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Worried About EastEnders Future...


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Old 16-08-2004, 21:36
chocopop
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You know what, for about four months I've been thinking that it could only improve. And the climax of the Den triangle was great, and suddenly I was overwhelmed with happyness and joy and hope that the producers and writers would keep the show on the up!

But now I am seriously near the conclusion that it is not EVER going to get better. I mean how long has it been? How many people have been watching out of hope that it'll get back to how it used to be? I know I have.

There is one hope for the show now and one thing keeping me watching, and that is Shannis. The Watts make the best episodes of EastEnders, so I am praying that this storyline wont become apart of the list of countless storylines that the writers mess up. Shannis, IMHO, is the only thing that can keep EastEnders alive. That, and ramming sticks down LB's throat lol
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Old 16-08-2004, 22:16
alan45
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Originally Posted by chocopop
But now I am seriously near the conclusion that it is not EVER going to get better. I mean how long has it been? How many people have been watching out of hope that it'll get back to how it used to be? I know I have.

Only you are such a nice fair-minded person I would say I told you so.
Sadly we are all reaching the same conclusion unpalatable as that may be to all the Diehard EE luvvies out there
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Old 16-08-2004, 22:26
TheWalfordOne
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Well, I think slightly different to you. I get what you're saying, but here's my IMHO: EE 2004, until June, was turgid. The show sailed through 2003 (even though alot of the current problems were brewing then) because the freshness of characters like Alfie and Dennis were invigorating, the show was solid and exciting in the build up to Den's return (it was only the epic letdown which ruined everything) and the popular romantics of Kat and Alfie and Andy were, then, very exciting. Even the Feirerras seems to have a point to them, around the time of that Indian Wedding fiasco. Right up to Christmas and New Year, everything was top gear and pacey... even if the scripts weren't always brilliant.

Come Jan 2004, and it's like it got drunk on it's own success and the hangover set in way to quick to cope: quickly the fatigue set in, and everything went wrong. The Feirerras were never great, but without the father (who was one of the worst characters ever anyway), they had even less of a point and dragged the show down with every one of their scenes. The return of Den, as I have said, was simply deflating for the show, and after Christmas, with no Mitchell's for the Watts to oppose, they had no focus as the Alpha family. The Slaters, one of my favourite families to ever grace soap, became a bogged down bunch of weeping loyalist morons: the fallout of Little Mo's rape dragged on through Charlie's imprisonment and the Andy Blackmail plot... it dragged on until June! Andy should never have returned. He was good in the initial plot where Kat was his fiance, but in 2004 he became the laughable non-Gangster we all know and [don't] love. Even Janine, who was brought alive in a psychotically energised performance from Charlie Brooks, was dragged out to [pardon the pun] death. She murdered Barry on New Years, yet her story climaxes after a tired four more months and a two week spat with Laura Beale??? Things happened (Zoe and Kelly's lesbian kiss) for no reason, with no build up or ramifications. This was the lowest point for EastEnders, by far.

And one of the constant things that ran through this, was 'Shannis' (a term I really hate). I found months of Dennis and Sharon crying and saying it was wrong, but then it was right, and then it was wrong, was all just too much. Unreal monologues they’d rant off on about true love and stuff like this, even when Dennis only appeared the previous year as a tough and shady Cockney rebel. I got tired by their arguments, and found them tiresome for the show (although the episode where Den wound Dennis up and he smack Sharon in the chops was pretty good, shame it was surrounded my so much ‘durge’). Also, weighed down by the mass of crap I have mostly mentioned, the show fell into a painfully slow pace - all plots were dragged out, every week featured one alpha plot which was dragged out for a whole week, with one plot-step per episode, climaxing on the Friday. It became stale. Now, I personally don’t think Shannis is really the saving grace for the show: I think that, since the Martin and Sonia Wedding Storyline, and Dragon Disaster episodes, the people within the cast who have shone unlike any others, were June Brown and Wendy Richards. I always find the older cast members (Dot, Jim, Pauline, Nana, Pat, Patrick, Yolande, Peggy) are the most fascinating to watch, unlike the largely dire younger cast (EE should stop trying to be Hollyoaks… it managed enough to get a wide and young audience in the 90s without stooping to Gen-X crap like the New Year Bus crash). I think that on top of the still really bad scripting and structure, Dot & Jim & Pauline have consistently delivered the goods. They’re reliable, and I think if the show fell entirely on their shoulders whilst the superfluous likes of Gus and Juley and Andy are flushed out, well, then I think the show would be in a position to rebuild itself.
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Old 16-08-2004, 23:32
chocopop
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Bloody hell WalfordOne I couldn't even get to the bottom of that! It's so long! Can you sum it up for me?

And alan, thanks for not rubbing it in my face
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Old 16-08-2004, 23:47
TheWalfordOne
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I'll give it a go.

I'm not a huge fan of the Shannis thing (I liked the episode where Den wound Dennis up and he lashed out and decked Sharon, but the tiresome gushing sentimentality I can take or leave). The show reached it's absolute worse earlier this year, and has got a smidge better since June (the episodes of Sonia and Martin's wedding, and the comedy around it, were much better than the crap that had come for 6 months previous, in terms of writing quality and performance quality). The current Dot storyline, which is really quite superlative by the shows recent standard, proves to me that the older cast - Dot, Pauline, Pat, Jim - are alot 'richer' and more appealing, and the show would do itself a favour to rest more on their reliable shoulders.

Of course, that is my opinion. The rest of my post is a more detailed critique of the show's 2004 report. I'm keen to know quite what it is about the Shannis thing people find so appealing, because it seems to be something of a sensation, but I don't really get it.
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