/10

BIB: This was the best scene of the night. I felt that Janine really and honestly hadn't grieved for Pat properly until that moment. She was upset at her death and had that great scene with her, but I don't feel she had anyone around her at that time who would allow her to grieve freely and openly.

Ricky was too caught up in his marital woes with Bianca and vice versa - not that Bianca would have, in any way, have been sympathetic to Janine. Bianca knew pat in a different way from Janine, and Carol had only just recently become a part of that dynamic. Besides, as soon as Pat died, Carol and David were more concerned with screwing around - although they touched Janine to pay for the funeral.

The birth of her daughter - and a birth under such traumatic circumstances - as well as having Diane there, who was also raised by and was close to Pat, brought everything into perspective.

I'm glad they had the perspicacity to remember Pat in this situation. Too often when someone dies, they're forgotten totally.

[blue_angel]

"Janine..Janine." Was I the only one who didn't realise that was Pat's voice? I'm such a fickle creature, 6 months and I've forgotten all about her. I just thought it was Ricky sounding a bit gruff.


Poor 'Little Bubba Girl Moon'. She's got a little hat though, so she's all set in the world. I hope she's going to be ok, she's the cutest thing in the show since Joey (the kitten, not Branning, although I'll get to them both later). I hope 'Little...' makes it ok, I think she'll provide such a development into both Janine and Michael's characters. I know Charlie's going on a break, but despite of that it'll be interesting to see in what way Janine tackles motherhood and whether it makes or breaks her. I thought her scenes with Diane were refreshing and it's always interesting to expose the vunerable side of Janine as she covers it with bitchiness and a hard heart a lot of the time.


Michael's completely gone in to overload. He's feeling things and going through things that he tries his best to bury down deep every day, but they're breaking though to the surface and he doesn't know how to handle them. He's so used to dealing with his emotions by going into a reflex lie and manipulate mode that he doesn't know what to do when he can't do that. It won't work on 'Little...' and the emotions are hitting him harder than before. The only thing he can do that feels natural is to run away and pretend like it isn't happening. It's all a very new, weird experience for him. At the beginning when he was looking at 'Little..' in her incubator it was like ET looking at television for the first time.


I think once again Jean's propensity to do something a bit naive, but mean well, has got her into trouble. She knew Michael's St. Christopher would maybe be a comfort to him and didn't properly think through the fact that not many people know what he did. I admire her decision to not tell Anthony/Tyler what their brother had done, although I wouldn't have blamed her if she had. I think she does still see the 'good' in Michael and as a result didn't want him to suffer more than he already was. I'll be interested to see where the relationship between these two characters goes. It's odd, but very much works.


"Morgan 'Two Dads'" Aww, it's nice to have Ricky, Morgan and Tiff back. I wish Ricky (and Diane) were staying and were still there when Carol and Bianca get back. I'm not a huge Ray fan, I think he can be slightly underwhelming as a character, although I thought he worked well in the Jubilee episode. He wasn't quite as good here, for me, but I think he worked well with Ricky, so it's a shame they won't have too much time together.


So Jay's started his unraveling then. Abi's only been gone a couple of days and it's all going to hell! Mind you, I'm not sure Max 'Motivational Speaker' Branning was the best person to spend time with. His advise basically came down to "You're scum, I'm scum and we're going to live in scum in Scumland until we die and go to Scum Hell."


Lola's still pregnant then. Jeepers it's taking a while, what's she growing in there?! I guess when she has the baby it'll be a similar situation to Janine. See if it's the making of her or the breaking of her. She's in the same sort of position as Janine at the moment, in the sense that their characters haven't been the best people or done the right things. It would be nice if it actually matured her, I think it's good to show that a lot teenage mothers can become responsible and be fantastic mums, especially when there is so much negativity in the press and in society that anyone who has children who is under 20, is a single mum and lives in a coucil house/flat is someone who should be looked down on. I know that very much not to be the case, so I'd like it if when Lola has the baby they showed her rising to the challenge.


Joey's run away...both of them. The cat's scarpered and now Human Joey's threatening to disappear. Please don't, I kinda like you. Maybe not quite as much as the cat yet, but you're certainly growing on me. I'm loving the slightly cold and seemingly clever vibe he's got. Poor old Max has been conned out of £50 and spark plugs in the same day. Derek's lost a son, but gained a daughter and a pot plant. I see Eastenders are dropping a tendancy towards pets in the square and replacing them with plants. What with 'Frederick' and Cora's flower broaches the size of a bike tyre, the whole place is starting to look like Kew Gardens.


OTHER

Ricky: "Babies stay babies for years".


Can I just say that as someone who has wrestled a pot plant through London on a bus, I totally empathise with Alice. If people say that EE doesn't do stories that relate to real people, then it's not true!


Jay: "You know what sucks more? Turtles."


The slow camera pan from Morgan to Alice to Tiffany was amusing.


Cakes. Ricky's little one compared to Ray's big one.


----

It was a very 'aftermathy' episode, which meant a bit of a slow pace to deal with the fallout. That being said, not a bad start to the week. I give this episode a C+.

[rapunzel4]

Janine..Janine." Was I the only one who didn't realise that was Pat's voice? I'm such a fickle creature, 6 months and I've forgotten all about her. I just thought it was Ricky sounding a bit gruff.


Poor 'Little Bubba Girl Moon'. She's got a little hat though, so she's all set in the world. I hope she's going to be ok, she's the cutest thing in the show since Joey (the kitten, not Branning, although I'll get to them both later). I hope 'Little...' makes it ok, I think she'll provide such a development into both Janine and Michael's characters. I know Charlie's going on a break, but despite of that it'll be interesting to see in what way Janine tackles motherhood and whether it makes or breaks her. I thought her scenes with Diane were refreshing and it's always interesting to expose the vunerable side of Janine as she covers it with bitchiness and a hard heart a lot of the time.


Michael's completely gone in to overload. He's feeling things and going through things that he tries his best to bury down deep every day, but they're breaking though to the surface and he doesn't know how to handle them. He's so used to dealing with his emotions by going into a reflex lie and manipulate mode that he doesn't know what to do when he can't do that. It won't work on 'Little...' and the emotions are hitting him harder than before. The only thing he can do that feels natural is to run away and pretend like it isn't happening. It's all a very new, weird experience for him. At the beginning when he was looking at 'Little..' in her incubator it was like ET looking at television for the first time.


I think once again Jean's propensity to do something a bit naive, but mean well, has got her into trouble. She knew Michael's St. Christopher would maybe be a comfort to him and didn't properly think through the fact that not many people know what he did. I admire her decision to not tell Anthony/Tyler what their brother had done, although I wouldn't have blamed her if she had. I think she does still see the 'good' in Michael and as a result didn't want him to suffer more than he already was. I'll be interested to see where the relationship between these two characters goes. It's odd, but very much works.


"Morgan 'Two Dads'" Aww, it's nice to have Ricky, Morgan and Tiff back. I wish Ricky (and Diane) were staying and were still there when Carol and Bianca get back. I'm not a huge Ray fan, I think he can be slightly underwhelming as a character, although I thought he worked well in the Jubilee episode. He wasn't quite as good here, for me, but I think he worked well with Ricky, so it's a shame they won't have too much time together.


So Jay's started his unraveling then. Abi's only been gone a couple of days and it's all going to hell! Mind you, I'm not sure Max 'Motivational Speaker' Branning was the best person to spend time with. His advise basically came down to "You're scum, I'm scum and we're going to live in scum in Scumland until we die and go to Scum Hell."


Lola's still pregnant then. Jeepers it's taking a while, what's she growing in there?! I guess when she has the baby it'll be a similar situation to Janine. See if it's the making of her or the breaking of her. She's in the same sort of position as Janine at the moment, in the sense that their characters haven't been the best people or done the right things. It would be nice if it actually matured her, I think it's good to show that a lot teenage mothers can become responsible and be fantastic mums, especially when there is so much negativity in the press and in society that anyone who has children who is under 20, is a single mum and lives in a coucil house/flat is someone who should be looked down on. I know that very much not to be the case, so I'd like it if when Lola has the baby they showed her rising to the challenge.


Joey's run away...both of them. The cat's scarpered and now Human Joey's threatening to disappear. Please don't, I kinda like you. Maybe not quite as much as the cat yet, but you're certainly growing on me. I'm loving the slightly cold and seemingly clever vibe he's got. Poor old Max has been conned out of £50 and spark plugs in the same day. Derek's lost a son, but gained a daughter and a pot plant. I see Eastenders are dropping a tendancy towards pets in the square and replacing them with plants. What with 'Frederick' and Cora's flower broaches the size of a bike tyre, the whole place is starting to look like Kew Gardens.


OTHER

Ricky: "Babies stay babies for years".


Can I just say that as someone who has wrestled a pot plant through London on a bus, I totally empathise with Alice. If people say that EE doesn't do stories that relate to real people, then it's not true!


Jay: "You know what sucks more? Turtles."


The slow camera pan from Morgan to Alice to Tiffany was amusing.


Cakes. Ricky's little one compared to Ray's big one.


----

It was a very 'aftermathy' episode, which meant a bit of a slow pace to deal with the fallout. That being said, not a bad start to the week. I give this episode a C+.

agreed re lola

[rapunzel4]

sorry

meant to just say i agreed about lola. dunno how to highlight n qoute certain bits

[maurice45]

Originally Posted by rapunzel4

sorry

meant to just say i agreed about lola. dunno how to highlight n qoute certain bits

There's a quote icon on the bottom right side of a comment; you can edit out the parts you don't want to quote. To make something bols, you just highlight and click the "B" when you're replying.

[dullagj2]

Originally Posted by VirginiaDem

I wonder how unpopular this family really is? If they keep expanding them, the dumbasses in the writing room should realise that they'll risk alienating their audience because sooner or later people will get fed up with them in their entirety.

In my opinion, (as I've been told to say that now), the most watchable Branning is Max, but it seems in my opinion that Simon Ashdown & co are intent upon us investing ourselves in Derek - otherwise, his children wouldn't have been brought into the fore. Oh, and there's an ex-wife, Suzy has two adolescent teenagers about and the mind boggles how many there could be.

I don't like them. They're a family of serial cheaters, sleazers and losers. In my opinion, the show started sinking fast when they started expanding.

Jake and Lindsey are two of the best actors on the show so I'd definetly want them to stay. Max's family work great together also so I'd keep all of them and make Lauren more likeable because I'm really starting to dislike her.

Jamie and Scott should leave when their contracts end. They aren't needed.

Max, Tanya, Lauren, Abi, Oscar and Carol is enough.

Bianca is questionable. Patsy needs to commit to the show because she is using it like a drop in centre as is Sid. But I'm more inclined to count all these as Butchers and with Janine taking a break, it'd be sad not having any on the show.

RE BA, hilarious review! like ET watching tv for the first time