It's struggling because of the lack of humour. They had got it right with Zainab. What a great actress. Then they messed up her character. Other so called funny characters don't cut the grade because they always try and be funny.
The programme has very very few likeable characters.:mad:
I agree. Santer's time as a whole was pretty dodgy but at least he created buzz around the show and things actually happened. Badly-paced his storylines in 08 and 09 were at least mildy interesting stuff went on.
Its struggle is due to its inability to create stories that people can care about, the heart is not beating in the show, so you just have a room full of good actors but nothing to hook on to, as empathy and caring about the characters is essetial to taking the audience on the journey. I think the upcoming stories around Christmas sound dramatic and may be an opportunity for Lorraine to bring viewers in again with what she has planned for the Brannings. I have stopped watching for the time being as I wait for the show to improve, maybe many long time viewers also feel the same way and will be brought back by stronger characters and stories.
Its struggle is due to its inability to create stories that people can care about, the heart is not beating in the show, so you just have a room full of good actors but nothing to hook on to, as empathy and caring about the characters is essetial to taking the audience on the journey. I think the upcoming stories around Christmas sound dramatic and may be an opportunity for Lorraine to bring viewers in again with what she has planned for the Brannings. I have stopped watching for the time being as I wait for the show to improve, maybe many long time viewers also feel the same way and will be brought back by stronger characters and stories.
Thats a really good point. Eastenders does have the best actors out of all the soaps but the stories that are created and the way the characters are written needs to be changed.
I agree. Santer's time as a whole was pretty dodgy but at least he created buzz around the show and things actually happened. Badly-paced his storylines in 08 and 09 were at least mildy interesting stuff went on.
Santer really overdid the "BIG SECRET" formula. The storylines with Danielle the secret Mitchell, Tony the secret paedo and Lucas the secret murderer all had the same basic structure:
New person arrives in Walford and seems lovely.
After a short while, we discover new person has a BIG SECRET.
Then the BIG SECRET literally becomes the whole character.
Everything they say has a subtext alluding to the BIG SECRET.
Every scene they appear in contains meaningful glances to remind us of the BIG SECRET.
Months and months of near-reveals until finally the BIG SECRET gets its own episode for the BIG REVEAL.
It all got a bit frustrating when characters would become one-dimensional caricatures who existed purely for their BIG SECRET. The classic Den/Michelle storyline would never have worked under Santer. The characters wouldn't have been given any other storylines and there would have had to have been a BIG REVEAL in front of everyone in the Queen Vic within a year.
I think Newman will be great for the show once all her material is in fully swing.
She was the script producer for one of the most successful and highly regarded eras of EastEnders under John Yorke (2000-early 01) then she produced the rest of 01 and so on. If EastEnders can get back to that, then it will be great. She also had non credited roles on EastEnders pre-1997.
I have a gut feelings things will improve over the next few months, I may be wrong, but at this moment in time I am feeling positive.
Newman's storyliner has also won awards like Channel 4's creative innovation award and more.
For me the big problem is that the show over the years has created its own formulaic/predictable/repetitive sopa opera reality which is completely outside any reality we know. No one in EE has a job outside the Square, any newcomer with a brain and hint of success behind them within a few weeks is begging for a job in the cafe or the Vic, and everyone sleeps with everyone else. You could literally write the show using crayons and yellow sticky notes.
When the soap started it had a sense of realism - i.e. it seemed to exist within contemporary reality, occasionally referencing it - and its characters responded to events in a plausible, psychologically understandable way. Nowadays characters and events are so soap opera predictable I imagine most the writers sleep walk their way thru the episodes they write.
And the handling of 'social issues' is insulting these days, Ian's mental breakdown being ridiculous and almost cartoon-like when compared to Frank Butcher's gradual mental collapse in the early 90's.
People can complain about the shows EP's, structure and characterization all they like, but what the show really needs to decide is what it is about in 2012. Is it a socially relevant drama that is trying to reflect and intelligently comment on the world we live in, or is it just a sensational soap designed to get high ratings any way it can?
For me I have found the soap a lot lighter in tone this year compared to earlier years (I really like the inclusion of Alfie, Fatboy and Kim but wish they would be less one dimensional) and see tiny hints of social commentary, the upcoming Cora lovechild reveal being of interest. But mostly the show has a feeling of watching flat lemonade, none of the plots this year rising anywhere near their potential - Heather's murder being incredibly formulaic and eventually going nowhere - and nothing new coming in to shake things up.
To really save itself I think the show desperately needs to scrap all the formulas it has built up over the years, such as all those who owns the Vic, cafe, car lot plots (who really cares?) and move towards a recognizable and more complicated reality. I say sell the Vic off to a brewery, turn the cafe into a Starbucks and make the Minute Mart a Tesco Express outside the control of any of the characters. Then give the characters a life outside the Square and start to return the show to planet Earth.
With these changes the writers and producers might wake up enough to start caring about what they are delivering to the audience 4 times a week.
Comments
The programme has very very few likeable characters.:mad:
Oh come on, we all believed in him once upon a time
I agree. Santer's time as a whole was pretty dodgy but at least he created buzz around the show and things actually happened. Badly-paced his storylines in 08 and 09 were at least mildy interesting stuff went on.
Thats a really good point. Eastenders does have the best actors out of all the soaps but the stories that are created and the way the characters are written needs to be changed.
- New person arrives in Walford and seems lovely.
- After a short while, we discover new person has a BIG SECRET.
- Then the BIG SECRET literally becomes the whole character.
- Everything they say has a subtext alluding to the BIG SECRET.
- Every scene they appear in contains meaningful glances to remind us of the BIG SECRET.
- Months and months of near-reveals until finally the BIG SECRET gets its own episode for the BIG REVEAL.
It all got a bit frustrating when characters would become one-dimensional caricatures who existed purely for their BIG SECRET. The classic Den/Michelle storyline would never have worked under Santer. The characters wouldn't have been given any other storylines and there would have had to have been a BIG REVEAL in front of everyone in the Queen Vic within a year.She was the script producer for one of the most successful and highly regarded eras of EastEnders under John Yorke (2000-early 01) then she produced the rest of 01 and so on. If EastEnders can get back to that, then it will be great. She also had non credited roles on EastEnders pre-1997.
I have a gut feelings things will improve over the next few months, I may be wrong, but at this moment in time I am feeling positive.
Newman's storyliner has also won awards like Channel 4's creative innovation award and more.
When the soap started it had a sense of realism - i.e. it seemed to exist within contemporary reality, occasionally referencing it - and its characters responded to events in a plausible, psychologically understandable way. Nowadays characters and events are so soap opera predictable I imagine most the writers sleep walk their way thru the episodes they write.
And the handling of 'social issues' is insulting these days, Ian's mental breakdown being ridiculous and almost cartoon-like when compared to Frank Butcher's gradual mental collapse in the early 90's.
People can complain about the shows EP's, structure and characterization all they like, but what the show really needs to decide is what it is about in 2012. Is it a socially relevant drama that is trying to reflect and intelligently comment on the world we live in, or is it just a sensational soap designed to get high ratings any way it can?
For me I have found the soap a lot lighter in tone this year compared to earlier years (I really like the inclusion of Alfie, Fatboy and Kim but wish they would be less one dimensional) and see tiny hints of social commentary, the upcoming Cora lovechild reveal being of interest. But mostly the show has a feeling of watching flat lemonade, none of the plots this year rising anywhere near their potential - Heather's murder being incredibly formulaic and eventually going nowhere - and nothing new coming in to shake things up.
To really save itself I think the show desperately needs to scrap all the formulas it has built up over the years, such as all those who owns the Vic, cafe, car lot plots (who really cares?) and move towards a recognizable and more complicated reality. I say sell the Vic off to a brewery, turn the cafe into a Starbucks and make the Minute Mart a Tesco Express outside the control of any of the characters. Then give the characters a life outside the Square and start to return the show to planet Earth.
With these changes the writers and producers might wake up enough to start caring about what they are delivering to the audience 4 times a week.