EE - A year on.....
I so happened to come across a DVD with no labelling on it in my abode earlier this evening, other than on the DVD disc menu, once it had fired up in the player....and it had Eastenders recorded on it from June 14th last year!
Whilst flicking through it out of curiosity, I couldn't believe how slow things have been to happen in the year since then. The episode contained Roxy flirting with Alfie whilst being confronted by Kat about it (oh the irony!), Jean fretting over Michael and Janine (and their impending wedding) re the stolen money accusations. Scenes of Jay and Abi being all newly loved up (this is still happening right?!), Fatboy trying to get with Poppy (I think), Max and Tanya still as one and looking forward to their wedding in a few months time and Alice having a go at daddy Derek about something or other. In fact the only discernible difference now compared to back then in that episode was that Derek Branning and Anthony Moon were still in it. It seems as if it was as dull a year ago as it still is for the most part now! No wonder it has lost so many viewers of late! I didn't realise how so little had changed in a calendar year until I found visual proof by default!
Whilst flicking through it out of curiosity, I couldn't believe how slow things have been to happen in the year since then. The episode contained Roxy flirting with Alfie whilst being confronted by Kat about it (oh the irony!), Jean fretting over Michael and Janine (and their impending wedding) re the stolen money accusations. Scenes of Jay and Abi being all newly loved up (this is still happening right?!), Fatboy trying to get with Poppy (I think), Max and Tanya still as one and looking forward to their wedding in a few months time and Alice having a go at daddy Derek about something or other. In fact the only discernible difference now compared to back then in that episode was that Derek Branning and Anthony Moon were still in it. It seems as if it was as dull a year ago as it still is for the most part now! No wonder it has lost so many viewers of late! I didn't realise how so little had changed in a calendar year until I found visual proof by default!
0
Comments
You hit the nail on the head with that comment.
Indeed. I'm still one of the many who watches out of habit and curiosity - not for it's excitement or meaningful issues it once had! It's also mostly on Catch Up TV nowadays, I can't honestly remember the last time I sat down and saw an episode at the usual 7.30 or 8pm slots, maybe the last Christmas episodes when time allowed!!
When flicking through that day to day-esque "year ago" episode on the disc last night though, It really brought it home at how slow and dreary the show is in the main these days though and at how little has changed in 370 days since then! Granted, that particular episode of 14.6.2012 was a dull one but it was enough to underline just how little the show is moving and at how stumped the production crew and writers are for new ideas! To be honest I'm amazed the show is still going!
I personally thought it was a very minor improvement on 2011 (the worst EE year of all time of course) while 2013 so far has been about the same - but you'd happily be able to bunch all three of these years together as being the worst three years in 28 of them.
I appreciate that a lot of this 'worst years' debate is largely dependant on your age though as I know many on here weren't even born in the show's 80s heyday and were obviously too young to remember any of the heady 90s properly, without flicking onto YouTube scenes from time to time! - which is obviously nowhere near the same as being able to remember it properly through basically "being there" first time around! The Santer era for me was very good until it started to get silly towards the end but it's nosedived beyond all recognition since 2010, a least for me it has!
Storylines are being dragged out unnecessarily to fill in the 4 day a week schedules .
Plus soaps as a whole have run out of fresh ideas . Simply because everything has been done .
The only discernible differences to that episode from last mid June compared to this one were really minor ones, when considering a whole year had passed by!! I don't know if LN was incharge a year ago or whether it was still the tail end of Kirkwood's tenure (as I'm no expert on these things!) but even so, for me it really did show up how little has changed in a whole year!
Were it not for the sight of Derek Branning in the Square, Kat pulling pints and Ant Moon hanging up the flags in the Vic with Tyler for the then footie (Euros 2012), then it would've been easy to mistake it for being a current episode if it was simply on for background noise purposes!
This is half the problem I think, people like myself and you who've watched it from either day one (just about in my case) or at least from a long time ago are bound to be disappointed by what's on offer now! As others have said, anything the producers/writers try now has all been done before in some way, shape or form! As I said I found Santer's era gripping, original in the main and mostly enjoyable in the modern era of the show but since then it's only gone one way - not upwards shall we say!
Like it or not, EE faces a tricky future now because of that "all been done before" factor and of course there are only so many ways you can repeat scenes, themes and storylines using different characters through different eras of the show. I also fear the BBC have their hands largely tied now as well because of the outcry that follows when showing some controversial s/lines ie the babyswap of 2011 - so it keeps the show as mediocre, predictable and bland in the main, as demonstrated in my year ago comparison to now!
I personally feel that this now is the biggest factor threatening the shows continuity. It further begs the question why it is still shown four times a week as well, surely to avoid too much filler being broadcast then it can revert back to two, to improve matters! There must be senior people at the BBC who realise that as well and who were around when it was aired twice a week.