I've enjoyed EE for years and wish they would get their act together. I used to watch it without fail, I even taped it if i wasn't going to be in but this last year, my viewing has become sporadic. Unlike some here, I'm glad Den is back, I still think he is one of the better things in it. But I've been trying to remember when I first started losing patience with it. Now, I think we all agree that the Ferrarias have been a dead loss. But aside form that, when did you find yourself losing interest? For me, it is as far back as when Anthony and Kat finally got back together with a big emotional scene and then she dumped him a month later; I thought that was badly done. Also, the Kat/Alfie story just went on for far too long - by the time they finally got married, it seemed a bit of an anti-climax to me. What do you think?

I tell you, the first time I sat back and though "eh, hang on..." after and episode of EastEnders, was (I can't remember dates) I think when Phil met Kate in the hospital, or somewhere around that time. It was because he had just gone off after Lisa and returned, and everything looked suspicious (blood stained jacket, her passport). Then nothing was mentioned about what had happened and Phil lived happily for about three months. Of course, this was all vindicated when it was revealed Kate was a cop and she was investigating the Lisa case, but still, it was the first time I got really frustrated with EastEnders.

I used be the same. If I was going out or watching something else, EE would be taped and I'd watch it ASAP but now I'm not pushed at all about whether I see it or not.
I really started losing interest earlier this year with the Kat and Alfie money problems as well as the Ferrreira money problems AND the kidney transplant.
Everything before that, even if it did bug me, was something I could get over.

The first time I got frustrated with EastEnders was the Ferreira kidney storyline. Actually no the first time I got very frustrated and pissed off with EastEnders was that episode when Alfie went looking for a condom so he could shag Kat, an in the process he was mugged, beaten up, fell into a river, ended up in a homeless shelter, whilst Kat lay in bed an got drunk. Such an appaulling episode and if it was meant to be funny it was lost on me, LB should have been sacked for that epi alone, it was dreadful. I imagine in a few years time when UKGold are approaching 2004, they'll either start it from 1986 and put off playing this year again or they'll skip it, go straight to New Years Day 2005 lol

One word the Ferreira's I bet LB is kicking herself if only she get rid of this family a year ago she would proberly still be in the job

I think they do tend to draw out quite tedious storylines for no reason. All the Kat and Alfie will they/won't they stuff was really annoying, particularly when they were both not saying what they felt etc etc. I like Kat and Alfie separately.

I think it's a bit like that with the Ferrerias too, as separate, or even a bit more separate charachters they might work a bit more, I don't know, I can't work out why they don't work,maybe there are too many of them, if there was just Ash and Kareena we might be able to cope with them.

I like Eastenders, it's not as good as it was, it's getting better slowly, I think it can recover, time will help as characters that are new mature into it a bit.

I can't actually work out when it was that it wasn't so good and I stopped finding it compulsive viewing.

It still has it moments though and it's still watchable, there are still characters I like, I hope it continues to get better now.

I started losing interest during the kidney transplant saga, Alfie raising funds to pay Andy - all that St. George's Day bollocks, Boots the Cat before that, the ferrerais awful wooden father and his cruise. Ferreria bankruptcy Sonia and Martin's unlikely engagement considering their history. I remember BBC2's Dead Ringers taking the piss "And now to Eastenders where Sonia is about to marry the man who killed her last fiance and he's just asked the lad who was in the car at with him at the time to be best man. I know we aren't watching either." In the real world, Sonia would have probably gone out of her way to avoid the guy. So unrealistic. Sonia would have been better off with a new character. The last time it was really, really good, as opposed to just good, ok, or pants was probably, death of Barry "If only he'd worn slip on shoes" ashes in a shortbread bag/bus crash with kids and the storyline surrounding Little Mo exit, not sure when Mo left, but most of that was January even the Sharon and Dennis storyline started well before christmas, because Dirty Den was back last christmas, and they first had sex the night he came back. Phil exit around christmas too, remember him sitting in the back of the van on christmas day like Gollum? Has it REALLY been 9 months since we had a decent storyline??

EE has been in decline since january 2004, the kidney story is the worst idea a person could've come up with, and since then they've given far too many characters personality transplants!

we like a character for what they were to start off with - not the complete opposite!

And the Gangster storylines are a complete joke!
if you are going to do that kind of thing - then do it like it really should've been done!!!

For me it was round about the time of Den's reintroduction I think, although my interest was definately waining by this point - I watched it if I was in, but the need to tape it had definately gone by then. The whole 'Den's not dead' storyline just left me thinking 'Err, yes he is'. What caused my lack of interest? Poor writing, tedious storylines that just didn't interest me, the introduction of incredibly bland characters played by actors not up to the job. e.g. Vicki Fowler could have been a sparky, intelligent little minx causing havoc in the Square - instead we got a whinny, annoying little girl with an awful accent. Spencer could have been a young, ducker and diver, trying to live up to his brother but with a sweet, vunerable side - instead we got Chris Parker - enough said. Are they really trying to tell us these were the best people they auditioned

I dont think bringing Den back was a particularly bad move either - and it is definantly not whats sent the show down.

Its those bloody Ferrairas. Crap Writers. More Ferrairas.

I have memories of me and my housemate absolutely gobsmacked with the sheer dullness of Shirley and her cat storyline. It was soooooooo tedious, so drawn out, so couldn't-care-less that we actually found it laughable. This was followed by the agressive neighbour and then Ash & Dan fighting over Shirley. All absolute codswallop.

Then we moved onto the Kydney storyline, which is when my housemate stopped watching and I seem to remember picking up the remote control, turning the TV off and going to surf the web or something a lot more interesting.

Then we've got Little Mo and the dead mouse storyline. The drawn out non love-affair between Alfie & Kat which they're doing all over again with Ian & Jane (proof that the powers that be heads are so far up their bums that they never ever listen) and the stupidity of Sonia marrying Martin and then Martin, literally two months after getting married, shags someone else!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? Oh and shall I ever bother mentioning the Kat/Andy/Alifie storyline which seem dragged out longer then the Arab Israeli conflict.

HOWEVER there have been some moments I remember fondly. The episode where Martin & Sonia drove down to the holiday camp to see Pauline & Derek to tell them that Mark was dead was extremely good. Dot's cancer storyline, as much as I hated the idea of it, was well done. The first few episodes of Den returning were also great and then they went and ruined it all by not knowing what to do with him. And finally, there's Dennis, the most georgeous man ever to grace Albert Square, without him I really do think the show would be worth giving up on.