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EE: Has BK and EE writers now gone too far?!?
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The New Years' Eve episode when Ronnie loses her child and swaps it for Kat's was previewed to the press last night, and it seems that a lot of commentators are saying that they have gone too far to show such a harrowing episode, especially at 8pm and over the festive period.
A reporter from The Sun who he watched it has even written that scenes in it 'seem designed to cause the maximum upset, with camera angles maximising the horror- all in high definition.' She also says that BK has the subtlety of a bulldozer.
Also Bryan Kirkwood has apparently tried to defend the episode by saying that it also shows community spirit with Alfie dancing around the paino.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1340685/EastEnders-shocking-New-Years-episode-depict-cot-death.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3313391/Enders-boss-hails-grim-festive-plot.html
IMO BK and the EE writers have definitely gone too far with this storyline. I understand that cot death does happen in real life and they try to show real life situations but it is wrong from them to show it during the Christmas period just to try and boost ratings. Also I think it's wrong to have it happen to Ronnie who has already lost her daughter (arguably twice), a grandchild and had a miscarriage (and that's before you get in to all the other stuff like her father raping her and her mother walking out on her). And thirdly to have Ronnie swap the babies is totally wrong. I don't doubt that the EE writers have tried to make it believable by writing in well constructed reasons why no one will notice the swap, but it is one step too far.
I can only conclude from what BK has said about this episode that he expects the backlash and record complaints about it but that he's glad people will be talking about EE again.
What do you think?
A reporter from The Sun who he watched it has even written that scenes in it 'seem designed to cause the maximum upset, with camera angles maximising the horror- all in high definition.' She also says that BK has the subtlety of a bulldozer.
Also Bryan Kirkwood has apparently tried to defend the episode by saying that it also shows community spirit with Alfie dancing around the paino.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1340685/EastEnders-shocking-New-Years-episode-depict-cot-death.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3313391/Enders-boss-hails-grim-festive-plot.html
IMO BK and the EE writers have definitely gone too far with this storyline. I understand that cot death does happen in real life and they try to show real life situations but it is wrong from them to show it during the Christmas period just to try and boost ratings. Also I think it's wrong to have it happen to Ronnie who has already lost her daughter (arguably twice), a grandchild and had a miscarriage (and that's before you get in to all the other stuff like her father raping her and her mother walking out on her). And thirdly to have Ronnie swap the babies is totally wrong. I don't doubt that the EE writers have tried to make it believable by writing in well constructed reasons why no one will notice the swap, but it is one step too far.
I can only conclude from what BK has said about this episode that he expects the backlash and record complaints about it but that he's glad people will be talking about EE again.
What do you think?
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Comments
Kirkwood might have just killed EastEnders.
Well DS got a wrap over the knuckles for some of his episodes. I believe it was the one where Jay's gangsters fight in the Vic and where Tanya buries Max.
The gangster one was because of the violence but the one where Tanya buries Max surely must have been because it was inappropraite at that time of the evening, and I can't imagine this NYE episode being less upsetting to watch than that one.
Yes its concerning that a group of people are already planning to flood ofcom. I am now deeply concerned for the show. It is the show at the end of the day which will feel the force of the fallout. No one else.
You'll always get some people who don't really watch EE and want it cancelled, but I watch it and I like the drama it shows at Christmas, but this I fear will actually make me feel ill and be extremely harrowing to watch. That is why I think the EE team may have gone too far.
Well im an avid EE watcher (hubby hates them and never wants to watch). However im not watching this Xmas. Since the tram crash ive moved over to Corrie
We all know what Murdoch's trash is like. The episode is sensitive, it will attract complaints, but someone is going to be offended or affected nor matter what you do.
If you feel the subject is distasteful, don't watch it. Sadly, cot death happens every day, to people from every walk of life - I don't see why Eastenders should refuse to tackle a subject that affects thousands of parents.
Besides, the same subject was covered by the show in 1985, when Sue and Ali Osman's baby Hassan also died in his sleep. There was no similar outcry then.
Instead of condemning the episode before it has even aired, perhaps it would be wiser to reserve judgement until after it has actually been broadcast.
Good point actually. It's no secret that Murdoch won't be happy until the BBC has been dismantled - and preferably sold on to him at knock-down prices. So yeah, he's not likely to be too reluctant to let his papers stir up a bit of hate for their flagship soap.
With regards to the comments on the DM website, their sort always say they want EE axed. No change there.
The press in this country are largely against EE, they always have been ever since the day after the first episode aired back in 1985 they were tearing the show to shreds.
I don't need some metroplitan fleet street journo's telling me what I should or shouldn't watch.
Look at the Jonathan Ross thing. Its a snowball effect. Big Brother too after the racism fiasco.
Its going to get thousands and thousands of complaints. Many will come from people who don't watch as well.
If EastEnders is forced to change off the back of complaints then it will be a very sad day for freedom of drama. EastEnders may as well end if it can't continue to tell storylines in the manner it always has. I remember Sue holding her dead son in close up shot several times. I wonder how many complained about that?
Its not so much this forthcoming storyline about Ronnie's baby dying of cot death. Its the fact that she swops her dead child for Kat Slaters new born baby boy.
I feel if it was just a cot death I don't think the viwers would mind so much tragic but it does happen. its the storyline of swoping the two babies. That I find in bad taste.
Not at one day old. It is almost unheard of to lose a child to cot death before 4 weeks.
You cannot compare the two. I've recently watched the Osman story on youtube although I remember it at the time. It was an amazingly powerful, realistic, heartbreaking piece of television. They didn't feel the need for close ups of dead babies, or for Sue to dump her dead child and waltz off with a replacement. The writers really ought to go back and watch those episodes.
And no, I won't be watching it.
QFT:)
I totally agree with you. being an Easties fan right from Feb 1985 I saw the episodes of Sue and Ali losing their baby to a cot death and it was moving harrowing as well but there were never any close ups of the baby Hassan. His face was never shown.
I loved Easties in the early days, The storylines the actors it was always superb. I really feel over the past years that the whole soap is a shadow of its former glory days. But that is only my opinion.
You don't see the child being abused
Whereas viewers will be treated to views of a lifeless baby and Kat in a blood covered bed (according to the Daily Mail) it sounds waaaaaaaaay to graphic for a pre-watershed show
nothing wrong with a cot death storyline, but to sensationalise it by having Ronnie swap the babies over is truly disgusting and basically making a mockery of a serious and disturbing event for hundreds of parents.
It seems like the cot death in itslef is not realisistc though, because it happens in a day old baby. Apparently cot death doesn't happen to babies that little.
However I think they shouldn’t have gone for the swap. It is that aspect of the storyline that for me is over the top and sensationalist.
And Ronnie is the wrong character to have a child die again. That part too is over the top.
There's really no need for graphic footage if it is true.
That's a good thing to show stuff like this. I don't mean a good thing in real life. But maybe this storyline will kick up the security in hospitals in the future if it sparks loads of discussion.