I've given up this year. Probably stopped watching after Tina's death, couldn't be bothered with it. Nothing of interest or excitement imo. None of the characters are that engaging to watch.
I've given up this year. Probably stopped watching after Tina's death, couldn't be bothered with it. Nothing of interest or excitement imo. None of the characters are that engaging to watch.
That's the main problem.
So many characters who have suddenly changed personality.
It's just not realistic.
For me the worst period of recent Corrie history is 2007 - 2008, under the tenure of Steve Frost/November. Althought Frost/November took over in early 2006, 2007 was the year that, in my eyes, things took a nosedive. The bad stuff continued into 2008 and then into 2009 under Kim Crowther.
Not only did he oversee some ridiculous plots, but he also ran with storylines that undermined the very fabric of many of the show's central characters. Most of what happened between 2007 and 2008 has been completely wiped from the minds of every resident of Coronation Street
My big three disaster storylines from this period ...
Tracy murders Charlie
The revelation that Hayley has a son
Ryan is revealed not to be Michelle's biological son
Other stuff that's either really ridiculous or has been completely forgotten ...
Ridic ...
Joanne the factory worker being deported to Liberia (a serious wtf moment!)
Liz and Vernon
Addition of Victoria Court to the backlot
Claire Peacock's friendship with Casey Carswell, fire at No.4 and Ashley cheating on Claire with Casey
The start of Rosie and John Stape's affair
Completely forgotten
Anything to do with David Platt
Maria's stillborn child
The return of Denise Osbourne and her and Ken's son Daniel
Jason and Sarah's wedding
Anything to do with the Morton family
Anything to do with Harry and Dan Mason who bought the bookies
Jed Stone's return
Anything to do with Tom Kerrigan, the Connors' massively sexy cousin - PHWOAR!
Dev's relationship with Tara Mandal and affair with her mother, Nina
The appearance of Ted Page, Gail's father
Paul Connor's existence and death
Leanne and Paul Clayton burning down the restaurant
God bless your memory.
That was all horrendous you're absolutely right.
Jason and Sarah to me was cheap and unimaginative.
The Morton family were a disaster. I think the Nazirs are 2014's version of the Mortons just for how dull they are.
Ashley cheating on Claire, was a desperate attempt at putting life into the dreadfully dull Peacock's. I'm glad Phil Collinson had the gumption to axe both of them.
Gail's gay father Ted, hasn't been mentioned since. After this, we see Gail to be vile to Todd and his Posh boyfriend, saying "I'm surrounded by weirdos". She seemed to forget her own father was gay but I think he had been erased from her memory.
Leanne and Paul burning down the restaurant. They go through extremes with Leanne and in later years she was made out to be a saint, to demonise Peter and Carla.
Bump! Now that we're into the tenth month of 2015, what has been the verdict on the quality this year? For me personally, the first half of the year was very poor:
- What was the point of that bus crash? The aftermath was shoddy, as it affected virtually nobody apart from Sinead. Even at that, there was hardly any air time devoted to her struggle with trying to walk again, and the whole thing just became an embarrassment really. The real suspend your disbelief moment for me was seeing her going hiking in Wales after not long being able to walk properly again. Get a bloody clue, writers!
- Callum terrorising the Platts. The show should never do gangster storylines, but that's exactly what we got with this repetitive tripe. The plot just went round and round in circles for months with wide eyed Callum exuding his "unique" brand of scariness on the cobbles with his Vicky Pollard lookalike pal. Give me a break. Thankfully we've had an end to all that nonsense now.
- Celebrity stunt casting. Sarah Harding is an infamous thanks to her wooden turn as Robert's ex and Paddy McGuinness wasn't much better as survivalist, Dougie.
You've a few years off - the gnomes was 1995/6 (and saying it was a highlight for months is a stretch!)
It's 2009 for me too. Kim Crowther did have her moments as producer but the Tony Gordon story only had one success moment for me and that Liam's death in 2008. After that, it took one illogical turn after another just to string it out through Alison King and Samia Ghadie's maternity leaves.
Then of course there's Molvin. There was no hint of any problems between Kevin and Sally at that point, or Tyrone and Molly. It was like they wanted an affair and put two names in a hat. Their scenes together were nauseating and had lines like "I want to jump your bones", and it was badly plotted with one minute Molly pushing Kevin into an affair, the next minute Molly was accusing Kevin of seducing her, did any of the writers confer? And it was dragged out for an inexcusable length of time - even when they finished the affair, it was bolted onto Sally's cancer story, and continued in the background all through 2010. Phil Collinson made it worthwhile with some great scenes when Sally and Tyrone find out, but they have to paper over a lot of storyline cracks with Kevin saying he and Sally were having problems. The acting wasn't great either with Michael Le Vell looking uncomfortable in his scenes with Molly. I'm wondering if the writers think highly of this story as Karl/Sunita has so many similarities (and is just as bad IMO, but 2012 has other things to redeem it).
Then there's Joe McIntyre and all his (not so) fascinating problems, John Thomson's disastrous turn as Eileen's boyfriend Jesse Chadwick (why does Eileen attract such dull partners? See also: Paul), the not-racist-at-all Uncle Umed, Liz/Lloyd and John Stape returning twice (before his storyline got good).
Part of the problem is the writing isn't interested in characters anymore. It succeeds or fails entirely on how good the plots are. It might occasionally make good television but it's not how I like my Corrie .
The gnome storyline was 1995. 1996 was actually a worse year, so I think Derek and Marks were scapegoated some what. But to be honest, it has been worst still since 2001 aside from 2002 - 2005.
The gnome storyline was 1995. 1996 was actually a worse year, so I think Derek and Marks were scapegoated some what. But to be honest, it has been worst still since 2001 aside from 2002 - 2005.
1995/6 is still some time away in my 90s marathon but I agree about the Wiltons being scapegoated. You need couples like them, and indeed another one came along not long afterwards in the Croppers (although there wasn't as much humour in their storylines as there should have been).
Think I'll take a break from Corrie for a while. The Callum storyline is absolute nonsense and I'm thoroughly sick of the Carla Connor show. Corrie has a history of taking a fairly popular female character and putting her into lots of storylines until it becomes overkill. Happened with Tina and now with Carla. Been watching Corrie for years but just can't take to it at the moment.
Think I'll take a break from Corrie for a while. The Callum storyline is absolute nonsense and I'm thoroughly sick of the Carla Connor show. Corrie has a history of taking a fairly popular female character and putting her into lots of storylines until it becomes overkill. Happened with Tina and now with Carla. Been watching Corrie for years but just can't take to it at the moment.
I agree about the overexposure of Carla's character. The gambling addiction was a complete fail and a flimsy plot device to simply force even more misery on to the woman. Whilst Alison King remains an excellent actress, they need to rest Carla for a while, or else give her more fun rather than more unremitting doom and gloom.
That plot has been one of the low points of this year due to poor execution.
Shoe-horning in new relatives we've not seen before isn't going to work, if we barely care about existing characters. They just make me reach for the fast forward button. Corrie's strength in the past was the fact they didn't have to rely on constant tragedy, drama, violence etc. Death was a rare occurance and a real shock when it happened. They had strong writers who weren't afraid to let stories play out in real time, and the comedy was its essence. Sally and Tim and Roy and Kathy are the only characters remotely worth watching at the mo.
Can I just stand in defence of Kim Crowther and Stuart Blackburn whilst a lot of there work had a lot to be desired, Crowther had to deal with 3 maternity leaves of 3 leading actresses and there was also a lot of bereavements at that time effecting filming schedules etc. Blackburn also had to deal with 4 maternity leaves and there has also been the legal battles behind the scenes.
One of the biggest problems with Crowther was the insane amount of filler stories which led to no character development whatsoever and were never mentioned again. You had Janice wanting to become a nurse, Josh's allergic reaction etc. She had some god awful stories like Molvin, Dev's fling with the mother and daughter.
She did do some good things though, she kick started Peter's alcoholism which was fantastic from start to finish, she also put Leanne on the straight and narrow by putting her with Peter and creating one of the best pairings in recent years as I felt Leanne had hit rock bottom (prostitution etc) and the only way was up.
Crowther also gave the oldies stories like the introduction of Norris's brother, she brought back Emily's niece Frieda. Crowther also brought in different camera techniques, the Liam / Carla / Maria / Tony storyline was fantastic as well.
Blackburn has been utterly awful and in no way is as bad as Crowther. The obviously favouritism of certain characters, little air time for others and then it's a story that comes out of nowhere and characterisation i.e Maria pretending to be Kirsty. Just awful storylines in general - Paul's racism, Kylie's drug habit, introduction of Callum & Max's custody battle, introduction of the Nazirs, putting Leanne with Kal, Tina's murder and her affair with Peter, Windarses dominating 2014 with their financial issues, Faye's pregnancy, Hope's cancer, getting rid of Stella and bringing back Liz, not to mention the god awful Andrea and Neil. The list is endless.
He has done so okay things like Steve's depression but thats been swept under the carpet quickly, Simon's abuse, Nick's brain damage and Evil David started off great and he did manage to salvage it from a boring 'who's the daddy' storyline from Collinson but it ended awful with Leanne separating from Nick and them at each others throats. I did like how Blackburn put them as friends as they work much better that way than lovers. Obviously Sally and Tim.
The only good to have come from Blackburn has been Tim/Sally and Tony.
There was some good in the storytelling of Hayley's cancer, but it didn't stay true to the character. And then Steve's depression came to an abrupt end after a dodgy start. Could've come up with a better ending to the Windass financial mishap as well as Callum's fate.
I seem to recall he was played by a well respected Indian actor who got into a bit of bother off screen & was quickly booted off as soon as practiable.
I seem to recall he was played by a well respected Indian actor who got into a bit of bother off screen & was quickly booted off as soon as practiable.
Really? I don't remember hearing that at the time? He didn't last long, that I do remember. The actor was awful and didn't suit Corrie at all.
Shoe-horning in new relatives we've not seen before isn't going to work, if we barely care about existing characters. They just make me reach for the fast forward button. Corrie's strength in the past was the fact they didn't have to rely on constant tragedy, drama, violence etc. Death was a rare occurance and a real shock when it happened. They had strong writers who weren't afraid to let stories play out in real time, and the comedy was its essence. Sally and Tim and Roy and Kathy are the only characters remotely worth watching at the mo.
I disagree about Tim. He is just a young Stan Ogden.
For me, it's been between 2009 and 2014 for the worst years on the cobbles. This year has been far from golden so far, but hasn't been quite as awful thanks to some great, comedic material from Sally and Tim (that superfluous kiss with Kevin aside), bringing back Jenny Bradley, killing off the wooden Kal, the episode broadcast on July 15th that was one of the best we had had in a couple of years and, of course, the very enjoyable live episode.
Comments
That's the main problem.
So many characters who have suddenly changed personality.
It's just not realistic.
God bless your memory.
That was all horrendous you're absolutely right.
Jason and Sarah to me was cheap and unimaginative.
The Morton family were a disaster. I think the Nazirs are 2014's version of the Mortons just for how dull they are.
Ashley cheating on Claire, was a desperate attempt at putting life into the dreadfully dull Peacock's. I'm glad Phil Collinson had the gumption to axe both of them.
Gail's gay father Ted, hasn't been mentioned since. After this, we see Gail to be vile to Todd and his Posh boyfriend, saying "I'm surrounded by weirdos". She seemed to forget her own father was gay but I think he had been erased from her memory.
Leanne and Paul burning down the restaurant. They go through extremes with Leanne and in later years she was made out to be a saint, to demonise Peter and Carla.
That would have been 2009.
- What was the point of that bus crash? The aftermath was shoddy, as it affected virtually nobody apart from Sinead. Even at that, there was hardly any air time devoted to her struggle with trying to walk again, and the whole thing just became an embarrassment really. The real suspend your disbelief moment for me was seeing her going hiking in Wales after not long being able to walk properly again. Get a bloody clue, writers!
- Callum terrorising the Platts. The show should never do gangster storylines, but that's exactly what we got with this repetitive tripe. The plot just went round and round in circles for months with wide eyed Callum exuding his "unique" brand of scariness on the cobbles with his Vicky Pollard lookalike pal. Give me a break. Thankfully we've had an end to all that nonsense now.
- Celebrity stunt casting. Sarah Harding is an infamous thanks to her wooden turn as Robert's ex and Paddy McGuinness wasn't much better as survivalist, Dougie.
The gnome storyline was 1995. 1996 was actually a worse year, so I think Derek and Marks were scapegoated some what. But to be honest, it has been worst still since 2001 aside from 2002 - 2005.
1995/6 is still some time away in my 90s marathon but I agree about the Wiltons being scapegoated. You need couples like them, and indeed another one came along not long afterwards in the Croppers (although there wasn't as much humour in their storylines as there should have been).
I agree about the overexposure of Carla's character. The gambling addiction was a complete fail and a flimsy plot device to simply force even more misery on to the woman. Whilst Alison King remains an excellent actress, they need to rest Carla for a while, or else give her more fun rather than more unremitting doom and gloom.
That plot has been one of the low points of this year due to poor execution.
One of the biggest problems with Crowther was the insane amount of filler stories which led to no character development whatsoever and were never mentioned again. You had Janice wanting to become a nurse, Josh's allergic reaction etc. She had some god awful stories like Molvin, Dev's fling with the mother and daughter.
She did do some good things though, she kick started Peter's alcoholism which was fantastic from start to finish, she also put Leanne on the straight and narrow by putting her with Peter and creating one of the best pairings in recent years as I felt Leanne had hit rock bottom (prostitution etc) and the only way was up.
Crowther also gave the oldies stories like the introduction of Norris's brother, she brought back Emily's niece Frieda. Crowther also brought in different camera techniques, the Liam / Carla / Maria / Tony storyline was fantastic as well.
Blackburn has been utterly awful and in no way is as bad as Crowther. The obviously favouritism of certain characters, little air time for others and then it's a story that comes out of nowhere and characterisation i.e Maria pretending to be Kirsty. Just awful storylines in general - Paul's racism, Kylie's drug habit, introduction of Callum & Max's custody battle, introduction of the Nazirs, putting Leanne with Kal, Tina's murder and her affair with Peter, Windarses dominating 2014 with their financial issues, Faye's pregnancy, Hope's cancer, getting rid of Stella and bringing back Liz, not to mention the god awful Andrea and Neil. The list is endless.
He has done so okay things like Steve's depression but thats been swept under the carpet quickly, Simon's abuse, Nick's brain damage and Evil David started off great and he did manage to salvage it from a boring 'who's the daddy' storyline from Collinson but it ended awful with Leanne separating from Nick and them at each others throats. I did like how Blackburn put them as friends as they work much better that way than lovers. Obviously Sally and Tim.
There was some good in the storytelling of Hayley's cancer, but it didn't stay true to the character. And then Steve's depression came to an abrupt end after a dodgy start. Could've come up with a better ending to the Windass financial mishap as well as Callum's fate.
Dev's dad?
I seem to recall he was played by a well respected Indian actor who got into a bit of bother off screen & was quickly booted off as soon as practiable.
Really? I don't remember hearing that at the time? He didn't last long, that I do remember. The actor was awful and didn't suit Corrie at all.
I disagree about Tim. He is just a young Stan Ogden.